Books of your life

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  • AELARAAELARA Posts: 803
    Having been a student of English Literature I had to study many courses on English and American literature and I had to read many many books. I have to admit that many of them were really good but I only enjoy reading books when I want it and not because I have to do it. So my Norton Anthologies of English and American Literature were highly underestimated when I was at Uni. It is now that I appreciate them more and more! :D:o

    Personally, I've been greatly influenced by Bukowski's books. The first I read was "Notes of a Dirty old man" and I've been hooked ever since. My favourites are: "Ham on Rye", "Women" and "Post Office".
    I also enjoy history (especially modern history) books.
    Unfortunately I have not read ancient greek literature yet, except for the ones we were taught at school. I love modern greek literature though.

    Other favourite books of mine are:
    Jack Kerouac - On the Road
    Ernest Hemingway - The old man and the sea
    Italo Calvino - Difficult Loves
    Orhan Pamuk - Istanbul
    William Faulkner - The sound and the fury
    I am mine!
  • OK... I failed epically on this... One of my favorite authors is the portuguese Nobel Prize winner José Saramago. The Intermitencies of Death, Blindness, All the Names and Cain are among my favorites, but I don't think he's written anything "less good" in his entire life!

    Has anyone read anything from him? If not, I recommend it!
    ~Can't escape from the common rule
    If you hate something, don't you do it too...~
  • tybirdtybird Posts: 17,388
    Enkidu wrote:
    tybird wrote:
    Enkidu wrote:
    Non-fiction:

    King Leopold's Ghost - Adam Hochschild

    (The Edmund Morris three volume Teddy Roosevelt biography is great)
    King Leopold's Ghost almost made my list....."The Scramble for Africa" by Thomas Pakenham some how got left off the list.....have the first two Morris Teddy books....just have not got around to reading them.

    Somebody here on the board recommended King Leopold's Ghost. And I read Scramble for Africa after - GREAT book.
    It might have been me....as I have mentioned it more than once. :twisted:
    Both books were amazing.
    All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a thousand enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.
  • to be fair. ismael is the best book ever. a life bible almost.

    Hm, wouldn't go that far but I most certainly can commend If they give you lined paper, write sideways by Daniel Quinn. From there on it's only a small step to Richard Dawkins.

    No particular favourite book but a list as long as my arm of fav writers :

    Stephen King
    Douglas Adams
    Cormac McCarthy
    Charles Palliser
    Ian Rankin
    Mark Billingham
    Tolkien
    J.K. Rowling (yes... including Fantastic Beasts..., Quidditch... and The Tales of Beedle the Bard)
    Stephen Fry
    Karin Slaughter
    Christos Tsiolkas
    Nick Cave
    Wilkie Collins
    Charles Dickens
    Hugo Claus (Belgian writer)
    Tom Lanoye (Belgian writer)
    Stuart MacBride
    James Joyce
    John Fowles
    Philip K. Dick
    Rainer Maria Rilke
    Günter Grass
    Franz Kafka
    ...
  • Meltdown99Meltdown99 None Of Your Business... Posts: 10,739

    Give Peas A Chance…
  • PJ_SoulPJ_Soul Vancouver, BC Posts: 49,473
    edited August 2018
    Wow, books of my life... That's a bit of a long list, starting from childhood. A short version off the top of my head starts young - trying to go in chronological order from when I read it...

    - Mr. Men books! I learned to read with these books exclusively. My favorites were Mr. Tickle and Mr. Greedy.
    - The Serendipity books, especially Catundra and Maui-Maui (the latter even influenced my views about wildlife protection for the rest of my life)
    - The Secret World of Og (Pierre Berton)
    -
    The entire Little House On the Prairie Series (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
    -
    I guess I'm a little embarrassed by this, but Flowers in the Attic by V.C Andrews. I was inappropriately young when I first read this (like maybe 10) because my parents never censored my reading or viewing material (for which I am forever grateful). But I think this was the first "grown up" novel I ever read, and it was just so damned compelling (and sordid, lol) for me at that age, that it taught me how fucking entertaining a novel could be. It probably also kind of was the start of my realizing how fucked up people can be. It was a genuine learning experience for me, no matter how trashy V.C. Andrews is.
    - The Chrysalids (John Wyndham) - I'm positive that this book, which was part of the grade 5 curriculum, was the beginning of my life long obsession with the dystopian genre (as evidenced by the rest of my list after this, lol), so really this might ultimately be THE most influential book of my life.
    - The Stand (Stephen King)
    - The Long Walk
    (Stephen King)
    - 1984 (George Orwell). Orwell's political perspectives simply blew my mind and made so much sense to me. This book is probably what actually got me interested in politics and the horrors of politics.
    - The Lottery (short story - Shirley Jackson)
    - The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
    - Roots (Alex Haley)
    - Paradise Lost (John Milton).
    Not sure this really qualifies as it's just an epic poem, and I know this is kind of a pretentious choice, lol, but studying it in depth in university (it was a whole course only about this one poem) really enlightened me in terms of the role of religion in this world, so it was a pivotal literary study for me.
    - Vanity Fair (William Thackeray)
    - The Plague
    (Albert Camus)
    - The Concubine's Children: Portrait of a Family Divided
    (Denise Chong). This is a riveting account of the author's family history in China and Canada (Vancouver, mostly), and it won many awards and was a best seller, but it also was a book covered in this great special topics lit course I took, taught by renowned Canadian author Roy Miki, and he brought home the marriage of writing and memory and cultural memory with this book.
    - The Poisonwood Bible
    (Barbara Kingsolver)
    - A Fine Balance
    (Rohinton Mistry)
    - Blindness
    (Jose Saramago)
    - Family Matters (Rohinton Mistry)



