Favourite Books

[Judmacaroni]

I love books and have quite a wide range that I go thru

Total escapism and unreality - Any Terry Pratchet - Lost continent or really any with Rincewind or the Witches in!

Serious/factual - Love reading about the Native American Cultures and the times of the civil and indian wars. Scarily been getting into gangster and serial killers books.

to give me something to think about - Aldous Huxley - Island! I would recommend it to anyone who wonders about the world society we live in today and the way we are going. Anyone else read it? It really made me think! Also read Brave New World about 10 years ago and that was the same excellent writer even if I did need a dictionary for some of it!

Generally I will pick up anything and read it! except romance! too cheesy for me!

xox

 

[Arfie]

I will actually read anything written by:

Michael Critchton
Andy McNabb
Chris Ryan
Thomas Harris
Tom Clancy
Clive Barker (far better than Steven "waffle" King)
Harry Potter books
Dan Brown (Harry Potter for grown ups)
Sue Townsend (Adrian Mole books) as she used to live next door to my uncle and gave me them all autographed

I love autobiographies too, especially if they are by my heroes or otherwise interesting people, though mainly sportsmen, like Jimmy White, Kenny Dalglish, Brian Clough and Richard Branson etc

I am thinking about trying Terry Pratchett, but I have about 5 or 6 books I need to read first before I get obsessed by another author.

Now I am building quite a library of books on Scuba and about Jacques Cousteau and lots of fishkeeping books too.

Oh and I am known to read the dictionary when bored.

Arfie

 

[Bloo]

The Boy Who Reversed Himself by William Sleator

sorry, but I'm a bit hyper here ! For years (and I mean many years!) I've been trying to remember what this book was called or who the author was. I read it as a child and was completely gripped by this book. I've been searching websites high and low trying to remember.

I saw this name and just knew straight away.

Thank you !

(Going straight to Amazon to oder it).....

 

[boozybears]

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

Is that the book by the guy who was a heroin addict and the story is about his experiences? I read an extract of it in the Times a while back and thought it looked quite good. Whats it like?
Wasn't there something recently though that he had been exposed as a fraud or something?

Yup! Turns out this 'memoir' is more fiction than fact. Supposed to be a good read though!

to give me something to think about - Aldous Huxley - Island! I would recommend it to anyone who wonders about the world society we live in today and the way we are going. Anyone else read it? It really made me think! Also read Brave New World about 10 years ago and that was the same excellent writer even if I did need a dictionary for some of it!

Brave New World is one of my fav books! I've read it numerous times over the years... although yeah, you need to make sure you read the appendix everytime to remember his new language lol. Never read Island though.. you like it better than BNW?

 

[Bloo]

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

Is that the book by the guy who was a heroin addict and the story is about his experiences?

An absolutely fantastic book. And so is the sequel "My friend Leonard".
Both are frightingly shocking, sad and yet funny.
There's quite some controversy about what was true and to what extent. For those really interested, here are some of the fact disputes.

But some of my favourite all times books have to be:

The Princess Bride - William Goldman
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (read the book years ago, haven't seen the movie yet)
All of the Roald Dahl "Adult" books.
and The boy who reversed himself - William Sleator

 

[Judmacaroni]

Brave New World is one of my fav books! I've read it numerous times over the years... although yeah, you need to make sure you read the appendix everytime to remember his new language lol. Never read Island though.. you like it better than BNW?

Havent read BNW since I was a teenager but been looking out for it in my local charity shops (best place for random book bargains) But Island isnt as long as BNW, not similar enough to compare as island is set ina kind of today or not so distant past so seems like its mre really! Worth reading especially if you like Aldous huxley style!

xox

 

[Cheese Specialist]

I love autobiographies too... Richard Branson etc

Good call, I loved the one I read of his. The man is a dude!

 

[zelandonia]

Anything medical or even better.....medico-legal. I also like psychological thrillers.

I love this genre! Can you suggest anything good?

Thanks.

z.

 

[prankster705]

My favourite book is curently The Lord Of The Rings. It's filled with fun.

