Favourite Books

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Originally posted by Lady Lawrence

I know this much is True - Wally Lewis
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Try Wally Lamb's book of the same name! It's great.
His "She's Come Undone" is just as good.

For pulse-raising tension read "True Crime" by Andrew Klavan, better than the movie.

Also get hold of "Cold Mountain" by Charles Frazier, before the movie comes out and spoils it.
 
Originally posted by Curly5
Try Wally Lamb's book of the same name! It's great.
His "She's Come Undone" is just as good.

For pulse-raising tension read "True Crime" by Andrew Klavan, better than the movie.

Also get hold of "Cold Mountain" by Charles Frazier, before the movie comes out and spoils it.
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Oh My God!!! How embarassment, I can't believe I wrote Lewis!! I do mean Lamb and I have read She's Come Undone, brilliant book.
 
I couldn't say I have a favourite book. Every time I think of one I think of a dozen others in the genre. After reading probably hundreds of books over the last 20+ years I could never nail it down to a small list.

Nowadays it is months between finishing one novel and starting another, but favourites over the years have included:

Brave New World, the Rama series, the 'Mars' series (Red, Green, Blue), 'Against the Gods', the James Bond series, some Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub, Ben Elton, Douglas Adams, Gibson's Neuromancer series... there are just too many to mention. Nick Earls is a good laugh. Classic SF is always interesting - Bear, Clark, Bova, Asimov. Michael Crichton writes some good stuff.

I could keep going for ages but I won't.
 

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There is nothing better than reading a good book.

All time fave is Looking for Alibrandi (even though I'm a little old now!).

Love Brigid Jones Diaries

The Harry Potter series is extremely well written and have thoroughly enjoyed reading all of the books, especially as fantasy is not usually my genre.

I read a lot of biographies so its good to break it up with fiction from time to time. I just finished Richard Branson's "Losing my Virginity" which was a really interesting read.
 
To Sir With Love - E.R. Braithwaite
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell

I wonder if that says anything that all of my most favourite books are also movies. ;) I find though if I see a movie that's based on a novel, I like to read it too, because there's always detail left out in a movie and it can give you more perspective on characters by reading the book too.

I also enjoy biographies. Again, you get more perspective on who people actually are, rather than just what you see in their movies, or music, or whatever it is that they might be famous for.

Having said that, I don't read as much as I used to.
 
Originally posted by BomberGal
Ahh, wanna give me some hints for OTT then? :p I thought OTT was good the first time I read it...but then I read it again...and again...and again...and after studying so much I don't enjoy it. We're also doing The Divine Wind, which I thought was boring as the first time I read it, but after looking at the themes & issues, I actually quite like it. I'm just sick of it. :(
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:D If you're serious about wanting some help, just pm me and I'll see what I can do! Remember though, I drank heavily for 6 months after my last exam so my English skills were pretty much destroyed :p

We did The Divine Wind too, I hated it though so I didn't do it in the exam. I wrote on OTT and Cabaret (our film)

Originally posted by Stevo
And congrats on your straight A+s. ;)
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Thanks mate! Not much good it did me though.. I'm a bloody business admin trainee now :(

Anyway.. back to books. I read a really good one just last weekend. I can't remember what it's called exactly but it's about a girl who lived in the tunnels of Grand Central Station for 4 years. Really, really good.
 
Originally posted by lioness22

To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
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That says plenty. That's my favourite ever book too - and as good as the film is, it is not a patch on the book. I've read that novel about 40 times now and it never fails to captivate me.

I read autobiographies and biographies too.

And I make time to read - my favourite hobby ever.
 
Still have Lord of the Rings as my favourite, and I've enjoyed all Tolkien's stuff (Silmarillion, Book of Lost Tales, the Hobbit). Also loved the Dune series by Frank Herbert, any of the C.S. Lewis Narnia books, a lot of H.G. Wells' stories, the original Dracula by Bram Stoker, the Shining, a heap of biographies, plenty of footy books (I'm on the Gary Ablett one at the moment), wrestling behind the scenes books (Mick Foley's and Dynamite Kid Tommy Billington's being the best) and a heap of science books.
 
