What are your 10 favourite books?
In no particular order and only off the top of my head,
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon
The Stand - Stephen King
Forrest Gump - Winston Groom
The Information - Martin Amiis
Sabbath's Theater - Phillip Roth
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig
Three Day Road - Joseph Boyden
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
Discipline and Punish - Michel Foucault
Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon
The Stand - Stephen King
Forrest Gump - Winston Groom
The Information - Martin Amiis
Sabbath's Theater - Phillip Roth
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig
Three Day Road - Joseph Boyden
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
Discipline and Punish - Michel Foucault
Even though Mr.Runes you've mentioned 10, unfortunately even that is a very small number to justify...picture the struggle of the favourite books in memoryland jostling over one another.
I'd just list 10 but won't rank them🙂
Best of Saki (H H Munro)
Walden (HD Thoreau )
Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)
Of Mice and Men(Steinbeck)
For One More Day (Mitch Albom)
One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
The Great Gatsby (F Scott Fitzgerald)
Selected Works of Henry Lawson
Brimming Billabong (Bill Harney)
(I reckon we should make it 20 most favourites 😉)
I'd just list 10 but won't rank them🙂
Best of Saki (H H Munro)
Walden (HD Thoreau )
Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)
Of Mice and Men(Steinbeck)
For One More Day (Mitch Albom)
One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
The Great Gatsby (F Scott Fitzgerald)
Selected Works of Henry Lawson
Brimming Billabong (Bill Harney)
(I reckon we should make it 20 most favourites 😉)
The God Of Animals - Aryn Kyle
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Ham on Rye - Charles Bukowski
Ishmael - Daniel Quinn
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
The Hours - Michael Cunningham
Wonderful thread idea! love reading the lists so far <3
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Ham on Rye - Charles Bukowski
Ishmael - Daniel Quinn
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
Me Talk Pretty One Day - David Sedaris
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
The Hours - Michael Cunningham
Wonderful thread idea! love reading the lists so far <3
Some great choices there, Umm. Catch-22 was my father’s favourite book. And you can extend to 20 if you like, Fusion
My list is never stable:
1. The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Connor
2. Collected Ghost Stories by MR James
3. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
4. Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
5. The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley
6. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
7. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
8. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
9. Collected Poems by Philip Larkin
10. The Collected Poems and Drawings of Stevie Smith
My list is never stable: 1. The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Connor
2. Collected Ghost Stories by MR James
3. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
4. Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
5. The Devils of Loudun by Aldous Huxley
6. Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
7. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
8. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
9. Collected Poems by Philip Larkin
10. The Collected Poems and Drawings of Stevie Smith
Oh boy. I'll aim for brevity. I think first it was my age and the circumstances of how I stumbled on the novel and author. I was around 24 and knew nothing of Infinite Jest or DFW. But I'd been enjoying philosophical fiction and like challenging my ways and modes of thinking. I was in my favourite magazine and novelty shop (a couple decades gone now) and my eye was caught by multiple - like 20 or 30 copies of this fat brightly coloured paperback. The title intrigued me and the 80% discount sold me.
So much for brevity...
So briefly, his use of language, crafting, and his insistence on and skill at drilling down into his subject matter (mental health, depression, addiction, modern media and its sway, contemporary neuroses, privilege) and his incredibly dry humour, seeming cold detachment (which for me I self-consciously regard as his - and my "love language" or at least "compassion language". And mercilessly honest analysis of the hegelian dialectic in the context of the everyday.
Not that I am super well read, but from my perspective and experience, he has most successfully, thoroughly and artfully plummed the confounding depths of our liberal, 1st world, etc. Existence and attempted with earnestness and genius to fill in absences.
So much for brevity...
So briefly, his use of language, crafting, and his insistence on and skill at drilling down into his subject matter (mental health, depression, addiction, modern media and its sway, contemporary neuroses, privilege) and his incredibly dry humour, seeming cold detachment (which for me I self-consciously regard as his - and my "love language" or at least "compassion language". And mercilessly honest analysis of the hegelian dialectic in the context of the everyday.
Not that I am super well read, but from my perspective and experience, he has most successfully, thoroughly and artfully plummed the confounding depths of our liberal, 1st world, etc. Existence and attempted with earnestness and genius to fill in absences.
SayQuois said:Oh boy. I'll aim for brevity. I think first it was my age and the circumstances of how I stumbled on the novel and author. I was around 24 and knew nothing of Infinite Jest or DFW. But I'd been enjoying philosophical fiction and like challenging my ways and modes of thinking. I was in my favourite magazine and novelty shop (a couple decades gone now) and my eye was caught by multiple - like 20 or 30 copies of this fat brightly coloured paperback. The title intrigued me and the 80% discount sold me.
So much for brevity...
So briefly, his use of language, crafting, and his insistence on and skill at drilling down into his subject matter (mental health, depression, addiction, modern media and its sway, contemporary neuroses, privilege) and his incredibly dry humour, seeming cold detachment (which for me I self-consciously regard as his - and my "love language" or at least "compassion language". And mercilessly honest analysis of the hegelian dialectic in the context of the everyday.
