I started this post, listed almost 100 books, saved it to revise later and found all the content of the post deleted by Blogger. Grr.

I was reading Melissa Wiley’s blog the other day and she casually mentioned a suggested reading list put out by Penguin Classics: 100 Books to Read Before You Die. I love reading lists and loved this one and, being a blogger, I immediately started making a list of my own. But as I thought about it, I realized I could not call my list anything as grand as “Books to Read Before You Die.” I don’t know what sort of criteria I would use to come up with such a list.

Instead, I have happily (twice now - drat you, Blogger) made up a list of the books I read over and over. There are not quite 100, but these are the books I sell to the used bookstore only to find myself buying them again a year later, or checking them out of the library “just one more time” - books to read in the tub for the fourth time, books like friends I can have over for dinner without cleaning up the house first. Not that all these books are happy - some are about devastating and discomorting things - but each time the familiar story told well fits a little deeper inside me.

Penguin divided their list into clever subsets like “Best Crazies” or “Best Minxes,” but I am going to stick with more familiar genres. The baby kept us up till 4 am last night, and I don’t have the mental acuity to fill out a list called “Best Minxes.” So here they are, in no particular order: my favorite comfort reads.

Fantasy and Science Fiction
1. Book of the Dun Cow Walter Wangerin, Jr.
2. The Once and Future King TH White
3. The Hero and the Crown Robin McKinley
4. Napoleon of Notting HIll GK Chesterton
5. Descent into Hell Charles Williams
6. Day of the Triffids John Wyndham
7. The Hobbit JRR Tolkien

Children’s Novels
11. The Little Princess Frances Hodgson Burnett
12. Anne of Green Gables LM Montgomery
13. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader CS Lewis
14. The High King Lloyd Alexander
15. Switchers Kate Thompson
16. Owl in Love Patrice Kindl
17. A Year Down Yonder Richard Peck
18. Evergreen Castles Laurie B. Clifford
19. Daddy Long-Legs Jean Webster
20. The Light Princess George MacDonald

Essays and Short Stories
21. Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader Ann Fadiman
22. It’s Not the End of the Earth, But You Can See It from Here Roger Welsch
23. All Creatures Great and Small James Herriot
24. Stories of Hans Christian Anderson
25. Just-So Stories Rudyard Kipling
26. Teaching a Stone to Talk Annie Dillard
27. High Spirits Robertson Davies

Adventure
31. King Solomon’s Mines H Rider Haggard
32. Tarzan of the Apes Edgar Rice Burroughs
33. The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas
34. Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson
35. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain
36. 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea Jules Verne
37. The Time Machine HG Wells
38. Beowulf

General Fiction
41. A Virtuous Woman Kaye Gibbons
42. Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte
43. Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
44. Lancelot Walker Percy
45. Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen
46. Silas Marner George Eliot
47. Cry the Beloved Country Alan Paton

Creepy Crawlers and Creatures of the Night
51. Frankenstein Mary Shelley
52. Dracula Bram Stoker
53. Sunshine Robin McKinley
54. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson
55. The Cruel Painter George MacDonald

Mysteries
61. The Hollow Agatha Christie
62. Taste for Death PD James
63. Tiger in the Smoke Margery Allingham
64. The Dark Room Minette Walters
65. Stone Angel Carol O’Connell
66. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle
67. Rumpole of the Bailey John Mortimer
68. Murder Must Advertise Dorothy L Sayers
69. The Beekeeper’s Apprentice Laurie R King
70. Die for Love Elizabeth Peters

Biography and Memoir
71. Ava’s Man Rick Bragg
72. North Spirit Paulette Giles
73. Blue Highways William Least-Heat Moon
74. Traveling Mercies Anne Lamott
75. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass
76. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Harriet Jacobs

Non-Fiction
81. One Nation Under Gods Richard Abanes
82 Seeing Voices Oliver Sacks
83. Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed Philip P Hallie
84. Descent of the Dove: A Short History of the Holy Spirit in the Church Charles Williams
85. The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time Jonathan Weiner
86. The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction David Quammen
87. Taking Wing: Archaeopteryx and the Evolution of Bird Flight Pat Shipman

Poetry and Plays
91. Firstborn Christopher Fry
92. Becket Jean Anouilh
93. A Man for All Seasons Robert Bolt
94. Poetry of John Donne
95. Idylls of the King Alfred Lord Tennyson
96. Men and Women Robert Browning
97. Sonnets from the Portugese Elizabeth Barrett Browning
98. Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins
99. Cyrano de Bergerac Edmond Rostand

Shannon had an interesting discussion at her blog about whether or not a presidential candidate’s history of marital infidelity should be considered in determining who to vote for. She got responses from all sides of the issue.

