# Your favourite 5ish books and what you are currently reading. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 27, 2002, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810 "2002-08-27T18:42:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorkusmalorkusmafia/32/7266_2.png) [@dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorkusmalorkusmafia)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/1 "2002-08-27T18:42:02Z")
I read one to two books a week from varying genres so I spend a lot of time in the bookstores. Lately things have started to look stale so I could use more input. Anyway, my top 10 favourite books with series counting as one: 1. The Aztec by Gary Jennings Very interesting and foreign feeling historical fiction. Jennings is probably my favourite author. though Aztec Autumn and Aztec Blood are serious hack work. The latest book by him was actually ghost written off of his notes after the author died. I would guess that the one prior to that was also written off of notes since it seemed to be almost a total rehash of the first one. 1. I, Claudius (and Claudius the God) by Robert Graves Some definitive historical fiction. Graves really knows his stuff and can tell a story. 1. The Lord of the Rings Series by Tolkein (not the Hobbit though) The definitive fantasy series. It set the mark for what fantasy should be. 1. The Dragon Lance chronicles by Weiss and Hickman This was the first fantasy series I read all the way through. It had its own problems but definately their own unique charm. It was also the first story where I felt a definate link to some of the characters. 1. Neuromancer by William Gibson The definitive Cyberpunk novel. My friends and I used to say that Gibson was raised by a voodoo high priestess and computer geek turned super criminal because he seemed so knowledgeable on so many varied fronts. My above list is fiction-centric but yours does not have to be. Tell me about what your favourite books are andwhat you are currently reading. Currently I am reading Robert Aspirin’s MYTH series. They are entertaining but I wouldn’t say they are actually good. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/2 "2002-08-27T19:04:12Z")
My favorite five-ish books or series? Hmmm . . . **Vile Bodies** , by Evelyn Waugh. We _lived_ this in college. Dickens’ **The Old Curiosity Shop** and **Little Dorrit**. **The Portable Dorothy Parker**. Stanley Loomis’ French Revolution trilogy: **Paris in the Terror, The Fatal Friendship** , and **Du Barry**. Variety’s **Collected Obituaries** , 1905–1980. What am I reading now? A lurid but excellent collection of short stories about New Yorkers by Viña Delmar, **Loose Ladies** (1929). ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/3 "2002-08-27T19:05:05Z")
Jennings is your favorite author and Aztec your favorite of his works? Interesting! I liked it least, my favorite being The Journeyer, followed by Raptor, then Spangle. Though I liked Aztec very much, it just didn’t seem to thrum with life the way his other books did. I didn’t bother with Aztec Blood and read just a few pages of Aztec Autumn (though I think he did in fact write that one himself) before putting it aside. My top five, in terms of the amount of joy and enjoyment they’ve given me over the years … 1. The World According to Garp, John Irving 2. The Stand, Stephen King 3. Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell 4. Ahab’s Wife, Sena Jeter Naslund 5. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry I’ve got another five or 10 (or 20) that have had equal impact but these are my favorite books in the world. I think. What I’m reading now: Good Omens by Gaimen and Pratchett. I have to say it’s not all that, based on the build-up it got on these boards. For my money, this type of quirky apocolyptic stuff is covered much better by Tom Robbins! But still enjoyable. I see they like the little trademark symbol, which may account for its popularity around here. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Yossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/9de0a6/32.png) [@Yossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yossarian)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/4 "2002-08-27T19:09:39Z")
Wow! I opened the thread, and saw that the first two listed in the OP (Aztec and I, Claudius) were two of five I’d list. In addition to those, I’d add (in no particular order): Catch-22. I lied… this is easily #1. Cat’s Cradle. One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. All of which I assume are familiar to the average doper and need no further description. ---
**Author:** ![Meatros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/5 "2002-08-27T19:14:17Z")
Mine are: 1. The dragonlance 9-ilogy 2. A clockwork orange (gotta love the dialect) 3. BlackHawk Down 4. Raw Deal 5. Rip Tide Those are subject to change as the old memory improves… ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/6 "2002-08-27T19:20:07Z")
1. The Travis McGee novels by MacDonald 2. The Valdemar novels by Mercedes Lackey 3. The Guardians of the Flame series by Joel Rosenberg 4. The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon 5. The Door into Shadow et al. by Diane Duane ---
