I happen to keep a list of almost every book (3000+) I read in a Word (2007) file. Mostly because it is hard to remember every author and title I've read, and it keeps me from unintentionally reading a book I've already read. I do rate them form one to ten, but most of the books I've finished reading and listed are rated 6-10. The only categorization I do is by author, title and fiction or nonfiction.

I can send my list of books read to anyohne who wants it. However you would need Microsoft Word 2007 or later to open the file, and your email server would need to accept large attachments. Just message me with the email address you want it sent to, with a short note asking for it. The list grows by 1-3 books almost every day.

@snytiger6 Do you have a top ten list?

@GreatNani I like different books for different reasons, which makes it hard to come up with a top 10. For Instance I love the story of Les Miserables, but there is that section where Victor Hugo goes into why napoleon lost t Waterloo... which was educational, but kind of stalled the main story. Anyway, I'll come uip with 10 off the top of my head.

1. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck. I think this is his real masterpiece work. Most think it is "Geh Grapes of Wrath", and that expose novel was a great book, but East of Eden in my opinion was better.

2. TheSound of Waves, by Yukio Mishima. It was one of his earlier books and mostly overlooked by bibliofiles when taling about his books But is it a nice litle (a short read) upbeat story.

3. Shogun, by James Clavell. The novel was inspired by actal historical figures and events. However it greatly differs from actual Japanese history, which is why the names are all different.

4. The disc world series, by Terry Pratchett. This is a fantasy series which kind of makes fun of (satirizes) fantasy adventure books. I went on line to get a chronological list so I could read them in the order of actual story line. They are wildly entertaining.

5. The Harry Potter series, by J, K. Rowling. It is interesting that she used to early 20th century English boarding school model and made a school for persons with magic to learn how to use their gifts. It's a whole new take on the old and is very imaginative.

6. The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood. This is a dystopian future tale. Basically far right wing religious nuts won a nuclear war and the book shows a slice of life of that world. I heard on NPR that she has recently written a sequel, but Ihave not read that oen yet.

7. The Unincorporated Man, by Dani Kolin. This is a semi-dystopian novel. A billionaire has his body frozen preserved and hidden to hopefully wake up when a cure cn be foudn for his illness. He is accidentally discovered by future generations and finds himself in a world where everyone is incorporated and shares of stock for each person can be bought on the open markets. I foudn the concept both interesting and frightening. There are sequels to this books, which although good are not quite as good as the first.

8. People of the Wolf (The first North Americans series), by W. Michael Gear. The author and his wife have written two series of books aobu tthe lives of Native Americans before Europeans invaded. The books all start with an archeological discovery, and then the actual story of the book grows out of the item discovered.

9. Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. This book somehow capture humity in a way that few other books have.

10. I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov. This is actually a collection of short stories. It is very enjoyable. Asimov continues his robots and advances them in his Foundation series. However, I, Robot was originally written as individual stories for science fiction magazines and later collected into a single volume.

OK, as I included series that is far mroe than 10 books.

If anyone reading this has kids in addition to Terry Pratchett, I'd recommend "The Ranger's Apprentice" series by John Flanagan (he also wrote a second series called "Brother's Band" which grow out of the first series) He started writing in order to interest his son in reading.

I'd recommend books considered to be "classics" I sometiems go online and look at required literature reading for colleges and universities to help round out my education a little more.

@snytiger6 great top ten. I have read some.of them.

@GreatNani I forgot "The Persian Boy" by Mary Renault. It chronicles the life of Alexander The Great from the perspective of a Persian slave who becomes one of Alexander's confidants. There is a prequel "Fire From Heaven" about Alexander's childhood, but it just isn't as good. She also wrote a book about the disarray and aftermath after Alexander's death.... can't recall the title off hand though.

When I read the Terry Pratchett books, I read them in chronological order. Not the order in which they were written, but chronologically in terms of story line(s). I really love how the character of Death, keeps trying to become a better individual.

Anyway, all of Pratchettt's books are very entertaining.

Yes, the original Dracula and Frankenstwin books are much better than any of the movies they spawned.

I think Game of Thrones was better on the screen. George R.R. Martin has yet to finish writing the books. By the fifth book the series and book diverged quite a bit.

I've read all of those

@snytiger6 I also like "Far Tortuga" by Peter Matthiessen, Nathanael West, "Day of the Locust", "Miss Lonnelyhearts", Thomas Harris "Black Sunday", "Red Dragon" and "The Silence of the Lambs", I read "Lonesome Dove" twice and I think I've seen all the movies. McMurtry's best by far.

Can't go wrong with The Hitchhikers Guide

Love it! Rollicking fun genius tour de force. Read it 3 times, it so complex and fun. I also love The Baroque Cycle

I love all of John Irving's books.

@snytiger6 I love most of them. Setting Free the Bears was not a favorite, though.

@Nottheonlyone I haven't read that one ... yet.

@snytiger6 I'm an honest woman... Don't bother.

@Nottheonlyone Although I studied story construction in college, I lack the discipline needed to write or rather rewrite somethign to a point where it is saleable.

Anyway, I still will read "bad" books because i find it interesting to try to figure out why they don't work. I recently read a book by an author I liked, but I hated that particular book. In short it boiled down to the fact that none of the characters had any redeeming characteristics. Even anti-heroes have to have something about them that is likeable and makes you root for them.

So, i probably will red the book, just to see what went wrong.