AR385 From Mexico, joined Nov 2003, 4924 posts, RR: 27 Posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 3 days 6 hours ago) and read 3324 times:
I love to read. Almost all genres, except for poetry. So I thought that given how international this forum is, it would be a good idea to post your three favorite novels of all time, so we can all increase our literary knowledge with interesting literature from around the world. You can also feel free to comment why they are your favorites. Mine are:
1. Mrs. Flor and her two husbands, Jorge Amado
2. The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follet
3. No longer at Ease, Chinua Achebe
TransIsland From Bahamas, joined Mar 2004, 2032 posts, RR: 11 Reply 1, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 3313 times:
Just a very small selection of some of my favourite books...
1. Hermann Hesse, Steppenwolf.
2. Heinrich Mann, The Loyal Subject.
3. Edgar Hilsenrath, The Nazi and the Barber.
4. Chuck Palahniuk, Lullaby.
4. Jules Verne, Michael Strogoff.
I'm an aviation expert. I have Sky Juice for breakfast.
hka098 From United States of America, joined Oct 2010, 556 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 3305 times:
I don't as to what the 'best' work would be, but here are some of my recent favorites.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
1984 by George Orwell
Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins
The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder by Vincent Bugliosi
comorin From United States of America, joined May 2005, 4721 posts, RR: 17 Reply 3, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 3 days 4 hours ago) and read 3288 times:
My top three favorites are:
3. The Shining, by Stephen King - nobody writes like Stephen King, except:
2. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carre - Great English Writer. But the outstanding book is:
1. A Winters Tale by Mark Halprin - a magical tale set in a mythical early New York.
I like them all because they create beautifully crafted, wondrous worlds of imagination that take me far away. Their command of language and craft do not overtake a story they want to tell. Oops. I forgot "The Life of Pi" - what an amazing book.
I would also like to put in a plug for my favorite author Tom Wolfe who has written many brilliant books that shaped my outlook on the world. Each one is brilliant gem. Another brilliant writer is Joan Didion, who is a literary Miles Davis - very cool and Californian.
My favorite Genre is Travel Writing, so the best of the best are:
1. Paul Theroux - The Happy Isles of Oceania, The Great Railway Bazaar
2. William Dalrymple - [i]The City of Djinns
3. Alexander Frater - Beyond the Blue Horizon, Chasing the Monsoon
I have also tried to get into books with a South Asian backdrop, and the following are amazing:
1. Rohinton Mistry - A Fine Balance - the definitive, heart-rending, Dickensian book on India's poor.
2. Salman Rushdie - Shalimar the Clown, Midnight's Children - Kashmir setting, with filigree precision
3. William Dalrymple - The Last Moghul Masterly work and riveting account of Empire.
I consider all the above as simply amazing literature.
I grew up reading Blyton, W.E. Johns and Bunter, graduating to Hardy, Du Maurier and Wodehouse.
So I don't 'get' a lot of contemporary literature:
1. Neverland - Huh? Most boring book ever.
2. White Light - Don De Lillo
3. Corrections - Jon Franzen
4. Anything by VS Naipaul
5. The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy - annoying book.
TheCol From Canada, joined Jan 2007, 2012 posts, RR: 6 Reply 4, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 3 days 4 hours ago) and read 3278 times:
Here's my top 5:
Shake Hands With the Devil - LGen. Roméo Dallaire (a must read for every Canadian)
My War - Andy Rooney
The Bright Blue Sky - Max Hennessy
The Challenging Heights - Max Hennessy
Once More the Hawks - Max Hennessy
No matter how random things may appear, there's always a plan.
texan From New Zealand, joined Dec 2003, 4206 posts, RR: 53 Reply 6, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 3 days 3 hours ago) and read 3262 times:
Gosh, there are so many great novels. Pride and Prejudice A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy The Power of One The English Major A River Runs Through It and Other Stories
Those are just five off the top of my head. And while I understand the genius of Cormac McCarthy, I cannot read his books. They annoy me to no end.
Texan
"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library."
fridgmus From United States of America, joined Oct 2006, 1383 posts, RR: 11 Reply 7, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 3 days 3 hours ago) and read 3245 times:
Let me see, I do have quite a few but here's a good Top Three
1. Armageddon by Leon Uris
2. Winds of War and War & Remembrance (two parter) by Herman Wouk
3. The Hope & The Glory (another two parter) by Herman Wouk
I also encourage all of you who have children to read to them every chance you get, it will bring you closer to your child (hopefully) and in this age of smartphones, computers and iPods etc, give them a love of books. It was the greatest gift my Father ever gave to me.
Have a great weekend all, Thanksgiving or not!
Cheers,
F
The Lockheed Super Constellation, the REAL Queen of the Skies!
Quoting comorin (Reply 3): 1. Rohinton Mistry - A Fine Balance - the definitive, heart-rending, Dickensian book on India's poor.
