March 25th, 2007, 04:40 PM
What are peoples favourite books? I absolutly love Sience Fiction so i am putting down:
The Gap Cycle by Steven Donaldson (a series of books which are absolutely fantastic, warning, if under the agfe of 15 i recomend not reading them as they are very graphic)
Mindstar Rising by Peter F. Hamilton (another fantastic sience fiction book)
i read Robinson Crusoe in 6th grade. I remember really enjoying it. I also love Where The Red Fern Grows. that's all i can think of right now...
Not read much fiction in my time but one that I do remember I enjoyed very much was 'Lord of the flies'. Other than that I've read most of the works of Conan Doyle and Shakespeare [does he count?].
I have read Lord of the Flies for my GCSE's, it was a good book, i also like 'The Belgariad' series by David Eddings *By the way, i can keep going for ever, i have a couple of bookshelves full of books i've read. Yes I know i am sad*
Lord of the Flies is good, read that in 8th grade. I really enjoyed The Great Gatsby. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is excellent. Time Windows. The Cay.
i guess this isn't really a novel, but I kind of like The Canterbury Tales.
In the Skin of a Lion - Michael Oondatje
Mindstar Rising - Peter F. Hamilton
Top 5:
"Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert A. Heinlein
"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
"Neuromancer" by William Gibson
"Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury
"The Space Merchants" by Frederik Pohl
I recently finished reading Pet Sematary by Stephen King. It was quite good.
My favorites are the Xenogenesis series by Octavia Butler (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, Imago), followed closely by The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. LeGuin.
Top 5 for me would be
1. The Hitch Hikers guide to the Galaxy: A trilogy in 5 parts-Douglas Adams
2. It-Stephen King
3. Stranger In a Strange Land -Robert Heinlan
4. Ender's Shadow - Orson Scott Card
5. The Prince of Nothing - I can't remember the author right now
I don't normally read alot of fiction though so most of my favorite books overall are not on here.
Not necessarily favorites, but recent recommended reads are:
Waiting for the Barbarians, J.M.Coetzee
Brilliant writing. Depressing story – abuses and wrongs served up by life, and by people more powerful than us, but we accept it because, well what else you gonna do?
Saturday, Ian McEwan
The apparent paradox of free will and determinism, presented in a brilliant novel about a brain surgeon’s bad day.
Liverpool Fantasy, Larry Kirwan
Strictly for grins. The alternative history of the Beatles. They break up before they become famous. McCartney’s a lounge singer in Vegas; Lennon’s a lout in Liverpool, Etc. etc. Funny and a bit grim too.
I love Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. (I happen to be reading a literary fiction novel based on it at the moment--Finn.) I'm also a big fan of Mark Helprin's Memoir from Antproof Case.
I haven't had the opportunity to read many novels in the last year or so, my reading pile is mostly non-fiction these days (currently I'm reading Genesis: The Scientific Quest for Life’s Origin by Robert M. Hazen), but I did read two or three novels by James Rollins, starting with Map of Bones. I enjoy his writing style and, while some of his take on archaeology and antiquity makes heavy use of literary license, he keeps the action and mystery going well throughout the book.
I guess my top 5 favourite would be:
Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice
Lord of the Rings by Tolkein (love the Elves)
Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
The Alchemist by...(forgot the name of the author)
and
Shadow and Claw by Gene Wolf
Most of the books I read are recommended by my friend, who apparently has a weird taste of books for a teenager. I am about to start on Kite Runner once I could get hold of the book...seemed to be an award winner.
Anything to do with Mythology.
I tend to read a couple of books at the same time. I keep a folder called current books and always make notes of interesting bits.
At the moment i am reading
The Hanged Man by Sheldon Kopp (Fascinating book on psychology, this book was in Hannibal Lecters cell in Silence of the Lambs!)
Destructive Emotions, A Dialogue with the Dalai Lama, by Daniel Goldman (Very interesting and useful for a childish troll like me)
A Very Short Introduction to Islam by Malise Ruthven (I have to for my studies)
And at bedtime i am currently reading
The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula Le Guin (started off a bit slow but getting better!)
