Favorite Book

[thatpfunk]

What is yours?

I think I have to go with One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest by Kesey, although there are several Hemingway and Ellis books whichI feel very strongly about.

[tdarko]

Survivor-Chuck Palahniuk
American Psycho-Bret Easton Ellis
The Idiot-Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Doors of Perception-Aldous Huxley
Jesus' Son-Denis Johnson
Last Exit to Brooklyn-Hubert Selby Jr.

thats just a few off the top of my head.

[istewart]

Choke - Chuck Palahniuk is up there.

[tdarko]

anything palahniuk is waaaay up there. i guess i should give my palahniuk list:
Survivor
Invisible Monsters
Fight Club
Choke
Lullaby
Diary
Stranger than Fiction
Travel Book

Haunted will be on this list later this spring, i have a bad feeling though...read some parts and its just ok.

[nothumb]

Fiction?

The World According to Garp - John Irving
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Good News from Outer Space - John Kessel
Notes from Underground - Dostoevsky

But I'm really more of a non-fiction reader, with some poetry thrown in.

Howl and Other Poems - Allen Ginsberg (probably one of those rare oft-mentioned poems that is actually truly amazing.)
Bukowski - anything, recently Open All Night
Collected works of T.S. Eliot (mostly early poems)

Anarchy and Order - Herbert Read
In Defense of Anarchy - Robert Paul Wolff
Totalitarianism - Hannah Arendt
The Wretched of the Earth - Frantz Fanon
Anything by Nietzsche, esp. "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," "The Antichrist," "Twilight of the Idols."
The Division of Labor in Society - Emile Durkheim
Seeing Like A State - James C. Scott

I'll stop there, rambling.

NT

[Thythe]

Fiction:
1984

[jesusarenque]

Don Quijote--Cervantes
Fiesta (The Sun Also Rises)--Hemingway

[tdarko]

great f'ing reads man, especially: slaughterhouse and of course anything bukowski.
whats your favorite bukowski? my favorite is Women /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[JaBlue]

Palahniuk is way overhyped. Survivor was pretty decent, but Choke just sucked.

Favorite book: Robert Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Favorite play (yeah, I know it wasn't asked): Arthur Miller - Death of a Salesman

[thatpfunk]

[ QUOTE ]
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut


[/ QUOTE ]

This might be one of my least fav Vonnegut's.

Siren's of Titan used to be my favorite, but it has been a while, so I refrain from calling it my favorite.

[jason_t]

Blindness - Jose Saramago
If on a winter's night a traveler - Italo Calvino
Godel, Escher, Bach - Douglas Hofstadter
The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins

[wacki]

I don't read for pleasure, that being said:

Every 2+2 book
Roy Cook, play of the hands
Rob Green: 48 laws of power, and Art of Seduction
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
Never be Lied to Again
The art of deception
On Rope
Just about anything by O'reilly (the books with animals on the front)

[tdarko]

what about Breakfast of Champions or Cat's Cradle, those are my two fav Vonnegut's

[Soul Daddy]

Native Son - Richard Wright

I'm torn between Sirens and Cat's Cradle when it comes to Vonnegut.

[tdarko]

[ QUOTE ]
Palahniuk is way overhyped. Survivor was pretty decent, but Choke just sucked.


[/ QUOTE ]
this statement is wrong unless you are talking about stranger than fiction, other than that any credit he has recieved was deserving...plus the cacophony society is good times.

[thatpfunk]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't read for pleasure

[/ QUOTE ]

That makes me sad /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[nothumb]

[ QUOTE ]
This might be one of my least fav Vonnegut's.

[/ QUOTE ]

First one I ever read, always has a sentimental place in my heart. Honestly I've only read maybe 3 or 4 of his books. I like them a lot but they are all extremely similar, you know? I feel the same way about Tom Robbins. They both have this sort of anesthetized existential glow about them and leave a pleasant taste, but I think people read them too religiously.

Anyway, to the person who asked about Bukowski, I have to say his poetry > his prose. I have enjoyed a lot of his later stuff, including the posthumous works. He softened up a bit, which would not be a compliment for most poets but it is for him.

Recently I read Principia Discordia again and enjoyed it immensely... again.

I should probably have thrown in some Hemingway, maybe 'The Sun Also Rises.' Fvck, that book depresses me though.

Also, "100 Years of Solitude" and "The Sound and the Fury" for that epic family-in-decline feel.

NT

[Zeno]

Too many to choose from so a break into some catergories is a must.

American Fiction:

Sometimes a Great Notion
Lonesome Dove
Catch-22
Tough Trip Through Paradise
Huckleberry Finn


World Classics:

The Analects of Confucius
Tao Te Ching

Reference Books:

The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce

Enough for now.

-Zeno

Edit:

Science Fiction:

Many of Asimov's books, Robot series and The Foundation Trilogy.

Cat's Cradle

Use to read Ray Bradbary and Robert Heinlen but that was long long ago. I do remember Stranger in a Strange Land and some others.

[thatpfunk]

Cat's Cradle is very, very good. Probably my 2nd favorite.

