Favorite books

[glauber]

I'm reading Dakota, a Spiritual Geography, by Kathleen Norris. A beautiful, peace-filled book, that raises very good questions too.

[glauber]

Yes, I love detective mysteries, the classics, fictional history, fantasy and baseball...

Have you tried The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco? A tour de force Sherlock Holmes tribute which moves through history, languages, countries, and metaphysics. I read it (many times) in Portuguese, don't know if it translates well to English. Written in Italian.

[PhilO]

Yes, I love detective mysteries, the classics, fictional history, fantasy and baseball...

Have you tried The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco? A tour de force Sherlock Holmes tribute which moves through history, languages, countries, and metaphysics. I read it (many times) in Portuguese, don't know if it translates well to English. Written in Italian.

Not yet, but I'll be hitting Amazon shortly. Thanks Glauber!

Philo

[dubhlinn]

I've read "The Name of the Rose" three times in all and really enjoyed it,although the stuff about metaphysics was a bit hard to fathom in my little mind.
A Film was made featuring Sean Connery which stuck to the detective story aspect of the book and while it was a long way off Classic status it is a pleasant way to spend an evening in front of the DVD player.

Slan,
D.

[glauber]

The fact that i was in (Presbyterian) seminary the first time i read it helped a lot. A lot of the characters and attitudes in the book mapped well to people i was interacting with every day. But even if you aren't interested in the question of whether Jesus laughed it's a cool detective story. Other points that are not central to the plot are the question of names and the true nature of things, use and abuse of power and money, and the difficulty (impossibility?) of having an honest public discussion about important things. Eco was well established as a language theorist before he started writing novels, and it shows.

The historical context is a time when the Roman Catholic church is trying to define itself. The Franciscans preach humility and poverty, the Benedictines build rich abbeys that are centers of culture, while the poorest of the poor everywhere take comfort in splinter heretical movements that embrace revolution. The question is, can the Franciscan order be allowed to exist, or is it too similar to those dangerous groups? And will this decision be made based on the facts or on fear? When the 2 delegations meet in a very rich abbey to rehash their positions before they present them officially to the Pope, monks start dying.

[rkottke]

I am a book nut! These are my favorites in which I have them both in text and on audio CD (via Audible.com)

'Tis, by Frank McCourt
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt
Anthem by Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Black Elk Speaks by Black Elk
Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub
Convergence by Charles Sheffield
Divergence by Charles Sheffield
Dreamcatcher by Stephen King
Everything's Eventual by Stephen King
Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott
Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King
Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams
Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Salem's Lot by Stephen King
So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish by Douglas Adams
Song of Susannah: The Dark Tower VI by Stephen King
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
Summertide by Charles
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Dark Tower: The Dark Tower VII by Stephen King
The Drawing of the Three: The Dark Tower II by Stephen King
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The Gunslinger: The Dark Tower I by Stephen King
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams
The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand
The Waste Lands: The Dark Tower III by Stephen King
Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein
Transcendence: Book 3 of The Heritage Universe by Charles Sheffield
Wizard and Glass: The Dark Tower IV by Stephen King
Wolves of the Calla: Dark Tower V by Stephen King

[fearfaoin]

I recently became enamored with the author Christopher Moore.
His books are a mixture of outlandish implausibility and hilarity.
Such titles as "The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove" and
"Practical Demonkeeping". His latest (which I can't wait to get as
soon as it's checked back into the library) is "Lamb : The Gospel
According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal"

The ongoing Alvin Maker series by Orson Scott Card is excellent.
Also, on the alternative history front is J. Gregory Keyes' "Age
of Unreason" series.

I never read mysteries before, but my wife's a MUCH faster reader
than I, so she usually can sort the wheat from the chaff for me. She
has turned me on to a couple of great historical mystery series.
Ellis Peters wrote a series whose main character is the Welsh monk
Cadfael who in his pre-cloistered days was a soldier in the Crusades.
They are set in Shrewsbury in the late 12th century, and aside from
the mystery in each novel, Peters underscores a different aspect
of Medieval life. Interesting and educational.

Along similar lines is a series by Alan Gordon. He takes the character of
Feste the Fool from Shakespear's "Twelfth Night", and turns him into
an agent for the secretive Fool's Guild (which is actually a spy network).
The actual mystery is often overshadowed by the events in, say, Byzantium
during the 4th Crusade, but he makes a great case for Jesters being the
perfect spies, as few people suspect them as such, and they are often
allowed a high degree of freedom even in royal courts.

Speaking of the Crusades, Stephen Lawhead has some great stories
about Scotsmen trying to protect holy relics during the various
sackings of Jerusalem. Good stuff, I think the series is titled "The
Celtic Crusades", which is slightly misleading.

[Darwin]

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

Am I the only one who thinks that the (TV?) movie of the same name was a total travesty?

