My Fifty Favorite Books

My Fifty Favorite Books (In No Particular Order):

I am always discovering new favorite books, so I will continue to update this list as necessary. I would love to hear your thoughts on any of my choices, so please leave your comments in the section below. Also, if you have any questions about why I love any of these specific books, feel free to ask.

“There's nothing wrong with reading a book you love over and over. When you do, the words get inside you, become a part of you, in a way that words in a book you've read only once can't.”
-Gail Carson Levine

“We read to know that we are not alone.” 
-William Nicholson

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.” 
-J.D. Salinger


1. The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

2. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery

3. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

4. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

5. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostyevsky

6. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

7. Letters To A Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

8. Gift From The Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

9. The Sound Of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasquez

10. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safron Foer

11. The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger

12. Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert

13. The Plague by Albert Camus

14. What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question by Po Bronson

15. Everything Matters! by Ron Currie Jr.

16. We Live In Water by Jess Walter

17. Wind, Sand, and Stars by Antoine de Saint Exupery

18. A Separate Peace by John Knowles

19. The Chosen by Chaim Potok

20. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

21. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

22. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyesvky

23. Vow: A Memoir of Marriage (And Other Affairs) by Wendy Plump

24. He's Gone: A Novel by Deb Caletti

25. The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

26. Living, Loving, and Learning by Leo Buscaglia

27. The Awakening by Kate Chopin

28. The Tale of the Rose: The Love Story Behind The Little Prince by Consuelo de Saint Exupery

29. The Giver by Lois Lowry

30. We've Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy--And the World's Getting Worse by James Hillman and Michael Ventura

31. Beautiful Ruins: A Novel by Jess Walter

32. The Holy Bible

33. Girls Night In by Meg Cabot, Jen Weiner, Sophie Kinsella & More

34. Night Flight by Antoine de Saint Exupery

35. Love The One You're With by Emily Giffin

36. The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Rubin Gretchen

37. Bridge To Terabithia by Katherine Patterson

38. The Dilemma by Penny Vincenzi

39. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

40. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

41. The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking by Oliver Burkeman

42. Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman

43. A Year with Rilke: Daily Readings from the Best of Rainer Maria Rilke by Anita Barrows and Johanna Macy

44. Lives on the Boundary: A Moving Account of the Struggles and Achievements of America's Educationally Underprepared by Mike Rose

45. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

46. Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer

47. Joy and Strength by Mary Wilder Tileston

48. The House of Spirits: A Novel by Isabel Allende and Magda Bogin

49. Heroes, Gods, and Monsters of The Greek Myths by Bernard Evslin

50. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte