THESE FORUMS NOW CLOSED (read only)
Fun Stuff => ENJOY => Topic started by: Beast on 26 Jul 2008, 02:21
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list your favorite books, please
i am on a reading spree
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American Gods
A Clock work Orange
Jane Eyre
Dune
Fight Club
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Big Sur - Jack Kerouac
Chronicle of a Death Foretold - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
any of Matsuo Basho's travel journals, too.
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I second American Gods
also,
Good Omens (fuck, everything by Neil Gaiman)
Odd Thomas
To Kill a Mockingbird
Of Mice and Men
:cry: :cry: Flowers for Algernon :cry: :cry:
Lord of the Rings
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I love Gaiman but I couldn't get through American Gods... just didn't do it for me.
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!!!!!!!
You, sir, should be ashamed of yourself.
Also Beast- try the Roma Sub Rosa series (first book is Roman Blood) and Pompeii.
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Man, lists are boring. Tell us why the books are your favourite!
Off the top of my head and in no particular order:
The Enormous Room, by e. e. cummings
A semi-fictionalised account of cummings' experiences in an internment camp in France in World War I: he was driving an ambulance on the Western Front, and basically being a bit odd and subversive as was his wont, and the French decided he was a bit too much of a suspicious character for their liking during war time, so they arrested him. In the book cummings constantly takes delight in his surroundings, even in the most abject misery, and in his fellow internees, who other people might regard as the scum of the earth. He present such an unusual and fond view of the world, even at its worst, that it's impossible not be swept up in his pure joy in life.
Just Above My Head, by James Baldwin
Baldwin is possibly my favourite novelist, and this is a big, ambitious book in which he brought together every single one of the themes he explored throughout his career: homosexuality and sexual relations, family and community, brotherhhood, the Civil Rights movement, and the performing arts. The book is almost 19th-century in its breadth and in the way Baldwin, as ever, takes a big group of characters and shows how they're bonded together, but thematically it couldn't have been written in any century other than the 20th.
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
You could describe this as the ultimate post-modern novel - if it weren't for the fact that it was written in the 1700s. Sterne sets the novel up as ostensibly an autobiography of Tristram Shandy - and then in 600 or so pages barely gets beyond the title character's birth as he keeps taking asides, telling tall tales, and generally pulling the reader down figurative rabbit-warrens. Sterne's imagination and approach to the art of the novel is, at times, audacious: at one point, after the death of a character, he completely blacks out two pages "for mourning". At another he has a character swish a cane in the air - and demonstrates this by breaking up the text with a line-drawing of the shape the cane made. He cuts off characters in mid-sentence to go on thirty-page-long tangents before returning to the exact point he'd left from. It took me about fifty pages to get into the rhythm of the novel and start enjoying it; by the end I'd understood less than 50% of what I'd read, but enjoyed every moment of it. There's just not another book like it.
Ancestors, by William Maxwell
Maxwell tells the story of his family, and writes about what various of his ancestors did with their lives. Nothing remarkable about that, but over the course of the book Maxwell builds up such a strong sense of continuing and shared humanity, and the way in which we're all bound together across time and generations, that the reader can't help but be moved. Maxwell always wrote with great humanity, compassion, and wisdom, never more so than in this book.
The Encyclopedia of Superstitions, by E. and M.A. Radford, edited and revised by Christina Hole
A book that demonstrates just how many of the little, apparently meaningless gestures we make every day actually go back centuries, and were once invested with the most significant of meanings by people. Take just one example: remember the last time you went to a restaurant, and the meal came out with a little parsley for garnish? Just decoration, right? Actually, people used to think that parsley was a general cure-all for poisons, so as an act of good faith when somebody came over to your house for dinner you'd put a little sprig of parsley on top - sort of "Why would I poison you, then give you the antidote? Obviously, then, the food is safe to eat". This book is full of tiny things like that that make the human world make just a little bit more sense - while also making them seem even more bizarre than they already appear.
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Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins.
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I love Gaiman but I couldn't get through American Gods... just didn't do it for me.
I think I can see that.
I love Gaiman and think American Gods is nothing short of archetypal for him.
However, most (all, that I've encountered) of his other stuff is much, much shorter. AG is very much a novel. Everything else is Graphic Novel length.
I recommend you give AG another try and try to sit through it; it's worth it. Particularly since it gives a touch of depth to Anansi Boys.
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Anansi Boys is roughly the same length though, isn't it? And Good Omens might be even longer.
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I don't know. My copies are all different sizes and different font types, so I can't judge. However, American Gods strikes me as a much longer book.
And Good Omens was co-written with Pratchett, so who knows how that worked?
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I have mass market paperback versions of Good Omens, American Gods, Anansi Boys and Neverwhere all sitting in a row on my bookshelf, and American Gods is the longest one by roughly 150 pages (Good Omens comes next, and the other two are about 50 pages shorter than that).
Oh, right! Favorite novels.
The aforementioned American Gods (I haven't been all the way through Anansi Boys or Neverwhere yet, so they have no place in this discussion for me) is absolutely great. I think Neil Gaiman has single-handedly done more for fantasy (or, at least, the fantastic) than any other living author. I can see how people would feel American Gods in particular drags toward the end, but his writing is just so full of... well, I can't quite describe it concisely, but it's full of something that you should not be missing out on.
By the same token, China Miéville's Perdido Street Station is a masterpiece. Miéville just kind of creates this world and sucks you into it. A common criticism of the book is that his prose is slightly on the experimental (and, consequently, obtuse) side, but such sections aren't quite as prevalent as these critics would have you believe. For the most part it reads wonderfully, and is simulatenously immediately slap-you-in-the-face engrossing and deep, significant thought-provoking in a way that few other books have achieved. I am now working my way through his next book, The Scar, and while it is starting off a bit slower I can see the same aspects of his style shining through.
Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is one of those novels that, while already extremely long, could continue on for twice as many pages and I would never tire of it. Every time I read it I begin to think "Well of course, of course, of course gentleman-magicians shaped the course of English history, who could possibly think otherwise?" She has a way of making this historical fiction so real, so plausible that no one could doubt it. Some complain that the middle third (the war segment) drags, but I think if you'll just read it with a wholly susceptible mind then you won't care at all.
More quickies: everything Douglas Adams ever wrote is just bloody hilarious. So are Don Quixote (seriously), Joseph Heller's Catch-22 and Kurt Vonnegut's... well, several books, but mostly Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat's Cradle I guess. I like Terry Pratchett (who doesn't?) and I'm pretty sure he keeps getting better and better. Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness is one of the only books I've studied that didn't make me want to tear my eyes out (I read Catch-22 before I was required to, Great Expectations would have been a whole lot better if I weren't trying to analyze it, and I wouldn't call Fahrenheit 451 terrible), and in retrospect it was pretty great overall. Also, Ender's Game. I am pretty sure I do not need to explain that one.
Re: poetry: the only books I actually own are T. S. Eliot's Waste Land and Other Poems, the complete works of William Carlos Williams, and a smattering of Bukowski. The Last Night of the Earth Poems is my favorite and I highly recommend "we ain't got no money, honey, but we got rain" to anyone who wants to see what the man's all about.
That is all I guess?
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Spring Snow
On The Road
Treasure Island
Siddhartha
The Dark Tower series
The Sickness Unto Death
Code Complete
The Pragmatic Programmer
The Mythical Man Month
The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
The C++ Programming Language
Ok, so not everyone will be interested in the last 5....
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A Stitch in Time by Andrew J. Robinson
I honestly don't know why this is my favourite book. I think the story is so engaging, everytime I pick it up, I have trouble putting it down. It has everything you want in a book: love, betrayal, spy stuff, murder. It is not your typical book, it is both very linear, and not linear at the same time. The book's story is set in three different periods in the life of a man which you visit in every chapter, but there is a common theme to each chapter.
Princess Bride by S. Morgenstern, Good Parts Edition by William Goldman
"Does it have any sports?" "Are you kidding? Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles..." Need I say more?
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Heck yes, Princess Bride! (Although, I secretly hate it just as much as I love it...)
All of my favorite books are childish...
Harry Potter Series (J.K. Rowling, obviously): Mainly because it was the first series that I actually read to completion and always wanted more of it. It really inspired me to create my own stories and make friends who shared similar interests to my own. Plus it opened my eyes to a whole heck of a lot of different things, that I won't go into... I also find something new hidden in them, every time I read them --whether it's a one-liner I never noticed before that makes me laugh, or some kind of a clue as to what was coming.
Rats Saw God (Dave Thomas, not the singer): I have read this book about six times, but I do not own it. It's kind of hard to explain why I love this book, when I didn't much care for any of his other works (except for Slave Day which was pretty good). I guess I liked the way the story was told --going back to the past in Texas but also getting to see how the story from the past was affecting the way he was dealing in the present. It was just a really good story.