I don’t write about politics much on my blog, but, after my trip to the bookstore, I have been thinking about this in a non-political context. How much do a person’s personal actions matter in the job they do?

I used to love the mystery novels of Anne Perry. They are not all equally good, but some of them are a great read. She writes Victorian mysteries with dark realities of the Victorian period: drug addiction, class struggle, unequal rights for women. I used to read her books regularly, and considered including some in my recent stack from the used bookstore.

What stopped me was the knowledge that Anne Perry is a murderer. When she was young, she and a friend murdered her friend’s mother. It was a notorious crime in New Zealand, and filmmaker Peter Jackson decided to make a fictionalized movie about it (Heavenly Creatures 1994). After the movie came out, the renewed interest in the crime led to the discovery that Juliet Hulme, one of the murderers, had been living and writing for years under the name Anne Perry.

I haven’t been able to read her novels since I learned about it. Reading mysteries is an escape for me, a retreat into a world where the crimes are fictional, the truth is always discovered, and good is affirmed over evil. Perry has rarely talked about the crime to the press, but she has expressed regret for the murder. Still, somehow I don’t think I can enjoy reading a fictional murder written by someone who has actually committed one.

What do you think? Would it make a difference to you? Do the actions of a writer or artist affect your ability to enjoy their work? Where should the line be drawn?

Meredith put up a post of her summer reading stack, and I thought it was a great idea for a meme. As it happens, my favorite used bookstore is having its big 20% Off Everything sale today, and Az watched the kids so I could spend my morning picking out books. It’s a great birthday present.

“Fifty dollars,” he said, giving me my spending limit. I laughed. I am strictly a bargain hunter of books, and have not spent $50 at once on books in years. But it is my birthday (I’m 35 and feel 50, thank you very much) and there was a sale and we are not moving after all so I get to fill up my shelves again. I still didn’t spend $50, but I definitely indulged myself.

So without further ado, here is a promising way to spend $31.50:

Shh. The baby is finally letting Veronica sleep, so here is a little classic Dredge for you. This post was originally published in May of 2006. I’ll be back when I’ve had some shut eye.

So I’ve been reading the Kama Sutra again. Maybe it’s because I’m looking for a book to recommend to a young bride I know. Maybe it’s because I want to feel trendy. Maybe it’s because I like to sound worldy wise and say, blandly and dismissively, “Yeah, I’ve read it” if the subject comes up at parties.

Oh please, like I go to a parties. The truth is I’m a geek. Or a nerd. Wait, which one has no money? I’m that one. And when people refer to an ancient text in hushed tones of awe, I feel an imperative need to demystify it by reading it.

The thing nobody tells you about the Kama Sutra? It’s boring.

I know. It has this scandalous reputation for being The Big Book of Sexual Secrets. A kind of compendium of all those headline articles on Cosmo and Glamour: “10 Ways to Make Him Forget Her!” “Grade Your Sexual Technique” or whatever schlock Manhattan editors think might make you insecure enough to buy a magazine that teaches you how to compete with the local crack wh*re. But the Kama Sutra doesn’t read like Helen Gurley Brown. It reads like the Talmud, without the interesting parts.

For 600 pages it rambles on, listing differing scholarly opinions. But technique! you say. Isn’t it full of of descriptions of different positions? Yes, it is. And you’d think that would be thrilling, right? No. Eventually it starts to sound like the directions for putting together your kid’s high chair. “Insert Tab A into Slot B. Twist until it clicks.” And you remember how much fun that was.

A few years ago when a movie came out called Kama Sutra - as though it was some sort of visual version - I was dumbfounded. Because I was thinking, “How do you make a movie out of the Kama Sutra? It has no narrative. No plot!” (Straight man cue for you to say: “Neither did the movie.” Not that I’ve seen it). But you can’t make sex sexy without a narrative. Even p*rn has plots. Stupid, exploitive, misogynist, unrealistic plots, but still plots.

So here’s the truth you won’t get from the Kama Sutra, but you probably know anyway: sexy is in the narrative, the story two people write with their lives. The babies we’ve had together, the private jokes we share, even the arguments we’ve resolved. We have a life together, and it’s a good one. And (details deleted) nothing is sexier.