Favourite 10 books

[christine]

There is a thread called your top 5 books, but even if you contributed to this , it was 2006-2008 so I guess people have read a lot more in the intervening years.
So if you had to take only 10 books/graphic novels with you if you were stranded on a desert island what would you take? Books that comforted you and reminded you of home? Books that you never got round to reading? Books to challenge your brain during those long lonely days? What do those books mean to you?

I think mine would be old familiar ones to act like a comfort blanket.
I'd take :
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez touches me as a love story that lasts for decades and only blossoms when the couple are very old.

Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. I love this book for its brilliant characters and the way the book is a complete circle of Owen's remarkable life.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. This one reminds me of childhood and reading it with my mum. Although I read it recently and the melodramatic feverishness of some of the descriptions made me smile, it still has a lot of memories.

A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas reminds me of Christmas with my kids. We read it as a bedtime story in the weeks before Christmas for quite a few years .

My Fathers Glory and My Mothers Castle* by Marcel Pagnol. I read these in French for my A level exams, and shortly after I went to live in the French countryside for a year. These books are so evocative as Pagnol's autobiography, but also as that time in my life.

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. This one is a massive fat novel so it will take up lots of time on the island! But it's also an epic family story that takes in parts of Indian history around the time of independence.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Every time I read this book I can never get it out of my head for days. Steinbeck's depiction of the struggles of migrant workers is a reflection of the same thing that happens all over the world.

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. Love this story of Emma a woman longing for a more exciting life but married to solid and boring Charles. So well written you can see both points of view and feel sorry for both. Very sad.

The Stand by Stephen King. This one was the first one I read of his books, and still remains my favourite. I love a post apocalyptic tale and this one has all the characters, as well as wonderful baddies.

Wild Swans by Jung Chang. This book is probably my favourite of all. The story of Jung's own family which takes us through Chinese history from her grandmother who was a concubine, through the Long March, the Cultural Revolution and the frightening times of the torture of intellectuals and 'class struggles'. Then onto the death of Mao and the opening up of China. All the history of the 20th century in China is presented here in the form of three remarkable generations. Fantastic storytelling.

*sorry this is cheating a little as they're two books really but you can get them in one autobiographical volume. Actually there's four books but I won't push it ;)

[linespalsy]

Today it'd be these. They're not in any order but 6-10 might be different on another day.

Moby Dick
Anna Karenina
The Box Man
Hamlet
King Lear
Riddley Walker
Orson Welles: Volume 2: Hello Americans
The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
Objectivity Is Not Neutrality: Explanatory Schemes in History
Treasure Island

(bumped Watt and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep for the two nonfiction as per my second sentence).

No graphic novels made the cut, but here are ten that might come close.

Arigatou
Jimbo Adventures in Paradise
Domu / or Akira. Kind of depends on if I'm in the mood for something more streamlined or sprawlingly epic.
From Hell (The Watchmen would also make it but I've read it probably enough times for one life)
Thimble Theatre (the Popeye strips)
Pogo
Hokusai's Mount Fuji: The Complete Views in Color
Believers
Elektra: Assassin / or Hate by Peter Bagge. This would be a coin-toss.
Parasyte / or Dr. Slump. Another coin-toss.

[Godoggo]

I've got to think about mine for a bit,but I just wanted to say that you have excellent tastes in books, Christine. :)

[Powdered Water]

Great thread!

I'd definitely have a copy of Moby Dick as well. I was just thinking about reading it again just the other day. Possibly the finest book ever written. I also would have a Stephen King but it would be difficult to have just one. His Gunslinger series is the best series of books I've ever read, but if I could only pick one King book I would have to go with The Stand as well.

The rest in no particular order.

Flood
The Bannerman Solution
Point of Impact
Job: A Comedy of Justice
Stranger in a Strange Land
Crime and Punishment
Ender's Game
Robin Hood

[linespalsy]

Hmmm. Here were my top five in 2006 from that other thread Christine mentioned.

Watt
Lolita
The Box Man
Moby-Dick
Temple of the Golden Pavillion

As mentioned previously Watt came close to making it again but I haven't read it in the years between threads. I'm probably a bit more likely to do so sooner than Lolita or Temple of the Golden Pavillion anyhow, but then again I'm probably even more likely to re-read some other books than Watt (including another Beckett novel, Molloy). Not sure why Hamlet didn't make it the first time, as I'd certainly read it at least a couple of times by then. And a few more since as well. Maybe I just wasn't counting plays then.

All the others on my new list are ones I've only read in the last 8 years except for Treasure Island, which I re-read for the first time since I was a kid last year.

[The Sci-Fi Slob]

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
1984 by George Orwell
Under The Dome by Stephen King
Childhoods End by Arthur C. Clarke
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Neuromancer by William Gibson
The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Foundation by Issac Asimov
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

[Godoggo]

