10 to read before the apocalypse?

tim3115 · 17-07-2005 7:13pm

What do the people here make of American Psycho? Oh and by not spoiling it etc

shacko · 18-07-2005 8:26am

American Pysco are u fvuckin crazy. A decent read but not exactly a must read before the apocolypse. Heathens and Plebs. Three essential books that not one person has metioned has mentioned. That mournfull gloom for there Celestial Light

The Aneaid

The Odessey

Paradice Lost

motrocco · 20-07-2005 6:37pm

siddhartra (check spelling again) Herman Hess. Brilliant.

o Fiac · 21-07-2005 6:39pm

This post has been deleted.

The Lopper · 22-07-2005 11:03pm

1. The Man in the High Castle.....................Philip K Dick
2. The Da Vinci Code.................................Dan Brown
3. Lord of the Rings..................................J.R.R Tolkien
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?.......Philip K. Dick
5. Benny & Omar......................................Eoin Colfer
6. Dead Air..............................................Iain Banks
7. The whole Harry Potter collection.............J.K. Rowling
8. The Lost Continent................................Bill Bryson
9. Solaris............................................... Stanislev Yem
10. Life At The Limit (Formula 1.....hilarious!) Sid Watkins

supersheep · 23-07-2005 2:14pm

I'm only going to put books that I have read, and no cheating by putting in trilogies or collected works... And in no particular order:

1. A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Amazing book. Desribes life in the Gulags. People talk about Chekov and Dostoyevsky as amazing Russian authors - I don't see it, although maybe I've just read bad translations. Solzhenitsyn, however, is undoubtedly an amazing Russian author.

2. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
THE anti-war novel. Hilarious, bitter, satirical, funny, disjointed, crazy - everything.

3. Slaugterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Just pipped to the post as THE anti-war novel, but still an amazing book. Perhaps even more darkly comic than Catch-22.

4. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
Don't know why, but this is just an amazing book.

5. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
So funny and insane I can describe. I love the list of drugs on the second page, enough narcotics to floor a platoon of marines. I find it hilarious for some reason.

6. To Kill a Mocking-Bird - Harper Lee
A classic, true, but an amazing book. A great portrayal of racism and injustice.

7. Animal Farm - George Orwell
Wrote many good books, but this one beats out Nineteen Eighty-Four and Homage to Catalonia, barely. Very very powerful satire, in my opinion.

8. One More River - Lynne Reid Banks
Haven't read this in ages, but it's a powerful picture of life in the Middle East, and the line between Israelis and Palestinians.

9. Shake Hands With the Devil - Lieutenant-General Roméo Dallaire
Probably not the most powerful book written on Rwanda, but the best I have read, and from the position of he guy who everyone blamed for it...

10. War Junkie - Jon Steele
Here because I wanna be a war correspondent, and because of its black humour. Like them listening to reports of an airport being shelled on BBC World Sevice, while being shelled at the airport...

lacuna · 23-07-2005 2:32pm

supersheep wrote:

I'm only going to put books that I have read, and no cheating by putting in trilogies or collected works... And in no particular order:

1. A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Amazing book. Desribes life in the Gulags. People talk about Chekov and Dostoyevsky as amazing Russian authors - I don't see it, although maybe I've just read bad translations. Solzhenitsyn, however, is undoubtedly an amazing Russian author.

I had completely forgotten that I'd ever read this book till I saw it mentioned here. I thought it was excellent. Very well written and I loved the characters.

supersheep · 23-07-2005 2:37pm

lacuna wrote:

I had completely forgotten that I'd ever read this book till I saw it mentioned here. I thought it was excellent. Very well written and I loved the characters.

Probably my favourite book. And I love the end. <runs upstairs to check>

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn wrote:

There were three thousand six hundred and fifty-three days like that in his stretch. From the first clang of the rail to the last clang of the rail.
The three extra days were for leap years.

eclectichoney · 23-07-2005 3:15pm

moon palace - paul auster : my favouritest book ever!
100 years of solitude - marquez : extremely funny
a million little pieces - james frey : changed my perspective a lot
a problem from hell, america and the age of genocide : damn good synthesis of recent disasters
engineer of human souls - josef skvorecky
so the wind won't blow it all away - richard brautigan : why don't more people read him?
the seagull - chekhov : "why do you always wear black? / i am in mourning for my life. i am unhappy"
underworld - don de lillo : the first 200 pages.... possibly the best ever written
bonjour tristesse - francoise sagan
globalizaion and its discontents - stiglitz - one of the most accurate and objective accounts of the imf and world bank

mayordenis · 24-07-2005 10:55pm

hughchal wrote:

The Third Policeman: Flann O'Brien

yes, yes, a thousand times yes!

ladluver · 01-08-2005 8:20pm

1.Angus,thongs and full frontal snogging(louise rennison)
2.Its o.k im wearing really big knickers!( '' '' )
3.Knock out buy my nuga-nugas. ( '' '' )
4.dancing in my nuddy pants. ( '' '' )
5. 'and thats when it fell of in my hand.( '' '')
6.' and then he ate my boy-entrancers.( if u haven't guessed its a series,)
every 1 must read these they are the funnest booka ever, i've read them all at least 5 times and i still laugh!!!!!!!!!!!!

bluedolphin · 03-08-2005 7:27pm

hmm such a tough decision...
all quiet on the western front - remarque
sophie's world - gaarder
hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy - adams
sophie's choice - styron
boy - dahl
catcher in the rye - salinger
to kill a mockingbird - cant remember her name!!
fatherland - ditto!! this tells of the third reich that might have been but never was; chillingly brilliant.
matilda - dahl
nineteen eighty-four - orwell

taibhse · 08-08-2005 11:31pm

In no order

Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Wild Swans - Jung Chang
Romeo and Juliet - William Shakespeare
The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer
The Republic - Plato
1984 - George Orwell
Animal Farm - George Orwell
Chocolat - Joanne Harris
Five quarters of the Orange - Joanne Harris
The Bookseller of Kabul - Asne Seierstad
Under the Hawthorn Tree - Marita Conlon McKenna
A Good Man is Hard to Find and other Stories - Flannery O' Connor
Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

More than ten but they're all great books so it was worth it!

PunyHuman · 14-08-2005 3:38pm

I like these:

Down And Out In Paris And London (George Orwell)
The Dead (James Joyce)
Catch 22 (Joseph Heller)
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat (Oliver Sacks)
The Ginger Man (J.P. Donleavy)
At Swim-Two-Birds (Flann O'Brien)
Sword Of Honour (Evelyn Waugh)
Death In Venice (Thomas Mann)
The Comedians (Graham Greene)
The Naked and The Dead (Norman Mailer)

Honourable mention to Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels

IceHawk · 16-08-2005 10:08am

The Dark Tower books by Stephen King were excellent, they sort of tie in with his other books and the story grows over time. It was the first book he wrote, I think, and he finished the last two after declaring that he was finished writing, so as a series, they show his changing style over time.

And for some light relief during the end of the world? - Anything by Terry Pratchett

the dice man · 16-08-2005 2:40pm

supersheep wrote:

I'm only going to put books that I have read, and no cheating by putting in trilogies or collected works... And in no particular order:

1. A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
Amazing book. Desribes life in the Gulags. People talk about Chekov and Dostoyevsky as amazing Russian authors - I don't see it, although maybe I've just read bad translations. Solzhenitsyn, however, is undoubtedly an amazing Russian author.

Totally agree Solzhenitsyn books are amazing. if you haven't read his book of short stories you should try and get your hands on it.

i'm not going to bother repeating books that people have already put down so a couple of more that i didn't see here already and are worth a read are

women: bukowski
i served the king of england: hrabal
diary of a madman: gogol
a heart breaking work of straggering genuis: eggers
zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance: pirsig

tonyj · 18-08-2005 11:54pm

Mine are;

1. The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)
2. 1984 (Orwell)
3. Day of the Triffids (John Wyndham)
4. War of the Worlds (HG Wells)
5. Rendevous with Rama (Arthur C Clark)
6. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Mark Haddon)

Left space for 4 more...

Setun · 19-08-2005 12:01am

tonyj wrote:

Mine are;

1. The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)
2. 1984 (Orwell)
3. Day of the Triffids (John Wyndham)
4. War of the Worlds (HG Wells)
5. Rendevous with Rama (Arthur C Clark)
6. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Mark Haddon)

Left space for 4 more...

7. Microserfs (Douglas Coupland)
8. Microserfs (Douglas Coupland)
9. Microserfs (Douglas Coupland)
10. Microserfs (Douglas Coupland)

tonyj · 19-08-2005 12:26am

Daddio wrote:

7. Microserfs (Douglas Coupland)
8. Microserfs (Douglas Coupland)
9. Microserfs (Douglas Coupland)
10. Microserfs (Douglas Coupland)

What about Cannery Row ?

Setun · 19-08-2005 7:00pm

True. Very True.