I went on a Vonnegut kick a couple years ago and read a ton of his stuff so Breakfast of Champs is muddled in there with some others...

[nothumb]

[ QUOTE ]
World Classics:

The Analects of Confucius
Tao Te Ching

[/ QUOTE ]

Lao Tzu > Chuang Tse > Confucius.

IMHO. All three make for interesting reading.

[tdarko]

you don't find faulkner to be a little long winded? man fury is decent but it was hell to get through.

[tdarko]

by the way i am loving your location right now. hail to the cyber pirate /images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[nothumb]

Yeah, I have a high tolerance for long-winded early modern fiction. I don't know why it affects me so much, but it does. Something about the way the narrative forms were opening up, but old rules and styles were still evident. It just strikes me as such an interesting period.

NT

[captZEEbo1]

[b]Flowers for Algernon

[wacki]

[ QUOTE ]
That makes me sad /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

I still enjoy the books, because learning is what I enjoy most. There isn't enough time for me to read all of the scientific, computer, political, historical.... books I want to read, let alone the classic novels. So I make sacrifices. My book time is for learning, and my pleasure time is spent with friends. Time is such a precious thing. It's scarcity makes me yearn for immortality.

[andyfox]

Some of my favorite selections from The Devil's Dictionary:

Hebrew: A male Jew, as distinguished from the Shebrew, an altogether superior creation.

Forgetfulness: A gift of God bestowed upon debtors in compensation for their destitution of conscience.

Commerce: A kind of transaction in which A plunders from B the goods of C, and for compensation B picks the pocket of D of money belonging to E.

Piracy: Commerce without its folly-swaddles, just as God made it.

Bride: A woman with a fine prospect of happiness behind her.

Husband: One who, having dined, is charged with the care of the plate.

Admiration: Our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves.

Aborigines: Persons of little worth found cumbering the soil of a newly discovered country. They soon cease to cumber; they fertilize.

Lawyer: One skilled in circumvention of the law.

Liar: A lawyer with a roving commission.

Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.

Heathen: A benighted creature who has the folly to worship something that he can see and feel.

Erudition: Dust shaken out of a book into an empty skull.

Egotist: A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.

[thatpfunk]

[ QUOTE ]
you don't find faulkner to be a little long winded? man fury is decent but it was hell to get through.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have to agree. I remember reading it in high school and thinking maybe I was still a little young to understand it.

Now I just feel as if he tries to do too much.

[tdarko]

yeah don't get me wrong, a lot of talent there and a good book but i wouldn't suggest this book unless you are an avid reader.

[kemystery]

haven't read since school but it was a fave

'The teaching of Don Jaun; a Yauqi way of knowledge' Carlos Castaneda

[-Syk-]

Not a huge reader. I enjoyed The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes.

[tdarko]

[ QUOTE ]
I enjoyed The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes

[/ QUOTE ]
oooohhhhhh scary scary /images/graemlins/shocked.gif

[-Syk-]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I enjoyed The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes

[/ QUOTE ]
oooohhhhhh scary scary /images/graemlins/shocked.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Have you read it?

[tdarko]

indeed /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[JaBlue]

Palahniuk isn't half the writer he's made out to be.

[tdarko]

thats your opinion and you are entitled to it, but i have yet to find a modern writer as creative as he is.

[thatpfunk]

B.E.E. >>>>> Chuck

[sublime]

paris hiton biography

[tdarko]

yeah ellis is probably the only one i rank with him, less than zero, psycho and informers were all phenomonal. didnt like glamorama or rules of attraction too much. a couple others i really like is Douglas Coupland (Generation X, Girlfriend in a Coma) and Jay McInerney (Bright Lights, Big City, and Last of the Savages)

[Hulk Hogan]

There are WAAAAAY too many people trying to look smart on this thread. Lol, pose some more.

[tdarko]

finally a topic i relate to on OOT and someone has to get bitter, i dont like Ramen Noodles, don't play Halo, and don't listen to rap music so i am pumped about this thread.

oh and if you cant add something useful why bother to post?

[thatpfunk]

[ QUOTE ]
There are WAAAAAY too many people trying to look smart on this thread. Lol, pose some more.

[/ QUOTE ]

Um, I have actually seen quite a few "I don't like to read much, but..." responses.

Is it that hard to believe that people actually care about good books? I care passionately about literature, probably moreso than anything else.

[Hulk Hogan]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
There are WAAAAAY too many people trying to look smart on this thread. Lol, pose some more.

[/ QUOTE ]

Um, I have actually seen quite a few "I don't like to read much, but..." responses.

Is it that hard to believe that people actually care about good books? I care passionately about literature, probably moreso than anything else.

[/ QUOTE ]

POSE ON MY MAN, POSE ON!

[thatpfunk]

Troll on my friend, troll on.

[shemp]

Anna Karenina is the best novel ever written. If someone out there has read it and disagrees I'd be surprised. I've read much of what has been mentioned in this thread, many of them excellent or at least entertaining enough for persons of a certain age, but it isn't close. Too many great novels to list the Best of the Rest, but recent masterpieces include Philip Roth's American Pastoral and several of Jose Saramago's (The Cave, The History of the Siege of Lisbon, Balthasar and Blimunda -- not his more popular Blindness in my opinion).