The Blind Assassin~ Margaret Atwood I could not put this down the first time I read it. I lived and breathed this book I was so caught up in it. It's such a fantastic book.
The Talisman ~ Stephen King & Peter Straub I don't know what it is about this book, but every so often I just have to read it again. I think this book kick-started my love affair with "other worlds. "
The Witching Hour ~ Anne Rice I am obsessed with this book. It's the first of the trilogy and unfortunately the last two aren't very good. This one though, wow. I love the dArk, spooky gothic feel of it. The history of the house and the family is incredible. I've searched everywhere for a book like it, but nothing has come close.
Beloved ~ Toni Morrison Toni Morrison writes like no other. It's dark and harsh and emotionally engaging.
Skinny Legs and All ~Tom Robbins It's absurd and funny and also deeply emotional and touching. It's the best adventure story about a spoon, dirty sock and a can of beans ever written.
To Kill a Mockingbird ~ Harper Lee The book equivalent of my favorite holey sweater.
American Tabloid ~ James Ellroy Also the first of a trilogy, but this time all three are great. This is the best of the bunch. Ellroy has a distinct rapid fire style that you will love or hate. He has the best characters and rewrites one of the most interesting periods in American history.
Breakfast of Champions ~ Kurt Vonnegut I couldn't live without a Vonnegut book and this is the one I would choose. I love Vonnegut because he has this way of fully bringing to life every single character in his novel in a way no other writer can. Even the briefest appearing characters exist for their own purpose and not for the sake of the novel.
The Great and Secret Show ~Clive Barker Another author I could not live without. Talk about "other worlds" Barker is a master at creating them.
A Song of Ice and Fire ~ George RR Martin Yes, I'm cheating, but you can't just bring one. These books are a big juicy fantasy soap opera.

[christine]

Lines and PW, all these years and I've never read Moby Dick. I should really find it now. Lines - I haven't read that many graphic novels but From Hell is one I have read and found it mesmerising. Treasure Island is a favourite of mine too., as is Sci-fi's choice of 1984 and Of Mice and Men. Did you read those at school? I think if you like reading and read stuff early enough like we often need to do for GCSE or A levels, those texts really imprint themselves on you. That's what happened with me and The Grapes of Wrath.

Go - you have similar tastes to me :) , except I'm not keen on fantasy stuff. Love the Blind Assassin, Beloved, and James Ellroy's books. It was with great reluctance I had to leave off To Kill a Mockingbird, it was my 11th choice. I always smile when I see Clive Barker's name cos I went to the same primary and secondary schools as him in Liverpool, although he's five years older than me. We shared the same extraordinary, beloved and slightly eccentric English teacher who was an influence on every kid he ever taught. He made kids understand Shakespeare, (an amazing feat with some of us scallies!)

[Godoggo]

Oh that's so cool. For some reason, Clive Barker is one of the only famous people I've ever wanted to meet. Even if I were to only have shared a teacher with him, I would be over the moon about that.

About ten years ago, I was completely obsessed with him. I was aways reading one of his books and constantly watching Night Breed which I actually like better than Hellraiser. (Though I still love that)

So you do like Ellroy. I'm always hesitant to recommend him, even when people do have similar tastes to mine, but some people have gotten almost mad at me for doing so. I think he's great, but you're not going to get any kind of emotional feel good type novel from him. His characters are absolutely repugnant and yet I care about them and their fate as much as I do characters in any novel.

Like I've said before, when fantasy is done well, I love it like no other. I think The Song of Fire and Ice series are the only strictly fantasy novels I even like, so it makes me like them even more. Fantasy novels are some of the worst garbage, I've ever read, but I keep trying hoping for another GOT. Actually there was one other fantasy novel I liked but the rest in the series ruined it. I prefer the fantasy elements King and Barker put into their novels. Which reminds me that I didn't leave room for the Gunslinger series. :(

[PApOooooo]

Heinrich Boll~The Clown really good book.its a life-story about a retired clown.its not boring at all given the fact that other life-story books i've read were not interesting.
Mayne Reid ~The Headless Horsman An excellent book by a great author.I've readd Mayne's other ones but this one was particularly outstanding.
Honore De Balzac~The Piece of Shagreen Leather i would advice all of you to read it.i don't know if its written in English though it must be because being such an amazing piece of work.Its very philosophic book .i couldn't understand all when i read it first but on the second time,i went deeply into details and couldn't take my eye off the book.
Jules Verne~Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea for those who like adventure Verne is just brilliant.
J.K.Rowling~Harry Potter Books i love all of them.just cant describe how much...
C.J.Box~Blue Heaven a terrific novel with satisfying plot.
Michael Palmer~The First Patientthis one's also got a nice plot.puzzling but nice.
Linwood Barclay~No Time For Goodbye one of the best mysteries I've ever read.
Lisa Scottoline~Daddy's Girlanother great author with its masterpiece.
William Kent Krueger ~Thunder Baythis one is my favorite too.its top crime fiction class.

[christine]

Heinrich Boll~The Clown really good book.its a life-story about a retired clown.its not boring at all given the fact that other life-story books i've read were not interesting.
Mayne Reid ~The Headless Horsman An excellent book by a great author.I've readd Mayne's other ones but this one was particularly outstanding.
Honore De Balzac~The Piece of Shagreen Leather i would advice all of you to read it.i don't know if its written in English though it must be because being such an amazing piece of work.Its very philosophic book .i couldn't understand all when i read it first but on the second time,i went deeply into details and couldn't take my eye off the book.
Jules Verne~Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea for those who like adventure Verne is just brilliant.
J.K.Rowling~Harry Potter Books i love all of them.just cant describe how much...
C.J.Box~Blue Heaven a terrific novel with satisfying plot.
Michael Palmer~The First Patientthis one's also got a nice plot.puzzling but nice.
Linwood Barclay~No Time For Goodbye one of the best mysteries I've ever read.
Lisa Scottoline~Daddy's Girlanother great author with its masterpiece.
William Kent Krueger ~Thunder Baythis one is my favorite too.its top crime fiction class.

