Top 5 of your favorite books

[Palestinian Jew]

I thought this would be kind of fun, plus I won't have to look around the bookstore for an hour.

1) My first pick is high above all of the others. I first found it 5 years ago and have read it four times since, "The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien. I love it because of the characters and the classic good vs. evil story. Reading this book really is like reading about another world with its own history, songs, languages, and people.

2) Orson Scott Card has made himself one of the best sci-fi writers, and "Ender's Game" is in my opinion his greatest book.

3) "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coehlo will be one of those books that every teacher in America uses in their classroom because it is about a young shepard that is trying to find his destiny, with plenty of symbolism thrown in for good measure.

 

[Annie]

I'll go with the Alchemist excellent read.
Which for some reason reminds me of one of may fav. high school books, The Metamorphosis by Kafka.
High school reminds me of two books, de Tocqueville's, Democracy in America and Thoreau's, Walden Pond. I still like Rand's Atlas Shrugged, and now I'm out of choices.

 

[Isaac Brock]

Fiction

1. Count of Monte Cristo or any of the Three Musketeers series - Alexandre Dumas (classic tales)
2. Red Storm Rising, Debt of Honor or Execuitive Orders - Tom Clancy (just fun)
3. Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (Crazy symbolism)
4. The Illiad - Homer (Different literary style)
5. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Fascinating and real view of a gulag)

Non-Fiction

1. Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies - Jared Diamand (Brilliant description of cultural evolution of humans based on environmental factors)
2. Sacred Balance - David Suzuki (Great book on the environment by one of the world's foremost environmentalists)
3. Pale Blue Dot - Carl Sagan (Our place in space, but one of astronomy's greatest supporters)
4. Why I Hate Canadians - Will Ferguson (Good commentary on Canada)
5. Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking (Complex subject, easy to read)

 

[Enthused]

1. Chronicles of Narnia
2. Reviving Ophelia
3. The Chrysalids
4. Life of Pi
5. A Separate Peace

 

[Annie]

Originally posted by Enthused
1. Chronicles of Narnia
2. Reviving Ophelia
3. The Chrysalids
4. Life of Pi
5. A Separate Peace

Welcome, Enthused. I love A Separate Peace.

 

[Enthused]

Thanks for the welcome.

I remember pretty vividly all the books I read in high school, I was such an English nerd.

 

[menewa]

I hate making superlatives of anything artistic but I'll try.

The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
The Adventures of Huck Finn by Mark Twain
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Cosmos by Carl Sagan

 

[musicman]

1. Slouching Towards Gomorrah - Robert Bork. The definitive work on America's most dangerous enemies - the sixties counterculture, which grew up, donned suits and ties, and now run some of our most vital institutions - to our detriment.

2. The Godfather - Mario Puzo. As great as the movies were, they couldn't hold a candle to the book. So much wisdom. So much depth.

3. The New Thought Police - Tammy L. Bruce. An unexpected gem. Bruce was the head of the L.A. chapter of NOW during some of it's most tumultuous times, and felt the wrath of the P.C. Establishment to a degree usually reserved only for the most heinously unapologetic conservatives. A smart, funny book.

4. 1984 - George Orwell. The sound of scales falling from the eyes of a well-meaning socialist dupe. Terrifyingly relevant to current events, for anyone with eyes to see.

5. With Reagan - Edwin Meese. The side of Iran-Contra we never got to hear. Given a more balanced hearing in the press ( see sixties couterculture...now running some of our most vital institutions...), Jim Wright and the Democrat house of Representatives would have been shown as, at best, dangerously naive Daniel Ortega groupies. At the worst, they'd have been unmasked as traitors.

 

[leojoeyjoe]

in no particular order and omitting hundreds of others that i could just as easily name:
A happy death: kaffka
V-thomas pynchon
anything by foucald
portrait of a lady: Henry James
The Universal Baseball Association Inc. J. Henry Waugh Prop.: by robert coover
honorable mention: Belfast confetti by Cirian Carson
someone mentioned tolkien and orson scott card...both excellent..invisible man does rule too...as does the narnia books...I like C.S. lewis' other books better....love d.h.lawrence....
nietzche, hegel, barthes, rousseau...jesus i'll stop or go on forever

 

[Dan]

1) A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
2) Rebel Without a Crew
3) Life After God
4) High Fidelity
5) Song Book

 

[leojoeyjoe]

AND CRAP!! I don't know how but I left off ANYTHING BY JAMES JOYCE (which goes without saying really)
also american psycho
JR by Gaddis
etc.
etc.

