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Your all time favorite novels

Rockfish1 said:
I can't pick one favorite, but I can think of many novels I've loved. For example:

Tolkien
​
Huge, and also an excuse for this:

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.​

Stephen King is a prolific author, but I don't think anything has matched his earliest books. When I read The Stand in high school, I kept friends waiting for half an hour so I could finish the book before going out. They could stay or go, but I was finishing the book.

Larry McMurtry can really write. A splendid book. Also a great mini-series, in which Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones inhabit the roles of former Texas Rangers Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call.

When I think about what is the best novel I've ever read, this is probably it. Joseph Heller never did anything like this again. Fabulous satire. Inspired. Hilarious. Tragic.

When I think about the most dazzling book I've ever read it would definitely be this. It's a puzzle book with a huge payoff. David Mitchell's other stuff is also very good. Lots of prizes and nominations. Another puzzle book worth reading is Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost.

Umberto Eco drops bizarre murders into the middle of the Spanish Inquisition. This is the only one of Eco's otherwise impenetrable books that I've been able to read, but it's very good.

I'm not a fan of Mark Helprin's politics, but he's an incandescently good writer, and his stories make me laugh and cry. The first of his I read was Memoir From Antproof Case, which is also excellent.

Richard Russo has written a lot of great books, some of which are probably better than this one, but this is the first Russo book I read, and it's very funny while being insightful and deeply human.


I wouldn't necessarily place this in the same category as the others, but I enjoyed the book, and it's now being released as a movie with John C, Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, and Jake Gyllenhaal.

There are lots of books that have affected me (Hardy Boys?), but these are some that jump immediately to mind. What are your favorites?

P.S. Also maybe check out English Passengers, Veronica, and Cryptonomicon.

[Edited: Added link.]
Click to expand...
John Irving. Starting in high school, books like Garp and Cider House Rules and Owen Meany and even Hotel New Hampshire showed me what it meant to be rapt and wrapped up by an adult story. Entertained, caring about the outcome and what happens next, feeling characters as "real" people, taking the reader someplace different but truly believable, feeling like your spirit has evolved at least a bit just from the experience of having lived the book.

Herman Wouk's Winds of War/War and Remembrance.

Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible.

Kent Haruf's Plainsong.

Lonesome Dove. I think it's the greatest piece of fiction I've read.

Hosseini's The Kite Runner.

Mistry's A Fine Balance.

Richard Ford. Richard Russo. Haruki Murakami.

Epics even if they're not great literature: Clavell, Michener, Uris, Follet.

Authors I want to spend more time with, but have been too distracted by external life events to really get engaged with: Cormac McCarthy.

Loved The Sisters Brothers.

Things everybody seems to love, but I didn't enjoy for whatever reason: Michael Chabon stuff, Franzen stuff, Annie Proulx's The Shipping News.

Liked it but not as much as I wanted to: Cold Mountain. Might just have been distracted too much while reading it.

Liked it a ton, but that might have just been because of the title and book cover: Snow Falling on Cedars.

Books I loved as a kid: Hardy Boys. Roald Dahl. Oz books. Hitchhiker's Guide. The Great Brain. Phantom Tollbooth. Johnny Tremaine. Tons more. Building an imagination and wonder.

I wish my kids read a ton more. I can't imagine a more rewarding, enriching, and profound maturation experience. We all have more distractions and options that make reading less likely. That's more than too bad. Some of those young reading experiences are more profound and healthier than real life experiences. From a safe space of your room, back seat of the car, outside someplace, or on a rainy day, your mind can go places you'd never allow it to explore if you had to brave it on your own in real life.
 
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Rockfish1 said:
I can't pick one favorite, but I can think of many novels I've loved. For example:

Tolkien
​
Huge, and also an excuse for this:

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.​

Stephen King is a prolific author, but I don't think anything has matched his earliest books. When I read The Stand in high school, I kept friends waiting for half an hour so I could finish the book before going out. They could stay or go, but I was finishing the book.

Larry McMurtry can really write. A splendid book. Also a great mini-series, in which Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones inhabit the roles of former Texas Rangers Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call.

When I think about what is the best novel I've ever read, this is probably it. Joseph Heller never did anything like this again. Fabulous satire. Inspired. Hilarious. Tragic.

When I think about the most dazzling book I've ever read it would definitely be this. It's a puzzle book with a huge payoff. David Mitchell's other stuff is also very good. Lots of prizes and nominations. Another puzzle book worth reading is Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost.

