When I joined Mastodon two years ago, the #7Books #7BooksToKnowMe hashtags were a thing, and I had fun compiling my list. How do I choose only SEVEN?!? At the time I declared that my list was by no means permanent. With that said, I feel an update is past due, especially since one of the authors from my original list turned out to be... problematic. I'm posting the original list, as well as the current version (images to save characters, with #AltText of course).
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@RadiantFlux
#7books 
1. American Tabloid
James Ellroy
2. VALIS
Philip K. Dick
3. Neuromancer
William Gibson
4. The Job
William S. Burroughs
5. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Mordecai Richler
6. The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail
Henry Lincoln, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh
7. Anne of Green Gables
L. M. Montgomery
#7books seems like an interesting way to find out more about people's tastes.
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Regeneration by Pat Barker
The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard (yes the whole lot counts as one)
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Nella Last's Diaries
The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki
Doctor Syn: A Smuggler Tale of Romney Marsh by Russell Thorndike
So my #7books to get to know me:
1. 1984
2. Pride & Prejudice
3. Village School - Miss Read
4. Crocodile on the Sandbank - Elizabeth Peters
5. Hunger - Sean Kelly
6. Crackling Ice - Nicholas Walker
7. Dimsie Moves Up - Dorita Fairlie Bruce
Ok, let's do this. Geez, I love this.
My #7books list:
- The Hitchhiker Guide To The Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
- Blood Meridian (Cormack McCarthy)
- The Memory Illusion (Julia Shaw)
- Foundation (original trilogy, Isaac Asimov)
- Lord Of The Rings (J. R. R. Tolkien)
- The Complete Fiction Works of H.P. Lovecraft
- Il Sistema Periodico (The Periodic Table) (Primo Levi)
Sometimes you come across a hashtags that makes you think. And maybe even write a blog post. Like #7Books that will help you to get to know me. First there was some hesitation, because would I even get to seven books? And maybe the books I pick are too shallow or maybe a bit over the top?
I have not been reading much in recent years. Time was spent on family live, birding/walking, social media and yes, work. And to be honest, picking a book I read a thousand year ago to ‘describe me’ seems a bit forced. Anyway, I give it a shot…
I start with two books that are my all-time favorites I recently reread: 1. The origin of species – Charles Darwin 2. A short history of nearly everything – Bill Bryson
Writing this reminds me of an exercise we did in school. Watching an old drawing with several people (unfortunately forgot the scene) we were asked with which person we identified the most. I picked the person observing the other people in the scene. To observe and wanting to understand how thinks work. So basically I am a science guy. And add: not into religion.
The groundbreaking book of Charles Darwin is awesome in several ways. The epic journey with the Beagle which lead to this book (and others), the reasoning and deduction of the scientist which lead to the theory and the endeavor to publish it while he knew there would be religious flack. I am proud to own a 6th edition from 1897.
The book by Bill Bryson is complete different. Bill is not a scientist but an observer with many questions he dares to ask. In this book he covers many topics of life, nature, science, universe, and everything. Written clearly and with a lot of humor. Bill is a brilliant writer, and I read most of his books and I have a small collection. I could easily fill the list with his books, but that is probably not the idea behind #7Books. That being said…
Books 3 and 4 3. The Monk in the Garden: The lost and found genius of Gregor Mendel – Robin Marantz Henig 4. The Body – Bill Bryson
Gregor Mendell was an Austrian scientist and monk who lived in the 1800s. He experimented on garden pea hybrids and is known as the father of modern genetics. The book itself is partly fictionalized because many records about his live are lost. I read this book a long time ago (even before reading Darwin).
The Body is Bill Bryson latest and probably last book (because of retirement) in which he guides the reader through the human body. With facts and anecdotes the books leads to a deeper understanding of human body.
There are thousands of things that can kill us—slightly more than eight thousand, according to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems compiled by the World Health Organization—and we escape every one of them but one. For most of us, that’s not a bad deal. – Bill Bryson
Books 5, 6 and 7 – fiction department In the fiction department I have read books in different genres, from Stephen King to Harry Mulisch, and from Nicci French tot Jonas Jonasson. I do not keep all the books I read. Some books I enjoyed so much the end up on the bookshelf. To be honest it feels very arbitrary to pick three books, because most of them I read a long time ago. But looking at the bookshelf these three caught my attention the most: 5. The Kite Runner – Haled Hosseini 6. The shadow of the wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafón 7. Censoring an Iranian Love Story – Shahriar Mandanipour
Not sure what these books tell about me…
New instance, new #introduction part 2 (reposted from my previous instance):
#7Books is agony, so #14books it is:
— #Imajica by Clive Barker
— #Orlando by Virginia Woolf
— #GoodOmens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
— #JonathanStrangeAndMrNorrel by Susanna Clarke
— #TheSouthernReachTrilogy by @jeffvandermeer
— #DearSenthuran by Akwaeke Emezi
— #TheGoneAwayWorld by Nick Harkaway
— #WhiteIsForWitching by Helen Oyeyemi
— #RoadsidePicnic by the Brothers Strugatsky
— #AllTheBirdsInTheSky by @charliejane
— #Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
— #TheGoldfinch by Donna Tartt
— #BloodMeridian by Cormac McCarthy
— #TheLibraryAtMountChar by Scott Hawkins
Ok, I fibbed. One last go-to comfort re-read: the #Discworld series, also by Terry Pratchett (Is listing an entire series cheating? I can't possibly pick one. Sorry not sorry.)
