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Post by hazelbug on May 16, 2010 23:44:43 GMT -5
I was too lazy to see if we already had one of these threads so I've started a new one, inspired by Di's "favourite films" thread (which I am about to be all over like a bad smell  ) ;D What books or authors have had a profound effect on you? Do you read books over and over, always finding something new? I'm a huge geek and reading and just physical books are one of my great passions - these are just some of my favourites (fiction/nonfiction combined): Sky Burial - Xinran Meditations - Marcus Aurealius The Memoirs of Cleopatra - Margaret George Helen of Troy - Margaret George Season of Passage - Christopher Pike Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer Summer Sisters - Judy Blume American Made - Shylah Boyd Lynda Laplante's Cold series Apaches - Lorenzo Carcaterra The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway The Hobbit and LOTR - Tolkien Pride and Prejudice - Austen I, Elizabeth - Rosalind Miles Charles II - Antonia Fraser And anything by Bukowski  And I'll stop there, but there are many more...which I'll divulge at a later date  |
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Post by CynicalnBeautiful on May 17, 2010 6:49:36 GMT -5
I'll just list some of my favorite authors because the book list itself would be too ridiculously long.
Poppy Z Brite
Anne Rice
Patricia Cornwell
Stephen King
Neil Gaiman
Edgar Allan Poe
F Scott Fitzgerald
Del James
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Post by Esther on May 17, 2010 9:44:46 GMT -5
Jonathan Safran Foer - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
John Boyne - The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Mark Haddon - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time
Nicholas Sparks - The Notebook
Nicholas Sparks - A Walk to Remember
and lots more.. I'll probably have more titles after the summer ;D (I have a huge pile of books I stil want to read, but I don't have time until it's summer)
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Post by randomfan on May 17, 2010 10:53:07 GMT -5
My favourite books of all time are the Harry Potter series, especially Deathly Hallows. I think the characters and stories JK Rowling has invented are just fabulous.
I do read other books but they are mainly self-help, medical, how-to etc these days...I used to read more fiction, but I just can't get into them much anymore, I don't have the patience for it, and basically just get bored midway through the book...I'm so picky these days...I used to be a big Sidney Sheldon fan about 20 years ago...I wonder what happened to all those books?
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Post by stoptheworld on May 18, 2010 10:20:51 GMT -5
Di, I have a feeling my house will look like that in errr about ten years. ;D
And omg, wow, books. There's a looong list of them but here are some of my favorite authors:
J.K. Rowling
Ian McEwan
Neil Gaiman
Mary Higgins Clark
James Patterson
Kay Hooper
Khaled Hosseini
Jeffrey Archer
Anne Rice
and a lot of other authors not listed whose works I'm sure I'll love if only I'll get around to reading them. ;D
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Post by TuckedAway on May 18, 2010 17:26:01 GMT -5
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand TA's just gonna be over here, havin' a bookgasm.
When that's over with, she'll respond with a valid post, and she'll stop referring to herself in the Third Person. (well, at least for awhile)
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Post by hazelbug on May 19, 2010 5:05:29 GMT -5
Brigii and Jess...I heart both of you Brigii for mentioning Khaled Hosseini and Jess for putting me on total tender hooks Di, you sound like a woman after my own heart - I love the range of books you read~ You should see my collection of Tudor and Stuart books. I'm building a library! And have you read The Dreadful Judgement about the fire of London? Highly engaging! Actually maybe we could also turn this into a What are you reading? thread - make suggestions, or tell us books to avoid I could lead off - I'm currently reading The Crossroads by Niccolo Ammaniti. Brilliant! All his books are brilliant. I'm Not Scared made me feel like I was the child protagonist he wrote the fear so well...and Steal You Away about an aging Italian lotharo had me in turn giggling, gasping and crying. I'm gonna add him to my favourite authors list (and John Gilstrap! Can't believe I forgot him!!!) I shouldn't have started this thread...once I get started on books, I really can't stop. It's an illness! |
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Post by hazelbug on May 19, 2010 5:55:23 GMT -5
Didn't Hanson write another book on the fire? Have you read Christopher Hibbert's London, Biography of a City? One of those lovely overviews through the ages. It's also painfully cheap on Amazon. Hmmm...I'm not sure if he has done another one on the fire, but I've just bought one of his on the Armada...second hand and a rather weighty looking tome! Let me know how you enjoy it, if indeed you do I did already damn you haze for starting this thread. You know what a slave I am to my geekiness. Well, at least we're not talking about 18th century Chinese export porcelain, cuz then I'd never get out of here. Di, you could totally teach me! And I could teach you about crystals Or illuminated manuscripts! Oh and there is another book. I can't recommend The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson more highly. If you love books about old books, and romances that sweep through the ages it is well worth a read. I wandered around the house with it I didn't want to put it down hehe |
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Post by lisette on May 19, 2010 8:27:35 GMT -5
I don't read much books, maybe I read a book every... two years or when I have to read a book for school. The only books that have more than 600 pages and I've read them are the first two books of Inheritance Cycle. I have the 3rd one unfinished though I've been reading it for a year already. So maybe I go with the Inheritance Cycle since they're almost the only books I've read. Ever. XD |
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Post by TuckedAway on May 19, 2010 22:18:53 GMT -5
For an English teacher.... I read a surprisingly small amount...
Authors:
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Herman Melville
Cormac McCarthy
Ray Bradbury
Stephen King
Dean Koontz
Anne Rice
Lois Lowery
Stephen Crane
Tennessee Williams
Brothers Grimm
Larry McMurtry
Annie Proulx
Dr. Seuss
Shel Silverstein
Hans Christian Andersen
Edith Wharton
Specific Books/Short Stories
The Giver
The Scarlet Letter
The Artist of the Beautiful
Brokeback Mountain
From the Corner of His Eye
House of Leaves
Fahrenheit 451
The Crossing
Cities of the Plain
Outer Dark
The Road
The Shawshank Redemption
The Confidence Man
Pierre
Where The Wild Things Are
To Kill A Mockingbird
Moby Dick
Ethan Frome
The House of Mirth
The Hours
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Post by hazelbug on May 20, 2010 3:46:59 GMT -5
Jess - Is House of Leaves the name of that creepy book you told me about? I couldn't remember the other day when I was in the second hand book store! |
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Post by hazelbug on May 21, 2010 16:48:07 GMT -5
Di, I bought Peter Ackroyd's Biography of London yesterday...it is a huge book! I couldn't remember the name of the author you had recommended, but it looks like a highly readable book so I'm going to give it a crack |
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Post by TuckedAway on May 21, 2010 18:19:45 GMT -5
Jess - Is House of Leaves the name of that creepy book you told me about? I couldn't remember the other day when I was in the second hand book store! IT ISSS AND OMG IT'S STILL CREEPY!!! IT'S ALL INSPIRED BY ONE OF MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE GREEK TRADITIONS, AND OHHHHMYGOODDDDDDD... ahem And, how the fuck could I forget Tolkien and C.S. Lewis?! I <3 them. |
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Post by Esther on May 22, 2010 3:49:35 GMT -5
I forgot CS Lewis too! and Harry Potter!
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Post by hazelbug on May 22, 2010 18:10:25 GMT -5
I forgot Chris Kuzneski, and the book The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (love, love, love this book!)
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) ;D
