Here is an email I sent to Hellfish …

I used to read a ton. Then not so much. Then some. Then not again. I’d like to start again. So as a favor to me, please reply with your top 10 favorite books to read for fun. “For fun” means you shouldn’t suggest a book that you thought was really good, but not that fun. “Crime and Punishment” springs to mind for me as an example of a book that is “good” but not “fun”.

So please, reply with your top 10 favorite books. To make it easier, you don’t have to order them, just an unordered list is fine. You don’t have to supply a reason for why you liked it, but if you do, that is OK. If you run over or under 10 books, that is OK. Just reply to me rather than “reply to all” so we can keep the hellfish traffic reasonable. I’ll post a table on our website listing everyone’s favorite books, and you can benefit too.

Here is what everyone replied:
Bob
Mike
Britta
Krista
Wolfe
Ali
Rhetick
Hass

I’ll get you started:
In no particular order ….

Catch 22 -Joseph Heller
Hocus Pocus -Kurt Vonnegut
Cryptonomicon -Neal Stephenson
All four Hitchhikers Guide books -Douglas Adams
The Making of the Atomic Bomb -Richard Rhodes
The Hyperion books -Dan Simmons
Working -Studs Terkel
A Fire Upon The Deep -Vernor Vinge
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn-Mark Twain
To Say Nothing of the Dog -Connie Willis
Heart of Oak - Tristan Jones
First N books from the Aubrey-Maturin Series -Patrick O’Brian
The Last of the Just: A Novel -Andre Schwarz-Bart (OK, not really “fun” but too great not to include)

These are pretty biased toward what I have read in the last couple of years. If I thought harder, I’m sure the list would include some more stuff from earlier in my life.

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