Post your favorite

[WarandPeace]

Ummm, lately I'm seeing threads here and there relating to writings, books, and eassys.
Looks like we've got some literary fans here.
I myself enjoy reading a book or listen to stories told by others, even though my English is terrible...

So for the interest of myself and hopefully others to come, this Book thread is created.
Name your favorite book(s) or stories, or perhaps the ones you just want to read, and don't forget to mention any admirable author of yours. Post here and share with others!

Mine are some classics: Sherlock Holmes by Sir Doyle
Don Quixote from Cervantes
Crime and Punishment by the great Dostoevsky

I enjoy most books but sometimes I'd stop reading all together depending on the story.
I think Russian lits are fantastic, the way in which words are used to setup scenes and how they tap into the essence of human emotions would leave me speechless at times, unable to control any whirling thoughts encircling my head.

Edit:my damn smilies

[This message has been edited by WarandPeace (edited August 13, 2001).]

 

[SunTzu]

I always liked to read The Hardy Boys
Now i'm reading a book set in the vietnam war. Its pretty good, i bought a lot of war books for 10cents each at some books fair that was being held when i had to go to juvenile department for my diversion.
Good reading

 

[WarandPeace]

LoL

is my smiles working to you guys?



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[jiml_63]

I am a huge Stephen King fan. Even though he writes some pretty freaky stuff it's not always the main storyline that catches you...it's the way he describes his characters....especially in their childhood...

His books are the only ones I have ever read in which I have - a) laughed out loud or b) been scared to death...

As for more classical literature, it's hard to top Ayn Rand.

I also have to give an Honorable mention to Tom Clancy...

My top 10 list
-------------
1. The Stand - SK
2. The Dark Tower- SK
3. The Talisman - SK (co-written with Peter Straub)
4. The Fountainhead - AR
5. The Hunt for Red Ocober - TC
6. Atlas Shrugged - AR
7. It - SK
8. The Shining - SK (good movie too)
9. Salem's Lot - SK
10. Red Storm Rising - TC


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[WarandPeace]

bump*

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[duke o' york]

Mr _63, you really should read a wider range of books. Steven King has 6 places in your top ten favourite books! If he's the only author who has ever made you laugh out loud then you definitely need some diversity in your library. I'd like to suggest you read Catch 22 by Joseph Heller for some really good laughs. I'm sure that other fanatics will have more suggestions so I won't give out a massive list - but for me, Don Quixote has more laughs than anything by Steven King, and yes, I went through the whole sci-fi, horror, fantasy phase when I was a teenager so I know what I'm talking about. ( also read the Hardy boys but preferred the Three Investigators

)

Has anyone ever read A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth? I won't come out and proclaim it as the best book ever (especially not after my attack on Lord of the Rings in the How to write thread), but it is pretty damn good and definitely worth a read. It's unfortunately about as long as Ulysses but should take you half the tiem to read as it's not so introverted and navel-gazing as Joyce's second-worst novel (Finnegan's Wake in case you were wondering - The Dead is great though).

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in vino veritas

 

[goodbye_mr_bond]

Best book I've read recently:

_Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Leningrad_ (not a novel, but really really good. If it doesn't scare you half to death, you're already there).

Best book of all time: _Peter Pan_

 

[duke o' york]

Is that the one they made the film of?

Read Anthony Beevor's book on Stalingrad - it's damn great!

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in vino veritas

 

[moksliukas]

My favourite book has to be "Hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy". The genius of Douglas Adams is far reaching (It's sad that he has passed away this year). Terry Pratchet and his Discworld novels are also my favourite.
Other, more serious stuff that I like is Hemingway (is the spelling right?), Orwell, Graham Green, the author of "cather in the Rye" (I can't remember who wrote that book at the moment).

Well, because I am a bit of a geek

(I might even classify myself as a nerd too

), the other favourite reading material is manuals. All sorts of them: C/C++, Java, PHP, MySQL, Linux, anything that has to do with computers.

 

[WarandPeace]

Ulysses hehe I have that book on my shelf collecting dust. Might read it eventually, someday...

DonQuixote is indeed a good book for laughes, though written nearly 400 years ago it certainly proved itself to be a classic.

Enemy at the Gates was a movie as well; starting Ed Harris and Jude Law. I've never seen it nor read the book but from TV and other sources I learned that the jest of the plot though the whole deal about war/emotion/man in war/the game of sparp shooting/sex/another antagonist who is just like him/ sounded a little off target to me.
Bah that's just me and I like movies.

