Post your favorite

[Aristonico]

Novel, novel.... lets see. I stopped to read novels <IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/frown.gif" border=0> Lack of time. Just history essays. But I still have good memories of my readings. I "was" a compulsive reader <IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/smile.gif" border=0>
-Don Quijote (Don Quixote) Was great, specially in original version (I am Spaniard btw)
-Lord of the Rings saga. All of them at least 4 times
-The Three Musquetiers by Dumas. Lots of fun
In a different way:
-Brave New World by Huxley
-Farenheit 451 by Bradbury
-Utopia by T. Moore
-Anything by Frederick Pohl!!!!
-Ulysses & Odyssey by our beloved Homer.

BTH Don Quijote is considered the first novel in its modern conception

[This message has been edited by Aristonico (edited August 17, 2001).]

 

[xeven_god_of_helsibahr]

I've read soooooo many books. A list of 'em would take an entire topic page. Since that would reek of spam (and because I hate writing that much), I'll just give you my favorites:


1.<u>The Sword of Truth</u>, Books 1-8

2.<u>The Belgariad/Malloreon</u>, Books 1-12

3.<u>The Elenium/Tamuli</u>, Books 1-6

4.<u>The Fionavar Tapestry</u>, Books 1-3

5.<u>Into the Darkness</u>

6.<u>Harry Pottery and the ----</u>, Books 1-4

7.<u>Desperation</u>

8.<u>The Regulators</u>

9.<u>Civilization 2 Player's Hand Book</u>

10.<u>Civilization 2:ToT Player's Hand Book</u>

And here is what I want to read:

<u>The Lord of the Rings</u>, Books 1-3

<u>The Redemption of Althalus</u>

<u>Civilization 3 Player's Hand Book</u>

and anything Terry Goodkind writes.

 

[dreadhead7]

My favorite books??? Gosh, I have so many!

Here are some....

1. The Idiot--Fyodor Dostoyevsky
2. Anna Karenina--Leo Tolstoy
3. A Tale Of Two Cities--Charles Dickens
4. Don Quioxte--Miguel Cervantes
5. The Canterbury Tales--Chaucer
6. 1984--George Orwell
7. Brave New World--Aldous Huxley
8. Foundation (whole series)--Isaac Asimov (My all-time favorite author)
9. The Color Purple--Alice Walker
10. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings--Maya Angelou
11. Native Son--Richard Wright
12. The Wretched Of The Earth--Frantz Fanon
13. The Iliad--Homer
14. Clear And Present Danger--Tom Clancy
15. The Andromeda Strain--Michael Crichton
16. The Stranger--Albert Camus
17. The Illustrated Man--Ray Bradbury
18. For Whom The Bell Tolls--Ernest Hemingway
19. Flowers for Algernon--Daniel Keyes
20. Cry The Beloved Country--Alan Paton

Now you have an idea of the kind of stuff I read.
Btw, has anyone heard of JanWillem van de Wetering? I'm reading a great mystery novel by this guy called "Outsider In Amsterdam".




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"Shake the world beneath your feet up"
--Johnny Clegg

 

[WarandPeace]

Originally posted by Aristonico:
BTH Don Quijote is considered the first novel in its modern conception

Yup, and it's the prize of Madrid and entire Spain <IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/wink.gif" border=0>

To Dreadhead7:

Eh, I saw your number one pick novel was from Dostoyevsky! Although I've heard of the Idoit I've never had the pleasure of reading it. I suppose it should be a good one. Have you read The Brothers Karamazov? I scanned an artical about Dostoyevsky somewhere that he said, just before death, that he could now rest in peace because that novel, which was everything he wanted to express in this world, was complete.


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[This message has been edited by WarandPeace (edited August 17, 2001).]

 

[WarandPeace]

Originally posted by xeven_god_of_helsibahr:

9.Civilization 2 Player's Hand Book
10.Civilization 2:ToT Player's Hand

rofl!