Umberto Eco drops bizarre murders into the middle of the Spanish Inquisition. This is the only one of Eco's otherwise impenetrable books that I've been able to read, but it's very good.

I'm not a fan of Mark Helprin's politics, but he's an incandescently good writer, and his stories make me laugh and cry. The first of his I read was Memoir From Antproof Case, which is also excellent.

Richard Russo has written a lot of great books, some of which are probably better than this one, but this is the first Russo book I read, and it's very funny while being insightful and deeply human.


I wouldn't necessarily place this in the same category as the others, but I enjoyed the book, and it's now being released as a movie with John C, Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, and Jake Gyllenhaal.

There are lots of books that have affected me (Hardy Boys?), but these are some that jump immediately to mind. What are your favorites?

P.S. Also maybe check out English Passengers, Veronica, and Cryptonomicon.

[Edited: Added link.]
Click to expand...
Lonesome Dove and several Stephen King books are in my list. Killer Angels, Childhood’s End, Hunt for Red October (I was XO of the REUBEN JAMES featured in the book - but many years later) and most of Clancy’s early books, The Great Santini, Starship Troopers, Brave New World, The Kite Runner, 1984 and many others are on my list too. Lonesome Dove might be my favorite of all and it’s probably because of the characters more than anything. I’ve read it, listened to the audiobook (twice - did a lot of driving during my 60 mile commute to and from work over three years) and watched the mini series and loved it each time.
 
Sentinel - Arthur C. Clarke - forerunner of 2001: A Space Odyssey

I, Robot - Issac Asimov

Godfather - Mario Puzo
 
Quix0te said:
Sentinel - Arthur C. Clarke - forerunner of 2001: A Space Odyssey

I, Robot - Issac Asimov

Godfather - Mario Puzo
Click to expand...
Godfather is one of those rare movies that is better than the book. I think it's much better than the book.
 
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Let's cut right to the bone on this. As most of my reading is via Audible, I'll just say...anything narrated by Scott Brick.
 
Moby Dick, Anna Karenina, Burr, Lord of the Flies, Crime and Punishment, The Sot Weed Factor, The End of the Road, The Glass Bead Game, Siddhartha, His Dark Materials (trilogy by Pullman),
 
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Hank Reardon said:
Ha ha. I award full marks for that!
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I love me massive quantities of orcs and hobbits, but the books that most recently dazzled me were the Lizbeth Salander books, beginning with Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. While orcs and hobbits are fine, the Ice And Fire/Game of Thrones books are much better written. I think Tolkien died before he finished his Frodo/Bilbo books. They seem very disjointed to me in comparison the the Game of Thrones books.

I distinctly remember struggling through the first 50 pages or so of the first Dragon Tattoo book trying to make sense of Scandavian personal names and place names that did not have enough vowels. Then, you know what? ............................................... It clicked. I closed the book I was reading, removed the bookmark and started at p. 1 the following night. All three of the original books pulled me in. I couldn't put them down, but I sure fell asleep trying to read them in a hurry.
 
TheOriginalHappyGoat said:
Obviously, for me, Tolkien tops the list. I reread the entire trilogy every couple of years, and include The Hobbit probably every other time. The entire collection together is my all-time favorite literary work.

In second place would be the only other novel I make an effort to reread regularly, Centennial. I like everything I've read from Michener - I'm still not through the entire library - but this one stands out as his best to me. Even the first chapter - 40 pages on the geological formation of Colorado - holds me enraptured.

Other books that immediately stand out, in no particular order:

Brave New World - In the argument over Huxley and Orwell, I've always sided with Huxley. His dystopia is scarier because it is more realistic. As Neil Postman said: "What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one."

An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears' masterpiece is a case study in the use of the unreliable narrator. Four people tell the same story, except not only do they disagree on the details, they disagree on what the story even is.

Trinity - I've read several Uris novels. They are all technically excellent, but Trinity was the only one that didn't make me feel that I was kind of, sort of, just maybe, getting lectured at a little bit.

Run - The first novel Ann Patchett wrote after becoming famous, the characters inhabit a world we lived in very recently. It's not a political novel, but the issues of race and community raised in it very much come from the optimistic vision of the possible America we all saw in the wake of the 2004 DNC (the novel includes a scene in which a character walking on campus notices an "Obama 2012" sign in a dorm window).

The Dispossessed - Probably my favorite science fiction novel. I picked it up for fifty cents at a garage sale, and sat on it for years before actually reading it.