Hi Papo. I read some Balzac at school - Le Pere Goriot and Eugenie Grandet . Found them a bit of a chore back then but have reread and enjoyed them more in later years.
The Piece of Shagreen Leather is it La Peau de chagrin? seems to be called the Magic Skin or The Wild Asses Skin in English. I've just seen it online on the Gutenberg Project (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1307/1307-h/1307-h.htm) so will give it a read soon.

My hubby's into crime fiction and I know he's read some Linwood Barclay books.

[Powdered Water]

I'd go Mysterious Island before 20,000 Leagues myself. But still a solid choice. If anyone's interested in my opinion, that is. ;)

[PApOooooo]

I'd go Mysterious Island before 20,000 Leagues myself. But still a solid choice. If anyone's interested in my opinion, that is. ;)
I like that one too.it was my first Verne book to read..all Jules Verne's books are good for adventure lovers.

[Guaporense]

Books that might be considered literature in some sense:

Homer - The Illiad
Plato - Collected works (lot's of stuff to read)
Thucydides - The History of the Peloponnesian War
Frank Ebert - Dune
Miyazaki - Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Tolstoi - War and Peace
Urasawa - 20th Century Boys
Koike - Lone Wolf and Cub
Asimov - The Foundation Trilogy
Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged (best dark comedy ever :D)

Haven't read much actually, I think about 100 novels and graphic novels over the last 10 years which is the time that I guess my tastes did not change greatly.

[kkl10]

I haven't read much in absolute terms but I can name some works I'd want with me in an island:

Poemas Surdos, Edmundo Betencourt - Portuguese surrealist poetry from 20th century
Sonetos, Antero de Quental - Portuguese sonnets from the 19th century
O Bebedor Nocturno, Various authors - Beautiful poetry from cultures all around the world collected and translated to portuguese by Herberto Hélder
Sinais de Fogo, Jorge de Sena - Portuguese romance from the 20th century
The Complete Dramatic Works, Samuel Beckett - As the title says
The Waste Land, T. S. Elliot - English modernist poetry from the 20th century
Contos de Clarice Lispector, Clarice Lispector - Fables from portuguese brazilian writer Clarice Lispector (ukrainian born)
Amigo e Amiga, Maria Gabriela Llansol - Haven't read much from this author but I would take just about any book from this brilliant portuguese writer, love her style
O Livro do Desassossego, Fernando Pessoa - Haven't read anything from this author, I'm highly interested
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy - Same as above

[Sedai]

Tough Question, but here goes!

The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury - I have read this at least 6 times, and is one of the few books I have ever read multiple times (usually a no-no for me). Young adult sci-fi that I first cracked when i was in the 4th grade or so. Not sure why I like it so much, but I do.

The Diamond Age, Neil Stephenson - Stephenson is THE MAN. Brilliant guy with a powerful mind. His stuff is quirky, and more than a little odd, but I was captivated by the story and concepts in The Diamond Age. Focus includes nanotech, math, language, teaching concepts and epistemology.

Discipline and Punish, Michel Foucault - Post-modern French philosophy that focuses on society as prison, while also recounting historically how we got to such a state. Endlessly interesting, perspective altering stuff.

The Odyssey, Homer (Fagles translation) - The story from which all stories are drawn. Another I have read multiple times, and will most certainly read again. *shakes fist at Clytemnestra*

The Gap Series, Stephen Donaldson - THE definitive dark space opera for me. Yes, I have read Foundation (excellent series) and all the classic greats, but Donaldson's extremely dark series is tops for me. Using Wagner's Ring Cycle as a template, this five book series adds complexity and depth with each subsequent book. The first book, while still very dark, is light in regards to structure and narrative depth, but it starts the reader peeling back onion layers, revealing more and more complexity of both character and narration as the series moves along. The series contains two of my favorite characters of all time in Morn Highland and Angus Thermopylae.

Dune, Frank Herbert - Ok, so maybe this is the definitive dark space opera. :D I like the genre, apparently. Pretty much one of the best, if not the best science fiction novel ever written, it's a must read for fans of the genre. I think this one holds up a bit better over time than some pf the classic Heinlein and Asimov stories, although those are still great, as well. I prefer the tone of Dune to those works.

The Dark is Rising Series, Susan Cooper - Arthurian YA series from the 60s and 70s. have read the series 3 times. Once again, I cracked these when I was just but a lad, and they stuck with me. Takes some pointers from Narnia, but mixes in some pagan concepts, so clearly the allegory is from another angle. A great example of the "band of kids goes on a magical adventure" tropes that are even more popular today. Cooper is a great writer, the characters are all great, and the stories thrilling. Love it!

Valis, Philip K Dick - Such a sad book. Completely bizarre, personal, examination of one Mr. Horselover Fat, a man that has visions... The sad part is that it's semi-autobiographical, with Fat being a fictionalized version of Philip K. Dick himself, who was slowly going mad (or had gone mad at this point, you be the judge).

Perdido Street Station, China Mieville - A flagship of the New Weird literary movement, this is sort of Anti-Tolkein fantasy. Very dark, twisted and slick, with the words seeming to run down the page as you read. Really creative vocabulary and concepts throughout. If you like dark fiction, this is one of the best ever, IMO.

The Green Futures of Tycho, William Sleator - Kid's book! Yes, a THIRD YA novel on the list. What a simpleton I must seem to you folks... ;) Hey, you asked for my favorites! This is one of the best time travel stories I have ever read. This was written in the 70s, and is far too dark to make it into schools these days. I want to say I read this in the 4th grade, but maybe it was 5th... Sleator approaches the time travel motif in a realistic and interesting way. He also plays a scene out that just floors me every time I read it, simply because this concept is just so obvious with time machines, but I have never run into it before. I sometimes gobble this whole book on a Saturday afternoon after lunch or something (It's only about 170 pages in large print), and each time, I am impressed with how well the story holds up. worth the read for fans of time travel.

