And all that's jazzBRONZE Member
member
92 posts
Location: just behind your left shoulder, Australia


Posted:
Greetings and Salutations O well-read attendants of HoP!

I was sitting all by my lonesome at home today, recuperating from a damaged ankle (I jumped off a security fence at 2am. As you do.), I realised my supply of books to read was running critically low; any moment I would have to resort to ransacking parents' and brothers' rooms for any sort of reading material.

In facing such a dilemma, I decided the perfect solution would be to ask these learned HoPpers what their favourite books were, and why. Whatever the genre, age bracket, fame or groovy cover art, put in your vote for your favourite piece of reading material and save me from the horrors of 'Days of our Lives' at 2pm!!!

For myself, I've read many books that I've loved, many that I've hated, but perhaps the best thing to do is to outline some of the great ones I've been reading recently.

1) Gabriel Garcia Marquez - 'One Hundred Years of Solitude'
This is an amazing book, but the Colombian (?) Nobel Prize Winner - it details in minutiae the lives of 7 generations of the Buendia family in a mythical rural village in Colombia. Very South American style, with rich description and characterisation, and a blend of fatalism, magic and factual causation. An absolute gem of a book!

2) Orson Scott Card
One of my favourite writers, I read his Ender saga back when I was about 14 and loved it, he's one of the greatest conversationalists around, and has some positively spiffing philosophical ideas in some of his later novels. I just finished reading 'Rebekah', a historical fiction about said biblical character. Not one of his best, but an interesting read anyway.

3) Fyodor Dostoyevsky - 'Crime and Punishment'
I'm struggling through this one at the moment - it's not a bad book, just presents a great amount of material to consider and so has to be read with full concentration to catch as much as possible. That said, it's a great book, started the whole 'eerie look into the mind of the tortured murderer and see their innermost thoughts and causation' genre, way back in the late 19th century.

There's lots of other great books out there, who else has a gem on paper to present?

C8H18 + 12.5O2 ---------> 8CO2 + 9H2O + you know what


NateBRONZE Member
Groovy ga watashi no namae desu!
1,530 posts
Location: Oxford, Oxfordshire, England


Posted:
dave gormans googlewhack adventure

its a very amusing book, go and buy, you will like smile



the green mile

i was very dissapointed at the film after the book had been one of the best books i have ever read, amazing book, good film



shawshank redemption

you can never really beat a good steven king novel

go and read all three of these ubbrollsmile

I like Languages.

Educate your self in the Hazards of Fire Breathing STAY SAFE! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug.gif" alt="" />


Bellienewbie
8 posts
Location: hobart


Posted:
I'm going thru an obession phase of charles de lint novels-particularly his Newford stories- they are fantasy/ fairy tales that are against a contemporary setting... think urban street scapes spiked with a mix of the gritty reality of homeless kids and junkies etc and fairies, pixies and general strange things happening in the corners of eyesight... very cool!
Kerouac's dharama bums or orpheus emerged are great books too

YexBRONZE Member
Member
97 posts
Location: Kamloops BC, Canada


Posted:
been reading the dune series the past 6 months. just finishing god emperor.

"Not all who wander are lost. "

J.R.R. Tolkien


SeraphireHoP's Original Smelly-Hippie-Scum-Bag
270 posts
Location: Under your stairs


Posted:
Terry Pratchet!! Anything by. You can be as old as the hills (and twice as broad) and still enjoy Pratchet

Music gives Soul to the Universe, Wings to the Mind, Flight to the Imagination and Life to Everything.

Educate yourself in the Hazards of Fire Breathing STAY SAFE! hug

dsei.org Stop The Arms Trade!


funky_hatseating apples with chopsticks can be rather difficult
167 posts
Location: Perth, Western Australia


Posted:
bellie- that sounds like i book a read about a week ago called 'Tithe'. it was really cool i loved it. not sure who the author is though..

