Best book you've ever read

[Northland]

I have also read BRAVE NEW WORLD and found it quite interesting... I read it very early in high school... probably around my freshman year and would like to read it again.

Strange how things happen. Just a few months ago, I plucked my old copy of Brave New World off the shelf and read it again. It had been more than 30 years and I had forgotten how, not only good; but, also true, meaningful and powerful it was- and it still is.

My favourite book is also one of the technically best written books I've ever read - Catch-22 - Joseph Heller.

Other close bests:

The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner
For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway

What? You didn't like Absalom, Absalom! ?

(and I've already acknowledged Hemingway as one of my favorites)

I'm surprised I had to wait until the second page before someone mentioned Catch-22.

A pesky critic was interviewing Heller and he remarked, "You've never written anything as good as Catch-22." Heller quickly shot back: "Yeah, neither has anyone else."

It also has a great ending.

Joseph Heller was indeed a good author; however, I never quite felt comfortable with Catch-22. It's much later follow-up which brought Yossarian back to life, Closing Time was only slightly better for me. Perhaps it has to do with the writing style which he was using. Then again, it may have to do with knowing him on a personal level; which admittedly skews the view (as I believe I have previously spoken on regarding Larry (Lawrence) Block). I also enjoyed his novel Good As Gold- it was at the time a just about perfect escape mechanism and it is hidden somewheres around here behind the stacks of books lining the shelves.

Also, I just remembered Colleen McCullough's The Thorn Birds; which, I quite enjoyed several eons ago. And something a little different from her usual fare which was also quite good The Ladies of Missalonghi.

 

[ManlyBanisters]

A pesky critic was interviewing Heller and he remarked, "You've never written anything as good as Catch-22." Heller quickly shot back: "Yeah, neither has anyone else."

:biggrin1: because it's true...

It also has a great ending.

Jump! :wink:

What? You didn't like Absalom, Absalom! ?

Yeah - I just like The Sound and the Fury better - especially the first 1/4.

Joseph Heller was indeed a good author; however, I never quite felt comfortable with Catch-22. It's much later follow-up which brought Yossarian back to life, Closing Time was only slightly better for me. Perhaps it has to do with the writing style which he was using. Then again, it may have to do with knowing him on a personal level; which admittedly skews the view (as I believe I have previously spoken on regarding Larry (Lawrence) Block). I also enjoyed his novel Good As Gold- it was at the time a just about perfect escape mechanism and it is hidden somewheres around here behind the stacks of books lining the shelves.

Good as Gold is a good read - have you read Picture This? I love that one, and God Knows has some excellent moments too - I couldn't get into Something Happened. I have yet to read Closing Time - the end of Catch-22 was so perfect and so brilliant that I just can't bear to think of the story having been continued. Silly, aren't I? I suppose I will one day.

 

[B_Hickboy]

The Utter Stupidity of Making Ridiculous and Totally Subjective Value Judgments Where None Is Called For, by Lennie Richardson

 

[bloodmetal0001]

i partial to the twilight series(twilight,newmoon and eclipse) by stephenie meyer, and the uglies series(uglies,pretties,specials and extras) by scoot westerfield, and of course LOTR

 

[midlifebear]

Rubi:

I forgot about Durrell, whom I like very much. Unfortunately, I read the Alexandria Quartet backwards, starting with Clea and ending with Justine. I wouldn't recommend that approach. My favorite of his Tunc, an obscure, pseudo science-fiction piece about genius being co-opted by surreptitious machinations of the ancient Ottoman Empire.

But his brother's memoir My Family and Other Animals is a flaming riot.

 

[naughty]

Strange how things happen. Just a few months ago, I plucked my old copy of Brave New World off the shelf and read it again. It had been more than 30 years and I had forgotten how, not only good; but, also true, meaningful and powerful it was- and it still is.


What? You didn't like Absalom, Absalom! ?

(and I've already acknowledged Hemingway as one of my favorites)


Joseph Heller was indeed a good author; however, I never quite felt comfortable with Catch-22. It's much later follow-up which brought Yossarian back to life, Closing Time was only slightly better for me. Perhaps it has to do with the writing style which he was using. Then again, it may have to do with knowing him on a personal level; which admittedly skews the view (as I believe I have previously spoken on regarding Larry (Lawrence) Block). I also enjoyed his novel Good As Gold- it was at the time a just about perfect escape mechanism and it is hidden somewheres around here behind the stacks of books lining the shelves.

Also, I just remembered Colleen McCullough's The Thorn Birds; which, I quite enjoyed several eons ago. And something a little different from her usual fare which was also quite good The Ladies of Missalonghi.