[Scotch78]

For the Vonnegut folks, Cat's Cradle gets my vote.

For whomever mentioned the creativity of modern writers, what about Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace?

Fiction:
Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky
1984 by Orwell
Brave New World by Huxley
The Stranger by Camus
Dune by Herbert
Stranger in a Strange land by Heinlein

Serious Stuff:
Anything by Plato or Nietzsche

And for up and coming writer, Nell Freudenberger (http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2003/09/04/freudenberger/) . There's only one small pic, but I wouldn't tell her I like to eat breakfast alone.

Scott

[Scotch78]

[ QUOTE ]
Anna Karenina is the best novel ever written. If someone out there has read it and disagrees I'd be surprised.

[/ QUOTE ]

The Brothers Karamazov tends to win that argument more often than any other novel, but neither is on my favorites list.

Scott

[kemystery]

adding Frank Miller's 'Dark Knight Returns'

for the Hulkster

[jason_t]

[ QUOTE ]
Anna Karenina is the best novel ever written.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
and several of Jose Saramago's (The Cave, The History of the Siege of Lisbon, Balthasar and Blimunda -- not his more popular Blindness in my opinion).

[/ QUOTE ]

I've read both Anna Karenina and Blindness; Blindness is superior in terms of style, story and themes but not in characters. In total though, Blindness is better.

[jason_t]

[ QUOTE ]
And for up and coming writer, Nell Freudenberger . There's only one small pic, but I wouldn't tell her I like to eat breakfast alone.

[/ QUOTE ]

I read Lucky Girls only because of that Salon article and thought it was quite good.

[JaBlue]

Creativity is not the same thing as the ability to think of the situations that Palahniuk puts his characters in.

[Paluka]

Catch-22

[BadBoyBenny]

The Brothers Karamazov

[edtost]

I wasn't a huge fan of American Pastoral, though I haven't read any of Roth's other works.

my own list:
Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
Jitterbug Perfume - Tom Robbins
Dubliners - Joyce
Tender is the Night - Fitzgerald
Crime and Punishment - Dostoyevsky
Lolita - Nabokov

[thatpfunk]

[ QUOTE ]
Crime and Punishment - Dostoyevsky


[/ QUOTE ]

Try "A Happy Life" by Camus. Not an amazing novel, but a pretty interesting piece almost as a response to C&P. Premise is life after murder, although much more optimistic (or perhaps cynical...)

[sfer]

[ QUOTE ]
yeah ellis is probably the only one i rank with him...

[/ QUOTE ]

You really like repetitive prose. And Choke was just silly. Trite isn't the right word, but it's the first that comes to mind.

[sfer]

The story of James Gatz.

EDIT: Didn't we do this thread recently?

[ArchAngel71857]

White Noise by Don DeLillo.

-AA

[thatpfunk]

There was a books that make you cry thread and a recomend a book thread (didnt remember that one), although I would list different books for all three topics...

As far as Ellis and repetition... it always seems very deliberate in his work, so it doesn't bother me.

[Wad]

Johnny Got His Gun - Dalton Trumbo

[sfer]

[ QUOTE ]
White Noise by Don DeLillo.


[/ QUOTE ]

I /images/graemlins/heart.gif White Noise.

[turnipmonster]

probably A Farewell to Arms is my favorite book, although there's so many.

currently enjoying Ham On Rye by Bukowski.

--turnipmonster

[elwoodblues]

Second

[edtost]

i thought white noise was kinda meh, but that may be the fault of having to read it in a week for a lit class more than the book itself.

[daryn]

the plague - camus
invisible man - ellison



i don't reach much

[Aces McGee]

The Phantom Tollbooth.

-McGee

[Chris Daddy Cool]

alex haley - the autobiography of malcolm x
jd salinger - catcher in the rye
bill james - the new bill james historical baseball abstract

[deacsoft]

The Holy Bible.

[swede123]

Catch 22 is pretty awesome.

I love some of Stephen King's classic work. The Shining is still the scariest book I've ever read.

Swede

[2planka]

No particular order, off the top of the noggin:

Catcher in the Rye (salinger)
Catch-22 (heller)
Slaughterhouse 5 (KV)
Cat's Cradle (KV)
Skinny Legs and All (Robbins)
Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates (Robbins)
Cane (Toomer)
Mules and Men (Hurston)
The Stranger (camus)
Nausea (Sartre)
Duncan Delaney and the Cadillac of Doom (I forget)
Another Roadside Attraction (Robbins)
Ulysses (Joyce)
Dubliners (Joyce)
Going After Cacciato (O'Brien)

Poetry by Elliot, ee cummings, Seamus Heaney, ....

I could go on and on....

[lucas9000]

the lord of the rings and of human bondage.

[lucas9000]

[ QUOTE ]
Ulysses (Joyce)

[/ QUOTE ]

i think i'm doomed to be a literary lowbrow because i just could not get through this. maybe if i had nothing to do fror 6 months other than read it, i could get into it. seems like a book you really need to concentrate on...not exactly light reading.

