Favorite Books

[Bob_M]

in some sembelence of order
Once and Future King - T H White (who co authored the writers bible "Elements of Style" with Strunk) is a beautiful, supurbly written, easy to read story about King Arthur
Grapes of Wrath - John Stienbeck: Pulitzer prize and national book award winner. Brilliant character development and story telling about a family during the depression. The tragic and uplifting story of those wackey Joads.
Sometimes A Great Notion - Ken Keasy: colorful, descriptive story about the Pacific Northwest and the logging culture and people - sorta a challenging read.
Pissing in the Snow - Vance Randolf - a collection of humorous, sex related Ozark folk tales in authentic colorful language. Great at a camp site
Spartina - John Casey: Great book about a modern day fisherman. it sorta defies adequate description.
Grendel - John Gardener: The story of the mythic monster through the monster's eyes & dark philosophy.
Paris Trout - Pete Dexter: Evil meets violence in the deep south and messes up peoples lives - gripping well told story
Hitch hikers guide to the Galaxy - funny, clever romp of science fiction
Something Wicked this Way Comes - Ray Bradbury paints tension and suspense into a vividly descriptive novela.
Maus - Art Spiegeleman's graphic novel defines the concept of adult comic books. Tells the story of the holocaust. Surprisingly powerful
Oh Yea; Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig wrote this intellectual tour de force that follows his inquiry into the meaning of life while on a motorcycle tour. a heavy read.

[SNC1923]

Dubliners by James Joyce
Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Hawaii by James Michener

getting ready to read

She's a Bad Motorcycle edited by Geno Zanetti

[Cliffy777]

my favorite book is usually the one that i am currently reading. which today is "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood" by Alexandra Fuller. her story of growing up (mostly) in Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe). before that i read a couple by Bill Bryson - Walk in The Woods (he takes on the Appalachian Trail) and ...Sunburned Country in which he takes an interesting look at Australia.
read tom sawyer/huck finn 65 time as a kid, but now i mostly read things once and move on. gosh there are soooooo many books!

[jdiaz]

Everybody Poops by Taro Gomi
Arthur Babysits Marc Brown
And anything by Al Franken

:D

[John Brase]

I started re-reading Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance yesterday. First read was 25 or so years ago. My margin notes look pretty sophomoric now. Pirsig's second book (don't recall the title) is simply unreadable.

Looking at my bookcase, a few favorites jump out:
The Magus by John Fowels (the only book that ever kept me up all night on a worknight)
Blue Highways and River Horse by William Least Heat Moon. In the first he travels America's back roads in an old van, meeting some really interesting folk along the way (easy to imagine substituting a M/C for the van). In the second he travels from the Atlantic, across America to the Pacific by boat. It CAN be done.
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. If you saw the TV mini series you probably don't need to read it as it was quite faithful to the book. In either media it is worth the time.
Anything by Alan Furst. Night Soldiers may be the best. A spy novel set in Europe in the 1930's between the Nazi's and the Soviets. Furst is a master sentence crafter.
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, a mystery novel set in a monastary in 1327. It is really much better than you'd think. And better than the movie though Sean Connery is almost always worth watching.
And for sheer fun, anything by Tom Robbins.

John

[lorazepam]

Real ponies don't go oink, Patrick F Mcmanus,
Beyond top Secret, Timothy Good
The man who walked through time, Colin Edwards

[BobFV1]

Ulysses - James Joyce (especially the last chapter, known in literary circles as "Molly Bloom's Soliloquy")

The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner

A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu (aka "In Search of Lost TIme" and "Remembrance of things Past")- Marcel Proust

The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemmingway

An Ice-Cream War - William Boyd

Fathers and Sons - Ivan Turgenev

The Winter of our Discontent - John Steinbeck

[username]

nice thread. now, where to start?

