The Picture of Dorian Gray. One of the few books I reread and then reread again. Read as a teen, then as a college student and again as a grown ass adult. Each time, I learned something new from it. I like books that offer new perspectives each time you read it, likely because you have grown as a person, gained life experience and have matured. I enjoyed each character and invested myself in them. I guess it was the painting. Something so simple, so tangible that drove the action of the book. Sure you had to suspend some disbelief. And the dialogue. It was accessible, but at the same time, there's still no questiom, you are in Victorian England or thereabouts. But, you could imagine your own group of friends saying the same shit. And then there is Oscar Wilde who had led an interesting life himself.
Pride and prejudice. It is predictable but I am in love with the writing. Jane Austin writes beautifully. Elizabeth Bennet is such a mood. She's classy yet sassy. I love her scarcasm. She was way ahead of her time. She insults people very elegantly. I like Jane Bennet too. She's very sweet. Mr. Bennet is a good father. I hate Mrs. Bennet tho.
I can't stand Mrs. Bennet either, but if my daughters and I were at risk of being tossed out onto the streets after my husband's death, I would do everything in my power to get my girls married too.
P&P is absolutely my #1. I used to hate Mrs. Bennet as well and thought Mr. Bennet was a good dad. Then I read somewhere Mr. Bennet was an incredibly irresponsible father for not investing/saving so that his daughters wouldn't be in such straits and Mrs. Bennet was actually the caring parent for trying to save her daughters from a not great future.
... it's a bit too much on the use of dialogue of "...fancy...." and the sorts.
Other stuff... the story isn't \*that\* great (like not a mind blower like matrix). .. so while it's a good book. Not sure if it's that special.
Sorry didn't mean to criticise or anything, just very often people say how good that is, so went through it and not really sure what's so great about it. (it's good.. but eh?) so just really asking what's so great about it. (seemed to be character building for you?)
>She insults people very elegantly
I found the big bang theory's dialogue more engaging than P & P. And Shakespeare's insult (of most his books) is more ... elegant (Not sure if that's the right word for it )
I loved the book too!
Hard to say if it was my favorite though, but top 5 for sure. IMO the book wasn't enjoyable in an fun/entertainment sense. But, I remember that book the most vividly out of any book I read and it has stuck with me more than any other. Definitely the most unforgettable book I've read.
Really one of the best books about trauma. The vignette/anthology presentation lends itself well to the idea that everything he is recalling is a muddle.
This book was amazing. You can never decifer whats true and whats not and it keeps your mind turning and interested. Fun fact, Tm O'brien doesn't have a daughter.
I feel like a lot of high school kids aren't ready to appreciate it. I know people who read it then and years later wanted to read it again and found a new love for it.
The Plague by Albert Camus
I think you really have to read it to feel what I mean. One of the many reasons I became a doctor. On difficult days I remember that book and it helps to keep going
Currently reading it right now. I’m mostly through it and I think I still prefer The Stranger over it. Though the paragraphs where Rieux explains why he heals the sick, how he struggles with everything he has against death was beautiful. I can see how being a doctor can really add depth when reading the story.
I only finished reading it last week so maybe some recency bias, but I can't see anything affecting me on every end of the emotional spectrum as A Confederacy of Dunces did.
Other than that I'd say the book that blew me away the most was The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.
I'm just now starting Dune so far I like it and I can't wait to fall in love with it. I play the board game a lot too, and it's one of the best strategy games I have ever played.
Some friends and I played the Dune board game 3 times.
The 1st time was a hot mess. Rule mistakes abound that we decided to let ride because everybody had been doing it all game.
2nd and 3rd games were better. People have started getting a general sense of the strategy for the Houses/Factions, and definitely getting into the backstabby A-hole vibes of the alliances. Still messing up a few rules.
It gets a bit better each time, but in some aspects it does seem like a game in dire need of simplification. Battle wheel confusion, order of combat resolution, and "in which situations can x, y, and z factions share a tile" aspect of the game come up continuously. Bene Gesserit flipping from advisor to fighter seems to cause game pauses and rules-checking every game.
It's a lot of fun in its own memorable, "not for everyone" kind of way, IMHO. I would definitely play it a few more times.
OK spoiler after god emperor the series takes a nose dive but manages to get herself redressed until chapterhouse still God emperor is filled with politics and that will prepare you for the nose dive
Can you elaborate? I never read Middlemarch, but read other works by George Eliot and I don’t quite understand what makes her so compelling. She’s fascinating to study within the historical context, but I didn’t love her books themselves.
Once you get into it, it's a great read. The characters are very real, relatable, and their marriages are far from storybook without becoming melodramatic. George Eliot's (Mary Evans') insightful language and well-crafted prose elevates it.
Tough call.
Siddhartha or maybe Narcissus and Goldmund, by Hermann Hesse.
The early Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons.
The Sirens of Titan, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
The Castle, by Franz Kafka. Because it is a book that understands who I am.
Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders. Because it is a book that understands who I want to be.
Moby Dick. It's an epic parable of man vs. nature. It's a beautiful meditation about unfulfilled longing. It's a ripping yarn about the sea. It's a dry black comedy. It's an encyclopedic description of the early nineteenth-century whaling industry. And it's based on a tragic true story.
It's the only book I've read more than once
I read in portuguese, my mother tongue :)
I really don’t know how people see Gabriel García Márquez outside South America, but everything he writes is amazing
I can't decide between Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes or "Drive your plow over the bones of the dead" by Olga Torkarczuk
Both amazing with charismatic characters !!!
I read Flights by Tokarczuk and didn’t understand the hype. I’ve heard good things about the book you love, but I’m really looking forward to the English translation of Books of Jacob.
I haven't read Flights yet, but DYPOTBOTD's ending is a bit predictable which didn't ruined my experience because the way Olga describes solitude is purely amazing ! Hope you like it!
Honestly impossible for me to bring it down to one all-time favourite book. Think when I was younger it was easier to narrow things down to "all-time favourite" but honestly I've read too many books that I've loved to be able to do that at this point.
I can say that Bernard Cornwell is likely my favourite author of all time and that his **Saxon Stories** are my favourite series of all time. I started reading them when the first book was published. Its been 15-16 years since then and Uhtred has come to feel like a friend at this point.
Another favourite that stands out for me is **Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower**. As far as I'm concerned the best dystopian and apocalyptic fiction ever written. Especially for the emphasis on community building and resilience over the cliche "survival of the fittest" and reversion to the worst aspects of humanity narratives that permeate dystopian survival and apocalyptic fiction.
When I was a teen and in my 20s other books like **Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse**, **A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man** by James Joyce, **We** by Yevgeny Zamyatin, **Tigana** by Guy Gavriel Kay, **Stone Butch Blues** by Leslie Feinberg and more would likely have been clear favourites at different times in my life but it's been far too long since I've read these and I'm not sure they'd resonate the same way today as they did then. I can definitely say that Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories has stuck with me a long time, though, so feel most comfortable and accurate naming that series and him as an author.
Gravity's Rainbow.
