NationStates Jolt Archive

State your favourite, or some of your favourites and cite reasons why they are your most treasured.

Mine would be: "Lord of the Flies"

By William Golding.

Reasons: Excellent prose, great story, fascinating characters, refusal to slip into lecturing or intellectual masturbation, endlessly interesting, exciting, tense and above all, reflective of the human being.

Hmm, it'd probably have to be a book by Nick Earls, but I can't remember its name! It was so funny at one point I had to put the book down to stop laughing. I do like Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, but best mini-series would have to be the Tomorrow, When the War Began and the best series LOTR.

Tough Guys Dont Dance.
By Norman Mailer.

State your favourite, or some of your favourites and cite reasons why they are your most treasured.

Mine would be: "Lord of the Flies"

By William Goldman.

Reasons: Excellent prose, great story, fascinating characters, refusal to slip into lecturing or intellectual masturbation, endlessly interesting, exciting, tense and above all, reflective of the human being.
Intellectual Masturbation :eek: 2 points for an expression i've never heard before... and never want to hear again!

I don't know if I have a single favorite...but here are a few that would be in the running:

The Stand (Uncut Version) - Stephen King
The Great and Secret Show - Clive Barker
Imajica - Clive Barker
A Fire Upon the Deep - Vernor Vinge
Neuromancer - William Gibson

Lord Of The Flies by William Gerald Golding
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk
Requiem For A Dream by Hubert Selby Jr.
The Immoralist by Andre Gide
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (Okay, not that great, but I like the mix of African folk story and Western Novel styles)
Ordinary People by Judith Guest


If I had to choose just one of those to read again, it would be Ordinary People. Or Lord of the Flies. Damn me for being so indecisive.

I Robot-Isaac Asimov (RIP) :(
The Return of the king- Tolkien
Something Wicked This Way Comes-Ray Bradbury
Foundations-Isaac Asimov
"Repent, Harlequin" said the ticktock man-Harlan Ellison(I know it's not a novel)
Robot Dreams-Isaac Asimov

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. I don't think I'm going to be the only one to list this.

Book of Illusions by Paul Auster Question of art, artists, and the question of the need of an audience.

Sorry, but no way I have one favorite novel. I can list a few of my favorites.

Jeremy Lethem, Motherless Brooklyn (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375724834/103-0345811-1703011?v=glance)

Colson Whitehead, The Intuitionist (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385493002/qid=1118473483/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-0345811-1703011?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)

Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385333781/qid=1118473516/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/103-0345811-1703011)

Sherman Alexie, Reservation Blues (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0446672351/qid=1118473546/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-0345811-1703011?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)

Iain Banks, The Wasp Factory (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0684853159/qid=1118473573/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-0345811-1703011?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060740450/qid=1118473600/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-0345811-1703011?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)

Douglas Adams, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671746723/qid=1118473640/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-0345811-1703011?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)

Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age : Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553380966/qid=1118473672/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-0345811-1703011?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)

Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus : And Other Essays (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0679733736/qid=1118473724/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-0345811-1703011?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)

I'm afraid I could go on and on and on. Books are my greatest passion.

But I'll spare you all. ;)

Children of Dune by Frank Herbert

If I knew it was ok to pick a whole series of novels, I would say the Dune saga. But since the question was favorite novel I am going to narrow it down to this one book in the series. I like it because not only is it an entertaining page turner but it explores such profound concepts as religion and its role on society, the need for a messiah, the basic flaws of humanity, our reliance on oil, and the way in which time turns a person from a flawed human being doing what had to be done into an almost god-like hero.

I was tempted to agree with the selection of Lord of the Flies, but I didnt because the book is filled with flaws that should not appear in a book that aims to be realistic. A bunch of boys in a deserted island surviving on strange food and not one illness or death from eating poisonous vegetation or from contracting viruses their body had no immunity to. No cases of severe sunburn (which you can die from) despite walking around with little on. A dead person lands on the island after deploying a parachute, yet none of the boys hear any noises from the battle which led to his aborting the aircraft or any noises associated with the plane crashing. Its been a while since I read it, so Im sure I could point out more if I read it again. It is a great book, definitely one to be ranked among the greatest literary works of the modern era. But its flaws dont let me call it the best.

Small Gods by Terry Pratchett. Wonderful lampoon of religious fundamentalism.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms. A wonderful traditional look at government from one of the oldest continuous civilizations on the face of the Earth.

The Alienist by Caleb Carr. I don't know why. I just think it's one of the most enjoyable novels I've ever read that has nothing to do with science fiction.