Novels:
Kim - Rudyard Kipling
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman - Laurence Sterne
The Glass Key - Dashiell Hammett
Musrum - Eric Thacker and Anthony Earnshaw
Feet of Clay - Terry Pratchett
Non-fiction:
The Variety of Life - Colin Tudge
Darwin's Dangerous Idea - Daniel Dennett
Guns, germs and steel - Jared Diamond
The New Science of Strong Materials - J E Gordon
Mathematician's Delight - W W Sawyer
Non-novels:
The Norton Shakespeare (a convenient one volume complete Shakespeare, based upon the Oxford text, which is quite authoritative)
The Bible (King James/Authorised version, albeit with modern spelling, because it's just such an influence on our language and literature, and bits of it are thunderingly good to read, though some of it is sick-making)
The Complete Poems and Plays - T S Eliot (his "Selected Poems" makes for a much slimmer volume but does not contain the joys of Old Possum's book or Sweeney Agonistes)
The Canterbury Tales (just brought back my college copy from Bombay - with the original text by Dan, albeit with slightly updated spelling, and not one of the puny translations that seem to be the norm these days)
The Nation's Favourite Poems (too many lovely, schooldays-memories and otherwise, poems not to recite them, slightly bibulously, from time to time)
-Fahrenheit 451
-Night
-Farewell to Manzanar
-A Day no Pigs would Die
Any book is interesting to me as long as if it doesn't deal with much politics unless I'm in the mood to read them
i only have one favorit book which is-lord of the flys.
best book of all time.
Sorry but I can't resist...Originally Posted by antimatter54
Is this the porn version of Golding's Lord of the Flies?
Or the baseball version?
Sorry - I really shouldn't have. It's a great novel, and if you like Golding, I heartily recommend his Rites of Passage (the first in his To the Ends of the Earth trilogy, and IMO the best). It too is written in a clear style, like Lord of the Flies, but unlike some of his mature work (Darkness Visible and Free Fall spring to mind, along with the stream-of-consciousness-esque Pincher Martin), without losing any literacy or power. It was also instrumental is his being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983.
The Victorian Underworld by Kellow Chesney
What a fantastic fascinating informative read, i can't put it down!
All Londoners should own a copy of this!
What a bunch of wheedlers, degenerates, crooks and criminals us Brits were in the 19th century!
Still there was no state help then and it really was everyone out for themselves and pure survival!
Have you read it Sunshine warrior? It would be interesting to take a walk round London at some of the places it describes and see how different things are now as well as imagining what it must have been like.
I might take a trip to London soon
We've changed since then?
Nope. But it sounds interesting. There are so many books on London, however, that I've always been too scared to buy even one - on the grounds that it would probably be the 'wrong' one and therefore I'd get into a cycle of buying them all. I don't have that much money!
That sort of thing is always brilliant. One of my favourite walks - Borough Market to Tate Modern, on the South Bank, contains all sorts of emotional catalysts by way of historical references, from the Great Hall in the old Palace, to the new Globe, the Golden Hind and more...
It's why I don't mind London rates - I just love this city.
Look us up.
WTH! that kind of version exists?! scary thought indeed...Sorry but I can't resist...
Is this the porn version of Golding's Lord of the Flies?
Or the baseball version?
Sorry - I really shouldn't have. It's a great novel, and if you like Golding, I heartily recommend his Rites of Passage (the first in his To the Ends of the Earth trilogy, and IMO the best). It too is written in a clear style, like Lord of the Flies, but unlike some of his mature work (Darkness Visible and Free Fall spring to mind, along with the stream-of-consciousness-esque Pincher Martin), without losing any literacy or power. It was also instrumental is his being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983.
i have another good book-flicka they made a movie about it.
All Discworld series by Terry Prattchet
And The Alchemist by Paulo kualo.
I`m trying to read now some other books by Paulo Kulao, he`s a really kwel writer, speaks of soul things n` such...
Veronica Decides to Die and The Alchemist are his only books that did anything for me lol.
My favourites in English:
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
The Woman Who Walked Into Doors - Roddy Doyle
The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (this was important to me in high school)
David Copperfield - Charles Dickins (for some reason I love this book, I think it might be because it goes on forever)
In French:
L'Etranger - Albert Camus
Une Vie - Guy DeMaupassant
Bonheurre D'Occasion - Gabrielle Roy
Le Rouge Et Le Noire - Stendhal
Uncut magazine
I get it every month, you get a free cd!
