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10 to read before the apocalypse?

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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,557 ✭✭✭LD 50


    For me, it'd be:
    Jarhead
    Fight Club
    The Dice Man by Luke Rheinhart
    Day Watch, Night Watch, Twilight Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
    1984

    I don't know if you'd call them classics, or epics, but they're my fav's


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 8,219 ✭✭✭Calina


    1. The Brendan Voyage - Tim Severin
    2. A short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson
    3. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
    4. The Neverending Story - Michael Ende
    5. Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austin (although I've read it so often, I'm nearly bored with it)
    6. Good Omens - Neil Gaiman/Terry Pratchett
    7. The Princess Bride - William Goldman
    8. The Great Railway Bazaar - Paul Theroux

    I know there are 2 missing but I just ... can't.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,762 ✭✭✭turgon


    Have skimmed through the last few lists, and felt that the Grapes of Wrath be John Steinbeck deserved a mention.

    1984 is also a must.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 116 ✭✭EmoMatt15


    I second The Grapes of Wrath and 1984..also Animal Farm and The Liar by Stephen Fry


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 19 NorthenQueen


    Sitting in a bunker during/after the apocalypse, I'd read these brilliant stories:
    1. Catch 22 (it would help me to laugh at the situation). This is actually a brilliant book, its funny and clever and makes you feel like laughing and crying at the same time, I suppose its bitter sweet.
    2. Disgrace - this book is really captivating, it sucessfully brings you into the world of the narrator and you get to see everything from his point of view. He's an anti hero at the start, but he is much more interesting than a lot of those boring, depressed protagonists, he is really at the end of this tether, but he is still vividly interesting.
    3. The Heart of the Matter- this book tells the story of the moral demise of a good, albeit weak, man. Its emotive and it captured my heart. The characterisation is insightful and accurate and the story carries you along in its momentum.
    4. The heart of darkness - Apololypse now is based on this, I think, the book isn't about the Vietnam war, its about an ivory dealer, but the story is about the loss of a man's sanity and morality in the jungle.
    5. Catcher in the rye - I read this in school and I still remember all the subtle, wonderfully poetic lines.
    6. The dark Tower (by Stephen King) - if you are going to read any post - Tolkien fantasy novel series.... read this one.
    7. The beach - I can't believe that Alex Garland was younger than me when he published this, its a masterpiece.
    8. V for Vendetta - This is a graphic novel written by Alan Moore, its poignant, touching and sweet.
    9. The Flood by Gunter Graas. This play is really wierd but worth reading. I think its better than the Tin Drum.
    10. Brave new world - Aldeous Huxley, I've saved the best till last!!


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 270 ✭✭IpreDictDeatH


    "Making history" - Stephen Fry

    "Down and out in Paris and London" - George Orwell

    "The curious incident of the dog at night time" - Mark Haddon

    "Essays in love" - Alain De Botton

    "By the rivers of babylon" - Nelson De Mille

    "Nothing to say" - Mannix Flynn

    "Communist manifesto" - Karl Marx

    "Chocolat" - Joanne Harris

    "The God delusion" - Richard dawkins

    "The world according to carp" - John Irving


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 10,070 ✭✭✭✭pq0n1ct4ve8zf5


    In no particular order

    American Gods-Neil Gaiman
    Atonement-Ian Mc Ewan
    Catch22-Joseph Heller
    Sirens of Titan-Kurt Vonnegut (I had to be nearly bodily forced to read this, having at the time an unreasonable prejudice against sci-fi, but I can't reccomend it highly enough)
    The Portrait of Dorian Gray-Oscar Wilde
    Ghostwritten-David Mitchell
    Lolita-Vladimir Nabokov
    Wuthering Heights-Emily Bronte
    Fight Club-his name escapes me atm
    Fear and Loathing in Lasvegas-H.S Thompson (<I'd advise you to see that movie at around the same time you read the book)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 106 ✭✭Messy Missy


    In no particular order:

    The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
    The Screwtape Letters - C. S. Lewis
    How The Irish Saved The Civilisation - Thomas Cahill
    The Bookseller of Kabul - Asne Seierstad
    A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini
    Shangai Baby - Wei Hui
    A Short Story of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
    Christ The Lord - Anne Rice
    Sold - Zana Muhsen

    Bonus Track: Everything by Marian Keyes because she is hilarious and I love her. :D


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 21 sloppydrunk


    Just finished Star of the Sea by Joseph o Conner

    Wow,, think its my new favourite book


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 12,456 ✭✭✭✭Mr Benevolent


    1. Anything by Peter Biddlecombe. A brilliant raconteur, but not a novelist. You'll learn lots about the world.

    2. Fate is the Hunter - Ernest K Gann - Autobiography of a typical 1950s airline pilot. Wonderful use of language.

    3. My Godawful Life - Michael Kelly/Sunny McCreary. A brilliant pisstake on the 'abusive childhood' memoirs. DON'T read it in public, because people will think you're bonkers for laughing so much.