Given, I am an avid reader and people want to find out stuff about me.
J.D. Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye
George Orwell - Animal Farm
Allen Ginsberg - Howl, Kaddish & other poems
Jack Kerouac - Dharma Bums
John Steinbeck - Of Mice & Men
Theodor Storm - Der Schimmelreiter (The Rider on the white horse)
Alexander Solzhenitsyn - Archipelago Gulag
#7Books (+ 1) that powerfully impacted me:
1. Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
By Betty Edwards
2. The Americans
By Robert Frank
3. A Legacy of Liberation: Thabo Mbeki and the Future of the South African Dream
By Mark Gevisser
4. Bluebeard
By Kurt Vonnegut
5. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
By Stephen King
6. The Negative
By Ansel Adams
7. The Sellout
By Paul Beatty
8. A Catcher in the Rye
By JD Salinger
I saw a lot of #7books so I will recommend my own, but make all the authors #Arab. All books listed have helped to inspire me while #writing. Here are #7booksilove:
Khalil Gibran's The Prophet
The Golden Chariot by Salwa Bakr
Rama and the Dragon by Edwar al-Kharrat
The Queue by Basma Abdel Aziz
+100 Iraq (short story collection)
+100: A Century After Nakhba (short story collection)
The Book of Disappearance by Ibtisam Azem
#7bookstogettoknowme @bookstodon #middleeast #writingcommunity
Repost for new server.
#7books #7bookstoknowme
1) Murderbot series by Martha Wells
2) Steerswoman series by Rosemary Kirstein
3) The Voyage of the White Cloud by M. Darusha Wehm
4) Manifold Worlds duology by Foz Meadows
5) The Innsmouth Legacy by Ruthanna Emyrs
6) Sal & Gabi duology by Carlos Hernandez
7) Tales of the Polity series by Francesca Forrest
Honorable mention, most of Aliette d'Bodard's work.
#book #books #bookstodon @bookstodon @bookstodon.com #sff #speculativefiction
#7books to get to know me (in no order of preference):
World of Wonders - Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Anything by Fredrik Backman or Louise Penny
Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer
One Long River of Song - Brian Doyle
The Space Between Us - Thrity Umrigar
The Murmur of Bees - Sofía Segovia
Antología General - Pablo Neruda
#7books from my 2022 reading that I wrote “Fun!” beside after finishing them:
We Sold Our Souls - Grady Hendrix
The Atmospherians - Alex McElroy
The Verifiers - Jane Pek
The Husbands - Chandler Baker
Just Like Mother - Anne Heltzel
Counterfeit - Kirsten Chen
Bookish People - Susan Coll
Mickey 7 - Edward Ashton
Whoops, that’s eight :)
#AmReading #2022Reading
@gobsmacked Have been looking for your #7books but can't find?
@gobsmacked Well gobsmacked I am ...gobsmacked and flattered that you picked my list for this #7Books reading challenge. It's a great idea & I hope a few other people are interested too! The one book I would add is #JenniferMakumbi's #Kintu.
Continued thread
When you discover that one of your #7Books has just been released in #Italian cinemas and won the 2022 #CannesJuryPrize! 
Described as the straight #BrokebackMountain, Paolo Cognetti's #EightMountains is the story of two boys, one from a remote mountain village, one from the city. In adulthood they reunite to build a mountain house but cracks appear in their friendship
https://m.festival-cannes.com/en/festival/films/le-otto-montagne
#7Books to get to know me (in no particular order, and not a stagnant list):
The Talisman by Stephen King & Peter Straub
The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Incomplete Book of Running by Peter Sagal
1776 by David McCullough
1. The Secret Garden. Frances Hodgson Burnett
2. Things Fall Apart. Chinua Achebe
3. La Peste. Albert Camus. (Atheism, mostly)
4. South Riding. Winifred Holtby
5. Le otto montagne (The Eight Mountains). Paolo Cognetti
6. Go. Went. Gone. Jenny Erpenbeck
7. Honeymoon. Malachi Whitaker
Bonus: The Accidental Tourist #AnneTyler
#7books to understand a gen Xer introvert who grew up in the middle of nowhere Appalachia
1. Mysteries of Paris - Eugene Sue
2. A gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles
3. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrel - Susanna Clarke
4. Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
5. Symphony - Charles L Grant
6. American Gods - Neil Gaiman
7. Twilight…..judge me I don’t mind
#7Books
1. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
2. Geek Love - Katherine Dunne
3. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy O’Toole
4. The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
5. Life - Keith Richards
6. Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
7. Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts - Julian Rubinstein
7. Restraint of Beasts - Magnus Mills