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-   -   What are your favorite books (single or series) (http://www.ironworksforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39035)

TAOWolf 04-27-2002 12:56 AM

Okay, prolly been done, but what the hey......let's do it again...

What are your favorite books, and/or prefence of reading material to peruse?

Mine:

Wheel of Time series

Dragonlance series

Sword of Truth series

Tiger and Del series

The Poetic Edda

Celtic poems and essays

and more.... (I practically have my own library in the office at home) :D

[ 04-27-2002, 12:57 AM: Message edited by: TAOWolf ]

lroyo 04-27-2002 12:57 AM

I have to say The Wheel of Time Series. But the Dragonlance series brings back wonderful memories!!

Katherine 04-27-2002 01:35 AM

I'd say some of my favorite books include:

Franny and Zooey- JD Salinger
Siddhartha- Herman Hesse
The Prophet- Khalil Gibran
Wuthering Heights- Emily Bronte
several poems from Edwin Arlington Robinson
Gnosis- a poem by Christopher Cranch
Darkness- a poem by Lord Byron
and, many others I forgot to mention, I'm sure.

I don't care for fantasy books much. The genre tends to be really poorly written for some reason. The Silmarillion was a good book in that genre, though. The Vampire Lestat was also a good read.

Malthaussen 04-27-2002 01:47 AM

1) Flashman series, by George MacDonald Fraser

2) Virtually anything written by the late Roger Zelazny

3) Virtually anything written by the late Bob Heinlein

4) Virtually anything written by the still-living Glen Cook

5) Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigen series.

The list could go on. Catch-22 , Up the Down Staircase , and John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee series are high on my non-fantasy/sf list.

Most current fantasy, I think, is both puerile and rather poorly written, including Mr Jordan's massive money-making machine. It's unfortunate that classic fantasy, such as E. R. Eddison's, is virtually unknown, now.

Da gustabus non est disputandum.

Malthaussen

[ 04-27-2002, 01:47 AM: Message edited by: Malthaussen ]

LennonCook 04-27-2002 02:42 AM

<font color="lightgreen">Animorphs (KA Applegate), Secret Seven, Famous Five, Adventurous Four (all Enid Blyton), Lord of the Rings (if you dont know who thats by, youve been around less than me [img]tongue.gif[/img] ), Anything by Roald Dahl, Anything by Agatha Christie, and more that I cant think of off the top of my head... </font>

Sigmar 04-27-2002 03:31 AM

The Discworld series written by Terry Pratchett. The most original series of books I have ever read.

Melusine 04-27-2002 04:18 AM

Good choice of Brontë, Katherine. Wuthering Heights is wonderful! [img]smile.gif[/img]
I tend to agree with you about fantasy - there's a difference between a well-written fantasy novel and truly great literature. I do read lots of fantasy though, as a means of relaxation. There are notable exceptions to the 'badly written' rules: I really enjoyed Robin Hobb's books, also Tad Williams' Otherland series. And of course Pratchett is fantastic!

But as for my favourite books apart from that - there are SO many of them! A short selection of things that left a big impression:

Anthony Burgess - Earthly Powers
A.S. Byatt - Possession; Angels & Insects; Babel Tower
Iain Banks - everything he's ever done, whether fiction or SF
Emily Brontë - Wuthering Heights
Thomas Pynchon - The Crying Of Lot 49
Shakespeare, Marlowe - everything either of them has ever written
Milton's Paradise Lost and Samson Agonistes and Lycidas
Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead
Samuel Beckett - Waiting For Godot
Nietzsche's complete oeuvre
Süskind - Das Parfum
Hesse - Demian
Oscar Wilde's complete oeuvre
Umberto Eco - The Name Of The Rose, Foucault's Pendulum
Vestdijk's De Kellner en de Levenden (had to include the only Dutch novel to touch me so profoundly - though I really should mention Komrij's Dit Helse Moeras and Dorrestein's Buitenstaanders as well then [img]tongue.gif[/img] )
Sartre's Huis Clos
De Beauvoir - probably called No One Is Immortal or somesuch in English...
oh - I shouldn't forget Will Self and especially Ian McEwan - great authors!!
As for poetry, oh my...

