100 Books List

[osprey_archer]

All the cool kids (skygiants, troisoiseaux, qian...) are posting hundred book lists, so I thought I'd do one too. Here it is! See how many you've read!

Comments

[qian]

22. I can't believe I left Daddy Long Legs out of mine! Though I might like Dear Enemy even better. Despite the eugenics ...

[coffeeandink]

Same!

[osprey_archer]

Daddy Long Legs was my intro to Jean Webster and also to early 20th century Girls in College books (a once-thriving genre!) so I had to pick it, but Dear Enemy is also fun!

[philomytha]

24, apparently! A nice selection! Loved seeing a Brambly Hedge book there *_*

[osprey_archer]

Brambly Hedge is one of my beloved favorites. I love when she does cross-sections of the mouse houses and also the pictures of the storerooms with sooooo much stuff in them - they're just so satisfying.

[coffeeandink]

31, but also some interesting things to add to my tbr.

[osprey_archer]

Which ones are you planning to put on your TBR?

[troisoiseaux]

I got 27, and several times yelled out loud because I canNOT BELIEVE I forgot, say, Matilda on my list.

[osprey_archer]

To be fair I'd looked through at least four people's lists before I did this, which definitely reminded me of some books I would have forgotten otherwise.

[sartorias]

Got 44, discounting the ones I tried a couple pages of and bailed.

[osprey_archer]

I hope you saw Crown Duel on there! I read it at an impressionable age, and to this day it has left me mildly to moderately obsessed with fans and fan language.

[cyphomandra]

37! I love The Fledgling so much, it’s so good. But I have been dithering over this for my own list and if I had to pick just one Jane Langton I would probably go for Paper Chains (or Fragile Flag? Hmm not sure this would work for reread right now). Also yay for The Mysteries of Harris Burdick!

[osprey_archer]

I've never read Paper Chains! Haven't really explored Jane Langton's oeuvre beyond the Hall Family Chronicles tbh. What's Paper Chains about?

I do also love Fragile Flag, but I just read it later than The Fledgling so it didn't have quite the same impact on me.

[landingtree]

12! Lowest commonality yet with these, but some would definitely also be on my list - The Boggart is one of those books that's perfectly preserved from childhood in the strata of my brain. (An audiobook of it made me learn 'Fear no more the heat of the sun.')

[osprey_archer]

I reread The Boggart last year and I was astonished just how much I remembered. Clearly one of those books that has simply buried itself in my brain.

[littlerhymes]

36!

[osprey_archer]

TBH I may have gone a little too far on the obscure books with this one... I had read some other people's lists already and I didn't want to overlap too much but maybe putting William Heyliger was going a bridge too far.

[lucymonster]

Omg I only got nine. 😳 Though a much larger number of “oh I’ve read other things by that author, just not that one” and “oh hey that’s sitting on my shelf and I’ve just never gotten around to it”!

[osprey_archer]

Lolol the number of overlaps with my list, perhaps because I'd already read some other people's lists before I made mine and didn't want to feel like I was copying? But this has resulted in some real deep cuts, like The Little Colonel's House Party and the Sara Jeannette Duncan.

But hey, maybe this is a nice reminder about those books that are sitting on your shelf!

[regshoe]

Twelve books, plus a couple of 'I've read at least one of the series/something else in the same series, but not the whole thing/that one'. A lot of old children's books which I don't recognise but which have nice covers :D

[osprey_archer]

The list thing gives you a choice which cover to use if people have uploaded multiple covers and I definitely went with the prettiest ones. (Expect in a few cases where the prettiest one was not the cover I read, which is of course the CORRECT cover, in which case I chose that one.)

[thisbluespirit]

22/100, and I thought with the US/UK divide it might be less than that. But then it insulted me by telling me I didn't beat the average score of 23! One more book in common, one more! XD

(Tbf, I MIGHT have read the Judith Flanders, but I wasn't sure if it was a slightly different book or a US rebrand of the title and I thought probably a slightly different book, because I have a feeling I've come across it before and wondered the same thing.)

