What ARE Your Favorite Books?

[Belle]

Laleo's thread on Oprah's book club got me to thinking....

I didn't know Russian Literature was so great. Thanks to Ron, I'll be checking out some of his recommendations.

What ARE your favorite books? What do you like to read and why?

I tend to gravitate toward fictional books based on factual history:

My ALL TIME favorite book is "The Eight" by Catherine Neville - I've read this book about ten times. I just LOVE it!

The premise takes two parallel events, in two different timeframes (the '70's and the late 18th century) and weaves the stories together. Both are quests for the mystical Montglane chess set, an Indian relic, once a gift to Charlemagne. Neville's got an imagination that knows no bounds, and she draws dozens of historical figures into the plot mix, both in this century and that. Catherine the Great plays a role, as does modern-day despot Muhammar Khaddafi. The Montglane chess set, like Tolkien's "The One Ring", has mystical powers, and must be prevented, by an innocent, from falling into the hands of those who represent evil and anarchy.

I also love "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follet and have read this book a few times.

Set in 12th-century England, the narrative concerns the building of a cathedral in the fictional town of Kingsbridge. The ambitions of three men merge, conflict and collide through 40 years of social and political upheaval as internal church politics affect the progress of the cathedral and the fortunes of the protagonists.

"Sarum" by Edward Rutherford

This book is a rough read, but it is well worth the effort. The novel begins in prehistoric, ice age England and continues through the present day, as seen through the eyes of a number of English bloodlines.

Of course I also read light lit: Evanovich, Grafton, Cornwell, Woods, DeMille, Cook, Marcinko....

What are some of your all time favorites?

[Sushi]

Are you talking about Richard Marcinko, Belle?

[Belle]

Talk about full-on sphincter pucker factor! :D

I LOVE Dick Marcinko's books! Even better is to listen to them on tape/CD because he reads his own books and nobody can quote those long strings of descriptions like he can.

[Wacky Funster]

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis are my all time favorites!!! :)

[coolchef1248 @adelphia.net]

damn

i wish i was intlectual as all of you guys{see i can't even spell it!]

but i read almost everything i can get my hands on

i love the classics

stienbeck is perhaps is my favorite

but now as silly as seems as a grandpa

i i am hooked on the harry potter books

[moony3424]

but now as silly as seems as a grandpa

i i am hooked on the harry potter books

That's not silly. As a grandma, my favorite flix are Veggies.

[Abigail]

bookworm, I am.

I love anything King Arthur, though my favorite is Mists of Avalon.

I am also a great fan of Heinlein (in fact, that reminds me I need to get Sushi started on his books).

I also love fiction that is based on historical fact. Likewise, fiction based on cultural fact.

I used to love Anne Rice, but got bored with her and stopped reading her books, then Sushi got me a book she wrote on the childhood of Jesus that was fantastic!

I also enjoyed the Narnia books and hope someday to get the boys to read them with me.

Terry Brooks and Pierce Anthony are great fantasty writers.

Tom Bodett spins a great tale that will make you laugh (and he'll leave the light on for ya). I highly recommend "The End of the Road".

[J0nny Ling0]

My favorite books?

"Rascal" by Sterling North is my very favorite of all time. That book "grew me up" a whole lot.

Another favorite is "The Yearling" by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. About a boy who "grows up" in a very rural setting down in Florida. That book "grew me up" big time also. In fact, now that I think of it, those two books are in a "tie" for "first place". I think that "The Yearling" was more dramatic, and therefore had a "harder impact" on me, but no more eloquently written. For who knows of the thoughts and heart of a young ten year old boy like I was when I read them....

And, #3 would have to be "To Kill A Mocking Bird", by Harper Lee. Read that one in sixth grade. I will always grieve for Tom Robinson, and the Human Condition that he represents in that book...

But the Bible takes precedence over all of these, although, strangely, I don't think of it as a "book". I just think of it as "The Book". And so, since I know that this is not the question you are asking, I list those first three books in that order...

P.S.

