Your Top 10 All-Time Favorite Books

brianlux

njnancy said:

brianlux said:

njnancy said:

I'm working on it - lol - don't want to leave one of my precious 'experiences' forgotten. (And i have to stop reading other people's lists till I'm done!) This is a much more soothing thread than the last from which I ventured.

Must have been that dark and dangerous place called "AMT"? :-))

How'd you guess??? >:) i can't 'live' in there; but i am not afraid of it. just gets tiresome real quick. i had my list and it said it saved it - but it's not here! :(

I like that guy: >:) And this one two:

I think they're cousins :-))

Yeah, gotta watch that Train- the ride gets bumpy.

Going to give that list another try? Doesn't have to be 10- just your favorites!

njnancy

I never noticed the red eyed one - but I like the purple dude - he comes in handy. I'm going to put together my list again; i know it's ridiculous that it takes me so long to put together a list of books - but I'm passionate about them. I'm going to attempt to do it again now. it's the middle of the night, i think best now. Seriously. @-)

brianlux

njnancy said:

I never noticed the red eyed one - but I like the purple dude - he comes in handy. I'm going to put together my list again; i know it's ridiculous that it takes me so long to put together a list of books - but I'm passionate about them. I'm going to attempt to do it again now. it's the middle of the night, i think best now. Seriously. @-)

The little red devil is on of the old smileys. Someone here saved them at this link:

http://imgur.com/a/nk0s7

but they're a bit of trouble to post. You have to go to the link, hover your mouse over the smiley, click on the geared wheel to brink up that particular smiley's link and the copy and past that link into an open image box. I have no idea how a computer illiterate like me figured that one out.

Looking forward to seeing you list njnancy!

Leathe?ma?

fife said:

Oblomov- Ivan Goncharev

nice choice
:-bd btw goncharOv

Enkidu

WhisperinHands said:

The Bird Artist ~ Howard Norman The opening paragraph drew me in and I was hooked all the way through.
Of Mice and Men ~ John Steinbeck As sad as this book is, I loved Lenny and that's why it's one of my faves.
Death of a Salesman ~ Arthur Miller The salesman in this book reminded me a lot of my grandfather, that's why I loved it so much.
The Fat Girls Guide To Life ~ Wendy Shanker This book was hilarious and fun to read, and made me feel less self conscious about my weight...
Blue Like Jazz ~ Donald Miller This book helped me find my way back to my faith.
Bad as I Wanna Be ~ Dennis Rodman This book was funny and heartfelt and full of honesty that I did not expect.
Anne of Green Gables ~ L.M. Montgomery This book took me on such an adventure as a kid, I remember imagining myself as Anne.
Wicked ~ Gregory Maguire This book is full of magic and wonder and was so perfectly written, it was turned into a hit Broadway musical, I don't know what more I could say about it.
Catching Fire(2nd book of Hunger games series) ~ Suzanne Collins This was my favorite of the series, I devoured it in no time at all...it was so good.
Supernatural - John Winchester's Journal This book was so much fun to read while watching the series, and to follow along and learn more about John Winchester than you do just from the show. You can also go back and look things up in the journal when Sam and Dean do, and use it as a guide.

Wow, I thought that list would be a lot harder to compile than it was...lol I guess I do read more than I realize...

WhisperinHands said:

The Bird Artist ~ Howard Norman The opening paragraph drew me in and I was hooked all the way through.
Of Mice and Men ~ John Steinbeck As sad as this book is, I loved Lenny and that's why it's one of my faves.
Death of a Salesman ~ Arthur Miller The salesman in this book reminded me a lot of my grandfather, that's why I loved it so much.
The Fat Girls Guide To Life ~ Wendy Shanker This book was hilarious and fun to read, and made me feel less self conscious about my weight...
Blue Like Jazz ~ Donald Miller This book helped me find my way back to my faith.
Bad as I Wanna Be ~ Dennis Rodman This book was funny and heartfelt and full of honesty that I did not expect.
Anne of Green Gables ~ L.M. Montgomery This book took me on such an adventure as a kid, I remember imagining myself as Anne.
Wicked ~ Gregory Maguire This book is full of magic and wonder and was so perfectly written, it was turned into a hit Broadway musical, I don't know what more I could say about it.
Catching Fire(2nd book of Hunger games series) ~ Suzanne Collins This was my favorite of the series, I devoured it in no time at all...it was so good.
Supernatural - John Winchester's Journal This book was so much fun to read while watching the series, and to follow along and learn more about John Winchester than you do just from the show. You can also go back and look things up in the journal when Sam and Dean do, and use it as a guide.

Wow, I thought that list would be a lot harder to compile than it was...lol I guess I do read more than I realize...

I'll have to really think to make a good list, but The Bird Artist - if anybody hasn't read that, go buy it right now. It's incredible.

fife

Leathe?ma? said:

fife said:

Oblomov- Ivan Goncharev

nice choice
:-bd btw goncharOv

Opps!

another book that people might like to read is called the Political Minds by george Lakoff. its look at how the brain looks at the world and how this effects the way we look at the world politically. very interesting stuff.

another great book is mao II by Don Delillo.

