damian 0 Posted June 16, 2003 Share Posted June 16, 2003 Pretty hard to pick just a few. What are your all time best reads. Can be from any stage in your life and it doesn't have to qualify as a great book, just one you really enjoyed, one that shaped your thinking, had an impact etc etc. for me: A Fortunate Life (A.B. Facey) Siddhartha (Hermann Hess) Fermat\'s Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World\'s Greatest Mathematical Problem (Simon Singh) This book is so intensely interseting that I was depressed when I finsihed it. Link to post Share on other sites
mikazooki 0 Posted June 16, 2003 Share Posted June 16, 2003 after priming with the quark and the jaguar: adventures in the simple and the comlex by murry gell-man (not especially good) i read web of life:a new understanding of living systems by fritjof capra and was able to find some drection in life neither of these books are remarkably well written, but they have some nice concepts. ive read singh's book, it was good. Link to post Share on other sites
kintaro 0 Posted June 16, 2003 Share Posted June 16, 2003 Very hard!! (not me, the topic.. ) Japanese: wagahai wa neko de aru - Nastume Soseki Professioanal: Law's Empire - Dworkin Novel: A prayer for Owen Meany - Irving (but I love a 1000 more)....I've read The Great Gatsby quite a few times.... I love books..and am currently writing one. Which makes me wonder..anyone wrote a book? Got published? This is my first attempt and don't really know what to expect...... Link to post Share on other sites
MistaSparkle 0 Posted June 16, 2003 Share Posted June 16, 2003 Quote: Originally posted by Kintaro: Japanese: wagahai wa neko de aru - Nastume Soseki I'd really like to read some japanese literature, but I read a short synopsis of that book, and it sounded like it would be really depressing. How would you describe it? Link to post Share on other sites
sam_casper 0 Posted June 16, 2003 Share Posted June 16, 2003 I think the only books i have ever read from cover to cover are.... Harry potter the 1st one *last year!! Goosebumps the Haunted mask *hey i was in year 6! Go Ask Alice *book bout a drug addicted teen Stoker *From the eyes of the last surviving POW WWII The last 2 are fantastic books both true storys resonablily depressing but they keeped me hooked. Im not much of a reader... hence i have only completed 4 books....!! Link to post Share on other sites
kintaro 0 Posted June 17, 2003 Share Posted June 17, 2003 MisterSparkle, Not depressing at all. If you like cat's..I do..it's hillarious. I've read it probably 3-4 times. It's life through a cat's eyes in the Edo era. Bochan is also a good Natsume Soseki book. Funny. If your looking for J-literature, you might want to check out Kenji Miyazawa's "Night of the Milky Way Railway"...pretty trippy read! I actually visited the location after reading the book just to see for myself (Hanamaki, Iwate). Link to post Share on other sites
Sharon 0 Posted June 17, 2003 Share Posted June 17, 2003 To Kill a Mockingbird, Watership Down, Wild Swans, The Kitchen Gods Wife, Captain Corellis Mandolin and the Anne Rice ones about the Taltos to name but a few. Link to post Share on other sites
amandanism 0 Posted June 17, 2003 Share Posted June 17, 2003 To kill a mocking bird - harper lee Falling leaves - adeline yen mah Angelas ashes - Frank McCourt A handmaids tale - margaret atwood Pride and prejudice - jane austen Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy - douglas adams merchant of venice - william shakespeare a child called 'it' - dave pelzer i have also read a truck load of books on theatre and theatre arts which i have found very interesting. Link to post Share on other sites
amandanism 0 Posted June 17, 2003 Share Posted June 17, 2003 the majority of those books i just mentioned are fairly morose and depressing. Link to post Share on other sites
mattlucas 0 Posted June 17, 2003 Share Posted June 17, 2003 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted June 17, 2003 Share Posted June 17, 2003 Heart of Darkness is one of my favourites too. There's a history book called 'King Leopold's Ghost' that looks at Belgium's colonial policy which was the historical background to Conrad's story. Fascinating stuff, and in the big historical picture, very little known. Link to post Share on other sites
sexer 0 Posted June 17, 2003 Share Posted June 17, 2003 Lord of the Rings Hard work! Link to post Share on other sites
