Favourite Books

List your top five books, I'm in need of something to read;

Mine, in no particular order;

Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh - simply stunning, couldn't put it down.

The Winds of War, by Herman Wouk - an interesting account of World War 2.

The Liar, by Stephen Fry - charmingly funny.

Vintage Stuff, by Tom Sharpe - hilarious.

The Count of Monte Cristo, by Dumas - a great adventurous story.

VALIS by PHILIP K DICK

THE STARS MY DESTINATION by ALFRED BESTER

LILITH by GEORGE MACDONALD

THE PURPLE CLOUD by M P SHIEL

A VOYAGE TO ARCTURUS by DAVID LINDSAY

I've read so little that I feel practically illiterate, and really couldn't give a top 5. It's rare that I read something I really love, and rarer that I read something more than once. With movies and music it's a lot easier to think of favorites since there are so many that I keep going back to, and it only takes an hour or two to refamiliarize myself with them. Reading's a much bigger time commitment, and there are so many great books that I'll never get a chance to read in my lifetime. Because of that I'm always inclined to read something I haven't read before when I do read, so I don't get much of a chance to really know a book inside out. It's hard to pick favorites among things that I usually only experience once. But i'll try...

Haruki Murakami is probably my favorite author. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Norwegian Wood are both incredible.

The Stranger by Albert Camus really spoke to me when I read it a few years back, though it may have just been the right book at the right time. I should reread that one.

Titus Groan, first book of the Ghormanghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake is up there.

Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal by Thomas Harris.

The Mote in God's Eye/The Gripping Hand by Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle are two of my favorite sci-fi books.

Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs... he strikes me as the most unique author I've read. Was there anything like Burroughs before Burroughs?

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

I loved 1984 and Brave New World as a wee lad, but don't know if they'd have the same impact if I read them now. I was pretty much a fan of any book or movie taking place in a dystopian future.

That's all that springs to mind at the moment.

I'm not much of a reader, but Terry Goodkind's series "The Sword Of Truth" is absolutely fantastic! The first book in the series is "Wizard's First Rule". They're pretty big books, but I could not put them down. I would read a 900 page book in 2-3 days, where as with any other book of that size would take me about a month to finish. So go, start reading Wizard's First Rule.

Kind of quickly made list...

House of Leaves - Mark Z Danielewski

World War Z - Max Brooks

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

Survivor - Chuck Palahniuk

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson

with honorable mention to:

Hell's Angels - Hunter S. Thompson

Watchmen - Alan Moore

Sin City: The Big Fat Kill story arc compiled: Frank Miller

Gates of Eden - Ethan Coen

Lullaby and Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk

I'm sure there's books Ive really enjoyed and I'm forgetting at the moment as well

  On 5/18/2011 at 8:28 AM, usagi said:

 

  On 5/18/2011 at 7:57 AM, ghOsty said:

House of Leaves - Mark Z Danielewski

 

I want to buy this but I don't know if I'll like it

It's a lenghtly read and a bit complicated, but I found it to be very engaging and quite worth it...

islands in the stream - e. hemingway

nausea - j.-p. sartre

on the road - j. kerouac

siddharta - h. hesse

old masters - th. bernhard

1984, and then some others.

You couldn't be bothered to look through the THREAD CALLED NOW READING for book recommendations?

michael ende - the neverending story

william goldman - the princess bride

kurt vonnegut - bluebeard

joseph heller - catch-22

jorge luis borges - labyrinths

George Orwell - 1984

Joseph Heller - Catch 22

Kurt Vonnegut - Breakfast Of Champions

Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood

can't quite think of one to fill that last slot, it might well be Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, or The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test. Or maybe Don Dellilo's White Noise. Or Slaughterhouse Five.

  On 5/18/2011 at 8:33 AM, ghOsty said:

  On 5/18/2011 at 8:28 AM, usagi said:

 

  On 5/18/2011 at 7:57 AM, ghOsty said:

House of Leaves - Mark Z Danielewski

 

I want to buy this but I don't know if I'll like it

 

It's a lenghtly read and a bit complicated, but I found it to be very engaging and quite worth it...

It is engaging, it's a long way from being in my top list of anything but it's worth reading and is a very easy read for such a huge fat book.

i think trying to compile a "top 5" list of books is about as futile as trying to compile a "top 5" list of musicians or songs or whatever... but here are 5 that i come back to year after year:

italo calvino - invisible cities

hart crane - the bridge

philip larkin - high windows

william faulkner - as i lay dying

james joyce - dubliners

but that's just off the top of my head. it seems a ridiculously reductive list. 3 or 4 novels by vladimir nabokov belong there. way more by faulkner and hemingway, fantastic poets like ts eliot, geoffrey hill, ted hughes, sylvia plath (it's OK to like both)... honestly, where do you start?

