Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Books I'm So Happy Were Recommended To Me

Top Ten Books I'm So Happy Were Recommended to Me

10. Thank you to teachers
who encouraged me to try classics
that intimidated me.

9. Thank you to mi esposo,
Jim Nance,
who led me to Ray Bradbury and
all the great science fiction reads out there.

8. Thank you to Oprah for sending me
to A Fine Balance and many
more fantastic reads during
my stay-at-home years.

7. Thank you to Candy Morgan,
my mentor during my first years of teaching,
who shared Where the Red Fern Grows.

6. Thank you to Miss Rowena Hillhouse,
now long since passed away,
who pointed out all the good reads in the children's section
of the Alvin Public Library,
including Half Magic and A Wrinkle in Time.

5. Thank you to the members of Bookgrouplist,
who revolutionized my reading when I joined the group in 1999.
Among others, they recommended Haruki Murakami, Richard Powers,
and A. S. Byatt.

4. Thank you to my mother who suggested
the amazing Gone With the Wind
and Love is a Wild Assault.
And almost every other good book
I read for the first fourteen years of my life.

3. Thank you to my Australian friend and fellow reader,
Louise, who told me about
1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up.
She not only led me to this book, but to the 1001 children's books
I am now attempting to read before I grow up.

2. Thank you to my sons, Jon and Ben,
who talked me into reading
Ender's Game and
The Phantom Tollbooth
when they were boys.

1. Thank you to the professor at University of Houston who put
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as the only book
that was required reading for an Educational Philosophy class in 1976.
The class did not make,
but that didn't matter,
because I'd already started reading the book
which was to become my favorite read ever.


Enter to Win DIVERGENT!

Don't forget to enter the Readerbuzz Monthly Giveaway!
This month's giveaway book is Divergent!

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created here at The Broke and the Bookish. This feature was created because we are particularly fond of lists here at The Broke and the Bookish. We'd love to share our lists with other bookish folks and would LOVE to see your top ten lists!

Each week we will post a new Top Ten list that one of our bloggers here at The Broke and the Bookish will answer. Everyone is welcome to join. All we ask is that you link back to The Broke and the Bookish on your own Top Ten Tuesday post AND add your name to the Linky widget so that everyone can check out other bloggers lists! If you don't have a blog, just post your answers as a comment. Have fun with it! It's a fun way to get to know your fellow bloggers.

42 comments:

  1. What a lovely way to write out your list!!

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  2. Great different list, i llike it,
    Thanks for stopping by
    the Book Mystress, xx

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  3. Oh, what a lovely list of gratitude! I should have spent more time thinking about this one because along with my blogger friends, I have so many people that have influenced my reading. Well, I guess my list, at this rate, would be way longer than 10!

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  4. Great list! Gone with the Wind is one of my favorites.

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  5. What a great tribute to all your reading mentors.

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  6. I like that you thanked everyone! I'll have to check out some of these books. Thanks for checking out my list! :o)

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  7. I'll have to read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance!

    Book Dilettante

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  8. Love your list! I'm sort of in the middle of Kafka on the Shore, and I really want to read Gone with the Wind now.

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  9. Great list! I have a Fine Balance on my tbr pile thanks to a recommendation from a friend. This is the second time I'v come across it on TTT. I should really read it.

    Murakami, Byatt and Bradburry are fantastic authors. I also loved Gone With The Wind.

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  10. You've got a great list here! I especially like Gone with the Wind and Phantom Tollbooth. I always have fun teaching Phantom Tollbooth to my 6th graders. Thanks for visiting my list!

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  11. Love your list! Enders Game, Phantom Tollbooth, Bradbury, Murakami, all wonderful and also on my bookshelves! I shall have to enter your giveaway too, I've heard Divergent is great.

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  12. You are fortunate to have so many literay people in your life! :)

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  13. I just noticed you are reading How I Live Now. I read that on a blog recommendation and have seen in on other lists. Wondering what you think so far? I was really creeped out about the underage incestous, hollow relationship. It was a book I just could not recommend.

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  14. What a unique and cool way to do your list! I wish I had that many people recommending me books! :)

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  15. I love your list. It's great that you have had so much support and encouragement with your reading over the years. You have read some amazing books - I hope to read them all someday. Thanks for sharing!

