Thursday Thirteen #11 Authors/Books I've Read

This week's Thursday Thirteen is about books I've read. I enjoy reading and read a variety of types of books albeit they tend to be fiction more than non-fiction or self-help varieties. If you stick a book in my hand and make any comment good or bad I'll read the book cover to cover. I'm not one to put a book down until it is finished even if it is going no where. I keep reading just to give the author a chance. Also when I read an author I like, I usually will read everything I can find by that author until I become totally board with the predictability of his writing. This list pretty well spans the past 30 years with a few thrown in from school and college just because the fact that I can remember them at all says that they impressed me in some way.

1. The first book I actually remember reading is On Your Toes Susie by Lee Wydham. This book was first published in 1958. I think I was in about third grade when I read about Susie. She was taking ballet classes and was learning *to go on point*. I wanted so badly to take ballet after reading this book and sometimes I still want to take ballet because of this book.

2. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens introduced me to a time and place far removed from my world. I think it was then that I fell in love with what seemed like a magical era. When life was hard, but people were simpler in many ways and just as complex in others. I'm in the process of re-reading this book. It's been too long.

3. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. The following quote says it all for me. Why is Pride and Prejudice such an enduring favorite? To the romantic, it’s a love story par excellence! To lovers of fiction, it’s story telling at its best. To linguists, it’s poetry in flowing prose. To lovers of life, its an embodiment of joie de vivre. To seekers of knowledge, it’s wisdom personified. I read Pride and Prejudice in high school and I think at that time became a hopeless romantic. I also read Sense and Sensibility, Emma, and Love and Friendship.

The next books or series of books are in no particular order. They are all just authors and series I've read.

4. Colleen McCullough's series Masters of Rome consumed much of my reading time for several years and then I read several of her shorter novels. First Man in Rome, The Grass Crown, Ceasar's Women plus The Thornbirds, A Creed for the Third Millenium, and Morgan's Run.

5. And because I love going back in time I decided to go way back with Jean Auel and read Clan of the Cave Bear. Of course then I followed Ayla through the other four books in the series.

6. John Grisham has occupied much of my time also. I think I've read about everything he has written up until about three years ago. I got a little board with his writing until I read Skipping Christmas, A Painted House, and Bleachers which were a welcome break from the courtroom and drama surround it. I'd say if you don't think you are a Grisham fan but haven't read those three books then you have missed the best of his works.

7. For a quick read that is light and delightful I look for what I call a *Cat Who* book. These are the stories by Lilian Jackson. Each book is titled The Cat Who ..... Each is about the antics of two Siamese cats who live with Jim Qwilleran and solve mysteries. Just this past cruise I finished my Danielle Steele book and went to the ship's library (yes there is a library on a cruise ship) and picked up one of the Cat Who books and had it finished in a day and that was while I was doing other ship things. :)

8. Because of my hubby I have read several of Tony Hillerman's books. Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee are comfortable friends to me in titles such as The Blessing Way, Listening Woman, or The Wailing Wind just to name three. Always a good read.

9. I also read the complete Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. This took an agonizing long time because I was reading each book as it was published and then had to wait for the next one to come out. Not a really great way to read a series (again my humble opinion.)

10. I have read Tom Clancy, but I have a hard time doing so. His books are scary to me. Too real and the possibilities are actually there. They tend to give me night mare. But they are intriguing.

11. I read some Dean Koontz. I enjoyed The Husband. I picked it up because of the title and the synopsis on the back -- lots of good twists. :) Others I've read by Koontz are his Odd Thomas series, well two of them. Might eventually read the third.

12. On of my favorite books is Insomnia by Stephen King. It is scary and funny at the same time. The main characters are older people who just keep on going and going. I think one of the funny parts of the book is when he was trying to find a cure for his insomnia and people kept giving him home remedies. This book just tickled my funny bone and I've revisited parts of it several times.

13. The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown was a great read. I couldn't figure out what all the whoop la was about. It's fiction folks --- based maybe on a few facts, but FICTION! Get a grip.

*There are others that keep popping into my head that I'll have to save for another time. This is just a sampling of what I read.