Ns Best Book of All Time.
Right, after the BBC best book I decided to have a go. Post the book you think should win here, after 3 days I'll collect all the nominations in and devide the books into the groups of 8, top 2 will go through to the final/semi-final (depending on how many nominations we get.)
Haitenstan
08-07-2005, 20:37
Charlie and The Chocolate Factory for sheer invetivness, satire and joy given to all who read. (Plus Augustus Gloop Kicks Ass!)
Blessed Isles
08-07-2005, 20:49
The Outsider (Modern Man in Search of a Soul) - Colin Wilson or The Birth and Death of Meaning - Ernest Becker. Classics of the limited 'Pop Existentialism' genre
Nominations: (before you ask why some are on the list twice, if there nominated twice there on twice.)
Charlie and the chocolate factory
The Outsider
Huckleberry Finn
don quixote by miguel de cervantes
Finite and Infinite Games by James P Carse
Skinny Legs And All by Tom Robbins
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
"Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1866)
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
1984 by George Orwell
collected Fictions, Jorge Luis Borges
Jurassic Park by Michael Chricton
The Sign of the Four - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
J.R.R. Tolkien The Silmarillion
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlin.
His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman
Catch-22
Playboy- Hugh Hefner
Cien Anos de Soledad
One Fish ,Two Fish
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
The Dune Chronicles
Catch-22 by Josef Heller
Pride and Prejudice
Nineteen-Eighty Four by George Orwell
Animal Farm
Posterior Analytica by Aristotle.
The Republic.
God-Emperor of Dune
The Divine Comedy by John Milton
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Sprach Zarathustra
The Deed of Paksenarrion
Left hand of Darkness
The Bible
August 1914 by Aleksandr Solzenitsyn
House of Leaves
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
Bob Greene
08-07-2005, 20:55
Huckleberry Finn
don quixote by miguel de cervantes
Blessed Isles
08-07-2005, 21:04
A great one for NSer's (relevant to the game in many ways) is:
Finite and Infinite Games by James P Carse
Intangelon
08-07-2005, 21:04
Just one nomination? Oh, okay, if I gotta...
Skinny Legs And All by Tom Robbins
It seems very appropriate given the maculate religious and historical origins of recent events. Isaac and Ishmael open a restaurant near the UN....
Tomzilla
08-07-2005, 21:05
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Keruvalia
08-07-2005, 21:07
"Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
I V Stalin
08-07-2005, 21:08
Jennifer Government, of course!
My nominations:
Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski)
EDIT: Yes, I know I'm only allowed one, but I couldn't choose! Goddammit!
Since I can't pick just one:
- Also Sprach Zarathustra, Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen - Friedrich Nietzsche (1883)
- Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1866)
- Kafka on the Shore - Murakami Haruki (2002)
- A Theory of Justice - John Rawls (1973)
EDIT: I'll go with the bold one if I have to nominate just one.
The Cat-Tribe
08-07-2005, 21:23
Ooooh, some good nominations.
If I have to pick one:
Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
Honorable mention:
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
Lao-tse, Tao Te Ching
Albert Camus, The Stranger
Drunk commies deleted
08-07-2005, 22:02
collected Fictions, Jorge Luis Borges
Jurassic Park by Michael Chricton
[NS]Ihatevacations
08-07-2005, 22:13
The Sign of the Four - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Swimmingpool
08-07-2005, 22:17
I'll give ya three. If you can only take one, choose from this list at random.
Kazuo Ishiguro The Remains of the Day
Irving Stone The Agony and the Ecstasy
J.R.R. Tolkien The Silmarillion
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Postman - David Brin
If only one is acceptable, then go with The Postman.
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlin.
Yes, it's a lot more than just a shitty movie. :headbang:
Sanctaphrax
08-07-2005, 22:58
I have to go with a trilogy instead of a book.
His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman.
And Anne Franks Diary.
Too many to name, but I'm probably the only one who'd dare say this here:
Jennifer Government was a piece of shit setup begging for a megabucks movie deal. Inauthentic hackjob by a whackjob.