[elwoodblues]

author?

[Shajen]

the majority of the books people have listed on here I didn't like when I was forced to read them at a younger age.

I wonder if my perception of them will have changed?

Lately the only things I've been reading are 2+2 books, OOT, and Maxim.

I'm about as cultured as spoiled milk.

[2planka]

You have to read Portrait of the Artist and Dubliners before reading Ulysses. I took a continuing ed seminar on it for fun. Edit: I read exerpts of Ulysses as an undergrad, but never the whole thing until this continuing ed class.

Edit #2: you also have to be "into" deconstructing and interpreting to get a charge out of Ulysses. Trying to figure out all the veiled references is where the entertainment value lies. It's not high-brow, just tricky. In fact, a lot of the humor is, well, scatalogical.

[crownjules]

I like fiction, but moreso from the fantasy/sci-fi side of it. I was forced to read the Catch-22s and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest in high school and I didn't much enjoy those (Native Son was about the only one I did).

That being said, Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, although the first book was a little rough around the edges. Amazing characterization, and it ties in a lot of his other works. Only books I've ever felt really sad about reaching the end of.

[raisins]

Here's a few favorites:

You Can't Win by Jack Black
Blood Meridian and Suttree by Cormac McCarthy
Greek Myths by Robert Graves
The Arabian Nightmare by Robert Irwin
Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees by Lawrence Weschler
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Bhagavad-Gita
Gospel of John
Gospel of Thomas
and many more...

regards

[Shajen]

I've read a lot of Fantasy in my day too.

If Robery Jordan ever finishes his wheel of time series I'll be happy.

The first 4 books were damned good. The last 5 or so have been bores.

Hope they get better.

Stephen R Donaldson wrote some pretty great books too.

[nicky g]

Book length literary prose:

Melville - Moby Dick
Hemingway - SAR, FTA
Orwell - Down and Out, Homage to Catalonia, 1984, Essays
Ishiguro - The Unconsoled, Remains of the Day
John Fowles - The Magus (mean to read more stuff by him)
Ronan Bennett - The Catastrophist
Bao Ninh - Sorrow of War

Have certainly forgotten a few but those are far up there. Poetrywise, Paul Muldoon is by far my favourite. I like Carver and Cheever for short stories. Junot Diaz's drown is a great short stoy collection. Should get back into reading short fiction.

Mostly read non-fiction these days, can;t be bothered to list those.

[thatpfunk]

[ QUOTE ]
Melville - Moby Dick
Hemingway - SAR, FTA
Orwell - Down and Out, Homage to Catalonia, 1984, Essays
Ishiguro - The Unconsoled, Remains of the Day
John Fowles - The Magus (mean to read more stuff by him)
Ronan Bennett - The Catastrophist
Bao Ninh - Sorrow of War


[/ QUOTE ]

I thought Homage was interesting, but very slow at times. For Whom the Bell Tolls grabbed me much more (same war as subject, although quite different stories)

[sfer]

Orwell is a fantastic writer.

[Dominic]

Check out "Mile Zero," by Thomas Sanchez...published in the mid 80's, I believe. My all-time favorite novel.

[Dominic]

[ QUOTE ]
anything palahniuk is waaaay up there. i guess i should give my palahniuk list:
Survivor
Invisible Monsters
Fight Club
Choke
Lullaby
Diary
Stranger than Fiction
Travel Book

Haunted will be on this list later this spring, i have a bad feeling though...read some parts and its just ok.

[/ QUOTE ]

Invisible Monsters was weak.

[heavybody]

"What is Art" by John Canady
"Watership Down " Richard Adams
"Roots" Alex Haley

heavily bodied

[heavybody]

I liked that too.

heavily bodied

[tdarko]

[ QUOTE ]
Johnny Got His Gun - Dalton Trumbo

[/ QUOTE ]
damn good pick ther IMO, the second part of the book is nuts!

[tdarko]

[ QUOTE ]
"Watership Down " Richard Adams


[/ QUOTE ]
first novel i ever read, my father made me read this and Huck Finn when i was 10 and have been hooked ever since.

[adamstewart]

[ QUOTE ]
There are WAAAAAY too many people trying to look smart on this thread. Lol, pose some more.

[/ QUOTE ]


"Posing"... now that's a funny one coming from you.


Adam

[-Syk-]

[ QUOTE ]
indeed /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

What'd you think of it?

[tdarko]

loved it, he was a [censored] psycho and the book allows you to get inside his head and actually understand his thoughts. my roommate in college loved this book so i had to read it to find out why it was his favorite book, i still have that copy i liked it so much! /images/graemlins/grin.gif
maybe i just have a really old copy but there is about a hundred typos in mine.

[-Syk-]

[ QUOTE ]
loved it, he was a [censored] psycho and the book allows you to get inside his head and actually understand his thoughts. my roommate in college loved this book so i had to read it to find out why it was his favorite book, i still have that copy i liked it so much! /images/graemlins/grin.gif
maybe i just have a really old copy but there is about a hundred typos in mine.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. Very good book. They're gonna make it into a movie. IMDB already has it listed. It's called The Crowded Room if I'm not mistaken. I don't remember the typos, but I read it a long time ago. I do know it wasn't successful in America, but very successful in Japan. Maybe it was a version that was a rough translation? :-/

Great book. I'll have to read it again. I hear Sybil is also very good.

