Last night I went to bed trying to figure out what book to start next.
I’d just finished a novel I really enjoyed. So I had that familiar fear that the next book probably wouldn’t be as satisfying. Ever experience that?
The “what next?” pondering led me to thinking about my favorite all time books. Of course my filters kicked in: do I mean the best LiTeRaTuRe; the best stories; or the books I return to because they always help me shift somehow?
So I picked the third filter. Here are my five favorite ‘go to’ books – the books I KEEP and return to often (…in no particular order. I DID have to get to sleep at SOME point.).
How about you? What books call you back to them?
Lisa’s Cheap Therapy blog 
Fred Chappell: Bighten the Corner Where You Are
Ooops – Brighten.
You should read The Time Traveler’s Wife! 🙂 I’m reading it now and it’s oh-so-good!
Ahab’s Wife – Sena Jeter Naslund
When Things Fall Apart – Pema Chodron
The Maytrees – Annie Dillard
Shades of Grey – Timothy O’Neill
Practicing Resurrection – Nora Gallagher
Kristen, THANKS! as of today, i’m on the list for it at the library.
PP, THANKS! i LOVED THAT BOOK, too! our bookclub read it when it came out. so psyched about the movie.
Carol, THANKS! what a fabulous and diverse list. kewllllllllll. have read all ‘cept, Shades of Grey – can’t wait~
no wait – I’ve changed my mind – I didn’t go yet –
The Poet of Tolstoy Park – Sonny Brewer
Peony in Love – Lisa See
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan – Lisa See
5 are not enough
lol Carol, INDEED. and you’ve added some GREATS. thanks.
If I did the LiTeRaTure list, it would go on forever, but if we’re talking “shift” influences, nothing has ever shifted me as much as Scott Peck’s “The Road Less Travelled”. It enabled me to begin to throw out the skeletons in my closet, and was a major impetus for my spiritual journey. Best of all, it prompted one of the coolest moments of “serendipity” in my life. A few weeks after I read it (back in the 1980’s), I opened our little hometown newspaper to read that Scott Peck was coming to speak at our community college! I was like, “What? The author of this best selling book is coming to our lil’ ol’ rural community? The author of a book that has just literally changed how I think about life is coming HERE?” It was true, and I did go to hear him speak, and it was wonderfully inspiring. I recently found his “Further Along the Road Less Travelled” in a thrift store, and am reading it right now. It’s encouraging me as I keep on traveling down my road! (I’m a big Aniie Dillard fan, too. Loved her “An American Childhood”—her power of observation is awesome!)
OOPs- That’s ANNIE, not Aniie!
I second the vote for the “Time Traveler’s Wife”; I’ve have looked forward to my daily date with Henry and Clare for the last week or so. Will feel very sad when I’ve finished the read! The movie will open next week…