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Greatest book you've ever read?


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Repeating much of a post in another thread (I'm new to this area), these are my favorites, but Walter M. Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz is at the top (edging out The Silmarillion).

 

The Silmarillion by Tolkien (though I admit I like studying his writing -- or created mythological history -- more than reading it sometimes :eh:).

R is for Rocket by Bradbury. Grew up a HUGE Ray Bradbury fan. RIP

The Left Hand of Darkness by Le Guinn. She's got an insight and understanding into the human condition that I think most sci-fi writers lack (why I got away from the genre for many years).

Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut. Not really sci-fi of course, but I cannot not mention it. My favorite ending ever.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Miller. If I could only have one fiction book, it would probably be this (edging out the Silmarillion).

Dune (of course). I've always avoided reading the follow-ups as I figured they'd erode how I imagined the continuing narrative should play out (that is, everyone lives happily ever after with political autonomy and plenty of water, instead of all that galactic jihad stuff).

The Skaith books by Leigh Bracket. Ursula K. LeGuin meets Edgar Rice Burroughs. Great stuff. The best, IMO, "planetary romance" author, along with Bradbury, but they each had a different flavor.

 

"Brave New World" was perhaps the most life-changing book I've ever read, though because of its philosophical weight, not really because of its story-telling or style. Cured me of the "technological utopianism" (that is, the belief that increasingly better technology will inevitably result in increasingly better neighbors) I grew up with as a result of reading futuristic sci-fi, a la H.G. Wells.

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Ehmmm, iz a tossup between Seven Pillars of Wisdom by TE Lawrence, The Tibetan Book of the Dead the first complete translation by Gyurme Dorje and SARUM by Edward Rutherfurd.
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The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. A lengthy read, yes, but it is so fulfilling and powerful. It changed my life many times. If you've ever wanted to read a long philosophical novel, please read this one instead of Atlas Shrugged (is that biased? Yes, it is, but that also serves to express my love for this book).
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A Tale Of Two Cities- Dickens

 

Revolutionary Road- Richard Yates

 

Harry Potter- Rowling

 

The War Of The Worlds and The Island Of Doctor Mureau- H.G. Wells

 

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One that I don't think I've mentioned in this thread and thought about re-reading recently (but haven't done so) is The Mountain Lion, by Jean Stafford. I've only read it once, but it has stuck with me for years. Absolutely unforgettable.
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read my first cormac mccarthy book recently, no country for old men. not the greatest book I've ever read but easily the best book I've read in a long f***ing time

I read The Crossing recently and it was very good. Like most novels, it has its tedious moments, but the characters that appear throughout the young man's travels - and the stories they tell - are excellent.
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A Canticle for Leibowitz by Howard M. Miller Jr.

 

HM: The Silmarillian

Edited by Rutlefan
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I'm not reading a book but reading all about Neil Peart and his drum kits. I never knew what he did with his kits after each tour or that he used the same kits on many of the tours then retiring them. Also, that over the years fans could win a few of them, I would lose my mind if I ever won one of those kits.

 

http://andrewolson.com/Neil_Peart/drums/drumkits/drums_history.htm

Edited by g under p
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The Bible - God

 

I suppose if mass murder, racisim, child abuse etc , all wrapped up in a fairy tale that is so badly constructed that it constantly contradicts it'self

is your thing, then some may enjoy it. That of course is a whole different discussion.

 

My favourite book I think is "The feathermen" by Sir Ranulph Fiennes.

 

The book tells the story of four British Army soldiers, including two members of the Special Air Service, who are assassinated by a hit squad known as "The Clinic". The murders are carried out over a 17-year period, on the orders of a Dubai sheikh whose three sons were killed by British forces in Oman during a battle with Communist guerrillas.

Fiennes claimed that he himself was targeted by the group, but was saved by a group of vigilantes calling themselves the "Feather Men".

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One of the most entertaining books I've ever read is a book full of reviews of other books- a collection called The War Against Cliche, by Martin Amis. This is the book that single-handedly turned me on to Iris Murdoch, Saul Bellow, and Philip Roth (among a couple of others- but those three are the authors of dozens of books that I've now read, as a result of reading the collection of Amis's reviews).

 

For those of you outside of England, who may not know- Martin Amis is an accomplished novelist in his own right (I believe so, anyway)...my favorite book of his is probably London Fields. But almost all of them are very good. He is also the son of another very well known British author, Kingsley Amis.

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. Edited by Segue Myles
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

 

Great book, but my favorite novel of Ken Kesey's is Sometimes a Great Notion. Wonderful stuff; it just blew my mind.

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.

 

Ehhmmmm...thanks for sharing? :huh:

 

 

:P

 

Haha I posted and then realised I had already said the same thing just a few posts back!

 

What a silly billy haha

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