"tao te ching" by lao tzu is one book i wish every person on earth was required to read and think about. it takes 30 minutes read and will rattle in your head for 30 lifetimes.

i like tom robbins' books. i wish he could write more of them, but i think he insists on writing them himself, and enjoying life in between books. it's for the best, but it has me feeling like a crackhead waiting for them to come out. one robbins sentence is more clever than entire lives.

edward abbey has a few that i liked. black sun. desert solitaire. he somehow is able to write about both nature and women in a way that makes each of these topics as special as they really are. somehow he seems to simultaneously worship them, (yet not in an obsequious manner,) and treat them poorly. i cant explain it properly, but these two books, along with 'the road home' are great.

anything by jd salinger. him not publishing anything else is a literary tragedy. 'catcher in the rye' is a famous one. 'perfect day for banafish' is a good collection of short stories, but i think my fave is 'franny and zooey,' particularly the part where zooey's mom has him cornered in the tub, and they are talking about franny, (and seymour, and everything else.) really good writing.

anything by charles bukowski. boy i love his stuff. i was sad when he died. bukowski wrote many memorable things, but the one that sticks in my mind is, "the most beautiful woman in the world is the one who walks by your window, and then she is gone." if youre new to bukowski, start with 'septugenarian stew.' it's a collection of poems and short stories. 'ham on rye' is a good first novel to start with.

hermann hesse is fantastic. start with siddhartha then work your way in.

i must admit that 'illusions' by richard bach taught me how to dissolve clouds, and convinced me that someday i will be able to swim in dirt. if youre not in the right frame of mind, or you have what i call a 'reality hangup' then the book wont do much for you.

henry miller i like a lot, although i enjoy reading interviews with him more than i enjoy reading his work. try "stand still like the hummingbird." for a good collection of conversations. the title alone is more useful than entire books written by others.

steinbeck of course, everyone's going to pick that. 'winter of our discontent' is good for you if you think you're stuck in your job. 'east of eden' is really good too, for other reasons. both make my heart heavy, but in a good way. 'cannery row' makes me want to build a time machine, load it up with a jug of wine, and go back to monterey in the heyday of sardine canning and get drunk under a tree, then stagger over to doc's and see what he caught last night.

i read a few hemingway short stories over the holiday, and i just cant get over how well that dude writes dialog. there is something about his writing, where it is sparse as hell, just as unflowery as it can get, yet when i read his work, i get an amazingly sharp mental picture of what is going on, and have no trouble imagining each aspect of it. "hills like white elephants" is a great example. i read it in high school, and have re-read it several times, and it always hits me right between the eyes. i was once in mojave, CA, and i swear i felt like i was in the exact diner where that book took place. i know that i wasnt, but somehow, everything converged, and it was amazing. if he hadnt written that story, that wouldve just been a diner. im no scholar, but im pretty sure that is my definition of great writing - economy of words and maximization of impact. (i lack this... )

thats enough for now. im getting all nostalgic for the good books ive read. i can remember when i bought many of them, the bookstores, the people i was with, the way i felt when i first read them. the parts that i liked. the folks i shared them with. the associations i made later in life.

ahhhh, great thread. thanks.

[Hodag]

I read way to many books to pick a fav. (average one a week)

really like Vonnegut, Chrichton, and 1st person WWII books.
last book read "Flags of our father's"

For childrens books
"Arthur the farting dog" I giggle alot during that one.
anything by dr. zues, read "Sue Snue" last night at bedtime.

[cgarr]

The Gunslinger - Stephen King
ANYTHING by James Michener
Most of Tony Hillermans novels

So many fine books so little time.......... how do I choose...???.. :dunno

[CJM]

In no special order:

1. Marine Sniper (Carlos Hatchcock)
2. Silent Warrior (Volume II)
3. Marine (Chesty Puller)
4. One Shot, One Kill
5. Brown Water, Black Beret
6. Fortunate Son (Chesty Pullers son's ordeal)
7. The Divinci Code
8. Blind Mans Bluff
9. Navy Seals in Vietnam (did I spell Vietnam correctly?)
10. We Were Soldiers Once... and Young
11. Digital Fortress


For some reason, fiction doesn't interest me all that much, but Mr. Brown does write a good novel.

MTBATP

[Hodag]

In no special order:

1. Marine Sniper (Carlos Hatchcock)
2. Silent Warrior (Volume II)
3. Marine (Chesty Puller)
4. One Shot, One Kill
5. Brown Water, Black Beret
6. Fortunate Son (Chesty Pullers son's ordeal)
7. The Divinci Code
8. Blind Mans Bluff
9. Navy Seals in Vietnam (did I spell Vietnam correctly?)
10. We Were Soldiers Once... and Young
11. Digital Fortress


For some reason, fiction doesn't interest me all that much, but Mr. Brown does write a good novel.