The Broken H (part of J.L. Langley's Cowboy series, but this is gay so you probably don't want to read it): I love this book because, 1. I think Native American Guys are Hot. 2. I think sheriffs can be pretty hot. 3. Cowboys are hot. 4. She writes in a witty, catchy tone that mimics what I try to achieve. I get totally wrapped up in her books every time I read them (about four times, and I haven't even had them for a year). I always find something different in them (plus, it's fun to fix all of the typos... Loose ID is an ebook publisher that only prints a select few paperbacks, a couple of times a year...and I guess they don't have a very good editorial department. It's great fun)
The Stephanie Plum Series (Janet Evanovich): What is there not to love about Stephanie Plum? There are 14 books out now (I haven't started the newest yet, it just came out, it's sitting on my floor waiting to be read). She started to go a little down hill around #10, but my Mom assured me that 14 has made up for sucky 11, 12, and 13. It's funny, has cute guys (for the ladies), lots of explosions (for the guys), and is filled with mystery and intrigue (for everyone!). And if you don't love Grandma Mauzer, you are dead inside. Seriously.
Wow, I have just realized that all of the other books that I actually like on my shelf right now are Yaoi mangas... I need a better hobby. (And besides those listed above, I have...13 novels in my room... I think I need to get more of my books from home).
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Actually, American Gods is my least favorite Gaiman novel, too. Granted, I haven't read it in a few years (and I've actually been meaning to reread it) but ... yeah. Something about it just didn't click that well with me, I guess. (For what it's worth, it definitely wasn't the length.)
Anyway, my favorites are:
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski - it's really hard to describe this novel. it's terrifying, but brilliant at the same time; I definitely understand why some people don't like it (it's formally all over the place) but I think it's pretty awesome.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - this is some of the most beautiful prose I've ever read.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain - I like this book a lot more than The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Actually, the only part I'm not a huge fan of is the part where Tom Sawyer comes in - he's kind of an asshole. Huck Finn is awesome, though.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller - this is probably the funniest novel I've ever read. Yossarian is a fantastic protagonist.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman - well, I like the basic idea behind this (Average Guy goes on Fantastic Adventures) and the ending is pretty much perfect.
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka - I guess this isn't technically a book; it's only about sixty pages long. But it's really amazing if you like surrealism at all. And the opening line is priceless: "One morning, upon awakening from agitated dreams, Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin."
And if you like zombies, go for The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z by Max Brooks.
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Don DeLillo - Underworld. It may be true (as some critics have said) that the best piece of writing is at the very start of this huge book (the Prologue - The Triumph of Death) but that's because it's so perfect nothing that follows could match up. The triumph of the Giants in the 1951 world series final stands as a perfect day, a beautiful moment that stands as the calm before the storm, as DeLillo offers his concerns over technology, waste, an "us and them" mentality, breakdown of the family dynamic etc. But even without this kind of stuff, the fact that it kept me lost in its world for the long time it took me to finish it means it's probably my favourite novel.
Ken Kesey - One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest - The novel is somehow, impossibly better than the film.
Short stories: Donald Barthelme - Me and Miss Mandible.
Vladamir Nabokov - Sounds
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From what I've heard, the movie for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest sounds truly horrific. But the novel is amazing.
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the movie was VERY good! It was not shot from the perspective of the Chief, but still very, very good.
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Newer Awesomes:
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim ~ David Sedaris
- I have yet to read Naked, but I have started on Me Talk Pretty One Day. However, this book really does a great job of rocking out Sedaris's family and the final essay is amazing.
The Witching Hour ~ Anne Rice
-I liked this more than her vampire books. Shhh don't tell anyone.
The Historian ~ Elizabeth Kostova
-Smart man's Da Vinci Code. Seriously, the Da Vinci Code is the worst book of all time.
Game of Thrones ~ George R.R. Martin
-Good fantasy nerd read.
Life of Pi ~ Yann Martel
-Jesus, Mary, Mohammed and Vishnu!
Running with Scissors ~ Augusten Burroughs
- I didn't want to buy in on the hype, but I picked it up and finished it in one freaking day.
Old Awesomes:
Princess Bride (Saw someone mentioned this earlier- GOOD CALL!)
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Thornbirds
Les Miserables
Scarlet Pimpernel
Harry Potter- Prisoner of Azkaban
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
It's seriously too early for me to come up with more/better reads. This is just some of the more recent things I have recently read... recently.
Oh yeah, and the Da Vinci Code is still the worst book of all time.
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The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien (my favourite book)
All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
The Steel Bonnets - George MacDonald Fraser
Flashman (the series) - George MacDonald Fraser
Gaunt's Ghosts (the series) - Dan Abnett
I like the harry Potter series as well, but they aren't favs.
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(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/a5/Our_Dumb_World.jpg/200px-Our_Dumb_World.jpg)
Best $20.00 I've ever spent on a book, seriously.
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I've been wanting that book! What was it like?
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Life of Pi ~ Yann Martel
-Jesus, Mary, Mohammed and Vishnu!
Second to the nth. That book is simply wonderful. You want to believe the story he tells.
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All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remar
Man, I had to read this for a WWII unit in history class back in high school...
I loved it.I even named one of my cat's at the time Tjaden. I wanted to name one Katzwitzke (or however the heck you spell it), but my sister wouldn't let me (instead she was named Willow, after the Buffy character --go figure).
It was even better because my teacher had to keep telling us that we coudn't try and BS him by watching the movie instead, because some guys had tried to do it a few years before, so in their essay test one of the questions asks about a dramatic moment for the main character (or something like that) and they're all talking about some scene with a bird (never seen the movie, just going on what Stutz said), and the scene isn't anywhere in the book. They just buuuusted. It was one of his good stories --not best, but good (and the man has a ton of 'em).
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*The Stranger - Albert Camus
I found myself relating way more than i would have expected to this book. But i do not desire to spoil it. So no teaser!
*A brief history of time: From big bang to black holes - Stephen Hawking
Really awesome book, wrote by a pure genius. But yeah, this is not your usual kind of novel. Quoting from wikipedia:
A Brief History of Time attempts to explain a range of subjects in cosmology, including the Big Bang, black holes, light cones and superstring theory, to the nonspecialist reader. Its main goal is to give an overview of the subject but, unusual for a popular science book, it also attempts to explain some complex mathematics.
*The Silver Key- Howard Phillips Lovecraft
Yeah, i'm a Lovecraft fan. But this one in particular is just awesome. Words, however, cannot describe it.
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I love Gaiman but I couldn't get through American Gods... just didn't do it for me.
I think I can see that.
I love Gaiman and think American Gods is nothing short of archetypal for him.
From context, I think you're using "archetypal" incorrectly. I love American Gods, but I far prefer The Sandman, which is up there with my favourite works of literature (yes, literature) of all time.
*A brief history of time: From big bang to black holes - Stephen Hawking
Really awesome book, wrote by a pure genius. But yeah, this is not your usual kind of novel.
It's not a novel, you twit. Also, it should be "written by a pure genius". Maybe stick to Dan Brown and other lowest-common-denominator stuff.
Also, they say that A Brief History Of Time is one of the most bought-but-unread books in publishing history. Are you sure you read it? Or are you just dropping names to sound smart?
*The Silver Key- Howard Phillips Lovecraft
Yeah, i'm a Lovecraft fan. But this one in particular is just awesome. Words, however, cannot describe it.
Try these: not nearly as good as The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, At The Mountains Of Madness, or a solid third of Lovecraft's later work. It is short, though! Maybe that's why you found it appealing.
I'm currently re-reading Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon, which is basically my all-time favourite book. (Some bunch of talentless musicians released a song recently by the same name, that has no connection to the book whatsoever.) Reading it is like removing your brain, turning it inside-out, rubbing it vigorously with a soft leather whip, and reinserting it through your nose (but in a good way). It's difficult in the extreme to get started, but once you get through the first fifty-odd pages, it suddenly becomes simple and natural - I think maybe it takes that long to forget the concepts of a cohesive narrative and plot and simply enjoy the ride.
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The silmarillion- It's just so fun, like reading an elvish bible near the start. The stories in it are pretty damn epic.
A fire upon the deep by Vernor Vinge- I haven't read much Sci-fi, but the whole concept of the 'zones of thought' was really interesting. Also the dog creatures were awesome.
I can't think of many, but I've enjoyed all of the Discworld series. More specifically, I enjoyed everything from equal rites to the fifth elephant more than the ones outside of this time period (but I still enjoyed the rest a great deal). When I was younger, I loved the edge chronicles and the harry potter books.
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Life of Pi ~ Yann Martel
-Jesus, Mary, Mohammed and Vishnu!
Second to the nth. That book is simply wonderful. You want to believe the story he tells.
When I was going to Chapel Hill, the summer book reading program was getting hell for making everyone read the Koran two years prior. Because of that, the communications program came up with an idea of how they might figure out a book that wouldn't piss too many people off for the next year.
Their idea- take the Freshman minions in Comm 9 and make them pick a book to give a presentation on for their Final Exam.
Our group chose this book, and it actually was 2nd on the list for consideration the next year.
We lost to a book about Iraqi soldiers.
Guess that was the safest thing they could come up with at the time. But damned if we didn't try.
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It's not a novel, you twit. Also, it should be "written by a pure genius". Maybe stick to Dan Brown and other lowest-common-denominator stuff.
