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Thread started 07/26/15 11:34am

NorthC

Your favourite books?

Okay, this is obviously done as a reaction to the "bestselling books in the States" thread, so I'll just ask: bestsellers aside, which books did you/do you love?
I'll start with a few of mine . As a boy, I used to love the books of Karl May, who wrote about trappers and Indians in the Old West. Is he known in America at all? He was from Germany and wrote in the late 1800s. He created Winnetou the Chief of the Apaches, but I later found out his books were "sucked out of his thumb" as we say in Holland when somebody made it all up. Still, he raised my interest in faraway countries and foreign cultures.
Moving on to literature, I love Don Quixote! Great storytelling, great jokes, Miguel Cervantes de Saveedra is both a great storyteller and a great satirist and his hero is still famous 400 years later.
Sherlock Holmes is another favourite.
100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, I loved that one too.
All of these became classics for a reason!
These are some favourites of mine (others are in Dutch and not internationally known), what are yours?
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Reply #1 posted 07/26/15 4:18pm

RodeoSchro

I've become a voracious reader in the last five years but true to my obsessive compulsive personality, I focus on the author. I read everything an author has written before moving on to the next one - more or less.

First, I read every Louis L'Mour book. I loved almost every one. Each time I'd finish a book, I'd say "I don't know how, but this one is better than the last one!"

Then I read all the books in Lee Child's "Jack Reacher" series. LOVE that series! The next Reacher book comes out in October. Can't wait!

I've read all of John D, MacDonald's "Travis McGee' books. Awesome! i wish there were more, but I'm sure I'll re-read every one of them starting next year.

I'm now simoltaneously reading Elmore Leonard, Mickey Spillane (the "Mike Hammer" books) and Richard Stark (the "Parker" books).

In the past I read everything Dean Koontz and Stephen King wrote, although I quit reading King after "Gerald's Game" and I quit reading Koontz somewhere around the third Odd Thomas book.

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Reply #2 posted 07/26/15 8:32pm

morningsong

Still the Patternmasters and Xenogenesis series, still whining about the the incompletion of the Parables series but nothing can be done about that. Haven't found anything that has intrigued me like those series. Well I have enjoyed the Immortals series to be honest.


Never finished Perfume, it left what I might say uncharted territory and started wallowing in the same old, same old mindset, for me it got boring and since I already knew how it'll end I feel no desire to finish.


Completed a couple of other books in a new series but it seems the author is busy on other projects so I'm slowing losing interest which is upsetting, since this series is a completely unusual genre for me to read about.


Fire and Ice I hope concludes I'd hate to be left dangling.

Just got my library card renewed, feeling the need to do some exploring, without the expense.
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Reply #3 posted 07/27/15 2:19am

Hamad

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The Alchemist will always be my favorite. Read it in both transalations, English & Arabic.

Every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future...

Twitter: https://twitter.com/QLH82
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Reply #4 posted 07/27/15 8:01am

peedub

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RodeoSchro said:



I'm now simoltaneously reading Elmore Leonard, Mickey Spillane (the "Mike Hammer" books) and Richard Stark (the "Parker" books).

elmore leonard and richard stark are my go to writers when i'm between comics and other books. i'm reading 'maximum bob' currently and recently finished '52 pick up' and 'out of sight'. i've read 15 or so leonard novels and maybe 6 parker books. they're so easy to read, and so well crafted and smart at the same time.

i've been thinking for a long time of trying some louis l'amour...maybe when i'm out of leonard...

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Reply #5 posted 07/27/15 8:27am

RodeoSchro

peedub said:

RodeoSchro said:



I'm now simoltaneously reading Elmore Leonard, Mickey Spillane (the "Mike Hammer" books) and Richard Stark (the "Parker" books).

elmore leonard and richard stark are my go to writers when i'm between comics and other books. i'm reading 'maximum bob' currently and recently finished '52 pick up' and 'out of sight'. i've read 15 or so leonard novels and maybe 6 parker books. they're so easy to read, and so well crafted and smart at the same time.

i've been thinking for a long time of trying some louis l'amour...maybe when i'm out of leonard...



I just bought "Maximum Bob"! I'll start it after I finish "Raylon".

I usually can't find these books anywhere. I search old book stores, antique stores and Half Price Books. I hate to resort to eBay but that's what I had to do to get most of my Travis McGee books. And, I'm afraid that's how I'm going to acquire the "Parker" novels.