Those are my very favorite books ever. I rarely read books twice, but quite a few of these titles blew that rule out of the water. Of course, I read all sorts of political non-fiction, history, philosophy and all the rest, but not many of those make it to a favorites list.

[The Sci-Fi Slob]

Tough Question, but here goes!

The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury - I have read this at least 6 times, and is one of the few books I have ever read multiple times (usually a no-no for me). Young adult sci-fi that I first cracked when i was in the 4th grade or so. Not sure why I like it so much, but I do.

The Odyssey, Homer (Fagles translation) - The story from which all stories are drawn. Another I have read multiple times, and will most certainly read again. *shakes fist at Clytemnestra*

Valis, Philip K Dick - Such a sad book. Completely bizarre, personal, examination of one Mr. Horselover Fat, a man that has visions... The sad part is that it's semi-autobiographical, with Fat being a fictionalized version of Philip K. Dick himself, who was slowly going mad (or had gone mad at this point, you be the judge).



Nice list. The Martian Chronicles, The Odyssey and Valis would defiantly make my top 20; along with Zamyatins "We" and Thomas Moor's "Utopia". I've always been a big Phil Dick fan. "The man in the high castle", Valis, and "Flow my tears the policeman said." would all be in my top 30...somewhere. I've never been very keen on Dune, though.

[Sedai]

Adding those books to my "to Read" list, Slob. Thanks!

[wintertriangles]

As expected, tons of stuff I've never heard of! I don't feel experienced enough to make this list now, but I have about 30 books added to my reading list.

[linespalsy]

I don't feel experienced enough to make this list now

Pretty much how I felt making my list. Go for it, winter!

[wintertriangles]

If you say so, good sir, but no order

Les Chants de Maldoror - Comte de Lautréamont

French surrealism before it was a thing, that not even the French are generally aware of as I found out, which I read in high school and became a mental deviant. It's a prose poem, not really with a plot, but a common thread of questioning a bittersweet misanthropy through visions and finding morality therein. Really dense and chaotic, one of a kind, a true puppeteer this man.

The Voice Imitator - Thomas Bernhard

Microfiction of the finest quality I've come across. I'm still stunned how he can have complete stories ranging from two sentences to just one page that are all just devastating, and understated at that. The topics covered are pretty much, uh, everything, so, ya know, fun for the whole family, as long as your family is depressed as ****.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

What a lovely juxtaposition that is, this being the funniest book I've ever read. Absurdities of technology, politic, reducing the big questions to jokes, all while being rather profound I felt; I feel sort of stupid for not having read the rest of them actually. Essentially, this book encapsulates my style of humor, and came at a point in my life where I was already laughing at all the things mocked in the book, so good timing or whatever, but still genius, and a wordsmith in comedy is a rare thing.

Paradise Lost - John Milton

I read the Bible, then I read this, and I read this again. The devil as a sympathetic character, one of the greatest tragic tales in poetry, or anything I suppose. Written in such a way to not be really partisan (or at least enough to not be banned for eternity), it's probably the earliest record of an opposing argument against the era's world power, while also being beautifully worded, on par with William Blake, but Blake had illustrations, I wish more people carried that on. I also love the story that Milton wrote this while blind through divine intervention.

The Winter's Tale - William Shakespeare

Structural chaos, emotionally spontaneous, and "exit stage left, chased by a polar bear." I was going to put King Lear here, but this late play by English's all-deserving master is more beautiful, and impressive in that it has a lot of the power of King Lear in just the first half of the play, while the second half is much more bucolic and darkly hilarious, with a touch of sorrow, but never becoming melodramatic. Plays with this sort of structure, and lack of common thread, were less than rare, this is ahead of its time before being able to be ahead of its time.

Rhinoceros - Eugene Ionesco

I saw this performed by a French troupe a couple years back and it reinstilled my love for the most honest play regarding the human condition. Essentially, the main topic, amongst others, is the submission to norms and attacking everything else, especially those who question. Originally written in reaction to World War II and a critique of Sartre who condemned everyone but ignored the Soviet Union's crimes, it is probably even more relevant today, which is terrifying, but at least someone got it back then. His other plays are also fantastic.

The Kalevala - traditional Finnish tales

I could really pick any mythology (still need to read Russian and Japanese), but this is the most interesting for me so far, not for an particular reason either. Unlike Greek and Celtic mythologies however this is written in poetry form, like the Norse, and this is due to the tradition of carrying down folktales through song, and the magic of my translation is it managed to retain the lyricism.

La Religieuse - Denis Diderot

This novel began as a joke, with a friend of Diderot and co. moving away from them, and, in hoping to make him return, Diderot started writing to him under the guise of Suzanne, a nun who barely escaped death from her convent, begging him to come save her. This correspondence lasted a couple months (with each of his sympathetic replies mustering many laughs amongst his eager readers) and he eventually did return for her, but discovered the ruse and laughed along with his friends. However, this became the basis for the novel, written as a confession to this Marquis, explaining the madness that occurs between two different convents, one utterly brutal, and the other more...desirable (Black Narcissus definitely took notes here). While not only being an attack on the way convents were run at the time, it was also a devastating attack against religious intolerance and repression (mentally, physically, spiritually), and is linked to being a key influence on the French Revolution, back when books changed the world.

Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka

Short story that everyone has probably read, but it certainly isn't outdated. It is certainly an obvious choice though.

Candide - Voltaire

This might be more obvious, but this is a book I think is possibly the most understood, because either people I've spoken with think it's literal, or they think it's 100% sarcastic. It's both, and knowing which is which changes the entire story.


PS: Sedai, Gilgamesh precedes The Odyssey.

[The Sci-Fi Slob]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Paradise Lost - John Milton
Candide - Voltaire


Excellent choices.:cool:

[Swan]

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Replay by Ken Grimwood
By Reason of Insanity by Shane Stevens
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Ramayana by Valmiki
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Making Movies by Sidney Lumet
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

[cadra]

These are all my comfort blanket books, ones that I'd want with me if I was stranded and needed something to read over and over...which I have done with all of these books, and will continue to do.

I realized when making this list that all the big classics on my list I read when I was younger, but now as an adult I've been reading mostly YA novels. So, this is in order of when I first read them, to get an idea of my slow literary descent.

Anne of Green Gables series, by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy
1984, by George Orwell
Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (I'm more than a little obsessed with her)
I Know This Much is True, by Wally Lamb
Ender's Game series, by Orson Scott Card (I'm gonna cheat and count an entire series as one book)
Harry Potter series, by JK Rowling
Persuasion, by Jane Austen
Hunger Games series, by Suzanne Collins

[cadra]

To Kill a Mockingbird ~ Harper Lee The book equivalent of my favorite holey sweater.
Breakfast of Champions ~ Kurt Vonnegut I couldn't live without a Vonnegut book and this is the one I would choose. I love Vonnegut because he has this way of fully bringing to life every single character in his novel in a way no other writer can. Even the briefest appearing characters exist for their own purpose and not for the sake of the novel.


Thank you for reminding me of these two books. I've been meaning to read them for years, and I think I need to finally set aside time to just do it.

[Captain Spaulding]

The Grapes of Wrath by: John Steinbeck

The Catcher in the Rye by: J.D. Salinger

Lonesome Dove by: Larry McMurtry

Fahrenheit 451 by: Ray Bradbury

The Rabbit Angstrom Tetralogy (Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; Rabbit is Rich; Rabbit at Rest) by: John Updike

The Stand by: Stephen King

The Border Trilogy (All the Pretty Horses; The Crossing; Cities of the Plain) by: Cormac McCarthy

The Sound and the Fury by: William Faulkner

American Gods by: Neil Gaiman

East of Eden by: John Steinbeck

[Godoggo]

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Replay by Ken Grimwood
By Reason of Insanity by Shane Stevens
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Ramayana by Valmiki
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Making Movies by Sidney Lumet
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

The Haunting of Hill House is a fantastic book. I love Shirley Jackson. I have several of her short stories in various horror collections I have.

[Guaporense]

I haven't read much in absolute terms but I can name some works I'd want with me in an island:

Poemas Surdos, Edmundo Betencourt - Portuguese surrealist poetry from 20th century
Sonetos, Antero de Quental - Portuguese sonnets from the 19th century
O Bebedor Nocturno, Various authors - Beautiful poetry from cultures all around the world collected and translated to portuguese by Herberto Hélder
Sinais de Fogo, Jorge de Sena - Portuguese romance from the 20th century
The Complete Dramatic Works, Samuel Beckett - As the title says
The Waste Land, T. S. Elliot - English modernist poetry from the 20th century
Contos de Clarice Lispector, Clarice Lispector - Fables from portuguese brazilian writer Clarice Lispector (ukrainian born)
Amigo e Amiga, Maria Gabriela Llansol - Haven't read much from this author but I would take just about any book from this brilliant portuguese writer, love her style
O Livro do Desassossego, Fernando Pessoa - Haven't read anything from this author, I'm highly interested
Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy - Same as above

Whoa, another native Portuguese speaker. Since I don't like much non-genre literature (lacks the exotic appeal to me), and Portuguese speaking literature is pretty conventional, I haven't read anything that was first written in Portuguese that had a huge impact on me. I am Brazilian by the way.

[Tyler1]

Robert Musil - The Man Without Qualities
Marcel Proust - Swann's Way
Pablo Neruda - Poems of Pablo Neruda
Haruki Murakami - The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Jorge Luis Borges - Labyrinths
Bruno Schulz - Street of Crocodiles
Yukio Mishima - Confessions of a Mask
Juan Rulfo - Pedro Páramo
Fernando Pessoa - The Book of Disquiet
Naguib Mahfouz - Children of Gebelawi

[kkl10]

Whoa, another native Portuguese speaker. Since I don't like much non-genre literature (lacks the exotic appeal to me), and Portuguese speaking literature is pretty conventional, I haven't read anything that was first written in Portuguese that had a huge impact on me. I am Brazilian by the way.

Strange, I see the exotic appeal the other way around, non-genre literature is much more appealing to me precisely because of how exotic and unconventional it can be. In fact that's one of the major criteria I used to form my list, you may not know some of the names I mentioned but if you search a bit you'll find that most of them are anything but "conventional" ;), specially Maria Gabriela Llansol and Edmundo Bettencourt (very unknown, but among the best portuguese writers IMO). There's an immense body of portuguese language literature, it's a major generalisation to say it's mostly conventional... there's styles and forms for every sensibility.

