What Are Your Ten Favorite Fiction Books?

[Rudy]

Just What it says; list your top ten picks for fiction books. There's a little fudge room, so less, or a little more is fine, but don't just list every book you like :)

I chose to limit my selection to one book per author, but others should not feel so obligated. So, in no particular order:


Sophie's World - Jostein Gaarder
The Wee Free Men (series) - Terry Pratchett
Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
Contact - Carl Sagan
Cryptonomicon - Neil Stephenson
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (series) - Douglas Adams
The Giver - Lois Lowry
Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen
I, Robot (series) - Isaac Asimov


Yours?

[Merle]

1. The Portrait of a Lady - Henry James
2. The Piano Teacher - Elfriede Jelinek
3. The Sheltering Sky - Paul Bowles
4. The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
5. The Use of Speech - Nathalie Sarraute
6. Elective Affinities - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
7. The Child Garden - Geoff Ryman
8. Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift
9. Swann's Way and Time Regained - Marcel Proust
10. Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow - Peter Hoeg
(11. Mockingbird - Walter Tevis)

edit: + totally forgot We by Yevgeny Zamyatin!

[Kisai]

The Book of the New Sun, Gene Wolfe
Collected Fictions, Jorge Luis Borges
The Iron Dragon's Daughter, Michael Swanwick
The Demon Princes, Jack Vance
Aristoi, Walter Jon Williams
Journey to the West
Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
A Player of Games, Ian M. Banks
Chasm City, Alastair Reynolds
Perdido Street Station, China Miéville


As you can tell, I like science fiction the best.

Ah shoot. I forgot The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon.

[theunstrungharp]

Pnin - Nabokov
Time Traveler's Wife - A Niffenegger
Tale of Murasaki - Liza Dalby
Taran Wanderer - Loyd Alexander
Sexing the Cherry - J Winterson
np - Banana Yoshimoto
The Unstrung Harp - Gorey (of course)


Maybe I'll add to this, maybe I won't...

[Bobert]

Lord of the Rings
The Hobbit
Watership Down
Dune
Harry Potter series


I have a hard time finding a story & style that I like.
Sometimes I'll read Jurrassic Park, Vampire series by Rice, Aztec, Alice in Wonderland, & Narnia series.

[Cthulhu]

1. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
2. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
3. The Secret Agent - Joseph Conrad
4. The Mayor of Casterbridge - Thomas Hardy
5. Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
6. Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad (I've got a bit of a man-crush on Conrad.)
7. 100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
8. Portnoy's Complaint - Philip Roth
9. Nights at the Circus - Angela Carter
10. The Forge of God - Greg Bear

Honorable Mention - The Call of Cthulhu - H.P. Lovecraft

[Nomadofthehills]

Jurassic Park
White Fang
Call of the Wild
Harry Potter
Brave New World

[buk]

Zen in the martial arts
21st century positioning
The greatest sales stories ever told from the world's best salespeople
Success is a choice
The peter principle
A whack on the side of the head
Restoring the American dream
Boone (T. Boone Pic kens)
I caught flies for Howard Hughes (Damn, three fiction books read)

[loosefanbelt]

Not sure if I commit to this as definitive, but pretty darn near:

1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
2. Thirst: Poems by Mary Oliver
3. Winnie the Pooh by AA Milne
4. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
5. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
6. Animal Farm by George Orwell
7. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
8. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
9. The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
10. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot

Blah! 11. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Whew.

[TheLastMohican]

It's too hard to rank them, so they're just in alphabetical order.


1984
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Call of the Wild
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Invisible Man
The Last of the Mohicans
Lord of the Flies
The Lord of the Rings
Moby Dick
And how can I leave out The Time Machine? I must list 11, sorry. :p
EDIT: And then there's Treasure Island...

[Trenchant1]

The Tin Drum -Guenter Grass
The Glass Bead Game - Hermann Hesse
Gormenghast trilogy - Mervyn Peake
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
1984 - George Orwell
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
Lord of the Rings (that was a long time ago. I'm not sure I'd enjoy it so much now)
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin - David Nobbs.
The Fallow Land - H. E. Bates
A Book by A.N. Other

[altoid]

A few off the top of my head, in no particular order:

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein
Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco
Acts of Faith - Philip Caputo

[Nomadofthehills]

Ah, I forgot these two:

Where the Red Fern Grows
Old Yeller

[TheLastMohican]

Old Yeller

Yet another... :wreck:

[jikin]

Off hand in in no certain order:

Lord of the Flies
Silas Marner
Flowers for Algernon
Christmas Carol
Dragonflight
Hitchhiker's Guide
The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul
White Fang
Phantom of the Opera
Alice in Wonderland

[Doppelbock]

I'm combining some series/trilogies into a single entry here:

1. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson
2. Lord of the Rings -- Tolkien
3. The Hobbit -- Tolkien
4. A Wrinkle in Time -- L'Engle
5. How Green Was My Valley -- Richard Llewellyn
6. Ireland -- Frank Delaney
7. Atlas Shrugged -- Ayn Rand
8. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant -- Stephen R. Donaldson
9. Hitchhiker's Guide -- Douglas Adams
10. I'll call this a multi-way tie between the following:
Foucault's Pendulum -- Umberto Eco
The Name of the Rose -- Umberto Eco
Orphans of the Sky -- Robert A. Heinlein
The Foundation series -- Isaac Asimov
Lord of the Flies -- dunno who wrote it, too lazy to Google
Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson
Harry Potter -- that one British lady
Probably a million others I'm forgetting

[WyohKnott]

The top three are the only ones I've ever been completely sure about... but their order changes each time I re-read one of them.

1. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein
2. A Ring of Endless Light, by Madeleine L'Engle
3. I Capture the Castle, by Dodie Smith
4. The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place, by E. L. Konigsburg
5. Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
6. Johnny Tremain, by Esther Forbes
7. A Hat Full of Sky, by Terry Pratchett
8. Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling
9. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
10. A Song for Summer, by Eva Ibbotson

I'll probably think of more that I *have* to add later, but I really did try to stick with 10.

[loosefanbelt]

Treasure Island and Old Yeller were ones I thought of - with Old Yeller I would have to look at it again to see if how I recall it as a child is close to its reality! I also recall The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings fondly, but cant say that I know it is a good read. A distinction between what meant something to me and what is a good piece of literature...

[TheLastMohican]

6. Johnny Tremain, by Esther Forbes


My list continues to grow.

[Nomadofthehills]

I would have to look at it again to see if how I recall it as a child is close to its reality!

"No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally, and often far more, worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond." - C.S. Lewis


I would also like to add The Giver to my list of favorites. Our 4th grade teacher assigned this to the "advanced" reading group, but actually got in trouble, because we were supposed to read this in 6th grade "honors."

[Rudy]

I would also like to add The Giver to my list of favorites. Our 4th grade teacher assigned this to the "advanced" reading group, but actually got in trouble, because we were supposed to read this in 6th grade "honors."

Yep! It's in my list above, and we read it in 4th grade too, actually.

[Jrrd]

No particular order and subject to change:

The Brothers Karamazov
Master and the Margarita
Stranger in a Strange Land
Dune
1984
Animal Farm
Lord of the Flies
Steppenwolf
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Ender's Game

[azelismia]

Bah! I cannot do it by book, I will do it by author.

in no particular order

1. James Blaylock
2. Robert asprin
3. douglas adams
4. Jane Austen
5. gordon dickson
6. Issac Asimov
7. Mark Helprin
8. Lucy Maud Montgomery
9. F. Scott fitzgerald
10. hemingway
11. jules verne

I am sure I've left some off but that's a good sampling.

[WyohKnott]

I forgot Ender's Game, and the Anne and Emily series's, by L.M. Montgomery... There's no way my list can stay just at 10.

[Jonathan Brewer]

I'm really fond of Fantasy and Classical Literature. I also have a greater interest in trilogies and series than I do stand-alone novels, most of the time. :)

1. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
2. The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
3. The Legend of Drizzt - R.A. Salvatore
4. The Sellswords - R.A. Salvatore
5. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas, pere
6. The D'Artagnan Romances - Alexandre Dumas, pere
7. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
8. The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
9. The Complete Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
10. Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes

[Doppelbock]

Ender's Game! I knew I left something out.

[AnEskimo]

The Dragonlance series by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
Most fantasy novels actually. I'm quite a fan of Drizzt. Also a fan of "The magical Engineer". It is a very unusual fantasy novel, but very good.

And most Ray Bradbury books.

[gestalt]

Beggars and Choosers, Nancy Kress
The Iron Dragon's Daughter, Michael Swanwick
Thrump-O-Moto, James Clavell
Dune, Frank Herbert
Day of the Cheetah, Dale Brown
The Rowan, Anne McCaffrey
Otherland: City of Golden Shadow, Tad Williams
Out of Sight, Elmore Leonard
Women in Love, D.H. Lawrence
Support Your Local Wizard, Diane Duane

[More Tea]

In no particular order:

1. Uhura's Song
2. The original Dragonlance trilogy
3. Watership Down
4. Tailchaser's Song, with the caveat that I've read it so many times that I can't seem to get into it any more.
5. Guards, Guards and the other "Night Watch" Terry Pratchett books.
6. West of Eden and Winter in Eden
7. Nor Crystal Tears, by Alan Dean Foster
8. Memories, Dreams, and Reflections, by Carl Jung
9. The Compleat Cat, by Cleveland Amory
10. The Harry Dresden wizard series, by Jim Butcher

[jikin]

And most Ray Bradbury books.


I forgot about Ray Bradbury! He's one of my favorites.

[WaeV]

In order by title length... I know I cheated by adding series instead of straight books but w/e.

Sphere
Diaspora
The Hobbit
Ender's Game
The Time Machine
The Fountainhead
His Dark Materials Trilogy
The Once and Future King
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
The Speaker for the Dead Series

[fomatizer]

The Books of Bokonon

[The Digger]

The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas

A dark brooding book about a man wronged. Alot of Dumas's books revolve around honor and dealing with injustice. This one is a helluva revenge novel.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Series - Douglas Adams

A really funny series about a string of ridiculous things that keep getting heaped on this crazy dude named Arthur Dent. I've read this series several times. >.>

Lord of the Rings Trilogy - JRR Tolkien

Ummm... it's the fantasy novel all other fantasy novels are compared to. If you don't like it I daresay you don't like fantasy... or possibly reading.

