Second the Hop on Pop.
Would recommend Kim by Rudyard Kipling as possibly the greatest book ever written.
I would add Atlas Shrugged and the King James Bible to the list.
Hey, Jadis, I’ll join ya! 
I’ve returned my last batch of library books for the year so I can start afresh 
I’m in the middle of reading Dorothy Allison’s Cavedweller right now. And I highly recommend her Bastard Out Of Carolina. Harrowing story…:shudders:
Good idea for a goal, I nearly reached a similar target this year.
My top five books I read would be
Fields without dreams: Defending the Agrarian Idea – Victor Davis Hanson
Why the West has won – Victor Hanson
Fast food nation
My American Journey - Colin Powell
Sleep Thieves - Coren
If you’re just trying to make it to 50, Dr. Suess has many good books (especially if you’re trying to make up for lost time after too many big thick novels)
I second the Chesterton. And Dave Barry’s Big Trouble for a fun read. And the Vonnegut–Cat’s Cradle may be his best, but he’s written a lot of interesting stuff. I just finished, and enjoyed, Timequake, his “last novel”; though it’s not exactly a novel, it is good Vonnegut.
I assume you know that Orson Scott Card has written many other good books.
In the same category as John Irving, I guess (modern mainstream fiction with both humor and depth), I could recommend
Garrison Keillor: Wobegon Boy
Michael Malone: Handling Sin
Clyde Edgerton: Walking Across Egypt
Jim Kokoris: The Rich Part of Life
Anne Tyler: Saint Maybe
and just about anything by Robertson Davies
Trinity by Leon Uris. It is a long novel and it took about 150 - 200 pages to get into it. After that I was hooked. It is my favorite novel. I’ve read it three times and each time it haunts me for months. (Set in Ireland)
The Tracker by Tom Brown (non-fiction). This simple book changed my life.
I’m a teacher. READ THESE BOOKS!!
[sub](quiz on Friday)[/sub]
Jadis do you suppose you should start a new thread (next week) to keep track of how people are doing with the 50 books in 2003 challenge? That way we could keep track and see what others are reading…
Try…
The Decameron
and
The Thousand Nights and the One Night transl. by Sir Richard Burton
Oh yeah, i forgot one good one. Read “1984” and “Animal Farm” by George Orwell
i meant two good ones…
Has anyone mentioned Confederacy of Dunces by J.K. Toole? (hope i got the name right).
Excellent, funny. My entire lab group read it, and was in hysterics discussing it. Aaagh! My valve!!
Anything by Pat Conroy. My favorites are The Great Santini and Prince of Tides.
elfkin477, I’ll definitely start a new thread next week…I’m going to take a little time and sift through all of the great suggestions in this thread and compile a list for myself, then hopefully hit the library to get my first round of stuff. If y’all want to share what’s on your list of stuff to read, you can…and we can check in with each other occasionally to see how we’re doing.
Gazelle – I’ll second Prince of Tides.
Jadis – I’ll admit to having a somewhat snarky sense of humor, and am trying to think whether the Straight Man recommendation falls into that category. There is a preface (prologue, intro., I forget what he calls it) to it – if you like that, you’ll like the book.
Oooh! May I suggest The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin, Jr. It’s been a while since I read it, but I really enjoyed it.
I’ll second the Gaiman recommendations - I read Stardust, Neverwhere and American Gods - this past summer and thought they were all superb.
For non-fiction, you might try some of Richard Feynman’s books. He has a couple of auto-biographies, as well as science-oriented books. Amazon.com list. I just re-read What Do You Care What Other People Think?, in which he recounts his experience on the presidential commission to determine the cause of the Challenger space shuttle explosion.
Jadis- in response to your hijack- where? Feel free to contact me off the message boards so as not to compromise the integrity of the boards. I’m @yahoo.
on vonnegut:
cat’s cradle = amazing, also not too long so it won’t take too long
timequake = longer, but not a difficult read, very conversational…i reccommend it
i also reccommend the hitchiker’s trilogy (actually 5 books i believe) by douglas adams:
the hitchiker’s guide to the galaxy,
the restaurant at the end of the universe,
life, the universe, and everything
so long and thanks for all the fish
don’t panic
they’re fun and mostly short-ish and a joy to read
if you’re a steinbeck fan you must read grapes of wrath if you haven’t
also i strongly reccommend the tolkien books listed previously
and forget their childish reputation and the terrible film adaptations, the harry potter books are actually very very good.
utopia is not that long a book and really very interesting
i dont know…i’d like to join in the challenge but i dont know if i have time for it (we’ll see!)
Read James Joyce’s Ulysses. You’ll get more bragging rights with that one book than with 50 others. 
oh and nick hornby has some great books- high fidelity, about a boy were both made into movies…right now i’m reading ‘how to be good’ and it’s pretty good
And his book about being a football (soccer) fan, Fever Pitch, will be interesting even to people who know nothing about football. Sports Illustrated recently put it in their top 10 books on sports. For a book about an English football fan to get this rating in an American magazine speaks volumes about the book.