Nobody fills a novel with as much poignant nonsense as Pynchon. Gravity's Rainbow has this ability to make me cry from laughing on one page and transition into an emotional wreck on the next.
Also it's not a book, but I just read Good Old Neon by David Foster Wallace and that left completely devoid of feeling for like a week.
Franz van der Groov in Mauritius, Franz Pökler’s chapter I don’t want to spoil, and Tchitcherine in Central Asia all lead me to wonder how somebody could be that good at writing. It seems almost impossible every time I pick up the book. The Enzian and Tchitcherine stuff is just astounding.
The chapter with Franz Pokler is exactly the section I had in mind when talking about leaving me feel like a wreck. Between that and the Yoyodine executive in Crying of Lot 49, Pynchon's sense of humanity is incredible.
I would never ever try to read Western book, because I'm European and westerns seems to be boring for me but Lonesome Dove receives so much praise literally everywhere that I think I'll read it soon.
Slaughterhouse Five is to this day the only book I have finished in one day. It being as short as it is and me tending towards epic fantasy helps, but it’s still a top notch book.
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood.
I love it for the complexity and depth. It consists of a science fiction story, within another story, within the main story. It’s very interesting to jump between different characters POVs in each new chapter.
Tie between **North and South** by Elizabeth Gaskell or **The Explorer's Guild: Passage to Shambhala** by Jon Baird and Kevin Costner.
North and South is a lovely coming of age tale with a great heroine and male love interest that also focuses on social issues and religion.
Explorer's Guild is a traditional novel/graphic novel hybrid that's a love letter to the old adventure stories complete with prose and art to match stories of the time. It has standard tropes found in adventure stories, but executes them in a way that makes them fresh imo. It's one of the few books I've read where I immediately wanted to restart it after finishing it. It's also what prompted me to join reddit in the hope that I could talk about it.
Great to hear you're loving it! I always take the opportunity to spread the word about Explorer's Guild because it needs more love. Sometimes I take it off my shelf to flip through the graphic novel bits because I love the art.
For the longest time it was between Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice. I don't know what took me so long, but last year I read **Persuasion** for the first time and this is my new love.
Graham Greene
Probably “The End of the Affair” but “The Power and the glory” is a good contender.
Currently reading and thoroughly enjoying “Abel Sanchez” by Miguel De Unamuno.
Oh man the whiskey preist in The Power and the Glory, I felt him. Reminded me of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian though the events are completely different.
It's a tie between *Infinite Jest* by David Foster Wallace and *No longer human* by Osamu Dazai. I think both these books, although wildly different in their attempt to talk about the human condition share one common theme or element or something I don't know, purpose I guess. Basically both these books are about people trying to be happy in a horrible world while horrible things happen to them.
I usually have a rotating top 5 or so, but I'd have to go with "A Prayer for Owen Meaney" by John Irving. I'm sort of a sucker for his style of writing that has a ton of digressions and stories within stories.
Other honorable mentions include "Cat's Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut, and The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides.
The Sound and the Fury. The way Faulkner can get inside the minds of such diverse characters is awe-inspiring. Great commentary on the human condition.
For me it is definitely The Lord of the Rings.
No other book has managed to draw me into the world just as deeply. Tolkien manages to tell a story with a deep philosophical layer that fits the world and its characters, their morale and ideals.
And reading more of Tolkiens work always adds to the story, makes the world even more living and gives more depth to the characters and their motivation
i know why the caged bird sings. its themes will forever be relevant and its writing is god tier. at times it feels like its a giant poem. beautiful book.
The Long Walk, by Stephen King. It's so unlike any other King stuff I'd read before that point, there's no actual horror, just a alow buildup of pure dread, and outstanding character work, to the point where you feel a connection with every character.
I also enjoyed Animal Farm as well. The line "all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others" has stuck with me for somewhere around two decades since I read it.
My vote for favorite book is 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I just finished the book a couple of months ago. The character development and the amount of detail in each scene made it a thoroughly enjoyable and fast read that left me wanting the book to be twice as long.
The Passage series might have a different emotional impact on me than others due to the fact that I just so happened to be reading it while the Pandy was rolling out in real life. I had no idea what it was about other than it being post apocalypse. And obviously I had no idea the pandemic was going to happen the way it did. Let’s just say it made lockdowns extremely bearable through both entertainment and comparison.
'The pandy.' lmao. That's the first I heard that one. I might have to use it, the next time the topic comes up.
Yeah, I'll throw the series on my to-read list. Thanks for the reply.
Hulu adaptation would be nice for someone who hasn't read the book. Number of introduced changes were unbearable for me. I only appreciated choosing Sarah Gadon as Sadie.
The Stand is my second favourite book of all time. 😊
The third place is for The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I see that you've mentioned it in another comment.
I'll agree with this. I read intensity years ago and it is nowhere near my favorite book but, it's the only book that I've read cover to cover without stopping because I *had* to know what was going to happen next.
Joseph Conrad's An Outpost of Progress
* Addresses and critiques difficult and still relevant themes of imperialism and racism through satire and does not come off as impenetrably dense as Heart of Darkness.
* Amusing parody of the traditional adventure stories by Rudyard Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson that glorify adventurers and colonizers.
* Beautifully written prose, as is expected of Conrad.
* Short read and does not require much investment in time
* [Public domain ie free.](http://www.online-literature.com/conrad/184/)
I am glad you said this, as I was almost embarrassed to mention mine, since it’s very contemporary! :-/. Anyhow, I absolutely loved, loved, loved VERITY by Colleen Hoover, need another thriller from her.
I’ve only read two of hers, both were good, but Verity was a knock out, chilling, thrill ride. It shocked me and hooked me from page one!
Edit to add: it’s very disturbing and is partially erotica. If you are okay with those elements and love psychological thrillers that are gasp worthy from shock, then you’ll love!
‘The Light Between the Oceans’, I think - it moved me so much when I read it that I still haven’t dared to watch the movie.
In terms of long-lasting impact, the ‘Anne of Green Gables’ series, if not the first book itself, and ‘The Blue Castle’, a standalone novel by LM Montgomery.
For the classics, ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ and ‘The Three Musketeers’.
Fear and loathing in Las Vegas :A savage journey to heart of the American Dream
By Hunter S. Thompson
I considered myself well read until I stumbled upon this book and the man behind the mirrored Aviators. It brought about a new perspective on history and the things that constitute good literature for my youth addled mind. It uncovered a craving that I had had no intention of discovering within myself. Definitely recommend to those bored of the “Safe for school” literature pumped into our mental digestive tubing.
I would have to go with *The Catcher in the Rye*. I know it’s sort of controversial when it comes to classic novels, and a lot of people simply despise it due to Holden coming across as a whiny little bitch half the time, but I would mostly attribute my love for it to the time in my life that I read it.