    4. Anything by Jasper Fforde. This guy is a genius.

    5. PG Wodehouse. As above.

    6. The historical novels of Tom Holt. Olympiad, The Walled Orchard, Alexander at the World's End, A Song for Nero and Meadowland. He's more famous for his nutty comic fantasy, but the above titles are grounded in fact and exceptional.

    7. Tim Moore. He's a travel writer, but a 'personal' one. It's not really about the travelling, it's about the ideas. Excellent stuff.

    8. Robert Rankin. Zany, insane and brilliant.

    9. Das Boot - Lothar-Gunther Bucheim. Utterly captivating.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 91 ✭✭chenguin


    Just finished Star of the Sea by Joseph o Conner

    Wow,, think its my new favourite book

    I totally agree with this being on the list. It is a brilliant book.
    I have also read Redemption Falls which is also amazing


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 468 ✭✭godspal


    F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
    William S. Burroughs - Naked Lunch
    Thomas Pychon - Gravity's Rainbow
    Virgnia Woolf - To the Lighthouse
    Leo Tolstoy - War & Peace
    Gustav Flaubert - Madame Bovary
    Flan O'Brien - The Third Policeman
    Fyodor Dostoyevsky - Notes from the Underground
    Franz Kafka - Metamorphosis
    James Joyce - Ulysses


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,379 ✭✭✭thebigcheese22


    1. 1984 by George Orwell.... no explanation needed really :)

    2. Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernieres.... I just loved this book! Its written in a mystical kind of way which makes it a truly epic read

    3. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde... His only book and a great read

    4. Dracula by Bram Stoker... A great horror story and really original in the way it is narrated

    5. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy... A great book about society in Russia at that time, and how often the richest are the most miserable, Anna is a really memorable tragic character IMO
    (Tried to read War and Peace as well but twas too long for my poor brain! I will do it one day tho)

    6. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov... I didn't really appreciate it until i re-read it recently and found out the back story to its publication - Bulgakov could only publish it after his death so never found out the world's reaction to it. This is tragic as its a wonderful, wacky book with great characters. It intertwines the story of Jesus' death, and specifically Pontius Pilates role in it, with the story of the Devil coming to atheistic Soviet Russia. Come on, it has a huge demonic talking cat...it has to be brilliant!

    7. Crime and Punishment by Doestoevsky... Another great Russian novel by a master storyteller. He made me sympathise with the character, even after killing two people for money. It is a detective story in some parts, but it dissects human's emotions revealingly and shows that redemption is possible for people even after dispicable acts.

    Thats all for now! :D


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 19 deromalley


    short history of nearly everything - Bill Bryson

    Northern lights


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,015 ✭✭✭Paddy Samurai


    Hard to pick just 10 books ,so picked books that i had read more than once and that i was sorry when the books were finished.

    1. Swan song by Robert mcgammon (its about life after the apocalypse)

    2.Legend by david Gemmell (the number one fantasy classic)

    3.Shogun by James clavell (historic linked fiction)

    4.Necroscope by Brian Lumley (unique vampire horror series)

    5.Dune by Frank Herbert (sci fi epic novel)

    6.On stranger Tides by Tim Powers (blackbeard and zombies )

    7.Magician by Raymond e feist (the number two fantasy classic)

    8.The Religion by Tim Willocks (muslims vs christians @ siege of Malta)

    9.The Matarese Circle by robert Ludnum (top notch conspiracy thriller)

    10. The Ninja by Eric van lustbader (great thriller)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 74 ✭✭TinyMontgomery


    Hmmm..

    On the road - Jack Kerouac
    Kingdom of Fear - Hunter S Thompson
    The Alchemist - Paulo Cohelo
    Filth - Irvine Welsh
    Tain Bo Culaigne
    Desolation Angels - Jack Kerouac
    Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 334 ✭✭Elbi


    I have just finished reading "The Paupers Graveyard" by Gemma Mawdsley (a newLimerick writer) and i have to say I just loved it.
    For the first time I have a good understanding of the true horror of the Great Famine in ireland,
    Brilliantly written, I didnt want it to end. Cant wait to read more from her.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 37 Miskatonic


    A few off the top of my head..can't think of 10!

    Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
    1984 - George Orwell
    Girlfriend in a Coma - Douglas Coupland
    The Lovely Bones - Alice Seebold
    The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
    The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
    The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 879 ✭✭✭Kablamo!