The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan

My favorite fantasy series (yeah, more than LotR). I have to warn you though, the author died this year without finishing the last book so the last book is being written by a dubious source. >.< The characters are extremely well done, and the mythos is just immense and detailed (yeah, I know everyone says that). The beginning of the series starts with a return to darker times, an old evil attempting to break free... your basic clash between good and evil, but jeez is it good.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Witty, charming. Lots of good banter. One of the few love novels in which I can actually understand why they love each other. The characters really grow on you.

The Sandman (Graphic Novel) by Neil Gaiman

A long collection of stories that slowly put together the life of Morpheus, the ruler/possessor of our dreams. It has a melancholy beauty, and while it starts out a little slow, by the end of the series it's just immensely sad and powerful. Like life has a purpose that none of us know about... sort of a nice feeling really.

The Comedy of Errors by Shakespeare (I don't care what you say...)

Shakespeare is always quotable, but this the play I most often find myself quoting (this and "The Taming of the Shrew"). Pretty funny if you can get into it, though I know alot of people don't like Shakespeare, and those that do tend to focus on his dramas rather than his comedies.

Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield

Historical fiction of the battle of Thermopylae (the best of several that have been written about it imho). If you thought 300 was cheesy and felt 300 grown men running around in thongs does not constitute a war movie, you should read this book and find out how it really went down. It definitely gets the blood flowing because the Spartans were bad-a$$.

Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling

It's been a while since I've read Kipling but this collection of short stories told by Puck, the last Old thing left in Britain, sticks out prominently. Most of his books in fact are collections of short stories so it is hard to choose any one in particular (though The Jungle Book is the most famous I suppose), but all I've read were good.

The Stand by Stephen King

One of King's finest books. Much of his work deals with another place, just behind reality, that tugs at us, and is barely out of our grasp. So just behind what we see, there may be nasty things lurking. Personally, I don't find King all that frightening (check out Lovecraft), but his stories are always interesting. In The Stand, the last vestiges of humanity cope with having survived a devastating plague... but there is something else that came with the plague.


"Oh it rips my life away... but it's a great escaaape..." ;]

[Prunesquallor]

1. Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake
2. Collected Works - J.L. Borges
3. We - Yevgeny Zamyatin
4. The Diaries - Franz Kafka
5. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevsky
6. Collected Tales - Anton Chekhov
7. Anna Karenina - Lev Tolstoy
8. Collected Tales - E.T.A. Hoffmann
9. The Master and the Margarita - Mikhael Bulgakov
10. My Life and Hard Times - James Thurber

[JohnDoe]

In no particular order:
1. Lord of the Rings
2. The Hobbit
3. Brave New World
4. Animal Farm
5. The Odyssey
6. Ender's Game
7. The Speaker for the Dead series.
8. The Great Gatsby
9. Eastern Standard Tribe - Cory Doctorow (Yes this is a weird nonstandard choice)
10. Harry Potter series

[azelismia]

The Books of Bokonon

I've never heard of that, tell me about it?

[fomatizer]

I've never heard of that, tell me about it?I'd answer that but I gotta fever and the only prescription is more cowbell. But I write a bit about the message in the "Is God Useless?" thread. Here's the latest> (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.) I'll answer your question another day maybe, in another thread, when I have more strength to face the apparent meaninglessness of existence without more cowbell. Thanks for your patience. You really are my favorite poster, Alisima. I'm a huge fan of your "Ask Azzy" thread. I was going to ask you a question and it was really profound. It was on the tip of my tongue and damn, all I could think about was more cowbell. My cat is in heat. If you've ever had a cat in heat around the house, you'll understand why it interrupts all sense and reason.
Cheers.

[The Digger]

1. Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake
2. Collected Works - J.L. Borges
3. We - Yevgeny Zamyatin
4. The Diaries - Franz Kafka
5. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevsky
6. Collected Tales - Anton Chekhov
7. Anna Karenina - Lev Tolstoy
8. Collected Tales - E.T.A. Hoffmann
9. The Master and the Margarita - Mikhael Bulgakov
10. My Life and Hard Times - James Thurber

I was hoping you would post here. I saw your post in the "100 books list", and became quite interested in what you would consider top picks due to your, mrm... expansive familiarity. I have to say your list appears starkly Russian/German. I look forward to reading them.

[azelismia]

I slogged thru most of gorhmgast a couple years ago after reading all of it's rave reviews.. I don't understand why people like it so much. it was boring.

[Mathnerdkid]

In no particular order:

Ender's Game
Ender's Shadow
Speaker For the Dead series
Hitchhikers Guide series
The Little Prince ( I first read it when I was five, I was so confused)
Don't Let the Pidgeon Drive the Bus
Life of Pi
Animal Farm
1984
The Night

[floramacivor]

This could all change because there are more books that I haven't read on my list than ones I have read.