Also, they say that A Brief History Of Time is one of the most bought-but-unread books in publishing history. Are you sure you read it? Or are you just dropping names to sound smart?
*The Silver Key- Howard Phillips Lovecraft
Yeah, i'm a Lovecraft fan. But this one in particular is just awesome. Words, however, cannot describe it.
Try these: not nearly as good as The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, At The Mountains Of Madness, or a solid third of Lovecraft's later work. It is short, though! Maybe that's why you found it appealing.
I...I'm having a bit of a moment, here. This must be the most unqualified, unwarranted, most flagrant piece of assholery I have yet seen on this forum. It has the name-calling, the grammar nazism (especially baffling in an environment in which many speakers may be using a second language), the asshole statistic-throwing (the "asshole" statistic so called because it is used almost exclusively as a means by which assholes aspire to become more accomplished-looking assholes), the demeaning and unfounded implication of false intent - all this with a tone just reeking of elitism. 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.
OK, now I can go to bed, with that out of my system.
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I love Gaiman but I couldn't get through American Gods... just didn't do it for me.
I think I can see that.
I love Gaiman and think American Gods is nothing short of archetypal for him.
From context, I think you're using "archetypal" incorrectly. I love American Gods, but I far prefer The Sandman, which is up there with my favourite works of literature (yes, literature) of all time.
*A brief history of time: From big bang to black holes - Stephen Hawking
Really awesome book, wrote by a pure genius. But yeah, this is not your usual kind of novel.
It's not a novel, you twit. Also, it should be "written by a pure genius". Maybe stick to Dan Brown and other lowest-common-denominator stuff.
Also, they say that A Brief History Of Time is one of the most bought-but-unread books in publishing history. Are you sure you read it? Or are you just dropping names to sound smart?
*The Silver Key- Howard Phillips Lovecraft
Yeah, i'm a Lovecraft fan. But this one in particular is just awesome. Words, however, cannot describe it.
Try these: not nearly as good as The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, At The Mountains Of Madness, or a solid third of Lovecraft's later work. It is short, though! Maybe that's why you found it appealing.
I'm currently re-reading Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon, which is basically my all-time favourite book. (Some bunch of talentless musicians released a song recently by the same name, that has no connection to the book whatsoever.) Reading it is like removing your brain, turning it inside-out, rubbing it vigorously with a soft leather whip, and reinserting it through your nose (but in a good way). It's difficult in the extreme to get started, but once you get through the first fifty-odd pages, it suddenly becomes simple and natural - I think maybe it takes that long to forget the concepts of a cohesive narrative and plot and simply enjoy the ride.
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.
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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.)
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Clearly, in the spirit of making the thread more interesting, elcapitan applied a substitution cipher to a humble list of favorite books (mostly Michael Crichton novels) and posted the results. That it took the form of the worst thing ever written was just pure chance.
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Anything by Haruki Murakami
Anything by Charles Dickens
A Clockwork Orange
On the Road
Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters
Sons and Lovers
The Lord of the Rings
The Count of Monte Cristo
Winnie the Pooh
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Ha, for a second as I was browsing I thought you were going to say "The Tao of Pooh".
And then you would have been one of THOSE people.
You know, the kind that read Siddhartha 5 times to find the true meaning.
Those people make me itchy.
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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.)
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?
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.
Man, you should have been here back in the glory days. Only you weren't.
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Most Michael Crichton books are really overwritten pieces of fluff, but I'll admit to having enjoyed Jurassic Park and Eaters of the Dead.
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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.
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.
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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.
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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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I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Lord of the Flies yet, I love that book.
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I recently read "V" by Thomas Pynchon, which was brilliantly funny and I thought very accessible. Sure, there were many weird sentences and references, by it was all done in an effortless style, and the strange yet relatable characters kept me completely lost in it. Nothing cooler than the girl DL, who performs the Vibrating Palm kung-fu move in a Japanese whorehouse on a man who will become her partner. Also, her invisibility move involves waving her hands in front of a security guard so he becomes distracted. :-)
It does condemn a tyrannical government (in a way) but it also simultaneously criticizes the "hippie"-protest movement for being too stoned out of its mind to achieve any real change. Maybe it was all idealism, with no substance. But, Pynchon also depicts government facilities where protesters are deconstructed, so he may be a bit paranoid.
All i know is it was WAY less dense than I thought it would be.
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Interesting! I enjoyed V, but I found it harder to read than Gravity's Rainbow. There's the same fragmentation of ideas and plotlines but without the overarching (pun intended) thematic quality of GR. I read it after GR, and I was surprised when stacks of the same characters turned up.
What did you think of The Crying Of Lot 49?
Also, I have a copy of Against The Day up on my shelf, but haven't read it yet. Has anyone here?
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Most of the stuff I read at College could make this list. But it's kind of heavy on the philosophy and light on literature, so I'll just mention:
The Iliad-I've read a lot of of philosophy, but I still prefer the last book of the Iliad to damn near all of it.
Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard-Sure, it's religious, but Soren Kierkegaard/Johannes de Silientio is a beautiful writer and storyteller. When you've read Kant, you come to appreciate that all the more.
The Surgeon's Mate by Patrick O'Brian-The best of the Aubrey-Maturin series that I've read, and I'm on like book 19. Sure, Paul Bellamy was cute and all in the movie, but O'Brian's Maturin blows him out of the water as a rather dark and complex hero. Rather than a brilliant surgeon and enthusiastic man of science Maturin is also a spy, disillusioned revolutionary, man of reason/devout catholic and long-frustrated lover of a rather infamous woman. And he's at his best in this book. Much of this novel is like a regency James Bond. Only without the camp.
Philosophical Investigations by Ludwig Wittgenstein--I studied this intensely for around two months for a class, and it hit me like a ton of bricks.
Middlemarch by George Eliot---I didn't know that there were English novels to match the Russians, having fallen in with Dostoevsky young and being disappointed by some American 'classics', until I read this.
Fifth Business by Robertson Davies---Canadian Magical Realism at it's finest? I'm reading the seconds installment of the trilogy, and it is SO good.
Go Down Moses by William Faulkner---Maybe it's because I'm a southerner, but I love this book.
Ordinary Men by Robert Browning---Why did Germans do what they did from '39-'45? The answer is terrifyingly familiar.
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Interesting! I enjoyed V, but I found it harder to read than Gravity's Rainbow. There's the same fragmentation of ideas and plotlines but without the overarching (pun intended) thematic quality of GR. I read it after GR, and I was surprised when stacks of the same characters turned up.
What did you think of The Crying Of Lot 49?
Also, I have a copy of Against The Day up on my shelf, but haven't read it yet. Has anyone here?
I'm going to jump in here--I think Lot 49 is the weakest of Pynchon's work. Having said that, it's still a fantastic book. Certainly nowhere near the quality of Gravity's Rainbow, V, Against the Day, or Vineland, but good nonetheless.
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Hrmm...
I'll second the Odd Thomas mention (if it wasn't already, then third me, fourth, whatever). Although I think the third and fourth installments in the series are, as a whole, weaker than the first two, I still thoroughly enjoyed them all.
Also, Dean Koontz has another series, the Christopher Snow trilogy (as it stands, only 2 of the 3 have been written).
I feel I have to mention my personal favorite novel by Dean Koontz: Dragon Tears. I really cannot explain why it is my favorite, but it is.
I enjoy most of DKs books, especially the times (such as in Dragon Tears), he has chapters from the first person perspective of a dog. He writes them especially well. Also, despite his reputation, many of his books are NOT heavily supernatural, and at least attempt logical/rational explanations for certain things / events.
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If you would prefer a more humorous author, I cannot begin to recommend Christopher Moore enough. Although I personally think the quality of his humor has waned since writing "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's childhood Pal", they are still some of the funniest, most offbeat humor I have found currently.
It isn't necessary to read them in any given order, however many books contain very slight in jokes or references to previous events, and certain characters do make appearances in later novels. The exception being "You Suck: A Love Story" is a direct sequel to "Bloodsucking Fiends"
His books "Lamb: The Gospel...." and "Island of the Sequined Love Nun" are probably my favorites of his.
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I would recommend LOTR or Hitchhikers, but is that really necessary at this point? Although I will say the Dirk Gentley books by Douglas Adams are hilarious and should be read by all.
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Lastly, if graphic novels are your thing, I just finished reading "The Nikopol Trilogy" by Enki Bilal, and found it to be quite amazing. (Also the source of Chess-Boxing).
And I just started reading The Watchmen, and I am finding it intriguing.
Sandman, Sin City, etc etc etc. All the good ones that everyone will recommend, etc.
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"attempts to recomend something not yet done here while only scannign the thread above"
the abarat quintet by clive barker - only the first two novels are currently printed if you can get the orignal hard cover releases with pictures all the better for you
jonathan strange and mr norell by Susanna Clarke - even neil gaiman recomends this and it's a similar style or writing jsut expect to be in for a long haul
dune (and sequels) by frank herbert - i'm currently halfway through heretics of dune (the 5th book) and i must say it's an excellent series although at times it can get a bit heady
notes from a big country by bill bryson - this is a collection of columns he wrote while he was in america v. good
...then i re-recomend sandman because it is the greatest thing i have ever read
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A simple ctrl+f would have revealed half of your list has been mentioned. Not Robert Boyle had Dune in his list, and I already gushed about Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Plus, this is a favorite books thread, not a recommendations thread (that's something else entirely). But I've completely forgotten how silly your post was slack simply because, well, you recommended Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.
