You can tell a lot about people by looking at their book shelves. Here’s your chance to learn about me by seeing what books I’ve been reading. I’ve read a lot more than what’s listed here, so as I remember more titles I’ll be adding them to this list.

One of the most important things we writers need to do is read, because it helps us know the genres we choose to write in, and because through reading we learn to recognize good writing from bad. It is as important for us to read other genres as it is to read the ones we gravitate to in our writings. In this way we expand our understanding of writing, and develop our own unique styles.

Fiction

Picture Books to Middle Grade Illustrated

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears by Verna Aardema

The Five Chinese Brothers by Claire Huchet Bishop

The Bears on Hemlock Mountain by Alice Dalgliesh

The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes

The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack

Millions of Cats by Wanda Gág

My Father’s Dragon by Ruth S. Gannett

Paddle To The Sea by Holling C. Holling

Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson

The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf

The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

Liza Lou And The Yeller Belly Swamp by Mercer Mayer

There’s a Nightmare in My Closet by Mercer Mayer

Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

Caps for Sale: A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys and Their Monkey Business by Esphyr Slobodkina

Middle Grade Fiction

The Book of Three (Prydain Chronicles) by Lloyd Alexander

The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli

Sounder by William H. Armstrong

Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard & Florence Atwater

On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer

A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl’s Journal, 1830-1832 by Joan W. Blos

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Al Capone Does My Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary

The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth

What Jamie Saw by Carolyn Coman

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George

Julie by Jean Craighead George

Julie’s Wolf Pack by Jean Craighead George

Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

The Watsons Go to Birmingham: 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis

Along Came A Dog by Meindert Dejong

The House of Sixty Fathers by Meindert DeJong

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes

Calico Bush by Rachel Field

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh

Blue Willow by Doris Gates

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

The Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare

Lily’s Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff

Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janel Gray

Misty of Chincoteague by Marguerite Henry

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse

All Alone by Claire Huchet Bishop

The Little House Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

The Gammage Cup by Carol Kendall

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg

Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth by E. L. Konigsburg

Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison by Lois Lenski

Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski

The Magician’s Nephew by CS Lewis

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis

Prince Caspian by CS Lewis

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor

Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark

Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era by Sterling North

Sing Down The Moon by Scott O’Dell

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell

The Black Pearl by Scott O’Dell

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

Seesaw Girl by Linda Sue Park

When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park

Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

Pussy Meow: The Autobiography of a Cat by Susanna Louise Patteson

Letters from Pussycatville by Susanna Louise Patteson

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen

A Long Way from Chicago by Richard Peck

The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois

Daughter of the Mountains by Louise Rankin

Missing May by Cynthia Rylant

Fog Magic by Julia Sauer

The Light at Tern Rock by Julia Sauer

The Family Under The Bridge by Natalie Savage Carlson

Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer

The Cricket In Times Square by George Selden, pseud. (George Thompson)

The Grim Grotto by Lemony Snicket

Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson

Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry

Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli

Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White

Middle Grade Non-Fiction

The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane by Russell Freedman

The Great Fire by Jim Murphy

Blizzard by Jim Murphy

…and lots of biographies…

Young Adult Fiction

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino

The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter

My Brother Sam is Dead by James Lincoln Collier & Christopher Collier

Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

The Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene

The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes

Moccasin Trail by Eloise Jarvis McGraw

The First Part Last by Angela Johnson

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Twilight by Stephenie Meyers

Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson

A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck

Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix

The Perilous Guard by Elizabeth Marie Pope

The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

Where The Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

Holes by Louis Sachar

Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous (Beatrice Sparks)

