Notes from An Alien

~ Explorations In Reading, Writing & Publishing ~

Tag Archives: Top Books

More Conversation about Your Favorite Books and/or Favorite Authors . . .


Favorite authors and books The first post in this conversation was on August 17th; and, for those new to the blog, our conversations are on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays—the other days of the week having valuable posts from other sources…

And, since that first post in the current discussion had at least one comment, we can continue exploring some of your favorite books and authors…

So… we actually had two comments…

The First:

“It seems, my favorite books have turned out to be those I was assigned to read. Beyond college term papers and assignments, I discovered biographies and political books are my favorites—books that not only tell a story of progress or a journey but also books that strike an emotional chord in our hearts and minds. Stories that want to move you or help and inspire you to do better. Life lessons are important but so is the struggle, i.e. Race Matters by Cornel West and Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s book, Infidel. And, many art books and magazines have inspired my own art over the years. A Study of Vermeer is a favorite; and, for fun, the Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks.”

Quite a spread of topics—quite an interesting set of authors…

I felt compelled to look up the author of Zombie Survival Guide and found out he’s the son of comedy filmmaker Mel Brooks and actress Anne Bancroft. Then, I found out the author of A Study of Vermeer was Edward A. Snow, who translated six collections of poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke…

I’d already known a bit about Cornel West and Ayaan Hirsi Ali

So

Here’s the second comment:

“Some of my favourites are: The Razor’s Edge, The Little Prince, The Secret Garden, Charlotte’s Web, The Wind in The Willows…. I could go on but, basically, any book that has and still does move me by its excellent examination of the human heart and spirit.”

My response… about that last comment and the fact that all but the first are considered “children’s books“…

I don’t remember what I read as a child; though, I have personal evidence that I did read—vivid memories of my father’s voice, very loud with its second call, startling me out of a book…

Perhaps, the shock of being pulled so violently out of those books has locked them up deep inside my soul…

Still, I’m aware that “children’s books” are certainly more than ideational playthings…

So, after a bit of Googling to find more evidence of the Adult-Worthiness of these books, I settled on an interesting article from Nerdy Book Club10 Reasons to Read Children’s Books Instead of ‘Grown-up’ Books

There we are—the second post in our conversation about favorite books and authors…

And, since it only takes one comment to keep this conversation going, I’ll ask…

What are your favorite books…?

Who are your favorite authors…?

And, if you’re up for it, the Why for either of those answers :-)
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Blog Conversation about Your Favorite Books and/or Favorite Authors . . .


Our last conversation—How You Choose What You Read—came to an end for the lack of a comment; but, it did have a 3-post run, ending on August 15th… Favorite Books and Authors

In fact, I have a good friend who I thought might comment on that last post and keep the discussion going; but, folks have to do what they have to do…

So

I thought I’d come up with a new conversation that my friend might also want to comment on—Your Favorite Books and/or Favorite Authors

I’ve often mentioned one of my all-time favorite authors here—C. J. Cherryh—and, my favorite book by her—The Morgaine Cycle (actually, four books)

However, she’s my Fiction-All-Time-Fav…

My All-Time-All-Ways-Favorite Authors are Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and Shoghí Effendí…

And, my favorite books from each of them areBahá’u’lláh’s Book of Certitude‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s The Promulgation of Universal Peace, and Shoghi Effendi’s God Passes By

So, what are your favorite books…?

Your favorite authors…?

If you’d like to, feel free to share why you like those books and/or authors…

And, if you have no favorite books and no favorite authors, perhaps you have a suggestion for a new topic for discussion here…? (all topics in the broad areas of Reading, Writing, or Publishing…)

Plus, there just might be one or two of you who’d like to share a favorite book from youth and another from now…

Or, share an author who used to be your Fav but got replaced by another…

Or…

Well…

Your own choice of response to the topic at hand… :-)
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“Best” Books of 2014


Doing a Best of Year post for books isn’t wise before the end of the year; but, “Best” books is very subjective; so, I’ll give you some today :-) 

Book Gifts

Image Courtesy of Nathalie Dulex ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/salsachica

My other reason is that many folks celebrate Christmas and might be frantically looking for a few gifts

I have two subjective offerings:

* A rather neat page from NPR (National Public Radio) that lets you filter (in the left side-bar) their list of picks for best books—NPR’s Book Concierge.

* A selection from one of the most popular reader sites—2014 Goodreads Choice Awards.

And, even though I have a Kindle Fire HDX for my reading, Amazon has brought out a dedicated e-reader—no movies, weather apps, or other such stuff—just Reading—Amazon’s Kindle Voyage Is the Lamborghini of E-Readers.

A couple quotes from that article:

“Readers don’t necessarily want to read on tablets or phones. I’m not saying that many don’t end up doing so, but if you’re reading a lot, staring at a backlit screen in the way that you tend to when you’re reading line after line of digital text…is going to drive you crazy or wreak havoc on your eyesight.”

“It’s still expensive by e-reader standards [$219 right now], but if you spend more than two hours a day with your nose in a book, and the price doesn’t immediately cause you to say, ‘Nope, can’t afford it’, you need to consider it. Because it’s state of the art e-reading; it finally delivers on the promise.”

The article covers all the major new features of the Voyage and makes enough comparisons for a rational decision

And, for gifts for readers, all year ’round, click on the link in the left side-bar of this blog that says Gone Reading

Do you have a favorite book from 2014?

How about your favorite reading device?

Tell us about them in the Comments :-)
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The Best Books? ~ Whose Opinion Do You Trust?


As time moves forward, humanity produces more books and the pace of production is increasing.

How do we find and choose what to read?

Many folks look at various lists of bestsellers; yet, the quality of the list depends on who compiled it.

In a previous post, Bestsellers…, I included a number of sub-lists—single volume, series, and regularly-updated books.

Since I now own a Kindle, I’ve been very interested in filling it with books I might, someday, read (or, re-read…).

I went searching and found many lists—I’ll list four:

Top Ten Books of All Time: “Norton Anthologies asked 125 writers to select their top 10”

10 Most Read Books In The World: “most read over the last fifty years”

Top Ten Books—Lists from Various Authors: “weighted and ranked”

100 Bestselling Books of all Time: there was no indication how the list was compiled

I could have listed more lists and they’re certainly easy to find.

I guess the point to be made is that your list isn’t my list—or—The New York Times might not be your best guide—or—carry a handful of salt while you search

What are your favorite ways to pick the books you read?

Have any particular lists to recommend?

Do you think publisher lists are better than reader lists?

And, what really does make a book worth recommending??
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