5 favorite books of all time

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by sirbruce

Well, if we were going to include comic books, then naturally I'd list Watchmen and The Dark Knight. And then one of the Sandman collections, probably...

I have a $75 hardcover edition of Watchmen - it's a book to me

[poohbear_nc]

My desert island list:

1. The Annotated Sherlock Holmes (older Baring-Gould edition)
2. All Creatures Great and Small (all 4 volumes in the series really)
3. The Hollow - Agatha Christie
4. The Cryptonomicon
5. Any Maigret mystery

[montsnmags]

If This Is A Man - Primo Levi
Bliss - Peter Carey
Cultural Amnesia - Clive James
Under Milkwood - Dylan Thomas
The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene
Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig
[something by Tom Robbins...not sure which] - Tom Robbins
How Not To Count To Five - Marc Lawrence

[HarryT]

Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Bleak House - Charles Dickens
Complete "Sherlock Holmes" - Arthur Conan Doyle
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke

[MelC]

Time Travelers Wife (Audrey Niffeneger)
Whale Music (Paul Quarrington)
Special Topics in Calamity Physics (can't remember)
The Great Santini (Pat Conroy)
Hey Nostradamus (Douglas Coupland)

Although I would like to shoehorn Watership Down (Richard Adams) in there too

[wayspooled]

Originally Posted by Strether

I couldn't warm up to the Lymond Chronicles at all but loved The House of Niccolo series; have all of those. Neither series is available on Kindle, alas. They're big books and it would nice to have them neatly contained on your e-reader.

Jim

Lymond Chronicles first book, The Game of Kings is hard to like for a long time. The writing style is brilliant but not for everyone. Her prose is advanced but she doesn't talk down to anyone and her research is impeccable (I didn't really know that until I read it 20 places later).

Difficult to like the main character. You like most of the people he's personally at odds with more. Then you start to see a few redeeming qualities which is a conundrum because he usually doesn't act in a very civil manner. You understand enough of his motivations to see why he's such a scoundrel, but why he's sometimes nice will remain a paradox through most of the book - even though after you finish you're going - oh yeah, why didn't I see that earlier? The guy doesn't even deny killing someone that he didn't because he doesn't care what anyone thinks. That's what you think. There are things you don't find out until the last chapter of the book, literally the last pages. Which makes it a masterpiece to me. You're told the stuff all along, she doesn't reveal some new made up piece of a puzzle right at the end, like some mystery writer that cheats and withholds vital info, it's her writing, her expression of his personality and the depth of his character that's revealed at the end.

Strengths - Here are the things that make me think it's a work of art. I didn't have any idea how much I could learn about the time period. I was amazed at how much I learned. (I have often read about and studied in school this European time period). I love learning things from a book. I remember looking up 3 or 4 words (oh, that just never happens to me heh), looking up poetry to see where it came from (what a great selection and I hardly ever read any poetry I haven't been made to) and even translated a couple passages from French because I didn't want to misunderstand something. Second, she keeps you interested throughout and then knocks your socks off in a somewhat classic though not at all cliched ending. Completely unexpected depths of emotion in what I thought was a moderately dry though wonderfully written novel until then. Until understanding.. and.. The main character is not a white hat or a black hat, he's like every one of us - somewhere in between, but he's not a one dimensional grey hat (a cliche often over used in modern writings).

Weaknesses - You have to read about 75 pages before you really decide if you want to read it, and even then you're following the adventures of a mostly unsympathetic character, not for everyone. Usually not for me either, I picked it up several times to read before I got hooked. There are a number of quotes in archaic languages that kinda put off the reader I think. They pretty much disappear by the end of the 2nd book in the series but The Game of Kings if full of them.

I loved the House of Niccolo series too, just as much really but I found it easier to like at first because the main character's personality was clearer from the start. She reserved her surprises for other areas of the character.

[weateallthepies]

Couldn't possibly pick a top 5 so five favourites I can think of right this minute:

1. Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
2. The Complete Chronicles of Conan - Robert E Howard (OK thats a bit of a cheat but by Crom! its a good collection)
3. River out of Eden - Richard Dawkins
4. Mort - Terry Pratchett
5. Gateway - Frederik Pohl

[Andybaby]

Originally Posted by sirbruce

1. To Sail Beyond the Sunset - Robert A. Heinlein
.

Interesting, that was my least favorite of the Lazarus Series, not time enough for love?

The Number of the Beast by Robert Heinlein (it gets bad reviews sometimes but I love it)
Old Mans War by John Scalzi (new author on the scene, and great writer)
Camouflage by Joe Haldeman
Seventh Son By Orson Scott Card (Alvin Maker Series, Also I didn't want to put Enders Game up here as that's on everyones list everywhere, but I need to have Card up here.
Childhoods End by Arthur C. Clark (This book really sticks with me)

(more great scifi books in my Sig)

[HistoryWes]

1. Watership Down by Richard Adams
2. Shardik by Richard Adams
3. Oh Pioneers! by Willa Cather
4. Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
5. Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips

[sirbruce]

Originally Posted by Andybaby

Interesting, that was my least favorite of the Lazarus Series, not time enough for love?

Time Enough For Love is a classic but it's slow, ponderous, and contains a lot of filler. While it is primarily pieces from Lazarus' life, and each piece is designed to illustrate a particular point, it includes a lot of extraneous material that interrupt any flow of storytelling.

One passage regarding Lazarus running the local bank is pretty much just an excuse for Heinlein to explain his Libertarian theory of money and money supply. It's good stuff, but not very relevant to what goes before or after.

He spends half a chapter addressing the fact that it's okay for a particular brother and sister to crossbreed. Now, most modern sci-fi writers would just gloss that over; e.g. "I did a genetic scan and the two were compatible." Instead, we get page after page of Lazarus analyzing the percentage possibilities of two negative traits reinforcing. Okay, I appreciate the small diversion into hard sf, but he doesn't stop there... he goes through each step of mitosis, pairing, division, etc. He explores best case and worst case scenarios. He does an approximation, and then does it all over again for a better approximation.

And he's STILL not done. He then constructs a very elaborate analogy with a deck of cards to explain these odds to the brother and sister, again going through each step. By the end of it my eyes glazed over; I wasn't bothering to check if Heinlein's math was correct, nor did I care; just tell me and move on, please!

I think To Sail Beyond the Sunset is the best work, not only because it is not hampered by such scenes, but also because it's a summation that's best appreciated through the lens of his other books, at least those that are part of Future History. I confess it probably also speaks to me personally because a good part of it is really a historical narrative of a girl growing up in rural Missouri, something I can relate to and in a time period I can imagine my parents and grandparents growing up in.

If I had to pick another Heinlein book to top the list it would be The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress or The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (though the latter suffers from not having an ending).

Originally Posted by Andybaby

The Number of the Beast by Robert Heinlein (it gets bad reviews sometimes but I love it)

It's not nearly as bad as its reputation (the Oz part is particularly charming), but I think it also suffers from some of the weaknesses Time Enough For Love does. A lot of repetitive discussion about time coordinates, the difficulties of command, etc. And a lot of jumping through hoops to explain the precise workings of each voice command they assign to the Gay Deceiver, and making sure in every scene the proper sequence of words is said aloud and executed correctly. I don't need an explanation of Warp Drive every time the helmsman pushes a button, nor do I need to know every button he pushes, you know?

And I say these things as a Heinlein Fan who has read almost all his stuff (just a few juveniles to go). It's all great writing; I can't think of a bad story except maybe "Lost Legacy".

[rampo]

Blue Heaven by Joe Keenan
Confessions of a Mask by Yukio Mishima
The Most of S.J.Perelman by S.J.Perelman
The Laughing Sutra by Mark Salzman
Nothing But Wodehouse by P.G. Wodehouse (edited by Ogden Nash)

[Andybaby]

Originally Posted by sirbruce

One passage regarding Lazarus running the local bank is pretty much just an excuse for Heinlein to explain his Libertarian theory of money and money supply. It's good stuff, but not very relevant to what goes before or after.

That's what most people say when they read heinleins later work. I for one find I like those little distractions. I prefer his later work a whole lot more than his earlier because of that I think.

I agree 100% of mistress and cat who can walk through walls. I read the later before I read any Lazarus books, than reread it again after I read the rest. especially after reading Number of the Beast. tunnel in the sky and the door into summer (my first heinlein, I've read that about 4 times) are also some of my favs

I just found the story line of Maureen a little boring, the part of the book that takes place in the present really sucked, and almost all the flashbacks were repeats from other books I read I think, though I found certain parts I liked. it just didn't stick with me as much as I liked.

I've worked my way through about 80% of his novels. I seem to like his little escapades into the working of machinery and robotics and everything from his perspective. I still havent read stranger or troopers (I'm still trying to forget the movie) But I love the mars and venus he created.

[mpd123]

if stranded on a desert island my no1 book would be

The sas survival handbook

[sirbruce]

"Cat" was also my first Heinlein book (well, aside from a couple of juveniles) and I loved it but I was SOOO lost. Reading the other books really makes you appreciate it more. But as I said, no ending! You have to wait to "Sunset" before you find out what happened.

Sorry to hear you didn't like the Starship Troopers movie, but the novel is quite different, and definitely worth a read.

[HappyMartin]

Grapes Of Wrath Steinbeck
Guide To The Bodhisattva's Way Of Life Shantideva
Moby Dick Herman Melville
Sometimes A Great Notion Ken Kesey
The Forgotten Soldier Guy Sajer


No particular order and some very particular reasons