Best Book you ever read

jenspen said:
Emma by Jane Austen.
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You didn't prefer "Pride and Prejudice"? I'm torn between it and "Persuasion." Persuasion is probably the winner this week, though next week I'll probably change my mind again!

:rolleyes:
 
a_unique_person said:


From doing a quick google, I think the idea has been expressed by others in a less mystical way. I can still remember one of my high school teachers when he told us "There is nothing so powerful, as an idea who's time has come".

This has been seen many times in recent history. Look at the fall of communist USSR, for example, or the nationalist movement lead by Ghandi. There is nothing mystical about all this, just a common realisation that "The Emporer has no clothes".
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Yes, you are absolutely right. Some context before I die of embarrassment: I read this book at the age of twelve. For me, at that time, it seemed to explain some of what I was learning about world history and the power of certain ideas/movements. The book itself caused me to explore the lives of leaders (eg: Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr.i, Gloria Steinem) in greater depth and so, although I left its mysticism far behind, it inspired me in, important ways. That's why I included it in my list.
 
TruthSeeker: Yes, you are absolutely right. Some context before I die of embarrassment: I read this book at the age of twelve. For me, at that time, it seemed to explain some of what I was learning about world history and the power of certain ideas/movements. The book itself caused me to explore the lives of leaders (eg: Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr.i, Gloria Steinem) in greater depth and so, although I left its mysticism far behind, it inspired me in, important ways. That's why I included it in my list.
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No need to die of embarassment. A book can't ask for a better endorsement than that. My comments about the "hundredth monkey myth" don't apply to what you got from the book.
 
As a an adolescent I adored the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen. Falling right in with that was the Little Women series. Jo March was my heroine.

Then there was the Hornblower series and as an adult that led to Honor Harrington.

Now I would say that I will read anything written by Mercedes Lackey.


As for all time favorites, stuck on an island with only 3 books......

An good anthology of Poetry
Count of Monte Cristo
The Good Earth


Those 3 would keep me. I have owned a copy of the last 2 since I was 12.



Boo
 
jallenecs said:


You didn't prefer "Pride and Prejudice"? I'm torn between it and "Persuasion." Persuasion is probably the winner this week, though next week I'll probably change my mind again!

Ha! They were my favourites and are now my second and third favourites respectively but over the years I have been more and more impressed by Emma. There is such an accumulation of significant detail - it's plotted like a very superior crime novel - and it's so perfect in its language and its portrayal of a small group of people interacting. Whoever wrote the foreword to my copy calls it "the Parthenon of fiction" and I can see why.

I should also have mentioned that I am pretty much obsessed with Patrick O'Brian too - though, much as I love him, I can tell the difference between ordinary genius and utter genius if I read a bit of Jane Austen just after reading some PO'B.
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The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien)
The Demon-Haunted World (Sagan)
One Hundred Years of Solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

I just finished reading Atonement by Ian McEwan. I highly recommend it. It hit me pretty hard at the end.
 
How do you pick just one or two or ten? I have hundreds of favorites, and I know if I list the ones off the top of my head, there will be a flood of others that I have 'forgotten', but will all come flooding back to me so that I am making post after post after post stating, "Oh, and........" That said, off the top of my head:

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin
The Dragon Rider's Series by Anne McCafferey (my especial favorite is Nerilka's Story).
The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (although the last few books have been lacking; he just needs to conclude the series or dump a few of the duller characters such as Perrin and his idiot wife.)
Most of the so called juvenile SF especially Red Mars, Have Spacesuit Will Travel, Podaykayne of Mars by Robert Heinlein (his so called juveniles were hard SF although I don't think his so called adult works are.)
Like Nyarlathotep, I am quite fond of Jeffery Deaver, and did really enjoy the Coffin Dancer which is his best book quickly followed by the Blue Nowhere (also had some parts that made me groan when it came to technology, but good story line).
Summer Sisters by Judy Blume - couldn't put it down.
The Deryni series by Katherine Kurtz (named my eldest child after the main character in that book)
The Kay Scarpetta series by Patricia Cornwell

And about a thousand books that I am not thinking of at the moment.
 
jallenecs said:


You didn't prefer "Pride and Prejudice"? I'm torn between it and "Persuasion." Persuasion is probably the winner this week, though next week I'll probably change my mind again!

:rolleyes:
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Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorites, and A&E's movie, Pride and Prejudice was a wonderful adaptation of the books that I watch over and over and over again. Of late I am becoming enamored with Sense and Sensability. I have not read Persuasion. I will have to do so.
 
The Boomer Bible
What is the Name of This Book
This Book Needs No Title
Bridge Across Forever
One
 
Chanileslie said:


Pride and Prejudice is one of my favorites, and A&E's movie, Pride and Prejudice was a wonderful adaptation of the books that I watch over and over and over again. Of late I am becoming enamored with Sense and Sensability. I have not read Persuasion. I will have to do so.
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Oh, you really must try Persuasion. It's a Cinderella story for grown ups. ;)
 
For Fiction I particularly liked Gary Jennings' "AZTEC" and also his first novel about Marco Polo's secret journal (sorry I can't remember the title right now).

For Non-fiction: I go with Ken Wilbur's "Up From Eden" , a very comprehensive discourse on the evolution of consciousness

currently, I'm reading "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Krakaur and would recommend it to everyone.
 
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte.
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

Fabulous stuff, and as for Heathcliff - phwwoaaar. *applies cold compress to forehead*
 
I seem to remember enjoying The Phantom Tollbooth as a kid. There are too many adult books to mention, although I'm a big fan of this thread .

Also if you play golf you should read Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible or else don't read it and then play me for money.
 
David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest is my favorite novel with endnotes. It would be my favorite novel overall as well, although Shut Up and Deal by Jesse May is close.

Hard to judge nonfiction. I will say the most useful book I've read is The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky. Required reading for anyone wanting to really understand poker. Handbook on Evidence for West Virginia Lawyers by Frank Cleckley would be a close second, but only really useful if you are a lawyer in ..... West Virginia.
 
uneasy said:
Then you should check out A History of Warfare by John Keegan. It's basically an anti-Clausewitz book, and it's good to get other viewpoints.
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Agreed as to getting all viewpoints. I'm going to take your suggestion and read the book above in the next few months. I haven't managed to have anything add or challenge my basic thinking since reading Mahan's work on naval strategy. Thanx!
 
Marquis de Carabas said:
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
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An excellent, excellent story............though, I would have thought Neil Gamains 'Neverwhere' would be more to your taste....
P
 
Here are some of my favorites. Books that I would take to that proverbial desert island.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Heinlein. A classic that I can read over and over again.
Snowcrash - Stephenson. (I'm reading Quicksilver right now. 256 of 900 some pages down.)
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series - Leiber. Best fantasy ever IMNSHO. Modern fantasy writers probably don't even know the debt they owe to Leiber.
 
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