1. The Duino Elegies (Rainer Maria Rilke)
2. The Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien)
3. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
4. Transformations (Anne Sexton)
5. The Time-Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
6. Stardust (Neil Gaiman)
7. The Last Unicorn (Peter S. Beagle)
8. Possession (AS Byatt)
9. Smoke and Mirrors (Neil Gaiman)
10. Well Loved Tales (Ladybird Books)
11. Till We Have Faces (CS Lewis)
12. Howl’s Moving Castle (Diana Wynne Jones)
13. Sandman (Neil Gaiman)
14. Letters to a Young Poet (Rainer Maria Rilke)
15. 95 Poems (EE Cummings)
16. Lord of Scoundrels (Loretta Chase)
17. Beauty (Robin McKinley)
18. Dark Hours (Conchitina Cruz)
19. Winter Rose (Patricia A. McKillip)
20. Tam Lin (Pamela Dean)
21. Einstein’s Dreams (Alan Lightman)
22. Don’t Bet on the Prince (Jack Zipes)
23. Dreaming of You (Lisa Kleypas)
24. Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
25. Fables (Bill Willingham)
26. The Seven Ages (Louise Gluck)
27. Romancing Mr. Bridgerton (Julia Quinn)
28. Twelfth Night (William Shakespeare)
29. Much Ado About Nothing (William Shakespeare)
30. Watchmen (Alan Moore)
31. We the Living (Ayn Rand)
32. Persuasion (Jane Austen)
33. Twisted (Jessica Zafra)
34. The Rose and the Beast (Francesca Lia Block)
35. South of the Border, West of the Sun (Haruki Murakami)
36. Alone (Rod McKuen)
37. Atonement (Ian McEwan)
38. Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand)
39. I Capture the Castle (Dodie Smith)
40. Tales From Shakespeare (Charles and Mary Lamb)
41. Fourteen Love Stories (various authors)
42. Bluebeard’s Egg (Margaret Atwood)
43. Cyrano de Bergerac (Edmond Rostand)
44. The Hours (Michael Cunningham)
45. The Princess Bride (William Goldman)
46. Happy Endings (Luis Joaquin Katigbak)
47. One Hundred Love Poems (various authors)
48. Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair (Pablo Neruda)
49. Eros the Bittersweet (Anne Carson)
50. The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)
51. The Beauty Myth (Naomi Wolf)
52. Spells of Enchantment (Jack Zipes)
53. The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (Will Cuppy)
54. The Bloody Chamber (Angela Carter)
55. Reconnaissance (Tara FT Sering)
56. The Virgin Suicides (Jeffrey Eugenides)
57. Psyche in a Dress (Francesca Lia Block)
58. The Mythology Class (Arnold Arre)
59. Fairy Tales for Adults series (Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling)
60. The Spanish Groom (Lynne Graham)
61. Bulfinch’s Mythology (Thomas Bulfinch)
62. Red as Blood (Tanith Lee)
63. The Rule of Four (Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason)
64. The Adventures of Tintin (Herge)
65. Self-Help (Lorrie Moore)
66. Wasteland (Francesca Lia Block)
67. Anne of Green Gables (LM Montgomery)
68. I Do (Elizabeth Chandler)
69. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 (Joss Whedon)
70. Smoke in the Wind (Robyn Donald)
Archive for the 'favorite books' Category
70 Favorite Books: A Recap
70 Favorite Books: Duino Elegies
1. The Duino Elegies by Rainer Maria Rilke (1912-1922)
And we: spectators, always, everywhere,
Looking at everything and never from!
It floods us. We arrange it. It decays.
We arrange it again, and we decay.
Who’s turned us around like this,
so that whatever we do, we always have
the look of someone going away? Just as a man
on the last hill showing him his whole valley
one last time, turns, and stops, and lingers –
so we live, and are forever leaving. ~ Eighth Elegy
This is the book that never fails to move me. Never fails to inspire me. Never fails to make me think. Never fails to be awesome. Which is why I read it at least once a year. And which is why it’s at the top of this list.
2. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien (1954-1955)
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
My love for The Lord of the Rings was not at first sight–I barely made it through The Fellowship of the Ring. But somehow by The Two Towers, I was hooked. And by the end, I was obsessed. It’s one of the books that changed my life.
3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813)
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Pride and Prejudice is the most beloved romantic novel in history…well it is at the very least in mine. 200 years have passed yet the tension between Elizabeth and Darcy still crackles. No wonder it keeps getting adapted.
4. Transformations by Anne Sexton (1971)
Why
should a certain
quite adorable princess
be walking in her garden
at such a time
and toss her golden ball
up like a bubble
and drop it into the well?
It was ordained.
Just as the fates deal out
the plague with a tarot card.
Just as the Supreme Being drills
holes in our skulls to let
the Boston Symphony through. ~ The Frog Prince
This collection of retold fairy tales set in poetry never fails to give me goosebumps. Just like a good fairy tale should.
5. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (2003)
Long ago, men went to sea, and women waited for them, standing on the edge of the water, scanning the horizon for the tiny ship. Now I wait for Henry. He vanishes unwillingly, without warning. I wait for him. Each moment that I wait feels like a year, an eternity. Each moment is as slow and transparent as glass. Through each moment I can see infinite moments lined up, waiting. Why has he gone where I cannot follow?
This is just so beautifully perfect, it will break your heart.
70 Favorite Books: Stardust
6. Stardust (Being a Romance Within the Realms of Faerie) by Neil Gaiman (1998 )
There was once a young man who wished to gain his Heart’s Desire.
Sorry, can’t be anything but a fangirl because Neil Gaiman is love love love.
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