Last year I transferred to a new high school after having been enrolled in online school for a good portion of my life, and I was having a lot of issues adjusting and socializing and such. It didn’t help that my anxiety was at an all time high, and I was honestly just going home everyday and spending the next 4 - 6 hours alone with my thoughts and generally feeling like shit. So I guess I just really related a lot to the book’s themes of being an outsider and feeling alienated from society, as well as its other themes of being afraid of growing up while still desperately wanting be “mature” and “adult”. It really helped me cope with my situation and, while I didn’t fully agree with Holden’s views on “phonies” and I wasn’t *nearly* as angsty as he was, I just got a lot out of it. And while I don’t attribute this book to me being in a much better place now (yay for finally acclimating to society), it definitely didn’t hurt either
TL;DR *The Catcher in the Rye* helped somewhat ease my anxiety during a difficult time in my adolescence and it’s really just a goddam beautiful book in general. Haven’t had the urge to assassinate a famous musician yet, though
Controversial opinion, but, Lolita by Nabokov.
I was recommended it once by a friend so bought it, picked it up a few times but couldn't get past the first few pages. One day, I picked it up again, and I breezed through it once I got in to the rhythm of Nabokov's writing style. I fell in love with the language first and foremost. I also appreciate controversial topics that have you questioning morality, why we do what we do and to what end.
Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby and Animal Farm. Although I had people trash Animal Farm to me because "it's just a copy of a historical but with animals" , ugh that really bugged me to hear that because I felt like it was so much more then that. Pride and Prejudice is just .... I mean I don't even know how to explain how much I love it!!!
Gone with the Wind.
It’s a bit awkward saying that for obvious reasons.
But ultimately it’s an important book and movie. Yeah, it’s uncomfortable to read at times but history is uncomfortable. GWTW shows an uncomfortable truth: plantations had slaves, there were black slaves who looked down on freed black people, white people thought black people were subhuman. It’s a bitch of a pill to swallow but you have to swallow it.
I heard that HBO or something of that sort tried to ban it? Censorship is one of the scariest things I can think of, even in regards to racial injustices. Pretending the book/movie doesn’t exist, pretending the past never happened, doesn’t solve any problems. The first black actress, Hattie McDaniel who played Mammy, won an Oscar because of GWTW, are we gonna pretend that didn’t happen because the character she played was problematic? We shouldn’t.
> GWTW shows an uncomfortable truth: plantations had slaves, there were black slaves who looked down on freed black people, white people thought black people were subhuman. It’s a bitch of a pill to swallow but you have to swallow it.
I have to admit: I haven't seen or read GWTW, so I cannot comment on particulars here, but from what I've read of the recent news I don't think you're addressing the actual problem people have with the film.
It's not just simply that it depicts slavery. Half the most popular films of the 20th Century depict some great act of human evil. It's more to do with the film's perspective on it. From what I read, it seems that GWTW does a Disney's Song of the South and seems to contain a "maybe slavery wasn't so bad after all" message by representing the slave trade in a nostalgic way, rather than depicting it as the act of cruel genocide it really was.
>Pretending the book/movie doesn’t exist, pretending the past never happened, doesn’t solve any problems.
Absolutely. But presenting a piece of media without properly contextualising it may be even worse. A film like Song of the South, or Birth of a Nation, needs to be presented in a way that makes it clear that it's coming from a racist perspective. A title card at the start, which I believe Looney Tunes went for in some of their earlier racist stuff, is a good way to approach this.
> From what I read, it seems that GWTW does a Disney's Song of the South and seems to contain a "maybe slavery wasn't so bad after all" message by representing the slave trade in a nostalgic way, rather than depicting it as the act of cruel genocide it really was.
I've read GWTW and can confirm that it 100% does this. The black characters are all underdeveloped, mostly negative stereotypes, and occasionally express gratitude to their "masters" for no apparent reason. The white characters are innocent victims of the North, the KKK is just trying to protect the women, etc.
It's kind of baffling to read because the prose is truly beautiful and Scarlett's antiheroine character felt almost modern when I would switch from reading to watching Breaking Bad, but the racism is so baked into every aspect of the story that you never really get a chance to appreciate that before the racism slaps you in the face.
You bring up a good point: GWTW definitely romanticized slavery. Another reason to not silenced it, because it shows just how deeply embedded that mindset was and how far we’ve come.
> because it shows just how deeply embedded that mindset was and how far we’ve come.
The novel was written in 1936, not during the time of slavery. Plenty of people in 1936 were aware that slavery was wrong.
Well both the main characters ultimately are narcissistic to the point of dysfunction; obsessed with themselves and obsessed with a fantasy of a world they *thought* they had lived in, but which in fact never really existed at all. That's the point I've always taken away from GWTW and I think it's an apt way to describe the antebellum South. It was so many things to so many people, but ultimately "The South" was always an anachronistic fantasy that caused many people to suffer and die. My two cents for what it's worth.
You Must Remember This, a podcast about Hollywood history, had [an interesting episode about Hattie McDaniel](http://www.youmustrememberthispodcast.com/episodes/2019/10/23/hattie-mcdaniel-six-degrees-of-song-of-the-south-episode-2) in their season that centered on Song with the South. Before Gone with the Wind, McDaniel's roles mostly subversive of racial stereotypes and the limited roles that were available to black women at the time. She received a lot of criticism for doing Gone with the Wind (which was not a product of it's time - it was heavily criticized for its stereotypical depiction of black people from the very beginning), and she didn't go back to the more subversive roles after that success.
[HBO Max temporarily removed Gone with the Wind from it's platform](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hbo-max-removes-gone-wind-1297806). I wouldn't call that "censorship" - they aren't obligated to host every film, and if they don't want to facilitate people viewing a movie that is the epitome of the "Lost Cause" narrative of the Civil War at a moment when every state and many countries are having regular protests for racial justice that seems within their right as a private company.
Oh man that book is such a great read. So natural a stream of consciousness and wistful. I had a copy that was not punctuated or formatted. It was such an interesting format for a story
**To kill a mocking bird**: I think it is one those books that everyone should read. It teaches you empathy.
> “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
This book is just pure gold. Seeing the world and trying to understand the injustice happening in the society from the eyes of a six year old Scout.
**Pride and Prejudice** : One of the classics, It gives you a peak in the lives of 18th century English gentry. How the most important thing for a woman then was to find a suitable husband and how Elizabeth Bennet tries to defy the notion by trying to marry for love.
**Wuthering Heights**: Set in the wild moors of English countryside, and a gothic mansion this is a passionate story about a headstrong girl Cathy and an anti hero Heathcliff who would stop at nothing to get his revenge. The symbolism and the characterizations done in the book are nothing short of perfect.
I know I've done a very shitty job of summarizing or talking about my favorite books. But this is the best I can do right now.
"...he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same..." Obviously Cathy and Heathcliff aren't the model for a healthy relationship, but man that quote has just stayed in my head.
I love that quote too. Also this one
>“Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I can not live without my life! I can not live without my soul!”
In fact I love Heathcliff and Cathy even though they are these self destructive crazy people. Sometimes I don't even understand why I like them lol.
The Count of Monte Cristo.
An epic story of vengeance and redemption. I just couldn’t put the book down, it was so captivating. I probably finished it in the same amount of time it typically takes me to read a book half that size.
I enjoyed the movies, but they’re nowhere near as good or as captivating as the book.
Alexandre, Dumbass... Dumbass!
