[quote]deanosumo wrote:
I have to second the Hunter S. Thompson call. The guy did and wrote whatever the hell he wanted, which reminds me of ‘The Fountainhead’. It will change the way you look at life.
I love ‘Dune’.
For great writing, heroic characters, and pure escapism, ‘The Lord of the Rings’. It should be read by everyone.
Anything by Umberto Eco or Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Hemmingway is great too, and although people slam him sometimes for being too simple, John Steinbeck wrote from the heart.[/quote]
Finally, another Marquez fan. It’s a shame that more people don’t know his work.
I had to read Steinbeck’s “Grapes…” in the 11th grade and hated it, but it was probably more because I wasn’t yet “in” to reading. I’m definately going to now go back after seeing the posts on this thread and reread “Grapes…” (and other Steinbeck works) and see if I can’t get the “bad” taste out of my mouth.
[quote]holifila wrote:
Favorites are tough to pick out as it just depends on the mood…
Clive Barker is always a good read (Weaveworld one of my preferences) for fantasy
Brian Greene is probably the best writer of ‘science for the layman’. My wife even liked The Elegant Universe and she doesn’t care for science at all.
I have many others to bring up but I’ll just skip to the end…
Best book I’ve read in the last 3 years is The Club Dumas by Arturo Perez-Reverte. Its a mystery in a similar vein (sort of) as the Davinci Code and it makes it clear that Dan Brown has the writing skill of a fourth grader (I really hated that freakin book, not for the religion but for the sheer stupidity).
Oh yeah, I try to read holy books in my spare time.[/quote]
Kudos for reading Greene’s Elegant Universe, and you are correct, he has an uncanny ability to explain complex science without talking down to the reader.
I’m adding the Perez-Reverte book you mentioned to my list right now, thanks.
[quote]JDREDD wrote:
deanosumo wrote:
I have to second the Hunter S. Thompson call. The guy did and wrote whatever the hell he wanted, which reminds me of ‘The Fountainhead’. It will change the way you look at life.
I love ‘Dune’.
For great writing, heroic characters, and pure escapism, ‘The Lord of the Rings’. It should be read by everyone.
Anything by Umberto Eco or Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Hemmingway is great too, and although people slam him sometimes for being too simple, John Steinbeck wrote from the heart.
Finally, another Marquez fan. It’s a shame that more people don’t know his work.
I had to read Steinbeck’s “Grapes…” in the 11th grade and hated it, but it was probably more because I wasn’t yet “in” to reading. I’m definately going to now go back after seeing the posts on this thread and reread “Grapes…” (and other Steinbeck works) and see if I can’t get the “bad” taste out of my mouth.
[/quote]
I might start with The Red Pony.
That was a good read. I couldn’t get into Grapes myself. But I liked Mice and Men and Travels with Charley.
[quote]EMT-FF Jordan wrote:
I like all of the books that James Byron Huggins writes, The Reckoning, Hunter, Cain, A wolfs story…
I also like Tom Clancy Books… Most of them[/quote]
It’s hard to pick a particular book, because over the last couple of centuries, so many great books have been written. So my list is by author (fiction only) in no specific order:
Stephen King (except The Stand)
James Steinbeck
Douglas Adams
Dean Koontz (only have read Odd Thomas)
Dostoevsky
Actually, the fiction authors that come to mind are suprisingly few.
Also, although they’re comic books, I really like:
Knights of the Dinner Table
Dork Tower
I don’t think I’ve read any fiction since I was 14 or 15 [I’m 23] but I always liked Clive Barker[Imajaca, rawhead rex and thief of always{which was supposed to have been made into a cartoon but never happened}specifically]Stephen King and some stuff by Chrighton.
The best book I’ve ever read is “There are no children here.”
Genuinely surprised that no-one has mentioned Andrew Vachss. His Burke novels are just awesome. I read them all at least once a year, and there’s a few of them too.
I remember buying a copy of Fight Club at an academic remainder store years ago and it just blew my mind. I thought it would make such a great movie and lo and behold it wasn’t half bad, even with Brad Pitt in it.
Others would include James Ellroy, Norman Mailer, Raymond Chandler and the novelist (whose name escapes me) who created the characters of Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, the latter being the most serious T-man ever ( I shit you not).
Has anyone read Barry Eisler’s stuff, I’ve heard interesting comments from others?
The Illuminatus! Trilogy - Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea (#1 favorite, ever!)
Temporary Autonomous Zone (T.A.Z.) - Hakim Bey (aka Peter Lamborn Wilson)
The Book of Lies- Disinformation Publishing (not to be confused with the Aleister Crowley {rhymes with holy} book of the same name)
The entire Dune series (up through Chapterhouse Dune) - Frank Herbert
God and the State - Michael Bakunin (a great 19th century Russian anarchist who was kicked out of the Communist International for predicting that Marxism would create a tyranny more horrible than that of “capitalism”)
The Wealth of Nations - Adam Smith (seriously though, this is NOT a capitalist economy…this is a great guide to how things COULD be)
Bardo Thodol (Tibetan book of the Dead: an ancient users guide for death and reincarnation)
Currently, I’m reading: “The Computational Beauty of Nature: Computer Explorations of Fractals, Chaos, Complex Systems, and Adaptation” by Gary William Flake. I have very strange tastes.