“The greatest gift is the passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experiences of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination.” — Moses Hadas
A Tree — and Just a Few of my Many Favorite Books
Simply a tree that grows in the front yard of my son, Lewis, who lives on the Texas Gulf Coast.
The Farseer Trilogies by Robin Hobb
Erroneous Zones by Wayne Dyer
Road Fever by Tim Cahill
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Through Wolf’s Eyes by Jane Lindskold
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Arrows of the Queen and all the rest of the Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey
The Deep Blue Good-Bye and the 20 other Travis McGee novels by John D. MacDonald
Anything by Agatha Christie
And Les Miserables by Victor Hugo.
Now, please share some of your favorite books.
Pat Bean's blog 
All-time favorite book is “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. When I was a teen, I read that one and “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” over and over again. I still pull them out every few years and read them. Mockingbird is new every time.
This past year I read a bunch of books by Rick Bragg and loved his style. A Southern writer, that man can put words together – here’s a sample from “The Prince of Frogtown”: But the odd thing was, no matter how much he meant to her, he never quite believed it. It is not a condition unique to him, I now understand. He lived in a common insecurity some men have about women, born of the simple fact that they can never quite figure out what women think — which, in his defense, is a little like trying to map the cosmos on the back of a Juicy Fruit wrapper with a toy telescope and a piece of chalk.”
Taylor Caldwell – most of her books
Diane Ackerman – The Zookeeper’s Wife, A Natural History of the Senses
Alexandra Fuller – Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness (just finished this one)
I agree with John D. MacDonald but also check out “Nothing Can Go Wrong” and “The Girl, the Gold Watch and Everything”
Jane Austen – all of them
Thomas Cahill’s HInges of History series of books
Beach Conger – Bag Balm & Duct Tape, It’s Probably Nothing
Andrea Camilieri – Inspector Salvotore Montalbono series
Archer Mayor – Joe Gunther series
Elizabeth George – Lord Lynley series
Edith Wharton -all
Alice Hoffman – most
Michael Dibden – Aurelio Zen mysteries
Pat Conroy – everything especially his earlier books
Gerald Durrell – My Family and Other Animals
Roland Merullo – Breakfast with Buddha, Golfing with God, American Savior
Ruth Reichl – Comfort Me with Apples
Annia Ciezdalo – Day of Honey
Tahir Shah – The Caliph’s House
Anita Shreve – anything
And that’s only going back a couple of years in my “Books” journal. I think I was born with my nose in a book. No wonder my mother and I butted heads – that must have been a difficult delivery! 🙂
I, too, love Rick Bragg and Pat Conroy, and like you Conroy’s earlier books best.
Beautiful image of simply a tree. As for favorite books, that’s a tough one as there are so many…
Anything by Barbara Kingsolver
The Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley)
The House of the Spirits (Isabel Allende)
The Dune Chronicles (Frank Herbert)
The Lord of the Rings trilogy + The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)
The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett)
Anything by Margaret Atwood
The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman)
Pretty much anything by Bill Bryson
The Art of Travel (Alain De Botton)
And on and on and on. 🙂
I’e read almost everything on your list and most of them could also be on my list especially Mists of Avalon, Bill Bryson’s Books and Barbara Kingsolver books.