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This is my bookshelf.
Here is a snippet of what’s on it, ten at a time.
In Our Time (1925) by Ernest Hemingway
The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories (1961) by Ernest Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea (1952) by Ernest Hemingway
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1934) by James Hilton
The Kite Runner (2003) by Khaled Hosseini
A Modern Instance (1882) by William Dean Howells
The Rise of Silas Lapham (1885) by Willian Dean Howells
Les Miserables (1862) by Victor Hugo
Brave New World (1932) by Aldous Huxley
The Lottery and Other Stories (1949) by Shirley Jackson
Have you read any of these? And did you enjoy them?
The Bookshelf of Emily J. 
Reblogged this on Beechdey’s Weblog.
Thanks!
great
🙂
Love all the Hemingway! The Kite Runner literally made me faint. I read the particularly disturbing part while I was doing that 3-hour glucose fasting thing at the OB/GYN during my first pregnancy. Bam! So that book is a little tainted for me ;).
Oh no! That is not a good part to read under those circumstances.
Emily, so many good choices. One that caught my eye is “Brave New World.” When we read that in English in the 9th grade, I remember feeling very adult-like. I think we read “1984” and “Animal Farm” that year, as well. It was a coming of age. Thanks for the nice memory. BTG
Those books are definitely a rite of passage. Glad to hear that you have good memories of them!
Nice books! I’ve read Old Man and the Sea (I actually named my son after the old man :-P), Les Mis, Brave New World, and maybe The Lottery. I say ‘maybe’ because I read a short story with that title back in high school but I don’t know if it’s the same one.
Yes, “The Lottery” is the same short story. You’ve definitely read it. And that’s cool that you named your son after a literary character. Love it!
nice collection.
Thanks!
I’ve read most of them, but I haven’t read any William Dean Howells yet. And I tried reading Les Miserables years ago but put it down. Haven’t tried again, although The Hunchback of Notre Dame is in my stack.
I have to be honest that I had a hard time with Les Mis too. I powered through it eventually, but I prefer the play, with full acknowledgement that the greatness of the play definitely reflects on Hugo’s genius. You need to read some Howells. Great stuff!
I got offended right at the beginning when the man stole the candlesticks from the nice priest, at least that’s what I remember. It was a long time ago.
Ouch! I can only claim to have read two of the ones in this list, although I’ve heard of several of them. Good books!
The two I have red are Les Miserables and The Old Man and the Sea. Loved them both! 🙂
Those are probably the “best” two, although I can never just name one favorite book!
I enjoyed The Old Man and The Sea immensely, found Kite Runner vastly overrated, Les Miserables is well worth the effort, Brave New World is on par with 1984 (in my opinion), and Shirley Jackson is rather . . . disturbing.
Again, you have described these perfectly. We should collaborate on a Twitter feed or tumbler site where I post pictures of books and you give them succinct reviews. 😉
I love this post! It is such a wonderful idea!
It has been fun! Thanks for reading. 🙂
Reblogged this on etaloni.
Thank you!
A lovely selection of book recommendations there! I’m currently tacking ‘The Kite Runner’ and am a huge fan of ‘Les Miserables’ (I must confess to watching the musical and film before reading the book, a big no no in my eyes!) Another confession- I’m not with the hype on ‘The Kite Runner’. It’s good, but not what I expected. If I were to describe it in one word it would have to be overrated. Probably just me! I’ve just done a blog post on my top five current (easy)reads. If you’re interested hop on over! I’ve just revamped it (deleted my previous one as it was far to cluttered) and was wondering whether you could give it some love! If not, no worries! However, I did explain my latest idea at the bottom of my last post – a sort of book club! I’d be interested to “collaborate” with you on it! You seem like the perfect person to share some literary passions with. Give it a thought!
Charlotte 🙂
Thank you, Charlotte. I will check out your idea! Sounds like fun.
I really need a bookshelp like yours…
I hope you find one!
Oh my i love Khaleed Hosseini’s Kite Runner. It’s my favourite.
I like it too!
You are sooo lucky. I live in a small Manhattan studio and sometimes I feel like my books are taking over the apartment. Yeah! for you that you have such a nice space for your books! Yeah!
I am lucky! I hope you get to keep at least some books in your apartment. Books make a “house” feel like a home!
I couldn’t agree with you me. I love books as well. I have some in my Murphy UnitLOL, a few on the tv stand and the restSoLOL crammed into a small closet. Have a great day!!!
I agree!
Thank you very much for sharing!
🙂
Lovely… My book-shelve now belongs to my daughter..
How fun to share that with her.
Ah, Shirley Jackson. Lovely choice!
🙂 She wrote good stuff.
If someone made me choose, Shirley Jackson would probably be my favorite author. Her writing is so clean yet descriptive while always making you think. Her short stories are gold. Her novels are fantastic as well. Very rarely do I want to turn around and start a book again as soon as I’ve finished it, but that was the case with We Have Always Lived In The Castle. And The Haunting Of Hill House, absolute classic.
I loved those two novels of hers as well. Haunting and so well written!
The only one of these I’ve read is “The Kite Runner” – before I’d ever heard of it; it was a gift – and I hated it. I really think it’s an awful, unnecessary book. Usually I have good words for books, really; but they all affect me so much that I feel like ones such as this should not have been written, and confuse me with their popularity. Do people recommend it because they feel like they should like it; that because it talks about Afghanistan, we whose countries have intervened there should read it and make ourselves feel those things? Like it’s a sort of penance, or a way to believe that we’ve done something to understand their experience? Do people recommend it because it makes them sound noble, intellectual, or on trend?
I don’t know why they recommend it. Probably because they liked it, and maybe the theme of redemption is appealing.