**Author:** ![dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorkusmalorkusmafia/32/7266_2.png) [@dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorkusmalorkusmafia)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/7 "2002-08-27T19:26:27Z")
It wasn’t a tough decision for me to rank the Aztec so highly. I used to live very close to Mexico and the public schools actually focused on Mexican/Aztec history pretty heavily. Of Jennings’s works I would rank them as follows: The Aztec, Raptor, The Journeyor, Spangle, and the other two Aztec books equally as the worst. I don’t particularly like Steven King but I have been meaning to read more Irving. Looks like I will be back to the bookstore tonight. Thanks for posting that one Ellen Cherry. 🙂 I have also been meaning to read Catch-22 for years but keep putting it off. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/8 "2002-08-27T20:29:47Z")
1. G.K. Chesterton’s **The Man Who Was Thursday**. This one is so much fun I’m reading it again, for the umpteenth time. The annotated version by Martin Gardner. 2. Nelson Algren’s **The Man With the Golden Arm**. 3. Italo Calvino’s **Invisible Cities**. 4. Mikhail Bulgakov’s **The Master and Margarita**. 5. Knut Hamsun’s **Pan**. Now reading **Little Dorrit** ,…yeah, right, still not finished. Maybe because I’m dipping back into the Chesterton instead of concentrating on Dickens. (Sister Fanny has just set her cap for Mr. Sparkler, to Amy’s horror, not so much because Fanny likes him, but to irritate Mrs. Merdle.) ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/9 "2002-08-27T20:43:17Z")
\> Douglas Coupland’s _Generation X_. \> Geoff Ryman’s _253_. \> The first (later) volume of _The Alan Clark Diaries_. \> Bret Easton Ellis’ _American Psycho_. \> Shawn Levy’s _Rat Pack Confidential_. Currently reading Douglas Coupland’s _All Families Are Psychotic_; just finished an earlier Coupland, Damien Thompson’s _The End of Time_ and Max Hastings’ history of the Falklands War. ---
**Author:** ![CMC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8baadc/32.png) [@CMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CMC)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/10 "2002-08-27T21:38:16Z")
1. Skinny Legs and All–Tom Robbins 2. The Blindfold–Siri Hustvedt 3. Any Dorothy Parker Collection 4. Journal By the Sea–May Sarton 5. Black Sun–Julia Kristeva 6. The Irigaray Reader Iam trying to write a mystery story with my mother, so the last few books I have read are along those lines, Sue Grafton’s P is for Peril, Hard Eight oh, and am in the middle of Salmon of Doubt. ---
**Author:** ![skot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@skot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skot)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/11 "2002-08-27T21:54:19Z")
In no particular order: - John Sanford **Prey** series - Neal Stephenson **Snowcrash** - Stephen King **The Stand** - Michael Moorcock **Swords Trilogy** - David Simon **Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets** Currently reading (almost done) Neal Stephenson **The Diamond Age** ---
**Author:** ![Yossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/9de0a6/32.png) [@Yossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yossarian)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2002, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/12 "2002-08-27T23:37:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dorkusmalorkusmafia \* > \*\*It wasn’t a tough decision for me to rank the Aztec so highly. I used to live very close to Mexico and the public schools actually focused on Mexican/Aztec history pretty heavily. > > Of Jennings’s works I would rank them as follows: The Aztec, Raptor, The Journeyor, Spangle, and the other two Aztec books equally as the worst. > \*\* How close to Mexico? I also admit that that was one of the reasons I picked up the zillion-page book, myself, and couldn’t put it down (of course, it helped that when I left for a 6-week stint of field work I made sure that it–and “Teach Yourself Calculus”–were the only books I took, thus forcing me to read nothing else!) It is a fantastic book–though quite graphic and disturbing at times. I bought the sequel looking for more of the same, and it seemed to me just to be a repository for all of the graphic violence and gratuitous pedophelia that he cut from the first book; not only did I stop reading it _forever_ after the second chapter, I may just throw it away instead of trading it to a used book store lest somebody else accidentally purchase that travesty. Yuck. And such a shame, too, after Aztec… To answer the second part of your OP, I am currently in the middle of Isaac Asimov’s _Foundation_. For some reason, I’ve never read it before and thought, “why the hell not?” It is, so far, a bit less than I expected and I think I’d have enjoyed it more if I’d picked it up ~15 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Dev\_Null](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/46a35a/32.png) [@Dev\_Null](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dev_Null)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/13 "2002-08-28T02:02:33Z")
1. David Brin’s Uplift series 2. Philip K. Dick’s Man in the High Castle 3. Waler Miller’s Canticle for Leibowitz \<-Great! 4. Haldeman’s Forever War and Forever Peace 5. Connie Willis’ Doomsday Book. \<- Great! I’m working my way through all the Hugo award winners right now, but I have a hankering for some elves, orcs and such. I’m thinking of doing some of Wiess and Hickman’s Dragonlance stuff. Any other suggestions? For those that like SF, the Hugo and Nebula award winners are great places to get reading suggestions. Is there a similar award for fantasy? ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/14 "2002-08-28T02:36:09Z")
