Best Book You Have Read?

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[quote]orion wrote:

If by flat and disjointed you mean a steaming pile of shit that anally raped the arguably best sci-fi series EVA and then slit its throat, raped the gaping wound with a baseball bat and set its house on fire afterwards, we totally agree.

Oh, they are called “Fremen” because they are “free men”, you dont say…

You dirty, talentless sons of cheap…

RAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGEEEEEEE!!![/quote]

haha. I didn’t even really enjoy Franks sequels (children was ok, emperor may be the worst i ever read). So i wasn’t even going to try his sons sequels.

However the original Dune was still awesome.

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^^ I think God Emperor of Dune may be one of the best ones. It’s like the culmination of the ideas that were brought up in the ones before.

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[quote]Nards wrote:

[quote]StevenF wrote:
Nards…should be Nerds. Y’all think you’re so smart readin’ them there big fancy books. Only book I ever read was ‘How to kick some ass’ written by ME. [/quote]

Yeah “How to Kick Some Ass” does list the author as ME. But that’s me me…as in ME!: Nards.[/quote]

yea, but your chapters go like this:

1.) Chew Bubble Gum

2.) Run Out of Bubble Gum

3.) Kick Ass

4.) Never Take Off Magic Sunglasses

5.) Take Off Magic Sunglasses and Replace with Magic Contact Lenses

6.) Invent Procedure for Magic Lasik To Make Chapter 3.) More Comfortable and Clearer

7.) Die Immediately After Exposing Alien Scum To Rest of Humanity

8.) Find Bubble Gum In Heaven

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Well, thanks to step 7 I helped make the world a better place for you and others like you to kick ass all black and blue!

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[quote]Nards wrote:
Well, thanks to step 7 I helped make the world a better place for you and others like you to kick ass all black and blue![/quote]

and at least you got your bubble gum back

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And these…wear them and then look at the handy box they come with and you can see it says “OBEY”…but a little dimmer as you’re wearing sunglasses.

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[quote]orion wrote:

[quote]IamMarqaos wrote:

[quote]pgtips wrote:
Whats your favourite book / series of books you have read?

My Favourite book of the many I have read is - The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie. I Love all his other books aswell.[/quote]

Dune (series) - Frank Herbert (his son’s continuation of the series is palatable)

[/quote]

Take that back.

Take that back right NOW!!!

[/quote]
alright, alright, I humbly apologize.
I read Dune when I was 12 (31 years ago) and finished the series a few years later. It was always kind of painful to not have it end, since Herbert died before finishing the series, so to have someone create an ending 29 years later was, uh well, palatable.

No?

sigh, sorry…:slight_smile:

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[quote]Nards wrote:
^^ I think God Emperor of Dune may be one of the best ones. It’s like the culmination of the ideas that were brought up in the ones before.[/quote]

Yup.

Because he knows what he does and why he does it.

You also get a pretty good idea why his father kind of passed.

You get the feeling that he is relieved when he realizes its over.

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[quote]IamMarqaos wrote:

[quote]orion wrote:

[quote]IamMarqaos wrote:

[quote]pgtips wrote:
Whats your favourite book / series of books you have read?

My Favourite book of the many I have read is - The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie. I Love all his other books aswell.[/quote]

Dune (series) - Frank Herbert (his son’s continuation of the series is palatable)

[/quote]

Take that back.

Take that back right NOW!!!

[/quote]
alright, alright, I humbly apologize.
I read Dune when I was 12 (31 years ago) and finished the series a few years later. It was always kind of painful to not have it end, since Herbert died before finishing the series, so to have someone create an ending 29 years later was, uh well, palatable.

No?

sigh, sorry…:)[/quote]

Hey I would have loved to know what the two freshly emancipated Tleilax creatures were up to, but this is something his son and his hired hack wisely avoided.

They just tried to fill in the gaps in the storyline, which, if you interested, is done much better by Dunes two encyclopedias.

But that was nice, because those two Tleilax were the personification of what happened in this series, i.e. unintented consequences and what the God Emperor was about, to make absolutely, positively sure that those continued to exist, because the only sure ending he could see was the end of mankind, brought forth by thinking machines.

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[quote]Derek542 wrote:

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
You guys are crazy. I love the Hobbit, but the LOTR was about as close a modern epic as a writer might come.

I’ve never read a book so closely or with more fervor than I did the first time i read that. Masterful pacing, action, scene setup, etc.

One of my favorites of all time.[/quote]

You’re okay in my book Irish.

Cause I have to agree. That is why I go back and read it every few years.[/quote]

Sorry, guys: I’m an unapologetic Bilbo fanboy - wait I just apologized.

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[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]Derek542 wrote:

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
You guys are crazy. I love the Hobbit, but the LOTR was about as close a modern epic as a writer might come.

I’ve never read a book so closely or with more fervor than I did the first time i read that. Masterful pacing, action, scene setup, etc.

One of my favorites of all time.[/quote]

You’re okay in my book Irish.

Cause I have to agree. That is why I go back and read it every few years.[/quote]

Sorry, guys: I’m an unapologetic Bilbo fanboy - wait I just apologized.[/quote]

Well, from now on you shall be an apologetic Bilbo fanboy…

How big of an adjustment is that likely to be?

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[quote]orion wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]Derek542 wrote:

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
You guys are crazy. I love the Hobbit, but the LOTR was about as close a modern epic as a writer might come.

I’ve never read a book so closely or with more fervor than I did the first time i read that. Masterful pacing, action, scene setup, etc.

One of my favorites of all time.[/quote]

You’re okay in my book Irish.

Cause I have to agree. That is why I go back and read it every few years.[/quote]

Sorry, guys: I’m an unapologetic Bilbo fanboy - wait I just apologized.[/quote]

Well, from now on you shall be an apologetic Bilbo fanboy…

How big of an adjustment is that likely to be?[/quote]

This big.

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[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]orion wrote:

[quote]roybot wrote:

[quote]Derek542 wrote:

[quote]FightinIrish26 wrote:
You guys are crazy. I love the Hobbit, but the LOTR was about as close a modern epic as a writer might come.

I’ve never read a book so closely or with more fervor than I did the first time i read that. Masterful pacing, action, scene setup, etc.

One of my favorites of all time.[/quote]

You’re okay in my book Irish.

Cause I have to agree. That is why I go back and read it every few years.[/quote]

Sorry, guys: I’m an unapologetic Bilbo fanboy - wait I just apologized.[/quote]

Well, from now on you shall be an apologetic Bilbo fanboy…

How big of an adjustment is that likely to be?[/quote]

This big.[/quote]

Fuck.

If you edit your post I will edit mine.

Shit never happened.

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Very hard to narrow down from all the books I have read.

Childhood shout out first.
Age 11-13 I went on a sci-fi/fantasy bender.
The main players were LOTR, The Hobbit, Dune, war of the worlds, the time machine, the chronicles of thomas covenant, the golden torc series, a wizard of earthsea, the foundation series, and stranger in a strange land.

As for the rest…these were the ones that really came to mind when I cast it back over the years. There are probably tons more…gotta stop somewhere.

Beyond the Brain - Stanislav Grof

Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer - Dr John C. Lilly

The Last Temptation of Christ - Nikos Kazantzakis

The Teachings of Don Juan - Carlos Castaneda

One Hundred Years of Solitude- Gabriel García Márquez

The green house - Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa

The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks.

Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie

White Teeth - Zadie Smith

Heart of darkness - Joseph Conrad

the world according to garp - John Irving

Das Parfum - Patrick Süskind

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

catch 22 - Joseph Heller

Walden - Henry David Thoreau

The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera

Prometheus rising - Robert Anton Wilson

A brief history of everything - Ken Wilber

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintainence - Robert M. Pirsig

The Varieties of Religious Experience - William James

The great war for civilisation - Robert Fisk

Obscenity, Anarchy, Reality - Crispin Sartwell

Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Road to Wigan Pier - George Orwell

I have always enjoyed reading books that fuck with my understanding of how I think things work and how life is and that challenge my veiwpoints.

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[quote]cyruseven75 wrote:
cannot think of a single favorite…i’m currently reading a few, which pisses me off, preferable is to not start so many at once.

Infinite Jest, been reading here and there for a while.

The Corrections, recently began…200 pgs in, moderately invested.

Flashman, some big fat guy at the book store said it was “the book that changed his life.” I bought it, I’ve read a little thus far, it’s not changing my life as of yet.

The Road, began it a while ago…read it at night in bed w/ the lights off, it’s good but very bleak, not generally a “end of the world, then what?” type of reader.

I grew up in Albany, NY and my mother use to go to Troy and Albany to watch/see Jack Nicholson during the filming of this movie. The book has me hooked thus far, it’s jumped to -primary read- right now, it’s a quick one too. Iron Weed.

[/quote]

The Road was great, so was the film. One of the rare films that does the book a bit of justice.

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[quote]pat wrote:

[quote]pgtips wrote:

[quote]pat wrote:

[quote]pgtips wrote:
Whats your favourite book / series of books you have read?

My Favourite book of the many I have read is - The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie. I Love all his other books aswell.[/quote]

The Harry Potter series…and I prefer non-fiction.[/quote]

I loved the Harry Potter books. Started reading them in Middle school, and always wished I was at Hogwarts instead! haha[/quote]

I read them as an adult and enjoyed them immensely. I think it’s better as an adult, for a ‘kid’s’ book there were some linguistical turns and some references kids just wouldn’t get. I know my son didn’t get them as I read them. I am just amazed at well, detailed and natural she was able to make that world. Like ‘Of course it exists, it’s right over there.’
I read the LOTR trilogy and the hobbit and all the C.S. Lewis stuff, they were good and enjoyable, but HP was damn addictive.
Funny thing is I was resistant as hell when somebody suggested I read it to my kids, but I was hooked by page 10. Consequently, my wife took her love for HP waaaaay over board. Most of our pets get HP names despite my resistance.

Read them again as an adult some time, I think you’ll really appreciate it even more.

I am back in my non-fiction world now. I usually like real shit because hell it’s stranger than fiction. I am reading ‘Imperfect Justice’ the Casey Anthony story from the prosecuter who tried her, Jeff Ashton. Can’t put it down… Truth being stranger than fiction certainly applies here. Nobody has a good enough imagination to make this shit up. If they did, it would come off as too far fetched. [/quote]

Reading them again when I’m older will be a mommoth task, but I bet it would be great.

Haha Harry Potter pet names. That is classic.
My Dad named one of out dogs Mr Bridger from the original Italian job. The ammount of stupid questions that earned me when I walked him was un believable!

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Jim Butcher’s books!! David Wellington, Cherie Priest, Charlie Huston…just good fiction with a touch of fantastical stuff

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The Thirteenth Valley only because the ending hit me so profoundly. I’ve read a ton of military action books since but this one is still #1 by a mile. The friend who loaned me the book at the time warned me before he handed it over, “this book will blow you away but the ending is going to stick with you for awhile”. He was right, I still think of it on a somewhat regular basis twenty five years later, weird. I’ve tried to re read it but stop a few chapters in, can’t do it.

The Stand is #2.

Series:

Bernard Cornwell, all of them.

Matthew Reilly, all of them.

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The Story of English by McCrum, et al