A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters - Every chapter in this novel is a self-contained story, but they are all tied together beautifully.

Hit Man - One of the funnest crime novels I've picked up, it introduces Keller, your boring, every day, professional assassin and stamp collector.

The Terminal Experiment - Not strictly speaking the best novel ever written, but still one of my favorites, because there is so much going on. The premise is a doctor who wants to pinpoint the exact moment of death after a horrifying experience at an organ harvest, but in the process also accidentally discovers the human soul. Sawyer tackles the thorny issues this raises head-on, and weaves in his protagonist's personal issues into a suspenseful murder mystery involving artificial intelligence. The "twist" resolution of the mystery is a bit obvious, but the journey there is so fun, it's worth it.
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Fingerpost is outstanding. I think it's the best thing Pears has written.
 
iu_a_att said:
I remember absolutely loving A Prayer for Owen Meany.


I just listened to The Second Foundation on recording and thought it was excellent. Although I think Childhood's End was better.
Click to expand...
Good idea about Foundation by audiobook.
 
Stuffshot said:
I love me massive quantities of orcs and hobbits, but the books that most recently dazzled me were the Lizbeth Salander books, beginning with Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. While orcs and hobbits are fine, the Ice And Fire/Game of Thrones books are much better written. I think Tolkien died before he finished his Frodo/Bilbo books. They seem very disjointed to me in comparison the the Game of Thrones books.

I distinctly remember struggling through the first 50 pages or so of the first Dragon Tattoo book trying to make sense of Scandavian personal names and place names that did not have enough vowels. Then, you know what? ............................................... It clicked. I closed the book I was reading, removed the bookmark and started at p. 1 the following night. All three of the original books pulled me in. I couldn't put them down, but I sure fell asleep trying to read them in a hurry.
Click to expand...
I'm a big fan of Scandinavian fiction. The Millenium series was great, and so is pretty much everything by Jo Nesbo.
 
more:
Twain: Letters from Hell, Huckleberry Finn
Poe: The Purloined Letter
Sherlock Holmes Stories
Graham Greene: The Quiet American
Robert Conrad: Heart of Darkness
Joyce: Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man
Rockfish1 said:
I'm a big fan of Scandinavian fiction. The Millenium series was great, and so is pretty much everything by Jo Nesbo.
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Don't forget Wallander https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Wallander
 
Thyrsis said:
John Irving. Starting in high school, books like Garp and Cider House Rules and Owen Meany and even Hotel New Hampshire showed me what it meant to be rapt and wrapped up by an adult story. Entertained, caring about the outcome and what happens next, feeling characters as "real" people, taking the reader someplace different but truly believable, feeling like your spirit has evolved at least a bit just from the experience of having lived the book.

Herman Wouk's Winds of War/War and Remembrance.

Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible.

Kent Haruf's Plainsong.

Lonesome Dove. I think it's the greatest piece of fiction I've read.

Hosseini's The Kite Runner.

Mistry's A Fine Balance.

Richard Ford. Richard Russo. Haruki Murakami.

Epics even if they're not great literature: Clavell, Michener, Uris, Follet.

Authors I want to spend more time with, but have been too distracted by external life events to really get engaged with: Cormac McCarthy.

Loved The Sisters Brothers.

Things everybody seems to love, but I didn't enjoy for whatever reason: Michael Chabon stuff, Franzen stuff, Annie Proulx's The Shipping News.

Liked it but not as much as I wanted to: Cold Mountain. Might just have been distracted too much while reading it.

Liked it a ton, but that might have just been because of the title and book cover: Snow Falling on Cedars.

Books I loved as a kid: Hardy Boys. Roald Dahl. Oz books. Hitchhiker's Guide. The Great Brain. Phantom Tollbooth. Johnny Tremaine. Tons more. Building an imagination and wonder.

I wish my kids read a ton more. I can't imagine a more rewarding, enriching, and profound maturation experience. We all have more distractions and options that make reading less likely. That's more than too bad. Some of those young reading experiences are more profound and healthier than real life experiences. From a safe space of your room, back seat of the car, outside someplace, or on a rainy day, your mind can go places you'd never allow it to explore if you had to brave it on your own in real life.
Click to expand...
Where should I start with Richard Ford? The Border Trilogy is a logical place to start with Cormac McCarthy. Probably don't start with Blood Meridian.

I mostly agree about Franzen/Chabon/Proulx, but I really liked Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union.

