100 Books to Read, or Not

Found a list of books and this concept at Mind Muffins.

Whether you read printed versions or electronic, listen to CDs or Audible, we all have our favorites and those we could live without. 

This is a cool way to see the difference in our preferences. Try it.

My directions are thus: 

*  Copy the whole list to YOUR blog.
*  Bold the ones you’ve read, leave ones you haven’t alone

** Put a couple of astericks by the ones you recommend.
*  Highlight ten you have no interest in.
*  Leave ten blank from the ones you don’t expect to read.

*  It might be interesting to see if you read it in P - print, E - electronic, or L - listened to it.

Fill in the blanks with others you or a friend has recommended.

Leave a comment on this author’s site with a link to your list. Then share the love and carry on.

(I don't read many on Electronic yet, so I marked those I listened to with L, the rest are print. Personally, I love holding the book. the ones I read several times I gave details.)
So to begin....
 1. The DaVinci Code  L

 2. Pride and Prejudice  (re-read) P
 3. To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee) ** (It’s been too long).  P
 4. Gone With The Wind (Margaret Mitchell)** P
 5. Flirting with Danger, Suzanne Enochs**  P

 6. Warning Signs , Stephen White L
 7. The Lord of the Rings: (SAW THE MOVIES, does that count?)
 8.  Full Moon Rising   Keri Arthur **  P,L
 9.  Outlander (Diana Gabaldon)*** P,L,L,L
10. Darkborn  (Allison Sinclair) ** can’t wait for the third book! P
11.
12.
13. Nobody’s Baby But Mine (Susan Elizabeth Phillips)** L,P,L
14. Sweet Hush, Deborah Smith ** P
15. Last Man Standing David Baldacci** L,P

16.
17. The Husband, Dean Koontz*** L,P
18. The Wolf and the Dove,   Kathleen Woodiwiss** P
19. Stanley   Jack Rosse (surprising! And delightful.)** P
20. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte Again, it’s been a lonnnng time P
21. Sphere of Influence,  Kyle Mills *** P,L,L,L
22. Cold Day in Paradise, Steve Hamilton ** P,L
23. It’s in His Kiss, Julia White P
24. Envy, Sandra Brown P,L
25.  Life of Pi, Yann Martel
26. Small Town Girl, Laverle Spencer** P

27. Peace is the Way, Deepok Chopra**  Awesome P,L

28. The Watchman, Robert Crais** L
29. East of Eden (John Steinbeck)
30. Mistborn, Brandon Sanderson** L
31. Aint She Sweet? Susan Elizabeth Phillips** P,L,L
32. The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks) I can’t do Nicolas Sparks, only one happy ending – NightsnR.
33. The Heir,  Grace Burrowes** her first book and it’s wonderful P
34. 
35. The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley) P,L
36. A Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin** brilliant writer but a reviewer said he didn’t know why Martin’s characters didn’t just kill themselves. It’s a bleak world. P,L
37. The Power of Now   Eckhart Tolle** L,P
38. I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb)
39. Beautiful Lies, Lisa Unger** L
40. The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho) no, but I’m reading Brida  L
41. The Clan of the Cave Bear (Jean M. Auel) NOoo interest
42. The Kite Runner (Khaled Hosseini)
43. Witches’ Bane (Susan Wittig Albert)** P
44. The Five People You Meet In Heaven (Mitch Albom)(didn’t even see the movie)
45. The Bible (God, with some help from his friends)** P,L
46. Romeo, Romeo, Robin Kaye ** P
47. First Degree, David Rosenfelt**  All Andy Carpenter books, snarky lawyer humor, with his golden retriever soul mate he solves murders his clients are accused of. L,P
48. Angela’s Ashes (Frank McCourt)
49. Dixie City Jam, James Lee Burke** L
50. Tairel Soul, C.L. Wilson** P,L
51. The Poisonwood Bible (Barbara Kingsolver)
52. A Tale of Two Cities (Dickens)
53. Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
54. Turn Coat, Jim Butcher** L
55. Lord of Scoundrels (Loretta Chase)** P
56. The Stone Angel (Margaret Laurence)
57.
58. Heather and Velvet, Medeiros ** P
59. The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
60. The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrew Niffenegger)
61. Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky) mostly ** P
62. The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand) **P
63. Blue Edge of Midnight, Jonothan King** P,L
64. Interview With The Vampire (Anne Rice) L
65.
66. One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
67. Ten Big Ones (Janet Evanovich)*** P, L,L,L
68.
69. Les Miserables (Hugo)**
70. Original Sin, Allison Brennan ** P
71. Bridget Jones’ Diary (Fielding)
72. Love in the Time of Cholera, Marquez  Ugh, the title
73. Shogun (James Clavell)
74. The English Patient (Michael Ondaatje)
75.  Eclipse Saga, Meyer ** P,L

