2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
Best book you've ever read
- Thread starter Rimshot
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Fiction - The Last Open Road - BS Levy
Non Fiction - "By Brooks to Broad for Leaping" by Denise McCluggage
The last open road is not the most original story or the best written but it really connected with me. Its a very fun read if you are at all into vintage sports cars.
Non Fiction - "By Brooks to Broad for Leaping" by Denise McCluggage
The last open road is not the most original story or the best written but it really connected with me. Its a very fun read if you are at all into vintage sports cars.
From what I read, the movie will be a pretty low budget, hastily made production and the expectations are that it won't be a very good movie.
Just finished it myself. What a terrific writer. I don't know whether he can do as well with a different setting, but I hope he tries.
The most enjoyable nonfiction book that comes to mind is Undaunted Courage by Stephen E. Ambrose.
The Count of Monte Cristo by far.
Midnight's Children-Salman Rushdie
It-Stephen King
A House for Mister Biswas-VS Naipal
It-Stephen King
A House for Mister Biswas-VS Naipal
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- #47
Yeah, I knew The Bible would get mentioned and I was trying to think of some clever disclaimer about that. But rest assured, my copies are in heavy rotation.
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- #48
In the most manly, hetero way possible, I love you all! Seems I've got a bit of reading to do.
woah, that is a lot of movie!
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- #51
Books ruin movies. 
Don quixote is right up there with the best of them
so many to choose from
check out the third police man
so many to choose from
check out the third police man
+1 to Dune and the suggestion of Ursula K. LeGuin. I have a hard time deciding which of hers is my favorite, so I'll just list several! The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, The Lathe of Heaven, and the first few books of the Earthsea series. As for Dune, it's one of those books I end up re-reading about once a year. (Which usually gets me to re-reading the rest of the series, which is not nearly as universally liked as the original, but I love the way Herbert explores social and political evolution and long-term consequences of not just actions, but of the very structures of society.)
I'm also big on philosophy, and books in that region I couldn't do without include Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Spinoza's Ethics, Hume's Treatise of Human Nature, and Heidegger's Being and Time. That's just a short list
. A lesser known and more contemporary work I highly recommend is called Radical Hope, by Jonathan Lear. It looks at how the Crow tribe lived in the days before the westward expansion of the US, and how they met that expansion. Philosophically, it addresses how one can think about the unthinkable, how a society can adapt when everything it once defined itself by no longer has any meaning. Check it out if you are a philosophically-inclined reader; it would make an excellent reading after the Nicomachean Ethics, on which it draws heavily.
I'm also big on philosophy, and books in that region I couldn't do without include Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Spinoza's Ethics, Hume's Treatise of Human Nature, and Heidegger's Being and Time. That's just a short list
. A lesser known and more contemporary work I highly recommend is called Radical Hope, by Jonathan Lear. It looks at how the Crow tribe lived in the days before the westward expansion of the US, and how they met that expansion. Philosophically, it addresses how one can think about the unthinkable, how a society can adapt when everything it once defined itself by no longer has any meaning. Check it out if you are a philosophically-inclined reader; it would make an excellent reading after the Nicomachean Ethics, on which it draws heavily.
Fiction: It by Stephen King
Non-Fiction: The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston
Non-Fiction: The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston
My Last Sigh by Luis Bunuel
The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch by Hui Neng
The Name of the Rose AND Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Pretty much anything by Cormac McCarthy, too.
The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch by Hui Neng
The Name of the Rose AND Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Pretty much anything by Cormac McCarthy, too.
I have three books that I view as the best that I have ever read
1) Atlas Shrugged
2) The Charm School by Nelson DeMille
3) The Stand
1) Atlas Shrugged
2) The Charm School by Nelson DeMille
3) The Stand
I love many of James Michener's books because they start 1000's of years ago and they're long. Centennial, Chesapeake, The Covenant, and Space really stood out.
I was 40 when I finally got around to reading War and Peace. Loved it, all 1700 pages. It's a shapshot of time that will never be again, and yet also timeless.
The only novel I've read more than twice is Shogun.
I was 40 when I finally got around to reading War and Peace. Loved it, all 1700 pages. It's a shapshot of time that will never be again, and yet also timeless.
The only novel I've read more than twice is Shogun.
The end of Shogun absolutely destroyed me. I loved that one.
Here are the correct answers 
http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/
If have to chose one & only one, it will be Hemingway's
"A farewell to arms"
Some other books that have had a profound effect on me in one or more ways & that I highly recommend anyone to read are:
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
The sun also rises - Hemingway
http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/
If have to chose one & only one, it will be Hemingway's
"A farewell to arms"
Some other books that have had a profound effect on me in one or more ways & that I highly recommend anyone to read are:
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
The sun also rises - Hemingway
Among the ancients, The Iliad of Homer is at the top of my list. The Greek tragedies are great too ... if I had to pick one author of Aescelus, Sophocles and Euripides, I'd probably pick Sophocles, but it's a close race.
The best plays of Shakespeare are fantastic as well. Being chopped up into plays rather than gathered in a novel or two, his great work is harder to recommend with just one title.
In terms of modern works, I am a huge fan of Joseph Conrad. Lord Jim is my favourite, and The Secret Agent is a close second. I have not read Nostromo, though, which many consider his best. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy is incredible as well. In the 20th Century, James Joyce's Ulysses is fantastic.
The best plays of Shakespeare are fantastic as well. Being chopped up into plays rather than gathered in a novel or two, his great work is harder to recommend with just one title.
In terms of modern works, I am a huge fan of Joseph Conrad. Lord Jim is my favourite, and The Secret Agent is a close second. I have not read Nostromo, though, which many consider his best. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy is incredible as well. In the 20th Century, James Joyce's Ulysses is fantastic.