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[dreadhead7]

Yes, I have "The Brothers Karamazov". What a book! It was the second book by Dostoyevsky that I'd read. I also have Crime And Punishment, and The House Of The Dead.

Does anyone like Anton Chekhov?

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"Shake the world beneath your feet up"
--Johnny Clegg

 

[goodbye_mr_bond]

Originally posted by Aristonico:
BTH Don Quijote is considered the first novel in its modern conception

How Eurocentric of you. The oldest 'novel' in the world was written in Japan. Don't remember the exact century, but it predates Don Quixote by about 300 years at least--and it was written by a woman no less. Check out _The Tale of Genji_ by Lady Murasaki.

 

[goodbye_mr_bond]

Oh, and dreadhead, Chekhov's short story "Heartache" must be the most touching short story I've ever read. Perfection of the form, really.

 

[WarandPeace]

Hm, i'll give that a look

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[duke o' york]

Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol is a definite recommendation for all you fans of Russian literature - it's dark, gritty and bloody hilarious.

Good selection, Dreadhead, but I was left totallly cold by The Colo(u)r Purple. Not my thing at all. And I realise that I might be setting off on an iconoclastic attack on works that mean so much to many people, but I couldn't stand Oranges are not the only fruit either. Now I'm not black or a woman, but a good book should be able to transcend boundaries of audience and appeal to all. Not these. Very impressed with William Faulkner's sensitive portrayals of African Americans though. Manhattan Transfer by John Dos Passos is excellent and I thoroughly recommend it to all. I hope that some of you take the chance to read these recommendations I keep making, but I won't be put off even if you're not

.

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in vino veritas

 

[andycapp]

For those that enjoy Russian authors I would suggest Mikhail Sholokhov's "And Quiet Flows The Don" and "The Don Flows Home To The Sea". He also wrote a collection of short stories "Tales From The Don" which will give you a good feel for his writing. His stories cover the period just prior to the Russian Revolution and just after - worth reading.

As for favourite authors and books, there are so many - Dickens, Conrad, Tolkien, CS Lewis, Asimov, Wyndham and Forester and to name a few authors. I have already named favourite authors and books in other threads and so I won't bother repeating myself.

There is a lot of semi-literate crap published as 'fantasy' that is not worth the paper it's written on. However, it is worth mentioning some contemporary authors that I enjoy, in the historical/fantasy genre, such as Stephen Lawhead's "Byzantium", "The Celtic Crusades" (a series of books) and "The Pendragon Cycle" (also a series). Another author in this genre worth reading is Harry Turtledove and his "Videssos Cycle" series. Other authors I also enjoy in this line are David Gemell and Bernard Cornwell.

For those that enjoy non-fiction medieval histories John Julius Norwich's "Byzantium" trilogy and Stephen Runciman's "Crusades" trilogy are brilliant reading.

I could blabber on for ages about different books and authors - I won't even start on Sci-Fi - I'll leave that for another time.

 

[goodbye_mr_bond]

I'm not a big fan of 'fantasy' either, but one trilogy I did enjoy. Good characterization, exciting plot, and very little of that cheesy absolute good versus absolute evil crap. _The Dragonlance Chronicles_. Not 'great' literature, but as good a read as, say, Stephen King.

All strategy gamers should read the SF novel _Ender's Game_ by Orson Scott Card. I guarantee that anyone in these forums would love it.

 

[andycapp]

Good choice Marcos, Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" is a great SF novel and the same author recently released a new novel, "Ender's Shadow" (not sure about that title) about the boy that was chosen as a back-up to Ender - if it's even half as good as "Ender's Game" it will be worth reading.

Whilst on the subject of SF a novel I read years ago is worth reading "The Sykaos Papers", by E.P Thompson. It's about an alien that comes to Earth and is written, in part, as a record of his experiences. I've never see any other books by this particular author and if anyone is aware of other books he wrote I'd be interested to know.

