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Suggestion : Must read books
Posted by sexyinred • 6/14/07 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: books
Name me a book or books that you think we all should read and the reason why?
Here is my list
1. Time Travellers Wife - Audrey Niffeneger (I cry countless time by the time I get it finished, it's page turning and very moving)
2. The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho (about discovering your dreams)
3. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper's Lee (timeless)
4. Life of Pi - Yann Martell (Unbelieveable)
User Comments
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1. Jane Eyre - romantic and oh so classic
2. On Writing - Stephen King - changed my life. so inspiring and a great resource for writers young and old.
3. The Tipping Point - Malcom Gladwell - unbelievably interesting and brilliantly written.
4. Anything by Agatha Christie. Always fantastic for a summer read.
5. Iliad - Homer. All other writing relates to Homer in one way or another. This and the Odyssey are must reads.
Thanks for the question. It's a great one! -
4 Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss
If you're interested in becoming one of the NR's (New Rich)here's a book to get you started. There is a wealth of beneficial info for most anyone that picks it up.
I'll post a review of it on 60secondreview.blogspot.com/ soon. -
"Wraeththu" by Storm Constantine - One of the most beautiful, original fantasy trilogies I have EVER read!!
"Dawn Song" by Michael Marano - There isn't much that REALLY scares me, but this book kept me up at night. Brilliantly written and terrifying!
"Beautiful Losers" by Leonard Cohen - Because Leonard Cohen is a genius!
"How Best to Avoid Dying" by Owen Egerton - Ok, this one I'm pimping out for my friend Owen Egerton, but, seriously, you will laugh out loud! A brilliant collection of disturbingly funny short stories about death. -
Steppenwolf: Herman Hesse writes so fluidly it flows like music... very rare talent in writing
Crime and Punishment: Is Murder ever justifiable? It was very convincing and its a classic
The Awakening: The freedom of an oppressed woman by suicide.. (ok I am a closet feminist)
Breakfast at Tiffanys: Truman Capote writes deliciously
Art of Happiness by Dalai Lama.. this is my bible. It nourishes me spiritually.
Also love the Life of Pi and Alchemist. I have the Tipping Point. I am applying that concept to Jolly Green Girl -
all of the clan of the cave bear books
'Born to win'
I have read a lot of Richard bach, Jeffery archer and yes I admit it the odd Mills and boons just to balance the heavy with a bit of light lol -
Ermmm how come the guys didn't recommend anything here?
Hehehheh...:D -
Dubliners. No one gets economy and condensation of language like Joyce.
Writer -
Almost everything by Charles Bukowski!
The Alchemist was a big disappointment for me. Probably because I had changed my life right before reading it so it all seemed so obvious.-
Charles B is the man, for sure. The most beautiful woman in town....herman hesse does it for us as does Ian Banks. We're with lady in red on Pi and to kill. The rest is pure flexing of academic muscles, Dostoy included. Oh and Of Mice and Men, of course.
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to sexyinred
i read 3 out of 4 of ur books. (1, 2& 4)
got to say, 1 is kinda strange with all the different time zone and stuff. love no 4. wat an amazing story. -
ooo about me...
on my blog (on the left side) i did a few book recommendations. check it out. -
The Sun Also Rises - because I'm a big fan of Hemingway, but mostly because of the way the last line puts the entire story in different perspective...it's like "The Usual Suspects" a la the 1920s
Almost anything C.S. Lewis has ever written (for grown-ups), especially Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, and The Screwtape Letters (any of which can easily be digested in an afternoon), because it's almost impossible to read any of them without recognizing things we'd previously opted to ignore about ourselves.
Atlas Shrugged (WARNING: requires a high tolerance for randomly placed commas), because it's so exactly right and so horribly wrong at the same time.
And if you have any interest in the intersection of religion and literature, The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage (Paul Elie's joint, intersecting biography of Dorothy Day, Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy and Thomas Merton), simply because I couldn't stop reading it long enough to brush my teeth. -
Dan Simmons
- Hyperion (4 books) - Hands down the best sci-fi books I've read, in fact the best books I've read ever!
Bernard Werber
- Les Fourmis - he's a French author/writer, but I think most of his work can be found in english also
Dan Brown
- Deception Point
Dale Carnegie
- How to Win Friends And Influence People (a timeless classic)-
agree with deception point. i was surprised by how engaging it as i was recommened by friends after da vinci.
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For me one unforgettable reading experience from years and years back was Claude Simon's The Flander's Road. The Nouveau Roman style story on teh World War I was absorbing and thanks to very few punctuation marks the reader simply drowns into the text - I had terrible war dreams every night for a week or so when reading it.
