What Is your favourite/ least favourite book?

[Niamh]

After some debate i decided to post this question.:)

What Is Your Favourite/ Least Favourite book? It can be anything from classics, to modern fiction, Plays, biographies, non fiction/true crime, Fantasy or it could even be a collection of poems. Heres mine;(It's gonna be long!):lol:

Favourite Classics: Tom Jones a Foundling (don't laugh), Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, East of Eden, Mansfield Park,Grimms Fairytales.

Favourite plays: Playboy of the Western World, Riders to the Sea, and The Tinkers wedding by Synge. Translations by Friel, Caucasian Chalk Circle by Brecht, Cherry Orchard by Checkov, Streetcar named Desire by Tennesse Williams, Oedipus by Sophecles (i know thats spelt wrong) Hamlet, Midsummers Nights Dream, Much ado about Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare.

Favourite modern fiction, childrens etc: Hellfire by Mia Gallagher, Harry Potter J.k.Roweling, Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, The Alchemist and The Zahir by Paulo Coelho, Black Magicians Trilogy, Trudi Canavan, His Dark materials by Philip Pulman, Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon, The Book of Lost Things by John Connelly

Least Favourites: Wuthering Heights, Emma, Middlesmarch, Northanger Abbey, The Hunters Moon, The Davinci Code, Vicar Of Wakefield, Gullivers Travels, Tarry Flynn, Angelas Ashes, Breakfast on Pluto.


So What are Yours? Feel free to comment on any of these titles.
:blush: :D

[Wild Apple]

I'm sorry to see Emma being grouped with The Davinci Code. I love Emma.

I won't be as thorough as you.

Favorite overall: Walden
Favorite fiction: The Sound and the Fury, Moby Dick, Jude the Obscure
Favorite play: Hamlet
Favorite poems: "When I have Fears that I May Cease to Be," "She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways"
Favorite biography: The Life of Johnson

Least favorite: Mein Kampf, Uncle Tom's Cabin

[Jean-Baptiste]

Favorite: James Joyce's Ulysses

Least favorite: Her by Lawrence Ferlinghetti

[Niamh]

I'm sorry to see Emma being grouped with The Davinci Code. I love Emma.


Least favorite: Mein Kampf, Uncle Tom's Cabin

I Had read Emma well after i'd read P&P S&S and Persuasion, which is in fact my favourite, Anne Elliot is one of my all time heroines:) , and i had been severely disapointed. For starters i didn't like Emmas Character, and could never see her as a heroine. She was an interfering spoilt brat that just didn't appeal to me. Then unfortunately for me i ended up hating the book because i was made to study it for my leaving certificate. I ended up having to nit pick the intire book, analysing every sentance, every plot and sub plot, and everything about each of the characters and by the end of school i didn't care for it that much and haven't read it since.:(

I Agree with you about Mein Kampf, but i'm sure some one will disagree with Uncle Tom's Cabin. ;)

[Ubiquitous Prat]

Favourite; Anna Karenina - Took forever but it was well worth it.

Least favourite; The Alchemist - Not even sure why i read this.

[Niamh]

Least favourite; The Alchemist - Not even sure why i read this.

Well i suppose you are intitled to you opinions, although i have to disagree with you on this one.

[Jean-Baptiste]

Favourite; Anna Karenina - Took forever but it was well worth it.

Least favourite; The Alchemist - Not even sure why i read this.

I like your name, Ubiquitous Prat.:lol:
I've been trying to read Anna Karenina for several years, and I'm still only one third of the way through. What made it "well worth it" for you?

[Acolyte]

0.o

Classics - Ivanhoe, The Poetic Edda, Livy, Nicomachean Ethics, Morte de Arthur =)

Plays - Orestia, Hamlet, Antigone

Fantasy - Tolkien

[bouquin]

Some of my all-time favorite books:
1. The Catcher in the Rye
2. Angela's Ashes
3. Three Men in a Boat
4. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
6. A Farewell to Arms

My least favorite books:
1. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
2. Sophie's Choice
3. Elizabeth Costello
4. The Alchemist
5. Siddharta
6. Oliver Twist

[seacloud49]

Currently my favourite book is "Saturday" by Ian McEwan. I had to read it for a class on McEwan earlier this year and was just blown away by it. I have since read more of McEwan's work and I have to say that in my opinion he is a genius!

My least favourite book is probably "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë. I'll never understand why people claim it to be one of the best pieces of literature, I just kept wishing it would be over soon and nearly gave up reading a few times. What a drag!