Dumbing down time kiddies.

All Robert G Barretts, Les Norton Series.
& his other literary works.

now back to the intellects.
 
Originally posted by CharlieG
Pro to anti. I thought at the start that Billy Ray Cobb and Pete Willard deserved to die, and in a sense, Tonya Hailey needed them to die. But, if Cobb and Willard deserved to die, I had to apply the same criteria to Carl Lee... and he definitely DID NOT deserve to die.

So... that's more or less the effect it had on me. You?
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Turned me pro to anti as well. I then read The Chamber which convinced me I had made the right choice in my mind.

So I suppose I need to add The Chamber to my all time faves list.
 
Seeing I rarely read fiction, my choice is a philosophy book, written in 1889: 'The Anti-Christ', by Friedrich Nietzsche.

Can't really reccomend it though. It will bore most people to snores, especially those of another philosophical bent.

However, if you ever wanted an insight into what it is to be on this planet, in this culture, this is the book I'd read. It may also give you an understanding of the whole of 20th C literature, which is beholden to his ideas.
 
As we have moved from fantasy to philosophy, allow me to recommend to all who enjoy a "serious" read, a book considered by some to be the pinnacle of literature, "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
 

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Favourite Books are:

Matthew Reilly - Temple
Matthew Reilly - Ice Station
Matthew Reilly - Area 7
Matthew Reilly - Contest

and soon to be included

Matthew Reilly - Scarecrow
 
Originally posted by skilts
Seeing I rarely read fiction, my choice is a philosophy book, written in 1889: 'The Anti-Christ', by Friedrich Nietzsche.

Can't really reccomend it though. It will bore most people to snores, especially those of another philosophical bent.

However, if you ever wanted an insight into what it is to be on this planet, in this culture, this is the book I'd read. It may also give you an understanding of the whole of 20th C literature, which is beholden to his ideas.
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Never liked Nietzsche. I always found him decadent.

For philosophy that's also a great read: Plato is always enjoyable and easy to read. Quine's work is also very lively and often very humourous. Heidegger is beautiful and poetic, but deep and often difficult.
 
Originally posted by Vintage 62
As we have moved from fantasy to philosophy, allow me to recommend to all who enjoy a "serious" read, a book considered by some to be the pinnacle of literature, "The Brothers Karamazov" by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
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It's a pity that we mostly know him from "Crime and Punishment", which, as great as it is, doesn't reach the headiness of "The Brothers Karamazov".

But if we're talking serious, Joyce's "Ulysses" can't be passed. Noble prize winner Halldor Laxness' works (particularly "World Light") are also very rewarding, but require a lot of effort and patience.
 
Originally posted by Shaitan
I found the Wheel of Time sensational from books 1 - 7, after that however, I'd probably have to agree with you. The story does drag on as Rand continues to bicker and Faile rips Perrin's beautiful character apart. The series definitely started to become an anti-climax when Faile was introduced. She ruined the wolf man!....The great wolf man!

I haven't read Jordan's other series, though... I don't even know the name of it. Is that any better?
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I stopped reading after Book 7 - I think Jordan needs to wind up the series, its just dragging on, like he knows he's on to a good money-spinner and he's going to stick with it. But must admit I kind of liked Faile, I thought she was cute!

I think Robert Jordan also wrote the Conan the Barbarian series, but I haven't read them.
 
Originally posted by Stevo
It's a pity that we mostly know him from "Crime and Punishment", which, as great as it is, doesn't reach the headiness of "The Brothers Karamazov".

But if we're talking serious, Joyce's "Ulysses" can't be passed.
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Crime & Punishment is my least favourite of all of Dostoevsky's works.

Ulysses won't appeal to many casual readers.

And as for the philosophers you mention Stevo,Heidegger is unreadable even to philosophy majors and Quine is too technical for non-philosophers.