I adore Donne's work, also Yeats, Milton, Keats, Blake, Frost, Geoffrey Hill, Seamus Heaney, Sylvia Plath, Edwin Morgan, Craig Raine, Shelley, George Herbert, Spenser, Wordsworth, Robert Browning, Wilde, so many many more.... my hands hurt now.... :D

WindyCityMadman 04-27-2002 06:22 AM

Where, oh where to begin.
1) Anything written by Robert Heinlein (In particular Job:a Comedy of Justice and Number of the Beast)
2) Most anything written by Douglas Adams (Especially Dirk Gently and Long Dark Teatime of the Soul)
3) Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
4) Discworld series by Terry Pratchett
5) American Gods by Neil Gaiman (Can we see that these two are under appreciated??)
6) almost everything by Tolkien (Newbies beware I know what J.R.R. stands for. Do you? Frodo lives!)

Grimslade 04-27-2002 07:49 AM

The Lord of the Rings trilogy (of course)

The Deathgate cycle

and many single fantasy titles...whose names elude me.

Aar-Daneel 04-27-2002 07:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by WindyCityMadman:
Where, oh where to begin.
1) Anything written by Robert Heinlein (In particular Job:a Comedy of Justice and Number of the Beast)
2) Most anything written by Douglas Adams (Especially Dirk Gently and Long Dark Teatime of the Soul)
3) Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
4) Discworld series by Terry Pratchett
5) American Gods by Neil Gaiman (Can we see that these two are under appreciated??)
6) almost everything by Tolkien (Newbies beware I know what J.R.R. stands for. Do you? Frodo lives!)

very good choices, except..... number or the beast by heinlen IMOSVHO a 900 odd pages of complete drivel not worthy of the heinlan name where as JOB was mindblowing

Dramnek_Ulk 04-27-2002 09:31 AM

Some of The books I have particularly enjoyed would be:

Lenin- Two Steps Forward, One step Back (Not that I actually agreed with all of what he said)
Solzhenitsyn- One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich, The Gulag Archipelago
Sholokhov- Tales from the Don (Blatant Soviet Propaganda, but very powerfully written)
Hasek- The Good Soldier Schweik
Chekov- Early Stories
Remarque- All Quiet on the Western Front
Pasternak- Dr.Zhivago
Khrushchev- Khrushchev Remembers
Marlowe- Dr.Faustus
Marx - The German Ideology, Capital, Communist manifesto
Weis & Hickman- Dragonlance Chronicles
Homer- The Iliad, The Odyssey
Wolfe- The Right Stuff
Tressel- The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists
Jordan- Wheel of Time Series
Vonnegut- Slaughterhouse 9, Cats Cradle
Diaz- The Conquest of New Spain
Conrad- Nostromo, Heart of Darkness
Mailer- The Naked And The Dead
Graves- Count Belisarius, I Claudius, Claudius the God
Hemmingway- For Whom The Bell Tolls
Eco- The Name Of The Rose
Herodotus- The Histories
Terry Pratchett- All of them
And many things by Iain M. Banks, Frank Herbert & Michael Moorcock

As for comic books I quite liked:

Vetrone and Bianca- Sleepers
Rennie and Macneil- Bloodquest & Bloodquest II: Into The Eye Of Terror
Abnett and Williams and Lanning - Titan & Titan II: Vivaporius
Some person whose name I can’t remember- Sandman
Shirow- Ghost In The Shell
Another person whose name I can’t Remember- Watchmen
Sheldon- The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers

johnny 04-27-2002 09:37 AM

enemy at the gates (i love that sniperstuff), and everything about michael jordan (rebound, hangtime, etc.)

Ar-Cunin 04-27-2002 09:43 AM

Everything by Terry Pratchett

Everything by Robert A. Heinlein

Nearly Everything by Michael Moorcock

And naturally Everything by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (yes I know what J.R.R. stands for)

johnny 04-27-2002 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Melusine:
Good choice of Brontë, Katherine. Wuthering Heights is wonderful! [img]smile.gif[/img]
I tend to agree with you about fantasy - there's a difference between a well-written fantasy novel and truly great literature. I do read lots of fantasy though, as a means of relaxation. There are notable exceptions to the 'badly written' rules: I really enjoyed Robin Hobb's books, also Tad Williams' Otherland series. And of course Pratchett is fantastic!