  On 5/18/2011 at 8:33 AM, ghOsty said:

  On 5/18/2011 at 8:28 AM, usagi said:

 

  On 5/18/2011 at 7:57 AM, ghOsty said:

House of Leaves - Mark Z Danielewski

 

I want to buy this but I don't know if I'll like it

 

It's a lenghtly read and a bit complicated, but I found it to be very engaging and quite worth it...

skip it and go straight to The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien, Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, or anything by Borges and Calvino.

I liked House of Leaves. It's post-modern structure lends itself to cinematic story-telling. Borges is more of a headfuck, but House of Leaves creates a good sense of immersion.

i suck at picking top 5's so here's the best of the books i've read which i can think of right now at this moment...

the catcher in the rye - salinger

1984 - orwell

brave new world - huxley

clockwork orange - burgess

naked lunch - burroughs

lord of the flies - golding

the stranger - camus

the trial - kafka

the castle - kafka

for whom the bell tolls - hemingway

on the road - kerouac

the rosy crucifiction - miller

invisible man - ellison

pimp - iceberg slim

junky - burroughs

queer - burroughs

down and out in paris and london - orwell

moby dick - melville

the bell jar - plath

  On 5/18/2011 at 1:23 PM, Gary C said:

I liked House of Leaves. It's post-modern structure lends itself to cinematic story-telling. Borges is more of a headfuck, but House of Leaves creates a good sense of immersion.

Its

My argument is invalid.

  On 5/18/2011 at 1:09 PM, Iain C said:

  On 5/18/2011 at 8:33 AM, ghOsty said:

  On 5/18/2011 at 8:28 AM, usagi said:

 

  On 5/18/2011 at 7:57 AM, ghOsty said:

House of Leaves - Mark Z Danielewski

 

I want to buy this but I don't know if I'll like it

 

It's a lenghtly read and a bit complicated, but I found it to be very engaging and quite worth it...

 

skip it and go straight to The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien, Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, or anything by Borges and Calvino.

Thank you. The book isn't complicated. It is like the Blair Witch Project/Lost of literature. Gets name dropped so much that it makes my head spin. Found it tedious and corrrrrnnnnnnyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.

The Book of Sand - J. Borges

tie between Baudolino/The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco

The Dreams in the Witch House: And Other Weird Stories - Lovecraft

The Trickster - Paul Radin

those have been the constants over the last few years, at least.

And, the best book that I've never read: Zombie! Zombie! by Matthew John.

Chances are this little paperback book blows donkey dick, but I remember hearing about it years ago and being really intrigued. It is a post apocalyptic zombie story, of course. Centered around teenagers who are trying to survive in a wasteland, taking speed, drinking loads of booze, raping zombies etc.

  On 5/18/2011 at 1:09 PM, Iain C said:

anything by Calvino.

I thought about what my list for this thread would look like, and it would end up about 4/5 Calvino. Difficult Loves, If on a winter's night a traveler, Cosmicomics, Marcovaldo... all great books. I still need to read Invisible Cities, I think it's laying around here somewhere...

Tom Robbins is a great writer as well.

  On 5/18/2011 at 4:00 PM, luke viia said:

  On 5/18/2011 at 1:09 PM, Iain C said:

anything by Calvino.

 

I thought about what my list for this thread would look like, and it would end up about 4/5 Calvino. Difficult Loves, If on a winter's night a traveler, Cosmicomics, Marcovaldo... all great books. I still need to read Invisible Cities, I think it's laying around here somewhere...

 

Tom Robbins is a great writer as well.

Invisible Cities is probably my favourite work of Calvino's. My girlfriend is currently reading it for the first time, what a magical experience. My first edition of "Winter's night" is probably the first thing I'd save from my house if it was on fire.

any of you dudes do goodreads?

seriously, no bukowski in here? and good call on the road by cormac mccarthy.

I've only read Ham on Rye and Tales of Ordinary Madness, both are amazing but I think I like his poetry the most. Bukowski was indeed a great writer. Just not in my top five.

My list is ever in flux and mood-dependent:

Assuming fiction:

Gravity's Rainbow - Pynchon

Against the Day - Pynchon

Anathem - Neal Stephenson (or for maximum fun but way less srs bzns: Snow Crash or The Diamond Age by Stephenson)

Ulysses - Joyce

The Name of the Rose - Eco

Infinite Jest will probably make top 5 if I ever get a chance to sit down and finish it.

Maybe Midnight's Children

White Noise by DeLillo

Catch 22 had a profound impact on me in middle school (Christ, I just realized I'm ancient) but it's the only thing by Joseph Heller I really liked; read lots of Vonnegut way back when, too.

I like PKD, esp. Valis, but his prose is fairly meh sometimes/often. But that's sort of a mile besides the point with PKD.

A whole bunch of stuff that I read at university and can't remember right now, and you've got your fucking Norton Anthologies of Necessary Shit in there.

/former pretentious Lit major