The books I've Enjoyed the most

As I was in my bed last night, I started making up a list of the books that I've enjoyed the most during my life. Now, this list started far back with the first books I could remember liking, through elementary school and on into the present. These aren't the greatest books, or the best books I've ever read, but they are the ones that I have enjoyed the most at the time that I read them. Looking back, some of them were better than others, but who really cares when you are enjoying a good story, eh?
Anyway, in more or less chronological order, here they are:


The books I've Enjoyed the most


(age 3-5)
Busy Busy Town by Richard Scarry
The Red Hot Water Bottle
Curious George by Hans Augusto Rey
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Johnson.

(age 6-8)
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
EB White's books (The trumpet of the swan, Charlotte's Web, etc)
The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
Tiki Tiki Tembo by Arlene Mosel
The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash by Trink Hakes Noble

(age 9-12)
Various Beverly Cleary books (the Mouse and the Motorcycle, the Ramona series)
The Chronicles of Narnia, by CS Lewis
The Hobbit, by JRR Tolkien
Greek Mythology, various
The Mad Scientist Club by Bertrand R. Brinley
Choose Your Own Adventure series, various
Various Roalh Dahl books (Witches, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Boy)
The Best of Calvin and Hobbes, by Bill Watterson
The Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, by Bette Bao Lord
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
Little House on the Prairie Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Lord of the Rings, by JRR Tolkien
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fizhugh
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Various Goosebumps series books, by RL Stine
To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee Harper
The Count of Montecristo, Alexandre Dumas
Collected Stories of Edgar Allan Poe

(Age 13-17)
Hiroshima, John Hersey
Shannara series, Terry Brooks
The Epic of Gilgamesh, Anonymous
Lord of the Flies, William Golding
The Deed of Paksenarion, Elizabeth Moon
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck
Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
A Separate Peace, by John Knowles
The Inferno, Dante
The Wheel of Time series, Robert Jordan
The Odyssey, by Homer
The Crucible, by Arthur Miller
Crime and Punishment, by Dostoevsky
Magician, Raymond E. Feist
The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde
Metamorphoses, by Ovid
Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus


(Age 18-now)
Life of Pi, Yann Martel
The History of the Jews, Johnson
Catch 22, Joseph Heller
Hamlet, by Shakespeare
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway
The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury, obvious
Caligula, Albert Camus
Trial of God, by Ellie Weisel
Siddhartha, Herman Hesse
Leaves of Grass, Whitman
Kid, by Simon Armitage
Oresteia, Aeschylus
Oscar Wilde, by Richard Ellman
Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton
His Dark Materials, Phillip Pullman
Phantastes, George Macdonald

Comments

Jenn said…
You've got some good books on this list! I was scared of The Wind in the Willows when I was young and I don't know why because I don't really remember it, I just remember being scared.

I'm a bit surprised that at not point in your life did you enjoy Winnie-the-Pooh. I've been reading them (not the Disney version but the originals) aloud to Bug and Charles has been listening in and even he is finding them funny.
27/10/07 12:09
Ryan said…
no, for some reason I never read winnie the pooh. I almost bought them to read when I was in oxford doing my childrens lit tutorial, but I chose different books instead. I've heard good things though.
27/10/07 12:52
thais said…
my favorites from your lists:

The Day Jimmy's Boa...
Narnia, Hobbit etc.
Witches
Island of the Blue Dolphins
HARRIET THE SPY
Lord of the flies
Life of Pi
Hamlet
Siddhartha
For Whom the Bell Tolls
To Kill A Mockingbird
His Dark Materials

Books I wonder if you've read that I loved:
The Ear, the Eye and the Arm
The Emperor's Children
Pride and Prejudice
Brideshead Revisited
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Way of a Pilgrim
28/10/07 16:47
Ryan said…
hmm.. of that list I think I have only read Picture of Dorian Gray, which I thought of includin on the list but finally decided againt.
Incredibly, I have never read Pride and Prejudice, probably because I have seen the mini series so many times...
I'll have to check out the other ones sometime.
Thanks for the heads up.
29/10/07 02:31
Anonymous said…
eef- how about roald dahl?? i used to love The Big Friendly Giant...
30/10/07 07:25
Ryan said…
roald dahl is in age 9-12 (though I notice that I misspelled his first name). The BFG was good, but not my favorite. Charlie and the chocolate factory is still one of the greats. His autobiographical ones are great too.
30/10/07 17:03
Anonymous said…
eef- yep, sorry... i just looked at it again, and realized i missed it when i read through it the first time.. good books.. witches scared me; the gloves and all.
30/10/07 18:37
Reesa Wood said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
12/11/07 22:43
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