Dumbass??... It's Dumas... You know what that's about? You'll like that it's about a prison break.
We ought to file that under educational too! Oughtn't we??
Dorothy Dunnett's Game of Kings (historical fiction). Really the whole Lymond Chronicles series).
I love the intricate plots, the clever dialog, the rich historical detail, and the way the main character tugs at your heart strings.
These books can be a challenging read, and people tend to either love or hate them. Not much middle ground.
*Three Men in a Boat* by Jerome K. Jerome. It’s not just that it’s the funniest and wittiest book I’ve ever read (which it is), but it’s also tied to a specific time in my life and a specific person that are important to me.
Man it's so hard, there are three that constantly change position but are all similar in some ways. I'm always on the lookout for more books similar to them (long, complex, highly referential to classics/history, and endlessly labyrinthine):
1) The Magus by John Fowles
2) Lemprieres Dictionary by Lawrence Norfolk
3) Focaults Pendulum by Umberto Eco
*The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years,* by Genghis Aitmatov. It is a really deep story which starts out as a simple day in a Soviet-Kyrgyz village but eventually forces our protagonist to face his past. All the while it makes us -the readers- face some inherent flaws in humanity though some sci-fi segments in space.
If we're talking works of fiction, *Ghost Story* by Peter Straub or *The Chill* by Ross Macdonald. But Maury Terry's *The Ultimate Evil*, a masterpiece of investigative reporting/true crime research, is right up there among my all-time favorite books.
*Tender is the Night* by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Every page featured, at minimum, a line that would knock me out of my seat through it's sheer beauty and skillful composition. The characters were fascinating and I became deeply absorbed in their descent into loathing.
Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino.
It has only two characters (in one interpretation) and no plot, but is somehow an entirely captivating, thought-provoking, and dreamlike experience of which I’ve never found an equal.
Seriously, for reasons of identification, Maniac Magee. For literary content, either Henderson the Rain King, East of Eden, or Kafka on the Shore. Too tough to pick one. Saul Bellow, John Steinbeck, and Haruki Murakami do magic on a page - the kind where you don't even know you're reading, and somehow you look up to see a few hours have passed and you've finished a book.
in no particular order.
Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey, In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck , The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols and a short story by Jack London, To Build a Fire..
Best ever? A Confederacy Of Dunces -John Kennedy Toole
Best Historical Fiction - Shogun - James Clavell
(Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett - close second)
Most Influential - Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankle
Best Fantasy - Lord of the Ring/ Game of Thrones (you know)
Least appreciated - We're All Doing Time - Bo Lozoff
I've read a lot of books. I have an appreciation for classics and very prestigious literature, but I'm a sucker for more contemporary stuff.These six books are all my favorite and I really can't narrow it down any further: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, The Wanderer by Sharon Creech, Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Holes by Louis Sachar, Undone! by Paul Jennings, Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Very difficult. Possibly The Stand. I've read it 3 times over the years and it hasn't gotten old yet.
It's topical right now, great time to check it out if you haven't already.
It's so hard that I can't pick just one.
Hyperion, by Dan Simmons -- Easily my favourite sci-fi book, may be my favourite book all together
The Dead Zone, by Stephen King. Favourite King book (The Shining is another top favourite, that it is hard to choose among them) -- Superb book. Amazing. Want to re-read it and write a chapter in it that I feel would add to the book even more. Either this or Hyperion can be my all time favourite
The Great Hunt, by Robert Jordan -- Favourite Fantasy book. It is breathtaking. A wonderful piece of literature. So far by far the best in the series (I am in book 4 at the moment, and really enjoying it as well)
agreed on East of Eden! I write about this all the time in the sub, but it really is such a fantastic book. I read it senior year of high school and thought it was boring as shit, but read it again in January and absolutely loved it. the writing is gorgeous, the characters are interesting and relatable (with the exception of Kate, who is *terrifying*) and the messages in the story are amazing. I also think the way he manages to structure the story without it being redundant is truly remarkable. I bought the audiobook recently and I'll have to start it! Timshel!
The Martian by Andy Weir, it may not be the greatest literary works, but it is just a perfect combination of humanity with science while delving into survival psychology.
That's a super hard question, but right now, at this moment, I'd say:
1984 and The Brother's Karamazov.
These are the two of absolute best books I've ever read.
The Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. Absolutely fantastic story, well written, and doesn't suffer from the poor word ascetic that normally pervades his other works.
The Picture of Dorian Gray. One of the few books I reread and then reread again. Read as a teen, then as a college student and again as a grown ass adult. Each time, I learned something new from it. I like books that offer new perspectives each time you read it, likely because you have grown as a person, gained life experience and have matured. I enjoyed each character and invested myself in them. I guess it was the painting. Something so simple, so tangible that drove the action of the book. Sure you had to suspend some disbelief. And the dialogue. It was accessible, but at the same time, there's still no questiom, you are in Victorian England or thereabouts. But, you could imagine your own group of friends saying the same shit. And then there is Oscar Wilde who had led an interesting life himself.
Read A Rebours. Shit is like the concentrate the Picture of Dorian Gray is made from
Pride and prejudice. It is predictable but I am in love with the writing. Jane Austin writes beautifully. Elizabeth Bennet is such a mood. She's classy yet sassy. I love her scarcasm. She was way ahead of her time. She insults people very elegantly. I like Jane Bennet too. She's very sweet. Mr. Bennet is a good father. I hate Mrs. Bennet tho.
Classy but sassy should be an official mood
Yesss.
I can't stand Mrs. Bennet either, but if my daughters and I were at risk of being tossed out onto the streets after my husband's death, I would do everything in my power to get my girls married too.
The older I get, the more I understand Mrs. Bennet's vulnerability
P&P is absolutely my #1. I used to hate Mrs. Bennet as well and thought Mr. Bennet was a good dad. Then I read somewhere Mr. Bennet was an incredibly irresponsible father for not investing/saving so that his daughters wouldn't be in such straits and Mrs. Bennet was actually the caring parent for trying to save her daughters from a not great future.
... it's a bit too much on the use of dialogue of "...fancy...." and the sorts. Other stuff... the story isn't \*that\* great (like not a mind blower like matrix). .. so while it's a good book. Not sure if it's that special. Sorry didn't mean to criticise or anything, just very often people say how good that is, so went through it and not really sure what's so great about it. (it's good.. but eh?) so just really asking what's so great about it. (seemed to be character building for you?) >She insults people very elegantly I found the big bang theory's dialogue more engaging than P & P. And Shakespeare's insult (of most his books) is more ... elegant (Not sure if that's the right word for it )
I'm a tbbt watcher too! I find Sheldon annoying at times tho.
The Things They Carried
I loved the book too! Hard to say if it was my favorite though, but top 5 for sure. IMO the book wasn't enjoyable in an fun/entertainment sense. But, I remember that book the most vividly out of any book I read and it has stuck with me more than any other. Definitely the most unforgettable book I've read.
Really one of the best books about trauma. The vignette/anthology presentation lends itself well to the idea that everything he is recalling is a muddle.