1 Jane Eyre
2 The Scarlet Letter
3 Tale of Two Cities
4 The Brothers Karamazov
5 Ivanhoe
6 King Arthur by Howard Pyle
7 Little Women
8 Oliver Twist
9 The Wind in the Willows
10 Wuthering Heights

[Prunesquallor]

I was hoping you would post here. I saw your post in the "100 books list", and became quite interested in what you would consider top picks due to your, mrm... expansive familiarity. I have to say your list appears starkly Russian/German. I look forward to reading them.

Yeah...librarian. I do read rather too much...and when I was a kid I got through five books a day nearly every holiday. Ah, good times.

My best friend growing up is from Moscow, and another good one from Heidelberg, so I suppose they have influenced me a little.





Prunesquallor added to this post, 1 minutes and 29 seconds later...

I slogged thru most of gorhmgast a couple years ago after reading all of it's rave reviews.. I don't understand why people like it so much. it was boring.

Gormenghast is certainly very very dense and wordy - and odd. I definitely wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but for those with the attention span or an interest in weird, old gothic fiction, it is so lovely...

[The Digger]

Yeah...librarian. I do read rather too much...and when I was a kid I got through five books a day nearly every holiday. Ah, good times.

My best friend growing up is from Moscow, and another good one from Heidelberg, so I suppose they have influenced me a little.

Ha! 5 a day is really rather more than I can top. Though I have to say I was more impressed by the 69/100 books read bit, and simply as a source of enjoyment. Librarian seemed a natural side-effect. I used to read up to 3 a day up through middle school (Roald Dahl, Animorphs, R. Kipling, LotR, Dragons of Pern series, Piers Anthony, Kurt Vonnegut, Wheel of Time series, Louis L'mour, Clan of the Cave Bear series...). And the Wheel of Time series, the first 6 books I read in 6 days, so some of those I believe I could break down into 5 200 pages books. >.> These days though, I read maybe one book a week. Downloading anime and some of my guiltier nerd habits seem to have superseded books as my main source of entertainment. I am a bit jealous I must say, and though I wish I could greet you as comrade, it is not to my credit that my habits have waned so much.

What are these "friends" you speak of?

[Prunesquallor]

Ha! 5 a day is really rather more than I can top. Though I have to say I was more impressed by the 69/100 books read bit, and simply as a source of enjoyment. Librarian seemed a natural side-effect. I used to read up to 3 a day up through middle school (Roald Dahl, Animorphs, R. Kipling, LotR, Dragons of Pern series, Piers Anthony, Kurt Vonnegut, Wheel of Time series, Louis L'mour, Clan of the Cave Bear series...). And the Wheel of Time series, the first 6 books I read in 6 days, so some of those I believe I could break down into 5 200 pages books. >.> These days though, I read maybe one book a week. Downloading anime and some of my guiltier nerd habits seem to have superseded books as my main source of entertainment. I am a bit jealous I must say, I wish I still had that craving.

What are these "friends" you speak of?

Friends? They're nice people who recommend books....

I have no internet at home nor television so I really must rely on books, which helps to keep the focus. I worry that when I can afford television I'll spend too much time watching hockey instead...

Wow, Louis L'amour , bad memories. I had to study him in grade eight and trashed him so badly - my teacher loved him so she wasn't happy. Vonnegut, though, I need read more of him.

[The Digger]

Friends? They're nice people who recommend books....

I have no internet at home nor television so I really must rely on books, which helps to keep the focus. I worry that when I can afford television I'll spend too much time watching hockey instead...

Wow, Louis L'amour , bad memories. I had to study him in grade eight and trashed him so badly - my teacher loved him so she wasn't happy. Vonnegut, though, I need read more of him.

I'd be careful. I think you've baited your own trap.

Unless the Canadians have an exclusive 24/7 hockey channel that I'm unaware of, I would think it would take a powerful love of hockey to find it taking up more than a couple days a week. Though I have a dislike of most television these days. My exceptions are House and Dexter, but that's no reason for me to pay for cable. I have the interwebs, after all. Perhaps I should try keeping the internet at work.

Heh, he's not so bad imo. After reading a number of them his writing style tends to get a bit monotonous, but I've found that true of several authors. Though there are only so many Indian attacks one can withstand I suppose. Vonnegut's amazing I agree.

Your reply caught me by surprise I must say. I, ummm... tend to edit alot.

[Prunesquallor]

Unless the Canadians have an exclusive 24/7 hockey channel that I'm unaware of, I would think it would take a powerful love of hockey to find it taking up more than a couple days a week.

NHL network!!

Oh it, is. It is a powerful love. And there's OHL and women's hockey, and tournaments...

[fomatizer]

Friends? They're nice people who recommend books....Vonnegut, though, I need read more of him.Try Cat's Cradle.

[The Digger]

NHL network!!

Oh it, is. It is a powerful love. And there's OHL and women's hockey, and tournaments...

LOL. From brooding librarian, to manic fangirl. I think I'll get back to you when I've read a few of those books. I don't want to get my head ripped off for a milder devotion to my own home team, the Red Wings.

I don't watch much hockey, just the Stanley Cup usually. Though I do have some vague awareness of how awesome our hockey team is.

