Favorite books: (Was: New poll for HPFGU-OTChatter)

[Carol]

HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com wrote:
Do you have favorites not listed below?  Post and let us know!

Carol responds:

I'm torn between "Post and let us know" and "Do not respond to this
post." I'm assuming that the second instruction means don't submit
your vote by posting!

So, having voted by poll, I have the following comments:

Have read and would reread and recommend is not quite the same thing
as "favorite." I have reread and would recommend the Bible (must
reading for anyone who wants to be culturally literate with regard to
Western culture regardless of religion or the absence thereof, and for
sheer beauty and poetry and effect on Western culture, I would
recommend the King James version. If your concern is an accurate
translation, try a more recent one).

I have also reread and would recommend "Gone with the Wind" and "To
Kill a Mockingbird," but I never reread (and discussed) them
obsessively as I have with favorites like LOTR and HP.

One favorite book of mine that didn't make the list is "Moby Dick."
There aren't many books that I feel passionate about, as opposed to
enjoy reading or rereading. "Jane Eyre" comes close, but I've never
discussed it with anyone other than freshman comp students. I enjoy
Austen's works and some of Dickens', but I wouldn't put any of them in
the same class in terms of my personal response (I'm not considering
literary merit at the moment) as the HP books.

As for the books that I didn't vote for, the reasons for not doing so
vary. "Da Vinci Code" I've never read. Somewhat surprisingly, I've
never read "Catcher in the Rye," either. I probably thought, at age
fourteen or so, that I wouldn't like it and never gave it a chance.
And Ayn Rand's books, I simply hate. Maybe the poll should be reworded
to make that distinction?

Carol, hoping that "do not respond" is not an absolute rule