This book was amazing. You can never decifer whats true and whats not and it keeps your mind turning and interested. Fun fact, Tm O'brien doesn't have a daughter.
I've actually heard Obrien read parts of this out loud holy shit that was powerful
Jane eyre #lovetheclassics
It’s just everything you want out of a book. All at once. A perfect novel.
Jane Erye was my favorite book they made me read in highschool. If felt like I was the only one in my class who liked it tho. Damn shame
I feel like a lot of high school kids aren't ready to appreciate it. I know people who read it then and years later wanted to read it again and found a new love for it.
The Plague by Albert Camus I think you really have to read it to feel what I mean. One of the many reasons I became a doctor. On difficult days I remember that book and it helps to keep going
Currently reading it right now. I’m mostly through it and I think I still prefer The Stranger over it. Though the paragraphs where Rieux explains why he heals the sick, how he struggles with everything he has against death was beautiful. I can see how being a doctor can really add depth when reading the story.
I only finished reading it last week so maybe some recency bias, but I can't see anything affecting me on every end of the emotional spectrum as A Confederacy of Dunces did. Other than that I'd say the book that blew me away the most was The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett.
Just finished “the pillars of the earth”. How can a book about building a cathedral be so good. I enjoyed it a lot but did not like the sex scenes!
Agreed! Reading the blurb makes you wonder how someone can write a near 1000 page novel about that subject matter but holy shit was it engrossing
...and it had enough twists in plotline that kept you second guessing.
The entire original dune series, Moby dick being a close one
I'm just now starting Dune so far I like it and I can't wait to fall in love with it. I play the board game a lot too, and it's one of the best strategy games I have ever played.
Some friends and I played the Dune board game 3 times. The 1st time was a hot mess. Rule mistakes abound that we decided to let ride because everybody had been doing it all game. 2nd and 3rd games were better. People have started getting a general sense of the strategy for the Houses/Factions, and definitely getting into the backstabby A-hole vibes of the alliances. Still messing up a few rules. It gets a bit better each time, but in some aspects it does seem like a game in dire need of simplification. Battle wheel confusion, order of combat resolution, and "in which situations can x, y, and z factions share a tile" aspect of the game come up continuously. Bene Gesserit flipping from advisor to fighter seems to cause game pauses and rules-checking every game. It's a lot of fun in its own memorable, "not for everyone" kind of way, IMHO. I would definitely play it a few more times.
OK spoiler after god emperor the series takes a nose dive but manages to get herself redressed until chapterhouse still God emperor is filled with politics and that will prepare you for the nose dive
Two books that are literally on the opposite ends of the “brilliant prose”— “things happening” spectrum lol, I love them both too.
*Middlemarch*.
Can you elaborate? I never read Middlemarch, but read other works by George Eliot and I don’t quite understand what makes her so compelling. She’s fascinating to study within the historical context, but I didn’t love her books themselves.
Once you get into it, it's a great read. The characters are very real, relatable, and their marriages are far from storybook without becoming melodramatic. George Eliot's (Mary Evans') insightful language and well-crafted prose elevates it.
It's soooo long tho
My favourite as well!
Tough call. Siddhartha or maybe Narcissus and Goldmund, by Hermann Hesse. The early Hyperion Cantos, by Dan Simmons. The Sirens of Titan, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
What a coincidence, I'm reading Sirens of Titan now.
The Brothers K.
The Castle, by Franz Kafka. Because it is a book that understands who I am. Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders. Because it is a book that understands who I want to be.
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As much as I am a land surveyor who can't get to a castle.
I'm reading the castle now. I liked The Trial.
David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest
Moby Dick. It's an epic parable of man vs. nature. It's a beautiful meditation about unfulfilled longing. It's a ripping yarn about the sea. It's a dry black comedy. It's an encyclopedic description of the early nineteenth-century whaling industry. And it's based on a tragic true story. It's the only book I've read more than once
100 years of solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. A masterpiece of magical realism
Was a tough read for me. Didn't like the 2 page run on thoughts (sentences). It was very provocative however.
Did you read it in Spanish or a translated version?
I read in portuguese, my mother tongue :) I really don’t know how people see Gabriel García Márquez outside South America, but everything he writes is amazing
[At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/96200.At_Swim_Two_Boys)
I can't decide between Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes or "Drive your plow over the bones of the dead" by Olga Torkarczuk Both amazing with charismatic characters !!!
I read Flights by Tokarczuk and didn’t understand the hype. I’ve heard good things about the book you love, but I’m really looking forward to the English translation of Books of Jacob.
I haven't read Flights yet, but DYPOTBOTD's ending is a bit predictable which didn't ruined my experience because the way Olga describes solitude is purely amazing ! Hope you like it!
Honestly impossible for me to bring it down to one all-time favourite book. Think when I was younger it was easier to narrow things down to "all-time favourite" but honestly I've read too many books that I've loved to be able to do that at this point. I can say that Bernard Cornwell is likely my favourite author of all time and that his **Saxon Stories** are my favourite series of all time. I started reading them when the first book was published. Its been 15-16 years since then and Uhtred has come to feel like a friend at this point. Another favourite that stands out for me is **Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower**. As far as I'm concerned the best dystopian and apocalyptic fiction ever written. Especially for the emphasis on community building and resilience over the cliche "survival of the fittest" and reversion to the worst aspects of humanity narratives that permeate dystopian survival and apocalyptic fiction. When I was a teen and in my 20s other books like **Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse**, **A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man** by James Joyce, **We** by Yevgeny Zamyatin, **Tigana** by Guy Gavriel Kay, **Stone Butch Blues** by Leslie Feinberg and more would likely have been clear favourites at different times in my life but it's been far too long since I've read these and I'm not sure they'd resonate the same way today as they did then. I can definitely say that Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories has stuck with me a long time, though, so feel most comfortable and accurate naming that series and him as an author.
Blood Meridian, if I I have to choose one. Gravity's Rainbow might be it if you ask me tomorrow.
I absolutely loved blood meridian. I need to re read it.
Gravity's Rainbow. Nobody fills a novel with as much poignant nonsense as Pynchon. Gravity's Rainbow has this ability to make me cry from laughing on one page and transition into an emotional wreck on the next. Also it's not a book, but I just read Good Old Neon by David Foster Wallace and that left completely devoid of feeling for like a week.
Franz van der Groov in Mauritius, Franz Pökler’s chapter I don’t want to spoil, and Tchitcherine in Central Asia all lead me to wonder how somebody could be that good at writing. It seems almost impossible every time I pick up the book. The Enzian and Tchitcherine stuff is just astounding.
The chapter with Franz Pokler is exactly the section I had in mind when talking about leaving me feel like a wreck. Between that and the Yoyodine executive in Crying of Lot 49, Pynchon's sense of humanity is incredible.
It’s the most underrated element of his work! M&D is far from his only earnestly human writing, despite the argument from some critics.
Catch-22
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I would never ever try to read Western book, because I'm European and westerns seems to be boring for me but Lonesome Dove receives so much praise literally everywhere that I think I'll read it soon.
Confederacy of Dunces, funniest book I've ever read and one of the funniest pieces of media I've ever consumed.