Country Under My Skin by Giocanda Belli. A memoir actually, not really a novel, but it reads like one.

The Republican party platform. As I've already hinted, I'm a fan of science fiction. :D

Currently...

"The House of Morgan: An American banking Dynasty and the rise of modern finance" by Ron Chernow

A nice financial history of the United States told using the perspective of the various JP Morgan companies. Ok so its a factual book laden with hundreds of citations and is in no way a novel. It is simply better than any novel.

Alright so I’ve got to throw a novel in as well. I’ll just say Shogun.

"What is your favourite novel, and why?"

War and Peace. Because it has everything and makes for good reading on days when you just want to vege out and read. :)

The Alienist by Caleb Carr. I don't know why. I just think it's one of the most enjoyable novels I've ever read that has nothing to do with science fiction.


Hah, yeah. I haven't read it, but "alienist" for a court-recognized shrink is a really old term.. I'll bet some people bought it expecting Sci-Fi. :p

Dune - Frank Herbert - combination of religion, ecology and politics
Animal Farm - George Orwell - satirical look at politicians and the way they run things

Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

It's an amazing, breathtaking book. It deals with conspiracy theories, freemasons, the Templars, everything you can imagine in that genre, and it makes such ironic fun of all these ideas and conceptions, it's just brilliant.
Mind you, it is the most difficult novel I ever read, too. Eco assumes that the reader is just as proficient in European history, theology, philosophy, physics, chemistry, philology, European languages, archeology and medical science as he himself is. i haveto admit that I most likely missed out on a number of allusions, but the book was nevertheless a fantastic and gripping read.

Originally Posted by Cabra West
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
That sounds pretty good, just promise me it isn't like that God awful "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown.

That sounds pretty good, just promise me it isn't like that God awful "The Da Vinci Code" by Dan Brown.

Nowhere near the same league. People kept telling me that I had to read "The Da Vinci Code", so I did. That was clearly the worst book I read so far this year. It was boring, obvious, badly researched, jumped to conclusions and generally trash.
But hey, the masses seem to like it :rolleyes:

Watership Down, Richard Adams
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude

I love picking these books up and opening them at random to read.

...not even noticing the fire of the rose bushes or the brightness of the hour or the persistence of Amaranta, whose melancholy made the noise of a boiling pot, which was perfectly perceptible at dusk...

beautiful.

It's so hard to choose.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. It's similar in style to The Catcher in the Rye but the character of Esther Greenwood (from The Bell Jar) is much more realistic and well-rounded, whereas the character of Holden Caulfield is somehow both generic and inconsistent.

Rainbow Six by Tom Clancy. John Clarke is one of the greatest characters I've ever read.

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, a magnificent and superbly written allegory of the Universe.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. I don't think I'm going to be the only one to list this.


Ditto :D
That's one of my favourite books ever.

Hurm... here's my "The list"

Moving Pictures, by Terry Pratchett, The whole of the "Nights Dawn" Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton (The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, and The Naked God), The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hitchikers guide to the galaxy "Trilogy of five", The Redemption of Althalus by David and Leigh Eddings, (I believe)


Erm, I'm running out of memory here.

That's all I have :(

Beowulf
The Iliad, Homer
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
The Decameron, Boccaccio
Ecce Homo, Nietzsche
Hannibal, Thomas Harris
Power of One, Byrce Courtney

Once an Eagle--- Anton Myrer Fantastic story of two Army men, one a great man, one a staff weenie. Essentially a graduate course in how and how not to be a good person.

With the Old Breed--- E.B. Sledge A Marine private's account of Pelileu and Okinawa. Nothing held back, nothing romanticized.

The Kill a Mockingbird and if i can have an award for the best 150 pages of a book then the first 150 pages of Dracula (IMHO) go down as the best ever written.

My own! :D J/k......

Some thrillers are good. Some are just plain dumb - especially ones that are so blatantly pro-American *barfs*

Alice in Wonderland
Alice through the looking glass
The Third policeman

I couldn't ever name just one:

Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
Lord of the Flies, William Golding
Blindness, Jose Saramago
Jack and Jill, Louisa May Alcott
I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
Anthem, Ayn Rand
Empyrion: The Search For Fierra and Empyrion: The Siege of Dome, Stephen Lawhead. (Actually two novels but both are necessary for cohesiveness, IMO.)


I could go on -- and will likely come back to edit this. I know there are glaring omissions in that list.

Picking just one is near impossible. But my current favorite would have to be ...

Bel Canto
by Ann Patchett

Reason: It's beautiful prose, extremely poetic and it has a great plotline. It's one of those books where you just feel at peace (yet slightly disturbed) at the end.

