Such code is being rewritten over and over

The list must be reimplemented for each and every data item


struct int_item {
    int value;
    struct int_item *next;
};
while (fgets(line, 16, stdin))
  {
  item = malloc(sizeof(*item));
  item->value = atoi(line);
  list_insert(head, item);
  }


struct str_item {
    char str[16];
    struct str_item *next;
};
while (fgets(line, 16, stdin))
  {
  item = malloc(sizeof(*item));
  memcpy(item->str, line, 16);
  list_insert(head, item);
  }

And double-linked lists are not so easy to write and rewrite
Simple lists allow some operations, but are quite limited
You really need something more to do stuff different from reversing