Post your favourite Books

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Spawn of Santa said:
I had a lot more trouble with CnP than I had with the Idiot or the Karamazovs. This might be because the nihilistic, slighty insane and constantly hallucinating Raskolnikov does not make for an attractive hero for me. I cared little for his plight and had a lot of trouble getting through the fever vision bits. It was too much effort with too little reward.
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I'm almost exactly the opposite. I'm drawn to Raskalinikov because I find his world view perverse, insane, amoral, nihilistic and, ironically, Nietzschian (woot! I think I spelled that right!). The insight and perspective of such a character I value far more then, frankly, almost anyone in Anna Karenina save the bad Levin, I forgot his name, he has not been mentioned in a hundred pages.

BTW, yeah, Bezdomy, means Homeless IIRC. The book really makes fun of Soviet literature of the time: the literary organization is shortened to "Massolit", and the Devil ends up defending the existance of himself and God to an avowed atheist.

BTW, I really think The Man who was Thursday has A LOT in common with the Woland/Satan-centered part of The Master and Margarita, I'll talk about it when you read the book.
 
John Uskglass said:
I'm almost exactly the opposite. I'm drawn to Raskalinikov because I find his world view perverse, insane, amoral, nihilistic and, ironically, Nietzschian (woot! I think I spelled that right!). The insight and perspective of such a character I value far more then, frankly, almost anyone in Anna Karenina save the bad Levin, I forgot his name, he has not been mentioned in a hundred pages.
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I wouldn't really say 'ironically' there. You have to take into account the entirety of Crime and Punishment, not simply Raskolnikov for that period of the novel.
 
I wouldn't really say 'ironically' there. You have to take into account the entirety of Crime and Punishment, not simply Raskolnikov for that period of the novel.
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Ironically because Crime was written before Nietzsche wrote his major works.
 
You might already know that my favourite books are Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.

EDIT:
I notice that the 33rd book in the series, Thud!, is at my local library, so I can grab it soon.
 
quietfanatic said:
You might already know that my favourite books are Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.

EDIT:
I notice that the 33rd book in the series, Thud!, is at my local library, so I can grab it soon.
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Thud! is one of his best IMO, read it as soon as you can.

Favourite books, in no particular order:
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
The Conan Chronicles by Robert E Howard
Legend by David Gemmell
Scar by China Mieville
 
Kotario said:
S said:
Thank you guys, i'll have a great list of books to read in the future
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So you mean to say that this entire thread was for the sole purpose of collecting information to help you decide on good books so you know what to read?
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No, of course not :!: . Its for the sake of everyone sharing your favorite books is a good thing and wasn't for posted for getting a list of good titles. (i like reading awkward books)

I meant to show that i was interested in those titles thats all.
Anyone read sophies world before?
 
I really love Catch 22 written by Joseph Heller a book bout the totally weird truth of war

You will laugh your ass off I promise!
It's full of bureaucracy satire and black humor
 
Lots of them.

Particularly:

1. Armor - John Steakly
2. The Posleen series of books - John Ringo
3. Outlanders series - James Axler (must read for Fallout fans)
 
I love these threads for gift ideas.

Otherwise I would say:

-Lord of the Ring series including The Hobbit though it wasnt really a part.

-The Dark Tower series particularly the first one.

-Dune...I havent read the sequels though.

-The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy...havent read the sequels.

Considering social commentary also consider:

-Brave New World.

-Fahrenheit 451.

-1984.

I remember loving a book while growing up...my first novel and also first science fiction, but I havent found it in stores. It was called "The White Mountains". Not sure why that came up suddenly.

Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller
 
I'm surprised, and glad, that none of Dan Brown's atrocious work has been posted yet.

Discworld Series (chiefly the ones regarding the Watch) .
Dune series, though I kinda thing Herbert (Snr) started to lose the plot around the last 2 books.
 
Thud! was excellent, but it had a lot more emphasis on social commentary and utilising elements of the crime fiction genre, rather than frequent humour. I think you wouldn't enjoy it as much if you didn't know the setting and characters that well, so it is probably not a good book to start off the Discworld series.
 
Ellisar! Dean Kootz sucks ass. He's gone so down hill. The guys a fucking factory. Really- a sacrifice of quality. Awful.

Have been thinking of reading China Melville.

Best book- Cash, by Johnny Cash (just kidding).

I don't have a favorite book,though I am fond of the short stories of Harlan Ellison (Deathbird stories is a great read- and the story Deathbird- where Ellison retells the story of the snake, Adam and God is disturbing- God is an insane despot, man is his pawn who doesn't get wise till the end, and the snake is trying to clue us in that God is whacked in the head- disturbing).

Love his story Prince Miskin and hold the mustard- in Angry Candy.

My favorite paragraphy is probably from James Joyce, near the end of The Dead.

It would be better if we split this by genre. Maybe.

Or maybe Kharn is right.
 
Philip K. Dick - Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?
Tolkien - LOTR
Terry Pratchett - Mort
 
welsh said:
Ellisar! Dean Kootz sucks ass. He's gone so down hill. The guys a fucking factory. Really- a sacrifice of quality. Awful.
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No surprise there - like "Robert Ludlum", Dean Koontz was originally someone's pen name and then it became a brand name. All those books aren't written by "Dean Koontz", but by grad students or hacks or whoever else the publisher can find. It's like that French author from Balzac's time. I can never remember his name, but he literally had a factory of writers writing for him - he would give them a theme or plot synopsis, maybe a character or two, leave them to fill it out, then sign his name to it - just like artists and artisans during the time guilds were around.

And on subject: Favorite books are hard to narrow down and change constantly, but here's a horribly incomplete list off the top of my head:

Voltaire - Candide
Lem - The Futurological Congress
West - Miss Lonelyhearts
Douglas Adams - Hitchiker's Guide + Dirk Gently series
Ellis - American Psycho
 
The Killing Joke is great. Now that you mention it, I'd have to say that most of my favorite books are graphic novels.
 
I'm currently devouring Jared Diamonds books.

Smart man. These books have given me quite some new insights, so I guess they can now be put onto my 'favourite books' list.

My absolute favourite will always remain 'The Art of War', though.
 
Montez said:
The Killing Joke is great. Now that you mention it, I'd have to say that most of my favorite books are graphic novels.
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You know, I have to say, I'm kind of tired of Alan Moore right now. From Hell, Watchmen and The Leauge are all great, but V got me kind of angry. Near the end I was just so scared about the main character that I started rooting for the Fascists. Anarchy ain't for the UK, and it ain't for nobody.
 
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