Favorite Books!!

Movies get so much playtime here, I'm gonna give books a chance. As an English Major, this stuff is basically my life.

List your favorite books and authors here.


Authors:

Hunter S. Thompson
Jack Kerouac
Ernest Hemingway
J.R.R. Tolkien
F. Scott Fitzgerald
J.D. Salinger
Thomas Harris
Mike Nelson
Authur C. Clarke


Books:

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Hell's Angels
On The Road
The Dharma Bums
To Have and Have Not
The Old Man and The Sea
The Great Gatsby
The Lord of the Rings
The Catcher in the Rye
The Silence of the Lambs
The Odyessy
2001: A Space Odyessy


Post your favs! Books are great!

The Doc

Also try The Silmarillion, the prequel to The Hobbit.
It's written in a very diffucult language, but it's definitely worth reading.

Anything and everything by Theodore Dreiser (An American Tragedy, Sister Carrie, etc.) and Herman Wouk (The Caine Mutiny, Marjorie Morningstar, etc.).

Also, all the Sherlock Holmes stories and novellas, by Arthur Conan Doyle, and, if you like detective stories, the hard-to-find-but-worth-looking-for Philo Vance novels, by S.S. Van Dine.

Hey, Ferro, you haven't by any chance read Thompson's Fear and Loathing on the Campaigne Trail, have you? I've been meaning to pick it up for a while, I'd just like to know how it compares to his other work.

Two books that need meantion here are Joseph Heller's "Catch-22" and John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath".

"The Grapes of Wrath" is pure Americana, the story of an all-american family faced by perils and trevails as they move to California from dust-bow ridden Oklahoma. Their tale is timeless in it's manner capturing a time perfectly that was questionable and displayed the pains of American Migration with no stops pulled.

"Catch-22" is the ultimate anti-war statement that perfectly captured the views of Nehilism and the questioning of the absurdities of war. It chaotic, episodic manner only accentuates the point that Heller makes, pertaining to the stupidity of war.

Favorite Authors:

Ayn Rand is definitely #1
F. Scott Fitzgerald
William Faulkner
Pat Conroy
Can't have a list without adding Mario Puzo


Favorite Books:

We The Living
The Fountainhead
Atlas Shrugged
The Great Gatsby
The Beautiful and the Damned
Tender is the Night
The Sound and the Fury
As I Lay Dying
Beach Music
The Water is Wide
The Godfather
The Sicilian

And there are some other favorites like The Hotel New Hampshire, Evergreen, A Time to Kill and Leadership that I love to reread every now and then.

I've read every Thompson book except Curse of Lono. Campaign Trail is his third best after the 2 I stated. He really still has his hold on the still "relatively" new form of Gonzo writing. Thompson, throughout the years after The Great Shark Hunt, started to lose his grasp on True Gonzo and leaned twoards simple drug-crazed rambling. But the magic was always there, just not as much as with his early work.

Stick with Thompson's early stuff.


Enzo,

I've read all of Tolkien's work too for my Myth and Tolkien Class. Silmarillion was good, but not up to par with LOTR. The creation myth thing is cool though, Tolkien is a master of language.

Try reading the extended stories of Tom Bombadil and Leaf by Niggle. Both are good.

Anymore book talk, guys? I'm a lonely English major! :p

The Doc

I'm not a big reader by any means, at least not these days, but my favorite author of all time is John Steinbeck. I've read most of his works, and have never been disappointed!

I was engrossed w/ Tolkien as well - but, like with Puzo, I get tongue-tied with the character names!

I read mostly history and biography. My favorite novels, in no particular order, are:
--Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser
--The Friends of Eddie Coyle, George V. Higgins
--The Digger's Game, George V. Higgins
--True Confessions, John Gregory Dunne
--Goodbye Columbus, Philip Roth
--The Chosen, Chiam Potok
--Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis
--The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, H.P. Lovecraft
--SSGB, Len Deighton
--The Honourable Schoolboy, John LeCarre
--From Russia, With Love, Ian Fleming
--Rosemary's Baby, Ira Levin

JG, I assume you've read Of Mice and Men, then? I read it a few years ago for school, and I ended up really enjoying it, though, from what I remember, the ending sort of depressed me.

Doc, English is probably my favorite subject, so I should be addicted to books, but I really don't read as much as I should, or as I used to. My all-time favorite is probably A Tale of Two Cities, so far. I've always wanted to read The Catcher in the Rye.

I'm waiting for one of our high schoolers to say that "Silas Marner" is their favorite...

TB, I've never even heard of that one! What's it about?

