I've been enjoying the film threads so much, I wanted to start another thread on books because I love good books even more than I love good films. (English major) List some of your favorites. I'll start the ball rolling with my following top picks: To Kill a Mocking Bird (Harper Lee; film w/ Gregory Peck also excellent) The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck... all of his books are among my favorites) One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest (Ken Kesey) Native Son (Richard Wright) Sexus (and the Tropics, Henry Miller) Naked Lunch (William S. Burroughs) Population 1280 (Jim Thompson) A Clockwork Orange (Anthony Burgess) Ok, better stop now.... but I know I'll be back with more.
too many books to name, so i'll just name some authors. Some of my favorite authors are Ray Bradbury, George Orwell, Ayn Rand, Michael Moore, Jean-Paul Sartre, Frank Herbert, Philip Dick, JRR Tolkien, Kurt Vonnegut, Maya Angelou, CS Lewis, Richard Wright, John Irving, Douglas Coupland, Agatha Christie, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Graham Greene and Soren Kierkegaard. I love to read, so yeah
My hands down favorite? Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. It is brilliant. Other great books? In no particular order: Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, of course. Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front. Brönte's Wuthering Heights. (not QUITE as great) Knowles' A Separate Peace. Shakespeare's Hamlet. (I don't quite know if it counts) Shakespeare's Julius Caesar (also don't know) Wiesel's Night. (great book, but I don't think I appreciated it as much as I ought to have--I was only 13 when I read it) ...and the last page or so of Dante's Commedia. It's really all that's worth in that book, although you might have to read the rest of the crap in order to appreciate the one kernel of beauty that is the conclusion of this work. I'm sure I'll think of more.
almanacs of all sorts best 300+ colleges bible guinness book of world records henry and june how the west was won illustrated man mistral's daughter mueller's pc repair book the play romeo and juliet or at least that's what i have read more than once which is a lot for me since it's hard to read most stuff just once with all the reading out there and the ibook
Deviating from the classics, I'll throw in Guy Kawasaki's The Macintosh Way and thau!'s Javascript Guide.
A Confederacy of Dunces Oscar and Lucinda U and I Gold Bug Variations All the Pretty Horses Atonement Speak, Memory Sometimes a Great Notion Portnoy's Complaint
1) 100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Márquez 2) 1984 - George Orwell 3) Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
Heir to the Empire - Timothy Zahn (Star Wars) Dark Force Rising - " " " The Last Command- " " " I, Jedi - Michael A. Stackpole (Star Wars) Dune - Fank Herbert, plus follow up's The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R Tolken Worst book of all time Lilian's Story - Can't remember the author, but was a Year 12 text and was dreadful.
If you haven't read this book do so immediately before it is butchered in Hollywood. The author is John Kennedy Toole. Good stick Dros... Post Office (Bukowski) Women (Bukowski) Lonesome Traveler (Kerouac) Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck) Fountainhead (Rand) Hell's Angels (HS Thompson) Papillon (Charriere) Native Son (Richard Wright) The Magic Christian (Southern) All Philip K. Dick All William S. Burroughs And the worst book of all time has to be something they try to jam down your throat in college - Habits of the Heart.
Haha man, three of you guys mentioned my 10th grade required reading...ugh 1984. I don't know if i like or hate it, as it was shoved down my throat for about 3 weeks of my life Maybe i will enjoy it more now that I'm in college? I dunno. I remember watching the movie--if you've seen it, I'll just say green meadows. You can finish the rest haha.
Farenheit 451 - tells how ignorance became institutionalized and welcomed Stranger in a Strange Land - looks at the world from a different perspective, asks why we are the way we are Autobiography of Malcolm X - didn't know how much i didn't know until i read this book. great life story - i have to wonder how the world would be different were he still alive Speaker for the Dead (sequel to Ender's Game, which is also a good book) - another one on looking at the world from someone else's point of view Red/Green/Blue Mars - story of colonization, and revolution in thought and politics on mars. very grounded in today's science Honor Harrington series by David Weber, beginning with On Basilisk Station - pure epic space opera, very in depth writing, lots of talk on strategy and tactics, tons of character and story development
Fifth Business - Great story of a kid's coming of age and well, aging. It's filled with cultural metaphors and some of the most lucid and flowing writing I've ever read.
Some good shouts going on here, the vote for Crime and Punishment particularly pleased me. And as much as I too would like to say To Kill A Mockingbird, I am only halfway through it (should be done come the weekend) so it would be unfair of me to say that one. Therefore, I would have to stand alone and go for the rich sumptuous political metaphor of Orwell's Animal Farm.
Catch 22, The Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison), Atlas Shrugged, Faith of the Fallen(Terry Goodkind), Executive Orders(Tom Clancy) Physics (Kernigan & Ritchie) Art of Computer Programming, The Bible(especially John, Job, and 1/2 Samuel)
The Shannara Series by Terry Brooks. The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. Wraeththu (I'm going off of memory so don't take that spelling too seriously) by Storm Constantine - Awesome but weird book. Elizabeth Haydon's Rhapsody series. Melanie Rawn's Dragon books. They are all 1 series that are put into seperate trilogies for some reason. I started with 'The Dragon Prince'. I'd also read The Da Vinci Code, it was an excellent book IMO. scem0
I didn't like the DaVinci code. I had issues with it. Let me explain it by saying that I like the Wheel of Time series until I read the Sword of Truth. Read "Foucault's Pendulum"
I love TKAM and Julius Caesar as were mentioned above my favorite had to be the Great Gatsby books I didn't like that were mentioned are Farenheit 451 and Native Son and 1984, i'll defend these opinions at another point ...