What's your favorite book?

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ProfJohn

ProfJohn

Lifer
Jul 28, 2006
18,161
7
0
I think you can judge books in two ways. Some are ?fun? books to read that provide lots of enjoyment, but not much thought.
And then some books are ?literary? in nature. Books like this are as much about the writing as the story.

For ?fun? books: The last four Harry Potter books are incredible enjoyable to read. The Da Vinci Code was a good read as well. The first half of the ?Wheel of Time? series by Robert Jordan was very enjoyable as well.

From a literary point of view: The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway. Lolita by Nabakov, amazing writing.

I don?t have a ?favorite? book, there are too many good ones out there.
 
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imported_Devine

Golden Member
Oct 10, 2006
1,293
0
0
I cant .. . read or write :( Why must you discriminate against me??? What did I do to deserve this? Oh yeah, I'm illiterate :eek:
 
shortylickens

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,082
136
Starship Troopers.


(Now I wait paitently for one of the many AT idiots to come in and :roll: me.)
 
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Rogodin2

Banned
Jul 2, 2003
3,219
0
0
Master and Maragritta by Bulgakov. It was written during the 'red scare' and even in translation it is quite an amazing piece of litterature.

I also recomend any or all of the socratic dialogs.

Rogo

 
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TitanDiddly

Guest
Dec 8, 2003
12,696
1
0
I decided last night while reading one of my last Heinlein books before I finish his complete works- that I hate him. If he were alive today, I'd punch him in the face. He was a dirty old man. Dirty, dirty, dirty. Pretty much all his books(not written for kids) included one or more spunky young women that loved to have sex with old men.

Disgusting.
 
Z

zoiks

Lifer
Jan 13, 2000
11,787
3
81
Originally posted by: lokiju
I can't pick one.

Like you said, it always seems to be the last one I just finished :p

Some of my favorites off the top of my head are Sphere, read that when I was 15 or so and thats the book that really got me into reading for enjoyment.

The Stand, by Stephen King is another great story, the ending was a little weak but it was just such a good story overall.
Click to expand...

I like a lot of Crichton books. Jurassic Park and Congo are my fav.
 
Z

zoiks

Lifer
Jan 13, 2000
11,787
3
81
Bridges of Madison country. That book is probably one of the best love stories I've read.
I like Steinbeck books as well. East of Eden, Grapes of Wrath, Of mice and men are my favorite.
 
Oceandevi

Oceandevi

Diamond Member
Jan 20, 2006
3,085
1
0
Originally posted by: shortylickens
Starship Troopers.


(Now I wait paitently for one of the many AT idiots to come in and :roll: me.)
Click to expand...

the book was great.

My fav would be Watership Down by richard adams.
And Ishmael by daniel quinn.
 
S

StevenYoo

Diamond Member
Jul 4, 2001
8,628
0
0
Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson

followed by

Song of Ice & Fire series by George R.R. Martin
 
shortylickens

shortylickens

No Lifer
Jul 15, 2003
80,287
17,082
136
Originally posted by: TitanDiddly
I decided last night while reading one of my last Heinlein books before I finish his complete works- that I hate him. If he were alive today, I'd punch him in the face. He was a dirty old man. Dirty, dirty, dirty. Pretty much all his books(not written for kids) included one or more spunky young women that loved to have sex with old men.

Disgusting.
Click to expand...
OK dude, seriously, I really can not tell if you're being sarcastic or not.
Starship Troopers (the book) had no actual sex and minimal implied sex, Red Planet didnt seem to have any, unless it was subliminal and I missed it.
The Moon is a harsh mistress had a small amount of implied sex, but Manny was married to Wyoh when they did it. And people could live up to 200 years by being raised on the moon so they were both very young in body and spirit.

As far as dirty goes, he might only have been considered dirty back in the 50's. Last I checked this is the year 2007 (I think), and he is INCREDIBLY tame compared to pretty much all modern authors.


You were being sarcastic, werent you?

 
A

Auric

Diamond Member
Oct 11, 1999
9,591
2
71
Originally posted by: dug777
Any Conrad fans here?
Click to expand...

Oh indeed yes by jove. Heart of Darkness is definitely a fave. Also keen on Kipling and Vonnegut. Reading Gravity's Rainbow (Thomas Pynchon) at the mo'. I dig non-fiction too such as The Fatal Shore which is right up your Aussie alley, dug777. Woah, that sounded a bit rude. ;)
 
M

Martin

Lifer
Jan 15, 2000
29,178
1
81
Best fiction would have to be War and Peace - I kept thinking about the book for weeks after I had finished reading it.

Best non-fiction? Its really hard to say, since it depends on the subject. One of the best (that I read recently) would be "Before the Dawn", which is about human prehistory (evolution, migrations, religion, linguistics, etc)
 
Vic

Vic

Elite Member
Jun 12, 2001
50,422
14,337
136
Originally posted by: shortylickens
Originally posted by: TitanDiddly
I decided last night while reading one of my last Heinlein books before I finish his complete works- that I hate him. If he were alive today, I'd punch him in the face. He was a dirty old man. Dirty, dirty, dirty. Pretty much all his books(not written for kids) included one or more spunky young women that loved to have sex with old men.

Disgusting.
Click to expand...
OK dude, seriously, I really can not tell if you're being sarcastic or not.
Starship Troopers (the book) had no actual sex and minimal implied sex, Red Planet didnt seem to have any, unless it was subliminal and I missed it.
The Moon is a harsh mistress had a small amount of implied sex, but Manny was married to Wyoh when they did it. And people could live up to 200 years by being raised on the moon so they were both very young in body and spirit.

As far as dirty goes, he might only have been considered dirty back in the 50's. Last I checked this is the year 2007 (I think), and he is INCREDIBLY tame compared to pretty much all modern authors.


You were being sarcastic, werent you?
Click to expand...

Heh. Probably not. Heinlein does strike particular western taboo nerves in his later books, and he made made it all too clear that he was doing it on purpose. That tends to piss some people off.
But that was Heinlein's sarcasm. He liked to shove people's noses into their closed-minded societal taboos. Like the way you'd find out at the very end of a book that the hero wasn't white (as in Starship Troopers and the The Cat Who Walks Through Walls).
So if one is offended by the remarkable amount of sex in To Sail Beyond the Sunset, Heinlein's question would have been, what business of yours is it if it's all between consenting adults?
 
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imported_Tango

Golden Member
Mar 8, 2005
1,623
0
0
Hum... I can't pick a single book, I can pick a few authors I consider to be the minimal list everybody should be familiar with...
(excluding poetry and philosophy and theater)

Homer
Dante
Hemingway
Henry Miller
Kafka
Joyce
Dostoevsky
Checkov
Conrad
Goethe
Proust
Mann
Machiavelli
Pirandello
Racine
de Cervantes
Sartre
Moravia
Beckett
Flaubert
Da Vinci
Garcia Marquez
Cortazar

and I am forgetting about a few dozens at least...

Among living, contemporary authors, I particularly like Pynchon and Philip Roth.
 
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