What books or authors do you like best? They can be from any period in history.

Here's a few favorite books of mine off the top of my head:

The Count of Monte Cristo (all-time favorite) by Alexandre Dumas
The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
The Damnation Game and Everville by Clive Barker
Jurassic Park and Lost World by Michael Crichton

As for authors, I love Hugo above all others because his books are works of art in print. I guess that's the best way I can describe them. Dumas' Cristo is my favorite, however, because it's the best story of revenge I've ever read. My modern favorites are Barker and Crichton. Barker is graphic and disturbing, but he sometimes "paints" the framework of a scene in which you fill it in with your own imagination. Crichton has an amazing ability of explaining complex ideas in which a layman (myself most of the time lol) can understand. I read his Airframe in one sitting. His stuff is hard for me to put down. lol

I like Dan Brown, but he doesn't have a large enough selection of books. If I'm not mistaken, he's only written four. I liked his Angels and Demons much more than I did The Da Vinci Code. His Digital Fortress was gripping up until the midpoint where things seemed to teeter off, and Murphy's Law stepped in more than it needed to. lol

Jurassic Park and the Lost World were AWESOME... much better than the movies which were incredible.

I just finished Death of a Salesman.. short but I thought it was very good. All Quiet on the Western Front was good as well. I also REALLY liked Slaughterhouse Five. Hmm... what else? Oh yeah... Witness for the Prosecution

Definitely. I haven't read that since 9th grade (almost 15 years ago ). That reminds me of The Red Badge of Courage: short but stunning.

My wife is a huge Stephen King fan; consequently I too like some of his works. The last thing that I began to read was The Talisman. Still I'm lucky to make it beyond a single page since my stroke (Nov. 3rd; 3 years ago). Someday I may be able to finish it.

I just read that last week. Definitely an interesting read.

The Alphabet of Manliness by Maddox is a good one too.

Damn, you beat me to it.

I just did a report on that book for my english class. I'll probably get it back with some rude remarks on it and a 0.

A Farewell to Arms Hemingway
Grapes of Wrath & Travels with Charley

Where the Red Fern Grows

Thanks guys, Ive been looking for a good book to read, Ill have to try a couple of em. Just got done with the Splinter Cell book right before the game came out. It was pretty good.

Oh man. We read that in sixth grade... brings back some memories. Little Anne and Old Dan. That was fantastic... end was so sad though

I think I read it in 6th grade too.
The book I am reading now is Rich Dad, Poor Dad

... and Learn C# in 21 days.

I like some King. I like about 50% of the stuff of his that I've read. Firestarter is my favorite King book.

How many days into it are you?

Some programming is coming back to me after all these years so I am skipping around a little. I am about to start week 2, though. I am trying to make a simple card game I just cannot remember how to do a few minor things. I think I should start a thread and ask for a little help. What section should I do it?

Tale of Two Cities
Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Count of Monte Cristo
Tortilla Curtain
To Kill a Mockingbird
and one that I read in the 4th grade: Island of the Blue Dolphins

I like the Dark Tower Series. (Im from Bangor, ME where he lives. I think Im legally required to own books buy him.)
Actually his best stuff is his non horror stuff. The Green Mile. The Body, (Stand By Me). Shawshank Redemption.

^ I didn't know he'd written Shawshank. I saw the movie and thought it was phenomenal. I'll definitely have to pick up the book next time I hit up B&N.

Michael Crichton; pretty much all of his
Bret Easton Ellis; again pretty much all
Stephen King; Dark Tower Series, The Green Mile, and Desperation/The Regualtors
Hunter S Thompson; Fear and Loathing of course

In my youth I was a huge Hardy Boys fan.

I'm surprised that nobody mentioned writers from the beat generation, esp. Kerouac.

not The Crucible

The Count of Monte Cristo hands down is my favourite book. Next is the Three Muskateers. Indian in the Cupboard kicked serious ass in public school.

My favorite books so far

To Kill a Mocingbird
Huckleberry Finn
Of Mice and Men

I've read these in my English class and I love them. There's some more but these were the only ones I can say off the top of my head.

Recent big-market novels I've dug:

Dan Brown's Angels & Demons, The DaVinci Code, Digital Fortress, Deception Point. In that order. Really great page turners. I love how he alternates short chapters between sides to keep the pace fast.


Recent Sci-fi I've dug:

Iain M. Bank's The Algebraist. Great long term, epic span trip galaxy fiction.


Favorite series ever:

Piers Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality. You heard about this? Each book is the story of a mortal who occupies the "office" of Death, Time, Fate, War and Nature. Absolutely fucking fantasic storytelling and plot weaving. He finished the series off with two books I never thought he'd write, For Love of Evil and And Eternity.. the storys of those who hold the offices of Satan and God, and how they get them.

I can't say enough about them. The science-fantasy methods of how Anthony dreams up how humans can assume an office, the tools needed to allow a mortal to do the job, and the battles and inner struggles of the oh-so-very human characters overseeing the world.

I even own the audiobook series.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. By far my favorite book ever. Deffinetly worth a read, so is most of his other stuff. The Wanting seed (A deffinite read for ANY 1984 or Brave New World fans, both good books as well).