I liked Snow Falling on Cedars too.
 
iu_a_att said:
more:
Twain: Letters from Hell, Huckleberry Finn
Poe: The Purloined Letter
Sherlock Holmes Stories
Graham Greene: The Quiet American
Robert Conrad: Heart of Darkness
Joyce: Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man

Don't forget Wallander https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Wallander
Click to expand...
Wallender is excellent, and if anyone wants to watch a dramatization, make sure to find the Scandinavian version and not the Kenneth Branagh version.

Graham Greene's The Quiet American should probably have been in my initial post. It's the best history of the Vietnam War I've ever read, except it's a novel published before we got in.
 
Goat, seems like a good place to mention that I read Redshirts finally. The premise is great, and I enjoyed the first half. But as they became aware, I started liking it less. A good, quick read but I think it could have been more.
 
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Marvin the Martian said:
Goat, seems like a good place to mention that I read Redshirts finally. The premise is great, and I enjoyed the first half. But as they became aware, I started liking it less. A good, quick read but I think it could have been more.
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I can see why you'd say that. The tone of the story changes at the midpoint. And then it dramatically changes in the epilogue.

I enjoyed all three sections, but for different reasons. Certainly, the first half was the most "fun" part.
 
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I'm not a big reader of fiction, but some of the ones I have enjoyed multiple times over the years include:

The Human Comedy, William Saroyan
To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis
The Doomsday Book, Connie Willis
The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway (astonishingly, I read this for the very first time a few months ago)
The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger
The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky (need to reread this one, since it has been a while)

Oddly, my Amazon account history shows that I bought To Say Nothing of the Dog twice in 2001--9 days apart. The only thing I can figure is that I liked it so much I bought it for someone as a gift (probably for my sister).

The Catcher in the Rye--I saw a lot of me in Holden Caulfield when I first read this, as does probably every teenage boy. When I read it again recently, I still saw a lot of Holden Caulfield in me. Go figure.
 
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Univee2 said:
I would have agreed when Irving was in his Hotel New Hampshire, The World According to Garp, The Cider House Rules and the A Prayer for Owen Meany run. Everything since reminds me of Willie Mays stumbling around the outfield for the Mets when he was well past his prime.
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Have you read A Son of the Circus? It's not as good as those, but it's still pretty good and better than some of the more recent stuff.
 
Noodle said:
I'm not a big reader of fiction, but some of the ones I have enjoyed multiple times over the years include:

The Human Comedy, William Saroyan
To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis
The Doomsday Book, Connie Willis
The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway (astonishingly, I read this for the very first time a few months ago)
The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger
The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky (need to reread this one, since it has been a while)

Oddly, my Amazon account history shows that I bought To Say Nothing of the Dog twice in 2001--9 days apart. The only thing I can figure is that I liked it so much I bought it for someone as a gift (probably for my sister).

The Catcher in the Rye--I saw a lot of me in Holden Caulfield when I first read this, as does probably every teenage boy. When I read it again recently, I still saw a lot of Holden Caulfield in me. Go figure.
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I loved Old Man and the Sea...what amazing writing.

Also love Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked this way Comes.
 
Aloha Hoosier said:
Lonesome Dove and several Stephen King books are in my list. Killer Angels, Childhood’s End, Hunt for Red October (I was XO of the REUBEN JAMES featured in the book - but many years later) and most of Clancy’s early books, The Great Santini, Starship Troopers, Brave New World, The Kite Runner, 1984 and many others are on my list too. Lonesome Dove might be my favorite of all and it’s probably because of the characters more than anything. I’ve read it, listened to the audiobook (twice - did a lot of driving during my 60 mile commute to and from work over three years) and watched the mini series and loved it each time.
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I've not read (but might have to now) it, but I did see the movie The Great Santini. One of my favorites as a younger, movie-watching person. Did you see it?
 
Rockfish1 said:
Where should I start with Richard Ford? The Border Trilogy is a logical place to start with Cormac McCarthy. Probably don't start with Blood Meridian.

I mostly agree about Franzen/Chabon/Proulx, but I really liked Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union.

I liked Snow Falling on Cedars too.
Click to expand...
If you've not done it already, I'd just go through the Ford "Frank Bascombe trilogy": The Sportswriter, Independence Day, and Lay of the Land. Come to think of it, I've only read the first two.
 
iu_a_att said:
I loved Old Man and the Sea...what amazing writing.

Also love Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked this way Comes.
Click to expand...
As a younger person, I really liked SWTWC and also Dandelion Wine. I think I read the Illustrated Man too.