This month it's tribute to Bowie
Ok i know it's not a novel!
Enders Game(all of um)-Orson Scott Card
Birth of the Firebringer-Meredith Ann pierce
Ptolemy's Gate-Jonathan Stroud
Mossflower-Brian Jacques
Silverwing-Kenneth Oppal
The Fire Within-Chris D'lacey
The Call of the Wild-Jack London
Artemis Fowl(all of um)-Eoin Colfer
The Looking Glass Wars-Frank Beddor
Keys to the Kingdom(all of um)-Garth Nix
The Supernaturalist-Eoin Colfer
I Am Legend-Richard Matheson
and finally
Dune-Frank Herbert
I couldn't really decide on just five sorry
I’m reading Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick at the moment. It’s a curious novel, being a mixture of fiction and non-fiction. I wish the author would stick with the fiction and cut out the non-fiction altogether. Not that I don’t enjoy any non-fiction at all, but this guy clearly had no clue about the technical stuff he was writing – he actually believed that whales were fishes! :x
He had a whaler's knowledge of the leviathan. Just wait 'till one is caught, and peeled, and Ishmael kneads the spermaceti.
I was thinking of reading the torah and teh jesus book(bible) once... but i got overwhelmed by the act of not doing it
Crikey!!
Most people did at the time it was written though, so for his time Melville was quite the expert, I believe he was a cabin boy wasn't he?
Hi,
It' my first post here
Me too I like reading so much and the novels I read are
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Nicholas Nickelby ,The tale of two cities and Oliver twist by Charles dickens
North ans south by Elizabeth Gaskell
Pride and prejudice by jane Austen
A dream of Africa by Camara laye
Far from the madding crowd
Sense and sensibility
Just finished it :bow:. I loved it! Although I found the end a little bit sadAnyway, I love Stephen King =)
So:
The Blue Bicycle - Regine Deforge
It - Stephen King
Green mile - Stephen King
Darkly Dreaming Dexter and Dearly Devoted Dexter - Jeff Lindsey
Rabies - Borislav Pekic
I am presently reading Mr. Cavendish, I Presume by Julia Quinn after her Everything and the moon. Julia Quinn is really amazing.
I am also reading MAYA by Alastair Campbell and Loving by Danielle Steel.
I recently read my best friend's girl by Dorothy Koomson which really was good.
I just love Sydney Sheldon novels. I want to read all the novels similar to Sheldon's.
He spent nearly two years on a whaling ship while in his early 20's. This is no doubt where he heard the story of Essex who's been destroyed by a sperm whale and much of the detailed we'd read about in Moby Dick including a section with a pretty descriptive chapter on types of whales. Many times on the novel he refers to their coming up to breath. His term of "fishes," was either poetic license or must have been something of a loose common usage during the 19th century, perhaps even part of the vernacular used on whaling ships of the day.Most people did at the time it was written though, so for his time Melville was quite the expert, I believe he was a cabin boy wasn't he?
Being raised on the coast of Maine to a commercial fishermen it was pretty much required reading in my community and rates as one of my favorites.
--
I'll add "Atlas Shrugged" to the list. Sometime I'll read "Jennifer Government" as a counter balance.
I MUST add
1. Jama - Ivan Goran Kovacic (It's actually a poem, bloody brilliant; warning, not for those with light stomach)
The poem starts with a striking metaphor of blood replacing both light and darkness as victim's eyes were plucked out with a knife. That common torture was probably a mere sadism, since the victims were mass-murdered after that anyway:
Blood is my daylight and darkness too.
Blessing of night has been gouged from my cheeks
Bearing with it my more lucky sight.
Within those holes, for tears, fierce fire inflamed
The bleeding socket as if for brain a balm –
While my bright eyes died on my own palm
2. Migrations - Milos Crnjanski
3. The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
4. Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
A friend asked me to recommend a Russia author yesterday, and my mind went straight to Bulgakov.
There's nothing wrong with Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, but my aesthetic taste lies with the modernist.
I'm getting ready to tackle Virginia Woolf's Orlando, after reading her essays and short fiction I figure I should finally get around to her novels.
I've also recently become enamored of post-war American poets, and have been reading quite a bit of Elizabeth Bishop, Marianne Moore, and George Oppen. Ignoring the Beats and the Confessionals because I'm already mostly familiar with their work.
