Favourite Books

I forgot Cryptonomicon

FUCK THIS SHIT

American Gods by Neil Gaiman because it was just such a treat to read and I couldn't stop smiling

1984 by Orwell, the true daddy of Dystopian books

my massive fuck off copy of "The Necronomicon" which has all the H.P Lovecraft one could want to read (yes I'm cheating but this is one book :D:P) - master of horror

Lanark by Alasdair Grey which is probably the most impressive Scottish fiction I've ever read, hell I'm going to say the best Scottish writer there ever will be, the man has mmotherfucking Anthony Burgess(Mr Clockwork Orange for those bad with names) praising his work on the cover I have for christ sake!

Ham on Rye by Bukowski because that mad alcoholic is addictive as hell to read

From Hell by Alan Moore, an amazing portrait of Victorian London irregardless of the ripper story

  On 5/18/2011 at 9:01 PM, Macca said:

irregardless

glamorama, the fixer, 1984, rules of attraction, head on by julian cope. in no order.

Notes from the Underground- Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamazov- Dostoevsky

King Lear- Shakespeare

Ulysses- Joyce

Peer Gynt- Ibsen

Two are plays but why split hairs.

  On 5/18/2011 at 9:06 PM, baph said:

  On 5/18/2011 at 9:01 PM, Macca said:

irregardless

I don't read as much as I used to, which kinda bugs me, but anyhow these are 5 books I really enjoy,

Touching the Void - Joe Simpson

Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

Power of the Dog - Don Winslow

Papillon - Henri Charierre

Run Baby Run - Nicky Cruz

And obviously

Fear and Loathing - Hunter S Thompson

i dont have a list of favorite books, but read hubert selbys 'the room'. a book with the savagery of de sade and the humanity of jesus. a masterpiece.

Papillon, by Henri Charrière, is my desert island book. I've probably read it 10 times. I have no other books to include in my top 5

The Art of War

Tao Te Ching

Breakfast of Champions

Catch 22

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Mr. Worry, by Roger Hargreaves. Hargreaves hit the nail on the head with that one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Worry#Mr._Worry

Watchmen

Pale Fire

I'm not too big on fiction. I'm way more into non-fiction.

Does poetry count? Probably not.

  On 5/18/2011 at 11:22 PM, jim said:

Notes from the Underground- Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamazov- Dostoevsky

King Lear- Shakespeare

Ulysses- Joyce

Peer Gynt- Ibsen

 

Two are plays but why split hairs.

You seriously read this?

I call fake.

.

The Bible (Pre-1900)

The Dictionary (Pre-1900)

The Lord Of The Rings (J. R. R. Tolkien)

Tistou Of The Green Thumbs (Maurice Druon)

The Little Prince (Antoine de Saint-Exupéry)

.

.

.

  On 5/19/2011 at 6:22 AM, halisray said:

  On 5/18/2011 at 11:22 PM, jim said:

Notes from the Underground- Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamazov- Dostoevsky

King Lear- Shakespeare

Ulysses- Joyce

Peer Gynt- Ibsen

 

Two are plays but why split hairs.

You seriously read this?

 

I call fake.

Amazingly enough, some people have actually read this novel.

  On 5/19/2011 at 2:52 AM, Philip Glass said:

Papillon, by Henri Charrière, is my desert island book. I've probably read it 10 times. I have no other books to include in my top 5

one of my favourite films but never got round to reading the book. i should sort that out.

  On 5/19/2011 at 6:59 AM, Atop said:

  On 5/19/2011 at 6:22 AM, halisray said:

  On 5/18/2011 at 11:22 PM, jim said:

Notes from the Underground- Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamazov- Dostoevsky

King Lear- Shakespeare

Ulysses- Joyce

Peer Gynt- Ibsen

 

Two are plays but why split hairs.

You seriously read this?

 

I call fake.

 

Amazingly enough, some people have actually read this novel.

yes, it's great. i've read it a couple of times and it's a masterpiece. but dubliners made my list because i simply come back to it more often. joyce had to be on there somewhere though.

