Favourite books, what are yours?

[Graham]

Lets make a thread about our favorite books!

I'll start -

The Divine Comedy, Dante

Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S Thompson.

I am Legend, Richard Matheson.

The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Philip K Dick

I also like Camus, Ezra Pound and, well, yeah, I know there's more but I can't think right now.

 

[beatrice]

"A Beautiful Mind" is good. It's based on the true story of Nobel laureate John Nash, and his "unlikely" recovery from schizophrenia. The book and the movie are both good. The book is more realistic, I think. There is a video on YouTube where John Nash clarifies what really happened, and interprets the movie.

Although John Nash had unusual success, the story is inspirational and shows how it is possible to overcome adversity. John Nash was determined to solve his problem no matter how difficult it seemed. He eventually learned to be rational not only in math, but in real life. He recovered and no longer needed medication. (The movie showed him continuing medication in an effort to prevent certain viewers to suddenly stop using their meds.)

"Inception", "Shutter Island" and "Gone with the Wind" were good too.

 

[tired33]

A great book is the Tender Bar by J. R. Moehringer. It is a very inspirational, funny, and overall good story. What I like best about the book is that it is a true story. To me nothing compares to a book or movie that is good and based on a true story.

 

[wazup]

I'm a sci-fi nut, so:

Dune (series) by Frank Herbert
Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson
Foundation series by Asimov
Lord of the Rings by Tolkien

...but outside of science fiction:

The Alchemist by Paolo Coehlo
On the Road by Kerouac

 

[Graham]

Dune (series) by Frank Herbert

On the Road by Kerouac

I read the first Dune book and really enjoyed it. I've never read Kerouac but I have read Burroughs who was also knocking around with that crowd.

Have you read any Philip K Dick?

 

[COSGringo]

Sci Fi-
Foundation trilogy
Flow my tears the policeman said
Ubik

Others-
1984
Winter's Bone
Catcher in the Rye
The Sheltering Sky

 

[Bigrig]

That is a hard question to answer, as there are so many out there!
Tuf Voyaging by George R.R. Martin
Integral Tree series by Larry Niven
Retread Shop by T. Jackson King
Recluse series by L.E. Modesitt Jr
And many more.

 

[DulyNoted]

I'll go for 5 outstanding books that are somewhat obscure

Last Night in Twisted River - John Irving
Carry the One - Carol Anshaw
Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout
The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimov
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman

 

[Graham]

That is a hard question to answer, as there are so many out there!
Tuf Voyaging by George R.R. Martin
Integral Tree series by Larry Niven
Retread Shop by T. Jackson King
Recluse series by L.E. Modesitt Jr
And many more.

I don't usually read fantasy, but I'm reading the game of thrones books by George R.R. Martin at the moment and loving them. Really compelling page-turning stuff. Great characters.

 

[Kat0711]

Anything by John Grisham, and I also like Sci Fi by Leonard Nemoy.... I am curious about the 50 shades of Gray as a lot of my friends have read it and said I HAVE to read it, but Not so sure about that... anyone here read those books????

Kat

 

[Binky]

Hello @Kat0711. I've been reading 50 Shades of Gray. I finished the first book & am halfway thru the second. I don't think it's any different than reading the romance type books of 20 yrs. ago. It reminds me of those books. Lots of sex & kinkiness. I've enjoyed reading them but so far I don't see what the fuss is all about. I also have the 3rd & final book of the series. I hope you enjoy it!

 

[spearwarrior]

hey @Kat0711 and @Binky I read the 50 shades of gray series, It was a good read. I had to speed read through all of the sex scens but was good none the less. You guys might also like Butterfly by kathryn harvey(I'm just finding out its a TRILOGY also)

 

[Binky]

Hello @spearwarrior & welcome to PR. Thank you for recommending kathryn, I will put it on my list & look for it next time I go to the bookstore.

 

[DutchJacob]

1) Lord of the Rings (J.R.R. Tolkien)

2) Dean Koontz' Frankenstein (Dean Koontz)

3) The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)

4) Snake (Ken Stabler)

5) The Firm (John Grisham)

6) The Bad Place (Dean Koontz)

7) Have a Nice Day (Mick Foley)

8) April Shadows (V.C. Andrews)

9) Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)

10) The Face (Dean Koontz)


Basically, like others, a lot of sci-fi. Grisham was my favorite author when I was younger but lately it's all about Koontz for me.

 

[toby]

Stuck mostly to fiction, by author:

Don DeLillo--Underworld, Mao II, Point Omega
Wm. Faulkner--Absalom! Absalom!, Snopes Trilogy, Light in August
Hemingway--The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms
Joan Didion--The Last Thing He Wanted, Where I Was From, The White Album
Capote--Other Voices, Other Rooms, Breakfast at Tiffany's (and other stories)
Lawrence Sterne--Tristram Shandy
Proust--Remembrance of Things Past
Raymond Chandler--Farewell, My Lovely, Lady in the Lake, The little Sister (all of them, actually)
Vladimir Nabokov--Lolita
Dickens--Oliver Twist
DH Lawrence--The Rainbow, Sons and Lovers, Lady Chatterley's Lover
Thomas Pynchon--Inherent Vice
Toni Bentley--The Surrender
Bruce Wagner--Force Majeure, I'm Losing You
Ann Beattie--Park City
Martin Amis--Money
Flaubert--Madame Bovary
Casanova--Diaries
F. Scott Fitzgerald--The Great Gatsby
Thomas Tryon--Harvest Home, All That Glitters
Norman Mailer--An American Dream, The Deer Park, Harlot's Ghost
Celine--Death on the Installment Plan

 

[COSGringo]

I forgot 2 on my list, not sure how I overlooked these. In number of importance

1) The Joy of Sex

2) Kama Sutra for those less limber

 

[MrClean]

Favorate Books

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

I have yet to read a better book.

 

[Graham]

Thomas Pynchon--Inherent Vice

Gosh. I took this out from the library recently (I know, who still uses libraries!) and I could not read it. I guess I read about sixty pages but I, I dunno, I just couldn't follow the conversations. I'm going to give Pynchon another shot though. I'll try some of his older stuff.

 

[toby]

Gosh. I took this out from the library recently (I know, who still uses libraries!) and I could not read it. I guess I read about sixty pages but I, I dunno, I just couldn't follow the conversations. I'm going to give Pynchon another shot though. I'll try some of his older stuff.

Ha ha...but I must tell you, the earlier stuff is much harder. I nearly killed myself getting through 'Gravity's Rainbow', and I'm pretty much through with Pynchon. The 2009 reviews sometimes called Inherent Vice 'Pynchon-lite'.

Agree with McClean about 'Tale of Two Cities', should reread--not since high school. Dickens's range is amazing.

 

[Graham]

Ha ha...but I must tell you, the earlier stuff is much harder. I nearly killed myself getting through 'Gravity's Rainbow', and I'm pretty much through with Pynchon.

It's weird though. I'm more or less used to trekking through difficult stuff but I just could not follow that Pynchon book. It wasn't so much that I couldn't follow what was going on generally, I just felt like I was wading through all the conversations and only getting about half of the meaning every time. Loads of the references to American culture were lost on me so that didn't help.

I mean, I was expecting it to be challenging but challenging in a different way. I'm definitely going to give his earlier work a shot though.