Discussions
Your Best Reads (Book Discussion)
Posted by celticmusicfan • 6/27/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: authors, books, graphic novels, literature, reading
(I edited this because the introduction was lame) Ok I really expect this topic to have a longer shelf life because this is kind of nerdy LOL.Not that I am accusing everybody of being a nerd. Anyway, I am interested in your favorite books/graphic novels/comics...these things that made a big impact in your life. I am listing down mine:
1.Zen and the Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance-Robert Persig.
2.The Plague-Albert Camus
3.A Separate Peace-John Knowles.
4.The Catcher in the Rye-J.D. Salinger
5.Sandman Series(Graphic Novels)-Neil Gaiman
6.Interview with the Vampire-Anne Rice
7.Drawing Blood-Poppy Z Brite
8.Everville- Clive Barker
9.Wuthering Heights-Emily Bronte
10.Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man-James Joyce
11.The Divine Comedy-Dante
12.Even Cowgirls get the Blues-Tom Robbins
13.The Alchemist-Paulo Coelho
14.The Name of the Rose-Umberto Eco
OK there are more but these are at the top of my head as of the moment.
User Comments
-
Orlando, A Room Of One's Own + Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje
The Time of the Angels - Iris Murdoch
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
Far From the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy -
The Bible
Tao-Teh-Ching
Leaves of Grass
Essays of Montaigne
Any Book of Quotes or Aphorisms
The Enemy of the People-Ibsen
Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp
Les Miserables-Victor Hugo
DH Lawrence's Letters
The Rebel-Camus
The Works of David Hume
Zen stories and parables
Wisdom of the Heart-Henry Miller
The Journals of Caesar Pavese
The Pre-Socratics-Diogenes/Heraclitus/Epicurus
Happiness-Alain
Pessoa's poetry -
@SiuilARuin(The English Patient) I heard the book version is as great as the movie. I haven't read the book version yet.
@nothingprofound (Leaves of Grass) You've just reminded me to go back to that book again.
@fasy you are so totally off topic !-
The book is very different from the film...the film is a subplot from the novel.
-
The book was beautiful. I loved it. I loved the movie too, but the book was incredible.
-
-
Since this book is getting good raves then I will check it out!
-
To be honest, I'm going to take the easy way out... a lot, not all are listed on my blogspot profile page between my two blogs. But for the quicky crowd... I have to throw out "Kafka On The Shore" by Murakami... i still remember it as a full body experience...
many others... but that one matters a lot... and I highly recommend.
(edit) and "Night at the Circus" by Angela Carter... I would love to hear from other Carter fans! -
After eliminating dozens of much loved novels, here was my final list years ago. I wonder if it would be the same now.
1. Barchester Towers [Anthony Trollope]. Even if some think he is light weight.
2. The Women's Room [Marilyn French]. When this book came out, it DID change lives.
3. Cider House Rules; Owen Meanly [John Irving]. Every word of his was important.
4. Elmer Gantry and Rabbit [Sinclair Lewis]. He KNOWS human beings.
5. Possession; Still Life [A.S. Byatt]. Cuts to the quick. Booker winner.
6. Johnno [David Malouf]. His first, slimmest and best novel.
7. The Elected Member; Brothers; Madame Sousatzka and esp Birds of Passage [Bernice Rubens]. Deserves her Booker prize.
8. Lewis Percy; Hotel du Lac [Anita Brookner]. Creamy writing. Deserves her Booker
9. Utz; Songlines [Bruce Chatwin]. Brilliant talent; died tragically young
10. The Sportswriter [Richard Ford]. Discovery of the 1980s.-
For some reason Malouf's "an imaginary life" made a huge impression on me... still on my shelf after years of the first read. will revisit and also look up the one you mention.
-
Freeatlast, not only do you treasure Leonard Cohen (my all time favourite singer and writer) but you also value David Malouf - one of my ten favourite authors from all of history. I am in love!
-
-
sherlock holmes stories
Tarzan Books by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Madol Duwa by Martin Wickremesinghe
WILD WHITE BOY by R.L. SPITTEL
and also like comic books such as TinTin & Asterix!!
-
1)Silmarillion - Tolkien
2)Hobbit, LOTR (grouped them cos they are one long story)
3)Harry Potter series
4)Sandman series - Neil Gaiman including Sandman - the book of dreams written by various and edited by Gaiman
5)Batman - The Killing Joke(Alan Moore) The Dark Knight returns(Frank Miller)
6)Jurassic Park and Lost world(Michael Crichton)
7)Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
8) 300 - Frank Miller
9)V for Vendetta - Alan Moore
10) A Matter of Honor - Jeffrey Archer
and that's from top 10 fiction list.. heavily loaded with fantasy and Graphic novels-
hey dude .. try brandon sandersons mistborn trilogy. U ll love it as it seems from ur reading habit.