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I'm going to second the discworld recommendation, though I will admit I didn't care so much for The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, I finished them, but I haven't re-read them like I have some of the others. I personally prefer the Night Watch books, especially the character of Vimes. I think because of the similar attitude, I really liked Monstrous regiment. I don't much care for the Rincewind books, I just don't find them as funny as the others, they are still good, but they pale in comparison to the better ones.
I like Neil Gaiman's writing as well, I own American Gods, Good Omens, Neverwhere, and maybe Anansi Boys (can't remember). I want to get the sandman TPBs, but that probably won't happen for a while.
Tamora Pierce's books are pretty much all good, they are aimed at young teens, but they are solidly written. Don't remember one that I haven't liked, out of all the Tortall books and the Circle of Magic series (plural).
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The once and Future King by T.H. White - I personally love Arthurian legend and I enjoy how the individual books (there are 4 in the same book, because they were written at different times) are written. It starts out light and humorous with Sword in the Stone (I loved how Merlin was living backwards) and then the books start to get darker. It's a really good book.
Forever by Pete Hamill - It's kind of fantasy meets the history of New York. It's a really interesting story and well written, if a little hard to describe the plot.
All the books I've read by Jane Austen are favorites, too: Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield Park are all amazing.
Something Wicked This Way Comes is my favorite Bradbury book of all time. I love him as a writer in general. Fahrenheight 451, "The Veldt," and "The Scythe" are amazing as well.
Also, Edgar Allen Poe's short stories and some of his poems will always be my favorites as well.
As to Neil Gaiman, I've only read Stardust, Anansi Boys, and some of the graphic novels he's written, but I agree with everyone else - he's pretty awesome.
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Stardust is so perfect.
In every possible way.
The film is excellent also, but read the book first for sure.
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I'm going to second the discworld recommendation, though I will admit I didn't care so much for The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, I finished them, but I haven't re-read them like I have some of the others.
What's funny is, these are the only two I actually own and have read. There are just so many more that beyond seeing where it all started I haven't had the time, patience or money to dig into Discworld properly.
That being said, I thought both of these were fantastic books (although he only got better with the second one) and if Pratchett outdoes himself as you claim, then by all means, everyone devour him as hungrily as possible.
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Stardust is one of the few cases where I actually really like the differences in the book and the movie. (The other is Howl's Moving Castle.) They are both so different for being the same story, but they are both so well done it doesn't bother me.
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Holy crap dude, if you think the first two Discworld books are good, for God's sake, start reading the rest of them STAT. By the time he hits his stride (around the sixth or so) there is an uninterrupted string of dozens of novels of sheer awesome. By the tenth book or so, the quality is literally about ten times that of the first two.
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Well, see, I have the third one (whatever it's called, the one about the girl magician or whatever? Oh, Equal Rites, that's it) but I just didn't get hooked on it like the first two so I never finished it. And since then I've been so busy with other books that the only other Pratchett I've picked up is Good Omens, and there I can hardly tell what's Pratchett and what's Gaiman (not that that's a bad thing, as the superhuman conglomerate of the two exceeds the brilliance of either one on his own). I always meant to go back and give it all another shot but I severely doubt I'll ever have time to sit through every one of them at this point, and I always get conflicting recommendations on where to dive back in or what random selections to pick up.
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Good Omens, writing-wise, is far more Pratchett. Gaiman mainly helped with the story, as his prose writing chops weren't really developed yet.
Basically around 25-30 of the Discworld books are as awesome as Good Omens, if that tells you anything. Some are better.
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Yeah, the writing seemed largely Pratchett, though I think the horsemen had more of Gaiman's style to them. I think Agnes Nutter's story is Pratchett through and through.
edit: Oh, the Bartimaeus books by Johnathan Stroud are pretty good, a sort of magepunk England, not sure what time period exactly, I read the last one a couple years ago. The narrator character is funny, and the story is told well.
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Timoleon Vieta Come Home: A Sentimental Journey by Dan Rhodes is awesome in every sense of the word. It's sorta like Lassie, Come Home but much, MUCH darker. It's about this old gay British guy living in exile in Italy. His only companion for the longest time is this ugly mongrel of a dog with beautiful brown eyes, Timoleon Vieta. Circumstances cause the two to be separated, so the second half of the book is about the dog making his way home and of all the people he meets along the way.
If I could only read one book for the rest of my life, this would be the book.
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I agree on Haruki Murakami and House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.
I recently bought Johnathan Strange & Mr Norrell and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell and am looking forward to reading them.
Another of my favourite books is What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt, wife of Paul Auster. Her novel is set in New York and is about love and friendship and life and lots of art. Really a great book.
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After re-reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle it's not as good as I had thought. It made me think of Tom Robbins on Prozac.
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Anything written by James Patterson is marvelous. He writes mostly thrillers. I am a huge fan of nearly all of them. He also wrote a decent amount of romance novels too, and they were pretty good too, if you like that sort of thing.
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Most of my favourite books have already been mentioned, but I'll try and get a few others in here.
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers: Possibly my favourite book. Incredibly moving and quite sad, but also very funny in places. If you haven't read it already then you definitely should.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson: Actually, I'm not sure if I prefer this or The Great Shark Hunt.
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving: I was only going to post a crying emoticon here, until I realised there wasn't one. The ending blew me away completely, and no book has been as good since.
Uncle Tungsten - Oliver Sacks: Sacks' accounts of growing up in England and the chemistry experiments he used to carry out. Informative and interesting.
I'm sure there's others but I can't think of them just now. Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy are great and so are most of Bill Bryson's books, but I'm not sure if they would be in my favourites list.
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How about some graphic novel recommendations? (Just because most of what I'd probably mention has already been mentioned, the author if not the book, and I don't wanna be a repeater.)
Epileptic by David B. -- Totally heartbreaking autobiography of growing up with a severely epileptic older brother, in a family that flitted from cult to cult in order to find a cure for his illness and also for their own spiritual maladies. The art is amazing. The story is fragmented a bit much, but that sort of calls back to the epilepsy in a way. Highly recommended.
Scott Pilgrim series by Bryan Lee O'Malley -- Scott Pilgrim has a totally sweet life, except for one thing: in order to date the woman he loves, he has to fight his way through her seven evil exes. Canadian fake-manga style, four of six volumes released (WHY does it take him so LONG to write these!!), extremely awesome. If you like video games or indie music or things that don't suck, then read this series. I think most of the QC forum would like this series.
Doom Patrol series by Grant Morrison and various illustrators -- Like Murakami/Dick/Borges/other reality warping authors? Then you may like reading the tales of "the world's strangest superheroes." I usually don't care for superhero comics but this? This rules. So disturbing. Their main enemy is the Brotherhood of Dada. Fish.
American Elf (and others) by James Kochalka -- This is Kochalka's visual diary kept for ten years and serialized both in books and on the web. I enjoy reading people's journals, slice of life kind of stuff, and I like Kochalka's art (his style inspired my style and I doubt I'd be drawing if not for him), so yeah, this is rad. Not much of a "story," so you probably won't like it unless you like reading journals, but for a certain kind of reader this is killer. He is the guest of honor at the Small Press Expo next month and I'm totally psyched.
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Scott Pilgrim Movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446029/)
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After re-reading The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle it's not as good as I had thought. It made me think of Tom Robbins on Prozac.
I've heard that kind of comment a lot by people who read Murakami, and I can relate. Whenever I read one of his books for the first time, I think it's genius. When I go back to it much later, I find myself thinking "Is this it? This really isn't all that great..." Don't get me wrong, even Murakami's worst books is better than 9/10 of the trite shit being published nowadays, but he's not quite the literary god people make him out to be.
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In a fit of cynicism and angst? Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger. As perfectly described by book-a-minute:
Franny: Why is everyone so ignorant!
Zooey: Why are you so ignorant, you little punk.
A lovely tale with all the love and guts cut outta it. You get the bare bones of society, humanity, and the reality of coping with reality.
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Scott Pilgrim Movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446029/)
I am so fucking pumped for this movie. Guys you can check out the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels at mahshelf.com (http://www.mahshelf.com/comics/) for free. Along with a ton of other comics.
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Fetish book by walter de camp
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Scott Pilgrim Movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446029/)
I'm pumped for it too, but I don't know how they're going to write it when the series isn't even finished. O'Malley had better get crackin'.
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Here's my contrabution:
1984 by George Orwell ~ I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this yet (or I totally missed it). This book is excellent, basically. It is just as relevant, if not more so, than it was first written in the 1950s and will make you think: are we so far away from making Big Brother a reality? It makes you take a step back and assess the world we live in, plus, it is an easy read.