EdsonNascimento

1. The Stand - Stephen King
2. Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
3. Fahrenheit 451 -Ray Bradbury
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke
5. Where The Sidewalk Ends - Shel Silverstein
6. Theodore Rex - Edmund Morris
7. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
8. Tishomingo Blues - Elmore Leonard
9. Foundation - Isaac Asimov
10. Rabbit, Run - John Updike

I pretty much could have put a list of all Stephen King or the entire Foundation/Robot series, but wanted to mix it up. Hard to make a definitive top 10, as I could add some Vonnegut, Lord of the Rings, etc.

njnancy

Here we go - separating fiction and non-fiction - I can over-complicate making ice.....
Fictional Novels -
The Gods Themselves - Issac Asimov (Was a huge influence on what books i sought for a long time, and it still influences me today. )
The Children's Crusade/Hocus Pocus - Kurt Vonnegut (The first two authors consumed my life from college through my 20's - I would sit in the college library, on the floor amongst the books, and read Vonnegut voraciously. Though I own almost all of the first two author's books - Asimov's best, imho, was easy. Vonnegut not so much.)
A Wrinkle In Time - Madeline D'Engle (i read this book in 4th grade, i believe, and the imagery and feelings still stick with me today. This novel was pivotal in my life - i already wanted to be a writer and was writing poetry and journalling daily - and i still own all those journals back to my grade school days - but this book awakened my imagination and sparked the ability to lose oneself in a novel)
The Talisman/Black House - Stephen King & Peter Straub (I follow both authors, but I am a Stephen KIng fanatic. The original & sequel with Peter Straub are so descriptive and engaged me in an emotional way -I recall being on the bus going to work in the City and I can feel the emotions that caused me to sob uncontrollably, much to my dismay, at one point in the novel (didn't have any tissues either) )
Lisey's Story - Stephen King (This novel just drew me out and brought me into the book; something about how this was written or the subject matter just touched me and i can still feel and see the story right now)
The Witching Hour - Anne Rice (this book is just pure genius. Horror yet sensual; twists, turns, and the level of talent shown in the author's writing is just beautiful.)
Trinity/Mila 18 - Leon Uris (The ability to educate about historical events while weaving a fictional tale about people you feel are real just sucked me in and had me looking for more)
No Exit - John Paul Sartre (In my senior year of high school, the theme for my English honors Class was existentialism - out of all the wonderful novels i read - this one blew me away due to it's complete hell-like existence without any hope for joy)
Tara Road - Maeve Binchy (she could tell a story like the Irish woman she was - this was part of a trilogy, all equally excellent. I was able to live vicariously through the characters and be one with my Irish heritage.)
The Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton (graphic, and terrifying in it's emptiness)
Nightfall - Nelson DeMille (I love his novels and this one was a fictionalization of a mysterious plane downing in New York - i had a hard time picking one of his novels - but i went with this)
Looking For Mr. Goodbar - Judith Rossner (I was in 8th grade when i read this i think; it is a powerful, scary, sad commentary on personal relationships, loneliness and predatory behavior. - It is a frightening but completely realistic novel. I didn't make the connection between physical violence and emotional violence at that time, unfortunately)
Earth's Children Series - Jean Auel (the research and preparation that caused these books to be so many years apart was worth the wait - I felt simplicity in the way of life and also empowered by a strong female character who is accepted even in 'the stone age)
Ernest Hemingway's complete works (can't pick one - his writing is fine dining for the mind)
Shakespere's Sonnets - no better poetry have i ever read and memorized
I cut out 15 more fiction books - they are mad at me, i know.

brianlux

"I cut out 15 more fiction books - they are mad at me, i know. "

^^^ You can make it up to those books by posting their Titles/Authors here. :-)

Wobbie

Off the top of my head:

i know this much is true - wally lamb
owen meany - john irving
the art of fielding - that new guy
excecutioner's song - norman mailer
steinbeck
in cold blood - capote
all three by the kite runner guy
anything by richard russo

I'll come up with more, I'm sure. I have a book "going" at all times.

add: angela's ashes

brianlux

^^^ That's very cool- no title , just "Steinbeck". :-)
One of my all time favorites too, for sure!

njnancy

i"m really enjoying this, and yes i cut out a lot for NF too (i am usually reading a fiction and non-fiction concurrently)
Non-Fiction Books -