Stefan 0 Posted June 18, 2003 Share Posted June 18, 2003 Lord of the Ring was a pleasure. Gutted when I finished them.! "1984" was a classic. Link to post Share on other sites
nzlegend 1 Posted June 18, 2003 Share Posted June 18, 2003 Favourite author - Kurt Vonnegut. Love his work Link to post Share on other sites
kintaro 0 Posted June 18, 2003 Share Posted June 18, 2003 I like Kurt Vonnegut, too. Player Piano was an interesting read. I've read others but forgot the titles. Link to post Share on other sites
minus 1 Posted June 18, 2003 Share Posted June 18, 2003 Les Miserables (in English) Link to post Share on other sites
echineko 1 Posted June 18, 2003 Share Posted June 18, 2003 I like to reading about other peoples life story, its many time is very interesting. Link to post Share on other sites
damian 0 Posted June 18, 2003 Author Share Posted June 18, 2003 Quote: Originally posted by echineko: I like to reading about other peoples life story, its many time is very interesting. I too. That is why I enjoyed A.B. Faceys story so much. I tend to nearly always prefer factual accounts rather than fiction. If I want adventure I will read something like Papillion or Robinson Crusoe (ok, not quite fact)or even Moby Dick . If the book is pure fiction then I need to learn from it, stimulate the brain. For example In the Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco). In my original post forgot to mention Against the Gods: the Remarkable Story of Risk. I do enjoy fiction, but only 1 in 10 that I read are of that type. I almost never read pure fiction unless it has that literature edge to it. Should post this to another thread, but I once tried to write some fiction. The theme was supposed to be about the confusion of people and how you can't measure something without changing its state, thus you can never measure anything at all. It was a total failure. I would have to sit up extremely late to get my warped mind going and then would just puke out complete nonsense. I really had difficulty creating characters (I am not the artistic or interpersonal type and just creating characters was to theatrical for me) so I attempted to write a story without actually identifying or refering to any actual character in the story, even though the strory was all about human confusion. I was going to call the book either: Interpretation or This Page Was Intentionally Left Blank Link to post Share on other sites
enderzero 0 Posted June 18, 2003 Share Posted June 18, 2003 A few that spring to mind are: On the Road by Keruac bit me with the travel bug. I have Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha to thank for my inital interest in Japan, a tale that truly touched me. Shogun by Clavell is definitely an all time fave. Siddhartha is definitely a beautiful book. Gibson's Neuromancer is a great sci-fi romp. There are a ton of others. Those spring right to mind though. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted June 18, 2003 Share Posted June 18, 2003 "Sanity, madness, and the family" by R.D. Laing was a seminal read for me. It tends to confirm the words of the poet "They f**k you up, your mum and dad." but if you take it with a pinch of salt, it can be very refreshing to acknowledge it. (I didn't take it with any salt at all, and had some rather big battles with my folks who are at least as argumentative as I am. ) Some of his interviews with schizophrenic people about their family relationships really made me squirm. I've also read "Dispatches" by Michael Herr more times than I care to remember. I OD'd on fiction doing Eng Lit at uni, so I hardly ever touch the stuff anymore. But "The English Patient" made a lasting impression. The story threatens to spiral into total weirdness without ever getting completely incomprehensible (the latter being something I hate in books). Link to post Share on other sites
Goemon 0 Posted June 18, 2003 Share Posted June 18, 2003 Quote: spiral into total weirdness without ever getting completely incomprehensible Then, you definately would not like one of my recent favorites, Infinite Jest . I had to admire the skill of the author, although some people would accuse him of just showing off. Link to post Share on other sites
nekobi 0 Posted June 19, 2003 Share Posted June 19, 2003 i love all the books i've read by tom robbins, especially jitterbug perfume and skinny legs and all. when i grow up, i want to be a character in his next book Link to post Share on other sites
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