Favorite books

We were talking at work about a Harris poll taken to determine America's favorite books. The results are here
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=892
I am not sure if everyone polled actually picked 'favorite' books or books they thought should be good, or thought would sound good, or merely the only books they had read.
I have read everything on the list except Atlas, Shrugged (wasn't sure what it was even about) and Catcher in the Rye (I know!) but we decided to make our own lists. I already have a couple of lists on the side of this blog with favorite books and favorite series so I decided to make sure that this list was made up of real favorites. I only included books that I have read more than twice and most of them many more time than that. I have not really put them in any order, they can be switched around a bit but here they are with some explanations.

10. Good Morning, Miss Dove by Frances Gray Patton: A slow and sweet story about the impact one schoolteacher makes on her students and her small town.

9. Love Comes Softly by Janette Oke: This is the first book in a Christian fiction series about a young woman who goes west and finds faith and love. I have reread it a few times and enjoy Marty's journey and the snippets of life on a farm long ago.

8. The Children of Green Knowe by L. M. Boston: Also the first book in a series, this is a childrens book I remembered from when I was a child, lost it, then found it again when I was an adult and working as a page in a library. It is about a little boy who goes to live with his great grandmother and encounters some ghosts. I love the magical feeling it gives me when I read it.

7. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett: A children's classic that I have read over and over again, it is another book that I find to be magical. A little orphan girl is sent to live with her uncle and brings a garden, her cousin and herself to life.

6. Picture Miss Seeton by Heron Carvic: The first of five books about Miss Seeton by Carvic, this series was continued by other authors under other alias' but none of the continuations are any good, stick with the original five. This one introduces Miss Seeton an elderly drawing teacher who finds herself in the middle of a police investigation. Miss Seeton goes about her life in what she thinks is an orderly and ordinary way while in the mean time chaos rules around her. I laugh out loud every time I read it.

5. Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters: The first of the Amelia Peabody series this introduces Amelia as a forthright spinster who finds fulfillment in Egypt. It is a gently humorous series and the relationship of Amelia and Emerson as well as their son Ramses is the best part of the series.

4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling: For this series I decided not to pick the first book but rather my favorite one of the series. In this one Harry finds himself a participant in a dangerous tournament and face to face with you know who while dealing with his first crush.

3. Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers: One of the Lord Peter Wimsey books this one has Harriet Vane returning to Oxford for a reunion and staying to help solve a series of anonymous notes, vandalism and attempted murders, while coming to terms with her past and her relationship with Lord Peter.

2. Mrs. McGintys Dead by Agatha Christie: This is the book that when I am walking around the house wanting to read something, but nothing is coming to mind that I actually want to read, I end up reading. I am not really sure why, it is a Hercule Poirot story of him trying to save an nondescript man on death row for murder. Poirot lodges in a house guaranteed to drive him to distraction and Mrs. Oliver makes an appearance but why this one wins out over other books I'm not sure. All I know is that I have reread it with pleasure many, many times.

1. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien: This is the winner by the shear number of times I have reread it. Since I first read it in the late 1960s I have reread it almost every year since. I am treating this as one book as I believe that is how he wrote it and how I read it. I enjoy sinking in to the fully formed world Tolkien created and joining Frodo and the others on their quest.

So that's it. The books I have enjoyed many times and hope to enjoy many more times. I hope you try some of them to see if they can bring you as much pleasure as they have brought me.