:rolleyes:
Mauiwowee
09-07-2005, 00:18
Only one - Catch-22
If you'll take runner's up,
Animal Farm
Brave New World
1984
The Land of the Enemy
09-07-2005, 00:22
Playboy- Hugh Hefner :p :p
New Granada
09-07-2005, 00:26
Probably Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Cien Anos de Soledad.
I'm very partial to Hermann Hesse though.
One Fish ,Two Fish
If you are not selecting picture books, The Four Past Midnight by Stephen King
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, I have a bet that says no one who has recently posted has read this book, because if you had, it would already been nominated.
The Dune Chronicles, from Dune to Chapterhouse . Perfect mix of politics, religion, technology, environmentalism, metaphor, and much more.
Frank Herbert's masterpiece.
Boonytopia
09-07-2005, 01:23
Narrowing it down to one is extremely difficult, but if I have to choose, it would be Catch-22 by Josef Heller.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (also Emma, but not as good as P&P)
Also...
Narnia Series by C S Lewis
Syrup by Maxx Barry (I preferred it to JG)
Lord of the Rings by J R R Tolkien
The Bible by A Naughty Boy (you know... he's not the Messiah?)
Commie Catholics
09-07-2005, 02:33
Nineteen-Eighty Four by George Orwell.
Leonstein
09-07-2005, 02:38
Nineteen-Eighty Four by George Orwell.
Seconded emphatically!
+ Animal Farm, LotR, Sophie's World/Choice (I don't know the difference...)
Isn't it interesting that nobody mentioned the Bible... :D
Xenophobialand
09-07-2005, 02:39
Posterior Analytica by Aristotle.
People always forget that what they think about is usually less important than how they think about it, and there has never been a better work on how knowledge works in the history of philosophy.
Bodies Without Organs
09-07-2005, 02:45
The Republic.
Robert the Terrible
09-07-2005, 02:52
The Original Dune series is by far my favorite series of books. But if only one is needed, then God-Emperor of Dune is my favorite favorite.
Commie Catholics
09-07-2005, 02:54
The Republic.
Must get around to reading that.
SHAENDRA
09-07-2005, 03:03
The Dune Chronicles, from Dune to Chapterhouse . Perfect mix of politics, religion, technology, environmentalism, metaphor, and much more.
Frank Herbert's masterpiece.
Damn, you picked my first choice so... i am going to go with The Divine Comedy by John Milton, with Paradise Lost as my favorite part of the trilogy.
I would like to nominate... hmm... there are so many good ones...
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Ender's Game
Player Piano
CthulhuFhtagn
09-07-2005, 03:51
Also Sprach Zarathustra
That Bug Zapper Guy
09-07-2005, 03:59
The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon
Demented Hamsters
09-07-2005, 05:08
Left hand of Darkness by Ursula Guin.
Demented Hamsters
09-07-2005, 05:09
Best fiction book of all-time: The Bible.
Rivotril
09-07-2005, 05:47
August 1914 by Aleksandr Solzenitsyn
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.
I V Stalin
09-07-2005, 17:52
Isn't it interesting that nobody mentioned the Bible... :D
Well, it starts off ok, but gets kinda preachy about halfway through...Also, the main character, y'know, that Jesus guy, some of the stuff he does is a little bit far-fetched.
Also, seeing as how someone else has nominated Catch-22, can you make my nomination (it's on the first page of the thread) House of Leaves? Please?
Blessed Isles
10-07-2005, 19:45
Seconded emphatically!
+ Animal Farm, LotR, Sophie's World/Choice (I don't know the difference...)
Isn't it interesting that nobody mentioned the Bible... :D
I imagine many people would consider it inappropriate to nominate works which claim to be sacred/inspired in this list, at least I do. However, for a work inspired by such literature (the Bible) I would nominate:
Adiel by Shlomo DuNour
Bob Greene
10-07-2005, 19:59
Too many to name, but I'm probably the only one who'd dare say this here:
Jennifer Government was a piece of shit setup begging for a megabucks movie deal. Inauthentic hackjob by a whackjob.
