new thread
Sorry, another off the topic of hair post. I really enjoyed the last top 10 question. Tons of great movies listed. Thank you to all that took the time to list =).
Right now, I am looking for some great reads. Lately, all I want to do is read. I am about sick of reality tv shows! Big problem is, I don't want to buy a book and hate it! For me it's kinda like buying a cd and only liking one song on it. Plus, not a lot of people I know like to read. So, they have no suggestions =/.
So...
Top 10 Books or Authors?
Lists would be highly appreciated =D
Tc and thanks again.
Aubrey
This is not in any order, other then me just listing them from my head.
1. John Steinbeck
2. Edgar Allen Poe
3. Tracy Butler
4. William Shakespeare
5. Lois Lowry
6. H.G. Wells
7. Dean Sluyter
8. Aaron Hillegass (Inspired me not to quit once)
9 Margaret Weis
10. Tracy Hickman
These are my favorite authors too many books to choose from so this was easier for me.
By the way where's your list?
-J
I remember reading Of Mice and Men, really good book that I recommend, I suppose I should have had that on my list. So yeh, I fully endorse this post :P
Woohoo! My post has been fully endorsed :-) LOL
John Steinbeck is probably one if not the top author for me, I think my favorite book by him is "Travels With Charlie", even though "Of Mice and Men" also was great!
-J
By the way, these aren't really in order, except maybe the first one.
1. Isaac Asimov - Foundation series. (science fiction) Actually pretty much all of his science fiction books, I've read like 20.
2. Ludwig von Mises - Human Action. (economics)
3. Trudi Canavan - Age of the Five trilogy. (fantasy)
4. Robert Jordan - Wheels of Time series. (fantasy) - I'm actually still reading these, it's like 12 books O_o
Here's a poem he has from one of them, which I really liked:
We rode on the winds of the rising storm,
We ran to the sounds of the thunder.
We danced among the lightning bolts,
and tore the world asunder.
5. George Orwell - 1984.
6. Jesus Heurta de Soto - Money, Bank credit, and Economic cycles. (economics)
7. Murray Rothbard - Man, Economy and State. (economics, politics)
8. Friedrich Hayek - The road to Serfdom. (economics, politics)
9. Valerio Massimo Manfredi - Tyrant (narrated history of Dionisius the Elder)
10. Anton Chekhov - EVERYTHING, if you can find it in english.
Ok I admit half of those books are on economics, so you probably won't read them (though I recommend it), but you didn't specify which genre so...:P
Also, I might remember some others I liked later on and add them.
Shelby Foote - Civil War
Simon Schama - History of Britain and Embarrassment of Riches.
Donald Kagan - The Peloponnesian Wars
Niall Ferguson - Empire
John Julius Norwich - Series on Byzantine History
Bernard Cornwell - all his books. (historical Fiction)
on the lighter side
Tom Shales - Live from New York
Stuart Prebble - Grumpy Old Men.....of which I am one.
Warwick Cairns - About the size of it
Jeremy Paxman - The English
I prefer fiction, so here are my favorite authors, in no particular order other than when they popped into my head:
1. Robert Ludlum Espionage,
2. Tom Clancy Political espionage,
3. W.E.B. Griffin WWII Era fiction
4. John Grisham Legal fiction
5. Lehaye/Jenkins Religious fiction (Left Behind Series)
6. James Patterson Crime/Police fiction
7. Robert Heinlein Science fiction
8. Isaac Asimov Science fiction
9. J.K. Rowling Fantasy (Harry Potter)
10. Me Future fiction
The Harry Potter series were actually better than I thought they might be. I didn't read them for a long time, but when laid up from an injury I read the first five books in two weeks.
And if I ever get around to writing anything I'm sure I would jump to the top of my own list!
Aubrey,
As an English Literature major, this is a list I can really sink my teeth into, but really only ten... These are the best books I've ever read in and outside the classroom; yes some of them are considered "classics" but the distinction should not cause too much disdain, at least with these!