Oh man, so many great books. My favorite author is Mark Twain. Love that guy. My favorite books are: 1. _Catch-22_ by Joseph Heller. Far and away. Fantastic. 2. _Roughing it_ by Mark Twain. Pretty funny and very interesting as a sketch of what frontier life was like. 3. _Huckleberry Finn_ by Mark Twain. Classic. Love it. 4. _Poland_ by Michener. I absolutely loved that book. 5. _Lord of the Rings_ by Tolkien. Good stuff. Honorable mentions: _The Innocents Abroad_, _All Quiet on the Western Front_, _Alas, Babylon_, and _Strange Victory_ (an excellent book on the German invasion of France in WWII and why it turned out why it did). ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/15 "2002-08-28T02:39:25Z")
Oh yeah, I’m almost done with _The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes_ and next on my list is either a collection of Kafka stories or Dickens’ _Tale of Two Cities_. Barnes and Noble/B. Dalton is selling hardback classic literature for about $7 per book and now with a buy two get the third book free deal. So I’ve bought many a classic novel and am now chewing my way through my new collection. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/16 "2002-08-28T05:55:51Z")
My current top five are: 1. The Liaden Universe series by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller 2. The Jhereg series by Steven Brust 3. **To Kill a Mockingbird** by Harper Lee 4. **The Bean Trees** by Barbara Kingsolver (I just reread this over the weekend) 5. The Fletch & Flynn novels by Gregory MacDonald I just finished reading **The Bean Trees** (as listed above) and **Ellen Foster** by Kaye Gibbons over the weekend. Right now I’m reading **House of Leaves** and **Memory of Fire** , and re-reading **The Stand** and I plan to start **Coraline** by Neil Gaiman later this week. ---
**Author:** ![lauramarlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a5b964/32.png) [@lauramarlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lauramarlane)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/17 "2002-08-28T13:37:52Z")
1- The Company series by Kage Baker. Cyborgs, time travel, conspiracy theories…this suker’s got it all! 2- **Cold Sassy Tree** by Olive Ann Burns. Set in Georgia in 1906 it’s funny, sweet, and delightfully weird just like good Southern fiction should be. 3- **A Wrinkle in Time** by Madeleine L’Engle. The first sci-fi/fantasy I ever read as a kid and it just opened up a whole new world for me. 4-The Dalziel and Pascoe mysteries by Reginald Hill. I’m a sucker for British police procedurals. 5- **Lost Souls** by Poppy Z. Brite. Just takes the whole vampire thing to a different level. Right now I’m reading **Death du Jour** by Kathy Reichs (a forensic anthropoligist solving murders kind of thing), **Ramona the Pest** with my six year old, **The Giver** with my nine year old, and listening to Gaiman’s **American Gods** on tape. ---
**Author:** ![dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorkusmalorkusmafia/32/7266_2.png) [@dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorkusmalorkusmafia)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/18 "2002-08-28T14:39:45Z")
I lived about 2 hours from the Mexico border and grew up with largely Mexican Americans. I didn’t make it to the bookstore last night either. Oh well, I guess I will do it tonight instead. ---
**Author:** ![skot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@skot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/skot)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/19 "2002-08-28T20:30:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by lauramarlane \* > > Right now I’m reading **Death du Jour** by Kathy Reichs (a forensic anthropoligist solving murders kind of thing) Read all of her books…excellent stuff! A Latvian who writes crime novels set in Montréal, what could be better?!? ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2002, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810/20 "2002-08-28T20:47:51Z")
1. The Stand - Stephen King followed by, in no particular order: 1. To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee 2. Swan Song - Robert McCammon 3. The Talisman - Stephen King 4. the Clan of the Cave Bears series - Jean Auel Not too highbrow, I’m afraid… 😉 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-favourite-5ish-books-and-what-you-are-currently-reading/125810.md?page=2)