11. Cannery Row (Steinbeck)
12. Microserfs (Coupland)

mayordenis · 23-08-2005 7:21pm

Double Indemnity - James M. Cain

a book that is in fact too good,
every page a masterstroke,
a ****ing crime novel that in itself is guilty of being irresponsibly genius.

Cured_Alright · 30-08-2005 9:25pm

1. American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
2. The Outsider - Albert Camus
3. The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen
4. 1984 - George Orwell
5. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
6. Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson
7. Life Of Pi - Yann Martel
8. The Lord Of The Flies - William Golding
9. Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh
10. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (just cuz it was my favourite as a child, a whole 3 years ago)

sterculelum · 31-08-2005 3:58pm

^^ and A Confederacy of Dunces and The Catcher in the Rye and Adrian Mole (all).

dramaqueen · 02-09-2005 2:10pm

* Wuthering Heights (Emily Bronte)
* The Shining (Stephen King)
* Harry Potter (the series)
* Princess (can't remember who wrote it, but it's a true story about a saudi princess)
* Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
* Titus Andronicus (Shakespeare)
* Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (Roddy Doyle)
* One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (Harper Lee)
* Anything by James Patterson
* Little Women (Louisa Alcott)

pukey · 03-09-2005 9:08pm

surely a book about the averting of the apocalypse would be a must
that and
1984 - orwell
catch 22 -keller?
american gods - gaiman
a short history of nearly everything - bryson
a brief history of time - hawkins
the selfish gene - dawkins
on the road - kerouac
the doors of perception/heaven and hell - huxley
****e's unoriginal miscellany - parody

NineMoons · 05-09-2005 12:27pm

The Earthsea Quintet - Ursula Le Guin (the best ones are the first two and the fourth)

Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

The Bible - Various authors

Medea - Euripedes

The End of the Affair - Graham Greene

I, Claudius - Robert Graves

The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler

The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood

Atonement - Iain McEwan

lordgoat · 05-09-2005 12:28pm

magician by RE Fesit

Outcast · 07-09-2005 3:40pm

Bob Dylans Chronicles are well worth a read
The Iliad-Homer
No Logo-Naomi Klein

And, for posterity's sake, The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings

ratboy · 14-09-2005 3:36pm

Caesar_Bojangle wrote:

What ten books would you consider as a must, to be read in ones lifetime?

1984 and Animal Farm by Goerge Orwell
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
War of The Flies by Golding
Star of The Sea by Joseph O Connor
The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle
Different Seasons by Stephen King
The Pearl by Steinbeck

johnny_ultimate · 25-09-2005 6:10pm

1. Catch 22 - Heller
2. 1984 - Orwell
3. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Thompson
4. On the Road - Keourac
5. High Fidelity - Hornby
6. The Killing Joke - Horowitz (the light hearted choice)
7. The Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy (1 through 5) - Adams

Ill think of more later probably.

Tiriel · 27-09-2005 12:58am

White Apples - Jonathon Carroll

read during the summer.. excellent

johnny_ultimate · 27-09-2005 8:03pm

Oh yeah!
8. Ubik - Phillip K Dick

gaf1983 · 27-09-2005 9:08pm

I think this website just proves how superfluous to the information requirements of us all that the internet can be from time to time. Basically it's a list of 2004/05 Premiership players, one from each club, and their favourite book, either a children's or adult's one. It's supposed to be an initiative to get kids to read. What harm I suppose.

Here's the list:

FREDDIE LJUNGBERG (ARSENAL) - Cars, Trucks & Things That Go by Richard Scarry (children's book)

MARK DELANEY (ASTON VILLA) – The Iron Man by Ted Hughes (children’s book)

STEPHEN CLEMENCE (BIRMINGHAM CITY) - The Twits by Roald Dahl (children’s book)

CRAIG SHORT (BLACKBURN ROVERS) – Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks (adults' book)

KEVIN NOLAN (BOLTON WANDERERS) – IT by Stephen King (adults' book)

DEAN KIELY (CHARLTON ATHLETIC) - It’s Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life by Lance Armstrong (adults' book)

JOHN TERRY (CHELSEA) - Cool! by Michael Morpurgo (children’s book)

TOMMY BLACK (CRYSTAL PALACE) – Postmortem by Patricia Cornwell (adults' book)

LEE CARSLEY (EVERTON) - The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream by Paulo Coelho (adults' book)

MORITZ VOLZ (FULHAM) - The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (children’s book)

CHRIS KIRKLAND (LIVERPOOL) – There’s a Viking in My Bed by Jeremy Strong (children’s book)

DAVID JAMES (MANCHESTER CITY) - The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien (children’s book)