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Reply #6 posted 07/27/15 8:50am

peedub

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RodeoSchro said:

peedub said:

elmore leonard and richard stark are my go to writers when i'm between comics and other books. i'm reading 'maximum bob' currently and recently finished '52 pick up' and 'out of sight'. i've read 15 or so leonard novels and maybe 6 parker books. they're so easy to read, and so well crafted and smart at the same time.

i've been thinking for a long time of trying some louis l'amour...maybe when i'm out of leonard...



I just bought "Maximum Bob"! I'll start it after I finish "Raylon".

I usually can't find these books anywhere. I search old book stores, antique stores and Half Price Books. I hate to resort to eBay but that's what I had to do to get most of my Travis McGee books. And, I'm afraid that's how I'm going to acquire the "Parker" novels.



yeah, all of mine come from hpb and our library's used book store. the parker books are especially hard to come by.



you might dig george pelecanos...very much in the elmore leonard vein, ie recurring characters and settings. he was a writer/producer for 'the wire' in it's hey-day.

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Reply #7 posted 07/27/15 9:07am

RodeoSchro

peedub said:

RodeoSchro said:



I just bought "Maximum Bob"! I'll start it after I finish "Raylon".

I usually can't find these books anywhere. I search old book stores, antique stores and Half Price Books. I hate to resort to eBay but that's what I had to do to get most of my Travis McGee books. And, I'm afraid that's how I'm going to acquire the "Parker" novels.



yeah, all of mine come from hpb and our library's used book store. the parker books are especially hard to come by.



you might dig george pelecanos...very much in the elmore leonard vein, ie recurring characters and settings. he was a writer/producer for 'the wire' in it's hey-day.



Thanks, I'll check him out! And I didn't think of libraries. Great tip, thank you!

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Reply #8 posted 07/27/15 9:57am

JoeTyler

other than essays and history:

(random order, several genres; not necessarily the books I consider the best, but books I admired-admire, that interested-interest me , and that always gave/give me pleasure even on repeat readings)

-Les Misérables, Hugo

-Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky

-Hamlet, Shakespeare

-MacBeth, Shakespeare

-King Lear, Shakespeare

-The Silmarillion, Tolkien

-The Hound of the Baskervilles, Conan Doyle

-Le Morte d'Arthur, Mallory

-Cyrano de Bergerac, Rostand

-Crónica de una muerte anunciada, García Márquez

-The Three Musketeers, Dumas

-Death Comes for the Archbishop, Cather

-Moby Dick, Melville

-Tom Jones, Fielding

-A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens

-Dracula, Stoker

-The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde

-Moll Flanders, Defoe

-The Odyssey, Homer

-Arabian Nights

-The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck

-Tales, Poe

-Tales, Sophocles

(so many good books to read, so little time)

tinkerbell
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Reply #9 posted 07/27/15 10:42am

purplethunder3
121

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hmmm Should I try slogging my way through James Joyce's Ulysses for the 50th time? razz lol I've read all of Elizabeth George's Inspector Lynley novels... I see she has a new one out. My summer reading material!

"Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything." --Plato

https://youtu.be/CVwv9LZMah0
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Reply #10 posted 07/27/15 11:13am

Hudson

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Not an avid reader at all :/

A Song of Ice and Fire series

Outlander series

Harry Potter series

The Wicked Years series

Used to read Star Wars EU but it's boring now.

I want to start the Shannara series by Terry Brooks because the trailer for the TV adaption on MTV looked great.

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Reply #11 posted 07/27/15 11:42am

DaveT

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American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis, and Dracula - Beam Stoker. Other than that a ton of autobiographies...Christopher Lee and Mick Foley, my two favourites.

Novella wise Stephen King's Rage is genius!
www.filmsfilmsfilms.co.uk - The internet's best movie site!
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Reply #12 posted 07/27/15 12:04pm

RodeoSchro

DaveT said:

American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis, and Dracula - Beam Stoker. Other than that a ton of autobiographies...Christopher Lee and Mick Foley, my two favourites. Novella wise Stephen King's Rage is genius!



I want to read Christopher Lee's autobiography after finding out what a total badass he was.

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Reply #13 posted 07/27/15 3:15pm

babynoz

Right now I'm reading George (Funkadelic) Clinton's autobiography as well as the latest Ken Follet on audiobook.


Other favorites............

