Your Top 10 All-Time Favorite Books

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  • brianluxbrianlux Posts: 42,006
    edited June 2014
    ^^^ That's very cool- no title , just "Steinbeck". :-)
    One of my all time favorites too, for sure!
    “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.













  • njnancynjnancy Posts: 5,096
    edited June 2014
    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.
    Post edited by njnancy on
  • Leathe?ma?Leathe?ma? Posts: 354

    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:-)



  • njnancynjnancy Posts: 5,096
    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.)
  • hedonisthedonist Posts: 24,524
    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 SoulRestless Soul Posts: 805
    edited June 2014
    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...


    Post edited by Restless Soul on
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  • brianluxbrianlux Posts: 42,006
    ^^^ 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
    “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.













  • njnancynjnancy Posts: 5,096
    The Belljar is an excellent addition - but i think i already hit the 10 with an extra 0.
  • HobbesHobbes Posts: 6,423
    njnancy said:

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



    :-h
  • WobbieWobbie Posts: 30,159
    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.
    If I had known then what I know now...

    Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
    VIC 07
    EV LA1 08
    Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
    Columbus 10
    EV LA 11
    Vancouver 11
    Missoula 12
    Portland 13, Spokane 13
    St. Paul 14, Denver 14
    Philly I & II, 16
    Denver 22
  • njnancynjnancy Posts: 5,096
    Hobbes said:

    njnancy said:

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



    :-h
    I noticed your avatar and name right away when i joined..
    How is that rascal Calvin doing? And don't worry, i know you just pretend to be a stuffed animal when others are watching; only special people know the truth. :D
  • njnancynjnancy Posts: 5,096
    imalive said:

    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.
    I personally love them. I read to my son since he was in the womb so when he showed more interest for encyclopedias (of any living creature) than novels or short stories when he began to read on his own; I bought a paperback compilation - hoping he'd get C&H's smart humor like I did. He did. He also reminded me of Calvin and he had a stuffed animal (orange bear), that was his buddy (no worries, orange bear lives). So, being the bibliophile that I am, I proceeded to purchase them all - got the hardcover 3 book encased set at half price one Christmas. He has ADHD, so I think novels just get away from him, unless they really, really interest him.
    Ran the Scholastic Book Fair for 8 years, so after trial and error (and a myriad of Guinness World Records, Gross Facts, etc type books) I hit with the Wimpy Kid Series; then The Last Dragon Chronicles. This is a favorite of C&H of mine (top) and is SO my son - image



  • EnkiduEnkidu Posts: 2,996
    (I love Calvin and Hobbes so much.)

    To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
    Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
    Short stories - F. Scott Fitzgerald
    The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton
    The Cider House Rules - John Irving
    A Night to Remember - Walter Lord
    The Guns of August - Barbara Tuchman
    Killer Angels - Michael Shaara
    Juliet, Naked - Nick Hornby
    Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel

    (I could keep going and going...)
  • HobbesHobbes Posts: 6,423
    Calvin: I think night time is dark so you can imagine your fears with less distraction.

    Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig
    Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
    The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
    Walden - Henry David Thoreau
    On The Road - Jack Kerouac
    A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemingway
    Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse
    Still Life with Woodpecker - Tom Robbins
    Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
    Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman

    Subject to change, of course, but these were the first that popped into my head.
  • brianluxbrianlux Posts: 42,006
    Here, here- Calvin and Hobbs saved comic strips!
    So now that I've mentioned all the literary stuff, here's a guilty pleasure (and not afraid to admit it):
    -All seven Harry Potter books.

    Yes, Henry R., CHILDRENS BOOKS!

    Henry: "Get out of the car!"

    :))


    “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.













  • kein_geredekein_gerede Posts: 106
    Oh that's a tough one

    Douglas Adams - Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy
    Fyodor Dostoevsky - Brothers Karamazov
    Jack Kerouac - On The Road
    David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest
    Michael Ende - The Neverending Story
    Peter Ustinov - The Old Man and Mr. Smith
    Ephraim Kishon - Hairy, hell
    Jack London - White Fang
    Jack Kerouac - The Town and The City
    Fyodor Dostoevsky - The Idiot
    15.08.09 Berlin, 04.07.12 Berlin, 05.07.12 Berlin, 25.06.14 Vienna
  • eddieceddiec Posts: 3,880



    The magus, - John Fowles




    The memory of the torture scene- (the one with the hedgeclippers)- has haunted me for 20 years.
  • WobbieWobbie Posts: 30,159
    from my buddy, who is an english professor at the university of utah:

    cormac mccarthy - the crossing
    michael oudaatje - english patient
    marquez - love in the time of cholera
    nabakov - lolita
    melville - moby dick
    faulkner - go down moses
    whitman - leaves of grass
    louise erdrick - love medicine
    roberto bolano - 2666
    rilke - the duino elegies

    high brow stuff, huh? on a couple of authors, I can 't read his spelling.
    If I had known then what I know now...

    Vegas 93, Vegas 98, Vegas 00 (10 year show), Vegas 03, Vegas 06
    VIC 07
    EV LA1 08
    Seattle1 09, Seattle2 09, Salt Lake 09, LA4 09
    Columbus 10
    EV LA 11
    Vancouver 11
    Missoula 12
    Portland 13, Spokane 13
    St. Paul 14, Denver 14
    Philly I & II, 16
    Denver 22
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