The Next Best Book Club discussion

I mostly read on my kindle but there are times when I feel guilty if I don't buy physical books so I set to buy one or two at a time. So far, the books I am glad I own are:

The Help
The Book Thief
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Fault in Our Stars
The Perks of Being a Wallflower

What are yours? I would very much like to know! Thank you.

I'm the opposite, I only buy books but I guess I can relate by saying 'what books are worth buying in hardback'. My home library tells the tale of my favourites when I have hardback versions - Harry Potter has been read so many times I'd have killed a paperback! Although now here in Australia designer covers with hardback but embroidered cloth over them are coming out, really expensive but the Austen, Bronte, Dickens, Secret Garden, Wizard of Oz among loads are beautiful, also Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings, basically more than I csn afford but if I win lotto!

N wrote: "I'm the opposite, I only buy books but I guess I can relate by saying 'what books are worth buying in hardback'. My home library tells the tale of my favourites when I have hardback versions - Harr..."

Actually, what I read most on my kindle are usually books that are just for enjoyment and although fun, aren't worth the money. Books that are way too brilliant to be read on kindle, I buy them as printed books. I am looking to buy more books like that and so, I need some help to find books that are worth owning. I prefer paper books over kindle anytime but unfortunately, I can't afford much. I would have to win the lotto, like you said hehe!

I always buy my books in the bookstore - just because the actually enjoyment of picking out the book and going home with it is something i really love. However, there are books I could have lived without, and books I want to buy all over again when I see them.

The ones I'm especially glad I have bought is:

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert
all of the Harry Potter books (Just fantastic!) by J.K. Rowling
Reason to Breathe by Rebecca Donovan
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
The Sookie Stackhouse books (all 15 of them) by Charlaine Harris

Books that are worth owning -

Harry Potter
Game of Thrones
Anything by Jane Austen but Emma definitely
Jayne Eyre, Wuthering Heights
Dickens - Christmas Carol definitely also David Copperfield
The Handmaids Tale - Margaret Atwood
Rebecca, Gone With The Wind, The Thorn Birds
A fine Balance, 100 years of Solitude, Les Miserables, Hunger Games, John Green books, The Book Thief, Silverlinings Playbook.....

I love owning books I say keep your eyes open around charity shops for books you may want, I think all of the main ones I was going to mention have been said. But also:
A thousand Splendid Suns
Gone Girl
The Shining Girls
A little Princess (classics are always good to have)

I am a book owner and haven't given in to the callings of the kindle and sincerely hope I don't! I understand the ease and reasoning people have, no qualms with others using it just I personally love the look, feel and smell of a book and so hope I can give you a great suggestion for your collection. A few months ago Waterstones revamped some of the classic penguin books, giving old classics new covers and an eye catching display at the front of the shop. Having read most, Jane Eyre, Oliver Twist and Dracula to name a few I stumbled across:
The Picture Of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde, this was his only novel, as we all know he was a fabulous playwright and upon reading the book am amazed and disappointed he did not write any others. The story is interesting and the idea fresh, it could have been written yesterday! The dark quality to the tale was brightened by the most beautifully writing, the language thoughtful and his ability to paint the scenes incredible. For me it is one of if not the best written book I have come across. This book is a must to read and once you have read you will want to own it! Let me know how it goes, if you decide to go with it.

I like to "test out" books on my Kindle to see if I want physical copies for my personal library. Right now, my list of books to add includes an annotated version of Lolita, The Circle, The Thinking Fan's Guide to Walt Disney World: Magic Kingdom, The Disneyland Story: The Unofficial Guide to the Evolution of Walt Disney's Dream, and Life, Animated.

Of the books I already own, I'm especially grateful to have copies of classics like Wuthering Heights, Les Miserables, and Fahrenheit 451, as those have great sentimental value to me.

I too have taken to reading on my kindle, but there are a few books that I get really excited about and want to "loan" to others so I can share them. My top 5 are:
The catcher in the Rye
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society
The Help
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Namesake

I love lending these books out and hearing about how my friends and family react to them.

Books worth owning:
A Tale of Two Cities
Les Miserables
The Secret Garden
Emily Dickinson's Poems
A Little Princess
Treasure Island

Nadine wrote: "I mostly read on my kindle but there are times when I feel guilty if I don't buy physical books..."

You certainly should feel guilty. Shame on you!

Some of the the books I own (even in a small apartment), reside 'in state' either for their beauty; their sentimental value; or their recurring utility as reference material.

~'Maxims' by duc de la Rochefaucault
~Montaigne's 'Essays' 1-3
~'The Anatomy of Melancholy' by Burton
~Krylov's 'Fables'
~'The Honourable Schoolboy' by LeCarre
~a shelf of slavic non-fiction studies
~'Journey to Ixtlan'
~'The Dialogic Imagination' (Bakhtin)
~a shelf of cinema books; too many to list.
~'The Gormenghast Trilogy'
~selected philosophers from the OUP VSI series
~'Being and Time' - Heidegger
~'Studies in Literature and Chaos Theory'
~a shelf of literary criticism including 'Critical Theory Since Plato' by Hazzard
~a shelf of nature books including 'Desert Solitaire', Nessmuk, etc
~I've lost my copy of 'The Art of Democracy' (a history of entertainment in America) and need to replace it; a constant help in arguments and debates
~a shelf of classic thrillers including 'The Day of the Jackal'
~'The Printing Press as An Agent of Change' by Eisenstein (best book on the middle ages ever)
~'Bleak House'
~'The Stones of Venice' (a history of Gothicism)

I love mysteries so for me,I love to collect the older editions of the Nancy Drew Mysteries, Trixie Belden as well as the old Donna Parker series of books. I keep a list of the Nancy Drew books that I own in my wallet and if I happen to pass a thrift store/yard sale and find some older editions, I can refer to my list to make sure I don't buy duplicates. It's a personal labor of love and somehow these books serve as a reminder of a precious part of my childhood when the skies were the limit as far as fantasies went!

