Including comic books, comic strips, serials, unpublished literature, books, fiction, non-fiction and anything else that required reading to get the story across.
I would have to say that the greatest story I have ever read had got to be the entire run of Preacher by Vertigo/DC comics. I am sure many of you have read it and enjoyed it, but I think that it is a great read from the begining of the first issue, to the end of the last. Great ending. Great characters. Great side stories to break up the main story.
A close runner up would be “It” by you know who. Scared the shit out of me when I read it (at age 12).
I also really liked the run of “Calvin and Hobbes” where his house got robbe and he couldn’t find Hobbers for a few days. Good sense of childhood drama.
Adult novel (fiction): To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Adult novel (nonfiction): Roots by Alex Haley
Graphic novel: V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
Short Story: Tie: “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Leguin and “Dori Bangs” by Bruce Sterling
Short Short Story: “Answer” by Fredric Brown
Novella: “Beggars in Spain” by Nancy Kress
Children’s novel: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. Obrien
Young Adult novel: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O. Dell
Children’s Picture Story Book: Red Ranger Came Calling by Berkley Breathed (yes, the guy who did Bloom County Babylon)
Really incredible books or stories are few and far between for me:
The first to spring to mind was "The Bone People" by Keri Hulme.
** “Wild Swans”** by Jung Chang was also very moving and powerful.
I used to be slightly obsessed by Stephen King books, but the only one which was truly moving or memorable, for me, was a short story, published as Richard Bachmann, called " The Long Walk". It was about a competition where the contestants had to walk for 5 days at no less than 4 mph constantly, or they were shot by the following army. The winner got (insert massive money here), and to choose one wish - even change the laws of the country, if he desired. It was all 18 yo boys, and about the psychology of their grief as they made friends on the walk and watched them fall behind and be killed, one by one. Fascinating story.
Long Walk was a great story too. I really liked that one as well. The end left a little to be desired, but you could feel the strain of the walk while you read it.
novel: ** War and Peace** Tolstoy
novella: The World Inside Robert Silverberg
comic: The first few series of Legends of the Dark Knight were really good.
Adult, Fiction: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (you beat me to it, Mr. Blue Sky).
Adult, Nonfiction: This is a really hard one, for I’ve read a lot of really great non-fiction in the last few years. Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond leaps to mind rather easily.
Children’s Fiction: Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. I was ten years old when I read this. It is still, to this day, the only book I’ve ever read that actually caused me to cry.
Short Story: Another hard category, but I have to go with the first story that came to mind while considering it: All Summer in a Day by Ray Bradbury.
Graphic Novel: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman, the next to last book in the Sandman series. Before reading that, I would have given this distinction to Watchmen.
There was a short story I read around age 13 or so, and I can’t remember the name of it. The plot was Dorothy returning to the land of Oz, only to find it the victim of a nuclear blast.
It was in a book with several short stories from fairly well known authors. (Another story that stuck with me was in the same book…Something about a guy ripping his skin off, and finding out he was an alien) Can anyone help ID the book?
Thought of a further Stephen King book - "Survivor Type"
A doctor washed up on a deserted rock with only his surgeons kit and ten kilos of heroin. Written as a diary of his time there as he epitomises the human instinct to survive, at ANY cost.
Off the top of my head, two immediately come to mind. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse and The Sirens Of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut.
Read each of these books a couple times and the meaning of life becomes much clearer.
An early King short story, “The Bogeyman.” Primarily because I read it when I was 9 or 10 or so. Probably not the best story for a generally bright kid with a good imagination to read.
“The Watchmen,” definitely; especially Rorschach’s origin story. Remarkable how much black splotches could convey expression.
Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy. Good stuff.
Hmmm…I have several on my list but the ones that readily spring to mind are:
The Long Walk, The Mist and The Stand by Stephen King. (lots of SK fans here, I’ve noticed! :))
Heavenly Horse from the Outermost West by Mary Stanton, Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, and Outlander by Diana Galbadon. (just TRY to put that one down for more than a few minutes on your first read!)