I also got some good classics on my shelf which time will determain how things will go.
I'll list some; and some maybe you guys have read.

Novels:
Gravity's Rainbow
Magic Mountain
Catch 22

Moby Dick
David Cofferfield
Treasure Island
Les Miserables
Arabian Nights
Brothers Karamazov
Anna Karenina
War and Peace

short stories:
Hemingway
Shakespeare
Poe
H.G Wells
and many novels from Jules Verne


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[duke o' york]

Have you got copies of previously undiscovered short stories by Shakespeare? They must be worth loads!

And aren't the Arabian Nights short stories?

Apart from that, a nice selection. You should try and read:
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck,
Our Mutual Friend - Dickens' best,
Nana, La Débâcle and Germinal by Zola (Emile, not Gianfranco),
Christopher Marlowe's works and
(once again) A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth.

I have never made it through Ulysses - it just gets far too dull. I suppose I'd read it all if I was required to study it, but I'd never choose a course with it on anyway. I learnt that lesson from Middlemarch in my final year at uni. I made it 75% of the way through Ulysses when I was younger but gave up anyway. I'd also never touch anything by Jane Austen ever again, despite my girlfriend's protests that Persuasion is quite good. Early 19th century English lit really is awful. Fortunately there were some good philosophers about so everyone didn't give up reading but I'm sure many were tempted before Dickens et al came along.

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in vino veritas

 

[WarandPeace]

hehehe, I doubt my Shakespeare would worth more than 20 bucks It's a fake verison of the older style books from BN

thanks for the recommendations, so many books so little time

Eh, as for Dickens and the books before him; I don't quite remember apart from reading somewhere that Tom Jones was the start of Dickens or rather as Marlowe was for Shakespeare



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[Juize]

Thank you very much duke o'york! My favourite book is Aldous Huxley's
"Brave new world". Again thanks a lot. I wouldn't been able to know its english name
propably ever without your help!
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-I'm a communist pig and proud of it.
-Sweden - the number #1 country in the world!
-97% of finns don't trust politics; 38%
of 'em don't vote 'cause of this.

[This message has been edited by Juize (edited August 15, 2001).]

 

[duke o' york]

I assume you mean Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. It's quite good.

W&P - Tom Jones is just one book so I doubt that you could claim it is behind the whole of Dickens' oeuvre. It may have inspired a few episodes in some of the books but Dickens' genius was his own. Likewise Shakespeare - Marlowe wrote a few plays before him but he completely eclipses Marlowe (conveniently ignoring the age-old arguments about which plays were written by whom) even in his lesser work. Loves Labours Lost (like so many others, I'm unsure about the punctuation) is brilliantly witty, but has very little relevance for the modern world as the contemporary references tend to be too obscure for audiences. Even the finest scholars do not understand all the bons mots as they may have referred to characters or events not widely documented by other writers.

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in vino veritas

 

[WarandPeace]

I can't say I know enough about books to return ya with comments; though it's a shame we couldn't get more people to post their ideas.

btw, how did you think about Crime and Punishment? I thought it the best read I've ever had.

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[kundor]

One of the best books I read recently was Ivanhoe. It surprised me in its humor.
One of the worse books I read recently was Robinson Crusoe. Boo to that say I.
Dickens is always good.
More contemporary stuff: David Eddings's Belgariad is the best fantasy I've ever read...and how can a good book list go by without a mention of Harry Potter?

 

[thedirk]

J. R. R. Tolkein
Stephen Lawhead
C. S. Lewis
G. K. Chesterton
Leo Tolstoi
Nigel Tranter
Jonathan Edwards
Thomas Cahill

These are just a few of my favorites from past and present.

 

[WarandPeace]

Leo Tolstoy

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[Az]

Actually most of the books I've read in my life are history-related. I've never opened a novel. Well never is probably a bit exagerated. I remember reading "Michel Strogof", "My familly and other Animals" (required at school),two Greek books...and...well I think that's it!

All the rest are history related.
goodbye_mr_bond I'm actually reading Enemy at the Gates. Facinating, Scary to death but really good!

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[WarandPeace]

I too obtrain some fancy towards history. I mean it's basiclly past stories of truth where as fictionals stories which are faked

So in that sense I would regularly place history books after novels when I feel like reading. I enjoy WW2 stories, Euro-American history as well as early Chinese history.

Also I find philosophy an interesting subject. I bought Aristole's Ethics and The Republic by Plato, which are both untouched on my shelf; I'd really like to get down on reading them if I'm not being confronted by idleness.



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