Reading lists

[Moses]

I'm bored.

Instead of listing one book that you've read and enjoyed in the past, list a couple you've enjoyed, and one of two that you disliked (and why, if you like).

ENJOYED:
Fiction:
"Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk (my fav.)
"Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain (close second)
"The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan
"The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint Exupery
"The Foot Book" by Dr. Seuss

Non-Fiction:
"Nigger: the Strange Career of a Troublesome Word" by Randall Kennedy
"Stiffed: the Betrayal of the American Man" by Susan Faludi (not bad for a feminist author... mostly)

CAUSED ME TO VOMIT VIOLENTLY:
"Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte (Obtuse and long, anti-empowering conclusion)
"The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne (I despise Romantic era literature largely because of this book).
"Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card (His religious subversiveness is oppressive, and I found the high prevelance of nude pre-pubescents in this and his other works too common an element without real dramatic purpose).

-Da Mose

[mrbiggs]

Books I enjoyed:

Ender's Game, OSC (becase everything Da Mose said was true, but it was still cool.)
The Jackal of Nar, by John Marco (It's not all that famous of a book, but it was pretty awesome to me, at least.)
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scot Fitzgerald. (I like the way it was written. And I feel it looks better if I put some quality literature in this list.)

Books I hated:
Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens. I have never hated a book as much as this. I could sum it up in one sentence, as follows: "Oliver Twist goes to a bunch of different homes where he is treated horribly until he finally runs away to another home of torture." Yet I had to read 400 dense, dense pages of it. It took me a large physical effort just to finish it.

Books I enjoyed, but couldn't finish:
Lord of the Rings. Sinful, I know, I just couldn't take the two page descriptions of a forest. Or whatever else there were extensive descriptions of. I always get 90% of the way through a book of it, then I just put it down and never pick it up again.

Books that I'm pretty sure went WAY, all the way, over my head:
The Stranger, by Albert Camus. That book was weird.

[mollusk]

OK, I'll play.

I won't pick Huck Finn since you already did, so here goes:

Fiction:
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
World's End by T. Coraghessan Boyle
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
and lots, lots more.

Nonfiction:
The Discoverers by Daniel Boorstin
Killings by Calvin Trillin

Books I didn't like:
The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom

[bmcfencer]

What?!!! Choose only a few books? I don't think I could do that... Um....

At the moment I really love Virginia Wolfe (A Room of One's Own, which is taking me forever to read because It's so rich... like a triple chocolate cake with cherry topping....), and I accidently read the new Harry Potter book and think J.K. Rowling is a genius....

In non-fiction I'm currently particularly fond of Carolyn Nordstrom, and I love Robert Fulghum's It was on fire when I lay down on it.

I hated Great Expectations and Wuthering Heights. And everything Napolean Chagnon ever wrote.

[Go? Fencing?]

Books I can't stand:
Catcher in the Rye
Harriet the Spy

Books I don't like *coughboringcough*:
Main Street
The Age of Innocence
The House of the Seven Gables

Book that I love but is dangerous for me:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Interesting but can be summed up in a sentence:
Catch-22

Good Fantasy books:
anything by Garth Nix
anything by Madeline L'Engle
T.A. Barron is also a good author

Good Sci-Fi books:
anything by Bruce Coville

Good Fiction books:
anything by Roald Dahl
(mystery) The Cat Who... series by Lillian Jackson Braun


Yep... not giving reasons, just those categories.

[AWK]

One of my very favorite non-fiction books was Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.
I enjoyed The True Story of the Whaleship Essex by (I forgot).

I enjoyed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. I love children's literature. I love Winnie the Pooh books by AA Milne

I used to love anything by Henry Miller, but it has been nearly 15 years since I picked up one of his books, and lots has happened since then.

I hate Charles Dickens, too. Not just Oliver Twist, but every single one of them makes you miserable...just as miserable as the characters.

[cornflower]

LOVED:
The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights - John Steinbeck
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
How Green Was My Valley - Richard Llewellyn
My Cousin Rachel - Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley
She's Come Undone - Wally Lamb

Other books:
The English Patient - NOT bad... but haven't gotten around to finishing it

Doctor Zhivago - boring.