[tdarko]

now that you mention it i think the 1st edition is a rough translation, i am gonna have to go look for it now.
[ QUOTE ]
I hear Sybil is also very good.

[/ QUOTE ]
Liked that one too but thought that "Billy" was better, two TOTALLY different types of endings, [censored] i dont think that ruins "sybil" that a i said that. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[scrub]

I'm going to go lowbrow here:

A soldier of the Great War Mark Helprin.

A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth.

These aren't my favorite novels, but they're the ones I've had the most success recommending to people.

scrub

[thatpfunk]

[ QUOTE ]
These aren't my favorite novels, but they're the ones I've had the most success recommending to people.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well then I think you responded to the wrong thread scrub. This thread is about your favorite books /images/graemlins/tongue.gif
Any brow will do...

[tdarko]

[ QUOTE ]
A soldier of the Great War Mark Helprin.

A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth.



[/ QUOTE ]
hmmmm haven't read either, why the success? or i guess the better question being why should i read them?

[Mano]

While Slaughterhouse Five is not my least favorite of Vonnegut's, Siren's of Titan is definitely my favorite. An amazing read.

[neon]

There really are just soooo many, but in addition to some of those already mentioned by other posters, here are a few gems, imho:

-A Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez

-Most anything by Toni Morrison, esp. Song of Solomon and Beloved

-A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole

-Magister Ludi (The Glass Bead Game) by Herman Hesse

-The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, by Milan Kundera (also The Incredible Lightness of Being, by ditto)

-Dharma Bums (Kerouac), and if you like Beat writing, Some of the Dharma (also Kerouac)--a compilation of thoughts, poems, letters, haikus, and Buddhist writings . . .

-Friday Night Lights (more lowbrow, sure, but just finished and it's a really interesting read, at least as much about small-town Texas politicking and socio-economic conditions in segregated post-oil boom boondocks TX as it is about H.S. football)

-For poker literature, The Biggest Game in Town (A. Alvarez) is just about it.

Ok, that's enuff for now. I'll think of fifty more as soon as I post this . . . interesting thread . . .

[jar]

I'll second whoever said Goedel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Hofstaedter.

On the lighter side, anything by Douglas Adams. I think I might like the Dirk Gently books as much or more than the Hitchhikers Guide ones. Also, Last Chance to See, his non-fiction book about endangered animals was really good. I'm the farthest thing from an environmentalist, so coming from me that means a lot.

I was a big Rand fan when I was younger, but I think I've mostly grown out of that.

[scrub]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
A soldier of the Great War Mark Helprin.

A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth.



[/ QUOTE ]
hmmmm haven't read either, why the success? or i guess the better question being why should i read them?

[/ QUOTE ]

They're both big, beautiful, plot-driven novels.

I read A Soldier of The Great War right after finishing Bleak House, and reading the first chapter or so felt like walking into the sun after being locked in a basement for two weeks. It's a very masculine adventure story set in the Italian Alps and other parts of Europe during WWI. There ought to be a bunch of reader reviews here. (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0380715899/104-4661508-3503958)

A Suitable Boy is a Dickensian romance set in India during the 1950s. There ought to be a bunch of reader reviews here. (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060925000/104-4661508-3503958)

scrub

[scrub]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
These aren't my favorite novels, but they're the ones I've had the most success recommending to people.

[/ QUOTE ]

Well then I think you responded to the wrong thread scrub. This thread is about your favorite books /images/graemlins/tongue.gif
Any brow will do...

[/ QUOTE ]

Since this is about the third of these threads I've responded to, I figured I'd change things up.../images/graemlins/smile.gif

scrub

[thatpfunk]

[ QUOTE ]
I read A Soldier of The Great War right after finishing Bleak House, and reading the first chapter or so felt like walking into the sun after being locked in a basement for two weeks.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have not read "A Soldier..." but that is a great analogy for bleak house, regardless.

[scrub]

[ QUOTE ]
-A Confederacy of Dunces, by John Kennedy Toole

[/ QUOTE ]

Ni han, sir.

Shut Up and Deal is surprisingly good as far as poker literature goes.

scrub

[Bluffoon]

Hemmingway is the master.

Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo is a close second.

Also

All the Kings Men by Robert Penn Warren

[jar]

[ QUOTE ]

A Suitable Boy is a Dickensian romance set in India during the 1950s.

[/ QUOTE ]

Dickensian in what sense? Long boring paid by the word garbage with pink politics?

[tdarko]

have you read The Things They Carried? that and Johnny Got His Gun are tough to beat IMO.

[James282]

Literature: Heart of Darkness and Catch-22

Persuasive writing: Culture Jam

Just for fun: The Wheel of Time series

-James

[James282]

[ QUOTE ]
i thought white noise was kinda meh, but that may be the fault of having to read it in a week for a lit class more than the book itself.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would also put white noise in the meh category.
-James

[OrangeHeat]

[ QUOTE ]
Heart of Darkness

[/ QUOTE ]

I think this is an excellent choice.