-
-
Wow another Neil Gaiman reader. He was here in the country 3 times already I think. He got gazillion of fans here and they'd would line up in the malls just to get his autograph. I haven't checked the Ananse Boys yet but I think it is good.
-
I am planning on reading American Gods as soon as I can lay my hands on a copy
-
I just read Gaiman's "Endless Nights"... my first... and I have to admit... i was most impressed with certain artist's interpretations vs his writing? I've only read one other graphic novel so maybe i'm not a pro yet, but i'd say they leave a lot to be desired in the writing department... but always impressed with the writer's ideas, and almost always impressed with artist's interpretation of writer's ideas... still trying to get a hold on the writing. Liked the most artistic of interpretations as far as art goes in the "endless" book. can give chapters...
not trying to be judgmental... will definitely seek out more Sandman and more graphic novels... just haven't been extremely impressed... and i know that will maybe attract quite a bit of critique in and of itself. -
whoa.. you started off with a followup?
damn.. now, when you read the original books, you won't have the thrill of discovering each of the Endless as you go along
-
-
Sookie Stackhouse Series - Charlaine Harris
The Bartimaeus Trilogy - Jonathon Stroud
Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen - Garth Nix
The Devil's Feather - Minette Walters
oh and the Harry Potter books-
I am going to start my Sookie Stackhouse series too. I didn't know what all the rave was until I saw the first few episodes of True Blood and I was like WOW.
-
-
Pullman's "His Dark Materials" Trilogy. Read it. I insist.
-
@freeatlast Aggrrrrhhh! How dare you! Kidding. It is ok. The Sandman series is after all his first venture into writing. And books like music -just a matter of preference.
-
i'm catching on to that... but "the endless" is one of his more recent of sandmans books, yes? so... not as much excuse...
Believe me, I'm trying. (super secret scenario) The watchmen, which is the Other graphic novel I read, (don't be too hard on me, graphic novel enthusiasts... i'm truly trying to make progress here)... was very very disappointing in so many ways. I don't know what I was expecting. I know it was groundbreaking at the time, but.... go ahead... call me a snob... but i like good writing.... even crazy incoherent writing... but though I eventually got sucked into the plot, it didn't keep me all that interested or impressed. Yes I know... historical relevance... and in the meantime i ramble on without saying much of nothing or anything.
-
-
@freeatlast .Thanks for the interesting insight. As much as I am a fan I do keep an open mind. Truth to tell The Endless is the only graphic novel I haven;'t put my hands on(shame on me and I call myself a fan) I did look at the artwork and I didn't like it. I am not sure if it is as good as the other series like Seasons of Mists.
-
The Art Of Travel - Alain de Botten
Freaky Dancin - Bez of Happy Mondays -
Shantaram - Gregory david roberts
Gateway - Frederik Pohl-
omg---Gateway, I can't believe I didn't put that on my list. I haven't read that forever, and it's sitting right in front of me. I love Fredrick Pohl and the Gateway series, Heechee Rendezvous, Beyond the Blue Event Horizon....such a freaking awesome series(and I normally don't like series, but these stand on their own, and there's NOTHING like them)thanks for reminding me!
-
-
lately I have been getting into Indian writers because they are very good. One of this is The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy.
-
Ok now I have a problem. Without taking off any of my other all-time favourites, I need to add the incomparable Julian Barnes:
Flaubert's Parrot (1984),
England, England (1998), the greatest of all books, and
Arthur & George (2005).
If someone writes better novels than Barnes (in English), I will personally deliver the Nobel Prize for Literature to him or her. -
Armor-John Steakly
Courtship Rite-Donald Kingsbury
The Richest Man in Babylon
Getting Things Done-David Allen
Glory Season-David Brin
Enders game-Orson Scott Card
Night Fall-Isaac Asimov
Eaters of The Dead
The Gods Themselves-Asimov
Biting the Sun-Tanith Lee
Tesla Man Out of Time
The Valley of Horses-Jean Auel
An Alien Light-Nancy Kress
Beggars in Spain-Nancy Kress
Restoree-Anne McCaffrey
Eternity-Greg Bear
Khyren-Aline Boucher-Kaplan -
Love Story - Erich Segal -
In no particular order...