[Darwin]

I never read mysteries before, but my wife's a MUCH faster reader
than I, so she usually can sort the wheat from the chaff for me. She
has turned me on to a couple of great historical mystery series.
Ellis Peters wrote a series whose main character is the Welsh monk
Cadfael who in his pre-cloistered days was a soldier in the Crusades.
They are set in Shrewsbury in the late 12th century, and aside from
the mystery in each novel, Peters underscores a different aspect
of Medieval life. Interesting and educational

I was about to mention those after seeing the Name of the Rose discussion. They aren't so deep or subtle, but they are interesting--and fun. The movie versions of several, which were shown on PBS, aren't half bad, either.

I was looking forward to more when the author went and died on us.

[rkottke]

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

Am I the only one who thinks that the (TV?) movie of the same name was a total travesty?

There is no comparison. Hollywood, with all it's extreme left of Mao bias, could never bring anything of Heinlein to the screen without making a travesty.

It is just too bad that a good share of the American public follows in step with Hollywood and never reads (or thinks.)

[BEC]

Interesting topic.....

It seems most of the recreational reading I do in recent years is reading to my kids at night.....with five kids, the youngest now 10 years old.

We've been through, and enjoyed reading C.S. Lewis' seven Chronicles of Naria books to all five kids. When they were younger, of course there was Dr. Seuss.

More recently we've been through a number of the Hank the Cowdog series (doing one of those right now), and a couple of the Bunnicula books (just finished "The Celery Stalks at Midnight").

I really enjoyed reading the three Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer - a 14 year old Irish super genius crime kingpin getting mixed up with fairies and such......they're not as silly as that sounds and very witty.

I second the nomination of Isaac Asimov's "The Gods Themselves" and also nominate his Foundation trilogy and the follow-ons Asimov wrote much later in his life.

I also second the nomination of all five of Douglas Adam's "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" books. It was great fun to read THOSE aloud to kids!

On a completely different note I recently read for myself and thoroughly enjoyed "Skunk Works" by Ben Rich and Leo Janos - the story of Lockheed's famous development group and some of the amazing things they developed over time. Being an aircraft engineer in my day job makes such things rather interesting to me.....

My favorite mysteries are those by Tony Hillerman - but then having grown up in that part of the country (in one town tha turns up often in those books) may have something to do with that.

Enough for now.....

[mvhplank]

The only book of Bryson's that I have read is Mother Tongue, about the English language, and there were more than a few factual errors in it. I assumed that he wrote about languages, but it looks like he just writes about anything he chooses, which would explain the errors.

You've said this twice in this thread and haven't cited any proof for your claims.

State your sources and document your own research if you want me to take you seriously.

M

[Flyingcursor]

Holy moly. I almost missed this thread.

Of the novels I've read which I remember, my favorites have been

A Clockwork Orange
Lord of the Flies
The Horn of Africa
A Confederacy of Dunces.
Cross of Iron.

I'm sure I've forgotten dozens.

Non fiction history

In War's Dark Shadow. (pre WWi Russia)
Shelby Foote's 3 volume set on the US Civil War
Russia At War (WWII), Alexander Werth
Rising Sun (John Toland)
A Time for Trumpets (John Toland, Ardennes offensive 1944)
The Face of Battle (John Keegan)
No Man's Land (Toland, 1918 WWI)
The Guns of August.
The Campaigns of Napolean.

(Those are favorites. I have dozens more)

Non-Fiction memoirs

With the Old Breed. Eugene Sledge
A Rumor of War.
The Gallic Wars (Julie Ceasar)
In Mortal Combat. (A German guy who's name I don't remember)

There must be a lot more but I can't think of them at the moment.

[chas]

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein

Am I the only one who thinks that the (TV?) movie of the same name was a total travesty?

There is no comparison. Hollywood, with all it's extreme left of Mao bias, could never bring anything of Heinlein to the screen without making a travesty.

I rented it one weekend, and that Monday told a friend how disappointed I was. I said, "I'd been waiting so long for them to make a movie of the book."

He said, "I know, just not THAT movie!"

To (again) fill in another set of books I missed: Has anyone else read The Incarnations of Immortality by Piers Anthony? Those were just so mind-expanding; I've never read anything like them before or since. People become traditional anthropomorphised deities (Angel of Death, Father Time, Mother Nature, etc.), and through the seven books there are several small and one great struggle between good and evil. There's some humor in them, but it's a huge departure from, say, the Xanth books, both in spirit and the obvious amount of effort he put into crafting them.

[Flyingcursor]

I forgot about Starship Troopers. I liked both the book and the movie but they are not the same thing at all. I like the book because the author raises some great issues. It's more of a social commentary.

I like the movie because it's like watching a comic book. Of course the main character in the book is Philippino (sp?).

While on the subject of Science Fiction. My favorites are:

The Mote in God's Eye
Anything by Larry Niven except the third Ringworld.
Anything by Robert Sheckley
Most stuff by Harry Harrison except the Eden series.

Domesday Book by Connie Willis
Most short stories by Connie Willis.