MTBATP


I smell a theme
you scare me sometimes....

[username]

mike and mark - i've read most of the books on your lists - if you like the military stuff, give "flyboys" a try. it's by the same dude who did "flags of our fathers" and it's got some wild stuff in it.

[Hodag]

thanks for the tip.

Oh I also like Ambrose.


mark

[CJM]

mike and mark - i've read most of the books on your lists - if you like the military stuff, give "flyboys" a try. it's by the same dude who did "flags of our fathers" and it's got some wild stuff in it.

The Princess gave "Flyboys" to me last Christmas. Couldn't set it down! For some reason (early onset Alsheimers maybe?) I left it off. But Bush #1 sure was lucky!

MTBATP

P.S.
Have a look at "A Glimpse Into Hell" about the USS Iowa 16 in. gun turrent explosion. Another Navy cover-up and also the reason I believe CNO Borda commited suicide and not Col. Hackworths questioning of his Bronze Star with "v" for valour.

[lorazepam]

Mark I have flyboys here and you may borrow it whenyoucome down if you like
scary stuff in that book

[BradfordBenn]

Way too many to pick from.

Probably anything by Christopher Buckley
Hitchhiker Series by Douglas Adams
October Sky
Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The Tao of Pooh and the Te of Piglet
Ron Ayers' Books

And I can just keep going and going and going and going and going and going



http://www.bradfordbenn.com/photolinks/bathreadsmall.jpg

[manicmechanic]

It's difficult to pick really favorite books. I'll read everything by several authors. Some of them are:

Foundation series, by Asimov
Hitchhiker's Guide, et al
Incarnations of Immortality series, by Antony
Anything by Heinlein
Dickens, for when I need a laugh (?)
I've read Ron Ayres books, and continue to read David Hough's work.
Neil Peart has struck a chord also.
And not to forget Tolkien.

[pwittstruck]

I can't pic a favorite book, but favorite authors are:(in no particular order)

Nelson DeMille
David Baldacci
James Lee Burke
Walter Mosley
Robert B Parker
Robert Ludlum
John Grisham
Jonathan Kellerman
Tom Clancy

[Grey Matter]

Touratech catalog.

[The_Veg]

(not in order)
Anything by Dennis Lehane (author of Mystic River, and six other great books)
Any of the Life In Hell books by Matt Groening (if you don't who he is then you are LAME!)
Xxxenophile by Phil Foglio (an 'adult' comic book)
Assorted stuff by Hunter THompson
Star Wars: Tales From the Mos Eisley Cantina, edited by Kevin J. Anderson
I Am Spock by Leonard Nimoy. Fascinating and hilarious memoir of the actor's realtionship with 'The Vulcan.'
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke. Depressing but compelling tale of the end of man's days on Earth.
Peanuts from 1950-52
Second the vote for Blue Highways!
And my Steinbeck pick, the only book of his I've read, The Short Reign Of Pippin IV. Silly tale of the return of the French Monarchy. I've seen two copies of it in my whole life and I have one of them.

[YB in IN]

Here are some pictures of what I have on my bookshelf that aren't either reference materials for singing (language dictionaries, translation books, etc) or all of my music. Enjoy, and I hope that you can make out some of the titles.


http://gartheppley.smugmug.com/photos/23156668-M.jpg
This is the shelf that has most of my motorcycle books, philosophy, travel writing, and random stuff. I worked in a library in high school so I have a real hard time keeping unlike books together. I still haven't done that ABC order thing though like I have with my CDs. Yes, people think I'm crazy.

http://gartheppley.smugmug.com/photos/23156669-M.jpg
I couldn't quite get this picture to turn out very well. This shelf has all of my Tolkien, Douglas Coupland, my favorite poets (Ginsberg, Neruda, Dylan Thomas), Kerouac, and speaking of beatniks the book I bought at City Lights in San Francisco Dirty Havana Trilogy.