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  16. What a sweet and unique way of writing your Top Ten, Deb! :D I know there are a lot more people to thank for recommending different titles to me, but Karen's done a lot of the prodding (and even shoving of books) for me. Great list and thank you for sharing> :)

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  17. I love how you formatted your list--how nice to thank the people who recommended the books. Kaye—the road goes ever ever on

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  18. I love your list and especially the way you presented it. How nice to thank the ones who recommended the books. Kaye—the road goes ever ever on

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  19. Deb, we are in the same book group (bookgrouplist)! It was Sue Terry who searched out the Monica McInerney books for me. I have neen a member since 1997, but lurk most of the time. I think it was Mike in Hilton Head that had Zadie Smith on his list. Small world! And I love how you structured your list. Very nice. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is on my TBR list...has been for years. I should dig it out.

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  20. What a great list and tribute!

    Here's mine: http://myreadersblock.blogspot.com/2011/05/top-ten-tuesday-recommendations.html

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  21. I liked how you set up your list. very nice. can't say i've heard of any but i am going to place one on my list.

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  22. Interesting list and a great way to give thanks to all those who influence your reading adventure and likes.

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  23. I like your approach: different and personal. :)

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  24. Like Smellincoffee, I'm really impressed with the way you set this up as a gratitude list. After all, part of the reason the books are so wonderful is that we often associate them with the people who recommended them to us.

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  25. This is a fabulous way to fashion your list. I wish I'd thought of it first. Ha! :)

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  26. What a great way to do this list. :)

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  27. A Wrinkle in Time! The Phantom Tollbooth! You have some great older reads here that I also completely love. :)

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  28. I love this post. You put such a nice spin on this week's theme!

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  29. Fantastic list, and I (and many others) can relate to a lot of these! Gotta love all of those teachers, librarians, and moms.

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  30. This was a neat way to do your list. I gotta say that I have to give Oprah some thanks, too, she showed me that there were books out there to read that weren't horror or legal thrillers when I was in high school. Who knows what kind of reader I'd be today without her! ;-)

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  31. As usual, love the format of the list. I definitely have to thank lots of my professors for "making me" read some of the greatest books I've ever read. I hope I do that for some of my students as well.

    Check out my list here

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  32. As per usual, I like your style. The rest of list books first and maybe remember to mention the person who recommended it. You thank the person and then mention the book(s). You got it right! Thanks.

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  33. Great List! Great way to do this list.

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  34. I love the way you did this list =) I REALLY need to read Ender's Game! And yes, Where the Red Fern Grows and the Wrinkle in Time series are amazing!

    Also, Divergent is awesome! Definitely enter the giveaway, y'all! =)

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  35. Thanks so much for stopping by! Enders Game totally rocks! I kind of fell off the wagon after Enders Shadow (which I actually liked better) but Orson Scott Card is such a good writer! I really need to read more of his recent stuff!

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  36. Great list and I love that like myself your Mum played a significant role in your reading journey. I owe the very fact that I love reading to my mum and also many of my faourite books including one I am reading at the moment (The Book Thief).

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  37. Oh, I loved reading this list! Your description of having Half Magic and A Wrinkle in Time recommended to you at the library was so vivid. It made me remember how it felt to check those books out from the library, too... over and over again.

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  38. great list! a wrinkle in time is a great one!

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  39. Such wonderful books and authors! And we only had one point of similarity: Enders Game.
    Say, I noticed on My Head Is Full of Books that you're considering finding a place to share great book recs. To that end, you might find my new, free, non-profit little ning to be the perfect place... no strings attached, just a place for readers to gather, share, and maybe make a little world change as well... If you do set up a group there, I'd definitely want to read your lists and offer up ideas!

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  40. Not entirely sure that I remembered to include the name of the site (doh!): ActionReaders.com !

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  41. Such a shame that your friend in Australia is so behind with reading blog posts. I can't tell you how excited I was to make #3! A squeal of delight for me on Mother's Day. It's so great to share the growing up in 1001 steps journey with you. My only sorrow is that I can't keep up with everything, and BGL and my Australian reading has suffered quite a bit. But I figure I can read those when I've grown up.

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  42. Ahhh, I'm happy you saw my thank you, Louise.

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