On another note there's another book I seriously want to check out, Picnic at Hanging Rock from Joan Lindsay. I saw the movie yesterday night and it's the first one ever to spice up my interest in its source literature, quite an haunting experience.

[christine]

wow what a range of books! some are favourites of mine too, like Swan and Capt Spalding, I love Cormac McCarthy's writing. The Road is heartbreaking, Blood Meridien is probably the most poetically brutal book I've read.

Sedai and Guap - I used to read loads of sci-fi when I was a kid, mostly short stories but I remember reading The Martian Chronicles, and Azimov's foundation.
Sedai - I'm pretty sure I've read some of The Dark is Rising books too, they seem very familiar and it was the kid of thing I loved years ago. The Narnia books too.

kkl10 - I've never read any Portuguese fiction. English is bad at getting European literature translated. I had to wait a few years for The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon to be translated into English after my Spanish friend recommended it, and that was a major best seller in Spain.
I see Tyler has a Portuguese writer in his favourite list too - Fernando Pessoa - The Book of Disquiet

Tyler - I like Muramaki too :)

Cadra - lovely list. I have similar taste to you too. I could've had several Thomas Hardy books on my list. I cry when I read Jude the Obscure - the poor children :( and don't get me started on Tess of the D'Urbervilles :bawling:

Winter T and Sci-Fi - did you listen to the original Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy radio series from BBC radio 4? The books came out of that . I know you wouldn't have listened at the time, only an old codger like me is old enough to have heard that back in the late 70s , but maybe you've listened elsewhere? It was groundbreaking at the time and everyone loved it.

[kkl10]

kkl10 - I've never read any Portuguese fiction. English is bad at getting European literature translated. I had to wait a few years for The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon to be translated into English after my Spanish friend recommended it, and that was a major best seller in Spain.
I see Tyler has a Portuguese writer in his favourite list too - Fernando Pessoa - The Book of Disquiet


I see what you mean, it's indeed not easy to translate a book from one language to another without loosing some of the significant nuance of the language that contribute to the literary quality of the work, that's the reason why I also don't like to read translated works to portuguese I prefer to read them in their original language. Unfortunately my foreign language knowlege is pretty much limited to english and very little of french. I have started reading a portuguese translation of some Elegies by Friedrich Hölderlin many months ago but I just can't connect to it, it doesn't make any sense to read all that in portuguese, I wish I knew german (intend to learn it).

But if you can definitely check out The Book of Disquiet from Fernando Pessoa, it's great literature and hopefully there should be a not too bad english translation.

[wintertriangles]

Winter T and Sci-Fi - did you listen to the original Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy radio series from BBC radio 4? The books came out of that . I know you wouldn't have listened at the time, only an old codger like me is old enough to have heard that back in the late 70s , but maybe you've listened elsewhere? It was groundbreaking at the time and everyone loved it.Do you know where I could find it? I have heard the audiobook by Stephen Fry though, which was incredible.

[Tyler1]

kkl10 - I've never read any Portuguese fiction. English is bad at getting European literature translated. I had to wait a few years for The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon to be translated into English after my Spanish friend recommended it, and that was a major best seller in Spain.
I see Tyler has a Portuguese writer in his favourite list too - Fernando Pessoa - The Book of Disquiet

Tyler - I like Muramaki too :)


I'm also rather new to Portugese literature. I have a couple of José Saramago's books in my watchlist. As for Murakami I'm planning to read all his novels. His prose is absolutely brilliant.

I have added quite a few books to my watchlist - Maldoror, some Bernhard. Milton's Paradise Lost and Boll's The Clown. Blood Meridian has been on my watchlist for a very long time. It won't be any more. :)

[christine]

Do you know where I could find it? I have heard the audiobook by Stephen Fry though, which was incredible.

Good as it is, the Stephen Fry reading isn't a patch on the original series. The BBC often repeat it on Radio 4 Extra which is their vintage repeat channel, in fact the first series is on there now http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03v379k

Otherwise according to the BBC they're only available for paid for download on audible.co.uk. There are CD versions out there too if you read this - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy_(radio_series)

[Guaporense]

Strange, I see the exotic appeal the other way around, non-genre literature is much more appealing to me precisely because of how exotic and unconventional it can be. In fact that's one of the major criteria I used to form my list, you may not know some of the names I mentioned but if you search a bit you'll find that most of them are anything but "conventional" ;), specially Maria Gabriela Llansol and Edmundo Bettencourt (very unknown, but among the best portuguese writers IMO). There's an immense body of portuguese language literature, it's a major generalisation to say it's mostly conventional... there's styles and forms for every sensibility.

Ok. I was traumatized by portuguese literature in my high school, where I was forced to read a ton of book which I wasn't prepared to. Most Portuguese language literature I read, I think it was around 50 books, they were either retarded juvenile literature or boring but I was a teenager so I guess I never had the maturity to read serious literature at the time, at college, for some reason, I wasn't interested in literature, but I read a lot of other stuff (politics, economics, history, etc) in the 7 years since I finished highschool. Overall, my knowledge of Portuguese literature was so bad at the university entrance exams I did when I was 18 that it was my worst score. I never actually had a powerful emotional reaction from any of the few dozen portuguese language books I read, but that's mainly because I read to little and I did not have the maturity to better grasp them. And now I don't have the time to read as well.

