Delusions of... Everything

15 in 15

Meg over at Becoming a Non Smoker did this really cool list and since I'm a huge book freak I decided to try it too. Feel free to try it out yourselves, I'm always curious to see what books leave an impression on others.

Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.

Here is my list in no particular order:

Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
Snow Falling On Cedars - David Guterson
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling
The Thirteenth Tale - Diane Setterfield
Chocolat - Joanne Harris
Like Water For Chocolate - Laura Esquivel
The Milagro Beanfield War - John Nichols
The World According to Garp - John Irving
The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
The House of the Spirits - Isabel Allende
Eva Luna - Isabel Allende
The Bean Trees - Barbara Kingsolver
The Hour I First Believed - Wally Lamb
The Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean Auel  (I'm cheating here in that I can't read this book without reading the whole Earth's Children Series.  I'm so taken with Ayla the main character that I just have to keep reading all about her adventures.  So technically The Clan of the Cave Bear includes five books, but I'm just counting it as one here.)

Thank You George W. Bush

No, this is not one of those Bush bashing posts.  I am truly grateful to him.  He did something for my husband that I have not been able to do in over 26 years of marriage.  Handy Man has read three books since November and has started a fourth.  During our whole marriage I would guess the number of books he's read cover to cover could be counted on one hand, so this is huge.  How does someone go from not being a reader at all to reading three books in a couple months?  Passion about the subject matter!

He was so upset over the policies and practices of President Bush and his administration that he started researching political history and history in general.  At first his research started on the Internet and through news and radio programs.  From there he heard about authors who wrote on subjects he was interested in such as our founding fathers and the writings of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.  He became fascinated about the way conservatives and progressives think and why they think so differently.  He made a list of all the books he was interested in reading.  He received the majority of them for Christmas. 

Can you see him reading in the bottom left corner?  That's all he ever does anymore and I LOVE it.  Well it's not really all he ever does, but it warms my heart every time I see him with his nose in a book.

Here are the books he has read so far:

Right now he's reading this one:

He reads aloud to me, passages that move him.  We have discussions about what he's reading.  Having us read side by side and share things from the book that interest us has always been a dream of mine, so thanks W for making one of my dreams come true.