Sunday, April 27, 2008

A few favourites

I saw a meme of favourite authors on someone's blog, and contemplated coming up with my own list.  However, I soon realized that I really didn't have enough favourite authors to compile a list that would span the alphabet.  Most of the time, I would find a book that I'd love, and would search out another book by the same author, only to be disappointed.  So, I tweaked the meme a bit, and listed favourite book titles instead.  Here they are -- some are old childhood favourites, and some are recent discoveries.  You'll notice that I couldn't think of anything beginning with the letters q, u, v, y, and z.  Please leave your suggestions for those letters if you have any!

AAnne of Green Gables (L.M. Montgomery), Autobiography of My Mother (Jamaica Kincaid), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll), All that Matters (Wayson Choy)
BA Bird in the House (Margaret Laurence), Brideshead Revisited (Evelyn Waugh)
CA Complicated Kindness (Miriam Toews), Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky)
DDress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim (David Sedaris), Duino Elegies (Rainer Maria Rilke)
EEllen Foster (Kaye Gibbons)
FThe Flame Trees of Thika (Elspeth Huxley), Falling Angels (Barbara Gowdy)
G Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)
HThe Hours (Michael Cunningham), Howards End (E.M. Forster)
IIf on a Winter’s Night a Traveller (Italo Calvino)
JJane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
KThe Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
LLittle Women (Louisa May Alcott), The Lesser Blessed (Richard Van Camp)
MMaster and Margarita (Mikhail Bulgakov), Madame Bovary (Gustave Flaubert)
NNot Wanted on the Voyage (Timothy Findley), Nervous Conditions (Tsitsi Dangarembga)
OOscar and Lucinda (Peter Carey)
P Peter Pan and Wendy (J.M. Barrie), A Passage to India (E.M. Forster)
RRosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead (Tom Stoppard)
SSnow (Orhan Pamuk), Specimen Days (Michael Cunningham), The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence), Shantaram (Gregory David Roberts)
TTess of the D’Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy), The Third Policeman (Flann O'Brien)
WWritten on the Body (Jeanette Winterson), Winnie the Pooh (A.A. Milne)
X Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (Jonathan Safran Foer)

I was going to include only novels, but just couldn't resist my favourite volume of poetry (Rilke) and my favourite play (Stoppard).  I also know that I had to cheat with my selection beginning with the letter x.  At the very least, this has been a good exercise in focusing on something other than the on-going conflict with myself over whether or not to leave Inuvik.

6 comments:

  1. How long have you been in Inuvik?
    Twice Ex-Inuvikite

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  2. Hi "Twice Ex-Inuvikite"!

    I've been in Inuvik for almost five years now. Planning on moving away this summer though. I already know that I'll miss it, but I also know that I need to move on to my next adventure.

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  3. Have you read "Virgin Suicides"?

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  4. Hello from Texas! Found your site while reading The McMurdo blog. Opposite ends of the Earth...goodness. Have a happy night...day?LOL....

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  5. Anne of Green Gables is among my all time favorites!

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  6. How about Ulysses? Just kidding! I wouldn't even attempt to read that!

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