I reached a point today where I thought I might die if I worked on my NaNo novel for another second. So in looking for a diversion, I found a list of 52 books on my phone.
See, a while ago, I was complaining on my Facebook page about how I hate those lists of “100 great books everyone should read before they die,” because 60% of the books on those lists I’ve either read and didn’t like or have zero desire to read. Maybe that makes me uncultured. I don’t know. I just know that I would be perfectly happy never to touch another John Steinbeck book in my life.
Anyway, several of my followers asked what books I would put on such a list. I was going to make a 50-book list, but I couldn’t decide which two to cut off of it, so it’s 52 books. Also, super heavy on MG and YA. That’s what I do. I understand that’s not for everyone, because honestly, there is no book on earth that everyone absolutely has to read (another obnoxious thing about those stupid lists), which is why this list is titled . . .
EMILY’S 52 BOOKS THAT SHE REALLY ENJOYED AND WOULD RECOMMEND TO THE WORLD.
(Out of curiosity, how many have you read? Any on here that you also loved? Any that you hated?)
(Also, I was too lazy to organize this in any way past Wunderlist’s automatic alphabetizer. I’ll repost this list on a separate page of my blog, organized by book type, on another day when I’m not totally Nano-fried.)
❏ A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens)
❏ A Corner of White (Jaclyn Moriarty)
❏ A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
❏ A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L’Engle)
❏ Al Capone Does My Shirts (Gennifer Choldenko)
❏ All Creatures Great and Small (James Herriot)
❏ Anne of Green Gables (LM Montgomery)
❏ As You Wish (Cary Elwes)
❏ Because of Mr Terupt (Rob Buyea)
❏ Boys in the boat (Daniel James Brown)
❏ Chronicles of Narnia (CS Lewis)
❏ Cry, the Beloved Country (Alan Paton)
❏ Ender’s Game (Orson Scott Card)
❏ Ender’s Shadow (Orson Scott Card)
❏ Enna Burning (Shannon Hale)
❏ Flygirl (Sherri L. Smith)
❏ Gathering Blue (Lois Lowry)
❏ Hamlet (Shakespeare)
❏ Harry Potter (JK Rowling)
❏ Inside Out and Back Again (Thanhha Lai)
❏ Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë)
❏ Jinx (Sage Blackwood)
❏ Killer Angels (Michael Shaara)
❏ Les Miserables (Victor Hugo) [so worth the time commitment]
❏ Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
❏ Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien)
❏ Maniac Magee (Jerry Spinelli)
❏ Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare)
❏ My Lucky Life In and Out of Show Business (Dick Van Dyke)
❏ Number the Stars (Lois Lowry)
❏ Out Of My Mind (Sharon M. Draper)
❏ Penny from Heaven (Jennifer L. Holm)
❏ Princess Academy (Shannon Hale)
❏ Redwall (Brian Jacques)
❏ Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
❏ The Blue Sword (Robin McKinley)
❏ The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
❏ The False Prince (Jennifer Nielsen)
❏ The Giver (Lois Lowry)
❏ The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman)
❏ The Penderwicks (Jeanne Birdsall)
❏ The Phantom Tollbooth (Norton Juster)
❏ The Silent Boy (Lois Lowry)
❏ The Spark (Kristine Barnett)
❏ The Witch of Blackbird Pond (Elizabeth George Speare)
❏ To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
❏ Tuesdays at the Castle (Jessica Day George)
❏ Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy (Kate Hattemer)
❏ Wednesday Wars (Gary D. Schmidt)
❏ Where the Red Fern Grows (Wilson Rawls)
❏ Wonder (RJ Palacio)
❏ Zita the spacegirl (Ben Hatke)
BumblesBooks 
Of your list, there’s been several I’ve started but have yet to finish or would like to one day read and haven’t gotten around to yet. Of those on your list, the following are the one’s I’ve read (mostly for school):
Chronicles of Narnia (CS Lewis)
Cry, the Beloved Country (Alan Paton)
Hamlet (Shakespeare)
Harry Potter (JK Rowling)
Lord of the Rings (JRR Tolkien)
Redwall (Brian Jacques)
The Giver (Lois Lowry)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
Where the Red Fern Grows (Wilson Rawls)
Love all of those! Well, obviously, they’re on my list. But those are some of my favorite favorites 🙂