Edit: I looked it up...1885?!

Catcher in the Rye is amazing.

Too bad Salinger was such a oddball and only published two other books.

He used to bottle and drink his urine. He only had sex with his wife once to procreate and kept her locked in their house.

Wacko.


Yeah, I've liked books a long time. The first book I ever read was George Lucas's novelization of Star Wars back in 3rd grade. It blew my mind to be able to love a film so much, and be able to get a whole new experience from books in your mind. I was instantly hooked.


By the way, right now I have a class called Novel to Film in which we read a novel and then watch the film. The first few we are going to do are Apocalypse Now (Heart of Darkness), Fight Club, A Clockwork Orange, The Color Purple and some others. I'll keep everyone up to date.

The Doc

You don't want to know, Gina.

Bor-ing.

It always amazes me.....One of the goals of High School English is (or should be) to not only expose the student to great works of literature, but to make lifetime readers out of them by making reading enjoyable.

Turnbull and I went to High School in NYC about the same time, so I guess Silas Marner was part of the curriculum back then.

I suppose by someone's criteria it must be considered worth reading, but I found it so unbelievably boring that I was barely able to make it through the Cliff's Notes.

There are so many great books out there which are also enjoyable, that I don't think that Silas Marner should be inflicted upon anyone.

My grandmother, God rest her soul, told me to read that as it was her favorite -- I guess I should do that before my soul rests... So, since I haven't read it yet, so what's the joke then?

English major, huh? :p

I remember Silas Marner had a lot of furze-cutters in it. :rolleyes:

You don't want to know, Gina.

Bor-ing.

It always amazes me.....One of the goals of High School English is (or should be) to not only expose the student to great works of literature, but to make lifetime readers out of them by making reading enjoyable.

Turnbull and I went to High School in NYC about the same time, so I guess Silas Marner was part of the curriculum back then.

I suppose by someone's criteria it must be considered worth reading, but I found it so unbelievably boring that I was barely able to make it through the Cliff's Notes.

There are so many great books out there which are also enjoyable, that I don't think that Silas Marner should be inflicted upon anyone. [/b][/quote]plaw is being his usual generous self, Gina. "Silas Marner" was the required reading in sophomore English in NYC high schools--and it was so boring that kids used to change over to vocational degrees to get out of having to read it. I'm not kidding. The textbook that contained "Silas Marner" started with a rejoinder, something like this: "Like a freight train, 'Silas Marner' begins slowly and builds up momentum..." "Freight train" my ass--it had about as much "momentum" as a glacier at the South Pole. :p

Well, it does start off kind of slow...

Here's The First Few Paragraphs

Damn! And I promised my grandma I'd read it... that was like 25 years ago, but still...

I cannot read fiction anymore. It's a shame really because there were some books I really enjoyed (Hannibal, The Sicilian etc) and I'm bound to miss out on others.

I read as far as the second line. That was the worst opening sentance in literary history.

It was required reading for me, too. I was lucky though.... I had a bad case of mono in my sophomore year and missed 11 weeks of school, including the long weeks in English going over "Silas Marner".

During high school, I was much more "into" fiction, but since starting college a few years ago, it turns out life is truly stranger than fiction.

Fiction
_______

Tom Clancy
Dean Koontz
Michael Crichton

Non-Fiction
___________
"The Role of a Lifetime: President Reagan" by Lou Cannon
"How To Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)" by Ann Coulter
"The No-Spin Zone" and a slew of others by Bill O'Reilly
"The Unfinished Nation" by Alan Brinkley
"Deliver Us From Evil" and a slew of others by Sean Hannity
"Bias" by Bernard Goldberg
"Arrogance" by Bernard Goldberg

I'm looking forward to:

"100 People Who Are Screwing Up America" by Goldberg
"The Truth About Hillary" by Edward Klein

Plus the dozens and dozens of textbooks and references that are now in my basement library, ranging from chemistry and calculus to psychology and zoology.

My favorite Stienback book.

Another classic that is an excellent read is "Julius Caesar."

Besides my enjoyment for reading non-fiction mafia books, these are some of my favorite books ( GF being one of course ) :

Of Mice and Men
Julius Caesar
Rich Man Poor Man
A Raisin In The Sun
Caine and Able
A Stone For Danny Fisher
The Outsiders
The Last Jihad
Interview With The Vampire
The Vampire Lestat
Tale Of The Body Thief
Rage Of Angels


Don Cardi

This sounds like a lot of fun! I read Psycho before I saw the movie (actually, I saw the remake...I think I've only seen parts of the original, which I know is terrible!), and that was so fun to know and recall every detail of the story as I watched the "visual version." Also, I read To Kill A Mockingbird in class last year and loved it, and then I found out there was a movie made of it. I watched it, as well, and it was wonderful. Hopefully, someday, I'll get to check out The Catcher in the Rye.