But there are others too that gave me that all-absorbing feeling, for instance Tayeb Salih's The Season of Migration to the North - a strange, complex story of a Sudanese man in London and back in Sudan; Ben Okri's The Famished Road - story of a Nigerian spirit child; anything by Ian McEwan makes great summer reading... -
What a question! My blog is about books, so I could go on listing my favorites for hours.
I'm probably forgetting a ton, but here are some I'd highly recommend:
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - I had to list this, just because it's my favorite book ever, but not everyone would like it. It's around 900 pages and written in the style of a 19th-century novel.
Pride & Prejudice - This one IS a 19th century novel, and probably my favorite "classic" (of those I've read). I liked it more than Jane Eyre myself, though perhaps they're not comparable.
The Time Traveler's Wife - Just because you listed it, and I'd agree that it's good.
On Writing - because it's also been mentioned and I agree.
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers - only useful if you write fiction, but if you do, read this immediately.
Dandelion Wine - I thought it created the "atmosphere" of summer really well.
The Name of the Wind - If you like "Lord of the Rings-style" fantasy books, this is one of the better ones, in my opinion.
The Secret History - I'd love to write like this. Quite entertaining, too.
The Society of S - I think I liked this one because it was very fast-paced but without sacrificing good writing, like so many fast-paced books do.
I Capture the Castle - Loved how distinct the narrator's "voice" was, and a good story, too.
The Shadow of the Wind - A mystery, I suppose. Difficult to describe. I liked it, though it's without a doubt the most suspenseful book I've read this year.-
secret history is good, but the next book (forgot the name) was a bit boring.
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A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.-
With or without the 21st chapter?
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1984 by George Orwell
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Remainder by Tom McCarthy
Remainder is my fav.
I agree with SexyinRed with:
Time Travellers Wife - Audrey Niffeneger: Very good
and Logotree with
On Writing - Stephen King - amazing help for me, esp on deleting adverbs in my work -
The Devil in the White City (for those who like true crime stuff)
Linguistic Semantics (for sickos like me--if there are any others)-
Just looked up Frawley's Linguistic Semantics: that sounds fascinating, around 12 years ago i would have purchased and devoured it without a second thought! I'll keep this in mind if/when I get my language curiosity back :-)
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MadameX:
With, of course. Alex has to accept the inevitable: that all of us grow up someday. The same happened with me: once a rebel, now a father.-
Total disagree. In concept, Burgess's argument that a novel must show development and all that rings true, but in fact I think it's not. I think that the revelations Burgess felt were necessary to the character can occur in the reader. More to the point, though, there was no development here--the last chapter read like an epilogue with no revealed insights or evolutionary process...the "change" was as magical as the first one!
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Magical or not, I sometimes feel sorry for having lost my old self (the wild one, the rebel one, the light-minded and irresponsible one), and the 21st chapter of this novel is my only consolation, the only plausible explanation that this is normal. Of course there was a time when I felt the last chapter unnecessary and preferred the ending of the Kubrick movie to the novel, but things have changed in my life, and I started not to care about what Burgess had wanted to say with an ending like this or whether he had succeeded or not. So for me it is totally personal, leaving the literature dissection alone.
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Ultra Marathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night runner
its a good book, if you're the running type, or someone who has been out of it and is looking for some motivation.-
Yeah, awesome book! This one's a classic too:
Duel in the Sun: Alberto Salazar, Dick Beardsley, and America's Greatest Marathon
Thanks for the blog comment by the way,
--Steve
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Title: The Other Side of Yore
Reason: I'll make lots of royalties?
J/K- I just finished reading Children of Hurin by Tolkien and it was astounding.
But I guess if it's books I think we all NEED to read its Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut and The Secret Science Behind Miracles by Max Freedom Long. -
I can list a tonne of them, but these are some of my favourites:
* Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
* Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a bicycle by Dervla Murphy
* Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch
* Any book by the spiritual guru Osho
* The Alchemist by Paulo coelho
* The Wind in my Wheels by Josie Drew
* The Marathon Monks of Mount Hiei by John Stevens
* Ultramarathon man: Confessions of an all-night runner by Dean Karnazes
I can go on and on. But these are some of the books that have come to my mind -
A great thread! Will be adding quite a few of everyone's recommendations to my to-read list, or at least to my to-find-out-more-about list :-)
I'm heavily into fantasy books, so my own recommendations are:
> George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series [as yet unfinished, it's at Book 4 part 1, with at least Book 4 Part 2 and Book 5 still to come]: a majestic series, sometimes all too realistic [the wrong people die!! sob sob!], rich with details and amazing characters.
