Off topic literature

Well N8 started the movie topic rolling and I thought I would continue and ask
What's your favourite reading literature?
Favorite book?
Favorite Author?

The book I have most read is Wuthering Heights, 15 times to date. I was also lucky to have this as the novel we studied for my leaving certificate and had already read it 5 times before we started studying it, although I have only read it once since I finished my secondary school exams.

My favourite author at the moment is Haruki Murakami (Wild Sheep Chase, Norwgian Wood).

For relaxing before bed time with a big cup of cocoa it has to be Marion Keyes (Rachel's Holiday, Lucy Sullivan is getting married)

And for transporting myself to a different world, The Lord of the Rings triology.(Can't wait for the film!)

My favourite series of books are the 'Weetzie Bat Books by Francesca Lia Block.

I think one of the most overrated books ever is Naked Lunch. Compare this with another drugged out book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, there is just no comparison

So what are your likes and dislikes??

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"London is a city coming down from its trip and there's going to be a lot of refugees"
- Danny,Withnail & I

Oh...don't get me started!!!!!!
When I got my teaching certificate I got my degree in Literature and Creative Writing!!!!
I *LOVE* stories, books, etc....
I specialized in victorian,medeival and renaissance literature (go figure), so I love them all...my fav collection is Le Morte De Arthur, of course seconded by the Tales Of Robin The Hood. Also love Poe, Hugo,Dumas,Chaucer,"Beowulf",Homer....

Contemporarily...Lewis, Rice, Tolkein will always reign as king of fantacy in my eyes, Rilke,Several South American Authors, Tan, Bradley..... I will stop this list right now though since I could really get going!

Dislikes..Most of Stephen Kings stuff (I believe he doesn't trust a reader to have imagination), Harlequin style stuff (no imagination, besides Fabio on the covers is enough to turn me off! ), and although I read his works every year in prep for a show I am in..most of Dickens stuff is very dry for me.
Currently I am reading "Mists of Avalon" (again, movie is coming out), Anne Rice "Vampire Armand" (one of her harder ones to get through, I fall asleep) and with Noah we are up to the "Silver Chair" in the Narnia Chronicles. When that is done we will start the Three Musketeers.
Okay, I am done

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Pele
Higher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir...

Ive read 1984 way too many times for my own good.

Come on give King some credit, the guy is a genius, and you know he dumbs down his writing. I mean, come on the way he writes, even the average, semi-literate Joe can understand it, but even those who are intelligent enough to know better enjoy it. His older short stories are pretty good "Night Shift" is a decent collection of them, And you have to give him credit for trying new things, he took a big risk, publishing "The Plant" online the way he did and he's still the only author to try it.

I can't believe I spent all that time defending Stephen King. All well.

-PSM

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"One can only see what one observes, and one observes only things which are already in the mind."
-Alphonse Bertillon

well - I dont really read anything other than Sci-fi...sometimes I get into a bit of fanstasy - but I find that the majority of authors in the genre cant pull off a decent believeable character IMHO...although when it works it works

I also dont get much out of Steven King style books....

erm just got through shadow of the torturer by Gene Wolfe - really enjoyed it...for the second time...

I also liked the Mars series (Red Blue Green)...I cant go past a lot of Asmovs work - genius specially considering the age of some of the work...

dont really get into Arthur C Clarke's work...read the Rama series a couple of times...never really clicked for me...

just for fun I occassionally read HG Wells...although tis a little dated...

I really enjoy hard scifi - ie the style that is based on concepts drawn from scientific theory today... I dont particularly like sci-fi that doesnt make reference to anything real...

HOWEVER - who can go past Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (yes I *know* there is 4 books in the series) - thats my all time fav...must have read the first three books 5 or 6 times each...dont really get into So Long and Thanks for All the Fish...it seems a bit more morbid than the others...

Douglas Adams I think has an interesting style...and I have most of his published novels...

mmm that coffee was good..

Josh

Wow, good topic.

My favorite book of all time is Shogun. Cant get enough of it. I have read it way too many times. At least once a year, when I first got hooked on it, I read it twice back to back, and it is so long that after I was done, it was just like starting a fresh book over again.

Right now Im reading Roots by Alex Haley. Its the first time that I have read this one, and it is so painful to read. I also didnt like Naked Lunch very well. Nothing beats Tolkien for fantasy. I would have loved to meet him. I used to read a lot of Piers Anthony, until Xanth went down the tube after like Vale of the Vole. Then I switched to the Adept series after which Unicorn Point lost my attention. I am a fan of original casts of characters!

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~I dont care if they eat me alive, Ive got better things to do than survive. ~Ani

Myt favourite book is Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I love that book, it's so funny. Other than that I dont mind a bit of fantasy type stuff, and horror isnt that bad.

KIng, he's my hero i love his work, and thomas whats his face, silence of the lambs, red dragon and hanibal (the books are better)

Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the movies hilarious.

