Favorite Books and Short Stories

It's not been a good year for my goals. Not only did I not "win" NaNo, but I'm also going to miss my Goodreads 2012 Reading Challenge goal. If I'm really lucky, I might get one more book in before the end of the year, but that will still leave me five short.

Reading thirty-five books this year isn't bad. I've always been an avid reader, but it's definitely been cyclical, depending on how much free time I have. I'm pretty sure I didn't pick up a single book between 1991 and 1994. My reading was limited to whatever copy of People magazine the doctor's office had, and Newsweek and Time (usually while, *ahem* in the throne room). Those were the years my children were small, and reading (besides Goodnight Moon and the The Very Hungry Caterpillar) was a luxury I had neither time nor money for. Any money that was available for books, of course, went for kids books so they would grow up to be avid readers.

I will read just about anything, though I don't usually care for romance or erotica, nor hard science fiction. Horror is my favorite, of course. While I read a lot of novels, I prefer a good mixed anthology of short stories (I love a buffet).

My missed reading goal in this time of Auld Lang Syne got me thinking about some of my favorite books/stories . . .


I started reading "grown up stories" at a young age, but I do remember one
children's book I loved:



I checked it out from the school library so much, I don't think anyone else ever got a chance to read it.



The scariest book I've ever read:





My favorite anthologies:

                          




My favorite novels:

                            
         

Watership Down is a traditional book in our family. Every one of my children has a copy, and when the grandkids are older, I'll be giving them each a copy, too.



Classics I love:

                           
                   

Two of my kids not only count The Iliad and The Odyssey in their top ten books of all time, but they can both still quote them!



I have a lot of favorite short stories and novellas, but three of my "favoritest" favorites are:

"All Summer in a Day," by Ray Bradbury;
"The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson;
"The Long Walk," by Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman).



And one of the most recent additions to my favorites list:



It has humor, and wordplay, and outrageous characters.



What about you? What books would you like to revisit during this time of Auld Lang Syne?