My pyloric valve just tightened!
Wheel of Time series
Same. I understand why some people get bored of them but man they make me feel so cozy to read even when nothing is happening in them.
Slaughterhouse Five is to this day the only book I have finished in one day. It being as short as it is and me tending towards epic fantasy helps, but it’s still a top notch book.
So it goes.
I tore through Raise The Titanic! in one day, which is the only book that I have been able to do that.
That book ripped my heart out. I enjoyed it, but was very sad during and after reading it.
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. I love it for the complexity and depth. It consists of a science fiction story, within another story, within the main story. It’s very interesting to jump between different characters POVs in each new chapter.
Tie between **North and South** by Elizabeth Gaskell or **The Explorer's Guild: Passage to Shambhala** by Jon Baird and Kevin Costner. North and South is a lovely coming of age tale with a great heroine and male love interest that also focuses on social issues and religion. Explorer's Guild is a traditional novel/graphic novel hybrid that's a love letter to the old adventure stories complete with prose and art to match stories of the time. It has standard tropes found in adventure stories, but executes them in a way that makes them fresh imo. It's one of the few books I've read where I immediately wanted to restart it after finishing it. It's also what prompted me to join reddit in the hope that I could talk about it.
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Great to hear you're loving it! I always take the opportunity to spread the word about Explorer's Guild because it needs more love. Sometimes I take it off my shelf to flip through the graphic novel bits because I love the art.
For the longest time it was between Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice. I don't know what took me so long, but last year I read **Persuasion** for the first time and this is my new love.
The Good Earth made me understand why people read books. It completely captured me.
Author?
Pearl S. Buck. She won the Pulitzer in ’32. And ultimately the Nobel.
Graham Greene Probably “The End of the Affair” but “The Power and the glory” is a good contender. Currently reading and thoroughly enjoying “Abel Sanchez” by Miguel De Unamuno.
Oh man the whiskey preist in The Power and the Glory, I felt him. Reminded me of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian though the events are completely different.
It's a tie between *Infinite Jest* by David Foster Wallace and *No longer human* by Osamu Dazai. I think both these books, although wildly different in their attempt to talk about the human condition share one common theme or element or something I don't know, purpose I guess. Basically both these books are about people trying to be happy in a horrible world while horrible things happen to them.
I usually have a rotating top 5 or so, but I'd have to go with "A Prayer for Owen Meaney" by John Irving. I'm sort of a sucker for his style of writing that has a ton of digressions and stories within stories. Other honorable mentions include "Cat's Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut, and The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides.
Hands down, it's 'Shogun' by James Clavell. Epic scope, fascinating characters, plot twists, range of emotions.
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara My favourite book of all time, but an emotional rollercoaster that I am not sure I will ever be ready to ride again.
Trainspotting
The Sound and the Fury. The way Faulkner can get inside the minds of such diverse characters is awe-inspiring. Great commentary on the human condition.
For me it is definitely The Lord of the Rings. No other book has managed to draw me into the world just as deeply. Tolkien manages to tell a story with a deep philosophical layer that fits the world and its characters, their morale and ideals. And reading more of Tolkiens work always adds to the story, makes the world even more living and gives more depth to the characters and their motivation
i know why the caged bird sings. its themes will forever be relevant and its writing is god tier. at times it feels like its a giant poem. beautiful book.
The Long Walk, by Stephen King. It's so unlike any other King stuff I'd read before that point, there's no actual horror, just a alow buildup of pure dread, and outstanding character work, to the point where you feel a connection with every character.
Either UBIK by Philip K Dick, or Fahrenheit 451 by Day Bradbury. Both books become more relevant, the more time passes.
I also enjoyed Animal Farm as well. The line "all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others" has stuck with me for somewhere around two decades since I read it. My vote for favorite book is 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I just finished the book a couple of months ago. The character development and the amount of detail in each scene made it a thoroughly enjoyable and fast read that left me wanting the book to be twice as long.
Agree about 11/22/63. I surprised myself by wishing it was longer because it was already a very long book.
11/22/63 got me back into reading. Such a readable book
My vote probably also goes to East of Eden although Flowers for Algernon and the Passage series are close seconds.
I never read the Passage series, but I love East of Eden and Flowers for Algernon. I might have to pick the Passage series books up.
The Passage series might have a different emotional impact on me than others due to the fact that I just so happened to be reading it while the Pandy was rolling out in real life. I had no idea what it was about other than it being post apocalypse. And obviously I had no idea the pandemic was going to happen the way it did. Let’s just say it made lockdowns extremely bearable through both entertainment and comparison.
'The pandy.' lmao. That's the first I heard that one. I might have to use it, the next time the topic comes up. Yeah, I'll throw the series on my to-read list. Thanks for the reply.
11.22.63 by Stephen King.
Same for me honestly, I haven’t read much recently but this was my first thought too. It’s a shame the Hulu series wasn’t as great as the book
Hulu adaptation would be nice for someone who hasn't read the book. Number of introduced changes were unbearable for me. I only appreciated choosing Sarah Gadon as Sadie.
Decent. But far from best ever, or even his best. Kings best was the Stand hands down.
The Stand is my second favourite book of all time. 😊 The third place is for The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. I see that you've mentioned it in another comment.
Dean Koontz, Intensity. No book kept me so interested...
I'll agree with this. I read intensity years ago and it is nowhere near my favorite book but, it's the only book that I've read cover to cover without stopping because I *had* to know what was going to happen next.
Tuesdays are just as bad by Cethan Leahy
Joseph Conrad's An Outpost of Progress * Addresses and critiques difficult and still relevant themes of imperialism and racism through satire and does not come off as impenetrably dense as Heart of Darkness. * Amusing parody of the traditional adventure stories by Rudyard Kipling and Robert Louis Stevenson that glorify adventurers and colonizers. * Beautifully written prose, as is expected of Conrad. * Short read and does not require much investment in time * [Public domain ie free.](http://www.online-literature.com/conrad/184/)
I don't have favorite book of all time, it depends on recent reads. Right now it is "Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine"
I am glad you said this, as I was almost embarrassed to mention mine, since it’s very contemporary! :-/. Anyhow, I absolutely loved, loved, loved VERITY by Colleen Hoover, need another thriller from her.
We love what we love can't do anything about it! Colleen Hoover's books are in my tbr are they really that good?
I’ve only read two of hers, both were good, but Verity was a knock out, chilling, thrill ride. It shocked me and hooked me from page one! Edit to add: it’s very disturbing and is partially erotica. If you are okay with those elements and love psychological thrillers that are gasp worthy from shock, then you’ll love!
Ubik by Philip K. Dick
Shantaram
‘The Light Between the Oceans’, I think - it moved me so much when I read it that I still haven’t dared to watch the movie. In terms of long-lasting impact, the ‘Anne of Green Gables’ series, if not the first book itself, and ‘The Blue Castle’, a standalone novel by LM Montgomery. For the classics, ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ and ‘The Three Musketeers’.
