bbf: best books forever

Aja on 23/4/2009 at 05:50

Quote Posted by Jackablade

You forgot A Portrait of the Artist

Inline Image:

http://www.ualberta.ca/~letersky/crossed.png.gif

Hmm, I didn't forget it. I'm just not sure I enjoy it as much as the others, though I certainly appreciate Joyce's skill (or maybe worship is a better word). Portrait of the Artist is often brilliant, but it's seldom riveting. And, unless you're in the exact right mood for it, Joyce is really depressing.

Also: Kavalier and Clay is harder to read than everything in my list save Lawrence (and it's worse than everything in my list ;) )

edit: the fuck is all this editing nonsense.

edit edit: Stitch: :cool:

ALSO EDIT: Jackablade hotlinking my crossarms guy? bad form!

Koki on 23/4/2009 at 05:53

Dune? Hellooo

Aja on 23/4/2009 at 05:54

Hey maybe we should discuss kavalier and clay, since I actually did read it last season, finally, after owning it for two years.

june gloom on 23/4/2009 at 06:22

Quote Posted by Aja

(I also love what little Joyce I've read)

Joyce is unreadable, both in his books and (http://www.johnhamilton.us/2/jamesjoyceletters.htm) his personal correspondence.

Scots Taffer on 23/4/2009 at 06:27

Angel Dust on 23/4/2009 at 06:30

Quote Posted by Scots Taffer

* To Kill A Mockingbird: excellently conceived and written tale of childhood realisation and of the smallmindedness of those who should know better.

That's a favourite of mine too!
Others:
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoesky which you've probably all heard off. Bloody riveting, if a little hard going at times.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. I love this book! Probably the funniest book I've ever read.
I've always liked a bit of Poe too.

Last books I read where 'The Road' which I found to very very good but not quite great and 'Altered Carbon' which was good pulpy fun but I could have done without a lot of the action heroics. Currently reading 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde which so far has been fantastic. I'm really interested to see where it's going to go.

I really do mean to read more often but it's often superceded by wiriting music/watching films/playing game. I will definitely be checking out some of these recommendations though. What's a good Michael Chabon book to start with Stitch?

june gloom on 23/4/2009 at 06:42

I should find a copy of The Road. Judging from the wiki page on it it seems like the kind of thing I'd be into.

If we're gonna talk about post-apocalypse books, though, it may be worth picking up a copy of On The Beach- pretty good book if you ask me. I also would very highly recommend A Canticle for Leibowitz.

For less apocalyptic subject matter, get G. K. Chesterton's The Man Who Was Thursday. I picked that book up 'cuz of Deus Ex and I'm glad I did.

Also get Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon. A rather harrowing work about a political prisoner in Soviet Russia.

And I can't go without mentioning Marc Laidlaw's Dad's Nuke. Weird book, but great nonetheless.

Sulphur on 23/4/2009 at 06:49

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, for obvious reasons. One of my favourite bits:

"The Lord gave us farmers two strong hands so that we could take as much as we could grab with both of them," he preached with ardor on the courthouse steps or in front of the A & P as he waited for the bad-tempered gum-chewing young cashier he was after to step outside and give him a nasty look. "If the Lord didn't want us to take as much as we could get," he preached, "He wouldn't have given us two good hands to take it with." And the others murmured, "Amen."

There just so much good stuff in there, in every single chapter. I don't think that book will ever get old.

American Gods, Neil Gaiman. It's a dark tale with various pieces of world mythology woven through it, and the plot on the surface seems to be your token "one man on quest to help good overcome evil", but it twists that in many ways you don't expect (think over the title, for one thing) while delivering a biting commentary on American culture, past and present.

When it comes to sci-fi, there's one book I can recommend above all else: The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester. It's a revenge tale like "The Count of Monte Cristo" but with a twist. The book blisters along at an almost inhuman pace, and it keeps throwing more and more brilliant storytelling at you the deeper you get into it, right until the reveal at the end.

I couldn't put the damn thing down once I'd gotten a couple of chapters into it, and that's as high of a recommendation I could give just about any book, sci-fi or not.

Scots Taffer on 23/4/2009 at 06:53

I knew Catch 22 was going to show up here a lot. Goddamn it if I didn't try to like that book but it was near impenetrable for me. It just jumped all over the place.

Quote Posted by Angel Dust

Currently reading 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' by Oscar Wilde which so far has been fantastic. I'm really interested to see where it's going to go.

Jesus Christ, I haven't read this since I was twelve or so but I remember it chilled me to the bone. I need to look this up again.

Quote Posted by dethtoll

I also would very highly recommend A Canticle for Leibowitz.

This is sort of sad but I remember being a strong advocate of this book in my teens and I honestly can't remember any of it at all now.

Drugs. :(

I still have it on my book shelf somewhere.

Quote Posted by Sulphur

American Gods, Neil Gaiman. It's a dark tale with various pieces of world mythology woven through it, and the plot on the surface seems to be your token "one man on quest to help good overcome evil", but it twists that in many ways you don't expect (think over the title, for one thing) while delivering a biting commentary on American culture, past and present.

Hated that fucking book.
Clarification: really well written cheap shot with a real WTF ending.

Sorry, I won't derail this thread further by criticising entries. I'll stfu now.

Aja on 23/4/2009 at 06:58

Quote Posted by dethtoll

Joyce is unreadable

Besides his letters, what, exactly, of his have you read that would lead you to this conclusion?

People who claim Joyce is unreadable don't seem to identify with his themes. I see myself in so many of his characters that it feels like he was writing specifically to help me better understand my own psyche. Stories like Araby and A Little Cloud, and certainly Portrait of the Artist all explore the kinds of neuroses to which students of literature must be prone, since so many of us seem to idolize Joyce! I read him and I feel like someone else gets it... hard to give a higher recommendation, really. The reason I didn't put him on my list is because a)I haven't read all of Dubliners or Ulysses, and b)in spite of all of what I've said, Joyce sometimes gets too abstruse to follow, i.e. his untranslated Latin passages, also Finnegan's Wake.