[azelismia]

Yeah...librarian. I do read rather too much...and when I was a kid I got through five books a day nearly every holiday. Ah, good times.

My best friend growing up is from Moscow, and another good one from Heidelberg, so I suppose they have influenced me a little.





Prunesquallor added to this post, 1 minutes and 29 seconds later...



Gormenghast is certainly very very dense and wordy - and odd. I definitely wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but for those with the attention span or an interest in weird, old gothic fiction, it is so lovely...


So you're suggesting I must not have an interest in old gothic fiction or an attention span because I found it dull?

Nothing.... Happens in gormenghast.. nothing at all other than following around a whiny teenager with nothing interesting to say think or feel.

[Prunesquallor]

So you're suggesting I must not have an interest in old gothic fiction or an attention span because I found it dull?

Nothing.... Happens in gormenghast.. nothing at all other than following around a whiny teenager with nothing interesting to say think or feel.

I said it was dense. And very very wordy.

It was not intended as an insult, and I am sorry you took it that way. That some quality is necessary to enjoy something is not to say that one who possesses said quality will necessarily enjoy it - that is a logical fallacy.

I find very few people are prepared to get through it (including most people I know) and the common style of writing these days as opposed to old Dickensian novels etc. does not prepare one for or promote the same type of attention span, focus or tolerance for such kinds of books. There is nothing inherantly better in having such a focus or interest - one could consider it being a glutton for punishment, a waste of time, all manner of nasty little things. If, that is, one wanted to privilege any one side, which I was not doing.

I maintain what I said - one needs a tolerance of wordy novels and the ability and willingness to invest a large amount of time and attentionin them to enjoy this book. A love of old gothic fiction can push people on the fence into liking it, even if they are less interested in wordy novels in general. I'd not recommend this book to someone with neither, and do not guarantee someone with both will love it. I just love it.





Prunesquallor added to this post, 1 minutes and 13 seconds later...

Try Cat's Cradle.

Did read that, and Forgive me, Mr. Rosewater. And Breakfast of Champions. But I believe that is all.





Prunesquallor added to this post, 0 minutes and 45 seconds later...

LOL. From brooding librarian, to manic fangirl. I think I'll get back to you when I've read a few of those books. I don't want to get my head ripped off for a milder devotion to my own home team, the Red Wings.

I don't watch much hockey, just the Stanley Cup usually. Though I do have some vague awareness of how awesome our hockey team is.

Oh, Hossa's there. I like the Wings.
I only kill Leafs fans. I promise.

[azelismia]

[quote=Prunesquallor;403858]I said it was dense. And very very wordy.

It was not intended as an insult, and I am sorry you took it that way. That some quality is necessary to enjoy something is not to say that one who possesses said quality will necessarily enjoy it - that is a logical fallacy.

I find very few people are prepared to get through it (including most people I know) and the common style of writing these days as opposed to old Dickensian novels etc. does not prepare one for or promote the same type of attention span, focus or tolerance for such kinds of books. There is nothing inherantly better in having such a focus or interest - one could consider it being a glutton for punishment, a waste of time, all manner of nasty little things. If, that is, one wanted to privilege any one side, which I was not doing.

I maintain what I said - one needs a tolerance of wordy novels and the ability and willingness to invest a large amount of time and attentionin them to enjoy this book. A love of old gothic fiction can push people on the fence into liking it, even if they are less interested in wordy novels in general. I'd not recommend this book to someone with neither, and do not guarantee someone with both will love it. I just love it.



I've read the mysteries of udolpho. :) and a few other gothics from the late 1700's as a part of a self education for understanding the roots of jane austen's six novels. Northanger abbey is one of hte best books ever imho.

it wasn't taken as an insult, I was just rewording it so you would see what you wrote. you keep trying to swing this around and blame it on the reader if they do not like the book rather than looking at the more obvious choice:

I say it's just a bad novel. That's why no one likes it other than one or two people who REALLY Love it.

I've read a lot of literature from the late 1700's and early 1800s and am familiar with the different styles of writing. I have a tolerance for most books, I've even read and mostly liked ayn rand and she was VERY guilty of being wordy adn rambling ( I think you could edit the fountain head down to under a 100 pages and be much better off for it)

gorhmenghast is a modern novel - trilogy and is just poorly written in an attempt to replicate an older genre. it failed. I read the first book and couldn't bring myself to pick up the second, I just don't get why anyone would love it. it was tedious.

[Prunesquallor]

I've read the mysteries of udolpho. :) and a few other gothics from the late 1700's as a part of a self education for understanding the roots of jane austen's six novels. Northanger abbey is one of hte best books ever imho.

it wasn't taken as an insult, I was just rewording it so you would see what you wrote. you keep trying to swing this around and blame it on the reader if they do not like the book rather than looking at the more obvious choice:

I say it's just a bad novel. That's why no one likes it other than one or two people who REALLY Love it.

I've read a lot of literature from the late 1700's and early 1800s and am familiar with the different styles of writing. I have a tolerance for most books, I've even read and mostly liked ayn rand and she was VERY guilty of being wordy adn rambling ( I think you could edit the fountain head down to under a 100 pages and be much better off for it)

gorhmenghast is a modern novel - trilogy and is just poorly written in an attempt to replicate an older genre. it failed. I read the first book and couldn't bring myself to pick up the second, I just don't get why anyone would love it. it was tedious.