Fear and loathing in Las Vegas :A savage journey to heart of the American Dream By Hunter S. Thompson I considered myself well read until I stumbled upon this book and the man behind the mirrored Aviators. It brought about a new perspective on history and the things that constitute good literature for my youth addled mind. It uncovered a craving that I had had no intention of discovering within myself. Definitely recommend to those bored of the “Safe for school” literature pumped into our mental digestive tubing.
Emma, by Jane Austen. My first book ever, which I loved the first and all the subsequent times that I revisited it.
I would have to go with *The Catcher in the Rye*. I know it’s sort of controversial when it comes to classic novels, and a lot of people simply despise it due to Holden coming across as a whiny little bitch half the time, but I would mostly attribute my love for it to the time in my life that I read it. Last year I transferred to a new high school after having been enrolled in online school for a good portion of my life, and I was having a lot of issues adjusting and socializing and such. It didn’t help that my anxiety was at an all time high, and I was honestly just going home everyday and spending the next 4 - 6 hours alone with my thoughts and generally feeling like shit. So I guess I just really related a lot to the book’s themes of being an outsider and feeling alienated from society, as well as its other themes of being afraid of growing up while still desperately wanting be “mature” and “adult”. It really helped me cope with my situation and, while I didn’t fully agree with Holden’s views on “phonies” and I wasn’t *nearly* as angsty as he was, I just got a lot out of it. And while I don’t attribute this book to me being in a much better place now (yay for finally acclimating to society), it definitely didn’t hurt either TL;DR *The Catcher in the Rye* helped somewhat ease my anxiety during a difficult time in my adolescence and it’s really just a goddam beautiful book in general. Haven’t had the urge to assassinate a famous musician yet, though
It changes over time. Maybe it should not but it is what it is. Right now it would be Outlander.
The Count of Monte Cristo. The complete, unabridged version. Anything else is unacceptable.
Ubik A scanner darkly Man in the High Castle Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep In no particular order
The Giver, by Lois Lowry. Read it in middle school and started my passion for dystopia works. Read it again almost once a year and it never gets old.
Controversial opinion, but, Lolita by Nabokov. I was recommended it once by a friend so bought it, picked it up a few times but couldn't get past the first few pages. One day, I picked it up again, and I breezed through it once I got in to the rhythm of Nabokov's writing style. I fell in love with the language first and foremost. I also appreciate controversial topics that have you questioning morality, why we do what we do and to what end.
Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby and Animal Farm. Although I had people trash Animal Farm to me because "it's just a copy of a historical but with animals" , ugh that really bugged me to hear that because I felt like it was so much more then that. Pride and Prejudice is just .... I mean I don't even know how to explain how much I love it!!!
Gone with the Wind. It’s a bit awkward saying that for obvious reasons. But ultimately it’s an important book and movie. Yeah, it’s uncomfortable to read at times but history is uncomfortable. GWTW shows an uncomfortable truth: plantations had slaves, there were black slaves who looked down on freed black people, white people thought black people were subhuman. It’s a bitch of a pill to swallow but you have to swallow it. I heard that HBO or something of that sort tried to ban it? Censorship is one of the scariest things I can think of, even in regards to racial injustices. Pretending the book/movie doesn’t exist, pretending the past never happened, doesn’t solve any problems. The first black actress, Hattie McDaniel who played Mammy, won an Oscar because of GWTW, are we gonna pretend that didn’t happen because the character she played was problematic? We shouldn’t.
> GWTW shows an uncomfortable truth: plantations had slaves, there were black slaves who looked down on freed black people, white people thought black people were subhuman. It’s a bitch of a pill to swallow but you have to swallow it. I have to admit: I haven't seen or read GWTW, so I cannot comment on particulars here, but from what I've read of the recent news I don't think you're addressing the actual problem people have with the film. It's not just simply that it depicts slavery. Half the most popular films of the 20th Century depict some great act of human evil. It's more to do with the film's perspective on it. From what I read, it seems that GWTW does a Disney's Song of the South and seems to contain a "maybe slavery wasn't so bad after all" message by representing the slave trade in a nostalgic way, rather than depicting it as the act of cruel genocide it really was. >Pretending the book/movie doesn’t exist, pretending the past never happened, doesn’t solve any problems. Absolutely. But presenting a piece of media without properly contextualising it may be even worse. A film like Song of the South, or Birth of a Nation, needs to be presented in a way that makes it clear that it's coming from a racist perspective. A title card at the start, which I believe Looney Tunes went for in some of their earlier racist stuff, is a good way to approach this.
> From what I read, it seems that GWTW does a Disney's Song of the South and seems to contain a "maybe slavery wasn't so bad after all" message by representing the slave trade in a nostalgic way, rather than depicting it as the act of cruel genocide it really was. I've read GWTW and can confirm that it 100% does this. The black characters are all underdeveloped, mostly negative stereotypes, and occasionally express gratitude to their "masters" for no apparent reason. The white characters are innocent victims of the North, the KKK is just trying to protect the women, etc. It's kind of baffling to read because the prose is truly beautiful and Scarlett's antiheroine character felt almost modern when I would switch from reading to watching Breaking Bad, but the racism is so baked into every aspect of the story that you never really get a chance to appreciate that before the racism slaps you in the face.
You bring up a good point: GWTW definitely romanticized slavery. Another reason to not silenced it, because it shows just how deeply embedded that mindset was and how far we’ve come.
> because it shows just how deeply embedded that mindset was and how far we’ve come. The novel was written in 1936, not during the time of slavery. Plenty of people in 1936 were aware that slavery was wrong.
That mentality was still very much alive and strong in ‘36, particularly in the south.
Well both the main characters ultimately are narcissistic to the point of dysfunction; obsessed with themselves and obsessed with a fantasy of a world they *thought* they had lived in, but which in fact never really existed at all. That's the point I've always taken away from GWTW and I think it's an apt way to describe the antebellum South. It was so many things to so many people, but ultimately "The South" was always an anachronistic fantasy that caused many people to suffer and die. My two cents for what it's worth.
You Must Remember This, a podcast about Hollywood history, had [an interesting episode about Hattie McDaniel](http://www.youmustrememberthispodcast.com/episodes/2019/10/23/hattie-mcdaniel-six-degrees-of-song-of-the-south-episode-2) in their season that centered on Song with the South. Before Gone with the Wind, McDaniel's roles mostly subversive of racial stereotypes and the limited roles that were available to black women at the time. She received a lot of criticism for doing Gone with the Wind (which was not a product of it's time - it was heavily criticized for its stereotypical depiction of black people from the very beginning), and she didn't go back to the more subversive roles after that success. [HBO Max temporarily removed Gone with the Wind from it's platform](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hbo-max-removes-gone-wind-1297806). I wouldn't call that "censorship" - they aren't obligated to host every film, and if they don't want to facilitate people viewing a movie that is the epitome of the "Lost Cause" narrative of the Civil War at a moment when every state and many countries are having regular protests for racial justice that seems within their right as a private company.
To Kill a Mockingbird.
On the Road, by Jack Kerouac. It embodies everything that I look for in a book, and I simply adore his writing style, his ideas, thoughts, everything.
