Your favorite...

The Stand - Stephen King. I read that every other year or so. And of course The Lord of The Rings Trilogy. Same thing. I have a deep Spiritual connection to these two. Just for fun though -- Dean Koontz, any of his earlier works. Faye Kellerman, James Patterson and I am working my way through Agatha Christie... bucket list thing. Oh, and Pearl S. Buck gets dusted of every so often.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy I have read countless times, yeah weird.
 
Pop psychology books seem infinitely more useful than academic psychology books.;)

I think you're right Paintman. I find myself going to the 'Urban Dictionary' (online) a lot lately instead of my hugely oversized and worn out dictionary that I love love love... I don't know if language in general has just moved on, or if fringe groups have turned, twisted, and eventually replaced, common or at least to this old woman common, definitions of word's and phases. I'll be trying to answer a question or rebut an argument -- and the definitions of words and or phrases I am wanting to use are no longer expressing my idea. Very frustrating -- but life is nothing if you don't move forward I suppose.

When I travelled a lot, I got into the historical novels of authors like Leon Uris and James Mitchner.

Ah, Leon Uris - Trinity. I read that in the late 70's and thought it was excellent. I own that one and I actually tried to re-read it last year. I didn't make it 2 chapters in before saying - nahhh. I just couldn't connect. Mitchner now... when I first met my late husband this was his favorite author. He enjoyed spending fun filled afternoon's mocking my reading list -- testing me to no end. After a couple of years I said OKAY - I now have everything Mitchner ever wrote. lol. I still say, as entrancing and absorbing and delightful as his novels are... he seems to just get bored in bringing them into the present (the last 100 or so pages) and spaces off, leaving the reader saying - REALLY? lol

I loved The Stand and it rates as probably my #2 book. Have read it over and over. If you like that one, have you read Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon? If not, you should.

I haven't and I will.
 
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This thread set me thinking yesterday - on that long ride into town in 92+ degree weather with no air-conditioner :coldsweat: 'mumbling how overjoyed I am to great you Summer'

When I was very young my Mother (who was NOT a nurturer) took the bus downtown every other Saturday to the Library. She would always ask us - do you want a book? I would say yes yes yes please. What kind? And I'd tell her. She had the 'knack' of finding the PERFECT book every time. But, there was a catch you see... With one hand she would offer you YOUR book and with the other hand she would offer you HER choice for you. If you accepted this challenge you received both books and with my Mom it was the Honor System... take my word that she took that system very seriously. This challenge is why I was the only one of us that said yes yes yes please. I got my stubbornness from her you see, and I wanted my book.

Here are a few of HER choices for me. In no particular order. From the time I was six to the time I was twelve. There were many many more... but this is the general array of things. I do clearly remember the first book -- I was six. The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe.

The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe
Catch 22
A Clockwork Orange
When Harley Was One
The Hobbit
Brave New World
Fahrenheit 451
Skinny Legs and All
A Clock Work Orange
Atlas Shrugged
Gone With The Wind
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

That's crazy aint it. I always said, "say what you want about Mama but despite her best efforts, the best of me came from her."
 
I have always had a love of reading. We didn’t get to buy books too often and getting one was such a treat. I would smell the pages and savor the treat. Books don’t have that same ink ordor they used to.

I read in phases. Sometimes spiritual and self improvement, biography’s. My fav is a good mystery. I too have read The Stand and for all it’s strangeness, it is one of the few books that certain scenes still stand out in my memory.
 
This thread set me thinking yesterday - on that long ride into town in 92+ degree weather with no air-conditioner :coldsweat: 'mumbling how overjoyed I am to great you Summer'

When I was very young my Mother (who was NOT a nurturer) took the bus downtown every other Saturday to the Library. She would always ask us - do you want a book? I would say yes yes yes please. What kind? And I'd tell her. She had the 'knack' of finding the PERFECT book every time. But, there was a catch you see... With one hand she would offer you YOUR book and with the other hand she would offer you HER choice for you. If you accepted this challenge you received both books and with my Mom it was the Honor System... take my word that she took that system very seriously. This challenge is why I was the only one of us that said yes yes yes please. I got my stubbornness from her you see, and I wanted my book.

Here are a few of HER choices for me. In no particular order. From the time I was six to the time I was twelve. There were many many more... but this is the general array of things. I do clearly remember the first book -- I was six. The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe.

The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe
Catch 22
A Clockwork Orange
When Harley Was One
The Hobbit
Brave New World
Fahrenheit 451
Skinny Legs and All
A Clock Work Orange
Atlas Shrugged
Gone With The Wind
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

That's crazy aint it. I always said, "say what you want about Mama but despite her best efforts, the best of me came from her."

You read "Clockwork Orange" at age 12 (or younger?)

When I was about 13 or 14, Jim Bouton's book "Ball Four" came out. Bouton was not shy about discussing the seedier side of MLB, the book was a best seller. I wanted to read it, but my Dad insisted he read it first. He got less than halfway through it before taking it back to the library and telling me I could read it when I was 18.
 
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The Lord of the Rings trilogy I have read countless times, yeah weird.


Same here. I have read the Lord of the Rings so many, many times and love them every time!!

Another writer of Historical Fiction that I love is James Clavell. I especially loved:
Tai-Pan
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and Noble House
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You read "Clockwork Orange" at age 12 (or younger?)

Yes I did. Didn't understand it then, hate it now.

Until this thread I hadn't much thought of those days in a long, long, time. On that trip to town, thinking on this thread, I was going back over the books I had read through the years and that got me to thinking about laying on the couch on a HOT summer day when I was young and reading that stupid Gone With The Wind... (I actually think that's the last one mama handed me) and thinking, WILL THIS STUPID BOOK NEVER END!!! I kind of remember thinking that this was particularly cruel of her - this massive tome of boring boring stuff. And that memory started me thinking of the other books - hence the list I posted here.

Mama obviously had a point in her choice's. A Teaching of sorts. But that still doesn't explain Gone With The ducking Wind, does it? Anyway. I don't remember anyone ever reading to me so I don't know how I learned to read - only that I always did.

When I was about 13 or 14, Jim Bouton's book "Ball Four" came out. Bouton was not shy about discussing the seedier side of MLB, the book was a best seller. I wanted to read it, but my Dad insisted he read it first. He got less than halfway through it before taking it back to the library and telling me I could read it when I was 18.

I don't think mama ever connected with us as Mother/Child. In any circumstance. We were always treated as if we were adults and her expectation's of us followed the same road.
 
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