=Flashpoint=SILVER Member
Pasta of Muppets
2,722 posts
Location: in the interwebs..., United Kingdom


Posted:
I'm with Seraphire... "Night Watch" and "Monsterous Regiment" are compulsive page turners as they are considerably "darker" than some of his others

My compulsory read list:

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

jeeze, i can only think of the Da Vinci Code, even if most of the theory is rubbish, as a story it rocks. And the other one: Deception Point by Dan Brown as well, its quite a good read.

And Watership Down : You would think that a book about bunnies would be fluffy. It's not. Oh No.

The Dice Man: Good

Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance...

Read all and enjoy...
I'll keep you posted...

ohmygodlaserbeamspewpewpew!
ubbrollsmileubbrollsmileubbrollsmileubbrollsmile


JauntyJamesSILVER Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,533 posts
Location: Hampshire College, MA, USA


Posted:
watership down is creepier than any book about talking fluffy bunnies has any right to be. but its really good so yay!

-James

"How do you know if you're happy or sad without a mask? Or angry? Or ready for dessert?"


NOnactivist for HoPper liberation.
1,643 posts
Location: ffidrac


Posted:
It's meant to be 'teenage fiction' but, 'Noughts and Crosses' by Malorie Blackman - I read that the other day - as in, in a day.

Crime and Punishment is a bit of a mission... one of my favourite books though is 'A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich' by Alexander Solzenhitzyn (phew, try saying that in one breath...) but it's really good, russian, but also quite short... biggrin

yeah, Good Omens kicks butt....

so does Hitchhikers guide...

or Douglas Coupland, i'm quite liking him at the minute - i read 'all famies are psychotic' and 'hey nostradamus', both kept me turning pages smile

Aurinko freedom agreement reached 10th Sept 2006

if it makes no sense that's because it's NOn-sense.


SymBRONZE Member
Geek-enviro-hippy priest
1,858 posts
Location: Diss, Norfolk, United Kingdom


Posted:
More or less anything by Terry Pratchet is a must for page turning.

The salmon of doubt - clippings of Douglas Adams's (RIP) work. It's an amazing read even if you've necer read any Adams before (beleve me, you will after you read this!)

The Blind Watch Maker by Richard Drwkins is an amazing book that is far more than the pop-science genre it's ascociated with. It's not an easy read, but it's well worth it.

The Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett is very good if you like long running storys. You can really get your teath into them for a long time.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salmon Rushdie is a beautiful story that will pull on every emotion you have. It's quite short, but it's amazing, really it's one of my desert island books for sure.

Thats all I can think of for now.

Let us know what you end up reading!

There's too many home fires burning and not enough trees


JauntyJamesSILVER Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,533 posts
Location: Hampshire College, MA, USA


Posted:
if you're in a real scifi mood, i'd suggest Dune by Frank Herbert, or the Ringworld trillogy by Larry Nivin

but what i'd really suggest is doubling all the numbers in your signature because you can't have 12.5 oxygen molecules

-James

"How do you know if you're happy or sad without a mask? Or angry? Or ready for dessert?"


Bellienewbie
8 posts
Location: hobart


Posted:
Ouuuu... thanks Funky hat- will look that one up smile

And all that's jazzBRONZE Member
member
92 posts
Location: just behind your left shoulder, Australia


Posted:
Wow, so many awesome suggestions I'd forgotten to list!

Completely and Utterly besotted with Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett, some of the funniest and best authors around . . . or whom until so recently were around, sadly. Other great comedic authors are Spike Milligan (THE GOONS!!! best radio program ever) who wrote some great war volumes as well as some random things like 'Puckoon' and 'The Life of William McGonagall'. Also Woody Allen, he has some great books out.

Woody Allen Quote: 'Alas, how wrong Emily Berkenstein was. Hope is not the thing with feathers. The thing with feathers has turned out to be my cousin. I must take him to a specialist in Zurich'. Solid PtAu

Another great comedy writer I've been reading recently is Shane Antony, an Australian crime writer - very much an Aussie Raymond Chandler. He wrote the Murray Whelan books (made into a TV series recently), but the books are fantastic, very pulp crime.