HATE SO FREAKIN' MUCH THAT I'D RATHER ROGER MYSELF WITH A RED HOT IRON THAN SO MUCH AS GLANCE AT A SINGLE PAGE EVER AGAIN:
Pride and Prejudice - I think Mark Twain said it best when he said: "Everytime I read 'Pride and Prejudice' I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone." Jane Austen is a bunch of pretentious and oversensitive DRIVEL.

[Araznal]

Favorites:
The Plague, by Albert Camus
A Happy Death, by Albery Camus
The Gambler, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey
A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, by Alexander Solzhenitzen
The Iliad, by Homer
Dante's Inferno, by Dante Alighieri (wish I knew the political figures better, though)

Guilty pleasures:
Everything by Michael Crichton (his writing is at such a great pace. I've read nearly everything he's written)

Non-fiction:
By the Sword, by Richard Cohen (I read this twice. I love it)
Tough Jews, by Rich Cohen (amazing story and great storytelling)

Books I dislike quite a bit:
Moby Dick, by Herman Melville (I tried reading it at too young an age. It took me two years and I hated the 300 pages talking about the history of whaling. I should read it again to appreciate it more)
Notes From the Underground, by Fyodor Dostoevsky (it's too depressing to enjoy. I couldn't get through the whole thing. Every page would either make me cry for or despise the main character. He's just SO SAD )

[Louweasel]

I shall keep it brief:

I enjoyed "Gulag" by Anne Applebaum. Extremely interesting. (and, Araznal, it left me wanting to read Solzhenitsyn)

I did not enjoy "White Teeth" by Zadie Smith. Much vaunted and prize-winning, I thought it was mind-numblingly tedious and weird in an annoying way rather than an interesting or amusing one.

[Gav]

I'll play.

Books I've liked:

• Lord of the Rings; JRR Tolkien
• The Art of War; Sun Tzu (the copy I have also some excellent essays on the Japanese 'art of war' and the campaigns of Mao)
• The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists; Robert Tressell. A little heard of book that I think that everyone should read. You can download a copy off project Gutenberg - do so!
• 1984; George Orwell. The leaders of the West shoukld be beaten to death with copies of this book.
• Foundation's Edge; Isaac Asimov. I clearly remember being captiviated by this. I picked it out of my fahers bookcase and sat and read it. He wtote better books but this is a significant book in my life.
• Hitler: My Part In His Downfall; Spike Milligan. A hilarious [if moving] acount of Spikes' early days in the war. It rally brought home to me how stupid war is. Read the others as well - they are all funny and sad in equal parts.
  Shogun; James clavell. kicked off my fascination with Japan and it's people.
• A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich; Alexandr Solzhenistan. I found it completely compelling. Strangely horrific and uplifting.
• Crime and Punishment; Dostoyevsky. Brilliant book. People shouldread it because it is simply brilliant.
• The Name of the Rose; Umberto Eco. An excellent read. I picked up for a long journey and I've read every single one of Eco's books as a result. This man can write. His books are educational and, according to an Itlian friend, best read in English!

These are all books that have had an effect on me in one way or another.
I appear to be in the mood for a bit of history at present as I would recommend the following;

I am currently reading Genghis Khan which is a history of the life and times of the great Khan. An extremely interesting and illuminating book. I thnk I'll read Attila by the same author next.

Rifles. A narrative history of the Royal Green Jackets during the Napoleonic wars. Excellent book.

Books I've read and disliked.

Bear with me I might start frothing at the mouth over these. I don't really care whether anyone else out there likes these - remember it's just my opinion.Feel free to PM me if you have a problem.

first Harry Potter.. I detest the HP books. I haven't bothered to go back to read any others. I find the language insulting and stories childish (funnily enough). Terry Pratchett summed up my feelings recently. You can read a brief summary here; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...ts/4732385.stm

Compare HP with Philip Pullman's books. Even though I didn't like his books, the writing was good, with a possibly compelling sotry, it just wasn't my bag.

The Da Vinci Code. This book is rubbish. It is quite possibly one of the worst bestsellers I have ever come across. I've read others that I've not enjoyed, but usually they have some redeeming qualities. The writing is poor. It is full of cliches. It rehashes a bunch of 'myths' (and I'm being kind calling them that) that appear to substantiate the fact that people are incapable of any kind of comprehension of history or the English language.