John Steinbeck's books

Charles Dickens' books

JRR Tolkein's books

Harry Potter Series

Autobiography of Malcolm X

Autobiography of a Yogi

The Color Purple

Devil In A Blue Dress

Alexandre Dumas' books

John Grisham's books

Isabel Allende's books

Amy Tan's books

Michael Connelly's books

Robert Ludlum's books (up until his death)

Jeffrey Archer's books...his last was booooring! sad

Ken Follet books

James Clavell books

Other recommended titles.....

Legacy of Ashes, history of the CIA

Confessions Of An Economic Hit Man

People's History Of The United States

Creature From Jekyll Island

Game Change

The Brothers, (Allen and John Foster Dulles)

Dreams For My Father

Malcolm X, A Life Of Reinvention



Authors that I've stopped reading.....Deepak, Clive Cussler, Michael Crichton, Tom Clancy, Dean Koontz, David Baldacci, Eric Von Lustbader, Anne Rice, Robin Cook, Patricia Cornwell, Dan Brown.

Books I loved as a kid....Ezra Jack Keats books, The Madeline series, Dr. Seuss, PD Eastman books.

Prince, in you I found a kindred spirit...Rest In Paradise.
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Reply #14 posted 07/27/15 3:25pm

babynoz

JoeTyler said:

other than essays and history:

(random order, several genres; not necessarily the books I consider the best, but books I admired-admire, that interested-interest me , and that always gave/give me pleasure even on repeat readings)

-Les Misérables, Hugo

-Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky

-Hamlet, Shakespeare

-MacBeth, Shakespeare

-King Lear, Shakespeare

-The Silmarillion, Tolkien

-The Hound of the Baskervilles, Conan Doyle

-Le Morte d'Arthur, Mallory

-Cyrano de Bergerac, Rostand

-Crónica de una muerte anunciada, García Márquez

-The Three Musketeers, Dumas

-Death Comes for the Archbishop, Cather

-Moby Dick, Melville

-Tom Jones, Fielding

-A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens

-Dracula, Stoker

-The Picture of Dorian Gray, Wilde

-Moll Flanders, Defoe

-The Odyssey, Homer

-Arabian Nights

-The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck

-Tales, Poe

-Tales, Sophocles

(so many good books to read, so little time)



Hey now.....great list, cool

I loved The Brother's Karamazov by Dostoyevksy too. I forgot to add Poe to my list.

I have not read Death Comes For The Archbishop....looks like something I would like.

Prince, in you I found a kindred spirit...Rest In Paradise.
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Reply #15 posted 07/28/15 5:05am

damosuzuki

Steven Pinker - The Better Angels of Our Nature

Robert Wright - The Moral Animal

Mark Moffett - The Livest of Ants

Edward Wilson - Journey to the Ants

Peter Singer - The Life You Can Save & The Ethics of What We Eat

Barbara Demick - Nothing to Envy

Michael Gazzaniga - Who's In Charge

Richard Adams - Watership Down

Dan Kahneman - Thinking, Fast and Slow

Leonard Mlodinow - Subliminal - How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior

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Reply #16 posted 07/28/15 8:01pm

7thday

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Robertson Davies - Fifth Business

Robertson Davies - The Manticore

Robertson Davies - World of Wonders

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Reply #17 posted 07/29/15 8:42am

DaveT

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RodeoSchro said:

DaveT said:

American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis, and Dracula - Beam Stoker. Other than that a ton of autobiographies...Christopher Lee and Mick Foley, my two favourites. Novella wise Stephen King's Rage is genius!



I want to read Christopher Lee's autobiography after finding out what a total badass he was.

His acting is just a small part of his life ... its incredible all the other stuff he did on top of that. Bloody good writer to if his autobiography is anything to go on!

www.filmsfilmsfilms.co.uk - The internet's best movie site!
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Reply #18 posted 07/29/15 9:59am

BobGeorge909

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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and/or Roughing It. Mark Twain.

This fool will have me laughing like a loon all alone in my bedroom. The words this fool puts on paper, the situations, the viewpoints taken, bservations made....make me uncontrollably laugh, even during the 20th time through.
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Reply #19 posted 07/29/15 2:17pm

Visionnaire

My favorite (or favourite, to those across the pond and whatnot) are the ones with hardcocvers. They hurt more when you throw 'em at someone.

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Reply #20 posted 07/29/15 7:23pm

prittypriss

The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. Re-reading this series at this time.

Bhagavad Gita: God Talks with Arjuna by Paramahansa Yogananda.

The Book by Alan Watts.

The Bible

Actually, too many books to name. But these are my main go to books.

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Reply #21 posted 07/30/15 1:11am

ConsciousConta
ct

The Book of Est - Luke Rhinehart.

