Books I have loved - narrative part two

6 -- Frannie and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. Yes, I read Catcher in the Rye and liked it; However, this "book", really 2 stories about the Glass family, sucked me in as a student learning about the world at large. This was unlike anything English that I had lived . At that time, all the friends I associated with were voracious readers and we shared what we liked. I was given this book by a friend and it has been everywhere with me ; I  read it again every couple of years. It is multi-layered liked its author.

7 -- By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart. Actually a Canadian authoress. A beautiful novel full of metaphors. Love lived, and lost. I bought it in central London as a student, by the time I had arrived home in north west London I had finished it; Could not stop reading as I rode the tube and bus and even as I walked ! Gave it to my great friend Dee that night. She loved it. Bought myself another copy the next day. It is still with me.

8 -- Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro : This is the only novel by this Canadian Nobel Laureate of Literature. (Her speciality is short stories.) It came out in paperback just as I fell for my first "born and raised in Toronto" girl! (Woman, of course, as we were both in our mid-20's.) Our frames of reference were clearly different and this book helped me understand hers.

9 -- Winter: A Berlin Family by Len Deighton. I loved all his spy novels and his eye for detail in cold-war Berlin. This novel takes in the whole sweep of C20th Germany through the lens of one family - the Winters. The book is a terrific primer for any person interested in how Germany came to be embroiled in WWII.

10 - If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Cavino. A book for book lovers. Each chapter is a different story linked by the search for a special edition of a famous radical's book. The first line of each story, when read as a chapter heading, describes the novel's outline. Ingenious.

11 - Dune by Frank Herbert. A great novel, sweeping in scope, vivid characterisation that has lead to a whole series of Sci-fi novels, inter-linked by characters and planter descriptions. 40 + years since its publication but it is  recognised now as fostering an environmental awareness.
I was lucky enough to meet Frank Herbert in Toronto the day Queen Elizabeth II was signing our constitution in Ottawa It was ironic that only a handful of us turned up for Herbert's book-signing. We had an engaging chat as he had time on his hands and no customers !

Books I Have Loved -- narrative part one.

I find listing just 10 books much too limiting. Even sticking to only fiction, I cannot find a decent cut-off...
So, instead, taking a leaf out of Tiberius T. Kirk's book, I will "re-program" the question: instead of naming 'a book', a couple of suggestions are going to be a novelist. For me, when a book/story moves me, I seek out the author's other works and invariably, they move me too.
So, onwards :--
1. Jules Verne 's 'Journey to the Centre of the World' is an amazing fantasy. The descriptions are so vivid I could imagine the subterranean world as if I was watching a film. I read it when I was 12; loved it; saw that he had written more , so I searched them out and read them all.

2. Sherlock Holmes: saw Hounds of the Baskerville on TV, again when I was about 12 or 13. I went to the library and saw Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's fantastic output. I loved the short stories.
I recommend Silver Blaze, I think that is the title. It has the famous sleuth's comment: "the curious incident of the dog in the night." (Hint: It did not bark. ) This simple but ingenious solution to the crime has been copied numerous times. It came up in a crime show on TV recently; It is the basis of Michael Haddon's novel and now a play.
A Study in Scarlet is the first story that introduced the public to the famous sleuth. It is great and also been filmed dozens of times.

3. The Rubiyatt translated b Fitzgerald.  My mum gave me a beautiful, illustrated version when I was 20. The language Fitzgerald used is amazing; it is transcendental.
A loaf, a book, a jug of wine and thou
and paradise is enow.
Also a book that is constantly quoted, but many are unaware of the source of their quote.

4. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens. I had to read this for my 'O' Level in English Literature and could not believe that I actually enjoyed the  book. Somehow I managed to write  a decent essay on it to pass. Thank goodness I did not have questions on Silas Marner another set text; I hated that one and have never gone back to it, whereas, I have re-read Great Expectations as an adult and still love it.

5. Space Merchants - Frederik Pohl & C.M. Kornbluth. This is a Sci-Fi novel from the 1950's where governments are irrelevant; Corporations rule the world and Advertising Agencies are the powerful manipulators of the population's desires and intentions. A prescient novel of our Global Economy of the C21st.

Books I have loved

1 -- Jules Verne all his books
2 -- Sherlock Holmes. Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
3 -- The Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam. translated by Edward Fitzgerald
4 -- Great Expectations. Charles Dickens
5 -- The Space Merchants by Pohl & Kornbluth
6 -- Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
7 -- By Grand Central Station I Sat Down & Wept by Elizabeth Smart
8 -- Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro
9 -- Winter: A Berlin Family by Len Deighton
10 - If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Cavino
11 - Dune by Frank Herbert

just can not make a top 10 list.. this 10+