Wow, I'll pray I'm never exposed to this torture! I thought you were seriously recommending it, at first, until I looked it up and saw when it was written! And the "freight train" comparison cracks me up...they always use those things to make books like this look like something worthwhile, but they never are.

This is so true. While, as I've mentioned here, I have enjoyed many of the assigned books I've read in high school, it's just really terrible if students are forced to read a dull book such as Silas Marner and are then not interested in exposing themselves to any other form of literature because of it. We just read a short (fortunately) story that was written in "archaic" form, which I figure is just a fancy name for reading that I can only understand about half of. :rolleyes: I try to keep an open mind on any reading, but when I've read a page and can't remember or understand a thing it said, it's quite depressing. Several times, though, we've been given an assignment of reading a few books to reach a certain number of points for a grade, but we're allowed to choose what we read, which makes it much more interesting and enjoyable.

DC, we read Julius Caesar in school, as well, and I loved it. We had to memorize quotes from it, so that was fun walking around reciting Shakespeare. We read A Raisin in the Sun, as well, though it seems we sort of rushed through it, from what I can remember. I didn't realize there was an Interview With the Vampire book - I assume it's based on the movie? I caught it on TV late one night and watched some (Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise caught my attention...), and I enjoyed what I saw. I seem to like vampire stories quite a bit, so I bet I'd enjoy that book.

I read as far as the second line. That was the worst opening sentance in literary history. [/b][/quote]Beat you! Third line.

Let's not forget the work of Shakespeare: Julius Caesar, THe Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet and many others.

Or Tennasse Williams's plays like "A Streetcar Named Desire".

Poetry! Nobody has mentioned poetry! I love Robert Frost and Dylan Thomas, especially Fern Hill and, of course, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night. Beautiful.

I do love Shakespeare, but MacBeth is my favorite.

My favorite poem of all time is "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening".

My favorite poem of all time is "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". [/b][/quote]That is beautiful. "I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep." It is lovely.

Hauntingly beautiful. On the surface its a peaceful, serene setting. Dig a little and its a powerful message about an upcoming ending.

I say we get soused and recite it together at some restaurant!

Alex Haley
Puzo
Stephen King (his work has fallen off a bit...)
S.E. Hinton
More...

S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders and That Was Then, This is Now

Alex Haley's Roots

Mike Lupica's Red Zone (Great book about the greedy, behind the scenes NFL.)

W.P. Kinsella's Shoeless Joe (Anybody seen Field Of Dreams? Well this is better.)

The Godfather (Better than the film, IMO.)

Georgie Anne Geyer's Guerilla Prince (Great insight into the mind of madness that is Fidel Castro.)

Bruce Feldman's Cane Mutiny (A raucous insight into the modern dynasty of College Football, The Miami Hurricanes.)

Bob Zmuda's Andy Kaufman Revealed (An excellent profile into Zmuda's wild friendship with Andy Kaufman.)
More...

Only if you promise to provide the cheat sheets!! Not sure if I can do the entire thing from memory.

I agree, though Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, and company did a great job with the film. The effort, the love for writing, can be detected through Mario Puzo's stories. Yesterday I started reading Fools Die for school and the first chapter/book was a good introduction. I'm looking forward to reading more of the book.

A few of my favorite stories include (in no order):

Godfather
Trumpet of the Swan
Where the Red Fern Grows
The Firm
The Testament
The Green Mile

Oh, and Leon Uris! QBVII and Exodus are wonderful books. IMHO, QBVII is one of the best courtroom dramas ever written.

Dylan Thomas is amazing.

"Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light."

Bob Dylan's namesake. (He changed it from Zimmerman)


I also enjoy Robert Frost and had to study him extensively here at college. Such a depressed man. He tried to kill himself many times, but could not because of his family.

The Doc

I agree. QBVII is an excellent courtroom drama. Man it was soooo long ago that I read it. Good movie too.


Don Cardi

S.E. Hinton was one of the first authors I ever read, and she was my absolute favorite at one point. After all the books I've read since then, she's still in my top three authors of all time. And I don't think it's only for sentimental reasons. Not bad for a 16 year old chick from Tulsa, eh?