Probably my favourite of all time
Also, "To Kill a Mockingbird"
And another great, "The Book Thief" by some Aussie guy, can't remember his name. Best book I read in the last couple of years
Quoting RussianJet (Reply 5): I love Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.
If you love Dickens, I recommend a book called "Mr Pip". Can't remember the author but it has a great story that centres around the telling of a Dickens novel to a classful of eager students in a small town in Papua New Guinea
WarRI1 From United States of America, joined Sep 2007, 6548 posts, RR: 8 Reply 9, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 3150 times:
My all time favorite is A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. A story that I find has a lesson in life that applies today, about how not to treat people and the possible consquence for those who do. The great lesson, The French Revolution.
It is better to die on your feet, than live on your knees.
bookishaviator From Australia, joined Jun 2009, 233 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 3139 times:
Three novels that immediately spring to mind:
James Baldwin - Go Tell It on the Mountain
Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure
Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita
There are many, many others that could be added to my favourites list. I think I'd find it impossible to whittle it down to a top three of 'all time'. Contributions from Jack Kerouac, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Evelyn Waugh and John Cheever would also appear on my list. And a bit of Stephen Fry and P. G. Wodehouse for some more lighthearted stuff. From the contemporary field: can't go past David Mitchell.
And so many authors/books that I'm yet to read!
When I die, when I die, I'll rot. But when I live, when I live, I'll give it all I've got.
texan From New Zealand, joined Dec 2003, 4206 posts, RR: 53 Reply 11, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 2 days 21 hours ago) and read 3125 times:
Quoting fridgmus (Reply 7): I also encourage all of you who have children to read to them every chance you get, it will bring you closer to your child (hopefully) and in this age of smartphones, computers and iPods etc, give them a love of books. It was the greatest gift my Father ever gave to me.
Reading and writing are integral to every part of what we do. So since we do it so much we sure should enjoy it! Teach your children to love reading. I agree with Fridgmus -- my parents instilled that love of reading and writing in me and I thank them for it almost every day.
More books I forgot to add: Survivor by Chuck Pahlaniuk Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore Catch 22 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Texan
"I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library."
Quokka From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 12, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 2 days 20 hours ago) and read 3115 times:
Quoting kiwiinoz (Reply 8):
And another great, "The Book Thief" by some Aussie guy, can't remember his name
By Markus Zusak. Excellent.
I liked the Cairo Trilogy "Palace Walk", "Palace of Desire" and "Sugar Street" by Naguib Mahfouz, an epic covering the development modern Egypt from WW1.
Pramoedya Ananta Toer's quartet which included "This Earth of Mankind", "Child of All Nations", "Awakenings" and "House of Glass" are set against the background of colonialism in the Dutch East Indies. For a long time the books were banned and the author was exiled by the Indonesian authorities.
A book that looks at the way people respond under tyranny , drawing on the lives of characters in Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union, is "Europe Central" by William T Vollmann.
Ken777 From United States of America, joined Mar 2004, 7525 posts, RR: 5 Reply 13, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 2 days 18 hours ago) and read 3085 times:
My long time favorite writer is W.E.B.Griffin - I reread his series every few years. Right now I'm on The Corps Series Book IX. Under Fire. The first book in that series (Semper Fi) is probably the best book by Griffin to try.
These days I go into Barnes & Noble and pick up a few Bargain Books by writers I don't know, Anything I don't enjoy I drop off at the VA Clinic and it's taken on the shuttle bus to the VA hospital.
Which reminds me - you can write off donations of books to the VA Hospitals. The clinics generally have shuttle buses that will take them. Add a list with a return address and you can get a receipt. If it's a used book then put in the estimated value.
Besides books the Vets in the hospitals can really use some small toiletries.
And it's the Holidays. No matter where you live there are probably veterans hospitals and/or nursing homes. It doesn't cost a fortune to make some important lives in those facilities better.
End of Commercial. Thanks for any help you can provide to the vets hurting in your country.
RobertNL070 From Netherlands, joined Sep 2003, 4507 posts, RR: 10 Reply 14, posted (2 years 6 months 3 weeks 2 days 6 hours ago) and read 3021 times:
This is an impossible thread: there are so many good novels and novelists.
At the moment I am re-reading Catch-22.
A small selection of the many great works that I have read and enjoyed:
John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize winning The Grapes of Wrath
James Baldwin's Go Tell It On The Mountain
Harper Lee's only published novel To Kill a Mockingbird
Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms
It really is very difficult, but I think my favourite novel is Graham Greene's The Power And The Glory.
My two favourite Dutch-language novels are Harry Mulisch' De Ontdekking van de Hemel, translated title The Discovery of Heaven; and the Persian-Dutch author Kader Abdollah's excellent Het Huis van de Moskee, recently translated into English: The House of the Mosque
Hmmm, it was good, but not exceptional. I've just finished Ken Follet's latest tome Fall of Giants. Again it is a good and quite well written yarn, but it falls short of a literary masterpiece.