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien

Contemporary Adult Fiction

The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom

Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

Peony by Pearl Buck

This Side of Innocence by Taylor Caldwell

Breakfast At Tiffany’s by Truman Capote

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven

One Harlequin romance, title forgotten, by Janet Daily

A Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

The House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III

Poor Cow by Nell Dunn

The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards

The Carousel by Richard Paul Evans

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

The Collector by John Fowles

The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles

The Magus by John Fowles

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

Body Double by Tess Gerritsen

Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

Ordinary People by Judith Guest

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

Demian by Herman Hesse

The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse

Narcissus and Goldman by Herman Hesse

Siddartha by Herman Hesse

Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse

Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt

Kirkland Revels by Victoria Holt

Bride of Pendorric by Victoria Holt

The Legend of the Seventh Virgin by Victoria Holt

Menfeya in the Morning by Victoria Holt

The King of the Castle by Victoria Holt

The Shivering Sands by Victoria Holt

The Secret Woman by Victoria Holt

The Shadow of the Lynx by Victoria Holt

On the Night of the Seventh Moon by Victoria Holt

The Far Pavilions by M. M. Kaye

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb

The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre

Memory of Fire by Holly Lisle

The Thornbirds by Colleen McCullough

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

A Little Yellow Dog: An Easy Rawlins Mystery by Walter Mosley

The Sands of Kalahari by William Mulvihill

We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Love Story by Erich Segal

Message in a Bottle by Nicholas Spark

Palomino by Danielle Steel

The Promise by Danielle Steel

The Ring by Danielle Steel

Summer’s End by Danielle Steel

Earth Abides by George R. Stewart

Moonspinners by Mary Stewart

The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan

Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo

The Accidental Tourist by Anne Tyler

Dinner At The Homesick Restaurant by Anne Tyler

Pocho by Jose Antonio Villarreal

Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Slaughterhouse Five, or the Children’s Crusade by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Short Stories

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft

At the Mountains of Madness and Other Tales of Terror by H.P. Lovecraft

Selected Tales by Edgar Allan Poe

Plays

The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

Poetry

The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Basho

Another book (can’t remember title) by Basho

Stanyan Street and Other Sorrows by Rod McKuen

Several other poetry collections by Rod McKuen

Classics

Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

The Lady of the Camellias by Alexandre Dumas

Tender Is The Night by William Faulkner

A Farewell To Arms by Hemingway

The Old Man and the Sea by Hemingway

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The Call of the Wild and lots of short stories by Jack London

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

1984 by George Orwell

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton

A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare

Hamlet by Shakespeare

Antigone by Sophocles

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

The Red Pony by John Steinbeck

A Cup of Gold by John Steinbeck

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain

Candide by Voltaire

Non-Fiction

Memoirs, Autobiographies, Biographies, True Stories, Essays, etc.:

Medicine Woman by Lynn V. Andrews

Spirit Woman by Lynn V. Andrews

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

Emma Lee by Juanita Brooks

A Walk In The Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson

Cheaper By The Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey

When Rabbit Howls by Truddi Chase

In the Land of the Grasshopper Song: Two Women in the Klamath River Indian Country in 1908-09 by Mary Ellicott Arnold and Mabel Reed

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

I Never Promised You A Rose Garden by Joanne Greenberg

The Endless Steppe: Growing Up in Siberia by Esther Hautzig

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt

Mutant Messages Down Under by Marlo Morgan (may be fictionalized)

The Other Side: An account of my experiences with psychic phenomena by Bishop James A. Pike

Tisha: The Story of a Young Teacher in the Alaska Wilderness by Robert Specht

Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck

Pioneer Women: Voices From the Kansas Frontier by Joanna L. Stratton

Always, Karen by Jeanne Walker - see my review

Writing

Just Open A Vein edited by William Brohaugh

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print by Renni Browne

The Artists Way by Julia Cameron

How to Write and Sell Your First Novel by Oscar Collier

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

On Writing by Stephen King

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott

The First Five Pages: A Writer’s Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile by Noah Lukeman

Writing To Sell by Scott Meredith

The New Diary by Tristine Rainer

A Writer’s Book of Days: A Spirited Companion and Lively Muse for the Writing Life by Judy Reeves

How To Grow A Novel by Sol Stein

The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.

