The most awesome book you ever read
Wednesday, July 6th, 2005 - 7:01pm
I'm looking to make a new amazon.com order.
So I wonder what's the best book you ever read? Something that changed your life, or something that made you cry, or laugh, or what. I'm talking about the book equivalent of... say, Ultima, or System Shock, or Doom, in terms of changing your view of the world.
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Er, forgot:
Mine would be the Illuminatus Trilogy. I was a young kid when I read it, and it instilled in me a belief that no one really knows what's going on in the world. And that dolphins are pretty cool.
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Come Play Team Fortress 2 with the cool kids! GWJ's Stan's Lounge Pub: 63.209.34.11:27015
7-8pm central time, every day. It's free! =D
In Harm's Way was very good. Kind of puts things in perspective.
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First you start an awesome thread... then you take my answer away! Bastard!! The Trilogy was one of two english books I took with me when I did my exchange student stint in Paraguay. The other one was Poul Anderson's Harvest of Stars.
Hmm... Digging through my bookshelf... One of the most worn books on my shelf is Gary Jennings' Raptor. I don't know if the book is any good. I know I've read it several times and enjoyed it. Thinking about it I almost want to say that it's a cross between Ayn Rand and L. Ron Hubbard in scope (because somehow this one person manages to do just about anything), classic comic-books in character development (because the hero never really loses), and Hustler (because the main character is a hermaphrodite that gets laid a lot). It's written in sort of a first person history kind of way that I found pretty engrossing as a child, because it made the scenes easier to *cough*masturb...*cough*ate to*cough* identify with.
Now I will have to re-read it to see if I'll regret having mentioned it here!
On the more contemporary side... I've been patiently slogging my way through the Terry Pratchet Discworld series and have enjoyed myself immensely! Each book seems to have at least two seriously laugh out loud moments. Not internal grins where you read it twice just to make sure you didn't misread. No. A sh*t eating grin on the face and the inability to go on without reading it out loud to someone that cannot possibly understand the wonderfully nuanced circumstances of the situation you are painting. And still doing it because it is THAT good!
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Politely rude. Briskly vague. Firmly uninformative.
I reread Steinbeck's The Winter of our Discontent every few years. In fact it's about that time again. It's a great book about living your life they way you think you ought to, or giving in to society pressures and playing the game like everyone else. It's not commonly believed to be his best work, but for me it's my favorite of his.
I can't answer this question. There are too many books that each in their own way affected me deeply to choose just one to wear the title of "most awesome." The most awesome, affecting book I've read lately would be "A Complicated Kindness" by Miriam Toews.
Admittedly, The Winter of Our Discontent probably isn't considered his best, but it's probably my favorite as well, and an excellent book. I was introduced to Steinbeck with The Pearl, and while it's OK, he has such better books. Of course, it probably helps to read The Winter of Our Discontent when you've settled down some-- I probably wouldn't love it as much if I was sixteen.
Along a similar vein, when I was younger I thought Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger was fantastic. Funny, though. I read it when I was 12 and didn't get it. I read it again when I was 14 and thought it was one of the best books I ever read. Another one that really hit me when I was younger (I haven't read it in 15 years or so) was Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. For that matter, a non-fiction book that really helped straighten me out when I was a teen was The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck. While some people think it's too sweeping and too heavy on story-telling, it really worked for me.
I'd really have to think about what I would consider to be my favorite book now.
For my wife, it's easy. She thinks Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda is a life-changing book. It'll probably be the next book I read (well, after the latest Potter book).
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King Rat by James Clavell
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This is really hard. I can't narrow it down to just one. I can give you a short list of several books that really meant a lot to me, though:
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus - Orson Scott Card
The Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life - The Dalai Lama
Schindler's List - Thomas Keneally
The Lord of The Rings - J.R.R.Tolkien
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
It's hard to stop, but that defeats the purpose of your "most awesome book" thread!
Talk nerdy to me.
Hey! No cheating! =)
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Come Play Team Fortress 2 with the cool kids! GWJ's Stan's Lounge Pub: 63.209.34.11:27015
7-8pm central time, every day. It's free! =D
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand.
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That is an extremely difficult task, I think. Hmm...allow me to offer up The Never Ending Story by Michael Ende. The awesomeness of that book made me understand literature in an entirely new way.
Outside of the obvious "Good Book", my favorites have been:
Steel Boat, Iron Hearts - Hans Goebeler
Absolutely American - David Lipisky
Red Storm Rising - Tom Clancy
Flight of the Old Dog - Dale Brown
Lord of the Rings - Tolkein
My Father's House - Steven Roberts
First They Killed My Father - Loung Ung
Do not expect to read the last one and not be emotionally moved. Not light reading at all...
