If you had to recommend to someone else the 3 best books you have ever read, what would they be, and why?
Velvet Elvis - Rob Bell The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky The Witching Hour -Anne Rice EDIT: Charles Dickens is probably my favorite author. I read A Christmas Carol every year. I suppose that counts as a book, though it's very short. That would displace Witching Hour for me.
The Illuminatus Trilogy. The Eye in the Pyramid, The Golden Apple and Leviathan. By Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea.
I like Brothers Karamazov too. One of my fav. English novels I would pick... Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand Hamlet - Shakespeare Lord of the Rings - JRR Toklien
The Count of Monte Cristo The Great Gatsby I can't think of a third individual book that stands out to me right now.
Dune - Frank Herbert, great example of an author building a completely fictitious and extremely detailed world and setting an amazing story within it Shōgun - James Clavell, historical novel that exposes a foreign culture to a western perspective, Clavell is also a writer that writes sentences that make me stop and think what a work of art that sentence was Double Whammy - Carl Hiaasen, comedy that exposes that essence of Southern living, bass fishing and religious TV empires, should be required reading for anybody moving to the South
Playing for Keeps - David Halberstam, he writes about MJ and how everything came together for him in an improbable short time period, i loved it; if you like basketball you'll like it, plus it's halberstam, they call him one of the greatest, if not the greatest non-fiction writer of all time Harry Potter 7 - reading the last 300 pages was probaly one of the 5 most pleasant times of my life War and Peace - because if you ever try re reding it, it's really just like reading 3 or 4 books in 1
Very tough to narrow it down like that. I guess I would say: The Beautiful and Damned - It's a classic and there's such a way with words in this book, that I'm amazed reading it through a second and third time. (I almost never read books more than once, or at least not whole books. This was different.) The characters are great, charming, sad, funny, and it has a very novel idea for a story. It's about two people's struggle to avoid doing any work, or anything very meaningful. It's funny in that tragic kind of way. The Three Musketeers/Man in the Iron Mask - If they could only read one book I would say The Three Musketeers. It has intrigue, a gripping plot, and paints a great historical picture. If they could read the whole five volume series, then The Man in the Iron Mask is the best of the books. But on it's own it isn't as good as the Three Musketeers. I guess I would say Don Quixote - The books is absolutely hysterical. It is one of the funniest things I've ever read, and it was written hundreds of years ago. It has great tales, and is a classic that should have you laughing almost non-stop. This was tough because I would also have liked to say - The Sun Also Rises, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, A Catcher in the Rye, Breakfast of Champions, A Separate Peace, Confederacy of Dunces, On the Road, etc. These could also all be in my top three, on another day or if I was in a different mood, perhaps.
I'm gonna punt a little bit on this one and break it into two different categories: most enjoyable reads and most rewarding reads. In my mind there are some books that are page-turners, that you are totally sucked into by the gripping story and they are incredibly entertaining. But like a lot of movies, they aren't as great the second time around, you know what's going to happen and that lack of tension/curiosity sucks the magic out of them. Other books are rewarding reads, you can go back to them again and again and there are passages that you can recall that let you appreciate life a little bit more, or give you comfort in times of difficulty. So here are my two lists. Entertaining reads: 1. The Godfather - My ex-girlfriend read the book first and couldn't stand the movie because it paled in comparison to Puzzo's masterpiece. I can see her point, and the Godfather is one of the greatest movies in American cinema. The thing I found the most interesting about the book was the way that Puzzo traced out the nuances of Sicillian culture and sense of honor, and how even though I'd seen the movie I still wasn't quite sure where the plotting would lead them. 2. Dune - I read this while my friends and I were traveling through Europe. I staid up 'til 4 in the morning one night in Barcelona to finish it. The climactic scene was so intense that I had to put the book down every few pages I was so wired. Muad'Dib! Muad'Dib! Muad'Dib! 3. A Fan's Notes - Exley is brilliant, this is a must read for anyone whose ever battled self indulgence, or been a little too addicted to a sports team. Rewarding reads: 1. The Gay Science - Nietzsche's masterpiece is still the most articulate, passionate, and moving defense of the beauty of life from life. Nietzsche is so misunderstood by so many people. The mans loved life so much that he often had to quarantine himself in his room because "my eyes were inflamed—from what? Each