    We need to talk about Kevin- Lionel Shriver
    A fraction of the whole- Steve Toltz
    I know this much is true- Wally Lamb
    The Stand- Stephen King
    The book of lost things- John Connolly
    A good and happy child- Justin Evans
    Audrey Rose- Frank DeFelitta
    Extremely loud and incredibly close- Jonathan Safran Foer

    Ah I dunno, I'll read anything but I'll re-read those over and over


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6 SassyC


    To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - incredible!
    My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult - WOW.
    The Merchant of Venice - Shakespeare - amazing.
    Romeo and Juliet - Shakespeare - great love story.
    The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon.
    Anything by James Patterson particularly Womens Murder Club.
    The Road - Cormac McCarthy - it might actually help you survive the apocalypse.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,046 ✭✭✭eZe^


    In no particular order;

    The Catcher In The Rye
    Catch 22
    Moab Is My Washpot
    Life of Pi
    Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
    Barring Some Unforeseen Accident
    Magus
    The Beach
    Good Omens
    Homage to Catalonia

    I tried to get a mix of fantasy, travel, feel good, deep involving story lines, character pieces and just genuinely fun enjoyable books. Moab is my Washpot is the only autobiography I ever finished.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 65 ✭✭pdelahunty


    1. The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton
    2. The Informant - Kurt Eichanwald
    3. The Lies of Lock Lomora - Scott Lynch
    4. The Millemium books - Steig Larsson
    5. The Bible - various


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 23 Lovecat


    In no particular order:
    Hamlet, William Shakespeare
    I Am the Messenger, Markus Zusak
    The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
    Anne of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
    Bleak House, Charles Dickens
    Rebecca, Daphne DuMaurier
    The Pursuit of Love, Nancy Mitford
    The Beach, Alex Garland
    Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carrol
    The Cat in the Hat, Dr Seuss


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14 jbree


    1. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger "he put my goddam paper down and looked at me like he had just beaten hell outta me at ping-pong or somethin." The funniest line I have ever read and the greatest book ever in my opinion. I bought this book in Munich when I was travelling and read it on a train in one day passing from Munich over the Alps to Geneva. Part of me wishes I had watched the Alps, most of me doesn't.
    2. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller. "Tight bomb patterns" Do not even attempt to watch the welles movie without reading it first. the second best ever.
    3. 1984 - George Orwell - says a lot about our society when people now think he stole the BB idea from Channel Four.
    4. A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway - his entire works could easily make the top ten on their own. The greatest novellist of all time.
    5. The Black Dahlia - James Elroy - the best detective noir novel of them all, i think.
    6. American Psycho - Brett Easton Ellis, the last shocking novel. Nothing will surprise me again after reading Less Than Zero and then this.
    7. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess- a latter day Joyce, being the pedant I have my bookshelf alphabetised. This sits beside the Da Vinci (shudder).
    8. A Goat's Tale - Dermot Healy, the greatest living Irish writer (bold statement).
    9. Get Shorty - Elmore Leonard - the punchiest book ever.
    10. Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky- still has it after all the years.
    11. The Trial - Franz Kafka - the original rebel.
    ok i know that's 11 but...

    Notable absentees, any other works by those already mentioned, Raymond Chandler- The Big Easy, Martin Amis- London Fields, Nabakov-Lolita, Peter Carey, any, John Banville- the Sea, Albert Camus, the Plague, the Outsider.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 770 ✭✭✭viztopia


    the dark tower by Stephen King anybody? the last book was a bit of a let down but the series of books were magnificant.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,643 ✭✭✭0ubliette


    The Stranger - Camus
    The Plague - Camus
    Mr. Vertigo - Paul Auster
    IT - Stephen King
    A clockwork orange - Anthony Burgess
    The wasp factory - Ian Banks
    The dice man - Luke Reinhart
    The inferno - Dante
    The man in the high castle - Philip K. Dick

    In particular, i have to say the plague is probably one of the most amazingly written novels ive ever read.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 178 ✭✭threeleggedhors


    Frankenstein
    A Tale of Two Cities
    Othello
    Human Instinct
    The Selfish Gene
    The Godfather
    The Catcher in the Rye
    The Boy Who Kicked Pigs

    ;)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 289 ✭✭randomguy


    jbree wrote: »
    8. A Goat's Tale - Dermot Healy, the greatest living Irish writer (bold statement).

    Some great books there alright - I am guessing number 8 is "A Goat's Song" - I wouldn't be so pedantic except that it's a great book and I'd encourage everyone to read it. I read it about 10 years ago and it blew me away at the time. Have been meaning to go back and read it again to see if it stands the test of time.

    For Anthony Burgess, I'd rate Earthly Powers ahead of Clockwork Orange, but I suppose it makes more sense to say that they are very different books rather than saying one is better than the other.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 3,762 ✭✭✭turgon


    Well I cant say I have 10- to put down.

    1984 by George Orwell.
    The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
    The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
    The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

    I suppose Clockwork Orange is pretty excellent too.
    Heart of Darkness is pretty great, but a lot more "literature-esque" than most books Ive read, so harder to feel the same passion towards it.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 875 ✭✭✭triseke


    Lolita by Nabokov


    just a fantastic book


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