Favorite books

[Helsing]

1984 - George Orwell

the dwarf - Pär Lagerqvist

crime and punishment - Fjodor Dostojevskij

the picture of dorian gray - Oscar Wilde

the alchemist - Paulo Coelho

[jdemotion]

american psycho

invisible monsters

fight club

lord of the flies

curious george

[the wit of the staircase]

love:

1. the sheltering sky - bowles

2. infinite jest - dfw

3. i'd read franzen's grocery lists

4. nicholson baker

5. here they come - yannick murphy

6. the mezzanine - nicholson baker

7. eric hoffer

hate train:

1. jack kerouac

2. ayn rand

3. jeannette winterson

[damnIam]

Villa Incognito-Tom Robbins, favorite book read this year so far. Too many to list for overall favs.

[denimdestroyedmylife]

hate train:

2. ayn rand

damn skippy

[viv1984viv]

I love this thread, I expect amazon does too, Im back onto Camus after reading the outsider ( the stranger ), im having trouble thinking of a book thats much better, just so potent. Ive enjoyed 2 Bukowski books, Post Office and Women- what a waster. Also I read ray bradburys fahrenheit 451, brilliant, I slightly more optimistic 1984, certainly not a poor mans 1984 imo.

Little boy by takashi murakami is also a great way to dip into japans culture. ( this isnt a novel, its an art publication by Yale )

Helsing- what do you like about the alchemist?

[denimdestroyedmylife]

viv, camus' THE PLAGUE is probably better than the stranger, check it out at your library!

[viv1984viv]

yeah, Ive already read the plague, the outsider left much more of an impression on me, I might buy the plague though cos ive found an edition that has loads of short storys, the fall, exile in the kingdom series etc in the back, maybe I should re-read, if I was to re-read anyone Camus would be up there.

[denimdestroyedmylife]

hmmm...

did you read THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS by camus?

that has influenced me a great deal and i think about it almost daily, though it has been more than 5 years since i've read it

[viv1984viv]

no, but I intend to, hopefully it will be in the back of the camus book with short storys and collected essays, thanks for the heads up, I might dip into that one first...

[denimdestroyedmylife]

there's that other one...

A HAPPY DEATH

actually haven't read it, i don't think camus ever got to finish it, been on my shelf for 10 years or more...

damn

[polishmike]

W.G. Sebald - 'Austerlitz'

[viv1984viv]

yeah, thats on my wishlist too, its supposed to be a precursor to the outsider, It has the same autistic/christ character Meursault but his life before he moves to Algiers, although I dont think the "crime" ever happens, i might be wrong though. Its was wrote before the outsider and perhaps it was even a rough one, Camus never released it and then it was published after his death.

Im no expert on the guy, just ive been gawking at the synopsi (?) of books I want when my loan drops, also I accidntally bought the outsider and the stranger- from the same publisher ( doh ), so im checking all the books so I dont end up doing the same thing. Should have stuck to Maeve Binchy.

Your Yoko eyes creep the hell out of me by the way.

[hawkeye]

Sometimes A Great Notion - Kesey

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Kesey

The Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe

The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 - Thompson

Dharma Bums - Kerouac

Catch-22 - Heller

The Godfather - Puzo

In Cold Blood - Capote

Currently trying to sink my teeth into Oil! by Upton Sinclair.

[sean_]

Breakfast of Champions

fucking kurt vonnegut was a genius, i love like all of his shit.

hawkeye i actually just found a copy of dharma bums in a box on the sidewalk last week along with 4 or 5 other gems.. i'm about to start it after i finish more vonnegut haha.

oh and less than zero/most of bret, minus american psycho and his new one that i didnt read yet.

[hawkeye]

Nice, I stole my copy from a friend. Books in boxes on the sidewalk is where I get the majority of my books, found a hardcover In Cold Blood, an old Naked Lunch and an old 9 Stories by Salinger. I've found a bunch of Vonnegut recently on sidewalks too.

Just finnished God Bless You Mr. Rosewater a few weeks ago, Slapstick, Jailbird, Sirens of Titan are all on deck. But my housemate just gave me this book on The Band by Levon Helm that I think I should read just cause I dont want it kickin around my room for months and months.

[honghonglulu]

guilty pleasures - stuff read or reread this year. otherwise, who could pick 10?

10 outlander - diana gabaldon

9 from russia with love - ian fleming

8 kitchen - banana yoshimoto

7 pure drivel - steve martin

6 the lost art of keeping secrets - eva rice

5 the master and margarita - mikhail bulgakov

4 things fall apart - chinua achebe

3 lover - marguerite duras

2 lolita - vladimir nabokov

1 out - natsuo kirino

[coleslawyum]

Islands In The Stream - Ernest Hemingway

Artist Of The Floating World - Kazuo Ishiguro

Red Harvest - Dashiell Hammett

Double Idemity - James M. Cain

Farewell My Lovely - Raymond Chandler

Another Country - James Baldwin

Can't seem to remember off the top of the dome… But not much of a reader anyway. I really enjoy a good trashy novel once in a while.

[Corbin Law]

Great play and movie too, same goes for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard (play and movie).

i was just recently in a production for that

theres like a giant compeitionbetween every single fucking highschool in all of texas

and we ended up making it to the final round.

we didnt win, but we were in top 8 of the entire state,

but of all of the plays on earth to go on like a 5 month continuous journey with across texas

its the perfect one.

[SuperSerious]

Of Mice and Men; Slaughterhouse 5

[FootlooseSF]

Alice In Wonderland.

[shagnscoob]

one hundred years of solitude

im reading it right now, all i have to say is that this book is EPIC.

[viv1984viv]

one hundred years of solitude

im reading it right now, all i have to say is that this book is EPIC.

the ending is the best part, itll blow you away, enjoy.

[MilSpex]

GI Joe original run

The `Nam

The Karate Kid novelisation

[naturaljax]

Battle Royale

The DC Comics Encyclopedia

The Marvel Comics Encyclopedia pt. 1 & 2

[denimdestroyedmylife]

one hundred years of solitude

im reading it right now, all i have to say is that this book is EPIC.

great fucking book. i have a special place in my skull for novels that span generations of characters---------even if they all die in the end in a nuclear winter.

::SPOILER ALERT::

[dnarnya]

Stuff by Ayn Rand and Oriana Fallaci.

[Corbin Law]

great fucking book. i have a special place in my skull for novels that span generations of characters---------even if they all die in the end in a nuclear winter.

::SPOILER ALERT::

fuck a duck

no...

FUCK A THOUSAND DUCKS

i jsut got this book

put the spoiler alert

before you reveal the ending

[HisPiffness]

Can't believe no one has mentioned this...

Bright Lights, Big City - Jay McInerney

Fucking best book EVER.

Some others I liked...

King Rat by James Clavell - shocked to see someone else included this, I thought I was the only one who'd read it.

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

The Blindside by Michael Lewis

Killing Pablo by Mark Bowden

[denimdestroyedmylife]

i am two-thirds of the way through THE HISTORY OF VIOLENCE graphic novel; it is very very good. the cronenberg flick could have been waaaaaaaay better if they stuck closer to the source------the more interesting parts of the story were omitted from the film. strange.