time, I had wept too much on my previous day's walk, not sentimental tears but tears of joy; I sang and talked nonsense, filled with a glimpse of things which put me in advance of all other men." He fought through the wracking pain of migraines, the piercing sting of failing eyes, the cramping cold of a poorly warmed room, and the pangs of oncoming madness to write some of the most beautiful prose and brilliant philosophy the world has ever seen. Every person whose interested in becoming a human being should read this book. 2. Winesburg, Ohio - Anderson's collection of short stories is a beautiful portrait of restless adolescence in a small midwestern town. Reading this book in high school was what convinced me to be an English major. The short story "Sophistication" is still my favorite short story of all time. 3. Ulysses - It's long, and god it's hard at times, but Joyce's opus is worth the effort. And there are reading guides out there to help. All the sweat is worth it over an author that can pull off passages like this one: "Meanwhile the skill and patience of the physician had brought about a happy accouchement. It had been a weary weary while both for patient and doctor. All that surgical skill could do was done and the brave woman had manfully helped. She had. She had fought the good fight and now she was very very happy. Those who have passed on, who have gone before, are happy too as they gaze down and smile upon the touching scene. Reverently look at her as she reclines there with the motherlight in her eyes, that longing hunger for baby fingers (a pretty sight it is to see), in the first bloom of her new motherhood, breathing a silent prayer of thanksgiving to One above, the Universal Husband. And as her loving eyes behold her babe she wishes only one blessing more, to have her dear Doady there with her to share her joy, to lay in his arms that mite of God's clay, the fruit of their lawful embraces. He is older now (you and I may whisper it) and a trifle stooped in the shoulders yet in the whirligig of years a grave dignity has come to the conscientious second accountant of the Ulster bank, College Green branch. O Doady, loved one of old, faithful lifemate now, it may never be again, that faroff time of the roses! With the old shake of her pretty head she recalls those days. God, how beautiful now across the mist of years! But their children are grouped in her imagination about the bedside, hers and his, Charley, Mary Alice, Frederick Albert (if he had lived), Mamy, Budgy (Victoria Frances), Tom, Violet Constance Louisa, darling little Bobsy (called after our famous hero of the South African war, lord Bobs of Waterford and Candahar) and now this last pledge of their union, a Purefoy if ever there was one, with the true Purefoy nose. Young hopeful will be christened Mortimer Edward after the influential third cousin of Mr Purefoy in the Treasury Remembrancer's office, Dublin Castle. And so time wags on: but father Cronion has dealt lightly here. No, let no sigh break from that bosom, dear gentle Mina. And Doady, knock the ashes from your pipe, the seasoned briar you still fancy when the curfew rings for you (may it be the distant day!) and dout the light whereby you read in the Sacred Book for the oil too has run low and so with a tranquil heart to bed, to rest. He knows and will call in His own good time. You too have fought the good fight and played loyally your man's part. Sir, to you my hand. Well done, thou good and faithful servant!"
Good stuff, Franchise. Here's mine: The Lord of the Rings Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. With Rings and Alice, you've gotta read all three of Rings and both of the Alice books. Its incomplete without doing so. Besides, Rings was intended as a novel, and was broken down into a trilogy anyway.
Blood Meridian - or The Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy Physics and Philosophy by Werner Heisenberg The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
the art of war- by sun tzu: Because you must always be prepared for an invasion. Plus, You can apply the tactics to anything... sports, relationships, and life Paula- by isabel allende: A sad memoir. In it, isabel tells her daughter paula everything she never had a chance to say. Her family reminds me of mine. The shadow of the wind by carlos zafon- a great novel from start to finish. I felt like the kid from the never ending story when I was reading this book. the time traveler's wife by audrey niffenegger- I'm a sucker with anything that involves time travel and true love as themes. I know that's four and not three, and I didn't even include 1984
Wow, lotta deep books! Forgive me if my taste is lacking and not as refined as others (see airbullard's post ) 1. life of pi 2. 5 people you meet in heaven 3. catcher in the rye Currently reading kite runner and it's really good. Not one of those "best of all time books" but yeah, its entertaining so far.
Just three? Can I just list the ones that I re-read often? The Bible - Various Authors inspired by God Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee Where the Red Fern Grows - Wilson Rawls Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Taming of the Shrew- Shakespeare
