Tip Tuesday — Best Book, Alive or Dead

This is one of those “think fast” Tip Tuesdays where I ask you a question and you just have to say the first thing that comes to your mind without agonizing over it. I’d like the format to resemble the conversations the old men have in “Return to Me” while playing poker.

“Best singer of all time, alive or dead?”

They all give answers and then fight about them with fake Irish old man accents. Well, the old man part isn’t fake but I’m pretty sure the Irish is fabricated.

I’d like today to be like that, without the fighting and without the accents. List your favorite book at the moment you read this post. This doesn’t mean it’s the best book ever written or even in the top one thousand, scientifically. Just type something that strikes you as great.

Rules:
-No books of scripture can be listed. I’m sure you’re all very spiritual and read all kinds of the Talmud but I don’t want all of the answers to be the same.
-No children’s books this week. We’ll do that next month or some time when I feel like it.
-You can only list ONE, not one per genre, not one for each hand, not one for every college degree you are currently pursuing, ONE – PERIOD.

I choose Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard. It’s a Pulitzer Prize winner for Non-Fiction, typically found in the Nature or Essay section of your friendly neighborhood bookstore.

Speaking of bookstores, am I the only person who gets this ache inside whenever they see prime retail space available for lease and wishes they could open a successful independent bookstore that wouldn’t be crushed immediately by the Evil Duo? Ahhhh, dreams.

I opened the book and found this random excerpt to share with you:

Catch it if you can. The present is an invisible electron; its lightning path traced faintly on a blackened screen is fleet, and fleeing, and gone.

That I ended this experience prematurely for myself — that I drew scales over my eyes between me and the mountain and gloved my hand between me and the puppy — is not the only point. After all, it would have ended anyway. I’ve never seen a sunset or felt a wind that didn’t. The levitating saints came down at last, and their two feet bore real weight. No, the point is that not only does time fly and do we die, but that in these reckless conditions we live at all, and are vouchsafed, for the duration of certain inexplicable moments, to know it.

You can open to any page and find that she weaves her descriptions of the world around her with profound insight. Ah, to write with the power of Annie Dillard, to live for one day having a mind so alive and vivid. Sometimes I feel that she sees more in one sunset than I could see in a thousand hours of plodding along through my daily grind.

Now, let the games begin. Favorite book at this moment, alive or dead?

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114 Responses to Tip Tuesday — Best Book, Alive or Dead

  1. Kim C. says:

    I’m first? Really?
    I actually have an answer this week: The Complete Works of Shakespeare.
    Not that I’ve read his complete works completely, but every time I pick up the book, I realize why he’s still famouse after 500 years. That guy was good.

  2. Grammy says:

    I’m so confused. Now I feel like I have to go read over all of my favorites to see which one is really the best. Choose just one? It can’t be done!

  3. Papa says:

    Battle Cry – Leon Uris

  4. Marsha says:

    Room with a View (E.M. Forster)

    I swear, I read it every year (sometimes twice) and it never gets old. I even like the film adaptation and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

  5. kmr says:

    My favourite book of all time would have to be “The Stone Angel” by that great Canadian author Margaret Laurence.

  6. Everything That Rises Must Converge, by Flannery O’Connor.

  7. Chris says:

    I’m with grammy… I can’t chose just one.

  8. Sheri says:

    Well since I am reading a lot of Christian Fiction right now I’d have to say “Yada Yada Prayer Group”.

    Truly, I don’t think they are the best books ever, but I love ’em and they help me relax at night, and with four children that’s a real necessity.

  9. My all-time favorite: “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” by Betty Smith. Loved it as a junior-high student, and love it now. I wore out at least 2 copies of it.

  10. Sarah says:

    Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card–changed forever the way I look at children (and although children can read it) I don’t consider it a kids book.

  11. owlhaven says:

    You’ve had such good questions lately! Short answer: “Hold On To Your Kids”. AWESOME BOOK! For WHY it’s so awesome go visit me over at my Ethiopia blog because I feel the need to go on and on and give links and everything….
    Mary, mom to many

  12. misslindz says:

    “Charms for the Easy Life” by Kaye Gibbons. After I finished reading it the first time, I realized the best thing I could do at that moment was to read it again. And I did.

  13. Carrie says:

    LIke Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel.

    I love the Latin flair for food and passion.

  14. Rachelle says:

    Little Women. I love Jo. I love watching her grow and change. This one is such a classic. I could read it over and over.

    I posted about my love of books just yesterday. And I want you to know how hard it is to choose just one book. That’s almost torture! You’re mean I tell you, mean! I will be watching the comments here today to add to my growing book list.

  15. jessica says:

    To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

    Made me want to write the great American novel and become an ethical, injustice-fighting lawyer all at the same time. Now that’s great literature!

  16. Hotwire says:

    alive, dead, or otherwise, “a prayer for owne meany” by john irving is my all time favorite

  17. Goslyn says:

    The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. What a read.

  18. Lessa says:

    To Sail Beyond the Sunset by Robert Heinlein.

    My copy that was given to me and started me on my journey with the Sci-Fi master is tattered and worn and well read and falling apart. I love it muchly. Heinlein’s Time Enough for Love is a very close second. Whoops – that’s cheating, isn’t it? *slinks away, whistling innocently*

  19. HLH says:

    Okay, I cannot pick just one favorite book, so can I tell you my favorite author and favorite book by her?

    Isabel Allende: Of Love and Shadows

    I LOVE magical realism and surrealism in spanish litreature. I have read a great many books in my day, but I always go back to the spanish literature- it seems so steeped in tradition that the stories have so many layers of meaning.

  20. krista says:

    margaret atwood- edible woman.

    classic.

