RE: Favorite Book

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treadingwater -> RE: Favorite Book (9/6/2007 10:49:27 AM)
My reading tastes are quite strange [:)] I tend to look for books by the author and not by the title or what the book may be about. So, my favorite books, by my favorite authors would be The Immoralist by Andre Gide and Man's Fate ( La Condition Humaine ) and Picasso's Mask; both by Andre Malraux These are two of my favorite authors [:D]

Mercnbeth -> RE: Favorite Book (9/6/2007 11:03:45 AM)
Too many to pick one - but I'll bring up one of my more obscure "favorites". The Long Walk (1979), - Richard Bachman (A pseudonym used by Stephen King) I read it as part of a collection of 'Bachman Books' that included Rage (1977), The Long Walk (1979), Road Work (1981), and The Running Man (1982). The last 'Bachman' book, and the only one published as a hard cover, was Bachman's 1984 novel Thinner . A bookstore clerk refused to accept that Bachman wasn't King despite denials from King and his publisher. The clerk located publisher's records at the Library of Congress naming King as the author of one of Bachman's novels. Bachman was 'killed off'. The cause of Bachman's "death"was supposedly from "cancer of the pseudonym, a rare form of schizonomia".

curiouspet55 -> RE: Favorite Book (9/6/2007 11:46:03 AM)
1984 by George Orwell Animal Farm by George Orwell - I like Orwell because his writing can apply now, in the past, and in the future, and is both politically and socio-economically applicable as well. Brave New World ..AWESOME book. The Crucible It's a play, but I still think it counts. The Federalist Papers I'm a nerd like that. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. My all-time favorite, not only because of the themes presented but because of the style Morrison uses. The Letters of Abelard and Heloise. It is a twisted relationship, which is interesting. That's all for now. But, I do love the authors Diana Palmer, Julia Quinn, Lisa Kleypas, and Johanna Lindsey. I'm an avid romance reader.

spiral23 -> RE: Favorite Book (9/6/2007 12:22:48 PM)
lots by IAN BANKS ,CHINA MIEVILLE, JG BALLARD are worth checking out... two books id recommend also are stuart, a life backwards by alexander masters dangerous parking by stuart browne

YourhandMyAss -> RE: Favorite Book (9/6/2007 12:29:14 PM)
why not get them at your local library instead. If you like them then go out and buy a few, if not no money lost. much more finacially feasable then blowing a whole paycheck. quote: ORIGINAL: satyrsnymph28 This is turning into an AWESOME list!!! I'm so excited ;) I"m gonna go spend my paycheck at the bookstore now... <3

satyrsnymph28 -> RE: Favorite Book (9/6/2007 1:13:41 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: YourhandMyAss why not get them at your local library instead. If you like them then go out and buy a few, if not no money lost. much more finacially feasable then blowing a whole paycheck. I can't always find what I want at my local library... and they always have what i'm looking for... or they can order it... at the bookstore our library sucks like that...

nmjardine -> RE: Favorite Book (9/6/2007 2:09:45 PM)
quote: I can't always find what I want at my local library... and they always have what i'm looking for... or they can order it... at the bookstore our library sucks like that... quote: ORIGINAL: satyrsnymph28 quote: ORIGINAL: YourhandMyAss why not get them at your local library instead. If you like them then go out and buy a few, if not no money lost. much more finacially feasable then blowing a whole paycheck. I can't always find what I want at my local library... and they always have what i'm looking for... or they can order it... at the bookstore our library sucks like that... I spend way too much money on books. They are my secret vice, the only things I like shopping for. I will spend hours in a bookstore, bigbox and independent. Used bookstores are the best. My house is packed with books. I buy them because I reread them. I will remember a story that I loved or an author I want to enjoy again and the hunt will be on.

Joseff -> RE: Favorite Book (9/6/2007 4:19:43 PM)
I remember books, I miss them. Maybe when we get moved, I'll get a chance to read again.... Anyway, my 2 favorites are: Okla Hanali by R.A. Lafferty, Enemy Mine by Barry B Longyear Joseff

Saraheli -> RE: Favorite Book (9/6/2007 4:31:07 PM)
Anything by Barbara Tuchman, particularly Through a Distant Mirror

YourhandMyAss -> RE: Favorite Book (9/6/2007 8:46:33 PM)
yeah, I order mine from saclibrary.org, and they come in from all over the county, I don't mind waiting, however I also go to book stores with a journal and a pen and write down titles of books to look for at the said library. I love it. only problem is Iget like 100 and can't read them all fast enough or end up loosing about 3 or four no matter how hard I try not to. I have a box for them all, but it's when you're in the midsts of reading that they disapere. quote: ORIGINAL: satyrsnymph28 quote: ORIGINAL: YourhandMyAss why not get them at your local library instead. If you like them then go out and buy a few, if not no money lost. much more finacially feasable then blowing a whole paycheck. I can't always find what I want at my local library... and they always have what i'm looking for... or they can order it... at the bookstore our library sucks like that...

