OK......best books ever....

[Miinxx]

Ok so everyone has a list of the "greatest books ever" and can't wait to share with the rest of the world....WELL heres your chance. Go ahead an let us all know the best books youve ever read...and hey if you have names of publishers to go with it so we can go and track them down that would be great. So i'll go ahead and go first.

BEST BOOKS/SERIES EVER (drumroll)
1. 9 book series by Winston Churchill detailing the events of the first and second world war. AN incredible source of primary material. (yummy)
2. History of Warfare by John Keegan. An interesting overview of the different styles of warfare and how they apply to modern conflict. (yummmmy)
3. Complete collection of Shakespeare. Yeah I know im a little demented by placing this third.
4. History of the English Speaking People by Winston Churchill. Yeah yeah he gets top billing once again but this series is a very well rounded compilation of European/English history.
5. Illiad by Homer. Achilles, need I say more?
6. Aenid by whats his face...Forget the name but really enjoy good Roman propaganda when I read it.
7. Beowulf by the poet who was hung in chains until he completed it.

Ok Ok....I can hear the yawns already so I will make my list a little more modern.

8. Wheel of Time by robert jordan. YOU cant lose with a good fantasy opera.
9. John Falkenberg's Legion by Jerry Pournelle. If you havent read this one then you are missing out on when space opera was good.
10. Paksenarrion Dorthansdottir by Elizabeth Moon. The only good book that she has ever written and recomend it to all that havent checked it out yet.
11. The starfire series by David Weber and Steve White. GREAT space opera before Weber became all sappy and stupid with Honor Harrington.

OK OK...Im sure I lost about half of you to the yawns so i'll stop there...Feel free to post since i'd love to hear your suggestions.

[ 06-11-2002, 11:23 PM: Message edited by: Miinxx ]

[Realwho2]

Sorry, but my favrite of all time is The Sword Of Truth series By Terry Goodkind.

[Calaethis Dragonsbane]

I dont believe there *is* a best seris; its all a matter of taste.

[ 06-17-2002, 04:39 AM: Message edited by: Calaethis Dragonsbane ]

[Melusine]

Originally posted by Miinxx: 7. Beowulf by the poet who was hung in chains until he completed it.

Eh? May I ask what you mean by that? [img]smile.gif[/img]

Will come back to put in my own list later....

[Melusine]

Originally posted by Calaethis Dragonsbane: I dont believe there *is* a nest seris; its all a matter of taste.

Um yeah... isn't that exactly what Minxx asked for? A list of YOUR personal favourites? Of course there's not *a* best list, of course it depends on taste... doesn't mean it's useless to make a list of your personal recommendations. In fact it's very useful - who knows, you might find a great new author or book. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Miinxx]

For further clarification I was talkin about your favorite books so I could browse around and see if I should get some. I put out my "favorite" books and was hoping that all who responded would post theirs as well.

In regards to the author of beowulf:

I believe he was a 11th century christian monk composing this poem based on the oral viking tradition at the time and since monasteries were the prime targets of viking due to their concentration of wealth, I was just picturing the priest being tied up and forced to write this as the vikings stood over him to give "encouragement" . Just a vivid imagination going to work there.

[Canis Eire]

Miinxx, I'm totally with you on "History of Warfare", Shakespeare, and Beowulf. But The Odyssey is at LEAST twice the book the Illiad is IMO.

And I'll add any and all of Lord Dunsany's fantasy. Time and the Gods, the Pegana books, The King of Elfland's Daughter, The Charwoman's Shadow, The Sword of Welleran, The Book of Wonder... All great books that have been reprinted recently enough that you can find them. The rest of his stuff is HARD to find at a reasonable price and aren't carried by many libraries in the U.S. But they're all worth a read if you can get your hands on them. His ghost stories, mysteries, children's books, and what not are also better than average, but his Fantasy puts everything else in the genre to shame.

I also usually include, "A Tale of Two Cities" by Dickens. First book they made us read in high school that I actually enjoyed.

[Melusine]

Originally posted by Miinxx: In regards to the author of beowulf: I believe he was a 11th century christian monk composing this poem based on the oral viking tradition at the time and since monasteries were the prime targets of viking due to their concentration of wealth, I was just picturing the priest being tied up and forced to write this as the vikings stood over him to give "encouragement" . Just a vivid imagination going to work there.

Actually, to my knowledge, Beowulf is an anonymous poem, like most OE poems.
It's true that there are some Christian influences in it but there is nothing known about the author, so we cannot tell for sure.
Still, I agree that it's a splendid work, I loved reading it. In fact, I have a recommendation for those who like Beowulf: get an audioversion! I have three of them:
- a selection of excerpts from Beowulf and a number of other OE poems read in Old English (absolutely fantastic to hear!)
- Seamus Heaney's acclaimed translation read by the author himself
- the translation by Michael Alexander

[Melusine]

Now, as for my list, I'm afraid I really can't single out any books, so I'll just make a list of authors and put my favourite books by them between () [img]smile.gif[/img]
They're in no specific order BTW

1. Will Shakespeare (King Lear, Macbeth, The Tempest, Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet)
2. Kit Marlowe
3. Iain (M.) Banks (Consider Phlebas, Walking On Glass, Complicity, The Bridge, The Wasp Factory, The Player Of Games)
4. A.S. Byatt (Possession, Angels & Insects, Babel Tower, The Game)
5. Thomas Pynchon (The Crying Of Lot 49)
6. Anthony Burgess (Earthly Powers, A Clockwork Orange, Shakespeare)
7. Emily Brontë
8. J.R.R. Tolkien
9. Ian McEwan (The Comfort of Strangers, Enduring Love)
10. Will Self (Great Apes, My Idea Of Fun)
11. J.W. von Goethe (Die Leiden des jungen Werther, Faust)
12. S. Vestdijk - De Kellner en de Levenden
13. John Milton - Paradise Lost, Samson Agonistes, Lycidas
14. Oscar Wilde
15. W.B. Yeats
16. George Herbert
17. John Donne
18. Ben Jonson
19. John Keats
20. William Blake
21. Geoffrey Chaucer (The General Prologue, The Booke of the Duchess, The Parliament of Fowles)
22. Wulf and Eadwacer, the Seafarer, The Wanderer, Beowulf (anonymous OE poems)
23. Sylvia Plath
24. Seamus Heaney
25. Geoffrey Hill
26. P.B. Shelley
27. Tom Stoppard
28. Samuel Beckett
29. Harold Pinter
30. David Hare

[ 06-14-2002, 11:18 AM: Message edited by: Melusine ]

[Attalus]

LOL, Melusine, why am I not surprised to see Die Leiden des jungen Werther and Sylvia Plath? No Rousseau?
I said I wouldn't make one, but since it is personal and not best, I shall say:
1.The Collected Works of William Shakespeare
2.The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri
3.A La Recherche du Temps Perdu by Marcel Proust
4.The Collected Poetry and Plays of T.S. Eliot
5.Faust by Johannes Goethe
6.The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein
7.The Iliad and The Odessey of Homer
8.The Collected Plays of Moliere
9.Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
10.Starship Troopers and The Glory Roadby Robert Heinlein

[ 06-15-2002, 10:45 AM: Message edited by: Attalus ]