I even remember a friend telling me that I was a real gaucho because I haven't read much of Erico Verissimo's work (I read only a couple of his novels, found'em boring):
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Yux40x6iV7o/Su8bIef9ZyI/AAAAAAAAAnA/dTRewGagHpk/s400/erico_verissimo%5B1%5D.jpg

I only found science fiction literature or Ayn Rand to be extremely entertaining, for either the crazy science fiction concepts or the crazy completely inhuman characters (in Ayn Rand's case). Well, that's the case of my "young adult" sensibilities.

Maybe in the near future I will delve deeper into literature, after I have more free time. I find that serious literature like Tolstoi to be much more time consuming than watching movies, TV or manga, so when I am time constrained I tend to focus on less time consuming entertainment.

[Guaporense]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

What a lovely juxtaposition that is, this being the funniest book I've ever read. Absurdities of technology, politic, reducing the big questions to jokes, all while being rather profound I felt; I feel sort of stupid for not having read the rest of them actually. Essentially, this book encapsulates my style of humor, and came at a point in my life where I was already laughing at all the things mocked in the book, so good timing or whatever, but still genius, and a wordsmith in comedy is a rare thing.

I read all the books in the series. They were the most addictive books I ever read. Though in terms of science fiction I strictly prefer Dune, Foundation and Nausicaa (because they were more powerful even though less entertaining).

PS: Sedai, Gilgamesh precedes The Odyssey.

The Illiad and The Odyssey were passed down by oral tradition for centuries before they became books around 550 BC. Writing was invented in 3,300 BC in mesopotamia, so literature is thousands of years older than Homer's books. Most of these earlier books were lost though. Also, you should note that what we understand by Western Civilization began to have a continuous history around 500 BC in the shores or the Aegean sea, so that The Iliad and The Odyssey represent the foundational works of literature in the Western tradition.

Gilgamesh is mesopotamian literature, part of the civilizations of the Ancient Near East. They are not strictly part of Western civilization as we usually conceive it though we may conceive the middle east to be another half of a larger Central Civilization, according to the work of some macrohistorians.

By the way, Homer was not a writer but more like a mythical figure that represents the collective efforts of many verbal storytellers who gradually composed the Illiad and The Odyssey.

[Guaporense]

I'm also rather new to Portugese literature. I have a couple of José Saramago's books in my watchlist. As for Murakami I'm planning to read all his novels. His prose is absolutely brilliant.

I have added quite a few books to my watchlist - Maldoror, some Bernhard. Milton's Paradise Lost and Boll's The Clown. Blood Meridian has been on my watchlist for a very long time. It won't be any more. :)

Add Erico Verissimo because he came from the same region of Brazil that I do.

[Godoggo]

I'm also rather new to Portugese literature. I have a couple of José Saramago's books in my watchlist. As for Murakami I'm planning to read all his novels. His prose is absolutely brilliant.

I have added quite a few books to my watchlist - Maldoror, some Bernhard. Milton's Paradise Lost and Boll's The Clown. Blood Meridian has been on my watchlist for a very long time. It won't be any more. :)

I've read a lot of Murakami now. His prose is beautiful, his characters complex and his stories intriguing. I very much recommend Kafka on the Shore.

[Senso_68]

The Young Girls - H. de Montherlant
The New Watch Dogs - S. Halimi
Justine, Or The Misfortunes Of Virtue - Marquis de Sade
Tender Is The Night - F. S. Fitzgerald
The Leopard - G. Tomasi di Lampedusa
The Catcher In The Rye - J. D. Salinger
Sculpting In Time - A. Tarkovsky
Notes On The Cinematographer - R. Bresson
My Monsters - D. Risi
Serial Killers - S. Bourgoin ( :D )

[Redwell]

Stoner (John Williams)
The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)
A Scanner Darkly (Philip K. Dick)
Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison)
1984 (Orson Welles)
The Old Man & The Sea (Ernest Hemingway)
Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
A Series of Unfortunate Events 1-13 (Lemony Snicket)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Milan Kundera)
All Quiet on the Western Front (Erich Maria Remarque)

[AboveTheClouds]

Tyrants and Kings Trilogy (The Jackal of Nar, The Grand Design, Saints of the Sword) - John Marco
Bronze Knight Series (Eyes of God, Devils Armor, Sword of Angels, Forever Knight) - John Marco
The Elenium Series (The Diamond Throne, Ruby Knight, Sapphire Rose) - David Eddings
Napalm and Silly Putty - George Carlin
Brain Droppings - George Carlin
American Psycho - Brett Easton Ellis
Gateways to the Otherworld - Phillip K. Gardener
Thus Spake Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche
The Complete Fiction - Howard Phillips Lovecraft
Star Wars: Republic Commando(Hard Contact, True Colours, Triple Zero, Order 66, The 501st) - Karen Traviss

[Pussy Galore]

As of now it's like that, but I'm sure it'll change a lot.

1 An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (David Hume)
2 Anything by Peter Singer
3 1984 (George Orwell)
4 The Republic (Plato)
5 The Origin of Species (Charles Darwin) & The Selfish Gene (Richard Dawkins)
6 The Tunnel (Ernesto Sabato)
7 Why I'm Not a Christian (Bertrand Russell)
8 Discourse on Method (Rene Descartes)
9 The Symposium (Plato)
10 The Alchimist (Paulo Cohelo)

[Senso_68]

7 Why I'm Not a Christian (Bertrand Russell)
It seems interesting! I love In Praise of Idleness of Russell.

[Pussy Galore]

Yeah it seems really good, I have it at home, but haven't read it yet.

[AboveTheClouds]

Bertrand Russell is the man, great work on metaphysics and language. Why I'm not a Christian is his best work IMO.