> Isobelle Carmody's Obernewtyn series [also unfinished, but Book 5 is due out late this year, and Book 6 {final} middle of next year]: a post-apocalyptic setting, where Misfits with abilities try to find their place in a world where the religious / political refuse them... add in a strange prophecy / seer, and you've got an intriguing tale *i* can't wait to read more of :-)
> yes it's been mentioned already, but perhaps redundancy will help enourage people to pick it up: Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell: an awesome novel!
> The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova: an amazing retelling/interpretation of the Dracula tale.
btw, I *finally* got my hands on the Time Traveler's Wife, will be reading it in a day or two :-)-
can't believe I forgot this one the first time around:
> > > Neil Gaiman's American Gods
If you like mythology, especially the Norse pantheon, or if you've wondered about whatever happened to the Gods of yester-century in this day and age, then pick up this excellent tome :-)
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Stephen King - On Writing - More like memoirs then a howto-book, yet so much more. If you're into writing, you must read this.
James Clavell - Shogun - My alltime favorite. At first glance it's just a really long adventure tale. But when you let the story suck you in, you discover that it is a lot more than this.
Alexandre Dumas - The Count of Monte Cristo - Brilliant, universally human story of betrayal, revenge and forgiveness.
Umberto Eco - Foucault's Pendulum - The perfect book for part-time conspiracy theorists. Wonderful writing on Eco's part.
Friedrich Nietzsche - Thus spoke Zarathustra - If you think you have too much brain for your own good - this book will take care of it *g*.-
The Count of Monte Cristo is a big favorite of mine, too, and i think I forgot to mention it. But having read it originally in French and then two different English translations, I found that the quality of the translation significantly impacted the quality of the book--more so than any other that I can recall. (Though my sister would argue that the translator who wrote "The man had his dog with him" rather than "The man was with his dog" as the first line of The Stranger ruined the whole thing.
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LoL, I came back to add Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco to my list, and saw you've already mentioned it, cool :-) Glad to know someone else has not only read it, but enjoyed it!
Stephen King's On Writing is something so many writer/bloggers have recommended, I'll probably be requesting this for my b-day, *grin!*
~willow~
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Firstly sexyinred, I commend you on your selection...you have listed some of my favorites...here's a couple more:
1) The Historian (Elizabeth Kostova) - A large spoonfull of European history mixed with spinkling of adventure
2) His Dark Material (Philip Pullman) - Firstly, the thought of my personality being shown in the form of a pet that transforms from animal to animal depending on my moods is quite inspiring. Secondly, this book takes a facinating look at the impact of religion in todays world (or is it worlds?)
3) Survival in Auschwitz (Primo Levi) - The chance to understand, through an emotional first hand account, some of the horrors and heroics that took place in German Concentration camps during World War II - we should never forget our history!
A great quesion!! with many great answers....
Graham x
grahamettridge.blogspot.com -
Dracula (the original, Bram Stoker)
Neverwhere (Neil Gaiman)
The Stupidest Angel (Christopher Moore)
The Boy Detective Fails (Joe Meno)
... and of course I'm obligated to say:
Cluck: Murder Most Fowl, by Eric D Knapp (me!) -
I'd have to sit down for a long while to make a list like that, I just want to say this:
1. Everyone should read Stephen R. Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People
2. Right now I'm really, really enjoying Zadie Smith's White Teeth. It's great, so you should probably read that one too.
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List of some authors I appreciate - Yukio Mishima, Kurt Vonnegut, Salman Rushdie, Saul Bellow, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Jorge Luís Borges, Charles Bukowski, John Steinbeck, Kenzaburo Oe, John Fante, Dostoevsky, Kafka, Lautréamont, Saramago, Yasunari Kawabata. They are all pretty easy to find, except Lautréamont. -
1/1984
2/Catch 22
3/Grapes of wrath
4/I Claudius
5/American psycho -
I love your choices! Time Traveler's Wife is an awesome book. I just bought another copy because I lent my first one out and haven't gotten it back. There are few books I can read more than once...Tuesdays with Morrie, Lovely Bones and Life After Death by Deepak Chopra. Check out Fictionway.com for book reviews -
The Source by James Michener -- An awesome, thoroughly encompassing look at the evolution of religion in mankind.
I have to agree with Focault's Pendulum.
Mary Stewert's King Arthur books -- there are many different versions of the Arthurian legend, but she's a master storyteller.
Kiss of God: The Wisdom of a Silent Child by Marshall Stewart Ball. He could neither speak nor walk, and was completely dependent on others for physical help, but he started writing at the age of 6 with the an insight into human nature, love, nurturing, and freedom that very few people in the history of mankind have achieved. "Will we free the world to think perfectly about the listening and marvelous children?"
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