slaverosebeauty -> RE: Favorite Book (9/6/2007 9:23:08 PM)
Head for your local used book stores and thrift stores. You can find a LOT of popular authors there as well as others that you may not have thought of. I have made friends with a few local used book store clerks to keep an eye out for certain authors for me, its paid off already, I get to go and pick up about 10 books this weekend for less than $50 total.

e01n -> RE: Favorite Book (9/7/2007 10:50:36 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: spiral23: lots by IAN BANKS ,CHINA MIEVILLE, JG BALLARD are worth checking out... Me, I'm kicking myself for forgetting Ballard. Crash (the novel) was "helpful" to me... Dad got it for me when I was laid up in a hospital for months after almost getting killed in a car wreck (great sense of hhumor, he had). The movie Cronenberg made diverges wildly, but is good in it's own right. Empire of the Sun is also brilliant. Much different in tone from his other work, but well-crafted and poetic. Atrocity Exhibition is probably the most "Ballard" of Ballard to me - and a pretty good intro to his work IMNSHO. It's not a "normal" novel (I say "novel" because I see the connections between the "stories") by any means... very big influence on the Cyberpunk and Splatterpunk genres as well as being Literary in that Kundera/Cheever sort of way. Not familiar with Ian Banks off the top of my head. Any suggestions for us?

daddysprop247 -> RE: Favorite Book (9/7/2007 11:10:48 AM)
my favorite novel would probably have to be "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck...the whole trilogy is great, but that first one is just unparalleled. a second favorite would have to be "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison...although i LOATHE the author as a person...she's arrogant, egotistical and condescening beyond description...she is a gifted writer, and Bluest Eye touched me to my very depths.

slaveluci -> RE: Favorite Book (9/7/2007 2:01:55 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: daddysprop247 a second favorite would have to be "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison...although i LOATHE the author as a person...she's arrogant, egotistical and condescening beyond description...she is a gifted writer, and Bluest Eye touched me to my very depths Since you are at least the second person to mention "The Bluest Eye" here as a favorite, I thought I'd comment. I have read several of Morrison's books but never this one for some reason. A few weeks back, I was reading a new book (can't remember the title now) where many authors listed their top 10 favorite books of all time. Many of them mentioned "The Bluest Eye" so I went by the library and picked it up a couple weeks back. I have a few ahead of it but will be reading it very soon. I'm extra anxious now since it's been mentioned here as a favorite. I'll have to see if it rates as one of my faves too........luci

slaveluci -> RE: Favorite Book (9/7/2007 2:11:40 PM)
I've posted on several different favorite books threads here before so I just went back to some of those. Here's a reposted reply: Fiction I would recommend because it gives me goosebumps and/or brings tears to my eyes: "Grapes of Wrath" - John Steinbeck. The ending scene of this book is perhaps the most hopeful of any novel I've ever read. Anything by Thomas Hardy but especially "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" and "The Mayor of Casterbridge." Hardy wrote soap opera plots in the 1800's! Anything by Carson McCullers. She makes me feel like I'm right there in her stories. Anything by James Lee Burke, especially the Dave Robicheaux series. I love them all but "Purple Cane Road" is the absolute best. "Gentleman Junkie" by Harlan Ellison. A collection of short stories that never gets old. I've read them over and over and they grab me each time. Nonfiction. I love nonfiction and there are so many but here are some that I've read over and over. I love them because they are either so touching or I learned so much from them: "Shot In The Heart" - Mikal Gilmore. Written by Gary Gilmore's youngest brother (who also wrote for "Rolling Stone" magazine), this bio of their life growing up is unforgettable. "The Glass Castle" - Jeannette Walls. Now a gossip columnist for MSNBC, Wells grew up in poverty with very eccentric (some would say abusive or neglectful) parents. Her teenage years were spent in a southern WV coal town. This story of her life growing up and after she'd "made it," is hard to put down. "Gift of Fear" - Gavin deBecker. This book is about our "gift" of intuition and how we have repressed it, much to our danger. Very interesting. "Freakonomics" - S. Leavitt. Sounds dry but is very interesting. A "rogue" economist digs into such subjects as how a drug-dealing empire is structured much like McDonald's and how children's names at birth may/may not affect their course in life, etc. Really eye-opening. "Redneck Manifesto" - Jim Goad. Great book about how classism, not racism, is the real issue we must fight. Great take on how "rednecks" are the only group that it is still socially acceptable (and even encouraged) to make fun of and how if money and power is what really enables "institutional racism," then how can dirt-poor, powerless rednecks really be at fault for it's perpetuation? *"Something Permanent" - a collection of old B&W Walker Evans photos taken during the Great Depression are paired with modern poetry written by Cynthia Rylant. Never fails to bring tears to my eyes every single time I open it. Just a few of a million wonderful books..............luci I'd also add: "Heart Shaped Box" - Joe Hill. Any of Greg Iles' fiction The Agent Pendergast novels by Lincoln Child/Douglas Preston