76. The Summer Tree, Guy Gavriel Kay ??
77. Faeries Gone Wild, Mary Janice Davidson* P
78. The World According to Garp (John Irving) can’t remember
79. The Gift (Marianne Williamson)** P
80. Charlotte's Web (E.B. White)
81. Not Wanted On The Voyage (Timothy Findley)??
82. Of Mice And Men (Steinbeck)**
83. Rebecca (Daphne DuMaurier) (My father’s absolute favorite book.) P
84. Wizard’s First Rule (Terry Goodkind)
85.
86. Watership Down ,Richard Adams
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. The Help ( want to just haven't gotten to it yet)
89. Blindness, Jose Saramago
90. Material Evidence, Bill Kirton **P
91. Firebrand,  Gillian Roberts** P
92. Dragonfly and Amber,  Gabaldon, and all the rest ** P,L L
93. In From the Cold, Nora Roberts** P
94. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
95. When Darkness Falls (Kyle Mills) oddly prophetic, last of the Mark Beamons*** P,L,L
96. A Place to Call Home, Deborah Smith**
97.
98. Naked in Death, (J.D.Robb)**P,L
99. 
100. Ivanhoe (Sir Walter Scott) and I can still remember gritting my teeth

Lots of books didn't make the list that should have. I don't know where my list of favorite books went from an earlier blog template.

Reading and Thinking

It seems everyone around me is in the revision stages of a finished rough draft. I'm still reading, thinking and setting up the RCPM world. As I read popular authors in the mystery, paranormal, and fantasy genres I'm inspired with new ideas and look at them as examples of what I've learned in the last few years about creating a publishable novel.

In a nutshell:

..Conflict is almost everything
..Characters who evoke emotion and empathy hold the reader's interest to the end and keep them coming back.
..Voice, use of pov, and writing well is what attracts an editor/agent though it’s obviously not a guarantee.
..Hooks are important, little hooks, chapter hooks, the series hook.
..Good characterization grows a plot and optimizes the ability to capture the internal/external conflicts and use of scenes and sequels.
..A unique and believable world captures the reader/editor/agent's attention and these days you may only get one shot if you don’t do it right the first time.
..Pantsing creates challenges regarding the tracking of characters, their traits, the rules of their world, so the more you know in advance the better off you are.
..Know the genre and the targeted publishers’ preferences and track record.
..Network within your genre and industry.
..And LUCK is the rest of it.

Did I miss anything?

Well, I’ve done my part this month to support authors everywhere. I went on a buying spree. (BTW, if you go to your author’s page and use their Amazon or bookstore affiliate link, no matter what you order, they get a small percentage.)

I’m still working my way through the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher, I listened to the newest book, Turn Coat, first then I went back to the beginning. I bought Storm Front, borrowed the second from the library, downloaded the third and fourth from Audible. Then I went to the Books-a-Million for Blood Rites and from Amazon ordered Death Masks.

I’m hooked on Harry Dresden. In my favorite line from his books Harry says, “If this dilemma grows any more horns, we’ll have to shoot it and put it on the wall.” That pretty much sums up his philosophy on creating confict. Things can always get worse. I’ll be blogging about Butcher’s take on Sequels later in the week.

While I was at BAM I picked up Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress series.
Marjorie Liu’s The Iron Hunt and Darkness Calls
Rachel Caine’s first two in the Weather Wardens
Ann Aquirre’s Blue Diablo
THe first in the Southern Witch series by Kimberly Frost
Richelle Mead’s Thorn Queen

Online I picked up UK mystery authors:

Material Evidence by Bill Kirton
Philip Kerr’s The One from the Other
R.J. Ellory’s City of Lies

From audible (they had a $4.95 sale on 125 books! And I’d already been bad…)
Huston’s No Dominion
Kim Harrison’s A Fistful of Charms
Magicians Guild by Trudi Canavan
The Blight Way by McManus
James Lee Burke’s A Morning for Flamingoes
Lescroat - The Hearing
Stephen White - DeadTime
David Rosenfelt’s Play Dead – this guy has a whacked sense of humor. No one gives

And from the local used book store:
An anthology of paranormal mysteries by Liu, Harris, Butcher, Caine, Armstrong, et al
Some PN Elrod mysteries
Nancy Pickard mysteries

See what I mean? Now I have to watch my pennies. The only other books I plan to purchase immediately are Charlaine Harris’ A Touch of Dead, Diana Gabaldon’s Echo in the Bone, C.L. Wilson's Queen of Song and Souls, Keri Arthur’s latest Riley Jensen. I swear I won’t spend another dime on books for two months. Honest. (Holding my crossed fingers out of sight just in case.)

If you think I’ve revamped my home library with those purchases, um, you’d be wrong. I have a LOT of books but they were concentrated in romantic suspense/thriller/mystery before. (Oh, forgot, I ordered the dvds of Dresden Files, Supernatural, and Harry Potter as well.)

Who have you read lately who has inspired you to do something different in your writing?

Update: Well, I accidentally pulled the post off editing it but there was one comment from Leah who said:

CL's got a new one out? Oooh, I didn't know that! Thanks, Marley.

There's one fairly major item you did miss in your list.

A publishable novel needs to be written. You can only spend so much time on plotting before you have to actually put words on paper. Can't fix an empty page as La Nora says. Can't submit blank pages to an agent or editor.

Write!

To which should have replied. UH-OH, you are sooo right!