  21. Adam says:

    Harry Potter 7
    As if by saying that I could help it be released…EVER!

    Adam

  22. Freak The Mighty -Rodman Philbrick . It has everything, love, friendship, humor, adventure, tears. It’s not my #1 of all times, but it’s the first one that came to mind, as a book I loved.
    Btw, I’ve now added 11 titles to by book queue, thanks for all the good recommendations!

  23. Stephanie says:

    I still love ‘The Last Unicorn’ by Peter S. Beagle.

    So good.

    (Does this make me a PZ4 or whatever you an Heather call the sci-fi fantasy nerds?)

  24. Heidi says:

    “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte. (Yes, all those movie versions came from a actual book!) Oh My. It’s been years since I read it, but it had such an impact on me when I read it at thirteen.

    I have to give props to Barb, though, because at around the same age I read “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” Another Oh My.

  25. emlouisa says:

    I have to choose ONE?

    Okay. The same one you have for your book group this month. The Kite Runner. I actually woke up in the middle of the night and had to go continue reading because I wanted to know what was going to happen. GREAT book.

  26. brooke says:

    ‘Lonesome Dove’ by Larry McMurtry

  27. Heather says:

    Hmmm, best book ever…

    Definitely something by Orson Scott Card for me.

    Ender’s Game

    or

    Ender’s Shadow

    How do I decide?!?

    Okay, I won’t. I say:

    Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Loved that book.

  28. Emily says:

    ‘a farewell to arms’ by hemingway.

  29. Heather says:

    Was that cheating? Didn’t mean for it to be. Just thinking out loud, not really meaning to CHEAT and list THREE books.

    BIG GRIN.

    Love you blog, BTW.

  30. Bright One says:

    Technically a “children’s book”, I guess, since they now read it in grade school but I LOVE “The Hiding Place” by Corrie Ten Boom. One of my favorite lines from the book …. after being “inspired” yet again to choose someone she could trust…..”How long I wondered, would we be led by this Gift of Knowledge”

  31. melnel says:

    Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle.

    It’s the final book of the series. I just finished reading it last night–couldn’t put it down, and was surpised that it was over already when I got to the end.

    Did you know it won the 1956 Carnegie Medal?

    (It’s not children’s…it’s fantasy.)

  32. Em says:

    Definitely not the greatest piece of literature ever, but the book I’ve most enjoyed reading in a while was Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes (nothing like the movie… it’s travel writing)

    It made me more aware of sumptuous details in my life and helped me slow down and be a bit more alive. It also activated my travel bug… too bad I’m so poor right now!

  33. Alissa says:

    Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah.

    Makes me sob hysterically.

  34. novaks8 says:

    The Great Gatsby

    I read it over 20 years ago for the first time and still think of it all the time.

    (harry potter, Gone with the wind,)

  35. mimi says:

    Isn’t this akin to asking which child you love best? Oh well…

    Beach Music by Pat Conroy.

    (To all my other “book children”: I’m sorry, she made me do it. I love you all the same.)

    I’ve got an awsome top five if you should ever ask.

  36. Cynthia says:

    “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel. I can’t say enough good things about this book.

  37. The Last Word says:

    The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Written as a single volume, published as a single volume, trilogized by profiteering American publishers.

  38. Karen says:

    A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.

    I never get tired of reading it.

  39. Jeana says:

    “Where the Heart Is” by Billie Letts
    I love how real the characters are, and how by the end of the book I love them like real people.

  40. Tigersue says:

    I figure I had better answer this before I read other posts, not that I think my book will be there. Okay it is King Kelson’s Bride, by Katherine Kurtz, no it is not the best book I have ever read, but I love the author, and this one, after all the trauma and sadness in her other books is a good read! It doesn’t help that Kelson, finally gets a bride he can keep, and she is a wonderful bride at that.

  41. Susie Q says:

    I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. It’s a great coming of age novel.

  42. Jenna says:

    Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott.
    Amazing thoughts on being a Christian, an addict, a mom, a daughter, and a human. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry (but you won’t hurl…any Wayne’s World fans catch that one?)

  43. Margaret says:

    The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. I love it! One summer a few years ago I read it about twice every three weeks. It’s about this girl who doesn’t fit in where she is and then finds that there really is a magic world and she does fit in there, and furthermore…well, I wouldn’t want to spoil the book 🙂 Go read it! Who WOULDN’T want to find out that, no, really, you don’t actually belong here, as you suspected all those years, but there really is a place where not only do you fit in, but they all love you and want you to be there and you can have a huge impact and be accepted as who and what you are.

    Whew! I feel better now. 🙂

  44. Carrie says:

    As all have stated above, one is too hard but here goes . . .

    The Good Earth – Pearl Buck

    It has been ages since I read it, but I just loved it.

  45. Renee says:

    Thanks for asking this question! I’ve just written down several new “must-reads” on my list. Many of my favorites have been listed, but of the books I have read in the past several months, one that stood out is “The Known World” by Edward P. Jones.

  46. elliespen says:

    Good grief. Whenever I have intuitive answers ready you have to go and “disqualify” them because they’re “children’s books.” Yeesh. 🙂

    So, as revenge, the best book,

    Dead: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

    or

    Alive: Enchantment by Orson Scott Card

    Lots of great answers so far. I have to put in a “Hear, hear!” for the To Kill a Mockingbird and Robin McKinley departments in particular.

  47. irene says:

    Little Women by Lousia May Alcott. I just love it.

  48. irene says:

    And of course I can’t spell the author’s name… *groan*

  49. Chilihead2 says:

    What a great topic! I’ve loved many of the books listed here. Right now, though, my very most favoritest book is East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I blogged several quotes from this book a few weeks ago. They are great discussion topics.

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