Habitual Reader Profiles - Page 1

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	Name: Phillip Smith
	City & State: Ponca City, Oklahoma
	Vocation / Avocation: Bookseller

Why I'm a Habitual Reader:

I have been a book lover for as long as I can remember. I suppose the one thing that makes me a habitual reader is that in nearly any conversation on any topic I often interject, "Oh, speaking of that, have you read . . . ?" I think what I get most out of reading is the experience. One can live thousands of lives in thousands of places, experiences that no one would ever be able to encounter in one lifetime. And I always love to be challenged by new or different ideas. Well, I could go on and on. It would be much easier to come up with reasons not to read, and right off hand, I cannot think of any.

My List of Ten: Adult Fiction

1. The Name of the Rose
Author: Umberto Eco
My all-time favorite novel. I have always been fascinated by monasticism, and this is a wonderful mystery as well. Eco presents a vivid picture of everything from 14th century state and religious politics to everyday life in a monastery.

2. Steppenwolf
Author: Hermann Hesse
This is another book that I have read many times. Of course I relate to Harry Haller in his life devoted to books and the arts. But mostly it presents the idea of another world, a magical world, that lies in the shadows of this one.

3. The Lord of the Rings
Author: J.R.R. Tolkien
I know, this one has been done to death, but there is still something fascinating about it. I cannot begin to guess how many times I have read it in the past thirty years.

4. Death in Venice
Author: Thomas Mann
I am intrigued by the idea of obsession and the ends to which it might lead us. Mann paints this idea very well.

5. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
Author: Carson McCullers
McCullers' insight into the human condition is incredible.

6. Crime and Punishment
Author: Fyodor Dostoevsky

7. Les Miserables
Author: Victor Hugo

8. Virgin Blue
Author: Tracy Chevalier

9. The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu
Author: Sax Rohmer

10. Odd Thomas
Author: Dean Koontz

Have you read any of these titles? Review one now.

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