RYAN GIGGS (MANCHESTER UNITED) - A Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela (adults' book)

COLIN COOPER (MIDDLESBROUGH) – 1984 by George Orwell (adults' book)

STEVEN TAYLOR (NEWCASTLE UNITED) – Keeper by Mal Peet (children’s book)

PAUL McVEIGH (NORWICH CITY) - The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (adults' book)

LOMANA LUALUA (PORTSMOUTH) - Tintin & the Lake of Sharks by Hergé (children’s book)

DAVID PRUTTON (SOUTHAMPTON - The Folk of the Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton (children’s book)

ERIK EDMAN (TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR) – Ramses by Christian Jacq (adults' book)

RICCARDO SCIMECA (WEST BROMWICH ALBION) - Keane: The Autobiography by Roy Keane and Eamon Dunphy (adults' book)

gaf1983 · 27-09-2005 9:12pm

Here are ten books that I really liked, I'll probably think of books that I liked better than them, but nevertheless, I'm still glad that I've read them before the apocalypse.

Le Livre Secret des Fourmis - Michael Werber

This is a bit like a miniature encyclopaedia about more or less everything by a French philosopher. He tends to refer everything back to the world of the ants, for some reason.

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

Very cynical, in a good way.

The Complete Prose - Woody Allen

Some of the short stories are much better than others - my favourite would be the Old Testament rendition of how Lacoste came to have an alligator as their logo. Very funny in parts.

Letter to Soviet Union Leaders, 1974 - Alexander Solzhenitsyn

A great polemic on why politicians should not cling unflinchingly to any one ideology - why pragmatism should always prevail.

Cars, Trucks and Things That Go - Richard Scarry

The title says it all. Features loads of furry animals driving mechanically-propelled vehicles. I loved it between the ages 2-5.

The Third Policeman - Flann O'Brien

Is it about a bicycle? Kind of. If you haven't read this book, read it. If you have read it, read it again.

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

A book about loyalty.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey

Tragic and funny - tragicomic? - but brilliant. Reminded me a bit of The Shawshank Redemption or An Lasair Choille.

Rhinoceros - Eugene Ionesco

Crikey Mikey, what a great read! Okay I know it's a play, but it's still a great piece of satire on collective hysteria, or how the masses can let themselves be governed by tyrants without even realising it.

Wild Swans - Jung Chang

Quite a sad book that makes me glad I didn't live in China for most of the twentieth century. A historical biography that's easy to read.

Sammy Jennings · 07-10-2005 5:01pm

CHARLES BUKOWSKI Post Office
ALBERT CAMUS The Stranger
NICK CAVE And the Ass Saw the Angel
KEN KESEY One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
IAN MACDONALD The People's Music
NORMAN MAILER The Spooky Art
JOHNNY ROGAN Morrissey & Marr: The Severed Alliance
HUBERT SELBY, JR. Last Exit to Brooklyn
WILL SELF Great Apes
EVELYN WAUGH Brideshead Revisited

Eva24 · 12-10-2005 6:05pm

Just a couple then, Anything by Jeffrey Eugenides, Who else can write black comedies and satires around Suicide pacts of beautiful teenage girls and Man/woman hybrids.
Would you have time to read Ullyses though

[I am actuallly reading it btw] I feel You could read it thirty times and still not cover alll of the aspects. Portrait of Dorian Gray[I love Oscar Wilde

]
A clockwork Orange, The Grapes of Wrath[heard it is extremely overrated though, hated the pearl] Heh, But I'll read anything!!

...............except :mad: Cecilia Aherne.................... Not That I hear she's that bad but no first time writer gets a milllion euro advence on their first novel, especiallly such a mediocre text

Miguel_Sanchez · 16-10-2005 4:06pm

Underworld - Don DeLillo
Bright Lights, Big City - Jay McInerney
The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway

Jay Tomio · 20-10-2005 8:34am

1. Dubliners James Joyce
2. Confessions of a Mask - Yukio Mishima
3. Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake
4. Woman in the Dunes - Kobo Abe
5. The Master and the Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
6. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
7. In Search of Lost Time - Marcel Proust
8. The Three Impostors - Arthur Machen (colelction)
9. Gravitys Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
10. Look Homeward, Angel - Thomas WOlfe

Very difficult; there are hundreds of other books that could replace any of those - but for the sake of particpation, that will work.

ombak · 23-10-2005 6:00pm

The Journey to the East, Herman Hesse.
Everything is Illuminated, Jonathon Saffron Foer.
The Buddha's Little Finger, Victor Pelevin. (This book also goes by the name The Clay Machine Gun for some reason. And was glad to see it made it onto someone elses list.)
Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels.
Labyrinths, Jorge Loius Borges.
The House of the Spirits, Isabel Allende.
Where I'm Calling From, Raymond Carver.
The Bend for Home, Dermot Healy.
Catch 22, Joseph Heller.
At swim-two-birds, Flann O' Brien, (if only for the last page/segment which is one of the strangest most unsettling pieces of writing I've read).