 

[NATO AIR]

forgive me, i LOVE books... when i have the time to read them

fiction:

1) the things they carried (tim o'brien)- deals with Vietnam, gives back humanity to the often demonized and misunderstood Vietnam veterans.
2) the fall (albert camus)- enthralling existentialist writing
3) cry, the beloved country (alan paton)- my favorite place in the world and its finest novel from its most troubled time
4) the dangerous summer (ernest hemingway)- adventure in Spain from the greatest 20th century
5) Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (john la carre)- a gripping novel about counterespionage during the Cold War


non-fiction:

1) shake hands with the devil: the failure of humanity in rwanda(lt. gen romeo dallaire)/we wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed along with our families (phillip gouvetich)
the former, an incredible firsthand account of what happened in rwanda, from the tortured soul of the leader of the doomed UN peacekeeping mission there, a man who led his unsupported, undermanned and underequipped multi-national troops as best he could through 100 days of hell on earth, where over 800,000 innocent people were massacred by the terrorist HUTU power organization. the latter, an exhausting overview of what happened before, during and after, as well as answering why it happened in the first place.

2) last man standing: the tragedy and triumph of geronimo pratt (jack olsen)- INCREDIBLE account of how the purple heart winner turned Black Panther was framed and spent over 25 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. i don't agree with a lot of his politics, but the courage and poise of this guy is amazing throughout all he went through and his story is a must read for anyone who wants to see a man overcome enormous adversity.

3) the fifty year wound: how america's cold war victory shapes our world (derek leebaert)- comprehensive account with tremendous amount of detail (especially of the eisenhower and reagan years) in how the cold war was fought and what it cost the US in many more ways than just money. offers information and ideas useful to all political spectrums, above all, the author despairs at what might have been if america's incredible promise had it not been forced into defending the world from communism.

4) the man who tried to save the world (scott anderson)- the mystery of a missing american hero, fred cuny, an ingenious and brave texan who innovated many improvements in how humanitarian aid work is done. he went missing in chechnya, was he killed by corrupt russian soldiers or chechen fighters? the mystery overshadows his incredible life spent helping others while having a hell of a time doing it.

5) anti-americanism (jean francois revel)- french journalist of legendary stature offers his take on why europeans are giving in to petty jealousy and insecurity and hating america. above all else, its a reasoned plea for sanity and appreciation for why america's example should be followed by europe. you won't believe a french centrist wrote this, but he did and it is a damn good read for all americans who want to know why their euro neighbors are being so petty and selfish.

honorable mentions

a problem from hell: america in the age of genocide (samantha power)- sweeping in its account of how the US has over the past century not ignored genocide, but made it a policy to not get involved for whatever reason. if you've ever wondered what leaders were thinking during the armenian, jewish, cambodian, iraqi, bosnian and rwandan genocides, this is the book to read. without bashing those who chose to avoid stopping genocide, it nevertheless presents an honest and frank portrait of them.

a mighty heart (mariane pearl)- daniel pearl's wife gives her account of his kidnapping and the aftermath. heartbreaking but affirming in the end, its a great story of a strong woman and her husband, who has justly become a hero in the afterlife to many in the world.

 

[Semper Fi]

Originally posted by Enthused
5. A Separate Peace

I have to read that book for my english class this fall. I dont particularly enjoy it so far, but havent really given it a chance. What do you think is good about it?

 

[Enthused]

I enjoy everything about it.

Thematically it is an amazing book.

John Knowles use of war imagery is very profound.

 

[Semper Fi]

Alrighty, I'll gice it a shot then.

 

[opewon]

1) The Foundation series
2) The Stand
3) Robinson Crusoe
4) The Hobbit trilogy
5) Sum of all Fears

Got to throw in the mix basically all of the Harry Potter books, my kids turned me on to them and I think they are great reading for all ages.

 

[leojoeyjoe]

the stand kicks arse.

 

[dilloduck]

guess I'll start with

The Book : On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are & The Wisdom of Insecurity

both by Alan W Watts


Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Slapstick & Welcome to the Monkey House (short story collection)

 

[Zhukov]

The Stand
War and Peace
Dune
God Emperor of Dune

 

[Moi]

War and Peace

I read War and Peace so long ago! It was so difficult for me to read...I was a freshman in high school at the time. I hated it then, but as I look back on it all these years I realize that it was a great book.

Someday I hope to read it again.

My favorite books used to be anything spy related...didn't have to be fiction...The Puzzle Palace (wish I could remember who wrote that), Bourne Identity (anything by Robert Ludlum, really), one about a guy who worked for UC Berkely and solved the most famous hacker case of the 70/80's (wish I could remember the title or author of that!), etc.

Now, having a 3.5 year old, I'm lucky if I can finish the reading of my work stuff. But I've made time for Harry Potter...those books are very good.