An Unquiet Mind & Touched By Fire - Kay Redfield Jamison
Game Change - John Heilemann & Mark Halperin
As A Man Thinketh - Janes Allen
The Big Book - Anonymous
Into Thin Air & Into The Wild & Under the Banner of Heaven - Jon Krakeuer
Restrepo & War & The Perfect Storm - Sebastian Junger
Girl, Interrupted - Sussana Hayden
We Were Soldiers Once...And Young - Lt. Gnrl Harold Moore & Joseph Galloway
A Beautiful Mind - Sylvia Nasar
An American Sniper - Chris Kyle
The Elements of Style - E.B White
Emotional Intelligence - Daniel Coleman
Team of Rivals - Doris Kearns Goodwin
Drift -Rachel Maddow
No one Here Gets Out Alive -Jerry Hopkins w/ Danny Sugarman
The First Amendment & The Fourth Estate - Carter Franklin Sanders Wright
Helter Skelter- Vincent Bugliosi
A Woman's Worth/A Return to Love - Marianne Williamson (latter prompted me to read A Course in Miracles myself; it's a slow process)
Walden - Henry David Thoreau
The Story of English - McCrum, Cran & MacNeil
Midlife Confidential:The Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America with Three Chords & an Attitude - Dave Barry, Tad Bartimus,Roy Blount, Jr., Michael Dorris, Robert Fulghum, Kathi Goldmark Matt Groening , Stephen King, Barbara Kingsolver, Al Kooper, Greil Marcus, Dave Marsh, Ridley Pearson, Joel Selvin, Amy Tan
An Innocent Man - John Grisham
All Calvin & Hobbes compilations - yes, they are NF - don't tell me they're not real.

Leathe?ma?

Hearts in atlantis - S. King - my favorite one
The magus, daniel martin - John Fowles
Omon ra - Viktor Pelevin
Fathers and sons - Ivan Turgenev
Chemodan - Sergei Dovlatov
Three friends - Remark
Foundation - Azimov
Hobbit - Tolkien -childhood memories:-) and his other books
Moby dick - blood and thunder!
And Castaneda books

Also short stories by o'henry, poe, lovecraft, hemingway. And harry potter:-)

njnancy

A Modest Proposal - Jonathan Swift
Watership Down - Richard Adams
Make Room! Make Room! - Harry Harrison
The Hours - Michael Cunningham
1984 - George Orwell
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Animal Farm - George Orwell
A Drink Before The War - Dennis Lehane
Shutter Island - Lehane
Little Women- Louisa May Alcott
The Diary of Anne Frank
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Sense & Sensibility - Jane Austen
Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
Columbine - Dave Cullen
The Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck
Metamorphasis - Kafka
Go Ask Alice - Beatrice Sparks
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
Pillars of Earth - Ken Follett
The Book of Fate - Brad Meltzer
Sons and Lovers - D H Lawrence
Bonfire of the Vanities - Wolfe
anything King touches - i'd read his grocery list.
(if you've seen The Twilight Zone episode where the world ends and the anti-social bookish man finds himself in the ruins of the library - surrounded by thousands of books - and then he drops his glasses - yeah, me.)

hedonist

Burgess Meredith! If I had a proper reading nook, I too would be like him. I've really got to get a lounge/adequately-lit setup going at home again.

And gah! I forgot about my beloved Little Women.

PS - I STILL have my old worn-out and many-times-read paperback of Go Ask Alice

Restless Soul

People's lists seem to be getting longer and longer lol. Nice to see lots of bookworms on here!
I don't think I can stick to ten for my all-time faves so not promising anything!

1) The end of eternity - Isaac Asimov
2) 1984 - George Orwell
3) Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
4) Brave new world - Aldous Huxley
5) The Handmaid's tale - Margaret Atwood
6) The Sandman series (graphic novels) - Neil Gaiman
7) Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
8) Adrian Mole series - Sue Townsend
9) The Magician's Nephew (& the whole Narnia series) - CS Lewis
10) Torn between Innocent Traitor (Alison Weir); the Silver Metal Lover (Tanith Lee); The Hundred Secret Senses (Amy Tan); The White Queen and Boleyn Series (Philippa Gregory); Kitchen (Banana Yoshimoto); Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson); Northern Lights (Philip Pullman); A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini); The Outsiders (and SE Hinton series); Bridget Jones Diary; The Secret Diary of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella); The Hunger Games series; The Graveyard Book (Neil Gaiman); Catcher in the Rye; Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; Different Seasons, Firestarter, The Eyes of the Dragon (Stephen King).
I'll think I'll stop there...

brianlux

^^^ I get it! 10 is tough. Maybe I should add a zero to the thread title- make it "Your Top 10 All-Time Favorite Books". :-)

If so, I would definitely be adding something by these people:

Richard Brautigan
Jim Carroll
Willa Cather
F.Scott Fitzgerald
Peter Guralnick
Derrick Jensen
Ryszard Kapuscinski
William Kotzwinkle
Adrian C. Louis
Richard Manning
Willie Nelson
Sylvia Plath
Ernest Thompson Seton
Hampton Sides
Gertrude Stein
Terry Tempest Williams

njnancy

The Belljar is an excellent addition - but i think i already hit the 10 with an extra 0.

Hobbes

njnancy said:

All Calvin & Hobbes compilations - yes, they are NF - don't tell me they're not real.

:-h

Wobbie

Hobbes said:

njnancy said:

All Calvin & Hobbes compilations - yes, they are NF - don't tell me they're not real.

:-h

We've got them all. I'm sometimes known to quote the little guy.