The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Children’s Books, Second Edition by Harold D. Underdown

Blogging Tips - What bloggers won’t tell you about blogging by Lorelle Van Fossen

Spiritual, New Age, Religious, Philosophy, Energy Healing, etc:

A Course In Miracles

The Bhagavad Gita

The Bible

The Qur’an

Paris Talks by ‘Abdu’l Baha

DreamHealer: A True Story of Miracle Healings by Adam

Epistle to the Son of the Wolf by Baha’u'llah

Gleanings From The Writings of Baha’u'llah

The Hidden Words by Baha’u'llah

The Seven Valleys and The Four Valleys by Baha’u'llah

The Kitab-i-Iqan by Baha’u'llah

The Kitab-i-Aqdas by Baha’u'llah

The Master Cleanser by Stanley Burroughs

The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge by Carlos Castaneda

Trust Your Vibes: Secret Tools for Six-Sensory Living by Sonia Choquette

Acres of Diamonds by R. H. Conwell

The Power of Concentration by Theron, Q Dumont

Unification Culture and the 21st Century by Mose Durst

The Unquiet Dead: A Psychologist Treats Spirit Possession by Dr. Edith Fiore

Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain

The Prophet by Khalil Gibran

The Art of Spiritual Healing by Joel S. Goldsmith

Combatting Cult Mind Contol by Steve Hassan

Vignettes from the Life of Abdu’l-Baha edited by Annamarie Honnold

The Path of the Masters: The Science of Surat Shabd Yoga & The Yoga of the Audible Life Stream by Julian Johnson

The Law of Attraction by Michael Losier

The Romance Factor by Alan Loy McGinnis

The Friendship Factor: How to Get Closer to the People You Care For by Alan Loy McGinnis

Dawn-Breakers, The: Nabil’s Narrative of the Early Days of the Baha’i Revelation by Nabil-i-Azam

The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield

Entity Possession: Freeing the Energy Body of Negative Influences by Samuel Sagan

Hostage To Heaven - Four years in the Unification Church by an Ex- Moonie and The Mother Who Fought To Free Her by Barbara & Betty Underwood

Some Early Baha’is of the West by O. Z. Whitehead

The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson

See You At The Top by Zig Zigler

Children, Recovery, Psychology

Dibs In Search of Self by Virginia M. Axline

Play Therapy by Virginia M. Axline

Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself by Melody Beattie

Games People Play: The basic handbook of transactional analysis by Eric Berne

‘It Will Never Happen to Me!’ Children of Alcoholics: As Youngsters - Adolescents - Adults by Claudia Black

How to Parent by Fitzhugh Dodson

Dysfunctional Families by John C. Friel Ph.D.

12 Steps for Adult Children by Friends in Recovery

Between Parent and Child: The Bestselling Classic That Revolutionized Parent-Child Communication by Dr. Haim G Ginott

Parent Effectiveness Training: The Proven Program for Raising Responsible Children by Thomas Gordon

Recovery: A Guide for Adult Children of Alcoholics by Herbert L. Gravitz

I’m Ok, You’re Ok by Thomas A. Harris, M.D.

Out of Control: Who’s Watching Our Child Protection Agencies? by Brenda Scott

Protecting Children From Child Protective Services by Alan L. Schwartz

Healing The Child Within: Discovery and Recovery for Adult Children of Dysfunctional Families by Charles L. Whitfield

A Gift to Myself by Charles L. Whitfield

Adult Children of Alcoholics by Janet Woititz

Struggle for Intimacy by Janet Woititz

Homemaking

Diet For A Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe

Organizing from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern

Taming the Paper Tiger: Organizing the Paper in Your Life by Barbara Hemphill

Sidetracked Home Executives(TM): From Pigpen to Paradise by Pam Young and Peggy Jones

Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui by Karen Kingston

[Note: This list will be updated whenever I read another book!]