Not that I am super well read, but from my perspective and experience, he has most successfully, thoroughly and artfully plummed the confounding depths of our liberal, 1st world, etc. Existence and attempted with earnestness and genius to fill in absences.
Thank you for that analysis! It sounds great. All I knew of it was that it’s about a film that people die watching/become addicted to.
So much for brevity...
So briefly, his use of language, crafting, and his insistence on and skill at drilling down into his subject matter (mental health, depression, addiction, modern media and its sway, contemporary neuroses, privilege) and his incredibly dry humour, seeming cold detachment (which for me I self-consciously regard as his - and my "love language" or at least "compassion language". And mercilessly honest analysis of the hegelian dialectic in the context of the everyday.
Not that I am super well read, but from my perspective and experience, he has most successfully, thoroughly and artfully plummed the confounding depths of our liberal, 1st world, etc. Existence and attempted with earnestness and genius to fill in absences.
Thank you for that analysis! It sounds great. All I knew of it was that it’s about a film that people die watching/become addicted to.
Such a limiting question.
• All the Names, José Saramago
• One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez
• Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabrial García Márquez
• Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
• Dune by Frank Herbert
• Contact by Carl Sagan
• Women Who Run With The Wolves, Clarissa Pinkola Estes
• A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle
• The Idiot Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Honorable author mention: Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawkings, Lao Tzu, Gibran, Stephen Ellcock, and so many more. . .
• All the Names, José Saramago
• One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez
• Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabrial García Márquez
• Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
• Dune by Frank Herbert
• Contact by Carl Sagan
• Women Who Run With The Wolves, Clarissa Pinkola Estes
• A New Earth, Eckhart Tolle
• The Idiot Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Honorable author mention: Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawkings, Lao Tzu, Gibran, Stephen Ellcock, and so many more. . .
I'll name five poetry books and five novels . The lists tend to fluctuate, though.
Poetry
The Darks And The Lights – Sarah Stoltzfus Allen.
Night – David Harsent
Portable Kisses – Tess Gallagher
The Intelligent Observation Of Naked Women – Frank Kuppner.
Crow – Ted Hughes.
Novels
Anything by P.G.Wodehouse.
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte.
Grapes Of Wrath – John Steinbeck.
Tess of the D'urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist – Robert Tressel
Poetry
The Darks And The Lights – Sarah Stoltzfus Allen.
Night – David Harsent
Portable Kisses – Tess Gallagher
The Intelligent Observation Of Naked Women – Frank Kuppner.
Crow – Ted Hughes.
Novels
Anything by P.G.Wodehouse.
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte.
Grapes Of Wrath – John Steinbeck.
Tess of the D'urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist – Robert Tressel
1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kasey
2. Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo
3. Rumpole of the Bailey by John Mortimer
4. The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
5. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
6. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
7. 1984 by George Orwell
8. The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen 83 1/4 Years Old by Hendrik Groen
9. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
10. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
2. Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo
3. Rumpole of the Bailey by John Mortimer
4. The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
5. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
6. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
7. 1984 by George Orwell
8. The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen 83 1/4 Years Old by Hendrik Groen
9. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
10. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
In no particular order.
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Stand by Stephen King
Payment in Blood by Elizabeth George
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet
The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
The Stand by Stephen King
Payment in Blood by Elizabeth George
1) Vladimir Nabokov--The stories of Vladimir Nabokov\collected stories
2) George MacDonald--Lilith
3) Carlos Ruiz Zafón--the shadow of the wind
4) Mira Rothenberg--Children with emerald eyes
5) Patty Harpenau---the Madonna Codes
6) Sean kane--wisdom of the mythtellers
7) A collection of prose, poetry, songs--Soul Seers
8 )Isabelle Eberhardt--the oblivion seekers
9) Naoki Higashida--the reason I jump
10) Priyanka Kumar--conversations with birds
2) George MacDonald--Lilith
3) Carlos Ruiz Zafón--the shadow of the wind
4) Mira Rothenberg--Children with emerald eyes
5) Patty Harpenau---the Madonna Codes
6) Sean kane--wisdom of the mythtellers
7) A collection of prose, poetry, songs--Soul Seers
8 )Isabelle Eberhardt--the oblivion seekers
9) Naoki Higashida--the reason I jump
10) Priyanka Kumar--conversations with birds
In no particular order:
1) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2) The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
3) The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
4) The Third Twin by Ken Follett
5) Esio Trot by Roald Dahl
6) The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen
7) The Crucible by Arthur Miller
8) The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
9) Dracula by Bram Stoker
10) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
1) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2) The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
3) The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
4) The Third Twin by Ken Follett
5) Esio Trot by Roald Dahl
6) The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen
7) The Crucible by Arthur Miller
8) The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
9) Dracula by Bram Stoker
10) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