I know perfectly well what I wrote. I advise you read it again before you accuse me of saying something I didn't.

Yet again I note a liking for Gothic and wordy novels are necessary but not sufficient to like it. Just as a liking for westerns is necessary but not sufficent to like Louis L'amour. I could go on, but I won't because the point should be pretty obvious.

It is not poorly written. It is written in a style you dislike. You're welcome to dislike it. I'm not judging anyone for disliking it. Relax already.

[Maybe to Dream]

Sherlock Holmes-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Mood Indigo- Charlotte Vale Allen
This Present Darkness-Frank Peretti
The Oath- Frank Peretti
The Visitation-Frank Peretti
Heart of Darkness-Joseph Conrad
Sano Ichiro series- Laura Joh Rowland( I know)
The Running Man-Stephen King
Cry the Beloved Country-Alan Paton
Poirot/Jane Marple-Agatha Christie




Oh, Hossa's there. I like the Wings.
I only kill Leafs fans. I promise.

I think that team does an excellent job killing its fans as is.:laugh: Talk about a treadmill.
Of course I probably shouldn't be talking.(Raptors):cry:

[The Digger]

I think that team does an excellent job killing its fans as is.:laugh: Talk about a treadmill.
Of course I probably shouldn't be talking.(Raptors):cry:

You crazy Canadians and your hockey.

I bid you ado Prunesquallor. Thank you for not killing me. XD *runs off*

[fomatizer]

Did read that, and Forgive me, Mr. Rosewater. And Breakfast of Champions. But I believe that is all.Then my next recommendation is Slapstick, also fun.

[Prunesquallor]

Then my next recommendation is Slapstick, also fun.

Thank you; I will check it out :)

[uncon]

They're not the greatest, but they touched me:

Post Office, Charles Bukowski (Women and Factotem are also good)
Ask the Dust, John Fante
A Child Out of Alcatraz, Tara Ison
She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb
Franny and Zooey, J. D. Salinger (basically anything by him is excellent)

Teen genre: Confessions of a Teenage Baboon, Paul Zindel (I hadn't realized I'd read most of his early teen novels - To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. - the first author I remember really getting into as a teen)

That's all I can think of.

[Plane Stress]

The Catcher in the Rye is really the only book that I can read over and over again without tiring of it. I also like American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

[Winterstorm]

Only 10? Well, let's try.

1 "The Lord of The Rings" J. R. R. Tolkien
2 "The Farthest Shore" Ursula Le Guin (and generally all books from Earthsea)
3 "American Gods" Neil Gaiman (ex-aequo "Neverwhere")
4 "Brave New World" Aldous Huxley
5 "The Tale of Alvin Maker" serie by Orson Scott Card
6 "The Land of Laughs" Jonathan Carroll
7 "The Once and Future King" T. H. White
8 The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (first chronicles, I didn't read all of them yet) Stephen R. Donaldson
9 "Knights of Dark Renown" David A. Gemmell
10 "Mists of Avalon" Marion Zimmer Bradley

[Storm]

In no particular order, and these my favorites to read not what I would necessarily define as the best of literature.

1. Rebecca (Ok, this one is #1 for a reason. I just love this book.)
2. Pride & Prejudice
3. Terry Pratchett's discworld novels
4. Sherlock Holmes
5. The Giver (read this book 7 times through between the 4th and 6th grade)
6. Rumo and his Miraculous Adventures
7. The Age of Innocence.
8. War of the Worlds
9. Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass
10. Tie between "The Screwtape Letters" and "Long Dark Teatime of the Soul"

Honorable mention: Catherine called Birdy. My 2nd favorite book as a child, but I reread recently and it was not as well written as I remember.

[DewFuel]

They're not the greatest, but they touched me:
Franny and Zooey, J. D. Salinger (basically anything by him is excellent

nice. i love that book.

[ranwayslo]

"To Kill a Mockingbird" - Harper Lee
"The Odyssey" - Homer
Anything ever written by Glen Cook
"The Malazan Book of The Fallen" - Steven Erickson (Yes, all of them)
"The Prince of Nothing Trilogy" - R. Scott Bakker (INTJs must read this!)
"The Name of the Wind" - Patrick Rothfuss
"A Tan and Sandy Silence" - John D. MacDonald (Travis McGee = Cool)
"HMS Ulysses" - Alistair MacLean
"Cryptonomicon" - Neal Stephenson
"Hyperion Cantos" and "Ilium"/"Olympos" cycle - Dan Simmons

I know you said ten, but I read this book when I was seven years old and it stuck with me. I am curious if any of you might have any information about it. Sorry I don't remember the title or the author's name.

An old scifi book written circa 1920 in which the antagonist was a killer robot that looked human. The premise of the books is that the protagonist invents a time travel machine with a descriptive name that takes up three full pages, but is later referred to as the device. The name of the robot was Tugh, which you find out at the end of the book was a misnomer as he was actually version 2. There is a sequel titled "Tugh" but the only proof of a copy that I have found resides in the dusty records of the library of congress, and in a reference at the end of the book that I read. Sadly this book was checked out of my local library and never returned. Any ideas?

