NationStates Jolt Archive

Pick book in poll, if other then name it

Pick a book for what? Burning? Reading? Throwing at a homeless man? Feeding to a monkey?

still no poll? silly polls...stop being so slow.

Poll is there now.

Pick a book for what? Burning? Reading? Throwing at a homeless man? Feeding to a monkey?
This is General, I'm sure he means pick a book that you would most likely throw at a literate burning homeless monkey.

Okie ... but what are we supposed to do with the book we pick?

Poll is there now.

Yes, but the question raised in post 2 still stands.

This is General, I'm sure he means pick a book that you would most likely throw at a literate burning homeless monkey.
HEHEHEHEHE :p :D

This is General, I'm sure he means pick a book that you would most likely throw at a literate burning homeless monkey.

Oooooooh! Cool ... then I pick William Burroughs's "The Soft Machine".

This is General, I'm sure he means pick a book that you would most likely throw at a literate burning homeless monkey.

Nah: if George W Bush was getting married to Saddam Hussain which book should be used in place of the Bible, and should the person carrying out the ceremony have the right to carry a gun?

Okay, I LOVE Pride and Prejudice






*yes I am a guy :D

DIE.

You have some book I've never heard of (Once and Future King), but you don't have To Kill a Mockingbird.

DIE.

DIE.

DIE.

Make monkeys fast!

Infinite literate burning homeless monkeys: check.
Infinte typewriters: check.
Infinite supply of monkey food: bugger.

i was assigned :mad: :mad: :mad: Jane Eyre :mad: :mad: :mad: :headbang: to read freshman year. as soon as we finished i commenced to throw, kick, shoot, burn, detonate fireworks inside of, and otherwise beat the hell out of it. what an awful book. :headbang: all i have left is the front cover, with bb holes in it :p

i was assigned :mad: :mad: :mad: Jane Eyre :mad: :mad: :mad: :headbang: to read freshman year. as soon as we finished i commenced to throw, kick, shoot, burn, detonate fireworks inside of, and otherwise beat the hell out of it. what an awful book. :headbang: all i have left is the front cover, with bb holes in it :p
Alas!
Another Book Burner.

Oh, The Once and Future King is the best King Arthur book ever. And really funny. But my favorite of all time is non-fiction.

DIE.

You have some book I've never heard of (Once and Future King), but you don't have To Kill a Mockingbird.

DIE.

DIE.

DIE.
Once and Future King is FAR GREATER in comparison to To Kill a Mockingbird
It is one of the Greatest Creations of ALL time!!!

DIE.

You have some book I've never heard of (Once and Future King), but you don't have To Kill a Mockingbird.

DIE.

DIE.

DIE.

...You've never heard of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table? King Arthur; known to Britons as "The once and future king"? How very strange.

I nominate "The Three Kingdoms" by Luo Guanzhong. Best book I've ever read more than 20 times...and at over 1200 pages, 20 times is quite the effort.

Whom the Bell Tolls - Hemingway

To Kill a Mockingbird.


That's the first novel I ever read.

Okay, I LOVE Pride and Prejudice


*yes I am a guy :DYay! I love you now! And so will all my girl friends!

I've heard of King Arthur. I've never heard of that book.

Also, it can't be that great if I've never heard of it yet I basically grew up hearing about TKAM.

I've heard of King Arthur. I've never heard of that book.

Also, it can't be that great if I've never heard of it yet I basically grew up hearing about TKAM.

Well, indeed. If you have not heard of it, it basically means its crap. I remember hearing of new things, and thinking to myself, "That sounds interesting, but I've never heard of it before. It must be pretty lousy to have not reached my eyes and ears before now."

Because all truly good things in this world seek out induviduals to impress them; one never has to go looking to find a gem. The term, "Diamond in the rough" is actually a reference to a Diamond flying out of the rough into someone's hand.

Hmm....a couple come to mind

1984 - Orwell

Dr. Faustus - Marlowe

In Cold Blood - Capote

The Three Kingdoms - Lao Guanzhong

Hmm....a couple come to mind

1984 - Orwell

Dr. Faustus - Marlowe

In Cold Blood - Capote

The Three Kingdoms - Lao Guanzhong

Remind me to like you ;) You've got good taste in books.

I'm still not sure what we were voting for, but I voted for Harry Potter. But, anyway, I'm mentioning "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath, just because.

I am not extremely literate. So the majority of my reading occurs through comedy. Pratchett and Adams for me.

Though I would have to say the best books I have read are 1984 , Shelley's Frankenstein and Stapldons Last and first men .

what a weird list

all crap
Franz Kafka, 'The Trial'

Catch 22.

Catch 22.

Yay for catch 22 .. absolute awesomeness.

i was assigned :mad: :mad: :mad: Jane Eyre :mad: :mad: :mad: :headbang: to read freshman year. as soon as we finished i commenced to throw, kick, shoot, burn, detonate fireworks inside of, and otherwise beat the hell out of it. what an awful book. :headbang: all i have left is the front cover, with bb holes in it :p

Hmmmm...I loved Jane Eyre. However, I did feel that way about "A Tale of Two Cities." To each his own, I guess.

all crap
Franz Kafka, 'The Trial'

I have yet to read Kafka. But I want to.

I like Neil Stephenson's books too. The Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, etc.

The Dark Tower series (1-7) by Stephen King

1984 - George Orwell

The Cosmic Code - Heinz R. Pagels

The Elegant Universe - Brian Greene

I have yet to read Kafka. But I want to.

He’s sublime really, none one else mentioned even touches on his brilliance.

Still I recognise George Orwell was also brilliant, he wrote commentaries not stories though.

He’s sublime really, none one else mentioned even touches on his brilliance.