[Scootertrash]

My current faves:

"Guns, Germs, And Steel" and "Collapse" - Jared Diamond

[Autolycus]

when pressed to select the fav, would have to LOTR.

others, in no order, and by no means exhaustive!!

Demille, Word of Honor and Charm School
Tolstoy Anything he wrote
Dostoevsky Anything, but esp Bros Karamazov
Hesse, esp Glass Bead Game
Hemingway anything.. someone remarked on his style, what I call the iceberg style, where only 10% is revealed., the rest to be discovered by careful reading. He could do this - he was talented enough. Unfortunately, his style redefined modern prose, and has dumbed it down to the point where most novels today are pale imitations of Hemingway. There are exceptions, but far too many just can't write well enough to copy him.

Faulkner Anything, esp Absolom Absolom and Light in August
George R R Martin Song of Fire and Ice series best fantasy in years
Stephen Donaldson Gap series great sci-fi, based loosely on Warner's Ring cycle
King Dark Tower series
Comac McCarthy anything, Sutree, All the Pretty Horses ect


Better stop!

[einnar]

I smell a theme
you scare me sometimes....

I like books off both your lists, do I scare you too?


I prefer history books. Military history is a favorite, due to my background, but I enjoy all types. Swinging the scale the complete other way, I enjoy science fiction just as much. The more 'hard science' fiction, the better.

Anything adventurous, like Tom Clancy, Dale Brown, etc, is high on my list too.

[Kbrick]

[QUOTE=John Brase]I started re-reading Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance yesterday. First read was 25 or so years ago. My margin notes look pretty sophomoric now. Pirsig's second book (don't recall the title) is simply unreadable.

I have been a fan of Larry McMurtry's non fiction work before I started reading the novels. "Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen", is one of my favorite non fiction works. "The Last Picture Show" is a much better book than it was a movie and I liked the movie.
Louise Ehrlich wrote a book of essays "The Solace of Open Spaces", about Wyoming and the people who live there, each chapter is moving.

And now for something comepletely different any of the Michael Palin companion books about his travels around the world.
"Around the World in 80 Days"
"Pole to Pole"
"Hemingways Adventure"
"Full Circle"

[Grey Matter]

On a serious note. I just finished reading the “The Chronicles of Narnia” by C.S. Lewis to my son. I ready them perhaps 25 years ago & had forgotten how much these books meant to me.

I just saw a movie preview/trailer for “The Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe” last week.

[Bob_M]

I prefer history books. Military history is a favorite, due to my background, but I enjoy all types.

George MacDonald Fraser wrote a bunch of historical fiction staring a character: Flashman. Flashman was an admitted coward, a womanizer, an excellent horseman and an all around rapscalion. Set during the height of English colonial strength in the 1800s. The stories develop with historical accuracy except that fate places Flashman in the middle of the most historic battles of the English campains where he inadvertly (or wrongly) becomes a hero. The horrors of war and magnificent heroism against unbelievable odds are told, in different books, about battles in Russia, India, Usbekistan, Pakistan and Afganistan. The stories are quick paced and often amusing. One scene in the book Royal Flash, Flashman is in a sleigh racing to escape cossack horsemen. A Russian princess is stowed away in the sleigh so Flashie has his way with her, then to lighten the sleigh's load tosses her out into the snow. A true cad.

I would be sorta cool if people brought old favorite paperbacks to ralleys for exchange. Recommending a book never seems to get them read. Giving the book often does. To kick off the deal I will bring Royal Flash to the Chief Joseph ralley and give it away. :wave

[jdcoffman]

[QUOTE=username]nice thread. now, where to start?

"tao te ching" by lao tzu is one book i wish every person on earth was required to read and think about. it takes 30 minutes read and will rattle in your head for 30 lifetimes.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------


I also have a favorite that everyone should read but not mandatory that would be the Book of John by the Apostle of the same name. Probably take 45 min to read but if you let it it could change your life.

Other wise The Lord of the Rings/Hobbit great place to get lost in middle earth.
Favorite Clancy Red Storm rising.
Favorite Stienbeck Of Mice and Men

[beemerred]

Two of my more recent favorites are: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (although I`ve not liked some of his other stuff) and The Short History Of Everything by Bill Bryson. But the book that got me started to enjoy to read is The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein. I love that one so much I read it to all of my 5 kids 4th grade class when they were younger. I was a bread driver at the time and was off every Wed. I read a 1/2 hour to 45 minutes and it took almost the year but the kids loved it so I had to do it for all of them. I actually got much better at it in the end.