1984-George Orwell.
One of the books that really first made me think about politics, and the foresight he has come up with in that book is phenomenal.

Brave New World- Alduous Huxley
Very similar reasoning to the first. The idea of Bokanofskification is terrifying, and the whole portrait of society is just....Woah.

Generation X- Douglas Coupland
I am DEFINITELY selling all my possessions and moving out to Palm Springs.

If I had to pick a favourite series it would be between Raymond E Feist's Krondor books, and Konichi Sonoda's Gunsmith Cats.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. I don't think I'm going to be the only one to list this.
Ditto
Ditto.
Anything by Kurt Vonnegut.
Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.
Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

My favorite is Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. It will make you think about the American Dream and the state of America today, and it has funny drawings to boot.

Sherman Alexie, Reservation Blues (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0446672351/qid=1118473546/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-0345811-1703011?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)
I had to read that for a world lit class...Personally, I hated it...The basic plot (Native Americans form a failing rock band) was a bit weak, and the entire "White man bad" thing just got old fast.

Colson Whitehead, The Intuitionist (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385493002/qid=1118473483/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-0345811-1703011?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)

I'm very surprised to see this one on the list. I got probably a little over halfway through this one and lost interest in it. I'm in the elevator industry, and this one was just too wierd for my taste. But that's not really why I'm surprised to see it on the list - it just seemed so obscure to me that I'm surprised anyone else has ever even heard of it!

I had to read that for a world lit class...Personally, I hated it...The basic plot (Native Americans form a failing rock band) was a bit weak, and the entire "White man bad" thing just got old fast.

The idea of Native Americans forming a rock band is weak? How so? Haven't you ever heard of the blues/rock band called, "Indigenous"?

The Kill a Mockingbird and if i can have an award for the best 150 pages of a book then the first 150 pages of Dracula (IMHO) go down as the best ever written.

Seconded.

I have to say it warms my old librarians heart to see so many really, really good books mentioned in this thread :D

Novels hmmn...

Definitely

Siddharta (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553208845/qid=1118518408/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-3638746-4964835?v=glance&s=books) and
Steppenwolf (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553275860/qid=1118518408/sr=1-8/ref=sr_1_8/002-3638746-4964835?v=glance&s=books) by Hermann Hesse
also, Narcisuss and Goldmund (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553275860/qid=1118518408/sr=1-8/ref=sr_1_8/002-3638746-4964835?v=glance&s=books) by the same,

One Hundred Years of Solitude (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0312278675/qid=1118518374/sr=8-2/ref=pd_csp_2/002-3638746-4964835?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The First Circle (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0810115905/qid=1118518204/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/002-3638746-4964835?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by Alexandr Solzhenitsyn

I also very much enjoyed:

All of Kurt Vonnegut's (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index=books&field-author-exact=KURT%20VONNEGUT/002-3638746-4964835) works,
Harlot's Ghost (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345379659/qid=1118517880/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/002-3638746-4964835?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by Norman Mailer
Catch 22 (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0684833395/qid=1118517857/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/002-3638746-4964835?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by Joseph Heller
Dont Point That Thing At Me (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1585675628/qid=1118517833/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/002-3638746-4964835?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by Kyril Bonfiglioli
The "Foundation" series (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553293354/qid=1118517591/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-3638746-4964835?v=glance&s=books), by Isaac Asimov
Guerillas (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679731741/qid=1118517952/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-3638746-4964835) by V S Naipaul[/url]


more recently I've been quite absorbed in history, some favorites there are:

The March of Folly (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0345308239/qid=1118517976/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-3638746-4964835?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by Barbara Tuchman
Guns, Germs and Steel (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0393317552/qid=1118518004/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/002-3638746-4964835?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by Jared Diamond
A History of Warfare (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0679730826/qid=1118518134/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/002-3638746-4964835) by John Keegan
All of Keegan's other books.

A History of the English Speaking Peoples (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/077102004X/qid=1118518477/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-3638746-4964835?v=glance&s=books) by Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill

Salt, A World History (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0142001619/qid=1118518165/sr=8-2/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/002-3638746-4964835?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) by Mark Kurlansky

The Great and Secret Show - Clive Barker
Imajica - Clive Barker

I love Clive Barker, but _Weaveworld_ is still my favourite of his; _With the Great and Secret Show_ coming in second.

I had to read that for a world lit class...Personally, I hated it...The basic plot (Native Americans form a failing rock band) was a bit weak, and the entire "White man bad" thing just got old fast.

