Books, books, books, and more books!

Thread Games
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  1. The Color of Magic - Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series

  2. Storm Front - Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series

  3. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone - JK Rowlings Harry Potter series

  4. The Book of Three - Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of Prydain series

  5. Into the Storm - Taylor Anderson’s Destroyermen series

  6. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quintet

  7. Elric of Melniboné - Michael Moorcock’s Elric series

  8. The Curse of Chalion - Lois McMaster Bujold’s Chalion series

  9. Lord Foul’s Bane – Stephen R. Donaldson’s Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series

22

I wouldn’t call that a kids’ book.

I’d call that (and his Artillerymen series) SF, not fantasy. And I wouldn’t call it a kids’ book, either.

23

The topic of the first list called for YA books, but the second list did not. The fact that some of the books on it happened to be YA books was simply because they were not specifically excluded, but one list has nothing to do with the other.

The next list might be “Books frequently stolen from bookstores,” “banned books,” or “Books turned into Hitchcock films.”

24

Oops.

Don’t pay any attention to me. I’ll just sit here in a corner and try to figure out where my mind went, and why it left without me…

25

First Books in a Fantasy Series

  1. The Color of Magic - Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series
  2. Storm Front - Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series
  3. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone - JK Rowlings Harry Potter series
  4. The Book of Three - Lloyd Alexander’s The Chronicles of Prydain series
  5. Into the Storm - Taylor Anderson’s Destroyermen series
  6. A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quintet
  7. Elric of Melniboné - Michael Moorcock’s Elric series
  8. The Curse of Chalion - Lois McMaster Bujold’s Chalion series
  9. Lord Foul’s Bane – Stephen R. Donaldson’s Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series
  10. The Summer Tree - Guy Gavriel Kay’s The Fionavar Tapestry series

Next:

Typical High School English Lit Novels

  1. Lost Horizon, James Hilton
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Typical High School English Lit Novels

  1. Lost Horizon, James Hilton
  2. Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy

Or maybe my English teacher was just Hardy-obsessed. But she put me off his novels for life.

27

Typical High School English Lit Novels

  1. Lost Horizon, James Hilton
  2. Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy
  3. A Separate Peace, John Knowles
28

Typical High School English Lit Novels

  1. Lost Horizon, James Hilton
  2. Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy
  3. A Separate Peace, John Knowles
  4. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
29
  1. Lost Horizon, James Hilton
  2. Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy
  3. A Separate Peace, John Knowles
  4. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
  5. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
    I Googled to make sure this was still being taught 40 years after I finished high school, and it sure is. Lots of new books, including recent Pulitzer Prize winners, but this is still there.
30

Typical High School English Lit Novels

  1. Lost Horizon, James Hilton
  2. Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy
  3. A Separate Peace, John Knowles
  4. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
  5. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
  6. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
31

Typical High School English Lit Novels

  1. Lost Horizon, James Hilton
  2. Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy
  3. A Separate Peace, John Knowles
  4. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
  5. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
  6. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
  7. The Stone Angel, Margaret Laurence

(In Canada, eh?)

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  1. Lost Horizon, James Hilton
  2. Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy
  3. A Separate Peace, John Knowles
  4. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
  5. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
  6. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
  7. The Stone Angel, Margaret Laurence
  8. Hamlet, William Shakespeare
    not a novel, but novel-length, read like one, generally, and ubiquitous on high school reading lists-- been Googling, and it seems to be the thing that comes up most often
33

Typical High School English Lit Novels

  1. Lost Horizon, James Hilton
  2. Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy
  3. A Separate Peace, John Knowles
  4. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
  5. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
  6. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
  7. The Stone Angel, Margaret Laurence
  8. Hamlet, William Shakespeare
  9. Brighton Rock, Graham Greene
34

Typical High School English Lit Novels

  1. Lost Horizon, James Hilton
  2. Return of the Native, Thomas Hardy
  3. A Separate Peace, John Knowles
  4. The Old Man And The Sea, Ernest Hemingway
  5. The Scarlet Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne
  6. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
  7. The Stone Angel, Margaret Laurence
  8. Hamlet, William Shakespeare
  9. Brighton Rock, Graham Greene
  10. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

Picture books with amazing artwork

  1. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as illustrated by Anthony Browne
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Picture books with amazing artwork

  1. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as illustrated by Anthony Browne
  2. Dinotopia, written and illustrated by James Gurney

Gurney’s assignments as an illustrator for National Geographic required him to work with archaeologists to envision and paint ancient cities that no one alive today has ever seen. This inspired him to imagine his own Utopia, a civilization where sapient dinosaurs and humans coexist peacefully.

36

Picture books with amazing artwork

  1. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as illustrated by Anthony Browne
  2. Dinotopia, written and illustrated by James Gurney
  3. Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book, written and illustrated by Brian Froud.
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  • Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as illustrated by Anthony Browne
  • Dinotopia, written and illustrated by James Gurney
  • Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book, written and illustrated by Brian Froud.
  • Realms of Fantasy, written / edited by Malcolm Edwards and Robert Holdstock, various illustrators.
38
  • Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as illustrated by Anthony Browne
  • Dinotopia, written and illustrated by James Gurney
  • Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book, written and illustrated by Brian Froud.
  • Realms of Fantasy, written / edited by Malcolm Edwards and Robert Holdstock, various illustrators.
  • The Last Hero: A Discworld Fable, written by Terry Pratchett, illustrated by Paul Kidby.
39

Picture books with amazing artwork

  1. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as illustrated by Anthony Browne
  2. Dinotopia, written and illustrated by James Gurney
  3. Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book, written and illustrated by Brian Froud.
  4. Realms of Fantasy, written / edited by Malcolm Edwards and Robert Holdstock, various illustrators.
  5. The Last Hero: A Discworld Fable, written by Terry Pratchett, illustrated by Paul Kidby.
  6. The Arrival, written and illustrated by Shaun Tan

I gave my elderly mother a copy of Tan’s book. It made her cry, evoking memories of her own displaced childhood.

40

  1. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as illustrated by Anthony Browne

  2. Dinotopia, written and illustrated by James Gurney

  3. Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book, written and illustrated by Brian Froud.

  4. Realms of Fantasy, written / edited by Malcolm Edwards and Robert Holdstock, various illustrators.

  5. The Last Hero: A Discworld Fable, written by Terry Pratchett, illustrated by Paul Kidby.

  6. The Arrival, written and illustrated by Shaun Tan

  7. Where the Wild Things Are, written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak