12-11-2013, 01:56 PM | #31 |
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That’s the purpose of such threads. We develop ourselves over the years. If my thread will survive a few years, someone else, you, and me – we could publish here our revised lists once and once again. Or someone will open the other similar though not the same thread giving us a new opportunity.
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12-11-2013, 10:47 PM | #32 |
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I've been thinking and thinking and thinking about what to put here and finally i'm going to just... let her rip.
no preferential order given... also prone here to list series rather than single books... also as others have including a mix of short story and novel. didn't think of any nonfiction at least tonight, but I did include some juvenile literature that came to mind. 1. The Great Brain (entire series), John D. Fitzgerald (now i want to read it all again) 2. Anne of Green Gables (entire series, but the first novel is the fave), LM Montgomery 3. Little House on the Prairie (entire series, but the first novel is still my favorite), Laura Ingalls Wilder 4. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett 5. Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling 6. Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert A. Heinlein 7. The King Must Die, Mary Renault 8. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen 9. DragonFlight (and all associated series), Anne McCaffrey 10.(short story) The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, Ernest Hemingway 11. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier 12. Dracula, Bram Stoker 13. Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley 14. Hawkmistress! plus every other book basically in the entire Darkover universe 15. Battle Circle!, (trilogized: Sos the Rope, Var the Stick, Neq the Sword, a compelling post armageddon setting) Piers Anthony 16. The Incarnations of Immortality series (favorite is the first, On a Pale Horse), also by Piers Anthony 17. Earth's Children series, favorite is the 2nd Valley of the Horses but the best known is probably the first, The Clan of the Cave Bear, by Jean M. Auel ---- prompted by other users to be included because i loved these, too Exodus, Leon Uris (and Trinity, plus, all his other books!) The Belgariad, David Eddings |
12-12-2013, 03:02 AM | #33 |
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Books that have changed me, affected my language or way of thinking, or that i return to over the years:
1. Distinction, Pierre Bourdieu 2. 100 Years of Solitude, Marquez 3. Labyrinths, Borges 4. The Nick Adams Stories, Hemingway 5. Rings of Saturn, W.G. Sebald 6. Heart of Darkness, Conrad 7. Das Kapital 8. Snow Country, Kawabata 9. Setting Sun, Dazai 10. 10/18 collection of Cornelius Castoriadis' writings so large works of political economy/sociology and brief fiction |
12-12-2013, 04:17 PM | #34 |
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I do find it interesting to see other peoples' lists. Sometimes I'm nodding my head, "ooh, good one!" and other times I'm shaking my head, "really?" But I like the idea of not openly criticizing each other here.
I intend on checking out some books I never read in lists that otherwise have me nodding my head. |
12-12-2013, 04:58 PM | #35 |
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These are the first ten that come to mind in this moment (some because I remembered how much I loved them when others listed them):
Cannery Row - John Steinbeck (also Sweet Thursday) Walden - Henry David Thoreau The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (just read for first time and loved it) All Jeeves and Wooster books by Wodehouse which I've read multiple times The Killer Angels - Michael Shaara The Stand - Stephen King Farewell, My Lovely - Raymond Chandler Flowers For Algernon - Daniel Keyes Zorro - Isabel Allende (actually, pretty much any book featuring Zorro) Mila 18 - Leon Uris Oh dear, and then there are Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch mysteries and James Lee Burke's Dave Robicheaux books (most of them). Edit: The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles can probably replace the Chandler. Or Dumas. An endless loop can ensue. (Then there is Tortilla Flat by Steinbeck...and The Grapes of Wrath) Last edited by BelleZora; 12-12-2013 at 05:09 PM. |
12-12-2013, 09:08 PM | #36 |
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In no particular order:
Hamlet. The Tripod trilogy by John Christopher. Coming through Slaughter and In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondatje. Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow by Peter Hoeg. The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke. Confessions of a Good Arab by Yoram Kaniuk. Roadside Picnic and Hard to be a God by Strugatsky. The Great Gatsby. Watership Down. The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks. Yes, Minister. |
12-13-2013, 01:21 AM | #37 |
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Top Ten Books
The first I thought of . .
