> 1-The Count of Monte Cristo. It's got a lot of French history in it that can be hard to follow unless you were paying attention in History Class, but don't let that put you off, it is an *excellent* read, and my favorite book. You might want to think about taking notes, though, as sometimes it can be hard to remember which character did what. Just a short description of each one would do, actually.

Agreed. Ticia suggested that I read this novel some time ago, and I did. I have to admit that it's one of those rare books that kept me spellbound the entire time I was reading it, all 1400+ pages. (The unabridged version, of course.)

By the way, DO NOT watch any of the movie versions that have been made from this book before reading it. You'll only be confused. I've seen two versions of it now, one of them an eight-hour French miniseries with English subtitles, and neither of them did adequate justice to the book. I actually got angry about some of the "dramatic licenses" that were taken. Although I must say, Gerard DePardieu made an excellent Comte de Monte Cristo.

Sadly, there is no Book A Minute version of TCOMC available. So, I have decided to write one. See the bottom of this post if you want to read it.

> 3-The Pern series by Anne McCaffery has been mentioned before in this thread, but I love it.

Ooh, yeah! I started reading the Pern series in 1995, and couldn't stop until I had read every last book. Back when my ISP was Prodigy, I used to attend the Pern chat every week. I never did get into fan fiction, though. Not my thing.

> 5-Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card. I liked Ender's Shadow better, but they are both very good books.

I've heard these books recommended many, many times, but I have yet to try them out. I should put them on my list.

Okay, here's my BAM interpretation of The Count of Monte Cristo:

__THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO__
By Alexandre Dumas

Edmond Dantés: "I am a simple sailor. All I want out of life is to marry my beloved Mercédès and be a ship captain."

Fernand, Danglars, & de Villefort: "Edmond Dantés is in our way. We'll squash him like a bug."

Fernand, Danglars, and De Villefort all CONSPIRE against Edmond. Edmond goes to PRISON for FOURTEEN YEARS and almost DIES, but meets Faria who EDUCATES him, tells him about a TREASURE and helps him ESCAPE.

Dantés: "I shall use my newfound riches and anonymity to get REVENGE on my betrayers, all the while rationalizing it away as JUSTICE."

Dantés waits ten years, does a bunch of STUFF that seems unimportant but is CRUCIAL to the story later, and then goes to PARIS.

Dantés: "I am Edmond Dantés!"

Fernand, Danglars, & de Villefort: "Aaah!"

Fernand SHOOTS himself. De Villefort goes MAD. Danglars goes BANKRUPT.

Dantés: "Ah, reven-- er, JUSTICE feels so good."

THE END

Gri"that's my first attempt at a BAM condensation. How'd I do?"shny