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11 Books You Should Read In Your Lifetime

Read like you're running out of time.

Victoria Garon
May 09, 2016
College of Charleston
36
11 Books You Should Read In Your Lifetime
herecomeshr.com

Books have an effect on our lives. Reading, no matter how young or old you are, gives you new perspectives and ideas. It helps you to explore possibilities that never before seemed possible. Here's a list of 11 books that have influenced my life and, hopefully, will influence yours too.

1. "Anne of Green Gables"

Author: L.M. Montgomery

Best Quote: "Isn't it wonderful to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?" -- Anne Shirley

Goodreads Rating: 4.21 / 5

2. "Harry Potter"

Author: J.K. Rowling

Best Quote: "It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be." -- Albus Dumbledore

Goodreads Rating: 4.42 / 5

3. "To Kill A Mockingbird"

Author: Harper Lee

Best Quote: "I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what." -- Atticus Finch

Goodreads Rating: 4.24 / 5

4. "The Book Thief"

Author: Markus Zusah

Best Quote: "I wanted to tell the book thief many things about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race -- that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant." -- Death

Goodreads Rating: 4.35 / 5

5. "Atonement"

Author: Ian McEwan

Best Quote: "A story was a form of telepathy. By means of inking symbols onto a page, she was able to send thoughts and feelings from her mind to her reader's. It was a magical process, so commonplace that no one stopped to wonder at it." -- Narrator

Goodreads Rating: 3.86 / 5

6. "A Little Princess"

Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett

Best Quote: "I am a princess. All girls are. Even if they live in tiny old attics. Even if they dress in rags, even if they aren't pretty, or smart, or young. They're still princesses." -- Sara Crewe

Goodreads Rating: 4.2 / 5

7. "Their Eyes Were Watching God"

Author: Zora Neale Hurston

Best Quote: "Ships at a distance have every man's wish onboard." -- Narrator

Goodreads Rating: 3.85 / 5

8. "Ella Enchanted"

Author: Gail Carson Levine

Best Quote: "It is helpful to know the proper way to behave, so one can decide whether or not to be proper." -- Ella

Goodreads Rating: 3.96 / 5

9. "The Secret Garden"

Author: Frances Hodgson

Best Quote: "She made herself stronger by fighting with the wind." -- Narrator

Goodreads Rating: 4.11 / 5

10. "Slaughterhouse Five"

Author: Kurt Vonnegut

Best Quote: "And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned into a pillar of salt. So it goes." -- Narrator

Goodreads Rating: 4.04 / 5

11. "The Fault In Our Stars"

Author: John Green

Best Quote: "'The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in ourselves.' Easy enough to say when you're a Roman nobleman (or Shakespeare!), but there is no shortage of fault to be found amid our stars."

Goodreads Rating: 4.31 / 5

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