 

[Simon Darkshade]

I have expanded at length on my love of literature in similar threads, and will dig the information out and put it here.Somehow. Sometime

In addition, I'll add a few comments.
I have come to lose my previous dislike of Jane Eyre, and like Jean Rhys' derivative work 'Wide Sargasso Sea'. Chinua Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart' is a most powerful and compelling book.
andy, it seems that Australians have universal good taste

David Gemmel is a great author.
duke o'york, I agree wholeheartedly with your endorsement of 'Germinal'- it is a great novel.
dreadhead, I also share your liking for Fanon's 'Wretched' and Camus' 'L'Etranger' ("The Stranger"to you, my translation is "The Outsider", but that is of no real difference.)
There is another I like, "Passing", but I forget the author's name.

In terms of short stories, I must confess I like some of the work of Oscar Wilde, such as The Selfish Giant and the Happy Prince. In a similar way, I like Antoine Saint-Expurey's "The Little Prince" (hope I got the spelling right.)

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Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you.
- N.S.Khrushchev

 

[Kulibin]

WP, I saw picture of Tolstoi in your posts and this brave military man, let me guess, this is Ler... (well, you know). Am I right?

Many people here have mentioned Dostoevsky, but it takes too long to read his novels. Sometimes they became boring. In my opinion Chechov, Bunin, Kuprin, even Leskov are much better then this endless Tolstoj, Dostoevskiy or Chernychevskiy.
And here Sholohov was mentioned. But I can recommend another very good author who describes russian revolution and that times - Platonov. Also if you like russian authors - don't forget about Bulgakov.

P.S. Sorry for my English

[This message has been edited by Kulibin (edited August 22, 2001).]

 

[WarandPeace]

Kulibin,
my signature photo is that of Leo Tolstoy himself <IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/wink.gif" border=0>

War and Peace of course is his most outstanding novel. There are and always will be good authurs poping up through time and they too will leave their decent works. But War and Peace is the Citizen Kane of Cinema and the Beethoven 5th of Music - simply put.


edit:bah
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[This message has been edited by WarandPeace (edited August 24, 2001).]

 

[dreadhead7]

I, too, have "The Little Prince", both in English and in Spanish. I also have Chinua Achebe's "Things Fall Apart".

Say, I've had this line of a poem floating around in my head. It goes:

"'Twas brillig, and the frithy toves...."

Is that from "Jabberwocky"?

Does anyone know the entire poem? It's driving me crazy, and I'm busting my brains trying to remember the rest!

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"Shake the world beneath your feet up"
--Johnny Clegg

[This message has been edited by dreadhead7 (edited August 24, 2001).]

 

[Kulibin]

Wow! WarandPeace means War and Peace (how I haven't saw it earlier!

)
I don't think that "War and Peace" it's the best Tolstoi's thing. IMO, It's huge, but not the best. I prefer short stories by Tolstoi (like "Father Serge" for example). For me "W&P" is too long. I don't like sentences which lenght is half a page . One should somtimes reread such sentence twice in order to remember what it was about.

And I also think, that Tolstoi characters is not so good, as Dostoevsky ones and Tolstoi's language is not so expressive, as Chekhov's is. But it's only my point of view.

BTW, could somebody recomend me something good to read from early eastern phylosophy(Chinese or Indian) or mythology (but not Greek only).

 

[duke o' york]

Dreadhead, I found the entire text for you:

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!'

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought-
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

'And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arns, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Hope you enjoyed it

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in vino veritas

 

[dreadhead7]

hey, duke o' york, thanks so much! I copied it, so that I could have it on hand.

I have several books by the science fiction author, Larry Niven, and I noticed that he has a sentient race known as the Bandersnatchi in his novels. I imagine that he took that name from this poem. In fact, I noticed that he takes a lot from old English lore, or myths. He has one character called Beowolf Schaffer, which I'm sure is the same name as the hero who killed the monster, Grendel. Or, is it? I'm not up on old English lore and myths, or fantasy, as such. Can someone enlighten me?

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"Shake the world beneath your feet up"
--Johnny Clegg