If you take a look at the left side of my blog, you’ll see a link to my Goodreads information.  If you love to read and haven’t yet heard of Goodreads . . . well, now you have!

My mom and dad are in town for a visit and they both enjoy reading.  But dad is one of those “working-on-more-than-one-book-at-a-time” kind of readers.  Must be where I get it from.  While we both enjoy current best-selling authors (he introduced me to a few of my favorites!), we both  love to read “the classics”.  Now, when you start talking about “must-read” books, everyone has their opinion.  But dad and I are interested in those timeless pieces of writing that people still turn to today – works by Jane Austen, Steinbeck, etc. – as well as ancient writings that have stood the test of time.

So the internet hunt was on!  After browsing a few “must-read” lists, I landed on a couple of sites that seem to be my best options for a list of books to guide my reading choices for quite a while!  First, there is Barnes & Noble.  I know, I know, Barnes and Noble is an established chain store.  But their website has an extensive list of classics and I’ve got that specific page of their website bookmarked (and I’ve shared the link with you – just click on the store name above!).

I also found a website that has lists for various eras.  Each list has about 30 titles.  The choices on The Great Books List go all the way back to the Egyptian Book of the Dead and The Iliad.

If you are like me and don’t want to rely STRICTLY on your public library for the books you seek and you don’t want to buy all the books on your personal reading list, I’ve got good news!  Goodreads has some older titles available to read right on their website.  If you sign up you can read those titles and keep them bookmarked on your personal page (I’m doing that with one of my “currently reading” titles).  If you have an e-reader (or, like me, you don’t have one yet but are willing to use your laptop as an e-reader!) then you should check out Books Should be Free.  Just like the name promises, the books available on this site are all free!  True, they are all titles that are old enough that the copyright has expired.  But I currently have more than a dozen titles in my e-reader just waiting for me to get to them. And I’m certainly not done!

One last side note about Goodreads – you can get book recommendations based on books you have read and liked or you can simply go looking by title.  If you have friends using Goodreads, you can get ideas and recommendations from them as well as seeing what they are currently reading.

Now if you don’t mind, I need to get back to “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”.