But as for my favourite books apart from that - there are SO many of them! A short selection of things that left a big impression:

Anthony Burgess - Earthly Powers
A.S. Byatt - Possession; Angels & Insects; Babel Tower
Iain Banks - everything he's ever done, whether fiction or SF
Emily Brontë - Wuthering Heights
Thomas Pynchon - The Crying Of Lot 49
Shakespeare, Marlowe - everything either of them has ever written
Milton's Paradise Lost and Samson Agonistes and Lycidas
Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead
Samuel Beckett - Waiting For Godot
Nietzsche's complete oeuvre
Süskind - Das Parfum
Hesse - Demian
Oscar Wilde's complete oeuvre
Umberto Eco - The Name Of The Rose, Foucault's Pendulum
Vestdijk's De Kellner en de Levenden (had to include the only Dutch novel to touch me so profoundly - though I really should mention Komrij's Dit Helse Moeras and Dorrestein's Buitenstaanders as well then [img]tongue.gif[/img] )
Sartre's Huis Clos
De Beauvoir - probably called No One Is Immortal or somesuch in English...
oh - I shouldn't forget Will Self and especially Ian McEwan - great authors!!
As for poetry, oh my...

I adore Donne's work, also Yeats, Milton, Keats, Blake, Frost, Geoffrey Hill, Seamus Heaney, Sylvia Plath, Edwin Morgan, Craig Raine, Shelley, George Herbert, Spenser, Wordsworth, Robert Browning, Wilde, so many many more.... my hands hurt now.... :D

you forgot the suske en wiske series lol

Talthyr Malkaviel 04-27-2002 11:54 AM

Darn... Ar-Cunin beat me to it :D
Here's some stuff I enjoy.

Robin Hobb's farseer Set
LoTR of course
J.V.Jones the barbed coil
The Belgariad, The Malloreon, The Tamuli and the Elenium by David Eddings
J.Meade.Falkner- Moonfleet
Krondor the Betrayal et al.
Anything by Terry Pratchett
Any greek mythology, including one of my favourites the Hounds of Actaeon.
Bad Omens by Pratchett and Gainman.

These are just the first things I could think, but there is also assorted poems and prose, and other books I can't be bothered to mention.

[ 04-27-2002, 11:58 AM: Message edited by: Talthyr Malkaviel ]

Ryanamur 04-27-2002 01:14 PM

Hmmm, having more than 10,000 books of all genre in my home library, I would still have to stick with these (no particular order)

The Lord of the Rings (including the Hobbit)
Wheel of Time series (up to book 5... a bit dissapointing after that)
The Sword of Truth series
The Republic
Art of War
Les Trois Mousquetaires, Vingt ans après and Le Vicomte de Bragelone
La Divine Comédie
Germinal
Keeping the Faith (if memory serves... Carter's Presidential Memoires)
The Prince
Le Petit Prince

Other Light Reading Material:
Philosophical work by Plato, Socrates, DesCartes, Nieche (sp) ...
Jules Vernes, Balzac, Molière and Shakespeare stuff...

Heavy duty stuff:
The entire work of the Marquis the Sade (warning: not for the faint of heart, not recommended for anybody younger than 18 or the legal age in your country!)

Encard 04-27-2002 03:53 PM

L.E. Modesitt's Recluse series
Dennis L. McKiernan's books, can't remember the setting's name
Tolkien [img]smile.gif[/img]
Belgariad/Malorian (Eddings)
Sword of Truth series (Terry Goodkind)
Lot of others I can't remember the names/authors of...
Basically, I read mainly fantasy books... ah, and of course Terry Pratchett is great, just remembered him...

Sir Goulum 04-27-2002 03:55 PM

<font color=Orange>Only 1. The Lord of the Rings. Sir Goulum has the precious. Yessssss. Look in ssssssssssssig. Ssssssssir Goulum hasssss the presssssssssssssssious!</font>

Dramnek_Ulk 04-27-2002 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ryanamur:

*snip*

Heavy duty stuff:
The entire work of the Marquis the Sade (warning: not for the faint of heart, not recommended for anybody younger than 18 or the legal age in your country!)

I always found those to be rather boring & overated, it’s just the same thing (namely sex) Repeated over and over and over until your eyes melt and your brain leaks out your ears. After about 12 minutes I got bored of that kind of thing.

Daniel 04-27-2002 05:38 PM

The Dark Elf and Icewind Dale Trilogies by R.A Salvatore easily the best books i have ever read and when I get a job I will add Legacy of the Drow to my collection

mistral4543 04-27-2002 09:35 PM

(In no particular order)

Black Cauldron series - Lloyd Alexander
Proven Innocent - Gerry Conlon
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - Anne Bronte
Agnes Grey - Anne Bronte
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
All books by James Herriot
The Gnole - Alan Aldridge
Anne of Green Gables series - L.M. Montgomery
Under the Eye of the Clock - Christopher Nolan
The Diary of A Young Girl - Anne Frank
All books by C.S. Lewis

Larry_OHF 04-27-2002 09:40 PM

<font color=skyblue>
I own every Forgotten Realms book aver written, so that is an obvious choice.

