The Best of...Craig Lopus's Top 12

My next unsuspecting victim to participate in my "Best of" series is one of my very best friends, Craig Lopus. I have known Craig for over 15 years...we used to work together back in the joyous days of corporate torment. I left the torment to stay at home with my kids, and Craig left the torment to open his own wine store (Tim's Wine Market in Windermere Florida). People! Having a friend in the wine business is a very good thing!

Before moving to Florida in the '90's, Craig and his wife have lived in NYC, the Philippines, France and England, and probably more places I'm forgetting. He always seems to have his nose in a book (at least until he went retail) so I thought he would make a perfect candidate for my series. I did not hear one word of complaint, in fact he came back with 12 books instead of 10! Way to go buddy! Here are his picks, with Craig-ish commentary:



1. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens: I first read this book in 8th grade English. In fact, we read most of it aloud in class. It was the first book that opened my eyes to literature and reading.







2. Airport - Arthur Hailey: Again, I read this in 10th grade, and was the work of fiction that inspired my love for big, thick, juicy novels.







3. Exodus - Leon Uris: Reading this book was the first time I felt I really understood the Jewish perspective regarding living in the promised land.







4. A Year in Provence - Peter Mayle: This book changed our lives. We vacationed and eventually moved to Aix en Provence to capture the provencial joive de vivre.







5. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen: This classic sparked an interest that resulted in my reading all of the Bronte and Austin books while we lived in England.







6. Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit - JR Tolkein: I read all of these back in college. It enhanced my cred as a cool dude amongst the babes.







7. The DaVinci Code - Dan Brown: OK, a little lame but I read it twice, saw the movie when it premiered in Paris and took the Louvre DaVinci tour. I actually saw the tomb where Mary was buried (it IS non-fiction isn't it???).





8. The entire Clive Cussler Dirk Pitt series: A manly man takes on the world. My hero.







9. The entire Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling: Great storytelling. Being able to talk and watch the movies with my kids - priceless.






10. Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand: I read this in my early '20's. This book made me realize that I wasn't nearly as smart as I thought I was. Would someone explain it to me again???







11. Shogun (and the entire Asian saga of the other 6 books) - James Clavel: He was able to transport me from my small Manhattan apartment halfway across the world to an exotic land of samurai and geisha. I loved all of those historical novels.





12. Sophie's Choice - William Styron: Last but not least. Rip your heart out saga about the human toll of WWII. It put a human face to the millions of unfathomable situations that people were forced into during war time.





P.S. I also wanted to add "Wine for Dummies", but I'm not sure if it would be career suicide!