BEST: The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco Watership Down - Richard Adams To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee Honorable mention: 1984 - George Orwell MOST OVERRATED Apologies to those who love them: A Separate Peace - John Knowles: Possibly the most boring book ever written. The Catcher In The Rye - J.D. Salinger: The nugget of a great character study ruined by stream-of-consciousness crap and a "hero" who is so repugnant as both a person and a character that you have trouble feeling any sympathy for him. The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway: Wallows in self-indulgence and machismo.
War and... ah who am I kidding The first Harry Potter Book. The first Left Behind Book. How to be a Playa: Catch and Release. (j/k).
1. The Analects - Classic. Widsom of a lifetime spoken in plain words. Takes 100 times of reading to uncover the meanings underneath. 2. Norwegian Wood - By Japanese writer Murakami Haruki. Original. Music of words. Haruki rocks. 3. ?
I think classics are classics for a reason. It's not like Robert James Waller, or John Grisham quite have the same way with words as a Fitzgerald, or Nabokov.
1984 Orwell The Island- Aldous Huxley Ender's Game- Orson Scott Card I really liked The Autonarrative Biography of Fredrick Douglass. He nailed down chilling insights of Slave era America.
Fiction: The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemmingway Non-Fiction: The Four Agreements - Don Miguel Ruiz Dharma Punx - Noah Levine The Punch - John Feinstein
Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison. The most important book concerning American Culture. Btw, I'll argue this point for point, so don't try me. :smile: Tristram Shandy - Laurence Stern. One of the most innovated and hilariously funny novels ever. A novel about the novel. If you haven't witness Stern's sense of humor, you don't know what you are missing. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad. This book has a wealth of information and is still relevant today. Seriously I probably can't think of another book that has been more influential to other artists than this little book. It is controversial. Chinua Achebe called it racist and tried to devalue the novel as a masterpiece. He even wrote his own classic to counteract the influence, things fall apart. As has been said, it influenced Apocalypse Now. A wonderful book.
Fiction: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Jesus' Childhood Best Friend - Chris Moore Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut Big Red Tequila - Rick Riordan Non-fiction: The Last Amateurs - John Feinstein Under the Banner of Heaven - Jon Krakauer Burning Rainbow Farm: How a Stoner Utopia Went Up in Smoke - Dean Kuppers
The Fellowship of the Ring The Two Towers Return of the king Perhaps they can be called 1 book, although they are 3 separate ones. I also loved The Hobbit.
ha i own all three of these books and have not read any of them. actually its really not that funny. as far as mine: 1 enders game Orson Scott Card 2 maclom x autobiography 3 the fountain head Ayn Rand very hard to do. even more so then favorite movies or albums
too bad your "repugnant" character in catcher in the rye is the exact reason so many people love that book is because they see parts of themselves in the character. what can you do ??
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut Catch-22 - Joseph Heller honorable mentions: Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman - Richard Feynman Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth - Chris Ware Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess 1984 - George Orwell Einstein's Dreams - Alan Lightman
East of Eden The Fountainhead Confederacy of Dunces I am a HUGE fan of Classic novels/plays/poems, anything Steinbeck, Dickens, Blake, Shakespeare, Faulkner, all good stuff. My favorite contemporary book is The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
Pride and Prejudice.....the one book I wish were longer. Lonesome Dove.....I'm not a big fan of westerns, but this was much more than that. Misery....I found myself laughing a lot at the guy's situation. I wish King would write another story with this kind of twisted humor.
Shadow by Bob Woodward This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff Liars' Club by Mary Kay Karr How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young
I know what you are talking about: the parallel saga books about Bean. They were awesome reads and I enjoyed all of them thoroughly, but I have to say that they weren't EPIC! Ender's Game was fresh, unique, and the story was something that (at least I believe) future generations will read and enjoy. Completely unlike any book I had read to that point or have read since. Props, though, for continuing w/ the saga, Speaker For The Dead was something else!