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet ~ This book put my on one of the longest emotional roller coaster rides I have ever experienced with a book. The way the author was able to show the lives of so many characters in so much depth and make each one unique and personable (whether they were evil of not) was so creative. But keep in mind: this book is HUGE just short of 1000 pages, depending on which book you buy. But the book is so involved and the plot moves so nicely that the length is hardly a bother.
The Inferno by Dante Alighieri ~ Written in the 1300s and and the first book of the trilogy, The Divine Comedy, and even though some of the people found in the circles of hell are not so relevant now, the crimes and punishments still are. It is an excellent book that I recommend if you are interested in poetry (of course, I've only read the english translation, so I've not experienced it fully, but I have no intention of learning italian!!), be sure to get a book with notes... or you'll be sorely confused. But it's a lot of fun to read about the tortures (because humans are twisted like that -_^)
and finally:
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffrey ~ Awesome combination of science fiction and fantasy, this book is just fun to read. Of course, it helped that I love dragons (yes, I'm a nerd and I approve this message). And if you liked this book, might I suggest the two succeeding books, DragonQuest and The White Dragon?
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I used to really love Dragonflight, but the last time I read it the main character just bugged the hell out of me.
Dragons are rad, though.
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in the 1950s
1948
Also, I second this book.
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in the 1950s
1948
Also, I second this book.
Forgive me for my date miscalculation, should of done the proper research first. It has been awhile since I've read it. Now I must make penance by reading the first book in the Gossip Girl series **shiver**
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I've been reading City of Saints and Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer and I it is absolutely fantastic. "The Transformation of Martin Lake" in particular is wonderful - it's a little reminiscent of The Picture of Dorian Gray (or maybe that's just me). Anyway, I highly recommend this if you like fantasy, hilarious things, amazing prose, or fiction in general.
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I'll come back and edit this some a bit later. For now, just names and authors.
The Fermata by Nicholson Baker
Swann by Carol Shields
Regeneration by Pat Barker
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Black Dogs by Ian McEwan
The Public Image by Muriel Spark (though just about every Muriel Spark book I've read has been incredible)
Time's Arrow by Martin Amis
The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead
This All Happened by Michael Winter
Rabbit, Run by John Updike (The Centaur is also incredible)
Ada, Or Ardor by Vladimir Nabokov
Dubliners by James Joyce
The Age Of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Sportswriter by Richard Ford
A Quartet In Autumn by Barbara Pym
Who Do You Think You Are? by Alice Munro
Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
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blood meridian, lolita, areas of my expertise, the master and margarita, tropic of cancer, white noise, house of leaves and the brothers karamazov
and anything by jim goad, p.g. wodehouse, christopher hitchens, kenneth tynan, kenneth anger and jorge luis borges
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Moby Dick by Herman Melville is my all time favorite followed by, in no particular order,
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Slaughter-House Five by Kurt Vonnegut
The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano
Leaf Storm by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting but these will have to do for now.
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Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (complete genius, swear to god)
The Bio of A Space Tyrant Series by Piers Anthony (a little edgy, but well wrote, and also, the main character would make a better leader than McCain or Obama)
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami (crazy totalitarian story of kids being forced to kill each other)
Invisible Monsters by Chuch Palahniuk (arguably Palahniuk's greatest novel ever, and I only say arguably to avoid people bitching at me that blahblah was better)
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Something Wicked This Way Comes is my favorite Bradbury book of all time. I love him as a writer in general. Fahrenheight 451, "The Veldt," and "The Scythe" are amazing as well.
Ditto for the most part. SWTWC should have a better reputation, I blame Disney. Kerosene by Chris Wooding is good too.
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Artemis Fowl Series- Eoin Colfer
Timeline by Michael Chrighton
Gravity by Tess Gerrison
Enders Game - Orson Scott Card
Cats Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
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Invisible Monsters by Chuch Palahniuk (arguably Palahniuk's greatest novel ever, and I only say arguably to avoid people bitching at me that blahblah was better)
Agreed.
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The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
Dracula - Bram Stoker
Ham on Rye - Charles Bukowski
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again - David Foster Wallace
Maus - Art Spiegelman
Understanding Comics - Scott McCloud
The Last Battle - C.S. Lewis
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeline L'engle
Those are a few of my favorites. Right now I'm working on V. by Thomas Pynchon, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit.
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Huh, seems I haven't posted in here yet.
Some of my favorites:
The Partly Cloudy Patriot, Assassination Vacation, and Take the Cannoli by Sarah Vowell: The Partly Cloudy Patriot is my favorite book. It's hilarious and makes my heart swell with joy. I've read it three times and every single time I get absorbed in it to the point where I'm staying up till almost sunrise reading it and then it's like oh hey I should probably go to sleep or something huh. Upon finishing it I went out the very next day to buy Assassination Vacation. I think Vowell is my current favorite author, as well. I'm planning on buying her new book, The Wordy Shipmates.
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger: Was my favorite book before I read The Partly Cloudy Patriot. And yes, before anyone asks, I do also like Catcher in the Rye.
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett: I think I've read this maybe four or five times. In my head, Crowley looks like John Leguizamo only with a British accent. I also have American Gods but I've only read it once. I do like it though.
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire: I got this for Christmas 2004, could not put it down, and had it finished by the evening of December 26th. It's 406 pages long, not including reader's guide. I've read it four times.
I also own about 80% of everything L.M. Montgomery ever wrote; I've been a fan of hers since I was nine years old. Emily trilogy is my favorite. Ilse Burnley is my most favorite literary character ever (I even named my character in my Animal Crossing: Wild World game after her).
That's all I can think of right off hand.
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I'm really happy that someone mentioned Tom Robbins, but it sucks that ONLY one person mentioned Tom Robbins. He is easily one of the best writers currently working in the English language today, or in fact for the past half-century.
I would rank his books in about the following order:
Skinny Legs and All
Jitterbug Perfume
Another Roadside Attraction
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Still Life With Woodpecker
Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas
Villa Incognito
He's the kind of author that can change your life, if you let him. I highly recommend it.
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Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston. It is one of my favorite books EVER.
Dr Zhivago by Boris Pasternak, it is just an epic book for me. i cried when i was eight because my mother would not let me read it. But then i read it in secret. And loved it.
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I'm shocked that nobody has mentioned The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test
It's Tom Wolfe's account of Ken Kesey and his band of merry pranksters.
Also, I, Robot is a brilliant book, even if it has been tarnished by that horrific war crime of a Will Smith movie
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The C++ Programming Language
nothing personal, but if you like that, i hate you. i'm doing a music tech course atm, and i'm resitting the C++ module i failed last year, despite the fact that both the programming lecturer and my head of course agree it's irrelevant to our course, but we have to do it due to shortness of staff. it's the single most boring, ridiculous, and soul-destroying academic activity i've ever been involved in, and i want to find the guy who invented it and meticulously tear apart his fucking life.
/rant
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski - it's really hard to describe this novel. it's terrifying, but brilliant at the same time; I definitely understand why some people don't like it (it's formally all over the place) but I think it's pretty awesome.
now THIS^ i can get behind. i've barely read any fiction novels since reading HoL, because every just seems to just pale in comparison.
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Where to begin...
As mentioned by oh how many people in this thread Neil Gaiman is an amazing writer. I'm reading American Gods now and it's pretty sweet from what I've got. Anansi Boys is another amazing book
Good Omens, by him and Terry Pratchett is one of my favourite books, which leads me to the amazing, the unbeatable Terry Pratchett - anything I've ever read by him has gone into my favourite books list. What's there not to like?
The Portrait of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde is well worth a read, if only for the endless quotable lessons in life as well as his smaller books of short stories
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking Glass And What Alice Found There
And I will leave you on one of my favourite all-time books, read over and over again - Koushun Takami's Battle Royale.
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Anthem by Ayn Rand
Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy
Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose
Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind
Bathroom readers by Bathroom Readers Institute
Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
The Temperance Brennan novels by Kathy Reichs
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Just a couple of my favorites-
"All Creatures Great & Small" by James Herriott
"The Five People You Meet In Heaven" by Mitch Albom
"Johnny Got His Gun" by Dalton Trumbo
"The Maltese Falcon" by Dashiell Hammett
and this last one is pushing the definition of "book," but...The Killing Joke by Alan Moore.
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Okay I’m going to try and keep this post to a minimum because if I don’t it will start to read kind of like an encyclopaedia of "classic" literature and random bits of philosophy. Also I’m pretty sure no one actually cares but here I go anyways.
Do keep in mind that these appear in no order than how they came to mind.
Crime and punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Now this is possibly my favourite book I have read to date, reason being is because of how well it is written and it really is the building blocks of existentialism.
1984 -George Orwell
Big brother is watching, I mean come on who doesn’t love this book.
The fountain head-Ayn rand
objectivism is a horrid attempt at creating a niche in the philosophy world but this book is pretty decent.
The picture of Dorian grey- Oscar Wilde
This is his only novel to the best of my memory and it is truly one of the most beautiful things ever written.
Necronomicon-H R giger
Now I’m not sure if this counts at all because it is more of a collection of art rather than a book. That aside having a past history with recreational dmt use this guys art really speaks to me.