And as for Solzhenitsyn (I think that's the right spelling?), I really liked 'A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch', it's like the reader's digest of the Russian Genre, it's kinda the novel that got me started on the Russian literature vein I'm in at the moment. Look out Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chernyshevsky, Turgenev etc. (my god, I'm going to be wading through these novels for the next 20 years). Another great Solzhenitsyn book is 'The Gulag Archipelago' about his time in the Gulag as a subversive writer . . . just like 'ADITLOID' was. Another, very confronting Russian (well, Ukrainian technically) writer was A. Anatoli (originally Anatoli Kruschev) who wrote a novel called 'Babi Yar' about the Nazi occupation of Kiev in WWII. It's a pretty confronting book - some of it is stomach-turning, it's very un-candied over, but it's a great novel and an amazing read.



And just for a change of pace, go the Da Vinci Code for pulp thriller writing! The best (and thus the worst) of the genre is Matthew Reilly, an Australian writer who wrote 'Ice Station', 'Temple', 'Contest', 'Area 7' and a few others - they're the pulpiest, most violent and over-the-top action novels you'll ever read, they're great for 1am when you don't have the mental faculties to undertake anything more stimulating.

And how about the gonzo writing of John Birmingham? 'He Died with a Felafel in his Hand' is a great movie and the book is even better, and he's got a few other good ones out - 'The Tasmanian Babes Fiasco' and 'Off One's Tits'. Very gonzo, drug-induced insane haze.

And who wrote watership down? I've heard about it and meant to read it but don't know the author. Thanks for the tip!




P.S. look in my intro thread ('You'll never guess who . . . .') for the whole 12.5 molecule thing. It does work.

C8H18 + 12.5O2 ---------> 8CO2 + 9H2O + you know what


weeleighlook a rainbow!
237 posts
Location: Waterford, CT


Posted:
One of my favorites lately is "The Time-Traveller's Wife". Absolutely amazing. I seriously cried at the end, and I never cry at books. Plus you can re-read it over and over again if you run short on books again. wink

And Catch-22 is also one of my favorites, although I haven't read it in a while. Hmm...I'll have to do that soon.

"Happiness is like peeing your pants, everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth."


MedusaSILVER Member
veteran
1,433 posts
Location: 8 days at Cloudbreak, 6 in Perth, Australia


Posted:
My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Piccoult

mycoBRONZE Member
Pooh-Bah
2,084 posts
Location: melbourne, victoria, australia


Posted:
watership down is by richard adams, it's been on my shelf for years, but i've never read it. keep meaning to!
i love reading kurt vonnegut books, he's got a really bizarre writing style and view on the world. breakfast of champions and slaughterhouse 5 are my favourites of his. cynical, humorous, makes you think, that's a pretty good combo.

to kill a mockingbird is a great classic, you just can't go past it

oh, and alice in wonderland, through the looking glass is better. it's a bit like a drug trip/psychotic episode/dream, all with the innocence of a childrens book.

ahhh, books. one of life's little pleasures!

ImmortalAngelSILVER Member
Scientist!
578 posts
Location: Waterloo, Ontario, Canada


Posted:
Terry Goodkind biggrin Any of his Sword of Truth series.
EIther that or the Disc World series lol

Educate your self in the Hazards of Fire Breathing <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> STAY SAFE! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/hug.gif" alt="" />


i8beefy2GOLD Member
addict
674 posts
Location: Ohio, USA


Posted:
The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice... I dig Gothic stuff, especially when it portrays things in an almost erotic fashion no matter what the topic... Memnok the Devil was one of my favs.

Orson Scott Card: Love this author. Read the whole Ender series, great sci-fi books and kept me interested the whole time...

The Davinci Code, just because every chapter ends with a cliffhanger to MAKE it a page turner...

Douglas Adams. Any of them. Hitchikers guide series is awsome.