1. The Picture of Dorian Grey - (seriously changed the way I view the world, an amazing book!)
2. Mrs. Dalloway- Virginia Woolf (ok, this is probably one of the most difficult books I've ever read, but if you just let the words wash over you you soon realize no author has captured the workings of the human mind better than Woolf)
3. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (I've read this book more than any other, 5 of 6 times last I remember, and I still return to it, slmost like the good version of a beach read... at least for me! ;)
4. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger (This book will be loved or hated by it's reader, when I read it as an early teen, I hated it, when I read it as a late teen, I loved it. It's all about personal perspective.)
5. Hamlet (or any of his honestly) - Shakespeare (I realize most people hate Shakespeare, or maybe they just don't give him the time he deserves, but he really is amazing.)
6. Brave New World - Huxley
7. Fahrenheit 451 (In our current world, all the more relevant
8. Invisible Monsters - Chuck Palahniuk
9. The Long Walk - Stephen King
10. L’Étranger (The Stranger)- Albert Camus
Cool, I'm a "lit. head" too!
There are truly too many to choose from, but here are, in no certain order, books I think are good and at the same time sometimes considered literary canon.
1) The Aeneid by Virgil
2) Dune by Frank Herbert
3) The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
4) Walden by Henry David Thoreau
5) Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
6) The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
7) The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
8) Don Juan by Lord Byron, George Gordon
9) The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne
10)De rerum natura by Lucretius
Aubrey, Kind of a Sci Fi bent to my list concentrating on novels and plays only. Too many other choices in other genres.
1. Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury
2. The Lathe of Heaven Ursula K Leguin
3. Macbeth William Shakespeare
4. 1984 George Orwell
5. The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
6. The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkien
7. Time Enough for Love Robert Heinlein
8. Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand
9. Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
10.Ape and Essence Aldous Huxley
Off the top of my head and in no order...
Terry Pratchett
Douglas Adams
Anne McCaffrey, mainly Pern series.
Stephen King
Dean Koontz
Alan Dean Foster
JK Rowling
Faye Kellerman
Clive Cussler
Richard Marcinko
I also have a few romance writers I like (I'm a girl, I'm allowed), but I won't inflict them on the guys here. ~grin~
I would strongly suggest reading them now.
She is now up there in age and her health
is starting to become an issue.
Her son is helping her with the writing.
Harry Potter is done, although she is promising
to write a "Harry Potter Encyclopedia" (her notes
were written many years ago, essentially a
book on each character.)
Other than that she says she won't write Harry
again. (Fan Fiction will pick up the slack)
One word: library.
Your local library has tons of books you can
borrow, read, then return. You'd be amazed at the selection.
Another suggestion is your local used book store, or your
local yard sales.
Finally try e-books. There are many e-books in the public
domain. (Project Guttenburg.)
Also try finding freinds who share your interest in books.
Oh and don't forget paperbacks.
Arthur C. Clarke died recently. Now would be a good
time to catch up on his books.
Terry Pratchet, he has alzeimers so now might be a good
time read his books.
Other than that no know what your ineterests are i'm
hesitant to make other suggestions.
Another suggestion: John Adams by David McCullough
I have a very large book collection, so this might help
The Shining, (fic, horror) by Steven King
also Christine, and Carrie by Steven King. "It" isn't bad, either.
The Third Deadly Sin (fic, horror/drama) by Lawrence Sanders
Elvis and me (non-fic) by Prescilla Presley--I'm not much of an Elvis fan, but this was a GREAT book. Graceland was also surprizingly highly entertinaing...
In Cold Blood (non-fic, dramatized true crime) by Truman Capote
Move your stuff, change your life (n/f, about feng shui); can't remember the author, but I will give it to you if you remind me.
Johnny Got His Gun--drama/suspense fic, can't recall the author...wait, Dalton Trumbo?
anything by teacher Torey (L.) Hayden, One Child, Tiger's Child, Somebody Else's Kid...non-fiction; very sad books about special-ed kids, and how she helps them...they all have a happy ending, tho.