Genisis code, great book

British movies woo yeah British humour full stop, hate to run the whole intelligant convo happening here but theres nothin like THE YOUNG ONES they're my heros woo yeah

Peace

Anything by Dean Koontz, Watchers is prob my fave if i had to name only one.(about a dog on the run from a beast, both were created in a lab in the name of science.) I love the intelligent dog and the characters are really real.

Clive Barker, Weaveworld. All those amazing ppl & land in a carpet!!!

Another fave is Wathcmen, but it's not really a book it's a graphic novel.

I am a bit of a fantasy type book reader. I used to play Dungeons and Dragons when I was at school. Also love the Sci-Fi stuff read most of Alan Dean Foster's books which I quite enjoyed. I think it boils down to escapism. Seeing a different reality, values, social structures
helps be believe that anything is possible no matter how abnormal .
I have a bit of a crush on 7 of 9 from Startrek voyager as with another couple of million guys

Malcolm

It's not just guys who have a crush on 7 of 9, I think she's scruptious

[This message has been edited by Thistle (edited 27 April 2001).]

This is gonna sound kinda dumb but my favorite book is "Harold an the purple crayon" its a kids book, but I love it.

i also liked Neuromancer by will gibson, all you cyberpunks who liked ghost in the shell in anime- well this guy is the Jesus christ of the cyberpunk genre. DEFINATELY READ THIS.

I like steve king, for thrills more than gore (so i haven't been reading his new stuff)

I love the Whinne the Pooh stories I've read the "Tao of Pooh" about 6 times, ah, so wise, so funny. the Tao Te' Ching is pretty much my bible. read that a lot too. the first part of my sig. is adapted from it.

HA! I guess I'm all over the place huh?

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Care of other people's approval and you become their prisoner.
Live fully, Rave wholly.
Fluid are the movements of my strings...

anything by chuck palahniuk (author of fight club), the fountainhead by ayn rand (fuckin' AMAZING), anything by moliere/shakespeare, almost any play by christopher durang, David Copperfield by Dickens, Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell, the poetry/plays of e.e. cummings, and anything by Ray Bradbury or
O. Henry
Childhood faves:and The Witches, and Matilda, by Roald Dahl (I've read that about 50 times).

currently reading Guns Germs and Steel, fate of human society by Jared Diamond.

really interesting.
Pere

Have to stick with the good ol' fantasy novels. Best series i have read to date was by david eddings, including the belgariad and the maloreon (sp?), i almost cried at the end when it was over!
This is closely followed by Raymond Feist and the magician.
Yeah i know, the same old same old fantasy novels, but i love em.

Oh yeah and 7 of 9 is yummy

WHOOOOAAAA!!! hang on a sec! I can't believe no one has said Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series! sure, sure the last 2 or 3 have been a bit hard to get through, but come on fantasy lovers: the Wheel of Time is the greatest series ever written.

Terry goodkinds Sword of Truth was okay, Eddings' stuff a tad mushy for me. I'm currently in the midst of Feist's Magician.

I want 7of9's body...ie I want that figure.

um Flash, I think she had to have ribs removed to get that figure...not to mention the... um...'modifications' to other parts of her body

besides, I've seen your figure, you dont have anything to worry about

can anyone explain why guys are violent? I just saw a nasty fight outside my work, and it made me feel sick. WTF is up with these neandethals?

Josh

i'm not much of a reader, i will start books when i have time to spare then never finish cause my life gets to hectic. i have read Neuromancer. N8 is right...READ IT!! i have read parts of stephen king, i do like ann rice.

i definately more off a gore filled mystery about vampires and ghost and such. if anyone a really go series or just books that fit this description let me know. maybe if i can't find a movie that will scare me to death, i could find a book and let my imagination do the work

i know i don't read much but i do try to get into one when i can.

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the music feeds my soul that glows and grows with every spin i take.

Seems to be quite a few people who love fantasy

And Malcom, I used to play Robin Hood of 'Sherbet Forest' when I was a kid. For one whole beautiful summer I played this game, but the next summer, my sister was too 'old' to play babies games, and it just wasn't as much fun without her.

As for me I don't think I will ever grow out of fantasy land, except now I call them daydreams.

Who has read the Harry Potter books? I love them, they might be children's books but they are great.

Other children's books I love are 'the enchanted faraway tree', 'watership down' and the beautiful series of books about 'redtip' the fox by Tom McCaughren

Other authors I have been reading recently include Graham Green,Honore de Balzac, Alexandre Dumas, Lisa Jewel nand Yukio Mishima.

I used to like Stephen King as a teenager but I think he definitely has confused quantity as opposed to quality as being important and I can't read his stuff now.

GFM try some of Anne Rices older witch chronicles...they are awesome...philosophically speaking "Memnoch" is amazing.
I also have played D&D and AD&D since I was 10. How ironic...

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Pele
Higher, higher burning fire...making music like a choir...

Pele

I loved the vampire chronicles and Memnoch especially was brilliant, I thought it showed some amazing imagination and was very insightful.I also adored Ramses the Damned.

The Excorcist is one of the scariest books I have ever read, although the film didn't do much for me.