Raymond Cushing's Blog

The following is a chronological list of some of the best books I have read in my lifetime. In most cases, I read the author's entire output, but the book listed was either the first I read, or one I remember well.
Did I miss any of your favourites?

1. The Double – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
2. Group Portrait with Lady – Heinrich Boll
3. Never Cry Wolf – Farley Mowat
4. Zorba the Greek – Nikos Kazantzakis
5. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Alexandr Solzhenitsyn
6. On Walden Pond – Henry David Thoreau
7. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
8. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey
9. The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
10. Les Miserable – Victor Hugo

11. The Trial – Franz Kafka
12. Player Piano – Kurt Vonnegut
13. The Horse’s Mouth - Joyce Cary
14. The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway
15. Dr. Zhivago – Boris Pasternak
16. Atlas Shrugged – Ayn Rand
17. A Private Battle – Cornelius Ryan & Kathryn Morgan Ryan
18. V. – Thomas Pynchon
19. The Godfather – Mario Puzo
20. Future Shock – Alvin Toffler

21. St. Urbain’s Horseman – Mordecai Richler - 1971
22. The Monkey Wrench Gang – Edward Abbey – 1975
23. Fahrenheit 451 – Ray Bradbury
24. Portnoy’s Complaint - Philip Roth
25. The Fixer - Bernard Malamud
26. Twinkle, Twinkle, “Killer” Kane – William Peter Blatty
27. Memoirs of an Invisible Man – H.F. Saint
28. Watership Down - Richard Adams 1972
29. Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy around 1980
30. Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman 1996

31. Practical Demonkeeping – Christopher Moore
32. The Day of the Jackal – Frederick Forsyth
33. Jonathan Livingston Seagull – Richard Bach
34. Jaws – Peter Benchley
35. The Choirboys – Joseph Wambaugh
36. Ragtime – E.L. Doctorow
37. The Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco
38. Gorky Park – Martin Cruz Smith
39. Marathon Man – William Goldman
40. Devil in a Blue Dress - Walter Mosely

41. The Andromeda Strain – Michael Crichton
42. Insomnia - Stephen King
43. Trinity - Leon Uris
44. Thunderball - Ian Fleming
45. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
46. The Bourne Identity – Robert Ludlum
47. The Cunning Man - Robertson Davies
48. LaBrava - Elmore Leonard
49. Swan Song – Robert R. McCammon
50. Double Whammy - Carl Hiaasen

51. A Drink Before the War – Dennis Lehane
52. Jolie Blon’s Bounce – James Lee Burke
53. Voodoo River - Robert Crais
54. The Last Coyote - Michael Connelly
55. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – Stieg Larsson
56. Life or Death - Michael Robotham
57. The Pelican Brief - John Grisham
58. The Book of Negroes – Lawrence Hill 2007
59. The Keeper of Lost Causes – Jussi Adler-Olsen – 2007
60. All the Things We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr

I have a fairly simple scale I use to assign stars to the books I've read. You may notice that my average rating is quite high. There's a reason for that. Most of the books on my 'Read' list were read over a period of sixty years. They are the ones I remember. The books that would have deserved one star, I've long forgotten.

If I were to put every book I've ever read on a Bell Curve, the one at the top would be "Les Miserable" by Victor Hugo then James Lee Burke and John Grisham and a few others would be on the shoulders of the curve. It doesn't seem fair to directly compare the rest of us to those authors, so I have my own scale that I use.

If I enjoyed the read, the book gets 3 stars. If I felt the book was particularly well-written, I move it up to 4 stars. If I thought the plot structure and character creation were especially creative and memorable, I move it up to 5 stars.

There are some wonderfully well-written books on my 'Read' list. If you have time, browse through them.

As for reviews, I stopped doing book reports in high school. I enjoy reading some of the reviews others have written, but you won't find me writing summary reviews. If you are intrigued by my rating of a book, just read the jacket cover.

Stay safe out there everyone.

I've been thinking about some of the great Canadian authors I've read over the years. Where I've remembered, I've added their books to my 'read' list. Who's on the list?

Farley Mowatt
Stephen Leacock
Mordecai Richler
Arthur Hailey
Jack Hodgins
Robertson Davies
Giles Blunt
Robert W. Service
Milton Acorn
Leonard Cohen
Al Purdy
Lawrence Hill
Will Ferguson
Alden Nowlen
Charles Wilkins

I will start reviewing them with Mordecai Richler who I knew briefly in the early 70's. The book of his I have chosen to review is 'The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz', a wonderful read.

I have enjoyed reading for almost as long as I have enjoyed breathing. The list of books I have listed as 'read' here on goodreads is a tiny fraction of those I've consumed. Many of these books were read many years ago, but the quality of the writing and some of the amazing characters have stayed with me.