As and English major I have had the opportunity to get to read thousands of books that I may not have picked up on my own–I tend to go for mystery and comedy/romance books with an occasionally read of the chick-lit variety–I absolutely love Nora Roberts, Patricia Cornwell, Janet Evanovich and Catherine Coulter.

Here is a beginning list of my favorite books

Paris Trout–Peter Dexter
Meridian–Alice Walker
Sula–Toni Morrison
Confessions of Nat Turner–William Styron
Tobacco Road–Erskine Caldwell
Catch-22–Joseph Heller
Confederacy of Dunces–John Kennedy Toole
Moses Ascending–Samuel Selvon
Sanctuary–William Faulkner
As I Lay Dying–William Faulkner
Vendor of Sweets–R. K. Narayan
Their Eyes Were Watching God–Zora Neale Hurston
Summer Before the Dark–Doris Lessing
Tess of D’urbervilles–Thomas Hardy
Skin Tight and Sick Puppy–Carl Hiassen
Paradise Lost–John Milton
Wide Sargasso Sea–Jean Rhys
A Room of One’s Own–Virgina Woolf
Breath, Eyes, Memory–Edwidge Danticat
Haroun and the Sea of Stories–Salman Rushdie
Pudd’nhead Wilson–Mark Twain
The Blithedale Romance–Nathaniel Hawthorne
Cane–Jean Toomer
O’Pioneers–Willa Cather