empty mirror
remember the jackalope
i have a friend, a poet, too, that has the same opinion of novels.
i don't understand it. care to expand? just curious.
Top Ten Books
- Thread starter josef k.
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i don't understand it. care to expand? just curious.
nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
Hey you picked a film! So there. Besides you can't read just one book of Freud's and then be like, ok I understand Freud.
One book I'm pretty sure you would like if you haven't read it is Blanchot's The Unavowable Community. (He writes late afternoon books like Beckett)
This thread is turning out to be much more interesting than I thought it was going to be, and far less predictable than I would have guessed.
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nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
When I was 13 or so, I made a point of reading everything Eliot wrote. That was after Dickens and before Balzac (who struck me as boring even back then)...
Tentative Andy
I'm in the Meal Deal
Ok, I've given this shot but I'm still not too happy with it. Set myself some rules: try my hardest to avoid looking for the approval of some imagined third-party and go with what I actually like (but y'know, this could well have seeped through subconsciouly), stick with all novels for the sake of some coherence, and similarly for balance, and to avoid playing a stuck record, not allow myself anything by Alan Warner (although still, if you haven't read Morvern Callar, These Demented Lands and The Sopranos yet, what the hell are you doing with your life? 
).
So in no particular order:
Lewis Grassic Gibbon – A Scots Quair (or if I can only pick one from the trilogy, Cloud Howe)
James Kelman – A Chancer
Alasdair Grey – Lanark
Joseph Conrad – The Secret Agent
William Faulkner – The Sound and the Fury
Henry Fielding – Tom Jones
James Joyce – Ulysses (but Dubliners is close)
Albert Camus – The Plague
Joseph Heller – Catch-22
Doris Lessing - The Golden Notebook
(kind of wanted to include DH Lawrence - The Rainbow at some point, but didn't think it was really fair seeing as I still haven't quite finished it).
).So in no particular order:
Lewis Grassic Gibbon – A Scots Quair (or if I can only pick one from the trilogy, Cloud Howe)
James Kelman – A Chancer
Alasdair Grey – Lanark
Joseph Conrad – The Secret Agent
William Faulkner – The Sound and the Fury
Henry Fielding – Tom Jones
James Joyce – Ulysses (but Dubliners is close)
Albert Camus – The Plague
Joseph Heller – Catch-22
Doris Lessing - The Golden Notebook
(kind of wanted to include DH Lawrence - The Rainbow at some point, but didn't think it was really fair seeing as I still haven't quite finished it).
It seems counterproductive to restrict yourself to novels, these are your favourate books after all. That makes it harder, but is also the reason it's such an interesting mental exercise. (Like, Top 20 would be too easy.)
Though I must say I omitted Jacques Henri Lartigue and Guy Bourdin monographs from my list, as well as Asterix the Legionary, so I guess I'm equally guilty of creating my own rules.
Though I must say I omitted Jacques Henri Lartigue and Guy Bourdin monographs from my list, as well as Asterix the Legionary, so I guess I'm equally guilty of creating my own rules.
In no order:
Deathtrap Dungeon
Island of the Lizard King
Space Assassin
Citadel of Chaos
Warlock of Firetop Mountain
Talisman of Death
Robot Commando
Freeway Fighter
Rebel Planet
Appointment with F.E.A.R.
This list is clearly not complete without SPECTRAL STALKERS. An unforgivable oversight if ever I've seen one.
scottdisco
rip this joint please
i am taking enthusiastic notes from every list on this wonderful thread, especially the literature stuff. (good to see the Fighting Fantasy love!)
so.
Alex de Waal, Famine that Kills: Darfur, Sudan
Noel Malcolm, Kosovo: A Short History
José Saramago, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis
Emily Dickinson, Selected Poems
James Joyce, Dubliners
Joseph Roth, The String of Pearls
Graham Swift, Waterland
Leonardo Sciascia, The Moro Affair
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Leopard
William Shakespeare, Othello.
i consider myself at fault for being woefully under-read across vast swathes of great literature (e.g. a pal bought me The Tale of Genji for a birthday years ago and it remains unread) and for some barmy reason i am considering going back to university in that direction (and not, say, my natural politics or international affairs).
Ollie, i am about to break my Bronte duck by reading Wuthering Heights!
so.
Alex de Waal, Famine that Kills: Darfur, Sudan
Noel Malcolm, Kosovo: A Short History
José Saramago, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis
Emily Dickinson, Selected Poems
James Joyce, Dubliners
Joseph Roth, The String of Pearls
Graham Swift, Waterland
Leonardo Sciascia, The Moro Affair
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Leopard
William Shakespeare, Othello.
i consider myself at fault for being woefully under-read across vast swathes of great literature (e.g. a pal bought me The Tale of Genji for a birthday years ago and it remains unread) and for some barmy reason i am considering going back to university in that direction (and not, say, my natural politics or international affairs).
Ollie, i am about to break my Bronte duck by reading Wuthering Heights!
hucks
Your Message Here
In no order:
Deathtrap Dungeon
Island of the Lizard King
Space Assassin
Citadel of Chaos
Warlock of Firetop Mountain
Talisman of Death
Robot Commando
Freeway Fighter
Rebel Planet
Appointment with F.E.A.R.
No House of Hell? Are you both mad?
empty mirror
remember the jackalope
aw man i love wuthering heights
almost as good as the kate bush song and that is saying something
in all seriousness i wish that was in my list
and "to the lighthouse" too
well, there alot of books i have a read many many many times, b/c they are ABOUT things i am interested in, but as books themselves they aren't that great... non-fiction is a tough thing for me to rate...
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
here's my mixed-bag selection
love is a dog from hell - bukowski (poems)
wait until spring bandini - john fante (father of bukowski)
l'etranger - camus (I read this in french!)
the third reich - michael burleigh (best history book ive read)
white jazz - ellroy (token crime novel)
psychotic reactions & carbaretter dung - lester bangs (best music writer)
energy flash - simon reynolds (otm)
hunger - knut hamsun (father of bukowski)
blood meridian - cormac mccarthy (the only book I enjoyed studying at university)
the twits - roald dahl (childhood favourite)
love is a dog from hell - bukowski (poems)
wait until spring bandini - john fante (father of bukowski)
l'etranger - camus (I read this in french!)
the third reich - michael burleigh (best history book ive read)
white jazz - ellroy (token crime novel)
psychotic reactions & carbaretter dung - lester bangs (best music writer)
energy flash - simon reynolds (otm)
hunger - knut hamsun (father of bukowski)
blood meridian - cormac mccarthy (the only book I enjoyed studying at university)
the twits - roald dahl (childhood favourite)
scottdisco
rip this joint please
i am part way though Blood M. atm thanks to yourself, Droid and Craner repping it in the Updike thread and i must say, thanks, it's utterly super. (also, Ollie, your advice may well be followed: i vacillate between thinking of going back to that or to something else.)
Camus in French, wow.
Condi Rice and her annual re-reads of War and Peace in the Russian, as Craner would tell.
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
I doubt I could do it now unfortunately. its a book you read for A level french because the sentences are so simple and easy to read. so, not all that impressive a boast then!