To me; both of these books suggest that people only read the books they think they should read. They are [stereotypyically] books that appear to be aimed at people who rarely read. There are far better children's books, and thrillers. I seriously think that these books do not deserve the praise heaped upon them.

[Alain]

Books I've enjoyed, in no particular order:

Les Miserables (Victor Hugo) - This took me AGES to read, but it's a fantastic story.
Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez).
Catch 22 (Joseph Heller) - The 'orrible moments are far outweighed by the smiles and giggles.
Chocolat (Joanne Harris).
The Complete MERDE (Geneviève) - A present from my parents, this is more a dictionary than a book... very useful!
The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho).
Patriot Games (Tom Clancy) - Probably the first proper book I read, really enjoyed it.

There are loads of others I've enjoyed, although to be honest I can't think of any books that I haven't enjoyed

[fencerontheline]

I'll play.

Books I've liked:

• Lord of the Rings; JRR Tolkien
• The Art of War; Sun Tzu (the copy I have also some excellent essays on the Japanese 'art of war' and the campaigns of Mao)
• The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists; Robert Tressell. A little heard of book that I think that everyone should read. You can download a copy off project Gutenberg - do so!
• 1984; George Orwell. The leaders of the West shoukld be beaten to death with copies of this book.
• Foundation's Edge; Isaac Asimov. I clearly remember being captiviated by this. I picked it out of my fahers bookcase and sat and read it. He wtote better books but this is a significant book in my life.
• Hitler: My Part In His Downfall; Spike Milligan. A hilarious [if moving] acount of Spikes' early days in the war. It rally brought home to me how stupid war is. Read the others as well - they are all funny and sad in equal parts.
  Shogun; James clavell. kicked off my fascination with Japan and it's people.
• A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich; Alexandr Solzhenistan. I found it completely compelling. Strangely horrific and uplifting.
• Crime and Punishment; Dostoyevsky. Brilliant book. People shouldread it because it is simply brilliant.
• The Name of the Rose; Umberto Eco. An excellent read. I picked up for a long journey and I've read every single one of Eco's books as a result. This man can write. His books are educational and, according to an Itlian friend, best read in English!

These are all books that have had an effect on me in one way or another.
I appear to be in the mood for a bit of history at present as I would recommend the following;

I am currently reading Genghis Khan which is a history of the life and times of the great Khan. An extremely interesting and illuminating book. I thnk I'll read Attila by the same author next.

Rifles. A narrative history of the Royal Green Jackets during the Napoleonic wars. Excellent book.

Books I've read and disliked.

Bear with me I might start frothing at the mouth over these. I don't really care whether anyone else out there likes these - remember it's just my opinion.Feel free to PM me if you have a problem.

first Harry Potter.. I detest the HP books. I haven't bothered to go back to read any others. I find the language insulting and stories childish (funnily enough). Terry Pratchett summed up my feelings recently. You can read a brief summary here; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...ts/4732385.stm

Compare HP with Philip Pullman's books. Even though I didn't like his books, the writing was good, with a possibly compelling sotry, it just wasn't my bag.

The Da Vinci Code. This book is rubbish. It is quite possibly one of the worst bestsellers I have ever come across. I've read others that I've not enjoyed, but usually they have some redeeming qualities. The writing is poor. It is full of cliches. It rehashes a bunch of 'myths' (and I'm being kind calling them that) that appear to substantiate the fact that people are incapable of any kind of comprehension of history or the English language.

To me; both of these books suggest that people only read the books they think they should read. They are [stereotypyically] books that appear to be aimed at people who rarely read. There are far better children's books, and thrillers. I seriously think that these books do not deserve the praise heaped upon them.

Gav,
I see that you too are a man of a great mind, having found Umberto Eco and denounced Dan Brown as a charlatan and a commercialist. (As a side note, my favorite is Foucault's Pendulum, with Name of the Rose coming in as a close second).

That being said, I think this should strengthen your resolve to destroy me. Your mortal enemy should always be your equal.

[Gav]

Gav,
That being said, I think this should strengthen your resolve to destroy me. Your mortal enemy should always be your equal.

I should strengthen my resolve to destroy you? My mortal enemy should be my equal? I didn't have you cast as an arch nemisis, but if it makes you feel better ...