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Yeah, the title alone sounds like a real picker-upper :/
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Come Play Team Fortress 2 with the cool kids! GWJ's Stan's Lounge Pub: 63.209.34.11:27015
7-8pm central time, every day. It's free! =D
Though it was simply an alternate history novel, that one was an absolute blast to read. Excellent list, Elysia!
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I cannot list one book, so I'll list a group:
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien (The Hobbit included)
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Neuromancer by William Gibson
The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, ect.
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
Two Treaties of Government by John Locke
The Rights of Man by Tom Paine
Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
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Souls in the Great Machine
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Imajica - Clive Barker
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Ishmael - Daniel Quinn. (followed by The Story of B and My Ishmael.) Changed - and then cemented - the way I view the world. A real mind-f*ck, but in a good, non-Celestine Prophecy kind of way.
Closely followed by A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson. Although Ishmael is probably not for everyone, A Short History absolutely is. If you've ever been curious about anything, it's probably answered in there, and it's surprisingly accessible. Read it.
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Lonesome Dove
Hunt for Red October
Silence of the Lambs
Jurassic Park
Seven Armies in Normandy
Lord of the Rings
The Stand
Pretty much any Jack London novel.
Patrick O'Brian Aubrey/Maurtin novels.
EDIT: Damn, oforgot Enders Game. Damn good book.
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Fiction:
Catch-22, Joseph Heller or any collection of Damon Runyon short stories; Guys and Dolls is a good one. Heller and Runyon write the best comic prose in the English language, period. Catch-22 manages to somehow be tragic and hilarious at the same time, and Runyon's writing style is utterly unique.
Non-fiction:
A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. The memoir of an early-twenties drug addict beats his addictions in spite of the drug treatment program he's in. Awesome. You'll never think about drug addiction the same way.
Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. A synthesis historian explains how Europeans came to dominate world history through a series of lucky breaks and positive feedback loops throughout the course of the development of civilization. Nowhere near as dense as it sounds from my description. I've got Duttybrew reading it and last time I checked, he loves it. This book completely changes the way you view the world and world history.
The War With Hannibal by Livy. One of two books that REALLY got going on Roman history when I was a kid, and I've never looked back. Very readable, especially for a translated primary source. You will get Publius Cornelius Scipio's face tattooed on your ass when you're done, that's how awesome it is.
Morrolan wrote:
Mex, if I presume (as most have) that you mean "modern novel" when you say "book," then I should suggest The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. It may or may not be the best novel I've ever read -- like Elysia, I am unable to choose my very favorite -- but I can say that it's near the top of my list of life-altering novels.
If you'd rather a non-novel, then allow me to suggest from among Plato's dialogues Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo -- all four of them, in that order, and preferably the translations by G.M.A. Grube. In fact, just buy this. Whatever you do, don't make the mistake of buying this awful tome, as it is inferior in every pertinent respect: translations, introductions, annotations, index... it even omits many of the dialogues themselves!
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This would be mine as well. Quinn is not the best writer or storyteller, but he is an adept and lucid teacher. Altered my worldview permanently.
Chump, I would hightly recommend Paul Hawken's Ecology of Commerce as it fully explains where we will be if we continue on our current course, as well as providing some of those solutions that Ishmael told us to go 'invent'. He makes sustainability seem attainable.
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At the risk of sounding like a dick (or more of a dick than usual, YMMV), I must advise you, Mex, that if you intend to take Lobo's advice and get The Name of the Rose, you should also get a Latin-English dictionary, a French-English dictionary and 2 months off of work.
Morrolan wrote:
Poppycock. Everyone knows that The Island of the Day Before was his best work
I can't believe no one has suggested Fight Club yet. I loved that book. It was such a rediculously kewl read.
Considering half the things you say on a daily basis
, I might suggest I, Lucifer by Glen Duncan... call me crazy, but I think a book about the devil going on a month long rampage of booze, sex, smoking, and drugs might just be up your alley.
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Alan Miln`s Vinnie The Pooh, easily. There`s just..something in that book that appeals to you no matter how old you are.
Terry Pratchett`s "Small Gods" might very well come second.
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Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
Song of Fire and Ice Series - George R. R. Martin
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
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There are lots of personal favourites mentioned above (Lord Of The Rings, Catch 22, Neuromancer, Snow Crash, Small Gods). If I had to choose one, and based on number of times I've actually read it, I'd have to go with Neuromancer.
Edit: I forgot about the Illuminatus trilogy (must be the fnords). Reading it felt like being on drugs without the chemicals.