[Niamh]

My least favourite book is probably "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë. I'll never understand why people claim it to be one of the best pieces of literature, I just kept wishing it would be over soon and nearly gave up reading a few times. What a drag!

I couldn't even finish it.

[bluevictim]

My least favourite book is probably "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Brontë. I'll never understand why people claim it to be one of the best pieces of literature, I just kept wishing it would be over soon and nearly gave up reading a few times. What a drag!
I couldn't even finish it.That's so interesting. I actually liked Wuthering Heights better than Pride and Prejudice. Neither are really among my favorites, but I guess I thought WH was more imaginative, and "deeper", although I can't be very specific right now because it has been a long time since I've read either. I'd love to know why you felt PandP was better than WH, if there is anything you can put a finger on.

[kathycf]

Wuthering Heights isn't my favorite book, but I did like it. It did drag on in spots and some of it could have been taken out and not be missed. I liked Emma as well. Yes, she was an interfering twit at first, but I think by the end of the story she has grown up and maybe realized that she shouldn't decide what is best for everybody else. It is so hard to choose favorite books though.

Least favorite books:
Anything by John Updike. Sorry, Updike fans but I had to read those "Rabbit" books for a class, and then S after that. Ugh.

[Mary Sue]

Favorite Books:

Absalom, Absalom by Wm. Faulkner
The Sound & the Fury by Wm. Faulkner
Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
Very Good, Jeeves/Thank You, Jeeves/Right ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft
Blackwater by Michael McDowell


LEAST FAVORITE BOOKS:

The Thomas Covenant series by Stephen R. Donaldson
Silas Marner by George Eliot
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy (TOO depressing!)

FAVORITE POETS:

William Blake
Emily Dickinson
Samuel Coleridge

[TEND]

I don't know about least favorite, generally the ones I don't like I forget about...
Favorites though are,
As I Lay Dying - Faulkner
Anything by Kafka
A Farewell to Arms - Hemingway
L'Etranger - Camus
Notes from Underground - Dostoevsky
(Though straying from the canon of great literature) Stranger in a Strange Land - Heinlein
Steppenwolf - Hesse
Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck

[Ubiquitous Prat]

I like your name, Ubiquitous Prat.:lol:
I've been trying to read Anna Karenina for several years, and I'm still only one third of the way through. What made it "well worth it" for you?

Just the quality of the book i suppose, it has a really good ending. The later part of the book is more focused on the really important characters.




A book i should have added to my favourites is 'Platform' by Michel Houllebecq.

[Niamh]

Favorite Books:

Absalom, Absalom by Wm. Faulkner
The Sound & the Fury by Wm. Faulkner
Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier
Very Good, Jeeves/Thank You, Jeeves/Right ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse
The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft
Blackwater by Michael McDowell




The Vampire chronicles. my god its been a long time since i read them!:)

[EAP]

The Silmarillion - Tolkien ---> A



Ulysses - James Joyce ----> U

[Bookworm Cris]

My favourites:
Wuthering Heights - don´t know how many times I´ve read it.
East of Eden - each time I read it I don´t want it to end; great dialogues!
The Thorn Birds - the book is far off better than the minisseries
Little Women - my childhood favourite, still love it.
and some others: I liked Rebecca, all Harry Potters, Lord of the Rings, Pride and Prejudice, Ordinary People, Lost Horizon, etc..

Least favourites: I think there´s no book that I have disliked that much... perhaps some "I-wouldn´t-read-it-again" books...

[Niamh]

what are the ones you wouldn't read again then? :)

[Martian Poet]

Favorites: Ulysses by Joyce, Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson, The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury, Pontius Pilate: The Biography of an Invented Man by Ann Wroe, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LaVey, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, Sleepy Hollow and Other Selected Stories by Washington Irving

Least Favorites: Ethan Fromme, Wuthering Heights, Galilee by Clive Barker, Leviathan by Hobbes, Lucifers Hammer by Niven, any Anne Rice I've read, Violets are Blue by James Patterson

[Diceman]

Favourites:

Watership Down
The Magus
Ender's Game
The Hitchhikers' Guide series
The Dice Man (of course!)

Least favourites:

Jayne Eyre
Huckleberry Finn (abandoned this one twice in the same spot)
The Metamorphosis

[Bysshe]

Niamh, if you don't mind me asking...why didn't you like Breakfast on Pluto? I haven't read the book yet, but I loved the film. I've wanted to read the book for a while to compare the two.

