The best book you've ever read is?

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wfbberzerker

Lifer
Apr 12, 2001
10,423
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don't know about absolute best, but the green mile pops out as a really damn good book that i've read recently.
 

masterxfob

Diamond Member
May 20, 2001
7,366
5
81
where the red fern grows? haha, i remember really liking that book when i was in elementary school. other than that, the hobbit really got me started on the whole reading thing.
 

randal

Golden Member
Jun 3, 2001
1,890
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Atlas Shrugged was super-great ... far superior to both Fountainhead and Anthem. I also thought that "The Cherry Orchard" by Chekhov was great, but I can't tell you why. Just fills me with joy everytime I read it. OH, and the Unbearable Likeness of Being by Milan Kundera was incredible too.
 

The Catcher in the Rye
The 9/11 Commission Report
See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism
 

imported_Salvatore

Senior member
Jul 9, 2004
538
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81
Lord of the Flies - William Golding

And to the OP who says that novels can't teach you anything, that's an incredibly ignorant statement.
 

elmer92413

Senior member
Oct 23, 2004
659
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Redwall...!!!
And the entire Redwall series...
Good light hearted books...
...
And the only book to get a tear from me Of Mice and Men...
 

thegimp03

Diamond Member
Jul 5, 2004
7,420
2
81
Great Gatsby or Catcher in the Rye.
Most of the books I read now are Ludlum, Crichton, and Higgins books which are good for a quick and entertaining read. I also like Dan Brown's books (Da Vinci Code, Deception Point, etc...)
 
May 16, 2000
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Tough call...can't realy name just one of course. I'll toss out some supreme examples (these may be literary masterpieces, mind stretchers, etc)


The Real Story - Stephen R Donaldson
Illusions - Richard Bach
Lies My Teacher Told Me - James Loewen
Hero With a Thousand Faces - Joeseph Campbell
The Bible
The Qur'an
The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
A Buddhist Bible - Dwight Goddard
The Nag Hammadi Library
The Gateless Gate - Ekai
The Tibetan Book of the Dead
How the Mind Works - Steven Pinker
Dune - Frank Herbert
Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet - Shakespeare
A People's History of the United States - Howard Zinn
The Commanding Heights - Daniel Yergin
Psychology and Religion - Carl Jung
The Marriage of Sense and Soul: Integrating Science and Religion - Ken Wilber
Personal Knowledge - Michael Polanyi
In Justification of Faith - William James
An Attack Upon Christendom - Soren Kierkegaard
Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Fredrich Nietzsche
A Very Easy Death - Simone de Beauvoir
The Sociology of Religion - Max Weber
A History of God - Karen Armstrong
Beyond Freedom and Dignity - B.F. Skinner
Towards a Psychology of Being - Abraham Maslow
Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years - William Perry
The Atman Project - Ken Wilber
Toys and Reason - Erik Erikson
Insight and Responsibility - Erik Erikson
Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious - Carl Jung
The Development of Personality - Carl Jung
Cognitive Development - John Flavell
The Essential Piaget - Jean Piaget
Moral Development and Moral Education - Sara Sanborn
In a Different Voice - Carol Gilligan
Moral Development; a Guide to Piaget and Kohlberg - Ronald Duska & Mariellen Whelan
The Philosophy of Moral Development: Moral Stages and the Idea of Justice - Lawrence Kohlberg
The Evolving Self - Robert Kegan
Civil Disobedience - Henry David Thoreau
United States Constitution & Declaration of Independence
Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein


I could list another 500 that are basic required reading to gain any real understanding or insight into life, but the above are a fairly good starting point...with some entertainment thrown in on top. :cool:

 

Insomniak

Banned
Sep 11, 2003
4,836
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Either

Paul Graham - Hackers and Painters

or

George Carline - When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?


Hitchiker's Guide and To Kill A Mockingbird are up there too.
 

gopunk

Lifer
Jul 7, 2001
29,239
2
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i've never read one that made me go "wow this is the best book i've ever read"

i greatly enjoyed Rainbow Six and Winning by Jack Welch
 

Coquito

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2003
8,559
1
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Goblins in the Castle
Sideway Stories From Wayside School
Parable of the Sower

I read those books as a kid. Maybe I've just lost my attention span, or my imagination just suddenly shut down. Everything I read now is just okay. It would take me a couple extra minutes to even try & remember a situation from a more recent title, but these books are always stuck with me. I need a good book.