[integratedvelocity]

I'm going to cheat and put series/trilogies in one space... And now, in no particular order:

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings- J.R.R. Tolkien
3. East of Eden - John Steinbeck
4. Beowulf - ???
5. Metamorphoses - Ovid
6. The Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness de Orzcy
7. The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
8. Crown Duel - Sherwood Smith (remnant of my middle school years, I still pull it out occasionally when I'm home from college)
9. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
10. The Decameron - Giovanni Boccaccio

Are we allowed to include graphic novels? If so, I would add The Phoenix Requiem (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.). :)

[Stratego]

:My apologies if I repeat any titles:

Not in order--

1. My Sweet Audrina / V.C. Andrews
2. The Stand / Stephen King
3. Watership Down / Richard Adams
4. Tess of the D'ubervilles / Thomas Hardy
5. Return of the Native / Thomas Hardy
6. The Color Purple / Alice Wallker
7. A Drangonlance Trilogy: Time of the Twins; Test of the Twins; War of the Twins / Margaret Weiss & Tracy Hickman
8. On a Pale Horse / Piers Anthony
9. Wuthering Heights / Emily Bronte
10. Outlander / Diane Gabaldon

[Baccara]

In no particular order:

1) Shogun - James Clavell
2) Phantom - Susan Kay
3) Lord of the Rings
4) Erasure - Percival Everett
5) Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand (though it's been many years since I last read it)
6) Where the Red Fern Grows - Wilson Rawls
7) Dicey's Song - Cynthia Voigt
8) The Princess Bride - William Goldman
9) The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
10) Ceremony - Leslie Marmon Silko

It's hard to separate those books I enjoy aesthetically from those I appreciate as a work of writing/psychology, so these titles are a little of both. And if Alan Moore's Watchmen and From Hell count as "fiction," then they're definitely on the list as well.

[Pouthas]

In no particular order, except as they came to mind:

The Brothers Karamazov
The Idiot
The Long Good-bye
Beloved
A Confederacy of Dunces
Scaramouche
Flashman
Emma
Mason&Dixon
Finnegan's Wake
Lolita (just beats out Pnin)

[BostonIan]

In order of date read, recent first:

The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky
1984, Orwell
Animal Farm, Orwell
And Then There Were None, Agatha Christy
The Stranger, Camus
Catcher in the Rye, Salinger
Lord of the Rings, Tolkien
Narnia Series, Lewis
A Spell for Chameleon, Piers Anthony
Sideways Stories From Wayside School, Louis Sachar

[Stratego]

In order of date read, recent first:

The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky
1984, Orwell
Animal Farm, Orwell
And Then There Were None, Agatha Christy
The Stranger, Camus
Catcher in the Rye, Salinger
Lord of the Rings, Tolkien
Narnia Series, Lewis
A Spell for Chameleon, Piers Anthony
Sideways Stories From Wayside School, Louis Sachar

Ever read The Plague, also by Camus? It has this doosmdayish, apocalyptic quality that's very appealing...and kudos to another Piers Anthony fan.

[Orion79]

Les Miserables- Victor Hugo
The Count of Monte Cristo- Alexandre Dumas
Dune- Frank Herbert
The Once and Future King- T.H. White
The Adventures of Hucklberry Finn- Mark Twain
All Quiet on the Western Front- Erich Maria Remarque
The Sea Wolf- Jack London
Candide- Voltaire
Stranger In A Strange Land- Robert Heinlein
100 Years of Solitude- Gabriel Garcia Marquez

[TheLastMohican]

I had forgotten about The Good Earth; that belongs somewhere in my list.

[OneHertz]

1. Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake
2. Collected Works - J.L. Borges
3. We - Yevgeny Zamyatin
4. The Diaries - Franz Kafka
5. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevsky
6. Collected Tales - Anton Chekhov
7. Anna Karenina - Lev Tolstoy
8. Collected Tales - E.T.A. Hoffmann
9. The Master and the Margarita - Mikhael Bulgakov
10. My Life and Hard Times - James Thurber

I never understood how westerners could read the translated Russian novels and find them interesting. I read everything you have listed that is Russian in the original language and I must say there are a lot of references all over the place to various customs, sayings, etc. that only a Russian person would understand (or somebody extremely familiar with the culture). The translation sort of kills the books in my opinion.

Edit: oops I did not read #3 on your list. Have you read "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich?" It is a very heavy book, but I found it quite good.

[cyberdabbler]

To Kill A Mockingbird - Lee
Pride and Prejudice -Austen
Harry Potter series - Rowling
Ender's Game (and series) - Card
House series - Lofts
The Time Traveler's Wife - Niffenegger
The Giver - Lowry
Amelia Peabody series - Peters
And Then There Were None - Christie
Teddy Bear of Bumpkin Hollow - Boucher

[Prunesquallor]

I never understood how westerners could read the translated Russian novels and find them interesting. I read everything you have listed that is Russian in the original language and I must say there are a lot of references all over the place to various customs, sayings, etc. that only a Russian person would understand (or somebody extremely familiar with the culture). The translation sort of kills the books in my opinion.

