Favorite books

[shameless agitator]

In the spirit of Marie Delta's "whatcha readin" thread I decided to start one for top 10 favorites. I've been reduced to my cell phone for net access so won't be including descriptions or links but if y'all wanted to that would be very cool. So here's my top ten in no particular order... "Walden" by H.D. Thoreau "City of Joy" by Dominique Lapierre "The Snow Leopard" by Peter Matthiesen "Possession" by A.S. Byatt "The Dogs of Babel" by Carolyn Parkhurst "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (series) by Douglas Adams "The foundation trilogy" by Isaac Asimov "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert Heinlein "Tales of the City" (series) by Armistead Maupin I know I cheated with those series, but I would have never gotten it down to ten otherwise. So sue me

[cand86]

Hard to limit myself to ten, but here they are, in no particular order:

Fiction:

1) "The Mists of Avalon" by Marion Zimmer Bradley
2) "Dangerous Angels" by Francesca Lia Block (somewhat cheating . . . the books were first sold separately before being put into this one big book)
3) "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand
4) "The Book of Night With Moon" by Diane Duane
5) "Dark Sister" by Graham Joyce
6) "A Kiss of Shadows" by Laurell K. Hamilton (okay, actually, the whole Meredith Gentry series, really)
7) "How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Friendship, Theft, and Musical Theater" by Mark Acito
8) "The Wee Free Men" by Terry Pratchett (and its sequel, too)
9) "The Leather Daddy and the Femme" by Carol Queen
10) "Wigfield" by Stephen Colbert, Paul Dinello, and Amy Sedaris

I think I could probably subsist happily on these books were I to be on a deserted island.

[DiamondDog]

Too many to list and I can't pick only 10.

[biwords]

Not sure I have a 'top ten', but simply free-associating, the following sprang to mind.

Selected Plays of George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart (Modern Library)

The Guardsman by Ferenc Molnar (great if bitter comedy, a masterpiece of poise)

Candide, by Voltaire (Penguin translation by John Butt reads like a dream)

St. Joan, by George Bernard Shaw

Drawn To Trouble, by Eric Hebborn (gleeful memoirs of a master art forger who was later murdered)

Collected Essays and Journalism of George Orwell (Penguin, 4 vols).

Style by F.L. Lucas (great but alas out-of-print book on literary conoisseurship, at least on the stylistic side)

The Reader Over Your Shoulder by Robert Graves and Alan Hodge (you'll never read the same way after reading this; Graves was, of course, the author of I, Claudius)

Maxims of de la Rochefoucauld (Penguin edition is good for readers without French)

The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer (Think you're having a bad day? read this controversial memoir by a Frenchman who as a teenager fought for the Nazis on the Russian Front)

The Norton Anthology of English Poetry

The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis

The Meaning of Treason by Rebecca West

Honorable mention: The Prince, by Machiavelli. Not the most enjoyable book on my list, but endlessly provocative...a more entertaining and accessible alternative for many will be The 48 Laws of Power.

[Skater Boy]

OK, just a few on my list, and in no particular order:

-"The 48 Laws OF Power" (Robert Greene)
-"Th Art Of Seduction" (Robert Greene)
-"The Art Of War" (Sun Tzu)
-"Principles of War" (Karl Von Clausewitz)
-"The Prince" (Niccolo Machiavelli)
-"The Power Of The Charlatan" (Grete De Francesco)
-"Yellow Kid Weil" (W T Brannon)
-"Trance-Formations- NLP & The Structure Of Hypnosis" (Bandler & Grinder)
-"Fantabulosa: A Dictionary Of Polari & Gay Slang" (Paul Baker)
-Various books on aphorisms and quotations

[MarieDelta]

Heres a few from my List:

Mushashi - By Yoshikawa, Eiji
The classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman.

"My Husband Betty" - Hellen Boyd
The author is a happily married woman whose husband enjoys sharing her wardrobe--and she's written the first book on trans-gendered men to focus on their relationships.

"Autumn Lightning" - Dave Lowry
The Education of an American Samurai

"Lord of the Rings" - JRR Tolkien
I don't think y'all need a summary of this one :P

"The Hero With a Thousand Faces" - Joseph Campbell
Very good work on myth and myth structure.

"Gender Outlaw" - Kate Bornstein
Kate's a wonderful author and this book is a general kick in the pants. I would say it's a good idea to read it for any 'differently gendered' person.


"MOM, I NEED TO BE A GIRL (http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/Evelyn/Evelyn.html)" -Just Evelyn
Story of a young transgender girl and her realtionship with her mother. As written by her mother. Free to download.

"Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence" by Dale Peterson, Richard Wrangham
Study of violence in nature and how it relates to humans.

[happyjoe68]

OK, just a few on my list, and in no particular order:

-"Principles of War" (Karl Von Clausewitz)


Actually, its "On War" (Vom Kriege)

[Skater Boy]

Actually, its "On War" (Vom Kriege)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Principles-War-Carl-Von-Clausewitz/dp/0486427994/ref=sr_1_1/203-7750519-1361558?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187631252&sr=8-1

"Principles Of War". Same author, same subject. Just a summarized version of the book that you mentioned. By no means as detailed and complete though.

[happyjoe68]

If you're going to read any book, let alone a classic, never read an abridged version, otherwise its just a waste of time

[Skater Boy]

If you're going to read any book, let alone a classic, never read an abridged version, otherwise its just a waste of time

Au contraire, mon ami, au contraire. Perhaps not "as good" as reading the unabridged version, but its rare that reading ANY book (save a trashy romance novel, and even then...) is "just a waste of time".

[happyjoe68]

Au contraire, mon ami, au contraire. Perhaps not "as good" as reading the unabridged version, but its rare that reading ANY book (save a trashy romance novel, and even then...) is "just a waste of time".

Err, well, thats not actually what I said ...

"If you're going to read any book, let alone a classic, never read an abridged version, otherwise its just a waste of time"

Statements, like many books, often deserve to be read twice to be understood fully

[Skater Boy]

Err, well, thats not actually what I said ...

"If you're going to read any book, let alone a classic, never read an abridged version, otherwise its just a waste of time"

Statements, like many books, often deserve to be read twice to be understood fully

I read your statement twice. Nay, thrice. It still means the same thing to me:

Reading an abridged version of a book is "a waste of time". In which case, please refer to my previous answer.

I don't believe reading ANY book (abridged or not) is a waste of time. Perhaps you might not achieve the same level of enlightenment as when having read the UN-abridged version, but a waste of time? Certainly not.

You are quite right about reading books twice though... some books even deserve/need many more than two readings.

[happyjoe68]

I read your statement twice. Nay, thrice. It still means the same thing to me:

Reading an abridged version of a book is "a waste of time". In which case, please refer to my previous answer.

I don't believe reading ANY book (abridged or not) is a waste of time. Perhaps you might not achieve the same level of enlightenment as when having read the UN-abridged version, but a waste of time? Certainly not.

You are quite right about reading books twice though... some books even deserve/need many more than two readings.


Yawns ....

[izzfan]

My favourite books? in no particular order:

1) "Dune" by Frank Herbert
2) Any of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories [except for " The Hound of the Baskervilles"....never really liked that one much]
3) Most stuff by H.P.Lovecraft
4) "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Phillip.K.Dick
5) Anything by Shaun Hutson... he is a genius
6) " Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" by Hunter.S.Thompson
7) Most stuff by William.S.Burroughs
8) "The Red badge of Courage" by Stephen Crane
9) "The Beach" by Alex Garland
10) Loads of other great books which I cannot think of at the moment

Izzfan :flag3:

[shameless agitator]

My favourite books? in no particular order:


4) "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Phillip.K.Dick


Izzfan :flag3:God & I thought I was the only Phillip K Dick fan left. Starting to think limiting it to 10 was a bad idea. I keep thinking of other stuff that sould be on here

[jem_is_bi]

1 to 3: The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Volumes 1,2, and 3 by R.P. Feynman, R.B. Leighton, M. Sands
4:The World according to Wavelets by B.B. Hubbard, A.K.Peters,Ltd. Wellesley, MA., 1996
5:Neural Computing, Theory and Practice, P.D. Wasserman, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1989
6:An Introduction to Chaotic Dynamical Systems, R.L. Devaney, Addison-Wesley, 1989
7: Complex Variables and Applications, R.V. Churchill, R.W. Brown, McGraw Hill, 1984
8:Chaos and Fractals, New Frontiers of Science, H.O. Peitgen, H. Jurgens, D. Saupe, Springer-Verlag, 1992
9:Engineering Optics, K. Iizuka, Springer-Verlag, 1983
10:Numerical Recipes in C, W.H. Press, S. A. Teukolsky, W. T. Vetterling, B. P. Flannery, Cambridge University Press, 1992

The Feynman lectures cover all of modern physics including quantum mechanics. I love this three volume set. It is a joyful read for those that love physics. Complex Variables and Applications is a "classic" math book that supplies a foundation for using complex numbers that are absolutely necessary for frequency analysis, vibration analysis, coherent optics and communications, etc.
Number 4 and 5 on my list are relatively easy to read basic introductions to 2 important topics that have many uses in signal processing and A.I. The books on Chaos are relatively easy introduction to an important aspect of nonlinear dynamics in which systems can be completely deterministic, yet their evolution with time is not exactly predictable. A computer knows how to add, subtract and do logic operations. Numerical Recipes in C is a "classic" book containing algorithms, sorce code, and technical describtions on how to get computers to do high level math that is the basis of much of science today.