That is too bad. Some books just don't appeal to some people.

You are more than entitled to your taste. The following isn't an argument against your dislike of the book, just a comment on your comment. OK? :)

I must say I suprised you found the plot of Robert Johnson still being alive and passing his enchanted guitar to an Indian to be unrealistic. ;)

But if you think the "white man bad" idea was overdone, you might try living on a reservation. The Spokane Indians have good reason to be bitter. See, e.g., Life on a Reservation (http://www.oprah.com/uyl/angel/uyl_angel_20020211_reservation.jhtml); Native American Youth (http://www.buildingblocksforyouth.org/issues/nativeyouth/facts.html); Reservation Life Worse Than Iraq? (http://www.fcnl.org/act_nalu_curnt/indian_0317_05.htm); A Quiet Crisis (http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/na0703/na0204.pdf)

Setting aside the history, here are some nice facts about current life as a American Indian/Alaskan Native from the US Surgeon General and the US Census:

In 1999, about 26% of AI/ANs lived in poverty, compared to 13% for the United States as a whole and 8% of white Americans.


In 1995, the median household income in the US was $30,056. For AI/AN it was $19,900.


In 1980, only 56% of AI/ANs 25-years-old and over had graduated from high school. By 1990, this percentage had increased to 66%, but it was still below the 75% rate for the Nation as a whole.


In 1998, AI/AN men and women were roughly twice as likely as whites to be unemployed.


The prevalence rate of suicide for AI/ANs is 1.5 times the national rate.


Violent deaths – unintentional injuries, homicide, and suicide – account for 75% of all mortality in the second decade of life for AI/ANs.


While representing less than 2% of the U.S. population, it is estimated that AI/ANs constitute 8% of Americans who are homeless.


In 1997, an estimated 1 out of every 25 AI/AN adults were in the criminal justice system. A 1998 study found that 1 out of every 2 adolescents in a Northern Plains reservation juvenile detention facility had a substance abuse or mental health disorder. Many of these youth had multiple disorders.


Prevalence rates for current alcohol abuse and/or dependence among Northern Plains and Southwestern Vietnam veterans have been estimated to be as high as 70% compared to 11 - 32% of their white, black, and Japanese American counterparts. The estimated rate of alcohol-related deaths for AI/ANs as a whole is much higher than it is for the general population


The rate of violent victimization of AI/ANs is more than twice the national average. The higher rate of traumatic exposure results in a 22% rate of PTSD for AI/ANs, compared to 8% in the general U.S. population.


Until 1978 when Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act to end "a pattern of discrimination against American Indians," an estimated 25 to 30% of AI/AN children had been removed from their families.

Clicky (http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:t7q5dmILl9gJ:www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/mentalhealth/cre/fact4.asp+native+american+factsheet&hl=en) and clicky (http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/race/indian/ailang2.txt)

If you want real "white man bad," read some non-fiction: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0805066691/103-0345811-1703011?v=glance), In the Spirit of Crazy Horse (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0140144560/ref=pd_sim_b_5/103-0345811-1703011?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance), or Custer Died for Your Sins (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0806121297/qid=1118519932/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/103-0345811-1703011?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)

The first should make you cry. The second should make you think. The third would really piss you off. :D

EDIT: I apologize for going all political and argumentative in a thread about books. The plight of Native Americans just really makes my blood boil.

I'm very surprised to see this one on the list. I got probably a little over halfway through this one and lost interest in it. I'm in the elevator industry, and this one was just too wierd for my taste. But that's not really why I'm surprised to see it on the list - it just seemed so obscure to me that I'm surprised anyone else has ever even heard of it!

:D

The book is an extended metaphor about race. It doesn't really have a lot to do with elevators. ;)

You might try John Henry Days (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385498195/103-0345811-1703011?v=glance). It is much more straightforward. It also received more awards.

My own! :D J/k......

Some thrillers are good. Some are just plain dumb - especially ones that are so blatantly pro-American *barfs*

Well, there was a list of 25 famous authors and how they were going to vote in the last election. Virtually all those who said "Bush" were writers of Military or Espionage novels. Anyone who wrote about people said Kerry.

If it can be called a novel, "The Dark Is Rising" by Susan Cooper, because of its originality despite heavily cliched plot (evil wants to take over world, protagonist must find magic artifacts to delay it until (in the other novels) enough weapons to finally suppress it can be amassed), and the fact that I ended up reading it in an English lesson, even though it was printed in the 70s! (obviously an instant classic). Even though you KNOW that everything's going to go fine, the novel still surprises you with good/evil type fantasy moments and intricate descriptions, small branches off the main plot, a lot of mystery and even time twisting on itself to add variety.