BOth of your Mc Cullough choices are great I chose those as well. I also was trying to remember the name of her latest Australian saga. I know her latest book is Antony and Cleopatra.

 

[Ethyl]

More that came to mind:

Blindness - Jose Saramago. A sometimes disturbing look into human behaviour at its worst but also a hopeful peek into its best.

Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankl. Every person who's wondered about their purpose in life should read this book.

The Power of Myth - Joseph Campbell

Memories, Dreams, and Reflections - C.G. Jung

The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

Rubi:
I forgot about Durrell, whom I like very much.

Betcha also like Nabokov.
I've read a fair bit, I suppose ... some novels, criticism, and autobiography.
Lolita and Ada, Or Ardour: A Family Chronicle were my favorites among his novels.
Speak, Memory, a volume about his own life, was something I also enjoyed.

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

I looked into the window of Le Dome and saw a little man, very undressed, sitting alone at a café table. I could swear it was Lawrence Durrell.

Hey, talk about a typo.
Durrell was a bit of a sexual adventurer, but he didn't sit nude in Paris cafes.
I meant to say very underdressed. He had on old pants and an old windbreaker ... looked like a bum, in fact.

 

[davis67]

Having been an english major, the best books I've read and my favourite books that I've read aren't necessarily the same...but i'll stick with some of my favs...

Pat Conroy - The Water Is Wide, Beach Music
John Irving - Cider House Rules, A Prayer For Owen Meany
Robert Crais - The Elvis Cole books
Robert B. Parker - The Spenser books
Stephen King - The Stand
Mordecai Richler - Barney's Version

and an honorable mention to the novels of Mo Hayder because her books are so fucked up and strange that i can't help but enjoy them.

 

[IntoxicatingToxin]

I've read a LOT of good books... I don't know that there is one "best" one.. but I'll narrow it down to my top two. The first one is "Conversations with God" by Neale Donald Walsh. I kinda refer to it as my "bible"... (sorry if that offends anyone). The second book is a fiction book entitled "Plainsong" by Kent Haruf. It's very well written.

 

[prince_will]

ooh, another to add.

The Giver - Lois Lowry.

children's book, my ass.

 

[2322]

Nabokov is embarrassing. The man's command of English is simply stunning for someone who is not a native English speaker. Like Francoise Sagan, I find myself re-reading sentences to grasp their entire meaning.

 

[ZOS23xy]

Nabokov was "afflicted" with synathesia, and often always associated words and shapes and smells and forms and sounds with one another.

I have this too, but not to the degree it would allow me to produce a book like Nabakov's (alas). LOLITA was a fine novel too.

I also have read much Robert A. Hienlien, Mark Twain and Arthur Machen.

I still find Twain's essays to be a delight, one hundred twenty years later.

 

[naughty]

Having been an english major, the best books I've read and my favourite books that I've read aren't necessarily the same...but i'll stick with some of my favs...

Pat Conroy - The Water Is Wide, Beach Music
John Irving - Cider House Rules, A Prayer For Owen Meany
Robert Crais - The Elvis Cole books
Robert B. Parker - The Spenser books
Stephen King - The Stand
Mordecai Richler - Barney's Version

and an honorable mention to the novels of Mo Hayder because her books are so fucked up and strange that i can't help but enjoy them.

Great choices. What about Margaret Atwood?

 

[tgw]

The Great Gatsby
Catcher in the Rye

 

[naughty]

Nabokov was "afflicted" with synathesia, and often always associated words and shapes and smells and forms and sounds with one another.

I have this too, but not to the degree it would allow me to produce a book like Nabakov's (alas). LOLITA was a fine novel too.

I also have read much Robert A. Hienlien, Mark Twain and Arthur Machen.

I still find Twain's essays to be a delight, one hundred twenty years later.

Have you ever visited his home in Hartford CT? It looks like a Mississippi river boat that someone crashed into the side of a hill. It is wonderful!

The Mark Twain House

 

[sdg475]

The Nature and Properties of Soils, Fourteenth Edition! Well, not really but that's what I am telling myself right now to get motivated.

 

[D_Gunther Snotpole]

Nabokov is embarrassing. The man's command of English is simply stunning for someone who is not a native English speaker. Like Francoise Sagan, I find myself re-reading sentences to grasp their entire meaning.

People seem to have the idea that English was an adult acquisition for Navokov.
Actually, he came from a ridiculously cultured family and his father would read Dickens and other English novelists to Vladimir and his siblings when they were preschoolers.
He had some written command of English before he could write in Russian.
The funny thing is that he never really learned to speak English without a rather marked Russian accent.
Just listening to him, you could easily believe he might have learned English, say, in his late teens or twenties.

 

[Quite Irate]

Dibs in Search of Self.





If you thought that was funny, we should be friends.