# What a Novel Thread (Your Five Fave Novels) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 31, 2003, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028 "2003-12-31T23:07:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2003, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028/1 "2003-12-31T23:07:13Z")
Which five novels will never leave your bookshelf, as you can reread them endlessly? Not the “five best” or “five most influential,” just the ones you love the most. Give us a summary, so we can decide if it’s our cup of tea or not! **Bohemians of the Latin Quarter** (1844) by Henri Murger. _La Boheme_ was based on one tragic chapter–but much of the book is the very funny adventures of a group of Parisian artists and their grisettes. **Predestined** (1910) by Stephen French Whitman. The most depressing goddam novel you will ever read–the story of a man who fails miserably at everything. **Gentlemen Prefer Blondes** (1925) by Anita Loos. Hilarious diary of a gold-digger (the sequel, _But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes_, is equally funny). **Vile Bodies** (1930) by Evelyn Waugh. Dark, bitter, witty look at London’s Bright Young People and their beautiful, empty lives. **Now, Voyager** (1941) by Olive Higgins Prouty. Like the movie based on it, a three-hankie tearjerker about an old maid who falls for a married man. ---
**Author:** ![Avalonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Avalonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avalonian)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2003, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028/2 "2003-12-31T23:22:19Z")
**The Stone Raft** by Jose Saramago. Far less dramatic than his Nobel-prize winner _Blindness_, this one is the better book. A subtle “what-if” story that begins with literally Earth-shattering circumstances. **The Athenian Murders** by Jose Carlos Somoza. I’ve never been so pleased when trying a new author. This starts as a simple murder mystery, but becomes a question of reality and literature, and what really separates the two. **Replay** by Ken Grimwood. An very unique take on the idea of time travel. The new movie _The Butterfly Effect_ seems to borrow heavily from this book, if the [trailer](http://www.apple.com/trailers/newline/the_butterfly_effect/) is to be trusted. **Coraline** by Neil Gaiman. I just love this book. A modern “Alice in Wonderland,” with some absolutely chilling imagery. **The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy** by Douglas Adams. The first one is still the best one, and it gets better every time I read it. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2003, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028/3 "2003-12-31T23:31:44Z")
**Ancient Lights** by Davis Grubb. I keep mentioning this book just because it it so wonderful. It’s pornographic, religious, political … and full of hope. Grubb was also the author of “The Night of the Hunter” and this was his final book, written while he was dying of an incurable cancer. **The Milagro Beanfield War** by John Nichols. There are parts of it that seem incomplete and the ending dwindles away as if Nichols just got tired of writing it. But along the way we have such a splendid tapestry of characters and stories that it makes the ride well worth going on, even if it eventually never goes anywhere. **The Grapes of Wrath** by John Steinbeck. _The_ American novel. Almost relentlessly depressing as you watch the Joads sink deeper and deeper into the pits of the American dream, but yet never lose their idealism or their love for their fellow man. **Gravity’s Rainbow** by Thomas Pynchon. One of the few novels (along with **Infinte Jest** by David Foster Wallace) that continue to challenge me everytime I attempt to pick it up. Am man’s reach must exceed his grasp. **Gospel** by Wilton Barnhardt. And lo, I am with you always, even while you’re searching the world for a lost Bibical gospel. (And I would be remiss, even though I know I’m pushing the envelope of “favorite five” if I didn’t also mention his previous work **Emma, Who Saved My Life**. ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2003, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028/4 "2003-12-31T23:32:00Z")
Not in order, because I couldn’t begin to order them: **Ulysses**. Yes, I know it’s hopelessly pretentious, but I really do like this book enormously- or did, once I’d put all that effort into figuring out what the heck was going on. **Good Omens**. I love Pratchett and Gaiman both, but I think this is my favorite by either of them. **Pride and Prejudice**. The closest thing to a perfect novel that exists in English. **The Stand**. Proof-positive that, despite the evidence of recent years, Stephen King really can tell a heck of a good story. **The Lord of the Rings**. Oh, heck yeah. You can just read it over and over and over, can’t you? ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028/5 "2004-01-01T00:11:56Z")
**Watership Down** - we read it in high school Freshmen English and I have loved it ever since. I especially love the rabbits’ mythology and folklore. **Huckleberry Finn** - Mark Twain is my god. **The Dark Tower Series** - Stephen King blends genres and comes up with a captivating world. **A Prayer for Owen Meany** - because it made me laugh and cry more than any other book. **Hamlet** - not a _novel_, but I have to include it as one of my favorite reads. I read it before I ever watched any cinematic/theatrical productions of it. It’s great to be able to see and critique so many differerent versions of one of my favorite stories. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028/6 "2004-01-01T00:20:44Z")
**East of Eden**. I consider this the first novel I ever read as an adult. I was only fifteen or sixteen at the time, but this was the the first time I was aware of the unstated themes and subtexts of a book while I was reading it. Steinbeck, whom I had long reviled after being subjected to _The Pearl_ and _The Red Pony_ in grade school, instantly became my favorite author, and has not, as yet, been supplanted from that position. **The Ground Beneath Her Feet**. I wish I had known who Salman Rushdie was when there was a price on his head, so I could have been properly outraged. As it is, I only started reading him long after the fatwah had been lifted. I’ve enjoyed everything of his I’ve read, but in this book, I fell unabashedly in love with Vina Aspara. Rushdie is one of only three writers from whom I have made the effort to obtain an autograph. The other two are Berkeley Breathed and Dave Barry. **The World According to Garp**. Only book that’s ever moved me to actual tears. Also, for some reason, the only John Irving book I’ve ever read. Ought to do something about that… **Small Gods**. Terry Pratchett couldn’t write a bad novel to save his life, but _Small Gods_ stands out as something truly special. This was the only book I’ve ever finished and then immediately turned back to the first page and started over. Oddly enough, it’s also the only book on this list that I’ve read more than once. **Blameless in Abaddon**. James Morrow single-handedly destroyed my faith in God. I don’t necessarily know if that’s a good thing, but it’s a pretty impressive feat for a work of fiction. ---
**Author:** ![x27](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/7993a0/32.png) [@x27](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x27)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028/7 "2004-01-01T00:35:54Z")
**The Persuit of Love/Love in a Cold Climate** by Nancy Mitford. Two novels but usually bound together. Witty, sexy, and 'Hon. - Mitford at her best. (Her sister Jessica wrote a book called **The Blessing** which was marvelous.) **Auntie Mame** by Patrick Dennis. Funniest stuff ever, an American Treasure! I have lifted much of my vocabulary from this, and haven’t been busted yet. If I happen to mention that it is “As hot as a crotch” (as I am apt to do, weather permitting), you’ll know where I stole that particular gem from. **Gentlemen Prefer Blondes** by Anita Loos. What Eve said. That gal knows, but good. **Story of my Life** by Jay McInerny. The best thing written in the Excess Eighties, if you ask me. Fable of the postmodern girl, for the post modern girl. **Ada, or Ardor** by Vladimir Nabakov. Most romantic book ever. No one knows love like ol’ Vlad. I love **Lolita** , too. **The Story of Junk** by Linda Yablonsky. A recent addition to my fave five list, beating out such classics as **Valley of the Dolls** , **A Confederency of Dunces** , **Looking for Mr. Goodbar** and **A Partner in Crime**. Engrossing and long. Oops, I guess that’s six, sorry! ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028/8 "2004-01-01T01:10:54Z")
**A Prayer for Owen Meany** - John Irving **The Drawing of the Three** - Stephen King **Steel Beach** - John Varley **The Harvest** - Robert Charles Wilson **The Hyperion/Endymion Saga** - Dan Simmons (that’s cheating, I know, since it’s four books) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028/9 "2004-01-01T01:16:33Z")
The Hobbit Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring The Andromeda Strain Sphere From Russia With Love ---
**Author:** ![mailman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8491ac/32.png) [@mailman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mailman)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028/10 "2004-01-01T01:57:00Z")
Cannery Row–Steinbeck Death Ship–B. Traven Confederacy of Dunces–O’Toole La Maravilla–can’t remember his name!! GREAT book. Trout Fishing in America–Brautigan I’m not at home to check my shelves and I’m really embarrassed I can’t remember that guy’s name. Dammitt!! ---
**Author:** ![TheDerf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/65b543/32.png) [@TheDerf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheDerf)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028/11 "2004-01-01T02:09:03Z")
(I love this type of thread, time to head to the library!) My picks: **Ender’s Game** - Orson Scott Card **The Moon is a Harsh Mistress** - Robert A Heinlein **Of Mice and Men** - Steinbeck **Good Omens** - Gaiman & Pratchett (my me too!) **Bleck Echo** - Michael Connely (or any of the Hayyr Bosch novels for that matter!) ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028/12 "2004-01-01T02:11:03Z")
**The Second Coming** , Walker Percy **The End of the Affair** , Graham Greene. Life, distilled. **The Sportswriter** , Richard Ford. **Nothing but Blue Skies** , Thomas McGuane **Golf in the Kingdom** , Michael Murphy ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028/13 "2004-01-01T02:17:39Z")
What? A novel thread? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028/14 "2004-01-01T02:29:52Z")
Details, people, _details!_ I’m getting some good prospects here for my next library jaunt . . . ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028/15 "2004-01-01T03:12:45Z")
My current favorites? _Neverwhere_ by Neil Gaiman - fantastic fantasy novel. I liked this one better than _Coraline_, but that was excellent too. _A Tree Grows in Brooklyn_, Betty Smith. A constant favorite for me. The _Abhorsen Trilogy_ by Garth Nix. More fantasy, YA this time. Two kingdoms, necromancers and evil. I love this one. Ummmm… I can’t think of any more at the moment. I finally made it through Ken Follett’s _Pillars of the Earth_, but it’s taken me several tries to get through that one. I did really like his _Jackdaws_ - I read it a couple of weeks ago. Historical fiction, about spies during WWII. I know I’ve read more during the semester break, but I can’t remember any that stood out a lot - for the most part, they were just something to read. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028/16 "2004-01-01T04:35:13Z")
