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RE: Favorite book? - 11/3/2012 6:26:55 AM

LookieNoNookie

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Toysinbabeland

Ever try a little book called illusions?

I was married once....didn't need the book.

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RE: Favorite book? - 11/3/2012 6:42:22 AM

ShaharThorne

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Mom poked me in the ribs and said that I forgot Anne and Todd McCaffrey. I almost had a serious breakdown when Anne died last year.

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RE: Favorite book? - 11/3/2012 6:50:59 AM

Kana

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Ok-I read a lot, as in five or six books at a time so this list kinda ebbs and flows depnding on mood and how I feel at the time. Right now, offa the top o/my head...

White Jazz-James Ellroy (American Tabloid is right up there too)
Winter's Tale-Mark Helprin
The Power Broker-Robert Caro
Killer Angels-Michael Shaara
The Baroque Cycle-Neal Stephenson
MacArthur-William Manchester

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RE: Favorite book? - 11/3/2012 7:17:21 AM

Kana

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Oh yeah, and I can't believe I forgot this one. Maybe the book that had, and continues to have, the greatest impact on me as a person of anything I've ever read

The Art of War-Sun Tzu

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RE: Favorite book? - 11/3/2012 7:32:07 AM

Moonhead

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If people are going to just name lists of writers rather than specific books:

Fritz Leiber
Jonathan Carroll
James Branch Cabell
Gordon Houghton
Frank Tallis
Joe R Lansdale
Tanith Lee
Alfred Bester
HG Wells
Hunter S Thompson
Phillip K Dick
Jean Toomer
Mark Twain
JG Ballard
Angela Carter
and quite a few others...

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RE: Favorite book? - 11/3/2012 7:57:07 AM

Duskypearls

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Kana

Ok-I read a lot, as in five or six books at a time so this list kinda ebbs and flows depnding on mood and how I feel at the time. Right now, offa the top o/my head...

White Jazz-James Ellroy (American Tabloid is right up there too)
Winter's Tale-Mark Helprin
The Power Broker-Robert Caro
Killer Angels-Michael Shaara
The Baroque Cycle-Neal Stephenson
MacArthur-William Manchester

Kana, I'm reading Winter's Tale as we speak. Never have I seen a book so full of so many adjectives!

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RE: Favorite book? - 11/3/2012 8:04:01 AM

Kana

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It's a wonderfully written book isn't it? Voted one of the top 5 novels of the last 25 years a few years back.
Helprin makes the English language come alive in ways few do.
He's one of the very few great American Writers in recent years IMHO

I'm gonna quote from the NY Times review
"THERE'S far more that I would wish to say about the book - so much more that I find myself nervous, to a degree I don't recall in my past as a reviewer, about failing the work, inadequately displaying its brilliance. The canniness of the balancing of fantasy and realism, the capacity of these Dickensian presences to bring to mind, subtly, contemporaries and near-contemporaries from Rupert Murdoch to Howard Hughes to Thomas Pynchon, the excitement scholars will find in interpreting Mr. Helprin's extension of the line of American imaginers who have grappled for longer than a century with the meanings of technology. . . . Not for some time have I read a work as funny, thoughtful, passionate or large-souled. Rightly used, it could inspire as well as comfort us. ''Winter's Tale'' is a great gift at an hour of great need. "

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RE: Favorite book? - 11/3/2012 8:43:58 AM

Duskypearls

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Kana

It's a wonderfully written book isn't it? Voted one of the top 5 novels of the last 25 years a few years back.
Helprin makes the English language come alive in ways few do.
He's one of the very few great American Writers in recent years IMHO

I'm gonna quote from the NY Times review
"THERE'S far more that I would wish to say about the book - so much more that I find myself nervous, to a degree I don't recall in my past as a reviewer, about failing the work, inadequately displaying its brilliance. The canniness of the balancing of fantasy and realism, the capacity of these Dickensian presences to bring to mind, subtly, contemporaries and near-contemporaries from Rupert Murdoch to Howard Hughes to Thomas Pynchon, the excitement scholars will find in interpreting Mr. Helprin's extension of the line of American imaginers who have grappled for longer than a century with the meanings of technology. . . . Not for some time have I read a work as funny, thoughtful, passionate or large-souled. Rightly used, it could inspire as well as comfort us. ''Winter's Tale'' is a great gift at an hour of great need. "

It is definitely different from anything I've ever read before. Being a NY'er, it's interesting to hear how he weaves it all around NY & NJ. Right now I'm at the spot where Peter Lake has fallen in love with, and wants to marry, Beverly. Love the white horse. BTW folks, it's a HUGE book!

I've also just finished reading John Grisham's, "The Litigators," which I loved. His stuff is so believable, easy, satisfying and fast to read.