    Post edited by PJ_Soul on
    With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
  • brianluxbrianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 40,594
    edited August 2018
    My list from 2011 was way too long and has changed some.  My "books of my life today" is:

    Abbey, Edward: THE FOOL’S PROGRESS
    Alexie, Sherman: FLIGHT
    Andrews, F. Emerson: UPSIDE-DOWN TOWN
    Azerrad, Michael: OUR BAND COULD BE YOUR LIFE
    Bechard, Gorman: THE SECOND GREATEST STORY EVER TOLD
    Berry Wendell: THE WILD BIRDS
    Boyd, Malcolm: ARE YOU RUNNING WITH ME, JESUS?
    Capote, Truman: OTHER VOICES, OTHER ROOMS
    Choinard, Yvon: LET MY PEOPLE GO SURFING
    Hayden, Tom: THE LOST GOSPEL OF THE EARTH
    Huxley, Aldous: THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION
    John Krakauer: INTO THIN AIR
    Laing, R.D.: THE POLITICS OF EXPERIENCE
    Lee, Harper: TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
    Morrow, Betty: SEE UP THE MOUNTAIN
    Nelson, Willie: THE TAO OF WILLIE
    Rollins, Henry:  any and/or anything from 1998 on.
    Seton, Ernest Thompson: ROLF IN THE WOODS
    Steinbeck, John: CANNERY ROW
    Traven, B.: THE JUNGLE SERIES
    Vonnegut, Kurt: GOD BLESS YOU, MR. ROSEWATER
    Weaver, Harriett E.: THERE STAND THE GIANTS
    Zim, Howard: INSECTS

    “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
    Variously credited to Mark Twain or Edward Abbey.













  • brianluxbrianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 40,594
    ^^^ Weird, I did not create those spaces between some of the lines.   I think there has been an errororororororororororor.
    “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
    Variously credited to Mark Twain or Edward Abbey.













  • PJ_SoulPJ_Soul Vancouver, BC Posts: 49,473
    brianlux said:
    ^^^ Weird, I did not create those spaces between some of the lines.   I think there has been an errororororororororororor.
    Yeah, that's happening to me as well. And the emojis are all hovering too high. #forumproblems
    With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
  • brianluxbrianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 40,594
    PJ_Soul said:
    brianlux said:
    ^^^ Weird, I did not create those spaces between some of the lines.   I think there has been an errororororororororororor.
    Yeah, that's happening to me as well. And the emojis are all hovering too high. #forumproblems
    Emojis on drugs?  Just when you think you've heard it all!
    “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
    Variously credited to Mark Twain or Edward Abbey.













  • cincybearcatcincybearcat Posts: 16,072
    I’m not a huge book guy. 

    My favs have been:

    1) Catcher in the Rye

    Then the rest!

    But I did enjoy 1984, animal farm, brave new world, Great expectations, lord of the flies, lots of Chuck Palaniuk books, to kill a mockingbird, several sports/other autobiographies. I’m sure I’m missing a couple of the Better ones
    hippiemom = goodness
  • Meltdown99Meltdown99 None Of Your Business... Posts: 10,739
    Dutch man 'very, very excited' after winning a bookstore in a raffle
     
    Give Peas A Chance…
  • brianluxbrianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 40,594
    Dutch man 'very, very excited' after winning a bookstore in a raffle
     
    Wow... to win a bookstore!  That lucky winner saved themselves years and ten tons of work to get their dream.  Good for them!
    “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
    Variously credited to Mark Twain or Edward Abbey.













  • Meltdown99Meltdown99 None Of Your Business... Posts: 10,739
    brianlux said:
    Dutch man 'very, very excited' after winning a bookstore in a raffle
     
    Wow... to win a bookstore!  That lucky winner saved themselves years and ten tons of work to get their dream.  Good for them!
    I like the owner ... he was more concerned with the books than money.  To few people in this world like that.
    Give Peas A Chance…
  • brianluxbrianlux Moving through All Kinds of Terrain. Posts: 40,594
    brianlux said:
    Dutch man 'very, very excited' after winning a bookstore in a raffle
     
    Wow... to win a bookstore!  That lucky winner saved themselves years and ten tons of work to get their dream.  Good for them!
    I like the owner ... he was more concerned with the books than money.  To few people in this world like that.
    I can say from experience, far more bookstore people do it for the love of books than for money.  There are WAY more ways to make better money than going into the book business. 

    The big exception to that is the text book industry.  From '79 to '84, I worked in a college bookstore and still have big issues with textbook companies.
    “The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man [or woman] who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
    Variously credited to Mark Twain or Edward Abbey.













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