Edit: oops I did not read #3 on your list. Have you read "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich?" It is a very heavy book, but I found it quite good.

I read a bit of Russian history and a good friend is from Moscow. I guess that helps. And they're still good books. I don't mind not knowing absolutely everything that's going on.

Denisovich is on my list, but I've not yet read it. I've a ridiculously huge pile of to-read books.

We is actually pretty sweet and fairly accessible. It relies less on cultural references than the others. One of those dystopia types.

[Pouthas]

Austen, Doestoevsky, Nabokov, Pynchon, and J.K.Toole come up on several lists. Is there something about their work that appeals to the INTJ?

[Cthulhu]

Austen, Doestoevsky, Nabokov, Pynchon, and J.K.Toole come up on several lists. Is there something about their work that appeals to the INTJ?

Toole only wrote two books in his lifetime. A Confederacy Of Dunces is laugh-out-loud hilarious from cover to cover. The main character certainly has some INTJ characteristics; he's rather contemptuous of the world at large and spends all of his time reading philosophy in his bedroom until a sequence of events forces him out into the world.

[spiritdetectivegirl]

I. The Time Machine
II. The Magician's Nephew
III. Dragon Weather
IV. The Inferno
V. Gods Behaving Badly
VI. Midsummer's night dream
VII. Nightwatch
VIII. The Legend of Drizzt
VIIII. The Five Ancestors
X. Othello

[WratSpa]

Jane Eyre
The Townhouse
The House at Old Vine
The House at Sunset
Gone With The Wind
True Women
Devil's Arithmetic
Mistress of Mellyn
The Other Boleyn Girl
Anne of Green Gables (when I was a kid)


I have a thing for Historical Fiction, but I've also read and enjoyed many of the books you guys listed on here:


Of Mice and Men
Lord of the Flies
The Hobbit
Lord of the Rings
The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
Wuthering Heights


I've been meaning to pick up Pride and Prejudice, so that'll have to be my next one, since so many of you deem it worthy. Actually, there are a few listed that I'll have to try now.

Tangent: There's this short story I read back in high school (some 12 years ago), and I can't think of the name to save my life. It's Science Fiction, and it's basically similar to that movie Idiocracy...future generations have been dumbed down due to people with lower IQ's reproducing like rabbits, while those with higher IQ's tend to have 1.5 children (if that). If you have any idea what story I'm talking about, could you please send me a message...I want to read it again.

Thanks!

[PHS Philip]

Wow. Um. There's no way I could number them (picking a top 10 is hard enough) so in no particular order:

Red/Blue/Green Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson (I'll count the three together)
Night Watch - Terry Pratchett
Lords and Ladies - Terry Pratchett
Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett
Wee Free Men/Hat Full of Sky - Terry Pratchett (not really a fan of Wintersmith)
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
His Dark Materials- Philip Pullman (together, although Northern Lights is probably first of those)
i, Robot - Isaac Asimov
Earthsea books - Ursela LeGuin (again, counting them together)
Sandman books - Neil Gaiman (not sure if they count, though)
Hitchhiker's Guide series - Douglas Adams (I'll put 11 to make up for Sandman being comics)

More TP stuff should be on there (like Going Postal), but I think he dominates the list enough already. Also other stuff should be on here really, but I cut myself off. Heinlein, Orwell, Vonnegut, maybe Wells, maybe more Gaiman, Maybe Watership Down... argh

[floramacivor]

Austen, Doestoevsky, Nabokov, Pynchon, and J.K.Toole come up on several lists. Is there something about their work that appeals to the INTJ?

I think Jane Austen comes up on most lists, regardless of MBTI type.

[Rohsiph]

I haven't thought about it recently, but the last time I did this is what I came up with:

cleveland anonymous by keith gandal
heart of darkness by joseph conrad
through the looking-glass and what alice found there by lewis carroll
the master and margarita by bulgakov
the magus by john fowles
play it as it lays by joan didion
the poetic eddas by anonymous
finnegans wake by james joyce
neil gaiman's sandman
nausicaa of the valley of wind by hayao miyazaki

I've recently started reading Lovecraft, and haven't been more thrilled by a single author in ages. My list isn't really in any particular order, but I have a feeling Miyazaki or Didion might get bumped off soon . . .

[gjesus]

I like sci-fiction books and my top 10 are:

Ender's Game
Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy
1984
Ringworld
Neuromancer
Brave New World
The Time Machine
The War of the Worlds
Snow Crash
The Mote in God's Eye


fiction books (To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.)

[NoStoneUnturned]

A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole
I Am Legend, Richard Matheson

I dont read fiction much.... when I do, I rarly finish

[Ither]

Pretty standard and stodgy I think:

Tolstoy, War and Peace
Dickens, Bleak House
Dickens, Great Expectations
Eca de Queiroz, The Maias
Couperus, Of Old People, The Things That Pass
Stendhal, The Charterhouse of Parma
Eliot, Middlemarch
Mahfouz, Midaq Alley
Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival
The Mahabharata
Penninc and Vostaert, Walewein or the Flying Chessboard