But, since I had my own pet raccoon named "Rinky" I guess "Rascal" still holds the #1 position. It's "personal" I 'spect... :)

And PPS:

All of you Floridians: If you have not, you MUST read "The Yearling". It's a must, in my opinion. Anyboby else read it?

Edited January 24, 2006 by Jonny Lingo

[karmicdebt]

David Sedaris and Dr. Seuss...

When I was in high school it was Ayn Rand and Kurt Vonnegut...

Now I read memoirs and personal essays...and Shakespeare and Seuss...

[J0nny Ling0]

And Belle,

I read all of Marcincko's books. Loved them! "You don't have to like it, you just have to do it!" Is a favorite "family saying" around this house. But so far, as my kids are young, I am the only one saying it besides my wife. Hah!

And so, I wonder what Mr Marcincko's doing these days with the Iraq War going on and all...Probably something...

[karmicdebt]

and coffee table books!

:)

[tonto]

Karmicdebt, you're a David Sedaris fan too?

Lonesome Dove was the first book I read after leaving TWI so it will always have a special place in my heart.

[rascal]

I read the yearling...JL....I didn`t read Rascal untill just recently though....even as an adult, I enjoyed that one....One of my neighbors is a relative of the Author.

You reminded me that my all time favorite as a kid was the swiss family robinson....I poured over that book examining the pictures....I tried to learn all of their survival techniques...I looked up bolo in every book and encyclopedia I could find.....I tried in vane to manufacture one with dreams of bringing down animals and domesticating them....of taming eagles and ostridges with pipe smoke...

Any Jim kjeilgard books....wolf brother ... trailing trouble....any Jack London books....

OMG and Gentle Ben...I must have read that 100 times.

As an adult? I adored any book that Zane Grey ever wrote.

I love Robert Heinlien`s early books....My all time favorite books were by an early sci fi author E.E. Doc Smith....The Lensman and Sky Lark series.....ahhh such memories of the hours I enjoyed flitting about the galaxy saving it from the evil overlords.... :)

[Jim]

Old Stuff

Ball of Fat by Guy de Maupassant, a biting satire about class hypocrisy during the Franco-Prussian war.

Moby Dick by Melville, the "Star Wars" of the 19th. century. See also Redburn, White Jacket, and Bartleby, the Scrivener

Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

Anything by Joseph Conrad

'Men against the Sea' The other half of 'Mutany on the Bounty'

Not Quite so Old

Nevil Shute's books, especially 'No Highway', 'Around the Bend', 'Slide Rule', and 'On the Beach'

Das Boot: by Lothar-Gunther Bucheim, the book that inspired the movie

All the US submarine WWII books, so many I can't remember them.

'The Fountainhead' and ''Atlas Shrugged' by Ayn Rand

Sci-Fi

Anything by Larry Niven, especially the Ringworld series, 'Destiny's Child' and the Man-Kzin Wars series.

'Childhood's End' by Aurthur C. Clarke was pretty thought provoking, but not particularly enjoyable. I much preferred the Rama series.

Non-Fiction

Tracy Kidder's 'The Soul of a New Machine' and 'House'

Richard Rhodes' 'Dark Sun' and 'The Making of the Atomic Bomb'

Ansel Adams' three book set 'The Camera', 'The Negative', and 'The Print'

'The Art of Electronics' by Horowitz and Hill

'Failure is not an Option" by Gene Kranz

'People of the Lie' By M. Scott Peck

'The Bell Curve' by Herrnstein and Murray

'The Death of a President' by William Manchester

And lots more, but I'd be here all night...

Ok, I forgot Steinbeck and Hemingway.

Add 'Of Mice and Men', 'Cannery Row', 'Grapes of Wrath' and my personal favorite 'In Dubious Battle'.

Hemingway is a little hard to get into, but I did like 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'

Edited January 24, 2006 by Jim

[moony3424]

and Bartleby, the Scrivener

What person studing the law hasn't read this wonderful classic? :)

[Belle]

I also love fiction that is based on historical fact. Likewise, fiction based on cultural fact.

