NationStates Jolt Archive

Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole

On the Road, Jack Kerouac

Anyone else? :D

Sphere, Michael Crichton.

Snow Crash, Neil Stephenson.

tough choice, though.

i dont know ever but:

Life of Pi - Yann Martel

"Eats, Shoots and Leaves" by Lynne Truss.

let's face it, any book that makes punctuation interesting has to be some kind of miracle.

Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card

All the Trouble in the World, P.J. O'Rourke

The Histories, Herodotus

The Anabasis, Xenophon

Free to Choose, Milton Freidman

Jennifer Government, Max Barry ;)

Confederacy of Dunces is the greatest work of Fiction EVER!

I saw on IMDB they were making a Will Farell movie based on it, I hope they don't ruin it! Will Farell is a God though, so I am not to worried.

"Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk

also highly suggest his other works: Invisible Monsters, Lullaby, Choke, Diary...

Nuklear Age by Brian Clevinger

"Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk

also highly suggest his other works: Invisible Monsters, Lullaby, Choke, Diary...

Excellent, yes- but it is the rare book not as good as the movie.

I saw the movie first, which kind of ruined it for me.

Refrigeration: Concepts and Applications, 3rd edition.

I have that on tape, read by Lindsey Lohan.

Depends what mood you're in...
The Raging Quiet by Sherryl Jordan is really well written, makes you think and can move some of the most hateful people out there (including me)
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket have got to be the funniest books out there. Never have I laughed so much in the hour it takes to read each book. Mind you they are extremely cynical and, being a cynic myself at times, it may just be me who loves them.

A Short History of Nearly Everything
Lord of the Rings

Depends what mood you're in...
The Raging Quiet by Sherryl Jordan is really well written, makes you think and can move some of the most hateful people out there (including me)
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket have got to be the funniest books out there. Never have I laughed so much in the hour it takes to read each book. Mind you they are extremely cynical and, being a cynic myself at times, it may just be me who loves them.

Not familiar with the first one, what's it about?

If I could pick just one, I probably wouldn't own over a thousand of them...

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. Read or Die.

Arc Light - Eric L Harry

And you know what the greatest book ever ISN'T?
Catcher in the Rye! (worst. book. ever.)

Confederacy of Dunces is the greatest work of Fiction EVER!

I saw on IMDB they were making a Will Farell movie based on it, I hope they don't ruin it! Will Farell is a God though, so I am not to worried.Well, I disagree about Ferrell being a god, but considering that every actor signed to be Ignatius Reilley has died (John Belushi, John Candy), maybe there's something to be said for getting it made this time. :D j/k

And I'll just add The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

How did we ever forget that?

Not to mention everything Terry Prattchet has ever writen, including grocery lists and credit card applications.

I second the earlier posts -- Kerouac's "On the Road" a worthy choice.

Jennifer Government -- near the top of the list, fer shure, with Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Definitely.
A Trilogy in Four Parts. Marvin the Paranoid Android. Zaphod Beeblebrox. An entire planet where it's always quarter of four in the afternoon. And descriptions like this, of a spaceship:

"It hung in the air exactly the way a brick doesn't."

Gotta be Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

definitely the Illuminatus Trilogy. It seriously ranks up there with Hitchhikers Guide.


and, of course, Candide by Voltaire...morbid faerytale meets WTF moment from hell

Arc Light - Eric L Harry

And you know what the greatest book ever ISN'T?
Catcher in the Rye! (worst. book. ever.)


:headbang: I *hated* this book. Hate it, hate it, hate it.

I kept hoping it would get better. I only finished it because I kept thinking there had to be some sort of pay-off.

Nope.

It was just a boring, dull literary tranquilizer. Ugh. :headbang:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy... yeah.

My all-time favorite is still Dune


Ooh... has anyone ever read The Very Bloody History of England (Without the Boring Bits)? I picked it up a few years ago when I traveled to London

I'm partial to The Stranger by Albert Camus.

The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. Read or Die.
Yeah that one's good. I think they're makin a movie of it.
Arc Light - Eric L Harry

And you know what the greatest book ever ISN'T?
Catcher in the Rye! (worst. book. ever.)
Catcher in the Rye is an odd one. I think it all depends on what maturity level you are at when you read it. If you read it when you're not mature enough, or too mature, then it's not very good. But if you read it at just the right time, then it's powerful. I first read it a year or 2 into high school, and I loved it. I then re-read it after a year or so in college, and it just wasn't the same. I also was talking about this to a friend of mine who said she first read it when she as in 7th grade, and she then hated it. When it was assigned reading in high school (same time I first read it) she loved it.

I myself can't pick just one book, there's way too many great ones out there. Autobiography of Malcolm X was good. Lord of the Rings trilogy. Quite a few Kurt Vonnegut books. Of Mice and Men. Lord of the Flies. A Separate Peace. Smack by Richard Burgess (I think that's his name). Many more I can't think of off the top of my head.