  On 5/19/2011 at 3:28 AM, Wall Bird said:

Does poetry count? Probably not.

i counted it.

  On 5/18/2011 at 8:32 PM, Atop said:

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.

I think I liked Post Office best but they all kind of blur into one which is why I couldn't decide on a Bukowski for my list

  On 5/19/2011 at 6:59 AM, Atop said:

  On 5/19/2011 at 6:22 AM, halisray said:

  On 5/18/2011 at 11:22 PM, jim said:

Notes from the Underground- Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamazov- Dostoevsky

King Lear- Shakespeare

Ulysses- Joyce

Peer Gynt- Ibsen

 

Two are plays but why split hairs.

You seriously read this?

 

I call fake.

 

Amazingly enough, some people have actually read this novel.

I think he's probably done confused it with Finnegan's wake.

  On 5/19/2011 at 1:47 PM, jim said:

  On 5/19/2011 at 6:59 AM, Atop said:

  On 5/19/2011 at 6:22 AM, halisray said:

  On 5/18/2011 at 11:22 PM, jim said:

Notes from the Underground- Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamazov- Dostoevsky

King Lear- Shakespeare

Ulysses- Joyce

Peer Gynt- Ibsen

 

Two are plays but why split hairs.

You seriously read this?

 

I call fake.

 

Amazingly enough, some people have actually read this novel.

 

I think he's probably done confused it with Finnegan's wake.

This is where I come over all Joyce-pedant and tell you off for using an apostrophe. But yeah, I haven't finished the Wake. But I'm not sure it's meant to be read start-to-finish, cover-to-cover either.

This is exciting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtOQi7xspRc

  On 5/19/2011 at 1:49 PM, Iain C said:

  On 5/19/2011 at 1:47 PM, jim said:

  On 5/19/2011 at 6:59 AM, Atop said:

  On 5/19/2011 at 6:22 AM, halisray said:

  On 5/18/2011 at 11:22 PM, jim said:

Notes from the Underground- Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamazov- Dostoevsky

King Lear- Shakespeare

Ulysses- Joyce

Peer Gynt- Ibsen

 

Two are plays but why split hairs.

You seriously read this?

 

I call fake.

 

Amazingly enough, some people have actually read this novel.

 

I think he's probably done confused it with Finnegan's wake.

 

This is where I come over all Joyce-pedant and tell you off for using an apostrophe. But yeah, I haven't finished the Wake. But I'm not sure it's meant to be read start-to-finish, cover-to-cover either.

 

This is exciting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtOQi7xspRc

My bad. I've bought a copy a few years ago but I don't know if I'll ever have the energy to read it. I don't think you're wrong to read it piecemeal but it's supposed to go round in a circle with the first and last lines of the book being the second and first half respectively of the same sentence, which implies that it should at least be read in the order...

Well, I always assumed that as a circular novel, you can just jump in anywhere and that there's no officially sanctioned start or end point. But yeah, I just dip in and out of it - the fact that my copy is in three little volumes the size of a pack of fags sort of discourages long-term reading too.

I've noticed very few female writers in these lists. I'm guilty of that, too. So here are five great books from women:

Surfacing - Margaret Attwood

Ariel - Sylvia Plath

Collected poems - Emily Dickinson

Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

the fragments of Sappho (classical literature would make another good list)

Notes of a Dirty Old Man - Bukowski

Junkie - Burroughs

Frankenstein - Shelley

Christiane F: Autobiography of a Girl of the Streets and Heroin Addict

The Road - McCarthy

have to add:

All I Need Is Love - Kinski

  On 5/19/2011 at 3:27 PM, Captain James Mission said:

Frankenstein - Shelley

I considered this for my girly list. I don't normally like 19th century novels, but this is a huge exception.

  On 5/19/2011 at 2:52 PM, Iain C said:

Mrs. Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

One of my favourites (writer, and book)