Abi, you would love those first three books I mentioned, then. We seem to have similar taste. :)

Jonny Lingo, I am NOT surprised that you love all the Marcinko books! :D I am also NOT surprised that you quote him. LOL! I'll bet you can rattle off some of those descriptions he gives of people, too. :) I do LOVE his books. He's got his own website and has come out with a new book and some comments on Iraq. I haven't looked into it all that deeply, but now I'm more interested to since you mentioned it. He is one bad dude I wouldn't want to mess with!

Jim, I've been wanting to read "Atlas Shrugged" just to see what all the hype was about, but I've got so many books sitting around already, I'm not sure when I'll get to it. It is near the top of my "must read in my lifetime" list, though.

Lots of good stuff here. Authors I've never heard of and such a diversity of interests. I also like Seuss. :) I haven't read Tom Bodett, but I have every Lewis Grizzard book every written and grew up listening to Jerry Clower, does that count? ;) Those were the two comedians we quoted at home.

Chef, I think it just shows what a cool grandpa you are that you like Harry Potter! I LOVE Harry Potter and I don't even have any kids, much less grandkids. ;)

[coolchef1248 @adelphia.net]

cook books did i say cook books

i have no room for any more of them!

[Sushi]

"And so, I wonder what Mr Marcincko's doing these days with the Iraq War going on and all...Probably something..."

Probably, but even less likely, not anything you're going to read about in the papers.

Some of my faves:

Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy-Douglas Adams

Anything by Tom Bodett

Patrick MacManus is also good.

The Incarnations Of Immortality series by Piers Anthony. Excellent series proposing a different view of how the world works. I'm not advocating it as a world view, but it's just as good an explanation as any holy book I've seen.

The only downside to the above series is, they were written to be stand alone books. This means there's a lot of repetition. I would have rather he wrote one long book.

Edited January 25, 2006 by Sushi

[ex70sHouston]

You want me to list books. That would take to long. The following are some of my favorite authers

John Grishim

Ken Follett

John Sandford

Micheal Crichton

Clive Cussler

Tom Clancy he hasnt writen latly

Steven Hunter

Once I get home and look on the shelf I find about ten others

I think my most favorite book of the last 10 years is The Testement by John Grishim

[oenophile]

Slaughterhouse Five Kurt Vonnegut (my favorite antiwar book, even though I am not a pacifist)

Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger

Paradise Lost John Milton (the imagery of heaven and the garden of eden is breathtaking)

The Odyssey Homer

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish Dr Seuss (cool book for a slightly neurotic kid like me)

Ulysses James Joyce (has been touted as the best novel of the 20th Century, characterization of Bloom rivals that of King Lear and Hamlet)

Windows on the World Kevin Zraly (great primer for anyone interesting about learning about wine)

Portnoy's Complaint Phillip Roth (A must read for every teenage boy)

A Raisin in the Sun Lorraine Hansbury

Goodnight Moon Margaret Wise Brown

Tuesdays with Morrie Mitch Albom

[Littlehawk]

Hi Belle...I must say I like yer taste in readin'....but my al time favorite is one I am still writin....It's called Mule Ridin 101 by Littlehawk, andmy next best favorite is anoher I am still writin on,,its gona be titled Weenie Roastin Adventures avoidin tha Park Ranger! My son Cory is writin one thats entitiled Snipe Huntin fer Grownups!

[George Aar]

And in the non-fiction category my award goes to:

GUNS, GERMS, & STEEL

The best read I've had in a long time. Really interesting stuff...

[tonto]

O.K., I know this is supposed to be about books and not tv, but either the History Channel or PBS recently aired a documentary about Guns, Germs, and Steel...excellent.

[moony3424]

Portnoy's Complaint Phillip Roth (A must read for every teenage boy)

I haven't thought of that book for quite a while. I remember "taking" my mother's book to read, cause of all the controversy at the time.

[Jim]

I don't know how we missed it, but what about the works of James Herriot, the British veterinarian?

http://www.jamesherriot.org/works.php

Belle, did you know that Herriot's last personal pet was a Border Terrier?