I thought focaults pendulum was a bit dull (in comparison to his other work); so it comes third in my Eco list (behind Baudilino). Your inferior appreciation of better books appalls me [demonstrating the inequality between us] and as such I will ensure you die an unpleasant death.

Feel better?

[sabreur]

I think I'll go with authors I like, because I tend to get stuck on a writer and read a lot of them.

Joyce--the progression from Dubliners through Portrait to Ullysses and then on the magnificent but utterly unreadable Finnegan's Wake is wonderful.

Eco--Difficult, but rewarding. The Name of the Rose and Foucault's Pendulum are probably the most accessible. The Isle of the Day Before was really tough.

Salman Rushdie--really fascinating how he has moved from India through the Middle East to the U.S. in his novels. And Haroun and the Sea of Stories is a truly wonderful, courageous book, and much more accessible than some of his other work.

John Barth

John Gardner

Jane Austen is getting a bad rap here--I'm not a huge fan of interior dramas, but you have to read her with an understanding of the historical context. She actually was quite a revolutionary.

I love Moby Dick.

Poe, the creator of the detective story and the master of the subtlely but terrifyingly mad narrator.

Italo Calvino--along with his novels, the series of essays in Six Memos for the Millenium are absolutely wonderful.

Poets: Wallace Stevens, Yeats, Auden, Richard Wilbur, the Anglo-Saxon and Medieval poets, Charles Wright, and many others.

Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

P.G. Wodehouse--very funny and one of the master stylists of the 20th Century.

Saki--Wodehouse on crank--dark and funny--also a master stylist.

John Collier--Fancies and Goodnights.

Ann Beattie--especially her early stuff up to and including Falling in Place. She's gotten a little repetitive since.

Kipling's Jungle Book.

Annie Proulx. I especially like Shipping News and Close Range.

Mark Twain--too bad we don't have someone writing like him today--there are many who need to be skewered.

Shakespeare, of course.

Blake, probably the sanest madman ever to write in English.

Eudora Welty.

John Donne.

Minor lights:

Kelly Link just published her second collection of contemporary fantasy short stories.

Dave Duncan and the King's Blades series are good fun.

Gene Wolfe (actually, he probably belongs in the main list--he is a hell of a writer.)

Colin Dexter

Reginald Hill

Books/writers I can't stand:

The DaVinci code was a mess of bad science, bad history and bad writing. I got about three pages into it and threw it out.

I can't stand 18th Century poets--Dryden and the rest of them. Maybe with the exception of Pope, who was both mean and brilliant. The 18th Century is a wasteland for literature and art as far as I'm concerned, except for the music, which was divine--go figure.

I'm not real fond of most of the Romantics (Wordsworth, Shelley, Keats, Byron, et al.), but that probably is because I think their world view is essentially screwy--they are great poets--I just don't like them.

Brett Easton Ellis is a psychopathic prat.

[Moonitic]

Without going too far, I'm going to say this:

Harry Potter is actually a YA book. Young adult. The audience it is MEANT for is no more than 16. Generally, 8-12 years old. So, if you, as an adult, don't like it, it is to be expected. It's not the best young adult work I've read, & I've read a lot, but it is entertaining & engaging. I can see why kids enjoy it. And if it gets kids to read, more power to them!! Better that they read & expand their minds than sit in front of the tv playing video games or watching tv.

Ok, done with my defense of Harry Potter. Never thought I'd do that.

[Goofy]

Author Favorites (when a new book is released it's bought day one)
Robert B. Parker
Rita Mae Brown
David Eddings
Brian Jacques

Secondary Authors (wait for the paperback, then purchase right away)
David Gemmell
Nail Gaiman
Troon McAllister

Favorite Individual Titles
'A Man on the Moon', Andrew Chaikin
'Reach for the Summitt', Pat Summitt
'It's Not About the Bike', Lance Armstrong

Worst Book
'Digital Fortress', Dan Brown

[poor_nizzie]

Books I like:
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
All But My Life
Angela's Ashes
Angels & Demons
Bless Me, Última
Breakfast At Tiffany's
Digital Fortress
El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha
Ella Minnow Pea
Fahrenheit 451
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow Is Enuf
Half The House
How The García Girls Lost Their Accents
In The Time Of The Butterflies
interpreter of maladies
Jane Eyre
La casa de Bernarda Alba
Little Women
On The Road
So Far From God
Tales From Margaritaville
The Alchemist
The Great Gatsby
The Old Man And The Sea
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The Professor and the Madman
The Rule Of Four
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
The Stranger
'Tis
Wicked
Wide Sargasso Sea
the Harry Potter series

Books I don't care for:
Wuthering Heights
The Remains of the Day
The Scarlet Letter
Siddhartha
Rebecca

Plays I like:
Macbeth
Death Of A Salesman
Waiting For Godot
The Crucible
Othello

Plays I don't care for:
King Lear

Feel free to comment.