[osprey_archer]

It's maddening when they change titles between the US and UK, because it makes it so hard to tell if you've read the same book, especially for someone like Judith Flanders who has written a number of books about the Victorian era. Are these the SAME book about the Victorian era? Who can say!

An Australian friend and I exchange book recs, and it's stunning how many books haven't crossed the Pacific either way. Even worse than the US/UK divide! But usually if a book from the UK reached the US it reached Australia too, it seems.

[black_bentley]

Only 14 /o\ including one (Matilda) which I'm fairly sure I've read but I'm not 100% certain...

[osprey_archer]

I guess there is no choice but to (re)read Matilda so you can make absolutely sure.

[nnozomi]

About one in three? Lots of old favorites, though. Bread and Jam for Frances <3
oh, and the Stephanie Wellen Levine book about Hasidic girls is one of my all-time favorites! Reads like a novel.

[osprey_archer]

YES I'm so glad someone else has read the book about Hasidic girls! It's just so good.

[landofnowhere]

33/100! Though on second thought I'm not actually sure I read Rechenka's Eggs -- I had it confused with Chicken Sunday, which I remember vividly, and did not realize Polacco had two different books about pysanky!

[osprey_archer]

Polacco has written SO many books, it's hard to keep track. Sometimes I think I should go back and read more (or possibly reread, because I don't really remember which I've read) and of course buy my favorites for my little niece... but there are so many it's just a touch intimidating.

[asakiyume]

Where's the question that prompts the list? You, Skygiants, and Qian all have personal intros to your list, but was the question "What are 100 books that influenced you?" Qian's intro says "maybe not all dating from my childhood," which makes me think the question had something about childhood in it? But I'm guessing you're free to shift the question pretty freely?

(Oh, and I share 18 with you, incl. some all-time favorites of mine--The Changeling, The Moorchild, Bread and Jam for Francis (probably others as well, but those jumped out at me)

[osprey_archer]

To be honest I'm not 100% sure which 100 books we're supposed to be listing. 100 favorites? 100 most influential on my life? One books I love from childhood? 100 books of some kind, I guess!

The Changeling of course had to come first. I was trying to do just one book from each author or there probably would have been a lot more ZKS on there - The Egypt Game, The Headless Cupid, Libby on Wednesday. And The Moorchild is a perennial favorite even though I've been pretty lukewarm on every single other Eloise Jarvis McGraw book I've read.

It was hard picking just one Frances book, but Bread and Jam for Frances IS a perennial classic. Really looking forward to sharing it with my niece.

[genarti]

I can't believe I didn't think of The Domestic Revolution! It absolutely should've been on my list. I almost put on The Boxcar Children, too, and maybe should have.

The picture of The Egg Tree's cover filled me with instant nostalgia, too.

Anyway, only 30, overall; not bad, but clearly I need to take reading list notes here!

[osprey_archer]

Thank you for reccing The Domestic Revolution to me in that Boston book shop! I might have got around to it eventually because I've enjoyed Goodman's other books, but I also might not have because (1) coal is boring and (2) no living history aspect??? And how wrong I would have been.

[skygiants]

35! NOT counting 'all of the American Girls books' because in honesty I cannot say I've read ALL of them. I think you've recced me most of these Cold War books in the past and I have not read them yet and I must

[osprey_archer]

To be fair I also have not read ALL the American Girls books at this point, because there is apparently now a 1920s girl (??? when did this happen) and a 90s girl (actually 90s TWINS!) which I did know about because all of my friends have been bemoaning the fact that this means we are officially Old.

[lirazel]

The Borrowers! And Number the Stars! I knew there were some kids ones I forgot!

I got exactly 33!

[osprey_archer]

I waffled between Number the Stars and The Giver, but finally went with Number the Stars because it was the first Lois Lowry book that I read and also the first Holocaust novel I read, and kicked me off on a spate of reading every children's Holocaust novel I could find.

[lokifan]

Only 14!

I've seen Matilda on several lists, which makes sense :D and aww, Protector of the Small! My favourite Tortall quartet.

Ah, Daddy Long-Legs :D And delightful to see Melusine with its ridiculous cover.

[osprey_archer]

Matilda is a book MADE for book kids. And Melusine's cover does a fantastic job showing exactly what to expect within!