I noticed things fall apart is mentioned a lot. Interesting is that the title of that book was inspired by WB Yates poem, The Second Coming, which also inspired one of my books as well Joan Didion's Slouching Toward Bethlehem. Here's the poem: THE SECOND COMING Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand; A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency Breakfast of Champions Brothers Karamazov The House at Pooh Corner Nine Stories Cathedral Grendel Invisible Cities Never Let Me Go The Lorax Norwegian Wood The Metamorphosis
The book thief is a very inventive, modern book. The guy knows how to write. I'm surprised that Infinite Jest hasn't been mentioned. It is a modern book of some renown.
I read the entire Kay collection this year and wrote up a summary in the What Are You Reading? thread. Tigana was a damn fine book, but I think he's written 3 or 4 books that are even better. The Book Thief was such an incredibly powerful book with such rich characters and scenes that stick with you long after you read the book. You should check out I Am the Messenger. The ending was subpar, but the rest of the book was pretty excellent. Zusak has a new novel called Bridge of Clay supposedly coming out in 2012. It's probably my most anticipated novel of next year. Infinite Jest sounds interesting. Might have to check that one out.
Considering it's already page 2, I'm guessing everyone agrees? I'm not into reading novels. Last novel I've read was Sophie's World for my Introduction to Philosophy class.
I see I've found the "Ooooh... look at all the big, classic books I've read" thread. I read a wide range of genres that have impacted me in different ways. 15 seems like a strange number, but I'll roll with it anyways. In no particular order: Night by Elie Wiesel How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger Generation X by Douglas Coupland Scientific Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley The Invisible Gorilla by Christopher Chabris Beowulf (I just always found it to be a badass story) No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer Life of Pi by Yann Martel The Power of Less by Leo Babauta Daemon by Daniel Suarez The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan
Ok, really, top 10: 1. The Grapes of Wrath 2. And Then There Were None 3. What Color is Your Parachute 4. 1984 5. Macbeth (ok, not a book, but I'm including it) 6. Wise Blood 7. Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung 8. The Wind in the Willows 9. Crime and Punishment 10. Green Eggs and Ham
Trainspotting Everything Is Illuminated Fight Club Brave New World Catch-22 A Confederacy of Dunces Still Life with Woodpecker High Fidelity The Count of Monte Cristo The Sound and the Fury 1984 The Road The Corrections Glue A Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy Jitterbug Perfume
Books are too hard! I'll just do writers that have shaped my outlook on life. In no particular order (and more than 15): William Shakespeare Tom Robbins Frank Zappa Lennon & McCartney Robert Frost Kahlil Gibran Edgar Allan Poe Uta Hagen Hunter Thompson Konstantin Stanislavski Tennessee Williams Ernest Hemingway The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers – AKA Gilbert Shelton Stella Adler John Steinbeck Ray Bradbury Sanford Meisner Walt Whitman Eugene O'Neill Bob Dylan Aldous Huxley Carlos Castaneda
Playboy Penthouse Hustler Juggs High Society Celebrity Skin Victoria's Secret Catalog Glamor Sear's Catalog Teen Steam Girls Gone Wild: The Magazine Dare Dorm Monthly Publication Spank Spicy Latinas Wal Mart Catalog
It's an interesting question, and once I started thinking about it, it wasn't easy to come up with 15 *books*.. I think what I wound up doing growing up was to latch onto certain authors whose books I liked and just tried to read everything I could by that author until I had exhausted their works. So there are actually not all that many books I have read which were not part of some kind of series, or part of a greater whole narrative, that kind of thing. (speaking of, did no one mention Lord of the Rings? Maybe I missed it, oh well, I could only get about halfway through the second book myself, lol, it was just plain boring to me) However, that said, let's see.. I'll group this by author Douglas Adams - The 5 books in the HitchHiker's Trilogy, as well as both of the Dirk Gently books, which, to be totally honest, I think are superior to HitchHiker's, but they are all mad genius Anne Rice - Out of all of the books she has written (even including the ones she wrote under other names), I would have to say that Memnoch the Devil and The Mummy were the two best, although the sagas of the vampires and the witches are absolutely sublime at every turn. Tom Clancy - Red Storm Rising is still my favorite, but while I have not followed his books as much as I used to (I think Debt of Honor was the last one I read), they have all been just amazing. Isaac Asimov - the I, Robot series, and the Foundation series were just.. essential. Arthur C Clarke - Childhood's End and the Rama series still stick with me, the images and concepts there, even now, 40, 50 years old and more, still seems modern and futuristic, which is to me the hallmark of truly great science fiction. JK Rowling - Ok, most of you who read books probably read all of hers, even if you don't admit it. She was like Clancy, just a regular person who all of a sudden has these massive books just sort of spring forth from inside her, and they are astounding. Dan Brown - Not sure why people like to hate on Brown - his books are some of the most pure fun reading ever. L Ron Hubbard - Ok look, say whatever you want about Hubbard (and believe me, there is probably nobody on this board who despises scientology as much as me, so I get it), BUT.. when Hubbard's brain was screwed on correctly, the man was a damn fine writer. Battlefield Earth is one of the best epic yarns I have ever read, and I have read it through probably five times now. AND, the 'Mission Earth' series, all TEN BOOKS, are some of the funniest, most sly biting satire you will ever find. Don't buy them new, buy them used, so you don't send more money to that criminal cult, but read the books, they are awesome. Haven't done nearly as much reading over the last few years as I should have, I know there are a lot of new books worth reading, as well as some classics I have always meant to pick up and slog through. Thanks for this thread, it makes me more determined to make the time to read more.
