<a href="http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x318/francisfan111/?action=view¤t=albundy.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x318/francisfan111/albundy.jpg" border="0" alt="Al Bundy"></a>
That's a tough one. I'll take the copout route and answer by saying I've enjoyed several series. The Harry Potter series, Enders Game and Enders shadow series spinoff, The Dark Tower series, High Druid of Shannara, The Dune Series, The Takeshi Kovacs, and the Halo series have all been great. Actually looking back though, there were a few outstanding books. Kite Runner was just so real and accurate that it made me feel like I was there. The class struggles, just what war does to a poverty-ridden country, and general moral obligations to humanity all opened my eyes. Nelson Mandela's autobiography was incredibly powerful as well , so I'd say in terms of just one book it 's a tie between Kite Runner and Mandela's autobiography.
I'm in the early stages of working on a show so I have 4 that I have been picking up and putting down over the past month. The Ghost Sonata - August Srtindberg / Meyer Translation Stella Adler on Ibsen Strindberg and Checkov - Stella Adler Strindberg's The Ghost Sonata - Egil Tornqvist Strindberg and the five senses - Hans-Goran Ekman The last two have very different takes on the show. I read them and then the play and ruminate on it for a bit before I pick up the other. In the same vein, I have also been reading: The Night Of The Tribades - Per Olov Enquist (A play about Strindberg) Open Letters to The Intimate Theater - August Strindberg / Johnson Translation
Great book, and one my wife's favorites. We were just having a discussion last night about our favorite books. Here's a baker's dozen. I could never narrow it down to just 1 book, but the best book I've read the past 5 years is #1 on my list, and its sequel is the most keenly anticipated book on my radar. 1) Shadow of the wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon 2) Matthew Corbett Series (Speaks the Nighbird; Queen of Bedlam) - Robert McCammon 3) Mordant's Need Series (Mirror of Her Dreams; A Man Rides Through) - Stephen R. Donaldson 4) Pastwatch - Orson Scott Card 5) Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card 6) Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke 7) The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger 8) The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova 9) The Book Thief - Markus Zusak 10) Kingkiller Chronicles (Name of the Wind) - Patrick Rothfuss 11) Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett 12) Gap Series (Real Story; Forbidden Knowlege; A Dark and Hungry God Arises; Chaos and Order; This Day All Gods Die) - Stephen R. Donaldson 13) The Sparrow - Maria Doria Russell Old time schlock favorite series would be Harry Potter, David Edding's The Belgariad and Mallorean, and pretty much anything by Lloyd Alexander, particularly his Pyrdain Chronicles. A few of these series (#1, #10) have started out great and could be epic, but they're not complete so the jury is still out.
How is that? I've been meaning to go pick it up, but I just haven't dragged myself to the book store or anything. Are the details and stuff vivid, or is it more about the mood surrounding the characters more than the actual zombies themselves?
That's tough...I have about 10-15 I'll just pick one randomly Everything's Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Don't let the thread title limit your list. Give us all 10-15. I'm always intrigued to hear what other people have enjoyed reading. The Foer book sounds awesome. I just put it on my buy list. My book collection is ever-growing...
I wish I had an infinite amount (or for that matter a large amount) of money. I'd have thousands of books and I'd probably read less than 20% of them, but it'd be awesome just having so many books I think I enjoy having tons of books more so than reading then even, lol. Man it'd be sweet to have a library sized collection of books.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by JS Foer Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh Glue by Irvine Welsh Porno by Irvine Welsh Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins Perfume by Patrick Suskind Atonement by Ian McEwan The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen Brave New World by Aldous Huxley The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey The Road by Cormac McCarthey The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner The World According to Garp by John Irvine Light In August by William Faulkner 1984 by George Orwell The Beach by Alex Garland Survivor, Choke by Chuck Palahniuk Edit: also The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (but only the first two books)
I used to buy everything new, but I do most of my shopping at used book stores these days, which lets me pick quite a few more. I wish I had an infinite amount of time. I read a ton, and I'm also a very fast reader. But there's never enough time to read all I want. I know what you mean about having tons you haven't read. I probably have 100 books that are on my bookshelves that haven't been read. I will get to them in time, but I like having options when I finish reading something. Maybe I want to read a similar genre or something different or a book someone recommended. Of course I also enjoy just owning them all. It is pretty sweet. I do at least cycle out books I didn't care for and will never read again to sell to a used book store or even give them away. I used to stockpile them all regardless of quality, but a half dozen moves broke me of that habit (particularly after I had to carry them up to my office on the fourth floor of our townhome). I'm stoked because my father-in-law is going to build some custom bookcases for my office that will completely fill one wall.
This book was excellent. It isn't epic by any means. It won't change the way the world turns. But as far as fictional writing goes, it is superb. Detailed, intriguing, vivid, the list goes on. It really almost makes you believe something like this is possible. Give it a look. You wont want to put it down.
"Inspired by Anderson's Midwestern boyhood and his adulthood in early 20th-century Chicago, this volume gave birth to the American story cycle, for which Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and later writers were forever indebted. Defying the prudish sensibilities of his time, Anderson embraced frankness and truth. Here we meet all those whose portraits brought the American short story into the modern age." (link) "[This book] mirrors all of Nietzsche's thought and could be related in hundreds of ways to his other books, his notes, and his letters. And yet it is complete in itself. For it is a work of art." (link)