Orange

[scrub]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

A Suitable Boy is a Dickensian romance set in India during the 1950s.

[/ QUOTE ]

Dickensian in what sense? Long boring paid by the word garbage with pink politics?

[/ QUOTE ]

I meant long with a very large cast of characters from different social classes.

scrub

[scrub]

[ QUOTE ]
I was a big Rand fan when I was younger, but I think I've mostly grown out of that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Apparently not.

Unless you mean that you don't like payed by the word garbage anymore.../images/graemlins/smile.gif

scrub

[hoyaboy1]

I'd have to think a bit to come up with my favorite books, but an author that hasn't been mentioned who I think is very underrated is Anthony Burgess (most famous for Clockwork Orange, but a lot of his other stuff, such as The Wanting Seed, is also very good).

[Duke]

[ QUOTE ]
Just for fun: The Wheel of Time series

[/ QUOTE ]

Only if you stop after LoC and just pretend that RJ is dead.

Martin's SoIaF series is far better high fantasy.

~D

[edtost]

[ QUOTE ]
I was a big Rand fan when I was younger, but I think I've mostly grown out of that.

[/ QUOTE ]

[private joker]

http://www.harperacademic.com/coverimages/large/0060539259.jpg

[jar]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I was a big Rand fan when I was younger, but I think I've mostly grown out of that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Apparently not.

Unless you mean that you don't like payed by the word garbage anymore...:)


[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure I follow the reason for the "Apparently not." part.

Anyway, I used to buy Rand's schtick enough to ignore the atrociousness of the actual writing. I'm still an anarcho-libertarian politically, but I see Rand for the out there whackjob (and bad writer) that she is. I'm tempted to reread We The Living, because I think that has the best chance of standing on its own as a novel.

[sfer]

[ QUOTE ]
Shut Up and Deal is surprisingly good as far as poker literature goes.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agreed.

[Benholio]

[ QUOTE ]
I've read a lot of Fantasy in my day too.

If Robery Jordan ever finishes his wheel of time series I'll be happy.

The first 4 books were damned good. The last 5 or so have been bores.

Hope they get better.

Stephen R Donaldson wrote some pretty great books too.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you like epic fantasy, you should definately check out George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553573403/qid=1108681070/sr=8-2/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-5600793-9176057?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) series (not yet complete, though).

Those books, along with these three (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/055357339X/qid=1108681232/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-5600793-9176057?v=glance&s=books) related (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553575635/ref=pd_sim_b_4/002-5600793-9176057?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance) series (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553582445/ref=pd_sim_b_2/002-5600793-9176057?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance) by Robin Hobb, are my favorites. (3 books each and complete)

[scrub]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I was a big Rand fan when I was younger, but I think I've mostly grown out of that.

[/ QUOTE ]

Apparently not.

Unless you mean that you don't like payed by the word garbage anymore...:)


[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure I follow the reason for the "Apparently not." part.

Anyway, I used to buy Rand's schtick enough to ignore the atrociousness of the actual writing. I'm still an anarcho-libertarian politically, but I see Rand for the out there whackjob (and bad writer) that she is. I'm tempted to reread We The Living, because I think that has the best chance of standing on its own as a novel.

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]

Dickensian in what sense? Long boring paid by the word garbage with pink politics?

[/ QUOTE ]

scrub

[jar]

OK, point taken. I forgot about the comment on Dickens' politics.

I'm tempted to start a thread asking if there's anyone who actually likes Dickens. Admittedly, I've only read A Christmas Carol and Great Expectations, but two strikes is more than most authors get.

[MicroBob]

Yeah...I read Shut up and deal BEFORE I knew how to play poker and thought it was okay for what it wsa trying to be.
Have since read it AFTER learning poker and still thought it was decent.


Razor's Edge - Somerset Maughm

A Void - Georges Perec

Salinger - (Catcher in the Rye, Frances and Zooey, Raise high the roof-beam Carpenter)

Squandering the Blue - Kate Braverman

History of Zero - (forget author, non-fiction)

Word Freaks - (the Scrabble tournament circuit...very enjoyable read)

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pilsig

(although I'm not sure I would care for it much now if I read it again....I see it right there on the book-shelf across the room so perhaps I should give it another look-see some 10 years after first reading it)



Regarding the book A Void....an incredibly difficult read but worth struggling through only for the fact that the author does not use the letter 'E' throughout the ENITRE novel.
Freaking awesome!! But, again, an incredibly difficult read.
was originally a French novel (also with no 'E's) and then translated to english.
No here, no there, no life, no death, no love, no sex.

[tbach24]

Moneyball. Best book ever.

[Matt Flynn]

The books i have enjoyed the most, globally, are

The Fool's Progress by Edward Abbey, a diamond in a pile of garnets.

The Aubrey/Maturin series by Patick O'Brian.

Various short stories by Richard Selzer.

The best textbook I have read for sheer tour de force is Biology by Curtis and Strange. An extraordinary accomplishment.

