Serious request!

Here is great place to browse online for great books:

Also:

Do you have the entire collection of The Hardy Boys?

OP, are you Donald Trump trolling libtards for burnable book suggestions?

Sounds like it.

R3 - Nancy Drew is "where it's at"! Check out The Bungalow Mystery, wherein Nancy's lawyer father, Carson Drew, advises Nancy and her friends to "Watch out for any stray, flying bullets" during a car chase.

As a former librarian, I would say well-written autobiographies and biographies of those you admire (US politicians, celebrities, athletes, world leaders, etc.) is a good place to start. Devote a shelf or two to those books (and you don't need ten bios on one person - just one or two will do). Go on from there to other subjects which interest you.

But please make certain that the library you build is for your own enjoyment and/ or education on a certain subject (say, The Holocaust) - not to impress visitors to your home when they peruse the titles. I've been a visitor in so many homes with the 'impressive titles' lining the shelves, and I know damn well the homeowner and the family members have never opened the books.

R6 - Great response! Speaking of "books never read", one of things I love most about the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC is that George Vanderbilt *actually read* all the books in his magnificent library!

Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald. Best book I ever read.

Books are SO decorative!

If you enjoy Tudor era Britain, I loved "Young and Damned and Fair: The Life of Catherine Howard, Fifth Wife of King Henry VIII".

It is very well-researched and densely written, but I totally enjoyed it.

The complete works of Willa Cather—seriously

Necessary for any gay man's library.

I strongly recommend the novels of Trollope and Balzac. Very different, but both fascinating, entertaining, and underrated.

I've always thought it would be interesting to have every Pulitzer Prize winning book in a personal library collection, not only for the reading value, but the longer view on how trends in literature have changed over time.

You could also substitute Booker and Hugo awards, as well, depending on your tastes.

The Beans of Egypt Maine was one of my favorite novels for years.

Dorothy Parker...Guy de Maupassant....Anita Loos...

Another vote for Trollope and Balzac, eclipsed outside of their native lands by Dickens and Zola, respectively (not that they aren't also worthy of attention). Nearly any Russian novel written between the late 19th Century and the WWII period will be of some interest. Don't ignore Soviet writers because they were Soviet. Edith Wharton, Henry James, Shirley Jackson, Booth Tarkington and William Faulkner are, for me, the essential Americans. Italian literature between the wars was fascinating. Chekov, Bulgakov, Nabokov, Nathaniel West, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, all have much to offer. Check out African folk tales, Japanese ghost stories and the writings of Poe, Lovecraft, Dunsany and Chambers.

In terms of other subjects, Iranian, Indian, Italian, French, American, German, Latin American and Spanish architecture are my chief non-fiction interests along with global urbanism and landscape design.

Borges

The Complete Stories, Flannery O'Connor. Really economical and masterful in her writing.

Consider Spanish language poets such as

Pablo Neruda

Antonio Machado

Jorge Luis Borges (such a strong influence on contemporary philosophy: Derrida, hyperrealism, and all that)

Juana de Ibarbourou (popular Uruguayan poet)

Juan Ramón Jiménez (Nobel Prize winner, a lovely children's book Platero y Yo, just lyrical, Spanish as it should be written.)

Federico García Lorca (greatest of all, according to some)

You may also try reading the lyrics of tangos - start with Carlos Gardel

OP-- be sure to also check out the 200+-post "What Books Are You Currently Reading?" thread right here on DL. You'll find lots of good suggestions there.

There are multiple threads for every year, going back to 2020. Here's the first one for this year:

"The Journey of the Flame" by Walter Nordhoff. You will be entranced. You never read anything like this story. The synopsis is bland compared to the actual content of the story, can't recommend enough.

Amazon synopsis: On the eve of his 104th birthday, Don Juan Obrigon-tall and straight, with hair still flaming red-prepares to tell his life story to assembled relatives and guests. The story he will tell describes his travels as a boy of twelve in 1810, when he accompanied the Spanish viceroy of Baja California from the southern tip of Baja California to Monterey.

The Norwegian Book Club published a list of the 100 best books, as judged by a variety of authors they surveyed. It's a great list, covering time and space. Just google it.

R17: Balzac wrote "Cousin Bette" with Dataloungers as the target audience.

Two other great Balzac novels: Cousin Pons and Pere Goriot.

I find it interesting to look up authors who were very popular in their day, best sellers and Pulitzer Prize winners, but who are relatively forgotten now.

TSUNDOKU, a Japanese word meaning “acquiring books and letting them pile up without reading them”

DL, thanks so much for your suggestions!

I plan on purchasing one book at a time, and/or checking books out from my local library.

I’ve never been one to purchase books & not read them. I’ve purchased 2 recently, & will complete each one before purchasing another. A personal takes time to build, so please know I’m not interested in purchasing a bunch of books just for the hell of it.

Thanks again! 😊

^ Correction:

“A personal library takes time to build”

Try reading some Balzac and Zola. Fantastic authors!

Lord, at least R31 didn't suggest Hugo, but, really.

[quote] I've never been one to purchase books & not read them. I've purchased two recently, & will complete each one before buying another. A personal library takes time to build [/quote]

OP, I'm delighted to hear this. I assume you don't organize your books by color, either.

OP, just be mindful of the fact that someone will have to deal with / dispose of these books after your death. I just assume you're childless.

Good luck building your personal library!

R34, his heirs can contact Fahrenheit 451 for book disposal needs.