I also watched the British movie Fahrenheit 451 and was creeped out by the British weirdness and dark subject matter. I was definitely too young for that.
 
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Rockfish1 said:
I can't pick one favorite, but I can think of many novels I've loved. For example:

Tolkien
​
Huge, and also an excuse for this:

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.​

Stephen King is a prolific author, but I don't think anything has matched his earliest books. When I read The Stand in high school, I kept friends waiting for half an hour so I could finish the book before going out. They could stay or go, but I was finishing the book.

Larry McMurtry can really write. A splendid book. Also a great mini-series, in which Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones inhabit the roles of former Texas Rangers Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call.

When I think about what is the best novel I've ever read, this is probably it. Joseph Heller never did anything like this again. Fabulous satire. Inspired. Hilarious. Tragic.

When I think about the most dazzling book I've ever read it would definitely be this. It's a puzzle book with a huge payoff. David Mitchell's other stuff is also very good. Lots of prizes and nominations. Another puzzle book worth reading is Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost.

Umberto Eco drops bizarre murders into the middle of the Spanish Inquisition. This is the only one of Eco's otherwise impenetrable books that I've been able to read, but it's very good.

I'm not a fan of Mark Helprin's politics, but he's an incandescently good writer, and his stories make me laugh and cry. The first of his I read was Memoir From Antproof Case, which is also excellent.

Richard Russo has written a lot of great books, some of which are probably better than this one, but this is the first Russo book I read, and it's very funny while being insightful and deeply human.


I wouldn't necessarily place this in the same category as the others, but I enjoyed the book, and it's now being released as a movie with John C, Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, and Jake Gyllenhaal.

There are lots of books that have affected me (Hardy Boys?), but these are some that jump immediately to mind. What are your favorites?

P.S. Also maybe check out English Passengers, Veronica, and Cryptonomicon.

[Edited: Added link.]
Click to expand...
Oh, and one other. I read Tom Sawyer as probably a later middle schooler (guessing on that) and REALLY liked it. Twain's writing was probably outdated for my eyes, but that story was fun, scary, and truly engaging. The notion of a crush on a girl which features in the book was probably a coming of age thing for me too.
 
Rockfish1 said:
I can't pick one favorite, but I can think of many novels I've loved. For example:

Tolkien
​
Huge, and also an excuse for this:

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.​

Stephen King is a prolific author, but I don't think anything has matched his earliest books. When I read The Stand in high school, I kept friends waiting for half an hour so I could finish the book before going out. They could stay or go, but I was finishing the book.

Larry McMurtry can really write. A splendid book. Also a great mini-series, in which Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones inhabit the roles of former Texas Rangers Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call.

When I think about what is the best novel I've ever read, this is probably it. Joseph Heller never did anything like this again. Fabulous satire. Inspired. Hilarious. Tragic.

When I think about the most dazzling book I've ever read it would definitely be this. It's a puzzle book with a huge payoff. David Mitchell's other stuff is also very good. Lots of prizes and nominations. Another puzzle book worth reading is Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost.

Umberto Eco drops bizarre murders into the middle of the Spanish Inquisition. This is the only one of Eco's otherwise impenetrable books that I've been able to read, but it's very good.

I'm not a fan of Mark Helprin's politics, but he's an incandescently good writer, and his stories make me laugh and cry. The first of his I read was Memoir From Antproof Case, which is also excellent.

Richard Russo has written a lot of great books, some of which are probably better than this one, but this is the first Russo book I read, and it's very funny while being insightful and deeply human.


I wouldn't necessarily place this in the same category as the others, but I enjoyed the book, and it's now being released as a movie with John C, Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, and Jake Gyllenhaal.

There are lots of books that have affected me (Hardy Boys?), but these are some that jump immediately to mind. What are your favorites?

P.S. Also maybe check out English Passengers, Veronica, and Cryptonomicon.

[Edited: Added link.]
Click to expand...
And yet one more thing, on only a semi-related point, has everyone seen the movie Zelig? Its connection to this thread still amuses me.
 
Rockfish1 said:
I can't pick one favorite, but I can think of many novels I've loved. For example:

Tolkien
​
Huge, and also an excuse for this:

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.​

Stephen King is a prolific author, but I don't think anything has matched his earliest books. When I read The Stand in high school, I kept friends waiting for half an hour so I could finish the book before going out. They could stay or go, but I was finishing the book.

Larry McMurtry can really write. A splendid book. Also a great mini-series, in which Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones inhabit the roles of former Texas Rangers Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call.