I'll have to look into some of these other books. This is an awsome thread... I'm always looking for good books.

Whiffle Squeekaddict
416 posts
Location: Hartford, CT USA


Posted:
Watership Down has always been one of my fav's, and as was already said, suprisingly dark for a story about rabbits...

If youre looking for a good long read, I'd recomend the Dark Tower series by stephen King, amazing books...

For that matter, Salem's Lot, The Stand, and Insomnia (they all tie into the Dark Tower series)

so few people realize that Stephen King is much more than a stock horror writer, half his books interlace, the mans a genius...

oh and if you want some nice Japanese sword fighting philosophy and instruction, try The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi, ints interesting stuff...

Educate your self in the Hazards of Fire Breathing STAY SAFE!


DoktorSkellSILVER Member
addict
475 posts
Location: Van Diemans Land, Australia


Posted:


I would reccomend that anyone who loves books must read
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami before they die

Fair luna bright, fair luna moon
it shines at night but fades too soon
fair luna moon, fair luna bright
forever we dance
we dance under starlight


MikeGinnyGOLD Member
HOP Mad Doctor
13,925 posts
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA


Posted:
If you're at all into sci-fi (even if you're not)

Kim Stanley Robinson's MARS trilogy:
Red Mars
Blue Mars,
Green Mars


When I was reading those books, my friends said it was as if I was on another world. I was.

I was on Mars!

-Mike

Certified Mad Doctor and HoP High Priest of Nutella



A buckuht n a hooze! -Valura


Bubbles_SILVER Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
3,384 posts
Location: mancunian, United Kingdom


Posted:
for a funny book i liked 'snow white and the seven samurai' by Tom Holt, absolutly amazingly funny.

my fav though are the series im reading now, the 'Magician' by Raymond E. Feist. read up to 'shards of a broken crown' now which i think is the ninth. highly recomended! last one made me cry a lot though lol

Disclaimer:im not responsible for what i say or do whether it be before,during and after drinking alcoholic substances (owned by BMVC).
Creater of Jenisms(TM)
Virginity like bubble,one prick all gone.


TrillianBRONZE Member
Llamas are larger than frogs.
319 posts
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA


Posted:
myco-Old childrens books are so much fun to read when you're bored!I just read Alice In Wonderland & Through the looking glass, and also The Five Children and It, Peter Pan, and I've just started the Marvelous land of Oz- those are especially good when your sitting around in bed and just feel like relaxing. Also, Chuck Palahniuk's books (Survivor, Lullaby, Fight club...) are fun reads.

"I know a good deal more than a boiled carrot."
"Fire!" "Where?" "Nowhere, I was just illustrating the misuse of free speech."


weeleighlook a rainbow!
237 posts
Location: Waterford, CT


Posted:
Oh, also, for laughs, anything by Christopher Moore is hysterical. My two favorites by him right now are "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal." And "Fluke".

"Happiness is like peeing your pants, everyone can see it, but only you can feel the warmth."


Nephtysresident fridge magnet
835 posts
Location: Utrecht, The Netherlands


Posted:
Jazz, we need to swap bookshelves! I love that you have Marquez at the top, Orson Scott Card, Douglas Adams & Terry Pratchet on there! I also went through a Russian phase, but that was a few years ago...

I have too many favourites to list, but some of the recent extremely good ones were:

The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini, beautiful story about Afghanistan and the Afghan immigrant community in the US... it'll rip your heart out though...

The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime - very funny, interesting look at the world through the eyes of a boy with Aspergers syndrome

Hard-boiled wonderland and the end of the world - Haruki Murakami - bizarre and entrancing!

And for further Latin American reading:
The way to paradise - Mario Vargas Llosa - fascinating fictional biography of the last years of the lives of the painter Paul Gaugin, and his grandmother Flora Tristan (who died before he was born) who was a women's and workers rights activist

also, ditto on many of the books posted by others in this thread!

everyone's unique except me



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