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 Post subject: 10 favorite books
PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:38 am 
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i'm always looking for new stuff to read, hoping to get some ideas from folks thoughts here. here's mine, best i can tell, in no particular order.

Blood Meridian - McCarthy
The Brothers Karamazov - Doestoevsky
The Road Home - Harrison
Lonesome Dove - McMurtry
The Stranger - Camus
Dharma Bums - Kerouac
Cats Cradle - Vonnegut
Catch-22 - Heller
Cannery Row - Steinbeck
The Return of the King - Tolkien

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 3:15 pm 
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come on somebody throw me a bone here. :?

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 4:00 pm 
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Grapes of Wrath
As I Lay Dying
Resistance, Rebellion and Death (essays by Camus)
The Sun Also Rises
Gatsby
Kitchen Confidential (Tony Bourdain)
Everything is illuminated
Breakfast of Champions

there's 8 that I always go back to re-read.

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 4:19 pm 
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this post never happened


Last edited by McParadigm on Tue Aug 24, 2010 11:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 4:49 pm 
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nice, thanks guys.

let's hear from some more of the avid readers in here - bond, Orpheus, etc.

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 4:58 pm 
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I am in the middle of Catch-22, it's just taking me freakin forever, but I expect it to go towards the top of my list once I'm finished.

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 5:02 pm 
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Kevin Costner wrote:
Kitchen Confidential (Tony Bourdain)

i've been meaning to check this out.


Anyway, top o' the noggin:
Lord of the Flies - Golding
civilized literature, indeed.

Empire Falls - Russo
Russo's probably my favorite contemporary writer. Apart from the obvious, what I loved about this book is its knack for being literary without being tedious.

Invisible Man - Ellison
Who knew that the best coming-of-age book I ever read would come disguised as a book about race?

Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence - Pirsig
Read with a pencil. Write in the margins.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Eggers
His second book, You Shall Know Our Velocity!/Sacrement , is also quite good.

The Downtown Diaries - Carroll
Carroll's poems are his bread and butter, but his entry while watching the NBA all-star game is aterial writing.

Hamlet
Everyone should read Hamlet for pleasure at least once. I almost left it off because it's too easy to include a token Shakespear to appear well-read, but no, it'd belong on the list even if Horatio Alger wrote it.

A Long Way Down - Hornby
High Fidelity & About a Boy are also worth a read, but i think he hit this one out of the park.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay - Chabon
It's an obvious pick, but around the time I was reading the last couple pages, I couldn't help but feel like this is a book everyone who grew up in America should read.

nine's good for now. i haven't been reading much lately. Flannery O'Connor and I just don't play nice together for some reason.

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 5:02 pm 
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The Sun Also Rises almost made my list, KC. i love how they're just getting fucked up and going to bullfights. i want to live like that for a year.

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 5:03 pm 
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Kevin Costner wrote:
I am in the middle of Catch-22, it's just taking me freakin forever, but I expect it to go towards the top of my list once I'm finished.

i had an audio copy of that and I lasted maybe one disc. I don't know if it was the reader's fault (hello, nasal) or my fault.

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 5:13 pm 
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likeatab wrote:
The Sun Also Rises almost made my list, KC. i love how they're just getting fucked up and going to bullfights. i want to live like that for a year.


mos def.

And Kitchen Confidential is a lot of fun. You learn some stuff and it's hellafunny. And you'll never eat brunch again.

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 5:25 pm 
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The Stand - Stephen King - Read it 3 times. The best ever.

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 21, 2007 11:38 pm 
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PostPosted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 2:15 am 
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Yikes, hard question. I'll try my best though.

Cat's Cradle-Kurt Vonnegut
Steps-Jerzy Kosinski
1984-George Orwell
Underworld-Don DeLillo
For Whom The Bell Tolls-Ernest Hemingway
The Stranger-Albert Camus
Farhrenheit 451-Ray Bradbury
Ham On Rye-Charles Bukowski
Ender's Game-Orson Scott Card
The Naked & The Dead-Norman Mailer

Honorable mentions: Brave New World, Things Fall Apart, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch, White Noise, The Martian Chronicles, many more

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 3:08 am 
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Orpheus wrote:
Yikes, hard question. I'll try my best though.

Cat's Cradle-Kurt Vonnegut
Steps-Jerzy Kosinski
1984-George Orwell
Underworld-Don DeLillo
For Whom The Bell Tolls-Ernest Hemingway
The Stranger-Albert Camus
Farhrenheit 451-Ray Bradbury
Ham On Rye-Charles Bukowski
Ender's Game-Orson Scott Card
The Naked & The Dead-Norman Mailer

Honorable mentions: Brave New World, Things Fall Apart, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch, White Noise, The Martian Chronicles, many more

nice see that's what i'm talkin about, a few in there i've not heard of and in total have only read like 5 of them. the DeLillo stuff is on my short list.

upon further reflection 1984 should have been in my top 10. that book changed a lot about the way i think, and i also have fond memories of it because i recall a great discussion about it (in the midst of a nice little mushroom trip) with a couple of buddies shortly after reading it. i need to read it again.

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 9:33 pm 
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I've read 1984 about four times and it never fails to amaze me. Simply one of the best books ever written. I'd have put Brave New World on the list too but it's not as good of a novel. They're both equivalent to a sultan's feast in terms of food for thought though.

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 11:13 pm 
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In no particular order...

1 Cat's Cradle - Vonnegut
2 Ishmael - Daniel Quinn
3 Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck
4 Story Of B - Quinn
5 1984 - Orwell
6 MacBeth - Shakespeare
7 The Hobbit - Tolkien
8 Welcome To The Monkey House - Vonnegut
9 Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck
10 Catcher In The Rye - Salinger


This could change as soon as I think of better ones.

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 11:42 pm 
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Orpheus wrote:
I've read 1984 about four times and it never fails to amaze me. Simply one of the best books ever written. I'd have put Brave New World on the list too but it's not as good of a novel. They're both equivalent to a sultan's feast in terms of food for thought though.

it doesn't approach the greatness of the book but have you ever seen the movie? its quite well done imo.

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 11:47 pm 
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I tried watching it one time but my company wasn't in the mood for something quite so bleak. I've wanting to see it for a while though.

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PostPosted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 2:52 am 
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Im not a huge reader, but I love douglas adams and vonnegut. im more into stuff with images, probably why i study illustration.

I did a cover for resturaunt at the end of the universe for a class project
Image

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PostPosted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 3:26 am 
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I'm not going to list 10. But I'm going to list a few books that aren't literary classics, but are still highly enjoyable. I feel that diversity is absolutely necessary. There's only so much "seriousness" one can take. So mix these in:

"The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World", A.J. Jacobs - Possibly my favorite book ever. Highly entertaining.

"The Areas of My Expertise", John Hodgman - Parts of it drone on, but it's worth it.

"Yes Man", Danny Wallace - Fabulous, hilarious read, and could possibly change your life. I'm currently searching out the rest of his books.

Anything by Nick Hornby. I think "Long Way Down" is my new favorite. However, if you've seen "High Fidelity" in film version, the book will please you.

"Mountains Beyond Mountains", Tracy Kidder - Best non-fiction book I've read in quite awhile. I was expecting to hear this doc interviewed during the whole TB patient scare and was disappointed he wasn't.

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