books you should read before you die?

[Rhona]

Two more to reread for me;

Cod by Mark Kurlansky
The Shipping News - Annie Proulx

[lindyloo]

i will read just about any type of book, though if it hasn't grabbed me in the first chapter or two, i am liable to pass it on to my sister, or sell them on. it's the writing style and flow that is very important to me, also the setting. i also like factual books, ussually social history, which i am interested in. i admit to having 2 huge victorian double wardrobes, filled to the brim with books i liked and will read again, also containers under the bed, and various bookcases throughout the house. luckily with so many books it can be several years before i re-read a book, so the enjoyment isnt spoiled.
when i was a child, before computers were available, i will admit to spending hours taking out an encyclopedia and opening it to a random page and there was always something to interest me. i love to read a chapter in bed in the morning, and a chapter at night to fall asleep on.it soothes my mind.

of modern authors, i dont like aga sagas or girlie books, but do love anything by alice hoffman, loved the secret life of bees, can't think who wrote it, and anything that has the uncanny and magical threaded through ordinary lives. ( norah lofts wrote some good books in the 60's/70's) ditto witchy type novels. i quite like a good gothic ghost story and also stories of pioneering or ranching women. not really interested in the jane austin books at all- they bore me, but love the catherine cookson type of novel, which are more about ordinary people, and the drama of ordinary lives. ( i also like the filmed versions of catherine cookson too)

[Helgalush]

Tess of the D'Urbervilles/Mayor of Casterbridge/Far From the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy

Mr Pip - cant remember the authors name Lloyd someone or other

I also second Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime

I am enjoying Nelson Mandela's autobiography but only halfway through so far!

The Alchemist or the Devil & Miss Prym - Paulo Coelho

For a scarier one Thinner or Desperation by Stephen King

[Bramble_killer]

Anne of Green Gables LMM Montgomery
A short history of tractors in the ukraine -Marina something
Agatha Christie murder mysteries (very English and relaxing)
Harry Potter series
Edgar Allen Poe's short stories
The no 1 ladies detective agency
Bad science by Ben Goldacre
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

There's lots more and pretty much what a lot of the other posters have said. I enjoy reading a large mix of stuff and at the moment, am on the hunt for superfreakonomics, elephants on acid, the 44 scotland street series.

I commute so it's a good job I like reading

[maytreefrannie]

This thread has given me loads of reminders about books I'd love to read but had forgotten - I keep coming across titles and thinking, yeah, I always wanted to read that.
Thanks.

As a child I loved Enid Blytons's books - during the past week, visiting with my daughter, I found my eight-year old grandson is now deep in Secret Seven books and looking forward to Famous Five - as my daughter also loved these as a child, that makes three generations.

[weekendwellies]

wow, you are all very well read. I knew I could rely on my Grapes

I am due back at the library this week; just about finished a couple of very disturbing thrillers; The Lost Labyrinth - Will Adams and Velocity - Dean Koonz.
Now I have a list as long as an Andrex toilet roll to take for the next couple of selections.
I am going to try and find a couple of classics this time. Variety is the spice of life.

[furball]

Cold Comfort Farm (there's something lurking in the woodshed)
Gorillas in the Mist
The cat Who came in from the cold (not a 'classic' but excellent, esp if you love cats.)
Cant remember the authors Im afraid, and yes Terry Pratchett, Harry Potter etc

The cat who came in from the cold is by Deric Longden. Fab book, soooo funny.

[furball]

Does anyone know of any funny gardening books, i read the book about a guy and his friend and their trials and tribulations over a year on an allotment, but was really annoyed when i read that other people had cleared the allotment for him, he wrote he did it himself. (i think its in the acknowledgements)

[Liza]

Carol Drinkwaters Olive Farm series.

[northepaul]

There are dozens of excellent books already mentioned above - some I have read and some I want to.
I always think its good to try different writers/genres/styles, even if you end up not liking them.

However to add my own few in no particular order:
Classics:
Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, The Tenant of Wildfeld Hall and most other books by any of the Brontes.
Mill on The Floss George Elliot
Great Expectations..Dickens
Most things by Elizabeth Gaskill
Try some Virgina Woolf

Modern:
Anything by Jeanette Winterson
Anything by Kazuo Ishiguro (except the Unconsoled, which I read recently after struggling with it for months, and couldnt find any point to the story at all)
Love Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Poetry (as you mention it)
Of course this is a personal taste but I think you have to try reading Sylvia Plath...

[jojo2910]

If anyone lives in the Somerset area, we have just discovered The Book Barn - - Home

It is an entire barn devoted to used books and their sale on at the moment means that all books in the barn (but not website) are �1 each. We went a little crazy .

There is a real mix of books and though organised into categories, with fiction being organised alphabetically its all a bit higgedly piggedly in each section. Found some really good books and a couple of silly ones.

I live only 10 mins from there and as I get through about a book a week on the train I can see me being a regular.

[SarzWix]

Cold Comfort Farm is by Stella Gibbons I LOVE that book, Flora Poste is my hero

[Rocketron]

Anything by the following
Graham Greene
Anthony Burgess
Robert Heinlein
Iain(M)Banks
Frank Herbert
Julian May
John Le Carre
Tom Sharpe
John Steinbeck
Joanne Harris
Tory Hayden
Stephen Donaldson
Diana Gabildon
Philippa Gregory

[Comfreyfan]

This has started to make me think of books from my childhood or my children's!

Children of the Dust - Louise Lawrence. Read it originally to check it out before my children read it, it was a bit harrowing, but certainly one to read.

I was brought up on Enid Blyton and my favourite was The Secret Island. I read that book so many times I know that I could have existed on an island, I'm sure it helped form the independent and 'make the best of it' side of my personality!

[SarzWix]

Aww, same here Comfreyfan The other 'Secret' books never quite measured up to the Secret Island. Although there was one where they hid with Prince Paul on the island later I think... Can't remember which one that was though.
I love Cherry Tree Farm & Willow Farm, and the Mistletoe Farm ones too - I still want a mixed farm like those (and a friend like Twigg )