Other than that, the Anne Rice Vampire books are cool.</font>

Sir Mandorallen 04-27-2002 09:50 PM

Well now... I literaly have a library at my house. Eight shelves (i mean the big ones that cover a wall, or part of a wall) and there are more in the closets. Anyway I couldn't list all of my favorites, but I will list some.

Dragonlance books
Forgotton Realm books
Wheel of Time
LOTR
THE BELGARIAD!!!! Malloreon ect.
Lets make this /|\ easier-----David Eddings ;)
and uh... most of Terry Pratchett
and I like shakespear (sounds corny I know, but I do!)

Katherine 04-28-2002 04:54 AM

Oh, I forgot to add my favorite author:

Aeschylus- the whole Orestia, but especially Libation Bearers

The Bhagavad Gita is also one of my favorite books, but of course, that's a religious text, not a novel.

Rikard_OHF 04-28-2002 06:41 AM

Anything from Feist'll do for me ;)
currently reading gemmell

Barb 04-28-2002 06:53 AM

i like

Not a Penny more, Not a penny less
Kane + Abel
The Prodigal Daughter

By Jeffery Archer

and the exorcist by ?

Ryanamur 04-28-2002 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dramnek_Ulk:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Ryanamur:

*snip*

Heavy duty stuff:
The entire work of the Marquis the Sade (warning: not for the faint of heart, not recommended for anybody younger than 18 or the legal age in your country!)

I always found those to be rather boring & overated, it’s just the same thing (namely sex) Repeated over and over and over until your eyes melt and your brain leaks out your ears. After about 12 minutes I got bored of that kind of thing.</font>[/QUOTE]Yeah, I know, but when you think about it, they make great adult bed time stories... Ha, the perverted dreams! [img]smile.gif[/img]

Galadria 04-28-2002 07:14 PM

Melusine, may I say, a very literate list. Has anyone ever figured out why women like Wuthering Heights and men don't? Attalus loathes it, saying that everybody in it needs drastically to be kicked, starting with Heathcliff, whom I think is dreamy. My favorite book of all time is (predictably) The Lord of the Rings. After that, the Divine Comedy, almost all of Shakespeare, The Hunting of the Snark, Zelazny's Dilvish the Damned, Heinlein's Starship Troopers and The Glory Road, Patricia McKillip's Riddlemaster Trilogy, and many, many more.

Memnoch 04-28-2002 11:40 PM

Cool topic! I'll move it over to the Books/TV Shows and Movies forum so you guys can check out the other cool topics that are there. :D

Moved here.

Krishach 04-28-2002 11:50 PM

The Death Gate Cycle and the Dragon Lance Chronicles. I could read those books over and over and never get sick of 'em. Which reminds me, I haven't read them in awhile...

Melusine 04-30-2002 06:17 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Ryanamur:

Philosophical work by Plato, Socrates, DesCartes, Nieche (sp) ...
Jules Vernes, Balzac, Molière and Shakespeare stuff...

Heavy duty stuff:
The entire work of the Marquis the Sade (warning: not for the faint of heart, not recommended for anybody younger than 18 or the legal age in your country!)

It is a bit overrated, I agree with Dramnek there, but I still "enjoyed" the 120 days of Sodom, just because it was unlike anything I'd ever read before. Read some other snippets of de Sade, it's certainly interesting at times :D
Oh, did anyone see Quills? Was quite disappoiting.

Ryanamur, Nietzsche is spelled thus - it's spelled wrong about 70% of the time, so don't worry about it ;)

Galadria - I know quite a few guys who LOVED Wuthering Heights (among them my literature professors ;) ). It was ME who was sceptical before I read it, precisely because of the 'girly' Jane Austen image it has. Well, in some ways this is one of the most grim novels I've read. And Heathcliff is far from dreamy.
The way Bronte manages to constantly shift your sympathy from tyrant to tyrannised is splendid, and a sign of great literature. I once wrote an essay about precisely that subject, in fact. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Barry the Sprout 04-30-2002 08:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Melusine:

Oh, did anyone see Quills? Was quite disappoiting.

