In the Mood for a Good Book

If you have a lengthier bit of time and enjoy satirical Victorian novels: The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope. (there is also a pretty excellent screen adaption currently on Netflix)

If you have a philosophical bent and you love to laugh (also, if you have ever mistakenly used the expression "dumb as a dodo"): Quick as a Dodo by Ralph McInerny

If you don't understand yet that sometimes children's books make the best adult books: Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

If this line makes your spine quiver: "What he loved in horses was what he loved in men, the blood and the heat of the blood that ran in them. All his reverence and all his fondness and all the leanings of his life were for the ardenthearted and they would always be so and never otherwise.": All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

If you are a human being: The Divine Comedy by Dante

If murder with a heavy dose of philosophy and untranslated French expressions appeals to you (and if you have the time for 700 pages that you can't put down): The Brothers Karamozov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

If you want to understand my love affair with the South: I'll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition, a collection of essays by 12 southerners.
 
If you want to read the only Science fiction book that's kept me reading past the first chapter: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein

If you have a morbid sense of humor and you like movies like "Death at a Funeral":  The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh

If you are fascinated by the tension and misery that often accompanies conversion, and the redemptive quality of suffering: The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

If stream of consciousness is a style you can get behind (and you enjoy a glass of bourbon with your novel) : The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

If your idea of a soulmate is someone with whom you can sit and share a peanut butter sandwich: The Last Gentlemen by Walker Percy

If you haven't yet read any Undset (and of course you've realized you need to rectify this lack immediately), but don't have time for Kristen Lavrannsdatter or The Master of Hestviken: Gunnar's Daughter by Sigrid Undset

If you don't live under a rock: The Odyssey trans. Robert Fagles

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