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Favorite books
elcapitan:
--- Quote from: imagist42 on 31 Jul 2008, 08:47 ---I think there must be some sort of irony in him questioning whether you read A Brief History of Time and then claiming his favorite book is Gravity's Rainbow. It's not possible to actually read that book, is it?
(Please note the lightly flavored sarcasm, as it is definitely possible to read and enjoy both of these.)
--- End quote ---
You'd almost think I randomly jumped on the board after about a year and a half off, and started trolling for noobs! Surely not.
All asshattery aside, I have indeed read both Gravity's Rainbow and ABHOT, two and three times respectively. They're both fantastic books. I wasn't lying when I said that GR was my favourite book ever, it really is incredible. It's difficult, but absolutely worth the effort.
And as for Michael Crichton books, I quite enjoyed Jurassic Park. So?
--- Quote from: jimbunny on 31 Jul 2008, 07:28 ---This must be the most unqualified, unwarranted, most flagrant piece of assholery I have yet seen on this forum... It hits just about all the required bases; really, it's so perfect that I would suspect some sort of tomfoolery if it did not ring quite so pathetically sincere. Egad, it's good to have an example every now and then of what exactly I'm missing by only hanging about such normally well-mannered boards.
--- End quote ---
Man, you should have been here back in the glory days. Only you weren't.
Border Reiver:
Most Michael Crichton books are really overwritten pieces of fluff, but I'll admit to having enjoyed Jurassic Park and Eaters of the Dead.
ForteBass:
--- Quote from: blankfile on 31 Jul 2008, 08:01 ---Wow, just wow. Did you get your daily dose of flames? I hope it did make you happy, for I will not even bother answering or justifying myself to this kind of behavior.
Have a good day.
--- End quote ---
You... you do know that this was, in fact, answering him, yes?
As for favorite books: I love To Kill a Mockingbird. I just recently read Fahrenheit 451 for the first time and I loved that too. I've been slowly working my way through a mess of Faulkner, and absolutely love The Sound and the Fury.
Inlander:
Hey, did I mention You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe? I think I forgot!
I love You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe. Who is not, at any moment, to be confused with Tom Wolfe. 700 pages or so without a plot to speak of, and absolutely gripping.
parm:
People who've read the Life of Pi should also maybe have a read of some Salman Rushdie; the styles are similar in some respects and they both employ elements of magical-realism. Likewise, the already-mentioned Haruki Murakami has some magic-real elements, although a lot of his books are more... textural? Is that the right word?... than Rushdie or Martell.
And the logical next step from Haruki Murakami is, obviously, David Mitchell, whose first couple of books were pretty much cover versions of Murakami. All human beings should read Cloud Atlas, which is a stunning, genre-defying, post-structural journey through time and place and people, telling six entirely distinct stories bound together in unlikely ways.
Also, Umberto Eco can pretty much do no wrong if you're willing to take the time to work through his often dense prose (the "Adso admires a door" chapter from Name of the Rose turns a lot of people off). His books are never quite what they appear to be on the surface and are always wonderfully researched, gloriously written and full of fascinating detail and wonderful imagination.
Similarly, everyone should read "Fictions" by Jorge Luis Borges - okay, it's not a novel, it's a collection of short stories and "fictional" works, but the man can cram more original ideas into a 2 page short story than most novelists can into 600 and teach you about philosophy, society, language and humanity all at the same time.
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