I haven't read any de Sade myself but I got cajoled into going to Quills by a friend of mine. I really liked it, although he thought it was a bit over the top. To be honest I don't know what he was expecting from a film about the Marquis de Sade if not a large amount of sex. But anyway, I thought it was quite good.

As for books I like myself I have to start with Rankin. Robert Rankin's Armaggedon Trilogy and Brentford Trilogy are both amazingly funny. I also agree with a lot that has gone before in putting Pratchett up there in a close second. I also really liked the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson and the Gormenghast series by Mervyn Peake.

Actually, anyone read any Robert Llewelyn?. He is famous for playing Kryten in Red Dwarf but he is a very good novelist and playwright as well. The Man on Platform Five is particularly good.

Gaaaah! Too many good books around...

the sauceman 04-30-2002 04:59 PM

Im going to go with
BOOKS:
the forgotten realms series
the dragonlance series
the greyhawk series(ones by Kidd)
the lord of the rings series

COMIC BOOKS:
I really liked the
Weapon Zero series(*sniff* it died way too early...)
and also
the ultimate series (by marvel)

lroyo 04-30-2002 09:19 PM

Sauceman,

I also have the Weapon Zero series including the T- editions. They were fantastic! I also had all the Cyberforce, Witchblade etc.

I don't read comics anymore, but I still have them all.

Aviendha.

Melusine 05-01-2002 05:06 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Barry the Sprout:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Melusine:

Oh, did anyone see Quills? Was quite disappoiting.

I haven't read any de Sade myself but I got cajoled into going to Quills by a friend of mine. I really liked it, although he thought it was a bit over the top. To be honest I don't know what he was expecting from a film about the Marquis de Sade if not a large amount of sex. But anyway, I thought it was quite good.</font>[/QUOTE]Well, I thought it was over the top too - it's so Hollywood... The portrayal of De Sade was just not what I'd expected. I just couldn't get over the ridiculous "must write" thing he had - the minute they took his pens away, he starts cutting himself up to write - he wasn't like that at all! It just was not convincing - writing in wine on sheets? Yeah right... If he really wanted to write so badly, he wouldn't have let it come so far in the first place. No, it was just unconvincing to me. Not to say that I didn't like the movie at all, the actors were all quite good (love Kate Winslet!) and overall I enjoyed watching it - I just wish they hadn't marketed it as a movie (even if fictional) about De Sade.

Barry the Sprout 05-01-2002 05:42 AM

Mel, I mean it was more graphic than he expected. Which I thought was rather amusing really and wondered what he had expected.

I see what you mean about the over the top story when you explained it. I still liked it though and personally thought the Abbey (sp? Gaaargh...) in particular was portrayed extremely well. The film made me think and had several memorable moments. For me that made it a good film, but I see what you mean on reflection.

But anyway, while I remember it has anyone read any Tom Holt? He is a really good author in my opinion but he has gone downhill recently. Faust Among Equals was extremely amusing in particular.

[ 05-01-2002, 05:43 AM: Message edited by: Barry the Sprout ]

Melusine 05-01-2002 06:54 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Barry the Sprout:
Mel, I mean it was more graphic than he expected. Which I thought was rather amusing really and wondered what he had expected.

I see what you mean about the over the top story when you explained it. I still liked it though and personally thought the Abbey (sp? Gaaargh...) in particular was portrayed extremely well. The film made me think and had several memorable moments. For me that made it a good film, but I see what you mean on reflection.

Oh ok... more graphic? Having read the Sade I didn't think it was too bad, so I'd agree with you there, LOL! Yes, the abbé was very good, though I thought his end was a little bit corny. I agree that the movie had some memorable moments, and for that I still enjoyed it, though, like I said, the clicheish/unrealistic parts made it less enjoyable.

Tanoch Thas'ala 05-02-2002 12:22 PM

Michael Moorcock-anything and everything, particularly the Eternal Champpion series

Tiger & Del series-which has a new book out!

The Morgaine series by C.J. Cherryh

Marian Zimmer Bradley - jsut about anything

The Fig Eater by Jody Shields - Very weird book about a girl who was studied by Frued...

krystil 05-03-2002 02:22 AM

Favorite Books...where to begin?

The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton
Watchers - Dean Koontz
Hobbit/LoTR - J.R. Tolkien
My Sweet Audrina - VC Andrews
Elfstones of Shannara series (and the Knight of the Word series)- Terry Brooks
Anything by Douglas Adams
Ender series and Lost Boys - Orson Scott Card

all I can think of right now..but I know I have more. [img]smile.gif[/img]


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