:rolleyes:
I agree. Syrup was at least readable. JG just was too boring. The characters were inconsistent to say the least, imho. I'm not going to say anything more, but if you want to read it, buy a used copy from Amazon.
Pepe Dominguez
10-07-2005, 20:08
Anything Sienkiewicz.. "Quo Vadis," "The Teutonic Knights," and of course the Trilogy (esp. "The Deluge").
"The Castle" and "The Trial," from Kafka..
Someone said "Catch-22".. that was a fun one.
Lemme think of some more.. :)
Libre Arbitre
10-07-2005, 21:19
If I have to pick just one, Grendel by Scott Gardiner.
Also on my top list are,
1984,
The Possessed,
and A Journey to the Center of the Earth.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I love his writing, especialy compared with his "rivals" like Hemingway, and great symbolism.
Ack, it's not easy to just pick one... I'll have to say Huis-Clos, by Jean-Paul Sartre, because it's one of the few books I've gone back and read again and again because I liked it so much.
For the sake of it, an honourable mention to:
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R Tolkien
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Heir to the Empire - Timothy Zahn
Hamlet - William Shakespeare (and more or less anything by Shakespeare, for that matter! Bl**d* brilliant!)
Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad (This one would come a close second after Huis Clos, and is the one I would put in if I could nominate two.)
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
True Country - Kim Scott
And I'm probably forgetting some. ;)
Bodies Without Organs
11-07-2005, 12:57
Ack, it's not easy to just pick one... I'll have to say Huis-Clos, by Jean-Paul Sartre, because it's one of the few books I've gone back and read again and again because I liked it so much.
Hamlet - William Shakespeare (and more or less anything by Shakespeare, for that matter! Bl**d* brilliant!)
Do plays actually count as the nebulously defined 'books' for the purposes of this thread?
Do plays actually count as the nebulously defined 'books' for the purposes of this thread?
I hope so, since Huis-Clos is a play... If not, though, then I nominate Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad.
Fachistos
11-07-2005, 13:17
Kerouac - on the road
Hardt & Negri - Empire
...I can't think today. Must be the heat.
Stelleriana
11-07-2005, 14:09
The Source by Michner
Pterodonia
11-07-2005, 14:19
Here are some of my all-time favorites:
Adult:
"The DaVinci Code," by Dan Brown
"Clan of the Cave Bear," by Jean Auel
"Chocolat," by Joanne Harris
"Life of Pi," by Yann Martel
"Jurassic Park," by Michael Crichton
Ages 12 to Adult:
"Witch Child," by Celia Rees
"The Secret Life of Bees," by Sue Monk Kidd
"To Kill a Mockingbird," by Harper Lee
"Huckleberry Finn," by Mark Twain
"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," by Mark Twain
"Call of the Wild," by Jack London
"Robin Hood," by Howard Pyle
"The Secret Garden," by Frances Hodgson Burnett
"Treasure Island," by Robert Louis Stevenson
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," by JK Rowling
Curantan
11-07-2005, 14:49
Was it three days the nomination was open? think i have missed it.
anyway
"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," by JK Rowling
in the UK it's the Philosopher's stone. do you know why they changed it? and did they change the name of the film, too?
Pterodonia
11-07-2005, 19:52
in the UK it's the Philosopher's stone. do you know why they changed it? and did they change the name of the film, too?
It's because they think Americans are too stupid to understand the reference. But yeah, the film name was changed as well.
Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo,
The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas,
And by way of correction: The Divine Comedy was not by John Milton (of Paradise Lost fame), it was by Dante Alighieri.
Aust. In your list, 'Sprach Zarathustra' is properly titled 'Also Sprach Zarathustra.' The also would be the German equivalent of 'Thus,' so the English title is 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra.'
Pity that got but one nomination.