Pretty much anything by late comedic author Lewis Grizzard...Southern writer who's a wee bit sexist, but still hilarious anyhow. He wrote stuff like, "When my love returns from the ladies room, will I be too old to care?" and "If love were oil, I'd be about a quart low."
Missing Pieces by fiction writer...Erica Spindler? someone's name Fielding? one of those...
Drama, the woman's sister falls for a guy who's on trial for a brutal murder.
Scars of sweet sorrow, (n/f) by Alice Echols, the only Janis Joplin bio I managed to enjoy.
You can heal your life--by Louise Hay (the power of thought on health and your life)
excuse me your life is waiting, by Lynn Grabhorn, a more in-depth explination about the former topic.
this is a start, and off the top of my head...I have tons more book titles in here, if you need something more or something different.
Michelle
Some of mine are authors, meaning that I like almost all of their books. I'll name others by title.
Mystery/Thriller (authors): Jonathan Kellerman, Faye Kellerman, Michael Connelly, Patricia Cornwell, Sara Paretsky, Dennis Lehane, Harlan Coben, Lawrence Block, Donald E. Westlake, Patricia Highsmith, Chuck Logan, Nelson DeMille, Carl Hiasson.
Middlebrow Literary (authors): Richard Russo, Anne Tyler, Richard Ford, Michael Chabon.
Other (titles): To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Rings, Atlas Shrugged, The Kite Runner, The Lovely Bones.
That was off the top of my head. I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting.
Your library card is your friend!
Chris
Oh!
I am a prolific reader!
Tough to write favourites as the books leave impressions not only on the content of the story, but on the period during which one reads them. Life experiences and books read during them become linked in memory.
Some of the most influential, though, are listed.
Authors are easier to list, but I will put in a few titles as well.
In order of how they popped into mind:
Ayn Rand (Fiction: Atlas Shrugged, Non-fiction: the Virtue of Selfishness)
(And, by extension - Leonard Peikoff: Objectivism, the Philosophy of Ayn Rand))
Terry Goodkind (The Sword of Truth Series)
David Mills (Atheist Universe)
J.K.Rowling (Harry Potter series)
William Goldman (The Princess Bride)
J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings)
Stuart McLean Host of the Vinyl Cafe, a CBC Radio One program
Dr. Seuss (Sorry, but I am a Kindergarten Teacher as well as a K - 8 Music Teacher and he's a classic)
Johan Norberg (In Defense of Global Capitalism)
I am sure there are a few I am just not able to think of at this moment, but oh well...
If there are many 'must shares', I'll post a follow-up to this posting.
Good luck finding a good few...
Shawn (Mr.Crow)
Shawn, no apologies are necessary, Dr. Seuss is fit for all to read. "Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories" is particularly good to mention here. Who wouldn't love a story that closes with the wisdom: "And the turtles, of course... all the turtles are free, As turtles and, maybe, all creatures should be."
Elizabeth
One of my very first childhood memories is: standing on a kitchen chair, turning the pages of a newspaper and asking my mother when I could learn to read. The curiosity never stopped. I was reading prior to Kindergarten and to this day usually have 4-6 books going at once.
So being as I would find it difficult to list only ten favorites; I will go with the all time classic:
"LITTLE TOOT"
Gotta scram from my library job for the evening, will send you a list soon!
A.
Here's a quick list of random titles that are fun reads.
Too much data to process to weed down to a top ten list just now. So!
Boris Akunin's Winter Queen, etc.
Orson Scot Card's Ender's Game, Magic Street and Enchanted.
John Burdette's Bangkok 8, etc.
Herman Hesse, Narcisus and Goldman,
Gabriel Manuel Garcia, One Hundred Years of Solitude
Tom Robbins!!! Another Road Side Attraction, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, Still Life with Woodpecker, Skinny Legs and All, Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, most especially; Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates. The Tom Robbins books are for laughing out loud! Best now and always, Pointilist