I know my reading list is somewhat different from normal.

JEM

[DiamondDog]

God & I thought I was the only Phillip K Dick fan left. Starting to think limiting it to 10 was a bad idea. I keep thinking of other stuff that sould be on here

I <3 Dick but I've read most of his works, and done some work with stuff he wrote.

[LWynn4]

1. A song of Ice and Fire series George R.R. Martin
2. Kushiel's avatar Jacquelin Karey
3. Kushiel's Scion JK (spinoff, get off my case)
4. Bless Me Ultima, I am such an idiot and an asshole for not remebering the author, I hope the brujas dont get me for this
5. Belgariad series David Eddings
6. The Elenium series David Eddings
7. Enders game Orson Scott Card
8. Rhapsody series Elizibeth Haydon
9. The Karma Sutra
10. Foxtrot Bill Amend

[shameless agitator]

If you liked Ender's Game, you should really enjoy the rest of the series. He also did a parallax series focusing on Bean. They didn't do as well commercially, because the original kind of got pegged as "juvenile" fiction & the rest of the books were a bit more adult oriented.

[LWynn4]

thanx for the hint, I'll look it up

[bigregory]

I love cook books.
All kinds, the old one's are a hoot.
Start with a half pound of lard then add the bacon.
But for real reading i like -
Steven King
Isaac Asimov
Terry Goodkind
Im not sure who wrote Watership down but that was the first book I ever read and still a fav.
Then there is erotic books'stories.
Penthouse Variations and all the unlimited stuff on-line make up the rest of my daily reading.

[ChelleNYC78]

it's really hard to narrow it down:
Tenderheaded: A Comb-Bending Collection of Hair Stories
Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates
Afrekete...
Dark Love...
Black Like Us...
Good Omens
Parable of the Sower
Parable of the Talents
Crime and Punishment
Meeting Faith

[Azrael]

Irvine Welsh: The Acid House, Trainspotting
George Orwell: Animal Farm, 1984
Jack Kerouac: On the Road, The Dharma Bums
William S. Burroughs: Naked Lunch
Thomas Harris: Rad Dragon
William Blake: Songs of Innocence, Songs of experience
Michael Crichton- The Andromeda Strain
Chuck Palahniuk: Stranger than fiction
Neil Stephenson- Quicksilver
Henry Rollins- Eye Scream

[Germanicus]

So many books to choose from ... And my choice varies from day-to-day

So, here are my favourites today:

1. Christopher Isherwood, Goodbye to Berlin

2. Christopher Isherwood, Christopher and His Kind. The first installment of Isherwood's biography, but written in the third person - strange. Nonetheless, a fascinating insight into a very beautiful gay man (swoon)

3. Charles Nevin, Lancashire, Where Women Die of Love - Balzac has a lot to answer for ...

4. Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathrusta (Penguin Classic edition) ... "a self-propelling wheel" ... indeed

[folk2punk]

Candide, by Voltaire (Penguin translation by John Butt reads like a dream)

St. Joan, by George Bernard Shaw

Collected Essays and Journalism of George Orwell (Penguin, 4 vols).

The Norton Anthology of English Poetry

do i detect an english teacher? -- nice list of work - i left my favs in the quote above. All Hail the Norton Anthologies (of english and american.)

recent favs:

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Madonna's of Lenningrad by Debra Dean

almost any works of Anne Rice or Philip Roth.