The easiest fluff recommendation is the DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. My rec for most entertaining beach novel of the recent past.

Favorite parenting book: Siblings Without Rivalry. (Will save you a lot of grief and is refreshingly brief)

So many others.

Matt

[MikeNaked]

"In the Lake of the Woods" - Tim O'Brien


This thread made the favorites - niiiii

[slickpoppa]

[ QUOTE ]
What is yours?

I think I have to go with One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest by Kesey, although there are several Hemingway and Ellis books whichI feel very strongly about.

[/ QUOTE ]

One flew over the cuckoo's nets is my favorite as well. RPM is the man

[htc1278]

Invisible Man--Ellison
Native Son--Wright
Midnight's Children--Rushdie
The Music of Chance--Auster
American Gods--Gaiman

All my friends love Gravity's Rainbow (Pynchon) and Infinite Jest (Wallace).

[shadow29]

Good thread.

The Sound and The Fury (clear winner, imo)
Ulysses
Look Homeward, Angel (Thomas Wolfe)

Some lesser works, but still pretty damn good:

Tale of Two Cities
Great Expectations
Great Gatsby

Far lesser works:

Beach Music (Conroy)
Prince of Tides (Conroy)
Henderson The Rain King (Bellow)

Saw some stuff about Hemmingway, but (as I said in a thread hijack) he kept trying to write well instead of actually just writing well.

Catcher in the Rye is so cliche and overrated.

[easypete]

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue, by Seuss, Ph. D.

Second Order Partial Differential Equations in Hilbert Spaces, by Giuseppe Da Prato (a real page burner)

[MicroBob]

[ QUOTE ]

Catcher in the Rye is so cliche and overrated.

[/ QUOTE ]


I know that many people feel this way...but I still dig Salinger anyway.

[Drac]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I've read a lot of Fantasy in my day too.

If Robery Jordan ever finishes his wheel of time series I'll be happy.

The first 4 books were damned good. The last 5 or so have been bores.

Hope they get better.

Stephen R Donaldson wrote some pretty great books too.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you like epic fantasy, you should definately check out George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553573403/qid=1108681070/sr=8-2/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-5600793-9176057?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) series (not yet complete, though).

Those books, along with these three (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/055357339X/qid=1108681232/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-5600793-9176057?v=glance&s=books) related (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553575635/ref=pd_sim_b_4/002-5600793-9176057?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance) series (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553582445/ref=pd_sim_b_2/002-5600793-9176057?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance) by Robin Hobb, are my favorites. (3 books each and complete)

[/ QUOTE ]

The Jordan books are crap. Starts out interesting but by book 3 it's just the same stuff over and over again. It's like he's trying to see how much money he can suck out of people before they realize what the hell is going on.

I second the George RR Martin series as a good read. I do hate picking up a series before it's done.

I mostly read fantasy/science fiction as I read to relax so my favs are not great works of literature.

Asimov's Foundation Trilogy is excellent.

Glen Cook's The Black Company is darn good stuff. I was geeked when he added a 2nd series but it doesn't come close to living up to the first 3 books.

Farmer's Riverworld is also very good.

[James282]

and, deleted, fond the answer to my query /images/graemlins/smile.gif
-James

[theBruiser500]

i have a ton of favorite movies and music and i used to have many favorite books until i read tolstoy. war and peace and anna karenina are without a doubt my favorite books.

[jesusarenque]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">En respuesta a:</font><hr />

Saw some stuff about Hemmingway, but (as I said in a thread hijack) he kept trying to write well instead of actually just writing well.



[/ QUOTE ]

Overall, Hemingway was overrated, but he got it right with The Sun Also Rises.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Catch-22. And it's not even close.

[Clarkmeister]

Small Stakes Holdem by Ed Miller.

[scrub]

[ QUOTE ]
The best textbook I have read for sheer tour de force is Biology by Curtis and Strange. An extraordinary accomplishment.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you get a kick out of science textbooks, you ought to check out Maitland Jones's Orgo textbook. It's hands down the best science textbook I've ever seen.

scrub

[nothumb]

[ QUOTE ]
Stranger in a Strange land by Heinlein

[/ QUOTE ]

Good book, if you can ignore Heinlein.

NT

[tdarko]

[ QUOTE ]
This thread made the favorites - niiiii

[/ QUOTE ]
where can you find this?

[shadow29]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The best textbook I have read for sheer tour de force is Biology by Curtis and Strange. An extraordinary accomplishment.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you get a kick out of science textbooks, you ought to check out Maitland Jones's Orgo textbook. It's hands down the best science textbook I've ever seen.

scrub

[/ QUOTE ]

Campbell and Reece's Bio (introductory) is quite good, in terms of readibility etc.

[DMBFan23]

some books I've read that I've liked:

Door to December, Dean Koontz
Eyes of the Dragon, Stephen King
Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand
Wizard's First Rule, Terry Goodkind
Dune, Frank Herbert
The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card

I never got down on any of the classics. My HS senior englilish teacher gave me a combined book report on Portrait of an Artist and Ulysses, and they were quite possibly the most boring books I've ever tried to read. just not my style I guess.

