Tuesday, March 21, 2023

TTT Rewind: My Ten All-Time Favorite Reads

Our challenge this week is to pick a previous Top Ten Tuesday topic and revisit it.

I chose to go all the way back to the sixth week of TTT, way, way back to July 27, 2010: All-Time Favorite Books. Here's the TTT post from that day. I didn't start TTT until August, so I missed those first few posts. I wrote Best Reads Ever (to be updated regularly) in August of 2008, and I later posted in June of 2018, for my 10th Blogoversary, my hundred favorite reads

But, goodness, even the last list was five years ago, and I've read lots of marvelous books since then.

An early attempt at a list of favorite books (2012)


First, I have updated my favorite reads-ever list. Gracious. I now have 287 books on my favorites list:

1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up
13 Clocks by James Thurber
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris
American Wolf by Nate Blakesley
And the Pursuit of Happiness by Maira Kalman
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral by Barbara Kingsolver
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery
Around the World in 80 Books by David Damrosch
Around the World in 80 Trees by Jonathan Drori
The Art of Eating by M.F.K. Fisher
Atlas Obscura by Joshua Foer
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
BFG by Roald Dahl
Big Wonderful Thing: A History of Texas by Stephen Harrigan
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole by Susan Cain
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon
Blue Latitudes by Tony Horwitz
The Book of Luminous Things edited by Czeslaw Milosz
Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putnam
The Box Garden by Carol Shields
Boy’s Life by Robert McCammon
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World by Penelope Bagieu
Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
By the Great Horn Spoon by Sid Fleischman
Candide by Voltaire
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina
The Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse by John R. Erickson
Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreath
The Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
Civility by Stephen L. Carter
The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Common Good by Robert Reich
Corduroy by Don Freeman
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux
Dear Paris by Janice MacLeod
A Death in the Family by James Agee
The Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
The Death of Vishnu by Manil Suri
Devotions: Selected Poems of Mary Oliver
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep? by Philip K. Dick
Don Quixote by Miguel Cervantes
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems
Dreyer's English by Benjamin Dreyer
Dubliners by James Joyce
Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynn Truss
Eiffel's Tower by Jill Jonnes
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Emma by Jane Austen
Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Everyday Sacred by Sue Bender
Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Favorite Folk Tales from Around the World by Jane Yolen
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
Firegirl by Tony Abbott
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel
Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Ghost by Jason Reynolds
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Porter-Stratton
The Girl with the Louding Voice by Abi Dare
The Giver by Lois Lowry
The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Go, Dog, Go by P. D. Eastman
The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Good Poems edited by Garrison Keillor
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Grass Harp by Truman Capote
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Great Short Books by Kenneth E. Davis
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
Half Magic by Edgar Eager
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Hank the Cowdog #8: The Case of the One-Eyed Killer Stud Horse by John R. Erickson
Happenstance by Carol Shields
Hard Times by Studs Terkel
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Apprentice by J. K. Rowling
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
Hawaii by James Michener
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary
The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
Holes by Louis Sachar
Homer Price by Robert McCloskey
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
A House for Mr. Biswas by V. S. Naipaul
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith
How to Be Perfect by Ron Padgett
How to Live: What the Rule of St. Benedict Teaches Us About Happiness, Meaning, and Community by Judith Valente
How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O’Connor
Howards End by E. M. Forster
The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes
I Think You're Wrong (But I'm Listening) by Sarah Stewart Holland
I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen
I, Claudius by Robert Graves
If You Come to Earth by Sophie Blackall
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick
Independent People by Halldor Laxness
Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
Into that Good Night by Ron Rozelle
Invisible Child by Andrea Elliott
It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino
John Adams by David McCullough
Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg
Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do? by Michael Sandel
King Bidgood's in the Bathtub by Audrey Wood
Kiss for Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
L'Assommoir by Emile Zola
The Last Shot by Darcy Frey
Le Road Trip by Vivian Swift
Letters of Note: An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving a Wider Audience by Shaun Usher
Life-Sized Zoo by Teruyuki Komiya
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
The Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Lives of the Writers by Kathleen Krull
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
Love is a Wild Assault by Elithe Hamilton Kirkland
Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt by Arthur C. Brooks
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Madeleine by Ludwig Bemelmans
Magister Ludi by Hermann Hesse
Main Street by Sinclair Lewis
Make a World by Ed Emberly
Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey
Material World by Peter Menzel
Maus by Art Spiegelman
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Middleman and Other Stories by Bharati Mukherjee
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr
The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban
Mr. Putter and Tabby Walk the Dog by Cynthia Rylant
Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris by Paul Gallico
Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Wolfe
Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor
My Mistress's Sparrow is Dead edited by Jeffrey Eugenides
My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
The Napping House by Audrey Wood
Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat
The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin
No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry
The Odyssey by Homer
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
One Man’s Meat by E. B. White
The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett Graff
The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse
Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik
Persuasion by Jane Austin
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
Poem a Day edited by Karen McKosker
Possession by A. S. Byatt
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman
Regarding the Fountain by Kate Klise
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
Right Ho, Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse
Roads to Sata: A 2000 Mile Walk Through Japan by Alan Booth
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor
Rotten Island by William Steig
Sailing Alone Around the World by Billy Collins
Saint George and the Dragon by Margaret Hodge
Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret History by Donna Tarte
The Separate Peace by John Knowles
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
Shooting the Boh by Tracy Johnston
The Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
Some Writer: The Story of E. B. White by Melissa Sweet
Sounder by William Armstrong
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman
The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
Strong Measures edited by Philip Dacey and David Jauss
Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
Tadpole's Promise by Jeanne Willis
The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome Jerome
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
The Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction
Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Tribe of Mentors by Timothy Ferriss
True Grit by Charles Portis
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Resistance by Laura Hillenbrand
Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams
Waiting by Ha Jin
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
Watership Down by Richard Adams
We Are in a Book by Mo Willems
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevtich
Weather by Jenny Offill
The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
What It's Like to Be a Bird by David Sibley
Where I’m Calling From by Raymond Carver
Where is the Green Sheep? by Mem Fox
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Window by Jeannie Baker
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne
Woman: An Intimate Geography by Natalie Angier
Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis
Working by Studs Terkel
The World is Not Enough by Zoe Oldenbourg
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg
Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Year of Wonder: Classical Music for Every Day by Clemency Burton-Hill
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Yes, And: Daily Meditations by Richard Rohr
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
Zen and Zen Classics by R. H. Blyth