[BradfordBenn]

I read a 1/2 hour to 45 minutes and it took almost the year but the kids loved it so I had to do it for all of them. I actually got much better at it in the end.

Now that is really cool. :thumb

[rocketman]

I started re-reading Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance yesterday. First read was 25 or so years ago. My margin notes look pretty sophomoric now. Pirsig's second book (don't recall the title) is simply unreadable.


The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, a mystery novel set in a monastary in 1327. It is really much better than you'd think. And better than the movie though Sean Connery is almost always worth watching.
And for sheer fun, anything by Tom Robbins.

John

I tried to reread Zen a few years ago also after about 30 years from the first attempt, got thru the first few chapters, and while I liked it a whole better the second time, it still didn't really capture me so it got put away, again, maybe when I'm 90 I'll pull it out and try again.

Name of the Rose, definately a winner, moive was pretty good to but as you S. C. had a lot to do with that.

RM

[535is]

I just finished African Game Trails by Theodore Roosevelt.

Man, talk about dredging up an old thread! :scratch

Does just finishing a book qualify it as your favorite? Just askin'.

My own favorites from recent years (although my 'old list' is a close match to Manic Mechanic, Randy's) are B.S. Levy's historical fiction series about 19-y-o Jersey garage mechanic Buddy Palumbo getting sucked into sports car road racing in 1952 (The Last Open Road) and continuing hilarity through the Mexican Road Race (Montezuma's Ferrari), building his own sports special (The Fabulous Trashwagon) and the one I'm still behind on (Toly's Ghost). I'd probably read them even if I didn't personally know that the guy is a total lunatic ... :whistle

[beemerred]

If you go to page two there is a picture of YB in IN`s bookshelf I guess at his dorm/ apt. Just goes to show what apart of our lives he was.

[KGT1200]

I pick up a Ken Kesey once every decade or so. "One Flew over Cookoos Nest", "Sometimes a Great Notion"

And last week I picked up "Demon Box" for a wild ride...before that it was his comeback novel "Sailors Song"

Kesey attracts me as much as his books repulse me all at once.

Anybody else read this guy?

Did he pop his literary bubble on his first two novels, and the rest have been swan songs as I suspect?

Then why do I continue to read them?

Me thinks his ability to put a film...in words of sorts..into my head. I don't always like the disjointed sitcomb he's created in his books, but I sure enjoy watching the resulting film in my head!

[Kbrick]

Man, talk about dredging up an old thread! :scratch

Does just finishing a book qualify it as your favorite? Just askin'.

My own favorites from recent years (although my 'old list' is a close match to Manic Mechanic, Randy's) are B.S. Levy's historical fiction series about 19-y-o Jersey garage mechanic Buddy Palumbo getting sucked into sports car road racing in 1952 (The Last Open Road) and continuing hilarity through the Mexican Road Race (Montezuma's Ferrari), building his own sports special (The Fabulous Trashwagon) and the one I'm still behind on (Toly's Ghost). I'd probably read them even if I didn't personally know that the guy is a total lunatic ... :whistle

I also read the first three BS Levy books... I thought "Trashwagon" was the weakest title. I guess after the Mexican Road Race in Montezumas Ferrari Buddy needed a break.

I also like the way BS Levy sells books, on his own!

http://www.lastopenroad.com/index.htm

[Mrs2beers]

As stated above :
The Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy
Neil Peart...
......
Anne Rice
Dean Koontz
Robert Jordan
Richard Patterson

Many other authors that had story lines that were interesting to read.

[535is]

I also like the way BS Levy sells books, on his own!
Yeah. The gag around Road America (aka 'The Summer Store') is that the rarest of Burt's books will be the ones he didn't sign! :bolt

[Kbrick]

Yeah. The gag around Road America (aka 'The Summer Store') is that the rarest of Burt's books will be the ones he didn't sign! :bolt

Burt does nice work for Vintage Motorsport too!

http://www.vintagemotorsport.com/default.asp