The divine comedy- Dante Alighieri
originally written as one very long epic, it has since been broken down into three parts. A tale of one man traversing hell and finding a group of popes there. What’s not to love?
Paradise lost- john milton
paradise found is terrible do not read it.
The gay science- Friedrich Nietzsche
Personally I believe this to be the best of his work but any of his books are worth reading
as i lay dying-William Faulkner
My mother is a fish.
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I've recently started reading the novels of the English novelist Elizabeth Taylor (1912-1975). She was a superb writer: although quite narrow in focus (she wrote pretty much exclusively about the post-war English middle class), her books are beautifully and acutely observed, and very wry, and just generally wonderful. I think a few of her books are currently in print (two of them, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont and Angel, have recently been made into films), and she's definitely a writer who deserves to be rediscovered.
The tone of her writing is epitomised by the opening paragraph of the Soul of Kindness (1964):
Towards the end of the bridegroom's speech, the bride turned aside and began to throw crumbs of wedding cake through an opening in the marquee to the doves outside. She did so with gentle absorption, and more doves came down from their wooden house above the stables. Although she had caused a little rustle of amusement among the guests, she did not know it: her husband was embarrassed by her behaviour and thought it early in their married life to be so; but she did not know that either.
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Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (complete genius, swear to god)
I like that one, not as much as "God bless you, Doctor Kevorkian", though. It is a different kind of comedy than I am used to, I'm used to getting laugh-out-loud reactions from even what I thought of as black comedy, probably I have the wrong idea of it. I can see the irony and humor in it, but it isn't as... loud.
I checked out Johnny got his gun from the library, but never got around to reading it, should I check it out again?
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BATTLE ROYALE!
Yes, i'm reposting it
ElectricPez has the right idea
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1984 -George Orwell
Big brother is watching, I mean come on who doesn’t love this book.
Me. The book is far too obvious, far too politically involved, with characterization and imagination cast aside in order to pound home Orwell's message about government. Certainly a step up over "Animal Farm", but not very good. I've found it odd that Orwell's last two books are undoubtedly his worst. I mean, his first, "Down and Out in Paris and London" is easily one of my favourite books. But then he felt the need to paint his message in bold face instead of engaging writing. Even in the realm of dystopian novels, "1984" doesn't stand up well, in my mind. "Farenheit 451", "Bend Sinister", "A Handmaiden's Tale", even the more recent "Gun, With Occasional Music". All much more interesting, much more engaging.
I've recently started reading the novels of the English novelist Elizabeth Taylor (1912-1975). She was a superb writer: although quite narrow in focus (she wrote pretty much exclusively about the post-war English middle class), her books are beautifully and acutely observed, and very wry, and just generally wonderful. I think a few of her books are currently in print (two of them, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont and Angel, have recently been made into films), and she's definitely a writer who deserves to be rediscovered.
She sounds quite excellent, and I'm certainly going to check her out when I get the chance. I've heard the name tossed around once or twice by my mother, I believe, but this description and the paragraph you pasted seems to have sealed it for me. Sounds a lot like Barbara Pym (1913-1980) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Pym), another excellent, excellent writer who deserves a wide audience. She also wrote about the same subject, essentially. She published a number of books early in her career, but then, between the early 60s and the late 70s, was unable to find a publisher willing to do anything with her novels. She continued to write, but without anything being released, until the Times in London asked a number of critics who they thought the most underrated writer of the century was. Pym's was the only name which came up twice. Her novels are also very wry, and incredibly honest, observant, an powerful. At times she's reminded me of Jane Austen, writing in 20th Century London, but she definitely has a voice which is all her own. I'd highly recommend "Excellent Women" or "Quartet in Autumn".
EDIT: Well, here we are: "Anne Tyler once compared Taylor to Jane Austen, Barbara Pym and Elizabeth Bowen -- "soul sisters all," in Tyler's words."
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the Secret History by Donna Tartt
Moomin books by Tove Jansson
Ronia the Robber's Daughter by Astrid Lindgren
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
The Farseer by Robin Hobb
Belgarion & Mallorea by David Eddings.
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I was just about to say The Secret History!I wish I could describe what I like about this book so much, but I can't. All I can say is that I could happily read it over and over.
Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal takes you through a full spectrum of emotions while remaining pretty consistantly funny throughout. I haven't read a book by this man that I haven't enjoyed, but for humor and readability, this is probably his best. That or It's a Dirty Job.
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris. Again, this is a writer who has always impressed me, but this one strikes me as being a little more honest and introspective (but will still make you laugh and laugh).
The Book of Lost Things by an author whose name escapes me. I thought fairy tales were scary before Disney got hold of them. But have a kid take a wizard of Oz style journey as written by a guy who has mainly written horror/suspense and throw in a genuinely gut-wrenchingly beautiful ending and I'll happily read it again.
The Kite Runner Um, you'll probably cry. The last spoken line and paragraph in this book were staggering.
Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About It's completely ridiculous, but the fact that no matter how outrageous circumstances get it never changes the dynamic of the title relationship is great. Nice P.O.V from total passive agressive man, too.
I run on too much. But these are really good books. If you read them and didn't like them, I'd be surprised.
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"Farenheit 451"
Got to snag that out of there, I just reread it last night, and it struck me again just how powerful a book it is. The way Clarisse is written is just indescribably beautiful, I can't place my finger on why, but it is. And the way that their society was described as becoming how it was is scarily plausible.
And, of course, it gets a bonus for actually having a hopeful ending, where as in 1984, well... it isn't.
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1984 -George Orwell
Big brother is watching, I mean come on who doesn’t love this book.
Me. The book is far too obvious, far too politically involved, with characterization and imagination cast aside in order to pound home Orwell's message about government. Certainly a step up over "Animal Farm", but not very good. I've found it odd that Orwell's last two books are undoubtedly his worst. I mean, his first, "Down and Out in Paris and London" is easily one of my favourite books. But then he felt the need to paint his message in bold face instead of engaging writing. Even in the realm of dystopian novels, "1984" doesn't stand up well, in my mind. "Farenheit 451", "Bend Sinister", "A Handmaiden's Tale", even the more recent "Gun, With Occasional Music". All much more interesting, much more engaging.
Honestly just about anything is a step up from animal farm.
Just as a side not it’s interesting that everyone mentions Fahrenheit 451, which is just one of those books that I was never really able to get into, along with a brave new world.
As for Gun, With Occasional Music, a gun toting mafia kangaroo and a kitten whose brain has been bioengineered...really?
Have you read the man in the high castle by Philip K Dick if so I would be interested in finding out what you thought about it.
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Sounds a lot like Barbara Pym (1913-1980) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Pym), another excellent, excellent writer who deserves a wide audience.
Thanks for the tip! I found a copy of Excellent Women in one of my local bookshops, and I really liked the first page. I'll buy it when my next pay-cheque rolls in!
Tell me, have you read any Muriel Spark?
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As for Gun, With Occasional Music, a gun toting mafia kangaroo and a kitten whose brain has been bioengineered...really?
Have you read the man in the high castle by Philip K Dick if so I would be interested in finding out what you thought about it.
I certainly wouldn't call "Gun, With Occasional Music" an excellent book. It was a fun read, with parts that were quite engaging and imaginitive, which in my mind made it quite prefererable to "1984", which I can't help but find bland and obvious.
I haven't yet read "The Man in the High Castle", but I do have a copy of it on my bookshelf. I've loved what Philip K. Dick I have read, and have been really excited to read this one, but I've just had lots else to read in the meantime. I'll post impressions when I have gotten to it.
Tell me, have you read any Muriel Spark?
I adore Muriel Spark. Without a doubt she is in the running for being my favourite author. Need to get to bed, so I'll paste my thoughts from another forum:
Her novels are short, and verge on perfection, if they don't achieve it. She seems to do novels differently than any other author I can think to mention. She tells the reader so many things about the plot and characters, rather than letting actions do it. Her plots skip around, I can't recall a fully linear one. Early in the novel she'll basically give away the ending. But it works. The books are masterpieces, hilarious and pitiless. She's never afraid to be cruel to her characters, there doesn't seem to be an ounce of sentimentality in her books.
My favourite is 'The Public Image'.
Or maybe it's 'The Girls of Slender Means'. Or 'The Prime of Miss Jean Brody'. Or 'The Bachelors'. Or 'The Finishing School'. Impossible to decide.
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Has anyone read any Cormac McCarthy? I read No Country For Old Men a couple of months ago after seeing the film (which i thought was a great piece of cinema) and am half way through the border trilogy, currently reading 'The Crossing' for any fans out there.
I really enjoy his fast-paced writing, the way you never know what will happen next and the way it is difficult to read the books quickly despite them being relatively short (350ish pages paperback). The storylines are so tense and involving that after reading a chapter you have to stop and think about how much has just happened before moving on.
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I finished listening to the audio book of The Road and have been listening to The Blood Meridian all day while trying to sort out 300+ books alphabetically.
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I gave a bunch of Cormac McCarthy books the ol' first-page test a while back and really couldn't stand the writing. Too much Style (with a capital letter, like Acting as opposed to acting, if you see what I mean).