lazarus1983 -> RE: Favorite Book (9/7/2007 2:59:04 PM)
For those that enjoy 1984, there's a video of a journalist posing as a tourist that went into North Korea. It came out a few years ago, the first time that N Korea opened its borders in decades to outsiders. I don't know the name, but you need to go watch it. It's almost exactly like 1984. There is no commercial advertising whatsoever, only billboard after billboard with propaganda on it. There is no TV or radio except for two hours at night, and that is all propaganda too (except when the tourists were there, then the TV and radio were giving instructions for people to smile and wave if they saw any of the visiting tourists). They had footage from the hotel room down to the ground, and they noticed that everyone walks the same way. No one's running, no one's jogging, they're all at a very even, controlled pace. Not a smile, not a nod, not any look on their faces at all. Each building that the tourists went into, each room in each building, had a picture of Kim Jong-Il in it. At one point they went into a school, and the journalist was talking to a little girl who was on her umpteenth hour practicing writing. The journalist asked her if she ever got tired, and the girl responded without looking up, "How can my eyes be tired when I have such pretty colors to look at?" It horrified me, that somewhere on this planet, 1984 is really happening. Sorry to hijack the thread. Anyway, my favorite books would have to beeeeeeeeeeeee...ummmmmm...a lot. Deathbird Stories by Harlan Ellison Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert

chellekitty -> RE: Favorite Book (9/7/2007 3:20:05 PM)
Robert Asprin's Myth books...not so much the newer ones but the old ones, before Myth-Inc..when Skeeve did a lot of Dimension hopping...i grew up with the books...my mom would read them to me as bed time stories before i could read at that level, earliest i remember is 4, because thats what i asked for...at about 7 or 8 i started reading them on my own...i want to do a Pervect...damn...anywho... paranormal...vampires, shapeshifters, witches, timetravel...all that....throw in romance and/or hot and steamy sex scenes and i am all over it....i can read it without the romance too...but much more interesting with..

PatentOne -> RE: Favorite Book (9/7/2007 3:25:25 PM)
How about the Honor Harrington series by David Weber? Or The Arnaggion (spelling??) Rag by George R. R. Martin? Or for those of us who are still young at heart, try the Groo comic books. [8D]

SuspendedInGaffa -> RE: Favorite Book (9/7/2007 3:28:43 PM)
Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys. Sort of a prequel to Jane Eyre, detailing how the so-called 'madwoman in the attic' came to be that way. Nothing's ever quite explained, and it leaves you haunted for days after reading it. Revolution in the Head - The Beatles' Records and the Sixties - Ian MacDonald. Every single Beatles record put into its historical context. It's very anal in places ("listen for the duff bass note at 1:53"), but its boyish enthusiasm is totally irresistable, and it really gets across how thrilling it must have been to have been there at the time. Without Feathers - Woody Allen. Just pick it up and go at any page. Timeless, brilliant stuff. Get in the Van - Henry Rollins. Life at the nasty, dirty end of rock and roll. Hard going, intense, but brutally honest. Unreliable Memoirs - Clive James. How to do an autobiography properly. His rapier wit is as sharp as ever, but it's also wise, touching and superbly written. The Giant Under The Snow - John Gordon. I read this at school when I was about 10 and it has lived in my memory ever since. Fabulous mythological, ghostly tale that's sadly hard to get hold of now. The fact that the most memorable baddies are called the 'leather men' may well be of interest to Freudians who might want to study me...

UR2Badored -> RE: Favorite Book (9/7/2007 4:17:31 PM)
I have so many favorite books.....I, too, cannot pick one...I was just thinking of a book I read in college a moment ago that left an impression on me. Harriet Jacob's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl is available online and now is a requirement in some high schools. You can read it in it's entirety on the web. http://xroads.virginia.edu/~Hyper/JACOBS/hj-site-index.htm Some of my favorite authors would be Charlotte Perkins Gillman, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, John Cheever, John Updike among many others.

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