 

[Torrean]

Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (series)
Reefer Madness Eric Schlosser
Body of Secrets James Bamford

All really great books. Just a few of my favorites.

 

[big mick]

Mine has to be BLOW - Bruce Porter, The real story of George Jungs life (anyone who has seen the film, is advised to read the book.....its completely different.....and makes alot more sense)

And Howard Marks - Mr. Nice....the only book Ive ever read cover to cover twice....not including 'Meg and Mog go to the moon' but I was only 5 then.

Mine has to be BLOW - Bruce Porter, The real story of George Jungs life (anyone who has seen the film, is advised to read the book.....its completely different.....and makes alot more sense)

And Howard Marks - Mr. Nice....the only book Ive ever read cover to cover twice....not including 'Meg and Mog go to the moon' but I was only 5 then.

 

[Ami]

oh gosh, a book thread....(someone hold me back....)

I am an avid reader and read far too many books and too quickly. Except over the past month were I've been on here too much

Favourite authors are Terry Pratchett (consistently makes me laugh and have every book, which I've re-read so many times - do it Arfie! You won't regret it hun), Irvine Welsh (he writes about things I've seen), Ian Rankin (best detective novels ever), Steven King (my first love), Tolkein (I was a late comer to LOTR), Raymond Chandler, Kurt Vonnegut, Nick Hornby, Ben Elton, Dan Brown, James Elroy, JK Rowling - probably a million others.

Favourite books ever - too hard a question! It changes so often and I read so many I could never answer it.

Would likely be a Discworld or Rebus novel as those are the ones I can never put down until I'm finished.

Also love factual books - A Short History of Nearly Everything, Empire, Cosmos, The Selfish Gene, biographies, fishy books, cereal packets, shampoo bottles - anything really.

 

[lljdma06]

Oddessy by Homer, not really a book, an epic poem. Might not even be by Homer. Also really like Paradise Lost by Milton, another epic poem and Beowulf.

For actual books, I really like Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and Crime and Punishment. I just realized that I'm a bit morbid.

Happy books, I guess the LOTR trilogy is kind of happy. Oh, I like Jules Verne and H. G. Welles too.

 

[onemisterchristian]

Oddessy by Homer, not really a book, an epic poem. Might not even be by Homer. Also really like Paradise Lost by Milton, another epic poem and Beowulf.

For actual books, I really like Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad and Crime and Punishment. I just realized that I'm a bit morbid.

Happy books, I guess the LOTR trilogy is kind of happy. Oh, I like Jules Verne and H. G. Welles too.

Everyone raves about conrads mastery of descriptive narrative. But after I read it, it a ll seemed a bit superfluous. It's verbose and by the time he finishes talking about a particular tree or piece of scenery i've already forgotten what it was. I just wanted him to get to the point.

 

[lljdma06]

Everyone raves about conrads mastery of descriptive narrative. But after I read it, it a ll seemed a bit superfluous. It's verbose and by the time he finishes talking about a particular tree or piece of scenery i've already forgotten what it was. I just wanted him to get to the point.

You're entitled to your opinion. What's funny is that I can't stand Dickens to save my life. Also have a problem with any of the Brontes, and don't shoot me, but Ann Rice isn't one of my favorites either. I find them to be overly verbose and overly descriptive. Conrad's excuse is that English was not his first language, he was originally Russian, so he was just in love with the English language and enjoyed using it. What's funny is that HOD (Heart of Darkness) is so short. Most of my classmates in High school had trouble with it, they didn't get through it. I don't think it's superfluous, it's all used to lead up to the encounter with Kurtz. The scenic displays is actually quite important IMO. It contrasts the order of nature with it's savagry. It also sets up man's invasion into the primordeal, man kind of poking around where he doesn't necessarily belong and the consequences of his actions that lead to his eventual breakdown. Yep, all that when Conrad describes a leaf. But I haven't read it in a while, hmmm, perhaps when I'm done with my prelims, I'll give Conrad another read.