halisray Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 List your top five books, I'm in need of something to read; Mine, in no particular order; Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh - simply stunning, couldn't put it down. The Winds of War, by Herman Wouk - an interesting account of World War 2. The Liar, by Stephen Fry - charmingly funny. Vintage Stuff, by Tom Sharpe - hilarious. The Count of Monte Cristo, by Dumas - a great adventurous story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atop Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 VALIS by PHILIP K DICK THE STARS MY DESTINATION by ALFRED BESTER LILITH by GEORGE MACDONALD THE PURPLE CLOUD by M P SHIEL A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS by DAVID LINDSAY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephyr_Nova Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 I've read so little that I feel practically illiterate, and really couldn't give a top 5. It's rare that I read something I really love, and rarer that I read something more than once. With movies and music it's a lot easier to think of favorites since there are so many that I keep going back to, and it only takes an hour or two to refamiliarize myself with them. Reading's a much bigger time commitment, and there are so many great books that I'll never get a chance to read in my lifetime. Because of that I'm always inclined to read something I haven't read before when I do read, so I don't get much of a chance to really know a book inside out. It's hard to pick favorites among things that I usually only experience once. But i'll try... Haruki Murakami is probably my favorite author. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood are both incredible. The Stranger by Albert Camus really spoke to me when I read it a few years back, though it may have just been the right book at the right time. I should reread that one. Titus Groan, first book of the Ghormanghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake is up there. Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal by Thomas Harris. The Mote in God's Eye/The Gripping Hand by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle are two of my favorite sci-fi books. Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs... he strikes me as the most unique author I've read. Was there anything like Burroughs before Burroughs? Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson I loved 1984 and Brave New World as a wee lad, but don't know if they'd have the same impact if I read them now. I was pretty much a fan of any book or movie taking place in a dystopian future. That's all that springs to mind at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
747Music Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 I'm not much of a reader, but Terry Goodkind's series "The Sword Of Truth" is absolutely fantastic! The first book in the series is "Wizard's First Rule". They're pretty big books, but I could not put them down. I would read a 900 page book in 2-3 days, where as with any other book of that size would take me about a month to finish. So go, start reading Wizard's First Rule. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghOsty Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 Kind of quickly made list... House of Leaves - Mark Z Danielewski World War Z - Max Brooks The Road - Cormac McCarthy Survivor - Chuck Palahniuk Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson with honorable mention to: Hell's Angels - Hunter S. Thompson Watchmen - Alan Moore Sin City: The Big Fat Kill story arc compiled: Frank Miller Gates of Eden - Ethan Coen Lullaby and Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk I'm sure there's books Ive really enjoyed and I'm forgetting at the moment as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghOsty Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 House of Leaves - Mark Z Danielewski I want to buy this but I don't know if I'll like it It's a lenghtly read and a bit complicated, but I found it to be very engaging and quite worth it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dese manz hatin Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 islands in the stream - e. hemingway nausea - j.-p. sartre on the road - j. kerouac siddharta - h. hesse old masters - th. bernhard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gary C Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 1984, and then some others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chenGOD Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 You couldn't be bothered to look through the THREAD CALLED NOW READING for book recommendations? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tht tne Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 michael ende - the neverending story william goldman - the princess bride kurt vonnegut - bluebeard joseph heller - catch-22 jorge luis borges - labyrinths Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Coalbucket PI Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 George Orwell - 1984 Joseph Heller - Catch 22 Kurt Vonnegut - Breakfast Of Champions Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood can't quite think of one to fill that last slot, it might well be Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, or The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. Or maybe Don Dellilo's White Noise. Or Slaughterhouse Five. House of Leaves - Mark Z Danielewski I want to buy this but I don't know if I'll like it It's a lenghtly read and a bit complicated, but I found it to be very engaging and quite worth it... It is engaging, it's a long way from being in my top list of anything but it's worth reading and is a very easy read for such a huge fat book. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Iain C Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 i think trying to compile a "top 5" list of books is about as futile as trying to compile a "top 5" list of musicians or songs or whatever... but here are 5 that i come back to year after year: italo calvino - invisible cities hart crane - the bridge philip larkin - high windows william faulkner - as i lay dying james joyce - dubliners but that's just off the top of my head. it seems a ridiculously reductive list. 3 or 4 novels by vladimir nabokov belong there. way more by faulkner and hemingway, fantastic poets like ts eliot, geoffrey hill, ted hughes, sylvia plath (it's OK to like both)... honestly, where do you start? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Iain C Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 House of Leaves - Mark Z Danielewski I want to buy this but I don't know if I'll like it It's a lenghtly read and a bit complicated, but I found it to be very engaging and quite worth it... skip it and go straight to The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien, Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, or anything by Borges and Calvino. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gary C Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 I liked House of Leaves. It's post-modern structure lends itself to cinematic story-telling. Borges is more of a headfuck, but House of Leaves creates a good sense of immersion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keltoi Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 i suck at picking top 5's so here's the best of the books i've read which i can think of right now at this moment... the catcher in the rye - salinger 1984 - orwell brave new world - huxley clockwork orange - burgess naked lunch - burroughs lord of the flies - golding the stranger - camus the trial - kafka the castle - kafka for whom the bell tolls - hemingway on the road - kerouac the rosy crucifiction - miller invisible man - ellison pimp - iceberg slim junky - burroughs queer - burroughs down and out in paris and london - orwell moby dick - melville the bell jar - plath Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Iain C Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 I liked House of Leaves. It's post-modern structure lends itself to cinematic story-telling. Borges is more of a headfuck, but House of Leaves creates a good sense of immersion. Its Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gary C Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 My argument is invalid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLA FUR BIS FLE Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 House of Leaves - Mark Z Danielewski I want to buy this but I don't know if I'll like it It's a lenghtly read and a bit complicated, but I found it to be very engaging and quite worth it... skip it and go straight to The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien, Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, or anything by Borges and Calvino. Thank you. The book isn't complicated. It is like the Blair Witch Project/Lost of literature. Gets name dropped so much that it makes my head spin. Found it tedious and corrrrrnnnnnnyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. The Book of Sand - J. Borges tie between Baudolino/The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco The Dreams in the Witch House: And Other Weird Stories - Lovecraft The Trickster - Paul Radin those have been the constants over the last few years, at least. And, the best book that I've never read: Zombie! Zombie! by Matthew John. Chances are this little paperback book blows donkey dick, but I remember hearing about it years ago and being really intrigued. It is a post apocalyptic zombie story, of course. Centered around teenagers who are trying to survive in a wasteland, taking speed, drinking loads of booze, raping zombies etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke viia Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 anything by Calvino. I thought about what my list for this thread would look like, and it would end up about 4/5 Calvino. Difficult Loves, If on a winter's night a traveler, Cosmicomics, Marcovaldo... all great books. I still need to read Invisible Cities, I think it's laying around here somewhere... Tom Robbins is a great writer as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
o00o Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Iain C Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 anything by Calvino. I thought about what my list for this thread would look like, and it would end up about 4/5 Calvino. Difficult Loves, If on a winter's night a traveler, Cosmicomics, Marcovaldo... all great books. I still need to read Invisible Cities, I think it's laying around here somewhere... Tom Robbins is a great writer as well. Invisible Cities is probably my favourite work of Calvino's. My girlfriend is currently reading it for the first time, what a magical experience. My first edition of "Winter's night" is probably the first thing I'd save from my house if it was on fire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bossman Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 any of you dudes do goodreads? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain James Mission Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 seriously, no bukowski in here? and good call on the road by cormac mccarthy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atop Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 I've only read Ham on Rye and Tales of Ordinary Madness, both are amazing but I think I like his poetry the most. Bukowski was indeed a great writer. Just not in my top five. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baph Posted May 18, 2011 Share Posted May 18, 2011 My list is ever in flux and mood-dependent: Assuming fiction: Gravity's Rainbow - Pynchon Against the Day - Pynchon Anathem - Neal Stephenson (or for maximum fun but way less srs bzns: Snow Crash or The Diamond Age by Stephenson) Ulysses - Joyce The Name of the Rose - Eco Infinite Jest will probably make top 5 if I ever get a chance to sit down and finish it. Maybe Midnight's Children White Noise by DeLillo Catch 22 had a profound impact on me in middle school (Christ, I just realized I'm ancient) but it's the only thing by Joseph Heller I really liked; read lots of Vonnegut way back when, too. I like PKD, esp. Valis, but his prose is fairly meh sometimes/often. But that's sort of a mile besides the point with PKD. A whole bunch of stuff that I read at university and can't remember right now, and you've got your fucking Norton Anthologies of Necessary Shit in there. /former pretentious Lit major Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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