A Fine and Private Place and The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger

[gfofbiguy]

I can't pick just ten BOOKS......but here are some of my favorite books/authors:

Pride and Prejudice, ~~Jane Austin
The Historian, ~~Elizabeth Kostova
Most of the Kay Scarpetta books by Patricia Cornwell through The Last Precinct
Agatha Christie
Robin Cook
Maeve Binchy
Dracula, ~~Bram Stoker
Nevada Barr
(hmmmmm, I'm seeing a pattern here, mostly murder/mysteries/medical LOL)
many others that don't come to mind at the moment

[slipperybird]

Well, here are some that I really liked:

On the road - Jack Kerouac
Something childish but very natural - Katherine Mansfield
Be my knife - David Grossman
The three volume autobiography by Felice Picano
The heart is a lonely hunter - Carson McCullers
A thing of beauty - AJ Cronin


this will have to suffice, nothing more comes to mind right now :)

[Taeris]

I don't think I have ten, but I'll try anyway:

(In no particular order)

The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
The Wheel of Time Series, Robert Jordan (4 that I've read so far)
The Abhorsen Trilogy, Garth Nix
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
The World According to Garp, John Irving
The Green Mile, Stephen King
Harry Potter (except book 6, which I felt was a wasted book, and book 7, which was horribly disappointing, but that's a new topic I think...)

[Shadowsurfer]

Top ten reads, all depends on my frame of mind at the time.

1) Neromancer - By William Gibson (Read his other books too.)
2) The hobbit - J.R.R Tolkien (Read this before Lorad of the rings)
3) Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Duoglas Adams (Also try and read all of them starting with book 1. Very funny.
4) Wraith of Asher - Trilogy - Agnus Wells
5) Changlings - By Katherine Kerr
6) A Lonely Planet - By Michael Palin
7) Jonathan Livingston Seagull - by Richard Bach
8) Stormboy - By Paul Owen Lewis
9) Messiah - By Boris Starling
10) Beowulf - By Gareth Hinds

[case_126]

I'm with a couple of people on this thread that sorting out the favorite in top 10 mode is difficult. In saying that here are my top ten in no particular order.

-Neuromancer (William Gibson)
My first cyber-punk novel, blew me away. I have subsequently read everything Gibson has written
-Color Purple (Alice Walker)
One of the first books I actually enjoyed reading, I guess I identified with the young character talking to God cause she had no one else to talk to. I think many people on this site can relate :-)
-I know this much is true (Wally Lamb)
The last paragraph of the book is fantastic
-Good Omens (Terry Pratchett)
I am actually not a big fan of this author but Good Omens was fantastic
-Excession (Iain M Banks)
My first sci-fi read, I am afraid everything pales in comparison to Banks
-The nights dawn trilogy (Peter F Hamilton)
Space Opera full of wormholes, hyperspace, photon torpedos and strange aliens, fan-friggen-tastic
-Battle Field Earth (L Ron Hubbard)
The movie was diabolical but the book is awsome
-Use of Weapons (Iain M Banks)
A sweet-ass twist at the end, leaves you thinking how the F%^K did he do that.
-Are you experienced (William Sutcliffe)
A trip around India with all the gory details, my sides hurt from laughing so much
-Pattern Recognition (William Gibson)
I am a big William Gibson fan......nuff said

CASE :bibounce:

[CuddlyKate]

Top ten reads, all depends on my frame of mind at the time.

1) Neromancer - By William Gibson (Read his other books too.)
2) The hobbit - J.R.R Tolkien (Read this before Lorad of the rings)
3) Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Duoglas Adams (Also try and read all of them starting with book 1. Very funny.
4) Wraith of Asher - Trilogy - Agnus Wells
5) Changlings - By Katherine Kerr
6) A Lonely Planet - By Michael Palin
7) Jonathan Livingston Seagull - by Richard Bach
8) Stormboy - By Paul Owen Lewis
9) Messiah - By Boris Starling
10) Beowulf - By Gareth Hinds
My partner is a great fan of Douglas Adams, Shadowsurfer. I read Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy before I met her, but have you ever heard the BBC radio series? When I met her first she played me the CD's and they opened up for me a greater appreciation of just how wonderful the Hitch Hikers Guide truly is. They are even funnier than the books. The more recent series is almost as fantastic and we have them on CD also. A must for any who appreciates Douglas Adams. Even though he is dead, Douglas Adams plays a part in the dramatisation and is very funny.

[Shadowsurfer]

Yes I have the radio broadcast of Hitchhikers Guide, along with the BBC TV production of it which is much better than the movie. ;)

[CuddlyKate]

The TV series was much better than the film, but it didnt quite work I felt.

[darkeyes]

an talkin of the film... Zooey Deschanel as Trillion.... sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh:tong:

[Fresia]

The Orphan Train
Tuesdays With Morey
Summer Sisters
Good In Bed
The Great Gatsby
Still Alice

[Melody Dean]

an talkin of the film... Zooey Deschanel as Trillion.... sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh:tong:

YES. YES. YE.S YES. YES.

[Melody Dean]

The Sandman graphic novels by Neil Gaiman
The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams
Misery by Stephen King
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
...and tons of others that I'm probably forgetting.