[heavybody]

I read it twice . Several years apart. I have also read "The Plague Dogs" by Adams.

heavily bodied

[Slow Play Ray]

[ QUOTE ]
The Phantom Tollbooth.

-McGee

[/ QUOTE ]

WOW, did this ever strike a chord. I went and checked on Amazon and was flooded with childhood memories. I LOVED this book when I was a kid, and I forgot all about it! As an extremely obscure reference, this is the book when he eats the letters that take like fruit, or something like that, right? That visual has always stayed with me ever since, for some odd reason...is 28 too old to re-read this book?? Haha.

*EDIT* When I posted this I forgot I was looking for a book recommendation and pulled this thread up out of a search. My bad on replying to a 4-month-old thread! /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[somethingstupid]

The Grapes of Wrath. How has no one else mention this?

[blaze666]

barry trotter and the dead horse, by michael gerber is my all time favourite book, a parody of harry potter.

[Barrett's Last Privateer]

[ QUOTE ]
For whomever mentioned the creativity of modern writers, what about Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace?

[/ QUOTE ]

Infinite Jest is my favourite book. Took me two tries to get through, but was certainly worth the effort.

[Frequitude]

"One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" - Alexander Solzhenitsyn

[tolbiny]

Anna Karenina is up there-
I loved les mis- but couldn't read more than a couple of pages of "the hunchback of notre dame"
Of human bondage by Maughm is another.

Nostalgic-
Where the red fern grows and
Watership down.

[tolbiny]

I read half o fit and didn't even want to finish- which is unusual for me (for the most part.
It wasn't a Crime and punishment or Brothers karamozov half read either (i want to finish those)- i thought the book was poorly written, self indulgent and uninteresting. (also the characters were pathetically perfect).

[tomdemaine]

Hitch hikers guide to the galaxy &gt; all

[davelin]

Favorites -
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
Song of Fire and Ice series - George RR Martin
Moneyball - Michael Lewis
Empire Falls - Richard Russo

[PokerBob]

I read very little, but The Catcher in the Rye, and it's not close. I also like A Million Little Pieces.

[hoopsie44]

James Ellroy's American Tabloid.

[Golden_Rhino]

Prayer for Owen Meany

[Macdaddy Warsaw]

City Come-A-Walkin' or Motherless Brooklyn.

In true form, I don't remember the name of either author.

[stankybank]

either this (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/sim-explorer/explore-items/-/0316769487/0/101/1/none/purchase/ref%3Dpd%5Fsxp%5Fr0/104-4589610-3488705) or this (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/sim-explorer/explore-items/-/0316769495/0/101/1/none/purchase/ref%3Dpd%5Fsxp%5Fr0/104-4589610-3488705) by him (http://www.levity.com/corduroy/salinger.htm)

[RicktheRuler]

Absalom, Absalom

[RicktheRuler]

[ QUOTE ]
Notes from Underground - Dostoevsky

[/ QUOTE ]

I've always really enjoyed this one.

[morgant]

crime and punishment-doestevsky

[groo]

The Monkey Wrench Gang

-Edward Abbey

[Pocket Trips]

Well My favorite book that I have ever read is thew only one where I actually cheered out loud when the villian got his in the end... it was "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett another good page turner was called "The day after Tomorrow" by Allan Folsom

[StevieG]

More than "As I Lay Dying?"

Please expound.

[YourFoxyGrandma]

This thread inspired me to take a trip to the library. Thanks, oot.

[ClassicBob]

Cry, The Beloved Country
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
1984
Demian
Steppenwolf
The Stranger
The Biggest Game In Town

[dutchbrodymoss]

Salinger - The Catcher In the Rye

[Mansavage]

I can't believe it took this long for Ender's Game to be mentioned. This book is must read for all teenagers if you ask me.

I also agree that Eyes of the Dragon was one of King's best by far.

[poot]

"Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn

[jgorham]

The Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut

[thatpfunk]

[ QUOTE ]

The Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut

[/ QUOTE ]

You're awesome, I love this book. It is my favorite Vonnegut and suprisingly few people have read it.

[jgorham]

I know exactly what you mean, which is why I have given this book as a present at least ten times to different friends.

[Jeff W]

I like epic adventure novels:

Don Quixote - Cervantes (My favorite book).
Watership Down - Richard Adams
The Hobbit - Tolkien

I also like a lot of Russian literature, especially 19th century: Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev.

For non-fiction I like poker books and books on statistical sports analysis(Baseball Prospectus, Moneyball, Hidden Game of Football, Sharp Sports Betting...)

I despise Pahlaniuk(Fight Club was good, but I find his other work repetitive and tiresome), Vonnegut(All his books), Heller(Catch-22) and Adams(Hitchhiker's Guide). Yeah, I'm asking to get flamed. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[crookedhat99]

[ QUOTE ]
Heller(Catch-22)

[/ QUOTE ]

explain yourself

[Jeff W]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Heller(Catch-22)

[/ QUOTE ]

explain yourself

[/ QUOTE ]

Catch-22 is boring, overwrought and pointless.