But let's see if I can pick my 10 All-Time Favorite Books. Ten and only ten. No more. No less.




Here is my list...and why...

10. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry...Texas...Gus...on-the-road...cowboys...

9. Go, Dog, Go by P. D. Eastman...my first favorite book...

8. Half Magic by Edward Eager...magic...

7. The Gold Bug Variations by Richard Powers...smart...romance...science...meaning-of-the-universe...

6. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien...on-the-road...hobbits...good vs. evil...

5. The Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction...essays about everything and nothing...

4. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle...magic...an ordinary kid who turns out to be a bit extraordinary...

3. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck...a woman's life...

2. The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry...poems...

1. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig...philosophy...


What are your favorites?

Have you read any of these? What are your thoughts?


Similar posts from the past are...

Books I Loved So Much I Had to Get a Copy for My Personal Library


♥Books That Will Make You Swoon♥


Books Too Good to Review Properly


Books I've Read..and Re-read...and Re-read


Books I'm Thankful For


My Favorite Books Published in the Last Ten Years


Books I’ve Read That I Keep In My Personal Library


Best Books of the Decade


The Last Ten Books That Wowed Me


Six Books that Have Changed My Life


Books I Loved but Will Never Re-Read


Books I Enjoyed but Have Never Mentioned on My Blog


Books I Really Liked but Can’t Remember Much About


My Hundred Best Reads Ever




Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. Each Tuesday That Artsy Reader Girl assigns a topic and then post her top ten list that fits that topic. You’re more than welcome to join her and create your own top ten (or 2, 5, 20, etc.) list as well. Feel free to put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you! Please link back to That Artsy Reader Girl in your own post so that others know where to find more information.     

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