I also love anything by Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, and almost anything by Shakespeare and Robert Frost. As for other books/short stories:

The Human Comedy
On The Road
A Farewell to Arms
The Old Man and the Sea
The Beautiful and the Damned
The Great Gatsby
The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer
The Yellow Wallpaper
Dracula

That's all I can think of at the moment. I also love powerful rhetoric, things that make words more effective than a slap in the face; the perfect example being Cicero's speeches and orations. Really amazing stuff.

By the way, Silas Marner lost me at spinning-wheels and farmhouses. I (thankfully) never had to read that, nor had I even heard of it, like Gigi... but talk about boring, my senior year, we had to read Samson Agonistes, by John Milton.
That's the only time that I ever read the first two pages and then didn't look at the book ever again. For the assignment, we had to write a paper about it, and since I'd somewhat listened in class, I knew the themes-- I wrote a ten page paper on the influence of religion and politics of the 1600's on the subject and themes of the book and I got an A on the paper and in the class. Either I got lucky, or my teacher was a total idiot.

A History of the World in ten and a half chapters - by Julian Barnes - we read it in first year at Uni and it's an absolutely amazing book. I can't recommend it enough.

I too have unfortunately had a bit of a reading overdose since taking english, french and italian literature for two years at university... I'm only now learning to pick up a book without reaching for my highlighter pens and postits... I blame this entirely on what I reckon to be the WORST BOOK IN THE WORLD. EVER. EVEN INCLUDING SILAS MARNER.
= Ulysses by James Joyce (it's generally heresy to criticise the great Ulysses but I really think it's a case of the emperor's new clothes - anyone here like it? And manage to read the whole 999 pages?) In case you're lucky and have never had to read it, here's the first page or so (good website btw! thanks for the link!) http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/29/61 For a real treat, check out the section called 'Oxen of the Sun' :rolleyes:

I did.....

Universally that person's acumen is esteemed very little perceptive concerning whatsoever matters are being held as most profitable by mortals with sapience endowed to be studied who is ignorant of that which the most in doctrine erudite and certainly by reason of that in them high mind's ornament deserving of veneration constantly maintain when by general consent they affirm that other circumstances being equal by no exterior splendour is the prosperity of a nation more efficaciously asserted than by the measure of how far forward may have progressed the tribute of its solicitude for that proliferent continuance which of evils the original if it be absent when fortunately present constitutes the certain sign of omnipollent nature's incorrupted benefaction.

I think he left out a comma or two in there.

My compliments. You've found something worse than Silas Marner which, as bad as it was, is at least understandable.

Funny story... In my 20 years, I never noticed Silas Marner before I saw it mentioned here. Today, at the UCLA bookstore, I saw it a few feet away, and it immediately caught my eye! I bet some poor Lit class has to read it. I picked it up and opened to chapter one, and sure enough, I could almost hear the hum of the spinning wheels, or whatever the hell that first line is.

So thank you for broadening my horizons, TB, PL, JG, and SC. My life is now richer because I can notice these books and have a little chuckle to myself. :p

I'm halfway through The Catcher In The Rye, an excellent book so far.

Anyone meantion Samuel Becket's magnificent play: "Waiting For Godot" ? A quick, but powerful read. It packs a helluva punch.

just finished reading Veronika decides to Die and Tuesday with Morrie. i recommend this books, both are great read.

GoodFella

That is my list.lol

J.K. Rowling is my new favorite author. The Harry Potter books were just incredible. There's gonna be one more book written in the series.

Other favorites:

Mario Puzo
Roald Dahl
Ernest Hemmingway
Edgar Allan Poe
Mark Winegardner (JUST KIDDING!)
John Grisham
Tom Clancy

To catch-up on what I've missed:

Judging by my only read of The Godfather, Puzo tells a good story, but doesn't tell it well. Crudely-written and patchy novel with only moments of linguistic worth.

Silas Marner is a verbose, dated yarn which induces yawns early on and gets better; the themes it deals with are relevant enough, but the characters suffer from cardboarditis. I've read far worse.

SC, did you know Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening before it was quoted in The Sopranos? Bet you were delighted when it came up on it (assuming you already knew of it).

My favourite novels:

The Magus by John Fowles
The Collector by John Fowles
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carré
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Executive Orders by Tom Clancy
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Great Book

"When Genius Failed- The Rise and Fall of Long Term Capital Management"- Lowenstein (fascinating book- read it 3 times over, back-to-back)

It's been a while but I really enjoyed The Physician by Noah Gordon ... The story of a guy born in London in 1000a.d. who becomes a physician, and travels through Europe and the Near East.