To inagurate the section of the blog that celebrates books and reading, here’s a list of oldies but goodies.

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
I really do love it. Read it in one night.

The Princess Bride - William Goldman
This is an amazing book, far better than the movie. Just read the book.

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Such an amazing book. It really fascinated me.

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
Took me forever to get past the first page, but I eventually got into it and found it extraordinarily engrossing.

Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
So very, very funny.

Encyclopedia Brown Series - Donald J. Sobol
I learned so much.

Our Town - Thornton Wilder
I’ve honestly never seen it performed, but I’ve read it a million times. It’s just so sad and engaging.

Pretty much anything by Roald Dahl, especially Matilda, The Witches, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (and the lesser, but charming Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator), and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More (there’s a reason it’s not in the children’s section).

Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
I’m not a The Grapes of Wrath cheerleader. It’s a great book (and possibly an even better movie—blasphemous, I know), but for my money you can’t love Steinbeck more than for this other tome on utterly depressing life in central California. (Okay, Of Mice and Men is a sympathetic fave, but something about it always annoyed me.)

The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton
I cried at the end of this book (and the movie, too). Pathetic, yes, but I was 13 and it was good to learn that sometimes life is just suckiness interrupted by brief moments of triumph.

Beverly Cleary’s great books. Seeing a little girl on the J reading Beezus and Ramona reminded me of how much I loved the Ramona books, the ones about Henry, and even  the ones about Ralph the mouse.

Cynthia Voigt’s Tillerman family series books Homecoming, Dicey’s Song, A Solitary Blue, The Runner, Come a Stranger, Sons from Afar, and Seventeen Against the Dealer.