Worthy of a place on the bookshelf (and a good variety):


—Slaughterhouse 5
—Don Quixote
—Blood Meridian
—Ask The Dust (Not very well known, excellent book)
—Pillars of the Earth
—Still Life with Woodpecker
—The Stand

I always go back to the classics like
Pride and prejudice
Jane eyre etc. a set of books I just had to order in print instead of just on my kindle were the river of time series by Lisa tawn bergren. They are definitely keepers I think :)

-Pride and Prejudice
-The Harry Potter series
-Before I go to sleep
-Fangirl

My short list in the primary genres I read. There are a lot of great history books out there whose names escape me, and that I couldn't find in the clutter of my house.

Fantasy/Sci-fi
-Harry Potter Series
-Percy Jackson Series
-Battle of the Fang
-Ender's Game
-The Once and Future King
-Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Historical
-Senso - The Japanese Remember the Pacific War
-Musui's Story: The Autobiography of a Tokugawa Samurai
-Century of the Wind
-In The Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin

I've always worked in bookstores so over the years my book collection has grown rather expansive (my mother also works in a bookstore) however I use the library just as often. But the books I am the happiest owning are an edition of Geek Love that has the knopf three headed dog, JJ Abram's S, Margaret Atwood's 70th Birthday Collection, and several classics like War and Peace and A Hundred Years of Solitude. I also found a pretty neat Sherlock Holmes collection at the bottom of a box of donation books, but that was def. a lucky find. I also saw someone mention the Shining Girls, which is also one of my favorite purchases in the last couple of years...right on!

I just read The commons:book one:Journeyman and it's worth owning loved it read my review at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

My books worth reading are:


Daphne Du Maurier - Jamaica Inn
Jane Austen - Persuasion
Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
Nikita Lalwani - The Village
Mohsin Hamid - The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Lucy Christopher - Stolen
Mitch Alborn - The 5 People You Meet In Heaven
Michael Ondaatje - The English Patient
Kathryn Stockett - The Help
Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale

Many of the books mentioned in the above messages I own. I made it a habit pre Kindle days to buy those books I loved and have kept them all of these years. My "keepers" as I call them reside on a large book case and I love to look at them, open them and read a few pages or even reread the book. Many of these books are ones I read in heigh school close to 40 years ago.

Now I am in Kindle mode which surprised me and many others. I never thought I could give up reading physical books but for the most part I have. Yes, I still frequent the library but buy download new books I want to keep and even old and favorite titles.

I am a bookaholic and proud of it.

Personally I love to use the kindle to buy books, that if I'm really honest, I wouldn't buy when I'm in a book shop or loan from a library. It is perfect for when you're just not sure whether you'll like a book, the style of a new author or when you're running out of room for books and not ready to get rid (I hoard, it's shameful).

In our office of 4 book lovers, all previously professing to disdain the kindle, 3 have been converted.

a beautiful mess
He Never Liked Cake
Shy-Town Girls
The Big Empty

What is it about having a library around you to read in that makes that setting so much more comfortable than anywhere else. I'm always a bit lost when I'm out of town, in hotel or the like and trying to read there. It's just not the same. Even in my own home, even if it's just a newspaper or magazine, reading in a library is tops. So I love all my books, but there are a few I especially hold close

THE LORD OF THE RINGS
THE HOBBIT
everything by Brandon Mull
all of my Terry Brooks
a few by Stephen King
and lets not forget THE NAME OF THE WIND

I have hundreds, if not thousands of books that I own. Many, many book shelves in my living room and bedrooms, and boxes and boxes of books in my attic. For the last few years I have been mostly purchasing books on my Nook with the exceptions of new hardbacks from 9 or 10 authors I've always owned and just have to own the newest. What's a collection without the most recent, right?

Having admitted that, I no longer subscribe to any actual paper magazines. I get all my magazine and newspaper subscriptions on my Nook as well and always feel a little better about the paper I'm saving. I have about 18 years worth of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's, but the last 2 years or so are all paperless. :)(Still can't throw away the old issues though. Baby steps...)

Kandice wrote: "I have hundreds, if not thousands of books that I own. Many, many book shelves in my living room and bedrooms, and boxes and boxes of books in my attic. For the last few years I have been mostly pu..."

This sounds terrific until the dreaded move to downsize. We actually downsized 8 years ago when I had to literally choose my very favorite keepers and to be reads. And as unbelievable as this sounds I had some time getting rid of those books. The library finally took them for their Friends Book Sale. Then almost 3 years ago we upsized to a larger home but at that time I bought a Kindle and except for library books (I still use the library), I read everything on my Kindle and love it.