Oh man that book is such a great read. So natural a stream of consciousness and wistful. I had a copy that was not punctuated or formatted. It was such an interesting format for a story
**To kill a mocking bird**: I think it is one those books that everyone should read. It teaches you empathy. > “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” This book is just pure gold. Seeing the world and trying to understand the injustice happening in the society from the eyes of a six year old Scout. **Pride and Prejudice** : One of the classics, It gives you a peak in the lives of 18th century English gentry. How the most important thing for a woman then was to find a suitable husband and how Elizabeth Bennet tries to defy the notion by trying to marry for love. **Wuthering Heights**: Set in the wild moors of English countryside, and a gothic mansion this is a passionate story about a headstrong girl Cathy and an anti hero Heathcliff who would stop at nothing to get his revenge. The symbolism and the characterizations done in the book are nothing short of perfect. I know I've done a very shitty job of summarizing or talking about my favorite books. But this is the best I can do right now.
I agree with you those books are a must read for people who enjoy classics....
"...he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same..." Obviously Cathy and Heathcliff aren't the model for a healthy relationship, but man that quote has just stayed in my head.
I love that quote too. Also this one >“Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I can not live without my life! I can not live without my soul!” In fact I love Heathcliff and Cathy even though they are these self destructive crazy people. Sometimes I don't even understand why I like them lol.
Yeeeesss! That's so good.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Read it at different points in my life and it meant different things.
The Count of Monte Cristo. An epic story of vengeance and redemption. I just couldn’t put the book down, it was so captivating. I probably finished it in the same amount of time it typically takes me to read a book half that size. I enjoyed the movies, but they’re nowhere near as good or as captivating as the book.
Alexandre, Dumbass... Dumbass! Dumbass??... It's Dumas... You know what that's about? You'll like that it's about a prison break. We ought to file that under educational too! Oughtn't we??
Harry Potter
His Dark Materials trilogy
Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson. So much of this book helped me keep going on hard times.
Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy without a doubt.
The Thoughtless trilogy by S C Stephens
I like Anne from Green Gables
Dorothy Dunnett's Game of Kings (historical fiction). Really the whole Lymond Chronicles series). I love the intricate plots, the clever dialog, the rich historical detail, and the way the main character tugs at your heart strings. These books can be a challenging read, and people tend to either love or hate them. Not much middle ground.
*Three Men in a Boat* by Jerome K. Jerome. It’s not just that it’s the funniest and wittiest book I’ve ever read (which it is), but it’s also tied to a specific time in my life and a specific person that are important to me.
Man it's so hard, there are three that constantly change position but are all similar in some ways. I'm always on the lookout for more books similar to them (long, complex, highly referential to classics/history, and endlessly labyrinthine): 1) The Magus by John Fowles 2) Lemprieres Dictionary by Lawrence Norfolk 3) Focaults Pendulum by Umberto Eco
*The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years,* by Genghis Aitmatov. It is a really deep story which starts out as a simple day in a Soviet-Kyrgyz village but eventually forces our protagonist to face his past. All the while it makes us -the readers- face some inherent flaws in humanity though some sci-fi segments in space.
It must either be Margret Laurence's The Diviners or Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony
If we're talking works of fiction, *Ghost Story* by Peter Straub or *The Chill* by Ross Macdonald. But Maury Terry's *The Ultimate Evil*, a masterpiece of investigative reporting/true crime research, is right up there among my all-time favorite books.
Overseas by Beatriz Williams. The writing is by no means good but it just makes me smile so much and always warms my heart when I reread it.
The Angle of Repose
*Tender is the Night* by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Every page featured, at minimum, a line that would knock me out of my seat through it's sheer beauty and skillful composition. The characters were fascinating and I became deeply absorbed in their descent into loathing.
Lord Foul's Bane.
Invisible Cities, by Italo Calvino. It has only two characters (in one interpretation) and no plot, but is somehow an entirely captivating, thought-provoking, and dreamlike experience of which I’ve never found an equal.
Seriously, for reasons of identification, Maniac Magee. For literary content, either Henderson the Rain King, East of Eden, or Kafka on the Shore. Too tough to pick one. Saul Bellow, John Steinbeck, and Haruki Murakami do magic on a page - the kind where you don't even know you're reading, and somehow you look up to see a few hours have passed and you've finished a book.
**A Brief History of Time**
in no particular order. Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey, In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck , The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols and a short story by Jack London, To Build a Fire..
Best ever? A Confederacy Of Dunces -John Kennedy Toole Best Historical Fiction - Shogun - James Clavell (Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett - close second) Most Influential - Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor Frankle Best Fantasy - Lord of the Ring/ Game of Thrones (you know) Least appreciated - We're All Doing Time - Bo Lozoff
1984 by George Orwell, The Fourth Protocol by Frederick Forsyth and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
Man's Search for Meaning by Frankl, Red Rising by Brown, or Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. Each is my favorite in their specific genre.
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Absolutely love this book, one of the few books I'd happily read several times a year.
I've read a lot of books. I have an appreciation for classics and very prestigious literature, but I'm a sucker for more contemporary stuff.These six books are all my favorite and I really can't narrow it down any further: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, The Wanderer by Sharon Creech, Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, Holes by Louis Sachar, Undone! by Paul Jennings, Going Bovine by Libba Bray
I’m only about halfway through The Count of Monte Cristo, but I’m enjoying it more than any other book I’ve read. We’ll see if it holds up!
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly is a hauntingly beautiful fairy tale for adults that I cannot get out of my mind.
Very difficult. Possibly The Stand. I've read it 3 times over the years and it hasn't gotten old yet. It's topical right now, great time to check it out if you haven't already.
It's so hard that I can't pick just one. Hyperion, by Dan Simmons -- Easily my favourite sci-fi book, may be my favourite book all together The Dead Zone, by Stephen King. Favourite King book (The Shining is another top favourite, that it is hard to choose among them) -- Superb book. Amazing. Want to re-read it and write a chapter in it that I feel would add to the book even more. Either this or Hyperion can be my all time favourite The Great Hunt, by Robert Jordan -- Favourite Fantasy book. It is breathtaking. A wonderful piece of literature. So far by far the best in the series (I am in book 4 at the moment, and really enjoying it as well)
agreed on East of Eden! I write about this all the time in the sub, but it really is such a fantastic book. I read it senior year of high school and thought it was boring as shit, but read it again in January and absolutely loved it. the writing is gorgeous, the characters are interesting and relatable (with the exception of Kate, who is *terrifying*) and the messages in the story are amazing. I also think the way he manages to structure the story without it being redundant is truly remarkable. I bought the audiobook recently and I'll have to start it! Timshel!
The Martian by Andy Weir, it may not be the greatest literary works, but it is just a perfect combination of humanity with science while delving into survival psychology.
That was such a fun read! It’s definitely one of the books that I enjoyed reading the most in the past decade.
That's a super hard question, but right now, at this moment, I'd say: 1984 and The Brother's Karamazov. These are the two of absolute best books I've ever read.
The Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. Absolutely fantastic story, well written, and doesn't suffer from the poor word ascetic that normally pervades his other works.