Any of my other favorites would have to be:
We
1984 (Brave New World was good as well, but Huxley as intelligent as he is, certainly is not a man of words, and the book its just hard to read at times, meaning, hard to keep going on reading it)
Alphabet of Manliness (Maddox > All. Need I say more?)
Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy (The movie was very well done, but you really have to read the book to get the full story)

It's written as a Novella in the Different Seasons book. It's entitled Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption.




Farenheit 451 falls into the same lines as 1984 and Brave New World. Im really not sure which one my favorite is.

Hitchikers guide is ok, but as the books progress it just gets worse and worse.

Oh yeah, forgot that one. that and Beowulf also.

Imajica by Clive Barker
It's a great book, but it tends to be over-rated because of its length.

Thanks for the heads up, Ry.

i'd have to say, that my all time favorite book would have to be "Rendezvous with Rama" by Arthur C. Clarke. If you're down with the whole sci-fi scene, then this book is for you.. it's truly amazing

John Grisham

^ Yeah, I like Grisham, but his endings feel rushed sometimes (e.g., The Brethren).

Jeffery Deaver's an amazing author, too.

I read all of Robert R. McCammons books.
Some of my faves are: Wolfs Hour, Blue World, Night Boat, Gone South, Boys Life, and Swan Song.

I also enjoy Dean Koontz and Stephen King.

as already mentioned Fight Club
personally i love Chuck Palahniuk i just bought a bunch of them

Lullaby
Survivor
Diary
Invisible Monsters (best sadistical comedy ever)
Choke


Ayn Rand - Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged

I just picked up A clockwork orange

and of course maddox

Palahniuk is great, I still haven't read Haunted but I enjoyed his others. Choke is my favorite. I'm currently reading Slaughterhouse Five-Vonnegut. It's the first I've read by him and Im sure I'll read more of his books. Michael Chabon is another good author, I recomend The Adventures Of Kavalier & Clay. I will always read a Crichton book, if only for the way he mixes science into fiction without making it science-fiction. A fairly new author I like is Craig Clevenger, check out The Contortionist Handbook, similar to Palahniuk, Hempel, or Ellis.

just finished reading slaughterhouse 5, i must say its one of the best books i've read.

of course we got the lord of the rings series. By tolkien

Then we have the sword of truth series by terry goodkind\

The eighth habit by steven covey

The road less traveled i think that is Stephen Gould

The world is flat don't remember that author great book though

The Magic of Recluse series by Terry Brooks

I speak Pretty some day

Don't like the series but if you read the lord of the ring trilogy you need to read the first book in the Sword of shanara series it is hilarious a strait rip of those three books but smashed into one.

... I Will think of more....



Ah ha I thought of more. Neromancer by im thinking terry brooks

people are talking about school books so then we have.

Kaffer boy
dunkin ra
Lord of the flies
Brom stokers Dracula

On the Road - Jack Kerouac
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby

Currently reading: About a Boy - Nick Hornby

I'm a Huxley fan Myself, shortly followed by Orwell. Oddly enough, Huxley taught Orwell for a semester.

Brave New World
The Doors of Perception <-- Rather difficult read for most...
Chrome Yellow

Some other necessary reads IMO are
Fahrenheit 451
1984
Animal Farm
Of mice and Men
Shooting an Elephant
Marxist Theory (Really is a good book.)
Civil Disobedience

Cain by James Byron Huggins, this book got a lot of bad press and horrible reviews but I simply couldn't put the book down from start to finish. I read it in less than 3 and a half days (400 pages).

And with all these books I like, here's a couple that totally take the cake for being suck-tastic.
Old man & the Sea.
Pride and Prejudice (it wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't as thick as my mattress)

favs
Enders Game by Orson Scott Card
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
Prey by Michael Crichton
Enders Shadow by Orson Scott Card
The Firm by John Grisham
The Pardon by i don't remember James Patterson maybe?
The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
Brave New World by Huxley
.... oh and the list goes on

the best ones are bolded
i agree with metal devil on Dan Brown's books.... also... Angels and Demons is the best of them

To Kill a Mocking Bird. . . read that when I was younger.
The Stranger and The Plague by Albert Camus.

The Sun Also Rises, The Summer of My German Soldier, Madame Bovary were also decent books I read during high school.


Of course, when I was a kid . . . Anything written by Shel Silverstein.
Still have tons of his poems in memory.

Edit:Wow. . . just visited his website. Brings back memories. So much to interact with on there.

How do you not like the Old man and the Sea? It's a great book. Almost anything he's written is great. I think I'm partial to his short stories for the most part.

I'm reading some of Anne Rice's books right now.

Well to be honest, I liked some of his other works. As for old man and the sea, it failed to entertain me, and it pretty much lacked any sort of content that made me want to keep reading it. It came across as an old guy in a boat with only a whale to talk to, not my preferred reading material. At some points it was too dry and others overly descriptive.

maybe a little but my favorites are "The Broker" and "King of Torts". even though i dont really no anything about law, i really like the law books he writes.