When I think about what is the best novel I've ever read, this is probably it. Joseph Heller never did anything like this again. Fabulous satire. Inspired. Hilarious. Tragic.

When I think about the most dazzling book I've ever read it would definitely be this. It's a puzzle book with a huge payoff. David Mitchell's other stuff is also very good. Lots of prizes and nominations. Another puzzle book worth reading is Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost.

Umberto Eco drops bizarre murders into the middle of the Spanish Inquisition. This is the only one of Eco's otherwise impenetrable books that I've been able to read, but it's very good.

I'm not a fan of Mark Helprin's politics, but he's an incandescently good writer, and his stories make me laugh and cry. The first of his I read was Memoir From Antproof Case, which is also excellent.

Richard Russo has written a lot of great books, some of which are probably better than this one, but this is the first Russo book I read, and it's very funny while being insightful and deeply human.


I wouldn't necessarily place this in the same category as the others, but I enjoyed the book, and it's now being released as a movie with John C, Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, and Jake Gyllenhaal.

There are lots of books that have affected me (Hardy Boys?), but these are some that jump immediately to mind. What are your favorites?

P.S. Also maybe check out English Passengers, Veronica, and Cryptonomicon.

[Edited: Added link.]
Click to expand...
I lied. Still one more since no one has mentioned it. I devoured a lot of Agatha Christie books.

I wonder if those hold up for young readers today.
 
I re read To Kill a Mockingbird on our your tell this summer. I read The Count of Monte Chris To every few years.

Huck Finn..Animal Farm. Ivanhoe.
 
If no one did yet (I didn't see it), I guess I should add A Storm of Swords. I'm souring on GRRM just a bit, although I mostly blame that on HBO, but I doubt I'll ever sour on that particular installation. When I read the Red Wedding chapter, I literally flipped back and re-read the chapter, because I couldn't believe what I'd just read.
 
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Thyrsis said:
Rockfish1 said:
I can't pick one favorite, but I can think of many novels I've loved. For example:

Tolkien
​
Huge, and also an excuse for this:

There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.​

Stephen King is a prolific author, but I don't think anything has matched his earliest books. When I read The Stand in high school, I kept friends waiting for half an hour so I could finish the book before going out. They could stay or go, but I was finishing the book.

Larry McMurtry can really write. A splendid book. Also a great mini-series, in which Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones inhabit the roles of former Texas Rangers Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call.

When I think about what is the best novel I've ever read, this is probably it. Joseph Heller never did anything like this again. Fabulous satire. Inspired. Hilarious. Tragic.

When I think about the most dazzling book I've ever read it would definitely be this. It's a puzzle book with a huge payoff. David Mitchell's other stuff is also very good. Lots of prizes and nominations. Another puzzle book worth reading is Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost.

Umberto Eco drops bizarre murders into the middle of the Spanish Inquisition. This is the only one of Eco's otherwise impenetrable books that I've been able to read, but it's very good.

I'm not a fan of Mark Helprin's politics, but he's an incandescently good writer, and his stories make me laugh and cry. The first of his I read was Memoir From Antproof Case, which is also excellent.

Richard Russo has written a lot of great books, some of which are probably better than this one, but this is the first Russo book I read, and it's very funny while being insightful and deeply human.


I wouldn't necessarily place this in the same category as the others, but I enjoyed the book, and it's now being released as a movie with John C, Reilly, Joaquin Phoenix, and Jake Gyllenhaal.

There are lots of books that have affected me (Hardy Boys?), but these are some that jump immediately to mind. What are your favorites?

P.S. Also maybe check out English Passengers, Veronica, and Cryptonomicon.

[Edited: Added link.]
Click to expand...
I lied. Still one more since no one has mentioned it. I devoured a lot of Agatha Christie books.

I wonder if those hold up for young readers today.
Click to expand...
Read every single one in junior high to high school. The more people who died, the better. So of course, And Then There Were None ( 10 Little Indians) was my favorite. Also read Elliott Queen in those days.
 
Noodle said:
Oddly, my Amazon account history shows that I bought To Say Nothing of the Dog twice in 2001--9 days apart. The only thing I can figure is that I liked it so much I bought it for someone as a gift (probably for my sister).
Click to expand...
SO you admit you did it but you're categorically denying that you remember?
 
So, thanks to recommendations here, just read The Sisters Brothers, and really liked it. I am looking forward to the movie, but just one question...how was this book not made into a movie by Joel and Ethan Coen??? It seem tailor-made for them.
 
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