My Top 10

Ask any reader what her/his favorite book is, and you’ll likely get a panicked look. That is a hard question, people. 

But if someone asks me about my 10 favorite books, then I can get
all relaxed and happy and I start spooling them off. There’s so much less
pressure with a top 10 list.

… until I get to the last few titles, and then I have to really
start to think about it. Is this list balanced? Does this list represent me? (Is
it even actually meant to?) Why is there so much nonfiction? And so much testosterone? 

And a person can second-guess herself until the list-making
becomes a labored thing.

And I’m saying no, no, no to that.

So here’s my list, not completely thought through, and not
completely perfect. And very much a changing thing. (If you ask me tomorrow,
I’d make a substitution, sure as day).

In the order I thought of them:

Young Men and Fire
by Norman Maclean

The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe

All the President’s Men by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward

The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

Run by Ann Patchett

The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

The Beekeeper’s
Apprentice by Laurie R. King

The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson

Anyone else a chronic list maker? If so, please list your top
10! (Or top 5. Or top 20…)