Currently reading The Tipping Point (M. Gladwell). Really enjoying it, although I'm not usually very interested in non-fiction. Have anyone else here read it?
"All Quiet on the Western Front" by Remarque really stole the emotional softie within me. I bawled my eyes out for hours.
"The Outsiders" by SE Hinton will always have a special place in my heart, being the book that got me into reading, I suppose. My 11-year-old self identified so well with it.
"Ape and Essence" by Huxley isn't a novel but nonetheless is a brilliant piece of work for the pessimists among us!
Novels only?
Science fiction from Assimov to Zelazny. Special nods to Heinlein and Aspirin. And Douglas - Did I mention we're on a hostile alien vessel illegally? - Adams.
Fantasy - Tolkien being foremost in my mind. But I've read thousands of others.
Mystery. Rex Stout has to be high on my list, along with Dorothy L. Sayers. Agatha Christie, certainly. Then there are Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and Micky Spillane. Laurie King and Elizabeth George are highly prized. Martha Grimes. And of course I'm a Holmes follower (except for the rather stupid copies).
A very special salute to Glen Cook who writes the Garrett, P. I. novels. An amazing combination of the worlds of Roger Zelazny, Rex Stout and Raymond Chandler.
I also read many technical books on firearms and ballistics, cosmology, and the Bible and related studies; but those aren't 'novels' as such.
There is a great list of sci fi and fantasy recommendations at A Nerd's Guide to Reading, which is how I found out about Ender's Game (which, by the way, is one of the best books I've ever read).
Dhalgren by Sam Delany.
One of the oddest and masterful post apocalyptic novels.
Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban.. Even though it's a pain to read.
Dubliners - James Joyce
In the Skin of a Lion - Michael Ondaatje
Persepolis (Graphic Novel) - the movie was good too
Disgrace - JM Coatzee
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe, very easy read (even if you're a slow reader you can burn through this one), historically accurate, a good story.
Reading is my hobby and "read Lord of the Flies" & "Stranger In a Strange Land by Robert Heinlanis are my favorites.
I suppose this is one of those timeless threads, so accusations of thread necromancy would be pointless.
My favourites:
The Lord of the Rings J.R.R.Tolkein
Dune Frank Herbert
The Count of Monte Cristo Alexander Dumas
Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand
I'm against late Posts on a member's long running Thread. It will not happen often from westwind, but I couldn't but observe that of all the reading mentioned in all the Posts, I could not relate to any of them. To put it another way, I've never read any of them. Now this concerns me. I've read cookbooks, sex books, books on horseracing, of course books about the lives of real people, medical books, a lot of science books, history books, books on viticulture, on agriculture, on horticulture, books on climate and weather, art books, poetical works, and of course I have Foxtel and watch Morse and Heartbeat etc. Oh, and vegetable growing and surviving on a quarter acre block--chooks etc. So I guess I've missed out on something special, this being such a long and popular Thread. Forgive my intrusion on this Thread, but if you ever want to know something from what I have read, just ask. westwind.
For the past eight months or so I've been totally engrossed in the late 14th and early 15th century Scotland and Europe thru the novels of Dorothy Dunnet.
Amazonia, Altar of Eden, Ice Hunt, Deep Fathom and the Sigma Force series are great Science Fiction book written by James Rollins.
I also enjoyed reading: The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley.
Raymond Chandler
Dashiell Hammett
Jack London
Greg Egan
JG Ballard
Albert Camus
Jean Paul Sartre
Phillip K. Dick
Georges Simonen
Lester Dent
William S. Buroughs
Thomas Berger
HP Lovecraft
It's difficult to really name even a few favorites but here is a few from the top of my list.
Stranger in a Strange Land, Heinlein
Glory Road, Heinlein
Ring World, Larry Niven
Smoke Ring, Larry Niven
Titan, Wizard, and Demon, John Varley
World War Z, Max Brooks
I thoroughly enjoyed Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, which I read earlier this year; I loved the style of narrative.
Currently I’m reading The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.
I summarized the 4 Emigrants novels by Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg. They are about the first Swedes to come to the United States.
Jim Colyer
Walden - Thoreau
The Sun Also Rises - Hemmingway
Lolita - Nabokov
The Scarlet Letter - Hawthorne
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