The philosopher who best writes popular stuff is undoubtedly Bertrand Russell. His writing style is unsurpassed IMO. Any essays by Russell or Orwell are worth reading just for the writing style if nothing else.

The first two volumes of Russell's autobiography are great for the same reason - and other reasons as well.

Anyone still studying and who wants to learn how to write essays would do well to read Russell & Orwell.
 
Originally posted by Vintage 62
Crime & Punishment is my least favourite of all of Dostoevsky's works.

Ulysses won't appeal to many casual readers.

And as for the philosophers you mention Stevo,Heidegger is unreadable even to philosophy majors and Quine is too technical for non-philosophers.

The philosopher who best writes popular stuff is undoubtedly Bertrand Russell. His writing style is unsurpassed IMO. Any essays by Russell or Orwell are worth reading just for the writing style if nothing else.

The first two volumes of Russell's autobiography are great for the same reason - and other reasons as well.

Anyone still studying and who wants to learn how to write essays would do well to read Russell & Orwell.
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Agreed, Joyce won't really appeal to people looking for a page-turner... But then, neither will Dostoyevsky.

Have to disagree regarding Heidegger and Quine. Heidegger does require effort, but it is ultimately very rewarding. It's everything one looks for in good prose. Lyrical, economical, well paced... As for Quine, sure, a lot of his work is rather technical. But some of his essays are very lively (such as his most famous piece "On What There Is").
 
Originally posted by Stevo
Never liked Nietzsche. I always found him decadent.

For philosophy that's also a great read: Plato is always enjoyable and easy to read. Quine's work is also very lively and often very humourous. Heidegger is beautiful and poetic, but deep and often difficult.
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Hm, interesting. 'Decadence' is not something I've ever seen ascribed to Nietzsche before. There are those who would say he spent most of his life railing against what he saw as the decadence of Christian 'morality'. Each to his own, I suppose.

Plato is a good read, but I dont think much of his ventriliquist's dummy, Socrates. An argument can be mounted that Plato put back western thought by 2500 years, with his insistence upon the knowability of reality and upon the existence of other-worldly essences. However, this is not a view to which I wholeheartedly subscribe, for the reason you've mentioned. If Plato hadn't existed, we'd all be reading the Bible, Koran, Kabbalah or God forbid, Thomas Aquinas.

Heidegger is an interesting case. His 'Being and Time' was a valiant, but ultimately failed attempt, to 'say' Being as it exists for humans. I have a theory, backed by little evidence, that his attempt to do this sent him mad, as it may have Nietzsche.

The later Heidegger I found a lot more accessible, especially, 'What is Called Thinking' and 'The Question Concerning Technology'. The latter has been appropriated in part by the Deep Green movement and is remarkably perspicacious about the insidious nature of the largely unnoticed effects of technology on our lives.
 
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I've read it about ten times, including once in Russian, and wrote my thesis on it. GREATEST BOOK EVER

Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco

The Joke - Milan Kundera

War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy

The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
 
Originally posted by ViperV10
Favourite Books are:

Matthew Reilly - Temple
Matthew Reilly - Ice Station
Matthew Reilly - Area 7
Matthew Reilly - Contest

and soon to be included

Matthew Reilly - Scarecrow
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Reilly's books are awesome!! I brought a few books the other day and when paying for them, the lady gave me a little 10 page booklet which is a extract from "Scarecrow"! It was cool. full of action! :)

Ice Station and Temple are the best!
 
Originally posted by Stevo

Heidegger does require effort, but it is ultimately very rewarding. It's everything one looks for in good prose. Lyrical, economical, well paced...
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Clearly, you aren't talking about "Being and Time."

And, couldn't Crime & Punishment be described as a page-turner? More so than Joyce anyway, I think.

All great literature is unavoidably boring in parts I think, but if perservered with, is ultimately rewarding. Nevertheless there are plenty of great books which are quite readable, so any author who tries to make a virtue out of obscurity deserves to be ignored IMO.
 

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