Saturday, May 16, 2015

My Favorite Books of All Time

What's your favorite book? Often a dreaded question because, as an avid reader, I think it's difficult to narrow it to just one. Narrowing it to ten isn't much easier. However, in the spirit of The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books, I'm sharing my favorite books of all time.

Don't think I've taken this list lightly. In fact, I've been creating the list, refining it, revisiting it, and starting all over again for the past seven years. Seven years ago, a student and her mom gave me a book edited by J. Peder Zane The Top Ten. Zane continues working to curate top tens lists and to interview authors, so visit the site to learn more from some of your favorite authors.

At the end of last year, I shared my top 14 reads from 2014, and I suspect I'll share my 2015 list from my book a week reading in late December or January. Until then, my top ten of all time goes back many years. When I finally selected my favorites, I made my decision based on books I return to, books I recommend to others, and books that for one reason or another I haven't been able to get out of my mind.


My top ten (in no particular order)

1. Othello by William Shakespeare
2. The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday
3. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
4. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
5. The poems of Pablo Neruda
6. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
7. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
8. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
9. The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
10. Night by Elie Wisel

What's on your top ten list?  Please share below.