Top five, in no order:

J.D. Salinger's Raise High The Roofbeam, Carpenters: and Seymour: An Introduction

Haruki Murakami's Wild Sheep Chase

David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas

Donald Barthelme's Sixty Stories

Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita

In his History of the English Speaking Peoples, Churchill uses the term 'Red Indians' to refer to American Indians, I can't help but smile.

I have too many favorite novels/books/stories to possibly name them all.

I'm very surprised to see this one on the list. I got probably a little over halfway through this one and lost interest in it. I'm in the elevator industry, and this one was just too wierd for my taste. But that's not really why I'm surprised to see it on the list - it just seemed so obscure to me that I'm surprised anyone else has ever even heard of it!

The Intuitionist isn't that obscure. I got it from the Book of the Month Club; it might have even been auto-shipped. I enjoyed it, but it wasn't the easiest read I've ever read. I'll agree on the weird, too...

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
Catch-22, Joseph Heller

The idea of Native Americans forming a rock band is weak? How so? Haven't you ever heard of the blues/rock band called, "Indigenous"?
It isn't that I thought it was unrealistic. I just thought there were so many other story lines mentioned that could have been more powerful and effective. I just felt like the rock band thing was too cheap for a book that was set up to be so great (my professor loved the book)



That is too bad. Some books just don't appeal to some people. *snip*But if you think the "white man bad" idea was overdone, you might try living on a reservation. The Spokane Indians have good reason to be bitter

I had a few friends in the class who really loved it. And there were aspects that I enjoyed...just overall didn't do it for me.

And honestly, I think Indians have great reason to be pissed off. It was things like saying the white men have "raped" the Indian women for hundreds of years...just got to me. I mean, Yes, horrible things did happen, and definatly continue to happen. The idea of the horses was kinda cool, but I saw it as "all the white people are bad...except for these great artists. They're cool because they're our horses spirits". And it ignored that without the white man landing in the Americas, there would have been no horses (I actually took that as being irony that Alexie meant to have there)

There were just several times where I was like...I get it. You think I'm evil because I'm a white male. Honestly, it got a bit alienating. Yeah, I'm a white male...but my family didn't move to America untill the 20's.

I guess I just expected something really different. There were certain scenes (the rape scene sticks out in my mind) that I loved. They were so rich and well written. But I felt like there were more parts that just didn't live up to the rest.

I did love when Big Mom performed her "Jesus" miracle and "doubled" the fry-bread (does anyone know if fry-bread really THAT great? I'll have to try some if it is...haha)

Oh, and thank you for saying I am entitled to my opinion. Far to rare that is said. Honestly, your list had alot of good books, and I plan on checking out the ones that I haven't read because it seems like you have good taste. I actually love it when people disagree with me over a book and I get to debate it. Its the bane of the English major

I'm not gonna start thinking on favourites, because that would take me quite a long time; however, some things everyone should at least consider:

-Everything by Jostein Gaarder, except Sophie's World - if you want a good book about philosophy, go for Hans Joachim Störig. But as for the rest, Gaarder's books are really quite good. I recently read 'The Ringmaster's Daughter'. Truly worthy of recommendation.

-The Secret History, by Donna Tartt. This, along with the next book, has got to be one of my all-time favourites. A dark and chilling thriller, yet at the same time wonderfully emotional, about a West-Coast student who, when planning out his further school career, somehow ends up studying Classical Languages in New England. Part of a small group of 5, 6 with him included, students that shuts itself out from the rest of the college, he becomes more and more drawn into their world, and eventually comes to partake in a murder of a fellow student... Which truly is only the beginning. Don't worry, this is told on the very first page of the book, I wouldn't dare give anything away! Currently read 6 times :rolleyes:

-The Discovery of Heaven, by Harry Mullisch. A 900 page collossus uniting every theme ever touched upon in Mullisch' works in one gigantic work which will keep you bound from beginning till end. Still a demanding book to read, although the first time I read it, 3 were all it took. :D

This review very much captures the essence of this book:
"(A)t once fearlessly profound and engrossingly readable. In some ways, the book bears a closer affinity with epic poetry than with the late-20th-century novel: Like Homer, Dante and Milton, Harry Mulisch takes as his setting the cosmos, and his theme is the history and meaning of everything." - Jamie James, Wall Street Journal

Well, what can I say? I like to read.

Ice Station
Matthew Reiley
gret book, full of non stop action
i should get round to reading the sequels and his other books.