I read books like I listen to music - all the time, at the same time, and with an open mind and alarming lack of focus. Still, I'm pretty picky about what I call my "favorites"; fortunately, that makes my list fairly short.
Fiction
- A Story Like the Wind and A Far Off Place by Laurens van der Post. The adventures of two children growing up in Africa, and subsequently having to run for their lives across the Kahalari Desert. Disney adapted the second book into a film (which is extremely different than the novel).
- The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. Well, really, all of Tolkien's novels, but I especially fell in love with the epic Silmarillion. People have described it as having the same relationship to The Lord of the Rings as the Bible has to the book of Exodus (or any other book); it truly is epic, and LOTR is just one tale among a myriad spanning the history of Middle Earth. My favorite tales are Turin Tarambar and Beren and Luthien.
- The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. The story of King Arthur told from the point of view of the women, particularly Morgaine.
- The River Why by David James Duncan. A young man decides to ditch life (and his bickering parents) for his fishing rod and an Oregon river, and accidentally learns a lot about life. A wonderful story.
- The Belgariad and Mallorean series (and associated titles) by David and Leigh Eddings. For a fast, enjoyable read, I recommend these books. David himself proclaims the plot to be a MacGuffin - the story's really about the characters. He's so good at developing them and making me love them that I forgive him his cliche fantasy tropes.
- The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I love all the Sherlock stories, but this (one of four Sherlock novellas) is by far my favorite. (Also, I ADORE the current BBC take on Sherlock Holmes, but must admit I was disappointed with their adaptation of this my favorite Doyle story.)
- Watership Down by Richard Adams. The story of a warren of rabbits trying to survive in the English countryside. Beautiful writing and a riveting plot, peppered with fun tales of legendary rabbit hero El-ahrairah.
- In addition to these, I tend to love the classics (as long as I can get them for free on Project Gutenberg); especially anything by Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, Jane Austen, and the Bronte sisters.
Non-Fiction
- Anything by Jon Krakauer, by far my favorite non-fiction author. His works include Under the Banner of Heaven (about the Mormon Church), Into Thin Air (a first-hand account of a Mount Everest expedition gone horribly wrong), Into the Wild (about Chris McCandless and his tragic odyssey), and Where Men Win Glory (about Army ranger/ex-NFL football player Pat Tillman, who was killed in 2004 in Afghanistan by friendly fire).
- Jaguar by Alan Rabinowitz. The autobiographical account of Rabinowitz's Ph.D. project studying jaguars in Belize. Botflies, plane crashes, big cats - what more could you ask for?
- Indian Creek Chronicles by Pete Fromm. The autobiographical account of Fromm's college job taking care of some salmon eggs in the Idaho wilderness for an entire winter.
- A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. A must-read for the environmentally-conscious.
- The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. Really, one of the best Christian theological works out there.
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