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I've read Blood Meridian, The Road, All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain and No Country for Old Men.
I'm more like "Wow this dude's got STYLE"
Also substance
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Soon people will be writing my name up here!
Just need to find a publisher
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I've read Blood Meridian, The Road, All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, Cities of the Plain and No Country for Old Men.
I'm more like "Wow this dude's got STYLE"
Also substance
I completely agree with that. Style with a capital 'S', though i think it may need to be written Substance also. :-)
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I'd have to say...
Jane Eyre
The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde(yes, two "effs")
The Song of Ice and Fire series
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Anything and everything by Terry Pratchett
The Count of Monte-Cristo
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big reader, difficult to narrow stuff down...
would probably go with:
1984 (cliche much? :laugh:) really weird ideas in there if you try to imagine living in that kind of society
The Catcher in the Rye (surprise surprise)
Red Dragon
Northern Lights (The Golden Compass if you're in America)
The Zombie Survival Guide (a damn entertaining book, 'get you reading it as a joke, but by page 50 you're out buying a machete just to be safe') :laugh:
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Pretty sure I have the most rag-tag list of anyone here:
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
- Can't sell this one enough! Beautiful and enlightening and stimulating in every way possible.
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen - Tadeusz Borowski
- Devastating account of one man's life in a concentration camp. Firsthand. A collection of short stories.
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
- Way too cool and will make you infinitely smarter (also humbled). Extremely readable.
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
- Just the perfect story, a dystopic vision of the future you can basically taste today. Very prescient. Very engaging.
Hocus Pocus - Kurt Vonnegut
- Best Vonnegut!!
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas - Tom Robbins
- Best Tom Robbins!
A Short History of Progress - Ronald Wright
- Gain a lot of evidence of humanity's epic fail: use said evidence in almost every conversation. Totally worthwhile, even with the depressing.
Small Gods - Terry Pratchett
- Best Pratchett! Probably the closest I've felt to fondness for religion.
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Pretty sure I have the most rag-tag list of anyone here:
Pretty uncertain as to what you mean by this. I don't notice anything rag-tag about it.
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I dont care if its been mentioned, it needs to be -forced- upon everyone. If you haven't read the entire five books of the ultimate trilogy, The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, then you do not deserve eyes.
And anyone who said Princess Bride needs to die. Slightly less painfully then the lying slumbich who wrote it. Editor indeed. Daring to trod across my fragile hopes with false rumours of a sequel. You lie! Lie!
Um, I've also recently enjoyed the harry dresden series.
Many of the classics are always good to make sure you've read.
Also, my second favorite book of all time, To Reign in Hell by steven brust.
The Stainless Steel Rat series, though the later books kinda trailed off as far as literary genius goes.
And surprisingly enough Piers Anthony made some books that i'd feel remiss for not shoving in people's faces. His political adult books, Bio of a Space Tyrant, and his religious books Incarnations of Immortality, especially the last two of that series.
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:-D :-D :-D WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE :-D :-D :-D
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Well, I skimmed so if I repeat something I'm terribly sorry.
Descent Into Hell -- Charles Williams
A story of three characters and the interactions of their own personal narratives with each other, the community, and the spiritual world. One is a young acctress who's grandmother is dying, another is renowned military historian who's slowly rejecting the world and falling in love with his own fantasies, and the last is a dead man who died 400 years ago trying to decide between heaven and hell. Throughout it all there's the poet, Peter Stanhope, and his play that pulls the characters together.
It's odd, dense, and wonderful. Williams is able to do something extremely rare: portray good as good and evil as evil. He also shows the spiritual world as not above the world, but rather intermingled with it.
L'Morte D'arthur -- Thomas Malory
I don't think I really need to explain this one. King Arthur and the knights of the round table! Chivalry and honor, love and betrayal, drama and everything you could possibly want. Bigger than life, but still nice and real.
The Prelude -- William Wordsworth
Oh come on, he's Wordsworth! He's fun and full of life and energy--reading the Prelude makes you want to live the Prelude. His adventures are so real and so relateable and, on top of that, he presents good ideas too. Lewis said that once you read the philosophers you didn't bother with philosophical poets, except for Wordsworth. He's right.
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God I love Descent into Hell.
Williams was close friends with Tolkien and CS Lewis, and is often grouped with them due to shared religious convictions and an interest in the mythic, but he's a lot weirder than either of the others. In a continuum of fantastic literature, with Tolkien and High Fantasy on one end of the spectrum and Borges and other magical realists on the other, he's definitely closer to Borges.
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Don't EVER read the Zombie Survival Guide. I mean it.
Me and all my friends did and now we gauge each other's houses on how well they would stack up against zombie attacks. I still do (and have a plan for what would happen if zombies attacked RIGHT NOW)...
*cough* The book was damn amazing. Anyways.
The Legacy of John Lennon by David A. Noebel
This guy isn't so much a Lennon fan as a crazy right-winger that starts bashing all of rock and roll and says how it will make you homosexual. It is so blatantly wrong it's hilarious, especially since the guy's 100% serious.
Inside Out by Nick Mason
This is a coffee table book, but a damned good one. Full colour pictures and an inside view to Pink Floyd, based on the drummer's experiences.
If you EVER get your hands on any Tom House, get it! He's an amazing writer that for about a year I carried his book (The World According to Whiskey) with me and read it repeatedly.
Also, the Left Behind series by LaHaye and Jenkins. I read them as fiction, seeing as they're based on Revelation in the Bible, but they're incredibly engrossing novels.
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Zombie Survival Guide
This book was not that good. I'm not calling you out on it, I just think it's become kind of an overused trope that will shortly be available in T-shirt form at Hot Topic. Like how Boondocks Saints stuff started appearing 6 years after it came out.
Please, internets, give zombies a rest and move on to something else.
Raptors perhaps.
/
:-D
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The Sue Grafton alphabet series (I'm currently reading T is for Trespass)
American Gods
Good Omens
Y: The Last Man series
The Friday Night Knitting Club
A Christmas Carol
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Please, internets, give zombies a rest and move on to something else.
But need irrational phobias from unlikely sources! Zombies fit that!
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Fiction:
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein
The Gap Series - Stephen Donaldson
The Rebus Series - Ian Rankin
Malazan Book of The Fallen series - Steven Erikson
The Psalm Killer - Chris Petit
Anything at all by Colin Bateman, but especially Driving Big Davie and Divorcing Jack.
Non-fiction
Vive La Revolution - Mark Steel
Never Die Easy - Walter Payton
Ajax, Barcelona, Cruyff - Fritz Bahrend and Henk Van Dorp
Live Through This, American Rock Music in the 90s - Everett True
The Dirt - Motley Crue
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In no particular order:
Choke - Chuck Palahniuk; Because not enough people have mentioned him and he fantastically noteworthy.
Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton; While many people consider his writing as low-brow (I can only fathom some kind of literary elitism, the likes of which I witnessed time and time again when completing my degree), I loved every moment of this book. I love all of Crichton's work. I think people are simply hard-pressed to tear down his work because it is mass marketed and so many crappy movies have been made using his novels as a foundation.
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald; When I first read this in high school, I was still in my rebellious, "Teacher, there's no way I'm going to let you tell me which writers I should and should not value" mode and never took the time to really appreciate Gatsby. It was not until college when I took a chance to revisit all the novels I had discounted in my high school ways that I understood and then loved Gatsby. It is a treasure.
Fried Green Tomatoes at Whistle Stop Cafe - Fannie Flagg; I know there is a film adaptation of this, but I refuse to see it lest I taint my love of this novel. It has a very "chick book" feel to it, but I had never cried happy tears while reading a book before this one.
The Silence of the Lambs - Thomas Harris; Again, we have a mass marketed novel that is not too difficult to read and is often snubbed by those who consider themselves among the literary elite. That still should not distract a reader from enjoying a very well-written story whose secondary characters evolve into the story's protagonists by the end of the novel.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - JK Rowling; I have read the entire series, went to midnight parties for the last three novels, went to midnight showings for Movies 2-4 and have grown past my infatuation with the entire Harry Potter "thing." That said, I still adore this book. Of the entire series, it is the only one I can simply pick up and just start reading. While Prisoner of Azkaban involves some very "cool" storytelling, only in Goblet of Fire does Rowling keep her protagonist at the forefront and keep control of the story. Order of the Phoenix seems to runaway with itself, Half-Blood Prince brought about too many drastic character changes to be able to focus on the story and Books 1, 2 and 7 were simply "okay" stories. Goblet of Fire carries a magic all on its own.
Persuasion - Jane Austen; Everyone loves Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility and Emma and whatever, but Persuasion, Austen's last novel, is beautifully brilliant. It is not as well known as her others, but really...if you have never read it, definitely take the time to do so.
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy; It is filled with such subtle power that when you realize the novel has finished, you just want to read it all over again. Normally, I cannot stand a story without a linear chronology, but this never loses me and, by the end, it is obvious there is no other way the story could have been told.
