Holy crap, this thread has really taken off since I first posted.
I’ve come back to add a few more to the mix.
Treasure Island
Kidnapped
The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
Ivanhoe
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea
The Old Man And The Sea
The Lone Survivor (That would be Marcus Luttrell’s story of when he and the rest of SEAL team 6 went into Afghanistan and the unfortunate outcome their mission had)
The Hunchback Of Notre Dame
Pretty much anything by John Ringo is a winner (though the latest in the Looking Glass series seems to have taken a very lame turn with the musical space weapon or whatever it was)
Metamorphosis-Franz Kafka
The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception-Michel Foucault
The Archaeology of Knowledge-Michel Foucault
God and his Demons-Michael Parenti
The Cultural Struggle-Michael Parenti
1984-George Orwell
Frankenstein-Mary Shelley
Crime and Punishment-Fyodor Dostoyevsky
I’m a fiction and science fiction fan.
That being said:
Enders Game by Orson Scott Card - one of my favorite Sci-Fi of all times
Waylander and Druss the Legend by David Gemmell (pretty sure this is where Waylander got his screen name) (great fantasy book, medieval/magic genre) (pretty much any of the books by him are good)
Pillars of Creation by Ken Follet
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand was really good, though it was the heaviest reading I think I’ve ever done. Most books i’ll read 100-150 pages/hour, this book it was probably like 40-50 pages per hour. lol.
The Mistborn Series by Brandon Sanderson (good fantasy series)
The Dresden Files by Harry Dresden (really good modern fiction about a wizard in Chicago who’s listed in the yellow pages)
The Drizzt Series (part of Forgotten Realms) by R.A. Salvatore (really good fantasy books)
As The World Dies by Rhiannon Frater (really good zombie series)
Prey by Michael Crichton (really good science fiction about nanotechnology)
WorldWar Series/Days of Infamy/Southern Victory by Harry Turtledove (alien invasion in middle of WWII/ Japan following up Pearl Harbor with an invasion/ The South getting AK-47’s during the Civil War)
“A Man For All Seasons” -Robert Bolt
“Joseph Smith: A Rough Stone Rolling” -Richard Bushman
“One Eternal Round” -Hugh Nibley
That’s all I can think of that aren’t sacred religious texts. Seriously though, if you’ve ever been interested in the beginnings of Mormonism and Joseph Smith generally, read the Richard Bushman book. It’s accurate, honest and thorough, unlike so many biographies of Joseph Smith.
Hmm this thread reminds me that I have to step up my recreational reading time. One of the first books I really enjoyed was Milk in my Coffee by Eric Jerome Dicky.
Anthem (even though it’s more like a short story/novella)
Fahrenheit 451 (I love the writing style most of all)
American Psycho
Fight Club
Dracula
The Odyssey
1984 (I don’t like the writing style. However, the last line of the book made it worth it)
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
The Harry Potter Series
Sadly, it has been a fair while since I’ve read a modern book that made me just gush with love or hatred or anything other than frustration at the X number of hours of my life I’ve wasted. Most of them seem either pretentious and overly long (David Foster Wallace), or bland aiming-at-the-lowest-common-denominator (James Patterson), or so close to being good yet never quite there (modern King) so as to leave me in perpetual want.
The Godfather - Puzo
The Fountainhead - Rand
East of Eden - Steinbeck
Vernon God Little - Pierre
The Prince of Tides - Conroy
Revolutionary Road - Yates
Ender’s Game - Card
The Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas
Scar Tissue - Keidis
Barbarians at the Gate - Burrough & Helyar
When Genius Failed - Lowenstein
Papillon - Charrière
American Psycho - Ellis
The Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas
This Thing of Darkness - Thompson
Catch 22 - Heller
To Kill A Mockingbird - Lee
I’m surprised the Dark Tower series got a mention, I read that…loved it until the last book. Completely ruined the whole series for me!
Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follet (no watching the mini series doesn’t even come close)
[/quote]
I was going to mention this, but I’m only on page (lemme check…) 569 right now. But it’s just a great story. I like it because it reminds me a lot of Dickens.
I’m looking forward to his new book “Fall of Giants” which is out in hardcover but I prefer paperback anyway.
My favorite book , no jokes is “Starship Troopers”. The best book about how it is to be trained in the military I think.
I also really liked “Lonesome Dove” by Larry McMurtry. It’s a western that really pulls you into the characters and you feel like each chapter is a letter sent by a friend.
The only time I ever shed a tear while reading fiction was “David Copperfield”. That’s another great one.
For fun I love the Jack reacher series by Lee Child. It’s about a 6’5" 250lb ex-MP who just drifts across America getting into trouble.
Catcher in the Rye
Count of Monte Christo
On the Road - Jack Keruak
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - Ken Kesey
Electric Kool Aid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe
Lonsome Dove - Larry McMurtry
Last Picture Show - Larry McMurtry
Sacket Series - Loui Lamore
Night - Eli Wiesel
Harry Potter Series
[quote]DoubleDuce wrote:
Just try to add a few to the thread:
All quiet on the western front-Remarque (better than catch 22 but also much more serious)
the space trilogy-CS lewis (actually 3 books)
x3 on sharpe (and most anything by bernard cornwell,love “the saxon stories” which I think is even better than the sharpe series)
The book of lost things-john connolly
anansi boys-Niel gaiman
fragile things- Niel gaiman (this is a collection of short stories, my favorite is “other people”)[/quote]
I just finished reading Neil’s American Gods and really enjoyed it. I’m not sure about buying Anansi Boys though… I like norse mythology quite a lot, wich was the basis of American Gods, but Anansi is more African myhtology, right?
Have we not mentioned The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)?
Dude I literally shed tears over that one.
Like rolling down my cheeks tears not just welled up in the eyes tears.