[Tugg]

I'm posting top 20 books that had influence on my world view or I had obsessions about them at some point in my life. I'm not including books that even though were interesting, but in time their impact faded into deep unnoticeable background of my psyche. Neither am I including books that seem rather redundant/ disagreeable to me by now.




1. Arthur Schopenhauer "The World as Will and Representation" (single, most important book I've ever read)

2. Arthur Schopenhauer "Parerga and Paralipomena" (I could not get enough of the insights it provided)

3. Friedrich Nietzsche "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" (incredibly uplifting, mind bending and poetically written book)

4. Friedrich Nietzsche "The Gay Science" (a book that is both light hearted and deep)

5. Baruch Spinoza "Ethics" (no other book has such iron logic that goes with most wonderful insights)

6. Laozi (holistic unification of transcendence and practical matters)

7. Immanuel Kant "Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View" (Kant might be the greatest philosopher and this book is more humanistic and down to earth but enlightening non the less)

8. Niccolo Machiavelli "The Prince" (lessons for a ruler who would have to be necessarily ruthless to achieve power for the ultimate greater good)

9. Plato "Republic" (state philosophy that is no less relevant to this day)

10. Carl von Clausewitz "On War" (military principles of war that could also be applied to general conflict situations)

11. Ernest Hemingway "Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises"
12. Ernst Junger "Storm of Steel"
13. Erich Maria Remarque "All Quiet on the Western Front"
14. Agatha Christie "And Then There Were None"
15. Agatha Christie "Murder on the Orient Express"
16. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe "Faust"
17. Carl Jung "The Archetypes and The Collective Unconscious"
18. Friedrich Nietzsche "On the Genealogy of Morality"
19. Friedrich Nietzsche "Beyond Good and Evil"
20. Charles Darwin "On the Origin of Species"

[Topsy]

1.go ask alice
2.sarahs key
3.troublemaker.

i love autobiographies though so ive mostly read that. have about 8 books from ebay coming this week :p

[Camo]

1984 - George Orwell
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
True History of The Kelly Gang - Peter Carey
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
The Daughter of Time - Josephine Tey
Anything by Roald Dahl (cheating but he was my favourite author as a kid and i love so many of them)
The Woman In White - Wilkie Collins
Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires - Selwyn Raab
The Tudors: The Complete Story of England's Most Notorious Dynasty - G.J.Mayer
The Stranger Beside Me - Ann Rule

[Chypmunk]

darn ... I thought this thread was gonna be about a new series of books I'd not heard of ala the Famous Five ones but with twice as many characters :(

[CiCi]

1. The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
2. Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
3. Let the Right One In (John Ajvide Lindqvist)
4. Battle Royale (Koushun Takami)
5. The Sadeian Woman (Angela Carter)
6. The Road (Cormac McCarthy)
7. Tender is the Night (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
8. Misery (Stephen King)
9. The Shining (Stephen King)
10. Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)

[Sedai]

Ray Bradbury - The Martian Chronicles
China Meiville - Perdido Street Station
Susan Cooper - The Dark is Rising Sequence
Carl Sagan - A Demon Haunted World : Science as a Candle in the Dark
Michel Foucault - Discipline and Punish : The Birth of the Prison
William Sleator - The Green Futures of Tycho
Neal Stephenson - The Diamond Age
Arthur C. Clark - Rendevous with Rama
Stephen King - The Stand
Clive Barker - Imajica

[Mr Minio]

The Secret of Making Love by Harold Meadows
A Match Made in Space by George McFly
The Philosophy of Time Travel by Roberta Sparrow
How I Did It by Victor Frankenstein
The Whisperer of the Dark by Sutter Cane
Necronomicon by Abdul Alhazred
I Don't Feel Well Today by Dr. Madeline Gravis
The Dynamics of an Asteroid by Professor James Moriarty
Misery by Paul Sheldon
The Mad Tryst by Sir Launcelot Canning

[exiler96]

Not sure if I should call them my "favorites"; that gives the impression that you go back to them. I don't think I have enough time to re-read stuff, usually... but these are the best I've read (fiction only). Bumping to see others responses too (and if they've changed ;) ).

Moby Dick
Crime and Punishment
Madam Bovary
Portrait of a Lady
Sorrows of the Young Werther

Frankenstein
The Magic Skin
Death in Venice
Women in Love
Fathers and Sons

https://i0.wp.com/frockflicks.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/PortraitofaLady-1996-Isabel-finale.jpg?fit=800%2C509&ssl=1

[matt72582]

Last Man Standing Mort Sahl and the Birth of Modern Comedy (James Curtis)
Jim Morrison: Friends Gathered Together (Frank Lisciandro)

Heartland (Mort Sahl)
Lennon on Lennon conversations with John Lennon

The trials of Jimmy Hoffa,: An autobiography (Hoffa)

Healing The Enemy (Larry Garrett)
Cassavetes On Cassavetes (Cassavetes, Carney)
Songs My Mother Taught Me: Marlon Brando, Robert Lindsey
Bill Hicks: Agent of Evolution (Kevin Booth, Michael Bertin)
Citizen Welles A Biography of Orson Welles (Frank Brady

[hownos]

all non fiction:

the looming tower by lawrence wright
ghost wars by steve coll
in cold blood - truman capote
the executioner's song - norman mailer
the bully pulpit - doris kearns goodwin
reclaiming history - vincent bugliosi
hellbound on his trail - hampton sides
the devil and the white city - erik larsen
nixonland by rick perlstein
river of doubt by candace millard.