< Message edited by Duskypearls -- 11/3/2012 8:45:13 AM >

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RE: Favorite book? - 11/3/2012 9:10:01 AM

Spiritedsub2

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The Gorky Park series by Martin Cruz Smith. Most everything by Arturo Perez-Reverte and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. A big nod to Amy Tan.

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RE: Favorite book? - 11/3/2012 11:00:34 AM

QueenRah

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quote:

ORIGINAL: LookieNoNookie

Very first book (I remember reading) was a 700 page book on the Federal Reserve. Mom gave it to me when I was 10....took me 3 years to understand it but it was absolutely like candy.

Dude! That is the KINKIEST shit I've ever seen! You are totally twisted!

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RE: Favorite book? - 11/3/2012 12:17:24 PM

Kana

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quote:

ORIGINAL: QueenRah

quote:

ORIGINAL: LookieNoNookie

Very first book (I remember reading) was a 700 page book on the Federal Reserve. Mom gave it to me when I was 10....took me 3 years to understand it but it was absolutely like candy.

Dude! That is the KINKIEST shit I've ever seen! You are totally twisted!

Was the book The Creature From Jekyll Island?

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RE: Favorite book? - 11/3/2012 12:23:08 PM

areallivehuman

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Favorite all time book is probably "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", By Robert Pirsig. Up there is "The Sand Pebbles", can't remember the author, and "Still Life With Woodpecker" , by Tom Robbins.

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RE: Favorite book? - 11/3/2012 12:29:03 PM

Moonhead

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Is that the Richard McKenna one set on the Yangtze?
If you like Robbins, have you read any Richard Brautigan? he's somebody else I should have mentioned...

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RE: Favorite book? - 11/3/2012 2:24:28 PM

playfulotter

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There are so many that are my favorites but right off the top of my head...right at this moment.... I would say my top five are...

Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
Of Human Bondage, W. Somerset Maugham
The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe

< Message edited by playfulotter -- 11/3/2012 2:27:45 PM >

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RE: Favorite book? - 11/3/2012 3:06:14 PM

areallivehuman

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Moonhead

Is that the Richard McKenna one set on the Yangtze?
If you like Robbins, have you read any Richard Brautigan? he's somebody else I should have mentioned...

Yes, set in China during the Boxer rebellion. Was made into a film I believe with Steve McQueen.

Richard Brautigan rings a bell from long ago...... "In Watermelon Sugar" ?

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RE: Favorite book? - 11/3/2012 3:30:20 PM

LookieNoNookie

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Kana

quote:

ORIGINAL: QueenRah

quote:

ORIGINAL: LookieNoNookie

Very first book (I remember reading) was a 700 page book on the Federal Reserve. Mom gave it to me when I was 10....took me 3 years to understand it but it was absolutely like candy.

Dude! That is the KINKIEST shit I've ever seen! You are totally twisted!

Was the book The Creature From Jekyll Island?

No....but I read that one about a year or so ago....awesome stuff.

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RE: Favorite book? - 11/3/2012 4:16:41 PM

LizDeluxe

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I really don't read much these days but when I did I really enjoyed the John Grisham legal novels and those of the same genre by authors like Philip Margolin or Steve Martini. I think the book I have read most often (if that qualifies as a favorite) is "Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil" by John Berendt.

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RE: Favorite book? - 11/3/2012 4:59:41 PM

Moonhead

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quote:

ORIGINAL: areallivehuman

quote:

ORIGINAL: Moonhead

Is that the Richard McKenna one set on the Yangtze?
If you like Robbins, have you read any Richard Brautigan? he's somebody else I should have mentioned...

Yes, set in China during the Boxer rebellion. Was made into a film I believe with Steve McQueen.

Richard Brautigan rings a bell from long ago...... "In Watermelon Sugar" ?

That's him.
He's a lot like a less sentimental Robbins: maybe the Jonathan Carroll to Robbins' Neil Gaiman?

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RE: Favorite book? - 11/3/2012 6:49:44 PM

playfulotter

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It's a bit sad how many people don't respond because they don't have favorite books....

PS..Tom Robbins is a fav of mine..."Still Life with Woodpecker" and "Another Roadside Attraction" are great novels!

< Message edited by playfulotter -- 11/3/2012 6:51:58 PM >

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RE: Favorite book? - 11/3/2012 8:37:28 PM

WinsomeDefiance

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I recently read Dimensions of Genesis as well as The Book of Deacon trilogy all of which I enjoyed a great deal.
I also enjoy the Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon and the Dark Series by Catherine Fehan.

Favorite books are too many to count but a few that spring to mind;

Wheel of Time series
The Prophet (Kahlil Gibran)
Tao te Ching
The Stand and The Dome among others by Stephen King
Several different books by Anne Rice
Many of Dean Koontz earlier books

I could go on and on. I'm really loving my Nook app on my tablet. It is so awesome to be able to download books in seconds without having to wait for them to arrive in the mail.

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