1. **Slave Girl of Gor** by John Norman. Norman’s imaginative combination of sword and sorcery fantasy with sexual bondage fantasies singlehandedly revitalized the adventure/romance genre pioneered by Edgar Rice Burroughs in his tales of the Barsoom, unfortunately, none of his imitators had the imaginative chops to match his stories. 2. **Use of Weapons** by Iain Banks. Banks’ tale of an advanced, civilized culture that uses a psychotic megalomaniac to do its dirty work in the galactic Third World has it all – galactic-scale space opera, psychological development as the protagonist comes to grips with who and what he is and has been, and a keen examination of the ethical dilemma posed by civilized people who live in an uncivilized universe – particularly relevant in light of current events. 3. **Far Tortuga** by Peter Mattheissen. Written in spare, almost poetic prose and West Indian dialect, this story of a group of doomed turtle hunters trying to eke out a living somehow combines the romance of the old pirate genre with a modern approach to character and story. I read it every spring when I start wanting to hit the beaches. 4. **A Light Upon the Deep** by Vernor Vinge is the sort of novel that got SF the rep for being a mind-blowing genre, with its speculations on a galactic internet, godlike artificial intelligences, weird shared minds and a universe where the speed of light isn’t a constant. A compelling plot and interesting characters, too, and way ahead of anything else coming out of SF at the time it was written. 5. **Last Call** by Tim Powers. In the first book of Powers’ Earthquake trilogy, he manages to combine a Western swing feel with a thoroughly original take on the supernatural. How can you not love the idea that some apparent winos are simply ghosts that have accreted various traits that allow them to appear almost human? Or that some forms of obsessive behavior are signs of ghosthood? My wife and I figured out that a nearby Eckerd’s store was a ghost store thanks to this book. ---
**Author:** ![HDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bb73d2/32.png) [@HDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HDS)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028/17 "2004-01-01T04:43:16Z")
The Last Unicorn. Dandelion Wine. The Hobbit. Wee Free Men. To Kill a Mockingbird. These are my favourites now, they change as do my moods. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028/18 "2004-01-01T09:20:32Z")
The Lure (Felice Picano) The Front Runner (Patricia Nell Warner) Catcher In The Rye (Salinger) Tales Of The City (the entire series by Armisted Maupin) Lord Of The Rings (if you don’t know who wrote this, you haven’t been on SDMB for the last decade.) ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028/19 "2004-01-01T11:55:22Z")
Most of mine are pretty well-known: 1. _Pride and Prejudice_, Jane Austen. Miss Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy don’t like each other, and then realize they were wrong. 2. _Middlemarch_, George Eliot. In a small midland town in early Victorian England, Dorothea Brooke and Tertius Lydgate each make a wrong choice in marriage (not to each other) out of idealized notions of what their spouses ought to be, and all their plans for life are taken in entirely different directions from what they had planned. 3. _Brideshead Revisited_, Evelyn Waugh. Charles Ryder returns to the stately home of Brideshead during WWII and remembers the days when he was in love with the son of the house, Sebastian Flyte, and later on, Sebastian’s sister Julia. 4. _The Lord Of The Rings_, J.R.R. Tolkien. After so many threads on the board about this lately, I’d feel silly trying to describe it in one sentence. 🙂 5. _Old New York_, Edith Wharton. Four novellas set in NY in the 1840’s, '50’s, '60’s, and '70’s respectively: “False Dawn” is about a young man who meets Ruskin on his Grand Tour; “The Old Maid” is about a woman who gives her illegitimate daughter up to her cousin (Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins made a movie based on this one); “The Spark” is about an unhappy marriage as observed by a young man; “New Year’s Day” is about a married woman caught running out of a hotel during a fire, with a gentleman not her husband. I debated whether or not to put this book or _Great Expectations_ in the final slot, and finally decided on Wharton; while GE is the only Dickens novel I really like, three out of the four New York novellas can make me cry. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2004, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028/20 "2004-01-01T12:45:46Z")
_Geek Love_ by Katherine Dunn. The world of travelling carnival freaks as described by a bald, humpbacked albino dwarf. Compelling and revolting, funny and scary, and honest. Great reading. _One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest_ by Ken Kesey. I didn’t read this until years after I had seen the movie. I’m sure you all know the story but the book is better for being seen through Chief Bromden’s eyes (surprised me). The characters are the same unforgettable bunch and the book is funnier than the movie (which I love). _Maus_ by Art Spiegelman Deeply complicated graphic novel about family, art and the holocaust. Peopled by mice, cats dogs, pigs but about them in the way Animal Farm was. Not perfect but what a great idea. _A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius_ by Dave Eggers. Dave becomes an orphan and a father figure for his little brother and out they go into the world. How much is true and not true, who knows. Has a fantastic narrative drive and is genuinely weird. The unwary reader will miss things - even the publishing information contains little jokes. You have to read every word. _The Collector_ by John Fowles. Contains the greatest conceit of any book I have read. When I got to the middle of the book and he began to tell the same story again from a different POV I thought “Good luck”. Well luck has nothing to do with it, Genius. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-a-novel-thread-your-five-fave-novels/222028.md?page=2)