I use Shelfari mainly as a virtual catalog for books, to share like interests, and occasionally to support controversial political conversation.
Like many social experiments, the medium is evolving. Let's all hope we keep our humanity and tolerance in the process, and that our community stays relevant and a good place to learn about good books and challenging ideas.
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A few users know my personal details. That's fine. Please be respectful. I can't possibly remember everything I've written, and if I haven't had my coffee yet, slow down. I'll do the same. And for those of you who now offer me grilled cheese in public places, thanks. You inspire me, too.
Below is a biased list of good books for young readers:
Great Young Children's Picture Books:
"Miss Suzy"
"The Little Engine That Could"
"The Velveteen Rabbit"
"Imaginary Gardens"
"Weslandia"
"The Giving Tree"
"Little Daylight"
"Oh, The Places You'll Go"
"Stone Soup"
"Lafcadio"
"The Favershams"
"The Snowy Day"
"Little Bear and the Beautiful Kite"
"The Tale of Peter Rabbit"
"Tuesday"
"Tea With Milk"
"The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane"
Great Young Children's Early Reading Books:
"Voyage of the Dawn Treader"
"Wind in the Willows"
"Half Magic"
"The BFG"
"Charlotte's Web"
"A Cricket In Times Square"
"Matilda"
"The Horse & His Boy"
"The Magician's Nephiew"
"Bed-Knob & Broomstick"
"Just So Stories"
Great Middle School Children's Chapter Novels:
"Tom's Midnight Garden"
"From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler"
"The Dark Is Rising"
"The House With A Clock In Its Walls"
"A Door In The Wall"
"National Velvet"
"The Princess Bride"
"Ann of Green Gables"
"Behind The Attic Wall"
"The Giver"
...And so I've heard:
"The Tale of Despereaux"
"Olive's Ocean"
"Al Capone Does My Shirts"
"Wringer"
"What Jamie Saw"
"Because of Winn-Dixie"
"The Lightning Thief"
Great Young Adult Novels:
"The Secret Life of Bees"
"To Kill A Mockingbird"
"Hatchet"
"My Side of the Mountain"
"Wild Roses"
"Number the Stars"
"The Subtle Knife"
"The Amulet of Samarkand"
"Twilight"
"A Great & Terrible Beauty"
"A Light in the Forest"
"Jacob Have I Loved"
...And so I've heard:
"Of Mice and Men"
"The Catcher in the Rye"
"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time"
"The Life of Pi"
Recommended Rainy Day Books for Adults:
"The Diary of Eve" by Mark Twain
"Me Write Book" by Graham Roumieu
"The Gashlycrumb Tinies" by Edward Gorey
"The Blue Day Book" by Trevor Greive
"The Missing Piece Meets The Big O" by Shel Silverstein
"Love Creeps" by Amanda Filipacchi
"Vapor" by Amanda Filipacchi
"Dead Before Dark" by Charline harris
Recommended Classics:
"Pride & Prejudice"
"Common Sense"
"The Good Earth"
"Candide"
"Great Expectations"
"Hamlet"
"Anthem"
"Brave New World"
"A Modest Proposal"
"The Flame Trees of Thika"
"The Screwtape Letters"
"All Creatures Great & Small"
"Leaves of Grass"
"Walden"
"Pickwick Papers"
"Lolita"
Recommended Modern Novels:
"Love Creeps"
"The Joy Luck Club"
"High Fidelity"
"Dead Until Dark"
"White Oleander"
"Hearts in Atlantis"
"Bag of Bones"
"Oryx and Crake"
"American Gods"
"Fragile Things"
"Beggars and Choosers"
"The Lost Days of Agatha Christie"
"Little, Big"
"Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil"
"Snow Crash"
"Life, The Universe and Everything"
"Cryptonomicon"
"Smoke & Mirrors"
"Haroun and the Sea of Stories"
"The Diamond Age"
Respected Authors:
C.S. Lewis for helping children to read things worth reading, and later for giving them backup while never coming off as friendly fire.
Agatha Christie for her remarkable, bittersweet life, and her piercing psychology.
Arthur Conan Doyle for giving us that pompous, oddly respectable monster of an archetype.
Shakespeare, for secretly being the sum of all human instruction booklets stuffed in a plastic bag under an escaped shopping cart rattling in a circle somewhere out behind a boarded up Super K...
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