[Tazz]

Love:

all Hunter S. Thompson books
Phillip pullman trilogy
Nick Horny books
LOTR
The Beach - Alex Garland (the movie is aaaaaaawful, but I thought the book was great)
Catch 22
To Kill a Mockingbird
Like Water for Chocolate (omg such a beautiful book)- cant remember author, some spanish name... I think

Like:
Harry Potter (I realise it's not great literature, but hey its fun)

I cant think of any books i didnt enjoy coz usually when I dont enjoy a book i just stop reading it and then it slips my mind I i forget about it and i dont think abou it again coz i have no reason to so then when someone asks me what books i didnt like it doesnt matter how long i sit try remember coz i still I cant think of any books i didnt enjoy coz usually when I dont enjoy a book i just stop reading it and then it slips my mind I i forget about it and i dont think about it again coz i have no reason to.

I forget just like youre gonna forget everything I just said in my previous paragraph, coz you found it boring and so its gonna slip and youre not gna remember it coz theres no reason for you to remember it.

*mmmmmmmmwah*

[jeff]

Leaving many, many out and sticking to fiction:

- Since I was a kid, starting out in SF with Bradbury, Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke, Blish, etc up to Sterling, Brin and Bear in the current day.
- Read James Bond books before I could understand them, but what the heck...
- LOTR was a defining point for me, both genre-creating and transcending.
- Thomas Pynchon, especially Gravity's Rainbow. Amazing, but difficult.
- Neal Stepenson (recent) Cryptomonicon and the System of the World books are (to me) the best recent fiction.
- Ursula Leguin, in particular the Earthsea series. Fantasy should convey the 'sense of wonder'', and she does that in spare, no-word-wasted, prose.
- Joyce, in particular Portrait of the Artist and Dubliners. I have to reserve time to work on the tough ones like Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake.
- Wodehouse - the comic master of the last century
- Mark Twain - the comic master of the century before that one
- Evelyn Waugh - nasty individual, but sharp, fine writer, from Brideshead Revisited to the war novels.
- Anthony Powell - the non-nasty Waugh
- Steinbeck - I most like 'Travels with Charlie' for its wit and light touch.
- Rushdie - besides Satanic Verses, see his much better Midnight's Children

Mixed reviews:

- VS Naipaul: when good, outstanding, but can be sour and mean too. Earliest is best
- Vidal - witty and arch, but can be heavy-handed
- Amis pere et fils (Kingsley and Martin). Very different. Read Lucky Jim from Dad. Both can be very sourpussed and Dad had a serious misogyny problem.

Books/authors I don't like:

- Terry Brooks Shannara books are obviously derivative of LOTR. Got ingenue hero. Check. Got goofy friends. Check. Got wizards&etc to help you in your quest. Check. Got dark mines/tunnel to go through with nasty beasties. Check. Put me off fantasy books
- Stephen Donaldson ("Lord Foul's Bane") More original than Brooks, but so badly written.
- DeLillo. (Mao II, et al). This form of modern fiction just didn't click with me
- DH Lawrence. Boring. Tedious prose. Naughty bits in Chatterley not worth the tedium...
- Thomas Hardy. Ditto
- Updike. I just can't get interested in his whitebread, upper class angst. Just doesn't do it for me.
- Pournelle: I've abandoned his books all over "not worth taking home on the return flight". Common plot line: we have the technology and can bomb the crap out of the bad guys
- Graham Greene. Yeah, yeah. we Yanks are naive, and you're tormented by religion. Anything else to say?

I'm with sabreur and Gav on lots of their choices, which tells me that I should read the books and authors they mention that I haven't read yet. So many books, so little time...

[fencerontheline]

Feel better?

Yes. You've rekindled my will to live, and given meaning to my life... to smite you in the name of Foucault's Pendulum.