10 to read before the apocalypse?

not bakunin · 25-08-2009 09:59PM

Damian Duffy wrote: »

Well said.

Anyone here read alot of Faulkner? Finished Light in August recently and thought it was brilliant.

ive read The sound and the Fury and thought it was ok, i should read more of his stuff i suppose.

may i also recommend Orwells "Burmese Days", Burgesses "A Clockwork Orange" and of course, "On the Road"

randomguy · 25-08-2009 11:08PM

I wasn't sure if I should pick books that I love, or the "important" books that I'd recommend that everyone should read before they die. In the end I picked books that I really enjoyed, rather than landmark literary ones.

Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
Book of Evidence - John Banville
Earthly Powers - Anthony Burgess
Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurty
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Eureka St - Robert McLiam Wilson
The Crow Road - Iain Banks
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
The Sportswriter - Richard Ford
The Way of All Flesh - Samuel Butler

But any of them could be replaced with any of my reserve 10:
Oscar and Lucinda - Peter Carey
My Secret History - Paul Theroux
Generation X - Douglas Coupland
Possession - A.S. Byatt
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
A History of the World in 10 and a 1/2 Chapters - Julian Barnes
The Golden Notebook - Doris Lessing
The Blue Flower - Penelope Fitzgerald
At-Swim-Two-Birds - Flann O'Brien
of Human Bondage - W Somerset Maugham

And there are so many books that i mightn't be mad into if I read them now, but that blew me away when I did read them, from Salman Rushdie to E Annie Proulx, from Robertson Davies to Irvine Welsh that I wish I could include as well.

It's going to be hard not to come back and edit this after I post, but I'll try to resist.

teamB_macro · 01-09-2009 10:21AM

anything written by austen and dickens is worth it. can pass up on dostoyevsky and tolstoy but could be missing a lot. and at least a harry potter, but what's the point of not reading the whole series

Porkpie · 03-09-2009 08:44AM

Can only think of 4 so far

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Miracle in the Andes by Nando Parrado
The Damage Done by Warren Fellows
The Game by Neil Strauss

wantacookie · 07-09-2009 10:34PM

there is way too many to name!!

ya need classics from jane austen! but ya need stuff like tolkeins LOTR also!

don't forget harry potter or darren shan novels.

then again ya need romantics like from Nicohlas Sparks or Jodi Piccoult!

but i've not read near enough books to know! i just intend to keep reading!!

Spiritoftheseventies · 08-09-2009 09:59AM

Btw Tomorrow 09-09-09. Get reading folks!

thebadmonkey · 14-09-2009 01:25PM

Tough choices..personally:

Fiction
- Anything by John Connolly, his Charlie Parker series is nothing short of fantastic.
- Green Mile by Stephen King
- Gates of Fire by Stephen Pressfield
- The Arthur trilogy by Bernard Cornwell
- The Bible according to Pike Milligan

Non Fiction
-Selling your Fathers Bones by Brian Schofield
-Shake Hands with the Devil by Lt Gen Romeo Dallaire
- The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer
- The Dark Sacrament by David M Kiely and Christina McKenna
- Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

Data_Quest · 14-09-2009 08:48PM

turgon wrote: »

As regards Ulysess, it would seem a lot of people read it to say theyve read it, and thus might put it in their top 10 just to say its in their top 10, if you get me. Ive read Portrait of an Artist myself. Wont embark on Ulysess for a few years. A lot of smaller miles to be tread on the journey first.

For anyone having difficulty ploughing through Ulysses I recommend you listen to the RTE audio book (over 24 hours long): really brought it to life for me anyway.

Data_Quest · 14-09-2009 09:07PM

I thought I had read a lot until I started reading this thread: thanks for all your recommendations: I have added loads of new titles to my wishlist on bookmooch.

Three great reads that I haven't seen mentioned are the first 3 on my list below:

The Dumas Club Arturo Perez-Reverte
For Whom The Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway
The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco
Homage To Catalonia George Orwell
Foucault's Pendulum Umberto Eco
Lord of the Rings J R R Tolkien
Endymion Dan Simmons
Hyperion Dan Simmons
Dark Materials Philip Pullman
Ulysses James Joyce
QuickSilver Neal Stephenson

sxt · 15-09-2009 09:59PM

thebadmonkey wrote: »

Tough choices..personally:

The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer

Loved that book, such a harrowing gripping read .

K4t · 19-09-2009 04:28AM

moni333 wrote: »

The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown

:eek:

Poirot · 24-09-2009 08:50PM

embee wrote: »

My top ten, in no particular order.

1. The Alchemist : Paolo Coehlo
2. The Grapes of Wrath : John Steinbeck
3. Mary Mary : Julie Parsons
4. Animal Farm : George Orwell
5. The Bell Jar : Sylvia Plath
6. Catcher in the Rye : J.D. Salinger
7. Lord of the Flies : William Golding
8. Lovely Bones : Alice Sebold
9. Finnegans Wake : James Joyce
10. Memoirs of a Geisha : Arthur Golden

I can't believe that anyone would rate any book by Paolo Coehlo as their number 1 book choice. Some of your other choices are great, but I my jaw drops when I see him alongside John Steinbeck.
Ypou should read more of his books - I have read three - you will find that he uses the same cryptic rubbish formula for each book that he writes.

Procasinator · 25-09-2009 12:09PM

Poirot wrote: »

I can't believe that anyone would rate any book by Paolo Coehlo as their number 1 book choice. Some of your other choices are great, but I my jaw drops when I see him alongside John Steinbeck.
Ypou should read more of his books - I have read three - you will find that he uses the same cryptic rubbish formula for each book that he writes.

I started to read The Pilgrimage, and must say, the word "rubbish" fits perfectly.