Kazibums · 27-10-2005 4:24pm

Would recommend these few for the top ten

Alchemist by Paulo Coelho..... a really simple story about recognising omens in our lives and trusting intuition.

5 People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom.... every life impacts another in some way, and sometimes unknowingly or unintentionally

My sisters Keeper/The Pact... Jodi Picoult..... couldnt put these down and was dying to talk it over with someone when finished.... great books.

Rachels Holiday by Marian Keyes... only book where I've laughed and cried int he one chapter... or had any reaction to really... love her humour

Also, any of the Judy Bloom books, as just brings back memories of being 10, with glitter pens, fancy paper and irish dancing. Ah yes, them were the days....

Venivici · 07-11-2005 3:00am

1. Foundation series by Asimov
2. The Winter of our Discontent by Steinbeck
3. One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch by Dosteskevy
4. The Three Musketeers by Dumas
5. The Oddssey by Homer

try reading history, great stories and all true!

sadie06 · 21-12-2005 9:31pm

His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman....lose yourself, and a couple of weeks, and your job...its that engrossing.

The Wasp Factory....one of the only books that made me feel uneasy, which is not a bad result, and surely what Iain Banks was hoping for in his controversial debut.

A Prayer For Owen Meaney...A fantastic character by the creative genius John Irving. You can hear his voice in your head for weeks afterwards.

So hard to chose when you are not at home looking at your books!!

kyp_durron · 09-01-2006 7:15am

1. Cather in the rye - Salinger
2. Brave new world - huxley
3. War of the flies - golding
4. Nine stories - Salinger
5. Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy - Adams
6. Slaughterhouse 5 - Vonnegut
7. Anything by Flann O'Brien
8. Everything by Joyce
9. Catch 22 - Heller
10. Homage to Catalonia - Orwell

That was tough, there was so much I left out. oh well.

Demetrius · 13-01-2006 6:25pm

Here are some of the books I think should go in the top ten. Master and Commander(or any of the other Aubry/Maturin stories) by Patrick O Brian. Im a huge fan of these books which have some of the most memorable characters ever created.
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller-one of the funniest books ever written.
Another series of books that are brilliant are the Discworld Books by Terry Pratchett
Ham on Rye by Charles Bukinowski(spelt incorrectly-sorry)-part autobiographical, can be a bit strange at times but worth reading
The Commitments by Roddy Doyle

Pazaz 21 · 24-01-2006 9:21pm

Anything in the James Bond series by Ian Fleming but especially Casino Royle and From Russia With Love.

sherkowski · 13-02-2006 8:14pm

Atomised by Michel Houelebecq
The Corrections by Jonathon Franzen
Ask the Dust by John Fante
The Old Man and the Sea by Old Papa
The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
1984 by George Orwell
The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
On The Road by Kerouac
Dubliners (The Dead) by Joyce
American Psycho by Easton Ellis (purely for shock value)

lilmissprincess · 27-02-2006 6:26pm

Well:
10.Animal Fram ( Orwell)
9. DaVinci Code
8. Anything Jacqueline Wilson
7. Anything Marion Keyes.
6. Stereotype- Claire Hennessy
5. Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry ( Mildred Taylor)
4.To kill a mockingbird.
3.Charlie and The chocolate Fatcory
2. Matilda
1. Ballet Shoes, Noel Streatfield

DriftingRain · 09-03-2006 6:12am

There are some pretty good books out right now....

The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King

Valiant and Tithe by Holly black(teen novels but VERY cute)

InkSpell and InkHeart by Cornelia Funke (awaiting the third book GREAT READS)

Eragon and Eldest by Christopher Paolini (again awaiting third book...hes a good young author...hope to see tons more form him)

Anyhow....thats what I've been reading lately...:rolleyes:

~DR~

bertebug · 09-03-2006 2:26pm

where to books you have read go? Do they die or just fade away? Is there a graveyard for books? I am beginning to build up a book cemetry of my own. May have to think about a mass cremation as am runnig out of space.
East of Eden was a good book

DriftingRain · 09-03-2006 11:47pm

*laughs*
You dont want em...send em my way....I've got a ton of room...

10 to read before the apocalypse?

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