June 19th, 2009
I love to read and am sad that I have such a hard time finding truly great books. Here are some of my very favourites – my desert island library. I hope you will enjoy or have enjoyed these! Also, if you know of a book or books that would be at home on this list, please let me know! I am always in the market for a good recommendation.
Richard Adams: Watership Down. Rabbits and mysticism.
Truman Capote: In Cold Blood. True account of murders.
Apsley Cherry-Garrard: The Worst Journey In The World. True account of Scott’s expedition to Antarctica.
Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose. Mystery in a monastery.
Russell Hoban: Riddley Walker. Intense, mythical post-apocalyptic setting.
Kazuo Ishiguro: The Remains of the Day. An English butler and existentialism.
P. D. James: The Children of Men. Humanity is ending due to infertility.
C. S. Lewis: A Grief Observed. Personal reflection after his wife’s death.
Cormac McCarthy: The Road. Grim, post-apocalyptic story.
Flannery O’Connor: And the Violent Bear it Away. Southern gothic.
–
These books are perhaps not as good in a literary merit sort of way but they are enduring favourites of mine:
James Clavell: Shogun. Feudal Japan.
William Goldman: Marathon Man. Nazis and a history graduate student.
Frank Herbert: Dune. Sci-fi with giant sandworms.
Walter M. Miller, Jr.: A Canticle for Leibowitz. Post-apocalyptic setting with religion.
Ann Rule: The Stranger Beside Me. True account of the Bundy murders.
Neal Stephenson: Cryptonomicon. World War II and codebreakers.
John Wyndham: The Chrysalids. Post-nuclear war religious persecution.