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Thread: Your 5 favourite books

  1. #1
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    Your 5 favourite books

    Not sure if this has been posted before, but how about sharing your 5 favourite books? What are they, and why do you like them?

    Mine are:

    1. The Magic Toyshop - Angela Carter, because there's a kind of dark, magical quality about it, everything's kind of a bit dirty and degraded but within that there is still love, and joy and companionship.
    2. Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World - Haruki Murakami - this is just strange! It's kind of philosophical, kind of science-fiction, kind of fantasy and kind of mystery/detective novel rolled into one. A work of genius!
    3. The Time Traveller's Wife - just about the best love story I've ever read. Makes me cry every time.
    4. Lord of the Flies - William Golding - I avoiding reading this for years because I found the cover art too disturbing (a line drawing of a pigs face with a tear of blood running down it). One day I plucked up the courage and checked it out and kicked myself afterwards 'cos of what I'd been missing - fool!
    5. Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres - again what a mix! Love story, war, philosophy and adventure rolled into one.

  2. #2
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    1.The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - Robert Tressell
    More like a political manifesto than a novel, it just blew me away the first time I read it. It seemed to articulate everything that I felt at the time, as well as telling a great story. The author is buried in a paupers grave about two miles away from where I live.

    The rest, in no real order:

    The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
    Courage and unwavering spirit against perpetual obstacles. I barely slept while reading this.
    Love on the Dole - Walter Greenwood
    More political stuff; love trying to overcome poverty and oppression.
    For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway
    Beautiful, complex, and a wonderful read.
    Big Deal - Anthony Holden
    Out of place compared to the other four, but something I always go back and read every few months. Inspired me in many ways.

  3. #3
    laudator temporis acti andave_ya's Avatar
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    Dorothy L. Sayers-Gaudy Night
    J.R.R. Tolkien-Lord of the Rings trilogy
    Sir Arthur Conan Doyle-The Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes


    My tastes change every couple of months but these are three that I go back to and read time and again.
    "The time has come," the Walrus said,
    "To talk of many things:
    Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
    Of cabbages--and kings--
    And why the sea is boiling hot--
    And whether pigs have wings."

  4. #4
    now then ;)
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    1) Hard Times - Possibly the greatest book I have ever read
    2) Le Morte d'Arthur - The tales of my childhood
    3) Rob Roy - A brilliant story
    4) Less than zero - My favourite book by a modern writer
    5) The secret diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 & 3/4 - Incredibly funny.
    There once was a scotsman named Drew
    Who put too much wine in his stew
    He felt a bit drunk
    And fell off his bunk
    And landed smack into his shoe
    ~(C) Ms Niamh Anne King

  5. #5
    I yam what I yam! ejarg7's Avatar
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    My top 5:
    1. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
    2. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
    3. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
    4. Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie
    5. The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler

  6. #6
    Hecube heikemarie's Avatar
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    I can't choose an order but I have:
    1. The Great Gatsby [F. Scott Fitzgerald]
    2. A Tale of Two Cities [Dickens]
    3. To the Lighthouse [Virginia Woolf]
    4. Night- Elie Wiesel
    5. East of Eden-John Steinbeck

    What's funny is I didn't read ejarg7's post until I had typed mine all the way up
    Heike Marie;

    Humanity i love you because you
    are perpetually putting the secret of
    life in your pants and forgetting
    it's there and sitting down

    on it

    [ee cummings]

  7. #7
    Labyrinthine THX-1138's Avatar
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    LOTR
    1984
    Fahrenheit 451
    catcher in the rye
    the gunslinger
    Something From The Past Just Comes
    And Stares Into My Soul

  8. #8
    Perhaps an island.... Moira's Avatar
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    Cannot choose the order
    The Magus - Fowles
    The Demons - Dostoievsky
    Perhaps an island - Michael Houllebeque
    Lord of the flies - Golding
    Bitter Moon - Pascal Bruckner

    Because they made a difference ...... at least in me they did.

  9. #9
    Registered User JaneEyre1986's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ejarg7 View Post
    My top 5:
    1. To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
    2. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
    3. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
    4. Murder on the Orient Express - Agatha Christie
    5. The Big Sleep - Raymond Chandler

    I like your tastes! Mine are:

    1. Jane Eyre-Charlotte Bronte
    2. Pride & Prejudice-Jane Austen
    3. To Kill A Mockingbird-Harper Lee
    4. Gone With the Wind-Margaraet Mitchell
    5. Little Women (series)-Louisa May Alcott

    Those are in no specific order.
    Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. ~Groucho Marx

    A house without books is like a room without windows. ~Heinrich Mann

  10. #10
    Vincit Qui Se Vincit Virgil's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JaneEyre1986 View Post
    I like your tastes! Mine are:

    1. Jane Eyre-Charlotte Bronte
    2. Pride & Prejudice-Jane Austen
    3. To Kill A Mockingbird-Harper Lee
    4. Gone With the Wind-Margaraet Mitchell
    5. Little Women (series)-Louisa May Alcott

    Those are in no specific order.
    Now how did I know you were going to include Jane Eyre?
    LET THERE BE LIGHT

    "Love follows knowledge." – St. Catherine of Siena

    My literature blog: http://ashesfromburntroses.blogspot.com/

  11. #11
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    1. Lord Of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
    2. Jane Eyre by Charoltte Bronte
    3. Sense & Sensiblity by Jane Austen
    4. House On The Strand by Daphne Du Maurier
    5. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
    -Sharita

  12. #12
    Registered User JaneEyre1986's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Virgil View Post
    Now how did I know you were going to include Jane Eyre?
    Gee, I wonder?
    Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. ~Groucho Marx

    A house without books is like a room without windows. ~Heinrich Mann

  13. #13
    Hippie toni's Avatar
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    Smile

    1. Hamlet by The Bard
    I read almost all of Shakespeare's plays but Hamlet really stood out and I never tire of it.

    2. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
    Tess' innocence, devotion to Angel Clare and views on life are remarkable. Thomas Hardy is a genius-injecting poetry in his writing which I found quite inspiring.

    3. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
    I just finished this book today and although I didn't quite like how the novel ends, one can't deny its power. Wharton's detailed description of old new York Society is gripping, and in the middle of it all was the love triangle between Newland Archer-May Welland And Countess Olenska.

    4. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
    I would never read this one ever again (unless paid to do so ) but one can't deny Golding's powerful storytelling and imagination.

    5. The Importance of Being Earnest or any play by Oscar Wilde
    Last edited by toni; 03-24-2007 at 05:54 AM.
    Dreams! adorations! illuminations! religions!
    the whole boatload of sensitive !

    — Allen Ginsberg, Howl II.

  14. #14
    closed Bysshe's Avatar
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    1. The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
    2. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
    3. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
    4. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger
    5. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

    I recently read Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter and loved it, so I feel tempted to add that to my list, but I don't know what I'd replace it with.

  15. #15
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    PRIDE AND PREJUDICE - Jane Austen
    SENSE AND SENSIBILITY - Jane Austen
    THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA - Gaston Leroux
    THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY - Oscar Wilde
    JANE EYRE - Charlotte Bronte

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