The Bible
A Winter Book - Tove Jansson
Peanuts - Charles M. Schulz
Rumours of Another World - Philip Yancey
Taliesin - Stephen Lawhead
Maison Ikkoku - Rumiko Takahashi
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind - Hayao Miyazaki
Till We Have Faces - C.S. Lewis
Adolf - Osamu Tezuka
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - J.R.R. Tolkein
Maus - Art Spiegelman-
Tolkein's Gawain is AMAZING... I have a couple different versions, but his is by far the best... awesome choice...
-
-
I am shocked no one mentioned Mistborn. No action and mystery lovers here? Gosh friends u should try them out.
-
in english
1. of human bondage by somerset maugham
2. most of his works
3. all works of arthur conan doyle
4. victor hugo -
I read all kinds of books but favs are probably mysteries, crime novels, horror ...things like that.
You're welcome to join my book club: pushbuttonalpha.blogspot.com/2009/08/book-club-anyone.html
-
Lolita
White Noise - Don Delillo
The Kindness of Strangers - Kristina KIttle
The Bell Jar -
The Outsider- Albert camus
The unbearable Lightness of Being- Milan Kundera
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Milan Kundera
Lolita Vladimir Nabokov
Short stories by Jorges Borges and Franz Kafta
Disgraced- J.M. Coetzee -
I tend to read books very fast, and they are fascinating while I'm reading, but I don't really remember all that much about them a month later. But some of the books that stuck and that I keep returning to are
Tao te ching - by Laozi
Zhuangzi speaks - by Chih-chung Ts'ai. This is actually the philosophy of Zhuangzi presented through a comic book. Awesome! The artwork is quite funny too.
Many of the short stories by Isaac Asimov
The art of practising - by Madeline Bruser -
Love all the lists! I have to say the last book I read and the next! Right now the last one I read was Emma by Jane Austen and the one I just got to read (which I am reading with my 14 year old granddaughter!) is Bresingr. -
man this is a tough tough call. I'm gonna go off of my niche (I run a sci fi content review website) best sci fi books.
1. man in the high castle (philip k dick, my favorite author)
2. Dune (yeah it's flawed, but it opened my eyes to the world of sci fi and it is brilliant despite it's flaws)
3. Always Coming Home (Le Guin writes something more than a book here, world creation at it's best and most detailed. She doesn't just create an alternate universe, she creates an entire culture complete with recipes, art, architecture, etc.)
4. dhalgren
5. hyperion
not necessarily in this order, though probably the first three would be... -
I recommend:
Pedro Paramo of Juan Rulfo, its a really good book, one of the best of the world, in Spanish America the book is one of the best, a smart and entertaining book. A hug.
Mario. -
Fernando Namora: "Domingo à tarde"(Sunday afternoon)
Heinrich Böll: "The Silent Angel"
Jane Austen: "Pride and Prejudice"
Graham Green: "The Honorary Consul"
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: "Sherlock Holmes"
Bocage: there isn't any book, it's poetry!
Eça De Queirós: "Os Maias"
José Saramago: "O convento De Mafra"
Erich Maria Remarque: "All Quiet on the Western Front"
Jean Paul Sartre: "The Words"
like I said in another discussion! I love these, there are more, but isn't easy to translate Portuguese titles! -
I saw so many treat books on this thread. I love Clive Barker's Everville and Imajica. Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy is fantastic, as well. I just finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and have recently been reading through Orson Scott Card's short fiction (I was stunned by Ender's Game but didn't much like Speaker for the Dead, although Magic Street is wonderful).
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance came into my life at a time when I really needed its wisdom and still holds a place in my heart. I'm also a big fan of Nathanial Hawthorne, Eudora Welty, and Graham Greene. I'm addicted to Sherlock Holmes mysteries, as well. Long live Sir Arthur Conan Doyle! Oh, wait... -
Love Douglas Coupland at the moment. He has a greater part of influence on my writing. Other than that, not so much reading at the moment. -
This is a varied and widely read group! :-) Legbamel, I also love mysteries of Sherlock Holmes! (Even though Doyle is not terribly kind to Dr. Watson!)
-
The most influential book of my youth was The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". I love that book, still.
I love many of the classics, most particularly, Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises."
Some of my favorite recent books are 'Team of Rivals,' 'The Audacity of Hope,' and I just started reading 'The Fall and Rise of Ted Kennedy.'
For light and fun reading, I recently read a book on time travel called 'The Mirror,' and I also loved Jean Aul's 'Earth Children' series. I still pick those books up from time to time--they are so well researched, the characters are so well developed, and just fun to read.
I really love science fiction also--I have read everything of Philip K. Dick's and love his short stories in particular. I am recently reading Greg Bear's sci fi novels and love those too. Oh--another series that I loved was Dune. I read that again last year and enjoyed it as much and learned new things I hadn't caught before.
Add Your Comment
Login to leave a message.
