I'd like to back up RM95's claim of IN COLD BLOOD by Truman Capote -- awesome! also: Cormac McCarthy's "All the Pretty Horses" or the greats: Canturbury Tales BEOWULF Walden Le Morte D'Arthur (excellent read!!!) ------------------ "Up and down, inside out, outside in, some you lose some you win" -- DMB -> "Sweet Up and Down"
Achebe, That is hilarious, are you trying to get him killed? Tales of Ordinary Madness by Bukoswki is one of my favorites... Dostoevsky: Brothers Karamazov - one of the most important books ever written Notes from Underground - existentialist masterpiece ----------- I hate Hemmingway Keroac was the most unimportant of the Beats Vonnegut: Cat's Cradle - a good, light read...I liked it better than Slaughterhouse 5 My wife loves Salman Rushdie Paul Bowles: A Distant Episode Tolstoy: Anna Karinina - my favorite of his. Any Kafka Jean Genet: The Thief's Journal Danielle Steele! ------------------ Whitey will pay.
Bathroom reading material rimmy? LOL! Burning in Water Drowning in Flames my favorite bukoswki ------------------ Everything you do, effects everything that is. [This message has been edited by mc mark (edited May 08, 2001).]
Wow! I opened the thread because I wanted to suggest Hemmingway, but I see he has been well-discussed already. For the record, I'd pick The Sun also Rises over A Farewell to Arms, but you can't go wrong with either. His best might be The Old Man and the Sea, but it is short-story length. Of course, if you haven't read Douglas Adams, you're missing out. I don't know if Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is considered a classic, but it should be. ------------------ I'm about to boldly go where many men have gone before.
My turn! Other than the book Rimy suggested (Jean Genet: The Thief's Journal), what other important French writers should one be familiar with? The only one I know of off the top of my head is Alexandre Dumas'The Count of Monte Cristo and Victor Hugo' "Les Miserables". Pretty lame huh? ------------------ Everything you do, effects everything that is. [This message has been edited by mc mark (edited May 09, 2001).]
mc mark, Marcel Proust: Swann in Love, Swann's way, etc.... Camus: The Stranger, The Fall, etc Sartre: Nausea, his plays... Henri Barbusse: Hell George Sand Stendhal: The Red and the Black Simone de Beauvoir Emile Zola: Germinal, etc... Andre Gide: The Immoralist The Counterfeiters... ------------------ Whitey will pay.
One of the best war books I've ever read has to be "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien. Very, very powerful. Also, "Midnight's Children" by Salman Rushdie was very interesting. "The Magus" by Tom Fowles was a very gripping read, but also kinda wierded me out a little bit. But, if you're looking for something a lot lighter, I would always ALWAYS recommend Dave Barry. "DB Slept Here", "DB's Guide to Guys" and "DB in Cyberspace" are three of the funniest things I have ever read. And I don't even have a sense of humor! ------------------ [This message has been edited by Rockets Fan Trapped In MN (edited May 09, 2001).]
I have always enjoyed Hugo, as well as, Orwell. CK ------------------ CC.Net Sim Homepage For stats standings and team information.
1984 and Animal Farm by George Orwell. Both are great. 1984 is my ultimate nightmare! I loved Crime and Punishment and Tale of Two Cities. I'm reading An Angel in the Whirlwind right now...it's about the American Revolution. Fantastic read!! If you like biography, George Washington: The Indispensible Man, is fantastic. ------------------
Wow! Another Calvino lover! I've read about 10 of his books and love them all. If you're ever in the mood for some absurdist writing that is a tremendous amount of fun check out Cosmicomics, a collection of short stories about the evolution of the universe, the earth, and life. My favorite Calvino book is If On A Winter's Night A Traveller. It's an amazing book with about 10 chapters all written in a different style, with interludes talking about a quest for the mysterious reader (you) trying to put it all together. Awesome book! My favorite beat author is Ken Kesey. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is his most famous book but I love Sometimes a Great Notion even more. Have fun reading, Frank. Never stop. ------------------
French writer/philosopher: Voltaire: Candide The Philosophy of History (excellent) The Ignorant Philosopher The Sage and the Atheist ------------------ "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."- (Aldous Huxley)
Oh, a couple classics that I forgot, The Iliad and the Oddessy, both by Homer and the Divine Comedy, by Dante ------------------ You can't stick a porcupine in a barn, light it on fire, and expect to get licorice.
Isn't The Count of Monte Cristo about some overrated Nebraska quarterback? ------------------ www.swirve.com "Pre-born, you're fine, pre-school, you're f*****."-George Carlin
I was on an airplane recently and the person next to me asked what I was reading and then I asked him the same. He responded with <u>The Count of Monte Cristo</u>. The French version! I though that was amazing because that book is incredibly long! He said that he picked up the language after taking a few community college courses and going to Paris for a little while. His explanation of the book was great and it does sound like something I'd like to read sometime. ------------------ "...just because a clever person can complicate the discussion about the truth doesn't necessarily mean he or she is making any progress in finding it."
Frank I think Dumas also wrote The Three Musketeers ------------------ Everything you do, effects everything that is.
In classics, I enjoyed Russian works such as 'The Brothers Karamazov' and 'Crime and Punishment'. Other works of classics I like are 'The Decameron', 'Inferno' and 'Paradise Lost'. For something more contemporary, I have enjoyed The Foundation novels by Asimov and the Lord of the Rings trilogy by Tolkien. Also I enjoy some of the pop novels by Clancy - guess I like all the techno-babble in them ------------------
Good thread and some excellent choices! Here are some of my favorites not already listed. "The Master and the Margarita" by Nicholai Buglakov..that this was the inspiration of the Rolling Stones' "Sympathy for the Devil" is only the smallest accolade for this brilliant and entertaining book...I'll stop commenting now... "The Tin Drum" by Gunther Grass. "I, Claudius," and "Claudius the God" by Robert Graves. "You Can't Go Home Again" and "Look Homeward, Angel," Thomas Wolfe All works by J.D. Salinger, Jane Austen, Gore Vidal, Dostoyevsky (particularly "The Brothers Karamazov,") Kurt Vonnegurt ("Mother Night," especially) and Don DeLillo. Non-fiction: The Peter Guralink bigraphies of Elvis Presley, The first two Robert Caro biographies of LBJ, the Shelby Foote Civil War series and The Autobiography of Malcom X..for starters! -Elvis! ------------------
For pure fun try these titles: "Eight" By Katherine Neville "Sahara" Clive Cussler "Treasure" Clive Cussler Thomas Covenent series by Stepen Donaldson "River God" Wilbur Smith "Sevent Scroll" Wilbur Smith Heck there are too many to list....these are all good reads. DaDakota ------------------ If you like RTS games, check out this one. www.frontierwars.com coming soon to a PC near you.
Not a classic, but I thought very interesting and original was Cavern's of Socrates by Dennis L McKiernan. It is kind of a mix between sci-fi and fantasy. I thought the ending was really cool. ------------------ You can't stick a porcupine in a barn, light it on fire, and expect to get licorice.