Moth Smoke - Mohsin Hamid; I am not really sure how to describe it. Some days I think that "Descent" would have made a better title, but Hamid has this way of giving the reader just enough insight about his subsidiary characters to enable readers to simultaneously love and loathe his protagonist.
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett; I never read this as a child, which is why I think I can appreciate it as an adult. I simply love watching little Mary grow from an emotionally abused child into a "pretty little thing" and I adore noting the differences between novel and its many adaptations; no director has ever really got it right.
Anna and the King of Siam - Margaret Landon; Yes, it displays the author's and also the main character's unwavering prejudices. Yes, its historical accuracy is up for some debate. And yes, the Thai people disregard Anna Leonowens and any impact she had on their monarchy, but this novel is still fantastic.
Death Be Not Proud - John Gunther; There is still a part of me that keeps thinking that Little Johnny is going to make it and spends a lot of time wondering how he would have shaped the world if he had held on even a little longer.
The Bible; Even if you read it as a work of literature, it is still captivating in a way that most works can never match. From manager to crucifixion, St. Luke presents a strong narration full of details that would be heavily discussed even if this did not regard the fixture of Christian faith. The Book of Job illustrates a man with steadfast devotion to his Lord; hardly any author could pull off something like this today. I could spend all day talking about specific stories or figures, but I simply lack the time. Suffice it say, The Bible is a work in its own regard.
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God I love Descent into Hell.
Williams was close friends with Tolkien and CS Lewis, and is often grouped with them due to shared religious convictions and an interest in the mythic, but he's a lot weirder than either of the others. In a continuum of fantastic literature, with Tolkien and High Fantasy on one end of the spectrum and Borges and other magical realists on the other, he's definitely closer to Borges.
My word! I rarely encounter another fan.
Any opinion on his Arthurian Poetry?
If this is too off-topic, I highly recommend the work to anyone interested in Arthur or poetry. Both Taliessin Through Logres and the Region of the Summer Stars are masterful re-workings of the Arthurian myth. I mean, for crying out loud, the guy sets Logres in the Byzantine Empire threatened by a dark cephalopod god. It doesn't get much cooler than that. To be fair, it can be a little difficult to read at times (Lewis, his best friend and a literary genius says he didn't understand parts) but it's absolutely worth it.
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I think I have to add Roberto Bolano's 2666 to my list. It's absolutely brilliant, a massive, sprawling, chaotic, anarchic riot of language. It's at turns beautiful, terrifying, and hilarious, raunchy, violent and bizarre. It's masterfully controlled despite the fact that it's almost palpably overflowing from the pages. Bolano slowly builds up an incredible world full of strange, deranged, miserable, lost, exiled characters, the writing often infused with a subtle dread. Ultimately though it's an amazingly profound study on the possibilities, and the necessity, of art, of writing itself. I've never finished a 900 page book and immediately felt the urge to plunge right back in again at the first page until I finished this. I can recommend it enough to be honest.
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I am DYING to read that one, but I am currently going through his first one, The Savage Detectives. It's simply a joy, a flowing text full of weird, funny, imaginative anecdotes about the kind of kids I wish I knew - the passionate ones, who read, talk and fuck to their heart's content. Yet there is always a layer of melancholy over the adventure (like Kerouac's On the Road). It is told in that freewheeling style I love.
But it only sounds like a buildup to 2666, the magnum opus Belano completely just before his death. Wow. I can't wait now.
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Perfume - Patrick Suskind
A fantastic book. There was a movie recently made based on this book, but it in no way does any kind of justice to how good this book is. It is delightfully twisted and just generally awesome.
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Well, Kubrick did say it was unfilmable.
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Night watch, Feet of Clay and Nation- Terry Prachett
They have all basically given me my philosophy on life, God, kings and all other things. Also for proving that books can be both funny and deeply philosophical, as opposed to just dull and self important.
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Epileptic by David B. -- Totally heartbreaking autobiography of growing up with a severely epileptic older brother, in a family that flitted from cult to cult in order to find a cure for his illness and also for their own spiritual maladies. The art is amazing. The story is fragmented a bit much, but that sort of calls back to the epilepsy in a way. Highly recommended.
Seconding, thirding and fourthing this, it's one of my favourite books and graphic novels of all time. David B's art is amazing.
Other good graphic novels:
Gyo, Uzumaki No.3 and The enigma of amigawa fault by Junji Ito- All three of these books are astoundingly creepy examples of japanese horror, filled with beautiful and disturbing art and fantastic concepts that will probably leave you with nightmares, if you're in to horror at all I highly recommend you check his stuff out.
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Night watch, Feet of Clay and Nation- Terry Prachett
They have all basically given me my philosophy on life, God, kings and all other things. Also for proving that books can be both funny and deeply philosophical, as opposed to just dull and self important.
I haven't read nation yet, but I really like the rest of his books (not so much the rincewind stuff, though). I also appreciate his philosophy, Night Watch has some of my favorite quotes.
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No Logo - Naomi Klein
Branding, corporate influence, 3rd world tax evasion, brilliant if you like to read Addbusters, and are interested in Corporate Poltics and their effect on the world
On the road - Jack Kerrouac
Nuff said, Quintessential beat generation classic. Inspired me to hitchhike all over canada and the USA.
Soon I'll be invinceible - Austin Grossman
Written from the prospective of the super villian. Is very well written, good sense of prose, very interesting writting style, superb narative. I look forward to reading this first time authors other books.
Climate Wars - Gwynne Dyer
How climate affects us, the failure of Kyoto, what the world will look like in 15 years, 20 years, 50 years time, if we continue doing what we're doing. AKA, if the artic continues to melt, less solar light will be reflected back into space, the more the oceans will heat up, the different weather that will be occur because of this +2 change, casscading effects, and reactions based on scientific data, and real world poltics. Very good read.
World War Z - Max Brooks
The book is written from the narative of an interviewer travelling the world, getting first hand accounts of people who were involved in the zombie wars, from the first line grunt, on tv, heavily publicised battle that ends in utter failure, to a blind person in japan, taking 1 week to scale down his appartment building, finding a samurhai sword, and living in the forrest attuned to nature, fighting zombies. I really like this book.
All Tomorows Parties - William Gibson
William Gibson, who coined "Cyberspace" I found his first 3 books too obtuse and weak in the character development, at the expense of pushing his new world. The bridge trilogy climax's with this book. There is a street hood named BoomZilla that is awesome! This book is too wicked to explain, so i'll let wiki do it for me
The first story features former rent-a-cop Berry Rydell, the protagonist of Virtual Light. Rydell quits a temporary job as a security guard at the Lucky Dragon convenience store to run errands for atrophied computer hacker Colin Laney (the protagonist of Idoru), who lives in a cardboard box in a subway in Shinjuku, Tokyo. As a child, Laney was administered an experimental, mind-altering drug called 5-SB. As a result, he has developed an ability to identify patterns within vast tracts of media information. From studying these patterns or "nodal points", Laney is able to form predictions.
A side effect of 5-SB causes the user to become attached to strong personalities. As a result, Laney has become obsessed with media baron Cody Harwood of Harwood/Levine, a powerful PR firm. He spends his life surfing the net from his enclave in the subway, searching for traces of Levine in the media. From this, Laney foresees a crucial historical shift which may precede the end of the world. He predicts Harwood, who had also taken 5-SB before (albeit voluntarily, with the knowledge of the consequences), knows this and will try to shape this historical shift to his liking. To stop Harwood, Laney hires Rydell under the guise of a courier to travel to San Francisco where the next nodal point will unfold.
The second story concerns ex-bicycle messenger Chevette Washington, also from Virtual Light, who is on the run from her ex-boyfriend. She escapes to her former home, San Francisco's bridge community, to find refuge and revisit her past. She is accompanied by Tessa, an Australian media sciences student. Tessa visits the bridge to film a documentary on "interstitial communities".
The third story follows a mysterious, left-handed swordsman named Konrad. Although Konrad is employed by Harwood, he appears to be directed by his own motives. In particular, Konrad aligns his movements with the Tao, the spontaneous, universal energy path of Taoist philosophy.
Secondary characters include Silencio, a mute boy who is fascinated with watches, holographic girl Rei Toei (the beautiful "emergent system" from Idoru) and self-described "student of existential sociology" Shinya Yamazaki (from Virtual Light and Idoru) as well as Fontaine, the pawn-shop owner and friend of Rydell and Chevette, having appeared first in Virtual Light.
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Most of my favorites have already been mentioned in this thread. You guys have good taste :lol:
I do have to give another shout out to Johnny Got His Gun, though.
Also, What is the What by Dave Eggers is phenomenal. I got much more out of it than I did from A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.
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Surprised no one's mentioned The Outsiders. It's a essentially a children's book, but it is the sort of book that hits home for any reader. It's a really beautiful book in a lot of ways.
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A few of my favourites would be:
1) Amercian Gods : Neil Gaiman
2) Guards Guards : Terry Pratchet
3) The Hitch-Hicker's Guide to the Galaxy : Douglas Adams
4) The Dark Tower, The Gunslinger : Stephen King
5) Frankenstein : Mary Shelley
6) To Kill a Mockinbird : Harper Lee