IrelandSpirit · 27-09-2009 12:44PM

Riddley Walker – By Russell Hobon

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson

Barbelo’s Blood - by Capt. Joseph W. Barbelo, AKA Joseph Ferri

The Dice Man – Luke Rhienhart

Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

Foucault's Pendulum – by Umberto Eco

The Flashman Series – (all of them!) by George McDonald Fraser

Asterix the Gaul - by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo

V For Vendetta – by Alan Moore

The Way of Wyrd – Brian Bates

Cannibal Ox · 27-09-2009 03:55PM

Procasinator wrote: »

I started to read The Pilgrimage, and must say, the word "rubbish" fits perfectly.

His style puts me off, but his books/message are okay I think.

The Emperor - Ryszard Kapuscinski
Siddhartha - Herman Hesse
Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
If Not Now, When? - Primo Levi
Lucky Jim - Kingsley Amis
Hunger - Knut Hamsun
The Book of Disquiet - Fernando Pessoa
The Immoralist - Andre Gide
Herzog - Saul Bellow
Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

footing · 27-09-2009 06:02PM

Happened on this thread; don't see a lot of French books in there - the French wrote some of the best novels of the 19th century. Here are three that I have particularly loved:
Balzac - Lost Illusions
Flaubert - Sentimental Education
Stendhal - The Charterhouse of Parma
Plus (at the moment):
Anything by the crime writer Fred Vargas
(Also Edith Wharton, who is not French but spent a lot of time there. A beautiful writer of the English language.)

blogga · 18-10-2009 02:09PM

Am I late or what but then the only eternity there is is the net:

The Story of San Michele...Axel Munthe
Hamlet
King Lear
Yeats later poems
Paul Celan

I just realised that this should be ten movies / songs / books...

KateC92 · 20-10-2009 12:50AM

First books that pop into my head:

Harry Potter (everyone should read these - you have to read the whole series to appreciate the genius behind them, oh and the books are a million times better than the movies)
The Twilight Saga (if you are a teenage girl)
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Before I Die
Anne of Green Gables
Greyfriar's Bobby (a short but moving tale)

Wilde · 20-10-2009 09:57PM

Catcher in the Rye, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Survivor, Fight Club and anything else by Chuck Palahniuk, Catch 22, On The Road, The Buddha of Suburbia, Lamb: The Story of the Gospel according to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. The Rum Diaries, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Lord of the Flies, Ask the Dust, The Sun Also Rises, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Life of Pi, The Rum Diary, RABID: A Novel, The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay anything by Bukowski, particularly Post Office and Factotum.

footing · 21-10-2009 09:43AM

KateC92 wrote: »

First books that pop into my head:

Harry Potter (everyone should read these - you have to read the whole series to appreciate the genius behind them, oh and the books are a million times better than the movies)

One big problem: Rowlings is a very ordinary writer; no spark.
In this genre, Pullman is the man.

fanuel · 26-10-2009 12:25PM

I'm "limiting" to these 10....but it's been really hard....

Milan Kundera - The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Hermann hesse - Siddhartha
Dante - The Divine Comedy
Goethe - Elective Affinities
Bukowski -Women
Bukowski - Ham On Rye
Kerouac - On the Road
Kafka - The Trial (I would add "The Metamorphosis" as well)
John Fante - Ask the Dust
William Gibson - Neuromancer

In Italy, I was giving a ride home to a girl that I use to work with. After few minutes in the car, she says that her last reading was The Lord of The rings and that was one of the best books written. I HAD to stop the car and ask her to leave.

rickman · 12-11-2009 05:03PM

here comes robert kingdom - peter mc cluskey
paddy clarke ha ha ha - roddy doyle

Mjollnir · 21-11-2009 04:05AM

The Hyperion Cantos - Dan Simmons
The Book of the New Sun - Gene Wolfe
The White Hotel - D. M. Thomas

FishFingers · 22-11-2009 04:29PM

American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis

rickman · 28-11-2009 12:45PM

i agree with nick horby's "fever pitch"
ben elton's "blast from the past"
bateman's "mystery man"
peter mc cluskey's "here comes robert kingdom"
mith albom's "have a little faith"

ther27 · 29-11-2009 10:38PM

These books are all equally brilliant and will stay with you long after you have finished reading them.
1. Point to Point Navigation-Gore Vidal
2. To Kill a Mockingbird-Harper Lee
3. Collected Letters-Graham Greene
4. The Age of Turbulence-Alan Greenspan
5. The Reader-Bernhard Schlink
6. The Catcher in the Rye-J.D. Salinger
7. Catch-22-Joseph Heller
8. Memoir-John McGahern
9. The Untouchable-John Banville
10. The Sea-John Banville

Farolina81 · 30-11-2009 12:03AM

Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ if you have even a vague interest in Christian books!

castle · 02-12-2009 09:07PM

Catcher in the Rye
1984
Animal Farm
To kill a mocking bird

Freebee09 · 10-12-2009 01:42PM

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte.

It's life changing

Eliot Rosewater · 10-12-2009 03:58PM

Given the epicness of this thread and the amount of times it is referenced, I think it would be cool to compile the 600+ posts so far into one chart of greatness. If anyones up for it we could divide the workload.

Anywhoo, my top 10, in no order:

Animal Farm, George Orwell.
1984, George Orwell.
Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien.
Lord of the Flies, William Golding.
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee.
Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut.
The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck.
That They May Face The Rising Sun, John McGahern.
Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway.
Heart of Darkness, Joesph Conrad

Thats me for the moment, and its definitely subject to change! I sure when I get around to re-reading the Hemingways books one of them will knock Fiesta off. Its just that the more Ive read him more the more Ive liked him.

10 to read before the apocalypse?

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