Still I recognise George Orwell was also brilliant, he wrote commentaries not stories though.

I would say the best I have read to date is Olaf Stapledon. Though unfortunately he came at a bad time and the vast majority of what he wrote was generic shit so he could actually make a living.

Are these all books that have been banned? Is that the gimmick?

Anyway, I voted for loads of them, though LOTR is overrated. "The Hobbit" is a much better read.

I would say the best I have read to date is Olaf Stapledon. Though unfortunately he came at a bad time and the vast majority of what he wrote was generic shit so he could actually make a living.

tell me about him ive never heard his name before.

...Wheel of Time...

Are these all books that have been banned? Is that the gimmick?

Anyway, I voted for loads of them, though LOTR is overrated. "The Hobbit" is a much better read.
No, it isn't. They just cannot be compared. But I did once read a really nice illustrated version, which I have not for LOTR.

He mainly worked with science fiction. But it was back when Kafka was writing and there was no market for it.

The two books of his which are seen as best are 'Last and first men' and 'Star maker'.

I've yet to read star maker though, but I hear it put Tolkien to shame with its sheer scale and inventiveness.

And Last and first men certanly does. It's in 19 parts, as it had to be for the magazines back then, each one a part of human history, present, or future. It's brilliant.

Nah: if George W Bush was getting married to Saddam Hussain which book should be used in place of the Bible, and should the person carrying out the ceremony have the right to carry a gun?

BWO, you win the award! A forum on NS went 10 post w/o mentioning the President of the United States. Congrats, you win a cookie. ;)

BWO, you win the award! A forum on NS went 10 post w/o mentioning the President of the United States. Congrats, you win a cookie. ;)

Oh well. Atleast he didn't question the reading habits of gays or aborted foetus's.

John Steinbeck - Of mice and men

Adolf Hitler - Mein Kampf

John Steinbeck - Of mice and men

That book was atrocious. It completely failed to move me. I may be biased as I was forced to read it as part of my education curriculum.

Adolf Hitler - Mein Kampf

Eh. He was useless. He should have had more death rays in there.

I would say the best I have read to date is Olaf Stapledon. Though unfortunately he came at a bad time and the vast majority of what he wrote was generic shit so he could actually make a living.

Last & First Men, Starmaker and Nebula Maker all still stand up well - his more conventional novels... Sirius, Odd John, Last Men In London don't.

He mainly worked with science fiction. But it was back when Kafka was writing and there was no market for it.

The two books of his which are seen as best are 'Last and first men' and 'Star maker'.

I've yet to read star maker though, but I hear it put Tolkien to shame with its sheer scale and inventiveness.

And Last and first men certanly does. It's in 19 parts, as it had to be for the magazines back then, each one a part of human history, present, or future. It's brilliant.

Last And First Men is dwarfed in scale by Star Maker. It is sufficient to actually make your brain hurt in places.

Last & First Men, Starmaker and Nebula Maker all still stand up well - his more conventional novels... Sirius, Odd John, Last Men In London don't.

Yeah. But when your income is from pulp magazines you have to produce crap that appeals to the readers just to survive.

Last And First Men is dwarfed in scale by Star Maker. It is sufficient to actually make your brain hurt in places.

That's why I'm so deperate to read it. All I know about it is what I have read in Billion year spree , which, if you've not heard of it, is the history of sf by Brian Aldiss.

Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men

Terry Pratchett - Mort

Enid Blyton - Famous 5 series (yes I know I am 30 but i grew up reading these and they left an impression on me)

Douglas Adams - Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy

One flew over the cuckoo's nest

and many many more

Yeah. But when your income is from pulp magazines you have to produce crap that appeals to the readers just to survive.

As I understand it, he actually made his daily bread working as a clerk, a social worker and as a lecturer for the Workers Education Association... checks An Olaf Stapledon Readerp... yup, I understood correctly. As far as working for the pulp magazines goes - that's spurious, his novels were published as novels first, not as serials, in fact his Last And First Men has the interesting distinction of not only being the only piece of fiction ever to be published in the Pelican non-fiction line, such was the prestige he had during his lifetime.

That's why I'm so deperate to read it. All I know about it is what I have read in Billion year spree , which, if you've not heard of it, is the history of sf by Brian Aldiss.

I know it well - it was First And Last Men encountered by the young Brian Aldiss while serving in Burma that led him to become a science fiction writer.

The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan. A masterpiece in the defense of science and reason from the forces of ignorance and pseudoscience.

As I understand it, he actually made his daily bread working as a clerk, a social worker and as a lecturer for the Workers Education Association... checks An Olaf Stapledon Readerp... yup, I understood correctly. As far as working for the pulp magazines goes - that's spurious, his novels were published as novels first, not as serials, in fact his Last And First Men has the interesting distinction of not only being the only piece of fiction ever to be published in the Pelican non-fiction line, such was the prestige he had during his lifetime.

Eh. I never claimed to unserstand what I was on about.

The whole discworld series really....

I picked Pride and Prejudice simply because it is the best written book in the list. I am not talking about the content of the book, but the form: the actual writing and the skill and craft shown by Jane Austen.

As for content, any book that starts with the sentence: 'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife,' must be, and is, hilarious and romantic.

I noticed a lot of SF buffs in this thread. I suggest Iain M. Banks, specifically Feersum Endjinn. Also, Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy is the best near science fiction I have ever read.

Enjoy your reading.

Also, Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy is the best near science fiction I have ever read.

Enjoy your reading.


Ignoring the fact that the physics underlying the whole story is completely and unredemmably up the left?

The whole discworld series really....


here here

The book i would pick that most accurately depicts the world i say, 20 years... 1984. to throw at a homeless monkey, something bill o'reilly wrote.