Aaron747 From Japan, joined Aug 2003, 7735 posts, RR: 27 Reply 19, posted (2 years 6 months 1 week 6 days 20 hours ago) and read 2737 times:
A couple of selections for those in love with the English language:
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov (you try writing prose like this in a second language) The Magus - John Fowles (a hodgepodge of psychobabble food for thought) Factotum - Charles Bukowski (a blissful ride through elegant vulgarity)
If you need someone to blame / throw a rock in the air / you'll hit someone guilty
UltimateDelta From United States of America, joined Sep 2007, 2001 posts, RR: 6 Reply 20, posted (2 years 6 months 1 week 6 days ago) and read 2697 times:
Quoting Ken777 (Reply 13): My long time favorite writer is W.E.B.Griffin
Agreed. I'm reading the Honor Bound series at the moment.
I also really enjoy Michael Crichton. I haven't read anything by him in a while, but I will definitely get back into it. I think my favorites of his are Jurassic Park, Prey and Airframe (of course ).
Ken777 From United States of America, joined Mar 2004, 7525 posts, RR: 5 Reply 21, posted (2 years 6 months 1 week 5 days 19 hours ago) and read 2676 times:
My 9 year old granddaughter spent the weekend with us and brought her current book with her. The alst book in teh Harry Potter series.
Got me to thinking. The "best novels" are the ones that people really enjoy reading. To capture the imaginations of a mass of young kids like my granddaughter is very impressive in my "book".
And, a bit of tut - tut: my wife bought me a Kindle for an early Christmas. We're heading Down Under tomorrow and she can't stand me taking a stack of paperbacks on the planes.
ferengi80 From United Kingdom, joined Mar 2007, 669 posts, RR: 0 Reply 23, posted (2 years 6 months 1 week 5 days 9 hours ago) and read 2638 times:
Desperation by Stephen King Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky The War of the Worlds by H G Wells If Only It Were True by Marc Levy From The Corner of His Eye by Dean Koontz
and my all time favourite: -
Jaws by Peter Benchley
AF1981 LHR-CDG A380-800 10 July 2010 / AF1980 CDG-LHR A380-800 11 July 2010
mt99 From United States of America, joined May 1999, 6363 posts, RR: 7 Reply 24, posted (2 years 6 months 1 week 5 days 9 hours ago) and read 2635 times:
I know that i am a century or so late to the party - but i just finished reading "Around the World in 80 Days", "20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea"" and "Mysterious Island"..
Damn, was Jules Verne an awesome story teller or what. I was blown away...
Step into my office, baby
25 POZ2BRS: The Earth was invaded by an alien race last Tuesday. I faced them alone, armed with only my bus pass and a winning smile. Fortunately they came here n
27 UH60FtRucker: ...That was my favorite book when I was about ~10yrs old. I especially loved the illustrations. haha
28 fridgmus: You were 10? I thought you came as a new model right from the Sikorsky Factory!!!
29 mbmbos: All very good choices. I will refrain from making a list because, like you, there are far too many great books out there. I wouldn't know where to be
30 deltaownsall: Perhaps I missed them, but have Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck) and Catcher in the Rye (Salinger) really not been mentioned yet?? Stereotypical choices, s
31 connies4ever: For me: "The Grapes of Wrath", John Steinbeck, "Don Quixote", Miguel de Cervantes "Crime and Punishment", Fyodor Dostoyevsky, as mentioned above "It C
33 2H4: Indeed. Here in the US, the development of the TSA/DHS makes it even more chilling.
34 einsteinboricua: My all time favorite novels (in no particular order); 1. Harry Potter series 2. The Kite Runner (K. Hosseini) 3. A thousand splendid suns (K. Hosseini
35 NAV20: Good topic, AR285, thanks! I approached this from the point of view of which book, among all those I have read, influenced me most when I was young. A
36 AM744: My Spanish language top three. "Don Quixote" Miguel de Cervantes "One hundred years of solitude" Gabriel Garcia Marquez "Pedro Paramo" Juan Rulfo (hig
37 B747forever: I just finished it! Man, am I touched by it. A fantastic book.
38 MDShady: Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe The Jungle - Upton Sinclair Nobody's Angel - Tom McGuane The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald A Confederacy of Dunc
39 POZ2BRS: Ugh! Self-deprecation of the highest order. The Great Gatsby is good though. We studied it in English classes at school.
40 TheRedBaron: We are quite similar in our reads its scary!! (havent read the last one) I am reading now "The Island in the center of the World" very good history b
41 SAHSA: After hearing so many positive reviews about this book I picked up the paperback the other day. Dear God, I can't believe this is called a "classic".
42 PITingres: I could never figure out "Catcher" either, nor any of Salinger's stuff. Tedious and depressive IMO. My wife thinks I just don't appreciate great liter
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