Another A to Z list?

Sorry, but I simply had to get this out of my system. Doing the A to Z comic and pulp cover list on Mondays made me see if I could come up with a list of novels I've read that could run the alphabetic gamut. I simply wrote down the first novel I could think of for each title. Each, I promise, is fun and worth reading.


Around the World in 80 Days, by Jules Verne (Phileas Fogg--coolest fictional character ever)

The Beardless Warriors, by Richard Matheson (intense WWII novel with gripping battle scenes and characters you really care about)

Captain Blood, by Rafael Sabatini (prose so fun it makes you read it aloud)

The Drawing of the Dark, by Tim Powers (fantasy novel set in the 16th novel during the siege of Vienna-bizarre but internally logical plot)

The Eagle has Landed, by Jack Higgins (can't-put-it-down suspense and action)

 Foundation, by Isaac Asimov (first of a trilogy; classic and thoughtful SF)

The Guns of Navarone, by Alistair MacLean (one of the best men-on-a-mission novels ever)

The Haunted Bookshop, by Christopher Morley (a mystery, but mostly about a love for books)

The Iron Monster Raid, by I.G. Edmunds (a young readers adaptation of the TV series The Rat Patrol; has a few really exciting action set pieces and improves on the TV show in terms of good plot construction)

The Jungle Book, by Rudyard Kipling (Rikki-Tikki-Tavi is yet another story that begs to be read aloud.)

Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara (classic novel about the battle of Gettysburg)

The Legion of Space, by Jack Williamson (great pulp SF novel--sort of "The Three Musketeers" in space)

The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury (Bradbury's prose always manages to sound poetic and conversational at the same time)

Nine Princes in Amber, by Roger Zelazny (first of a five-book series that tells an epic and multi-dimensional story of war, intrigue, betrayal and a lot of really weird magic)

Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck (ah, poor Lenny!)

The Prisoner of Zenda, by Anthony Hope (classic adventure tale)

Queen's Gambit, by Walter Tevis (story of a female chess prodigy; Tevis gives the chess matches an edge-of-your-seat tension)

Red Harvest, by Dashiell Hammett (my favorite hard-boiled novel)

The Sign of Four, by Arthur Conan Doyle (Holmes, Watson, Toby the bloodhound and a chase down the Thames River)

Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson (still the best pirate novel ever)

Under the Moons of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs (the original title of A Princess of Mars; first in a series of adventures on our war-hungry sister planet)

Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis (if you don't get a lump in your throat at the part where Reepicheep comforts Eustace, then you simply aren't human anymore)

War of the Worlds, by H.G. Wells (Martian tripods rate a 9.7 on the Bogart/Karloff Coolness scale)

X-Men: Avengers--the Gamma Quest Trilogy, by Greg Cox (One of a number of prose novels that Marvel Comics put out during the 1990s. In this one, the two super teams join forces when someone kidnaps Wolverine, Rogue and the Scarlet Witch)

The Young Pitcher, by Zane Grey (an entertaining picture of collegiate sports at the turn of the 20th century)

Zemba, by Walter Gibson (one of the best Shadow novels with what might be the single best twist ending ever)