I'm an avid reader, although I talk much less about books than I do film here on the ol' Bloggie Sphere, but why not?
During the Christmas Break I knocked down a few:
A Christmas Carol by Charlie Dickens
I re-read this every year-- if you've only seen film adaptions you're missing big parts of the story, which is both funnier and scarier than any screen version. It's a quick read and it gives you an understanding of the wit of Charles Dickens.
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
I have more copies of this book than I care to count-- I'm not sure why I do that-- if they release a really nice copy of this book, or Stoker's DRACULA or Dashiell Hammett's THE MALTESE FALCON its likely I bought it.
Crime and Punishment is a great exploration of the psychological torment of man's mind when a killer becomes overwrought with guilt.
11.22.63 by Stephen King
King is often discounted because he's popular, but he's written some real american classics, including Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (Better known as the film with Tim Robbins).
In 11.22.63 King presents us with a fascinating premise-- a wormhole that takes the visitor back in time to Sept 1958-- and every time you visit and return, no matter how long you stayed in 1958, you've only been gone two minutes in 2011.
Each time you return through the wormhole any changes you've made have been reset. Would you opt to live in a simpler time? Would you try to save a beloved friend or family member from some dark event you knew about because you are coming from the future? Or would you try to save President Kennedy from being assassinated in Dallas on Nov 22 1963?
Heady questions and interesting characters with dialogue that rings true make this one of King's better efforts. Some of it was predictable (I guessed the ending) but maybe that comes from being familiar with so many of his books.