A dramatisation of what it was like to be inside the Est training.

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Reply #22 posted 07/30/15 9:14am

Empress

I've been reading since I was a very young girl (I'm 52 now). I have read thousands of books and so many that I've loved, so it's hard to choose favourites, but I will list a few.....

HUGE Stephen King fan
HUGE Hemingway fan
The Color Purple
Sophie's Choice
Love in the Time of Cholera
The Goldfinch
Clan of the Cave Bear and that entire series
The Outlander series
Anything by John Irving
Some Toni Morrison

And so many more.
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Reply #23 posted 07/30/15 10:21pm

7thday

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Right now I'm reading:

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

Both were suggested by Bree Newsome on her twitter account.

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Reply #24 posted 07/30/15 11:33pm

Visionnaire

Right now I'm reading:
This thread.

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Reply #25 posted 08/02/15 6:36am

XxAxX

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too many to list. i'm a binge reader and i basically read everything i can find by my favorite authors: mark twain, brothers grimm, edgar allen poe, j.r.r. tolkien, c.s. lewis, lloyd alexander, stephen king, charles dickens, william shakespeare, jane austen, robert crais, chelsea quinn yarbro, robert parker, hans christian andersen, elizabeth goudge, mary stewart, catherine coulter, r.a. macavoy, nevada barr, gillian roberts, kenneth robeson, louis l'amour, elizabeth peters/barbara michaels, laura ingalls wilder, wilbur smith, j.k. rowling, laurie king, voltaire, dianne day, suzanne collins, stieg larrson, robert heinlein, frances hodgson burnett, louisa may alcott, isaac asimov, robert asprin, bronte sisters, - the thing is no matter how hard i try unless i spend a day here i can't list them all.

.

right now i'm binge reading robert parker's spenser series.

[Edited 8/2/15 13:57pm]

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Reply #26 posted 08/02/15 10:14am

Blixical

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Other than LOTF which is one of my favorite books ever, these are my favorite in the last year of reading.

[Edited 8/2/15 10:16am]

มีเพียงความว่างเปล่า rose 只有空虚 rose Dim ond gwacter rose 만 공허함이있다 rose 唯一の虚しさがあります wilted There is only the void.
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Reply #27 posted 08/03/15 1:05am

domainator2010

blixical, could you tell me a bit about each of those books?

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Reply #28 posted 08/03/15 1:27am

Blixical

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domainator2010 said:

blixical, could you tell me a bit about each of those books?

1. Bed, a story about a family who live with the world's heaviest man. The strength of this book is not in the story, but in the prose. (it can also be its weakness in places)

2. The Martian - Sci-fi survival book about an astronaut who accidentally gets left behind on Mars, and how he has to figure out a way to make a base designed for 31 days of life stretch out to 4 years. Harrowing and gripping and constantly entertaining.

3. The Windup Girl - A sci-fi novel best described as "biopunk", but the strength of this book is not the sci-fi elements, but the descriptions of modern Bangkok along with really interesting characters and motivations behind them.


4. Kafka on the Shore - drama/metaphysical I can't really describe this one. It's a coming of age story with elements of Odepus Rex in the mix, a beautiful depiction of modern Japan along with really offbeat characters who find each other in a relatively indifferent world.

5. The White Tiger - brilliant depiction of modern Indian and the class divide told by a protagonist who claws his way out of the divide. The final paragraph is so good, I put the book down and said out loud, "damn." lol

6. The Tiger's Wife - A character is tracking down a fable told to her by her parents, and uncovers other fables. It's not a fairtale--it's a very real book. But, just good story telling.

7. Lullaby -- If you like Fightclub, you might like this. Completely different story, but same vibe.

8. Lord of the Flies - A classic book. A look at man, government, religion within a small condensed book that takes place on a tropical island with nothing but boys between the ages of 6 and 12.

9. Gods Behaving Badly - How do Athena, Apollo, Hermes, Artimes and a few other Greek gods react to liiving in a London flat trying to be unoticed by the rest of society, but also pissed off that they ARE unoticed and unadored by the masses?

10. The End of Faith -- It's really time to let go of religion, and Sam Harris makes his case.

มีเพียงความว่างเปล่า rose 只有空虚 rose Dim ond gwacter rose 만 공허함이있다 rose 唯一の虚しさがあります wilted There is only the void.
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Reply #29 posted 08/03/15 11:17am

domainator2010

Cool. Thanks. I might try one or 2 of them some time. smile

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