I’m trying to compile a list of books to read. So I thought I would ask the Teeming Millions what their favorites reads are
Bored of the Rings, by the editors of the Harvard Lampoon.
Especially timely for a re-read.
This is my 100th post!
(wish it had been a better one!)
Hey! I’m actually reading that right now!
I forget who the author is, but RiverGod is my current favorite book. Ancient Egypt, action, romance, mysticism, what could be better!
Some other great books:
Dragonlance -Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman: The first 6 books are outstanding.
Why People Believe Strange Things -Shermer
Watchers -Dean R. Koontz
The Cases That Haunt Us -John Douglas
When The Air Hits Your Brain -I can’t remember the author
No question.
The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle. I have totally lost count of the number of times I’ve read this book in the last 34 years. Whenever my heart needs a lift, I re-read it.
Second favorite:
The Bridge of Birds, by Barry Hughart. “A novel of an ancient China that never was.” Fantasy, Chinese folklore, and humor abound.
Great stuff.
I agree, Meatros! I really enjoyed those Dragonlance books.
I also like the Onion compilations, found at any bookstore. Funny stuff.
Dave Marsh’s Heart of Rock and Soul: the 1001 Greatest Singles Ever Made is full of great information, even if the author is an annoying, self-righteous git. An even better Rock & Roll book is Greil Marcus’s Mystery Train.
My favorite serious literary novel is Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities.
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I also love …And Ladies of The Club by Helen Hoover Santmeyer.
Eech. I’m such a fluffy-pink girly type!
Twiddle
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Our Dumb Century by The Onion people.
Both quite excellent.
I’ve read their recent books, and don’t get me wrong-they are good and all, but they don’t match the sheer emotion that I got from reading the original 6 (especially the last 3).
But then again, it could be because I’m a twin and my brother’s an evil dick-phlem.
Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince, in English). I have read the original French version more times than I can count! I even carry a copy of it around in my school bag to read when I have nothing else to do! Best book in the world!
Ulysses, by James Joyce. An annual occupation.
When I have a little less time to kill:
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
A Prayer For Owen Meany - John Irving
Steel Beach - John Varley
Just to name a couple.
Mod note:
In one sense this could be taken as a poll but by subject it’s so purely “bookish” I think it would be more appropriate for Cafe Society.
Moving it on over…
TVeblen,
IMHO mod
TRINITY by Leon Uris – set in Ireland, Trinity is an historical novel with one of the most vivid characters, Conor Larkin, in English literature. The first 150-200 pages of this long narrative are necessary but not particularly engrossing. But it is well worth the wait. Slowly the reader is seduced. Other friends of mine have been captured by its spell too. It was the subject of our conversation for weeks and we were constantly trying to cast the movie. You may never look at the conflict in Ireland in quite the same way again. But it is about much more than that.
As I Lay Dying ~William Faulkner
But I could easily bang out a Top Ten without batting an eye…
Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. 1984 is up there also.
I like “Moby Dick”, by Melville.
archergal, Bridge of Birds would be on my Top 10 list too. It’s just about perfect.
How does any reader pick one favorite book? What’s the criteria?
If it’s “a deadly strain of mildew is destroying all the paper in the world and you can have a bottle of the stuff that kills the mildew but there’s only enough for one book, what book would that be?”, then I’d probably save The Dollmaker by Harriett Simpson Arnow.
Because I know that someone else would save the rest of my favorites (like The Stand and the GRR Martin fantasy series and Joe Lansdale’s stuff and David Martin’s books and we could maybe work out a lending situation kind of thing.
Sorry. Cheated. Bwaaahaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaa.
The Lost World, by A. C. Doyle
The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien
Favorite??!!??
Whew, to hard to choose.
(sheesh, ask me which of my children is my favorite why don’t you )
Life and Loves of a She-Devil by Fay Weldon