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace The Things They Carried - Tiim O'Brien Moby Dick - Herman Melville The Liberation Trilogy - (An Army at Dawn, The Day of Battle, The Guns at Last Light) - Rick Atkinson The Prince of Tides - Pat Conroy The Shipping News - E. Annie Proulx Washington's Crossing - David Hackett Fischer Diplomacy - Henry Kissinger Catch 22 - Joseph Heller Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry |
12-13-2013, 02:15 AM | #38 |
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This is ... incredibly difficult.
Keeping to favourite books (which don't necessarily overlap with books I've appreciated or books I consider important or books I really should mention because they're more high-brow than those I am actually going to list but I won't because, well, they're just not truly my favourites), this is probably the best I can currently come up with.
Oddly enough, my love for practically everything on this list either dates from my childhood and teenage years or from the last decade or so. Other than Harry Potter, I cannot even remember anything I read between, say, 1994 and 2004, and I'm pretty sure I read quite a few books. |
12-13-2013, 06:01 AM | #39 | |
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Quote:
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12-13-2013, 07:55 AM | #40 |
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I don't have a complete list of ten, plenty of books that I really liked, but the two books that stand out for me are both books I read when I was young. One I go back and read from time to time and am probably well into double figures in the amount of times I've re-read it (and I rarely re-read anything), the other I read a few times as a kid, but I've not read it since as I always remember crying so much.....
1. Watership Down 2. This Perfect Day - Ira Levin |
12-13-2013, 12:26 PM | #41 |
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Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells Rumble Fish by S.E. Hinton My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George Old Man's War by John Scalzi Forever War by Joe Haldeman The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien Return of the King by by J.R.R. Tolkien Rumble Fish and My Side of the Mountain were the first two books I ever read and that I can thank for making want to read as a kid. |
12-13-2013, 12:37 PM | #42 |
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12-13-2013, 12:59 PM | #43 |
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My (of course) completely unfair but representative lists:
Non fiction
Fiction
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12-13-2013, 01:21 PM | #44 |
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Fiction
The Dispossessed-Ursula Leguin Of Human Bondage-W. Somerset Maugham Jane Eyre-Charlotte Bronte Sister Carrie-Theodore Dreiser On the Road-Jack Kerouac I, Iago-Nicole Galland The Red and the Black-Stendhal Fathers and Sons-Ivan Turgenev 1984-George Orwell O Pioneers!-Willa Cather Nonfiction The Omnivore's Dilemma-Michael Pollan Predictably Irrational-Dan Ariely Debt: the First 5000 Years-David Graeber Financing the American Dream-Lendol Calder The Great Cat Massacre-Robert Darnton The Forbidden Bestsellers of Prerevolutionary France-Robert Darnton The Literary Underground of the Old Regime-Robert Darnton The Great Divergence-Ken Pomeranz The Murder of Helen Jewett-Patricia Cline Cohen Fables of Abundance-Jackson Lears Last edited by spellbanisher; 12-13-2013 at 01:25 PM. |
12-13-2013, 03:47 PM | #45 | |
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Quote:
Fiction: The Magus - John Fowles Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card The Beach - Alex Garland Harry Potter Series - J.K. Rowling Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell Oryx & Crake - Margaret Atwood Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck Watership Down - Richard Adams Hyperion Cantos - Dan Simmons The Prydain Chronicles - Lloyd Alexander Black Swan Green - David Mitchell Lady Oracle - Margaret Atwood In the Woods - Tana French Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo- Steig Larsson The Snowman - Jo Nesbo Pandora's Star/Judas Unchained - Peter F. Hamilton Nonfiction: 1491 - Charles Mann Inferno: The World At War 1939-1945 - Max Hastings Mayflower - Nathaniel Philbrick The Monster of Florence - Preston & Spezi Apologies for more than 10. I looked at my five star rated books on goodreads and included all books that truly stood out. Last edited by usuallee; 12-13-2013 at 03:52 PM. |
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