Anyway, on topic -

Favourites: The Tin Drum, Wuthering Heights, The Catcher in the Rye, A Clockwork Orange, Brideshead Revisited, A Handful of Dust, The Secret History, Gormenghast.

Least favourites: There's only one book I can think of off-hand that I really loathed, and that was Interview with the Vampire.

[Bethan]

I'm stunned to find Charlotte's Web is not in here anywhere! hehe! Its been my favourite since I was little. Otherwise I love Jane austen and the classics, but I think my all time favourites have to be 'Lolita' by Nabokov or 'The Bell Jar' by Plath.
As for plays i've recently become acquainted with "Who's afria dof virginia Woolf", By Albee, which i'm loving. Well worth seeing/reading.
:D

[Idril]

It's hard picking favorites because I have so many of them but the first ones to pop into my mind are, Quiet Flows the Don, The Forsyte Saga, Phineas Finn and Phineas Redux, War and Peace, Anna Kerenina, Crime and Punishment, The Posessed, A Prayer For Owen Meany, Confederacy of Dunces, Neverwhere, Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul and a good portion of Tolkien's catalogue.

As far as least favorites, Middlemarch, Ulysses simply because I couldn't understand a word, The Sound and the Fury for much the same reason, Mirror, Mirror, Until I Find You and a few others I have thankfully forgotten.

[Schokokeks]

Favourite plays: [...], Caucasian Chalk Circle by Brecht
That's very interesting, it's my favourite play by Brecht as well. In case you ever feel like discussing it again, you know where to find me ;). It's nice to see people in other countries are actually reading a German book other than Mein Kampf :rolleyes:.

My overall favourite book is A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. As there have been so many other books that I've enjoyed, I'll just quickly list the ones I didn't like that much, fortunately not that many: First of all, Middlemarch by George Eliot (but maybe I skipped all the really interesting passages ? :p), Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, The Red Badge of Courage by Crane and anything by Jules Vernes.

[liesl]

Just a few of the top of my head;
Favourites:
The Bell Jar - by Sylvia Plath,
1984 - George Orwell,
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood,
The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter,
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte,
Tales of Mystery and Imagination - Edgar Allen Poe,
Charlotte's Web - E.B.White (it was my favourite as a child and still makes me cry).

Plays i liked i would have to say Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

Least favourite books;
Pride and Prejudice, Northanger Abbey - Jane Austen,
Great Expectations - Charles Dickens,
and i didnt really enjoy 'The Golden Notebook' by Dorris Lessing but i will wait until i have studied it in depth before i decide.

[Idril]

My overall favourite book is A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.

That book really is Irving at his peak. He has other great books, Hotel New Hampshire, World According to Garp, The Cider House Rules but Owen Meany really is the author at his best.


I'll just quickly list the ones I didn't like that much, fortunately not that many: First of all, Middlemarch by George Eliot (but maybe I skipped all the really interesting passages ? :p)

I found it mind-numbingly boring as well and I normally really like Victorian literature. :p

[manolia]

My overall favourite book is A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving. As there have been so many other books that I've enjoyed, I'll just quickly list the ones I didn't like that much, fortunately not that many: First of all, Middlemarch by George Eliot (but maybe I skipped all the really interesting passages ? :p), Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, The Red Badge of Courage by Crane and anything by Jules Vernes.

Anything by Jules Vernes????? Did you skip puberty as well?:lol: I'm joking. Jules Vernes has shaped my imagination and marked the early years of my life.

Favorites: "The Lord of the rings" By Tolkien
"Jane Eyre" by C Bronte,
"Bleak House" and "David Copperfield" by Dickens
"Pride and Prejudice" by Austen
"The Count of Monte Cristo" by Dumas
"Dracula" by Stoker
"Death in Venice" by Mann
"The It" and "Salems Lot" by King
and the complete works of Poe, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, H.P Lovecraft and Clive Barker.

There are certain books i disliked. I can only recall "The animal farm" right now.

[Demona]

There are certain books i disliked. I can only recall "The animal farm" right now.

Tastes do differ! The animal farm is definitely one of my fav! To add: the Count of Monte Cristo (Dumas), Midnight's Children (Rushdie), The Satanic Verses (Rushdie; I haven't finished it yet, but I enjoy readig it soooo much, I don't want it to end :)), The Catcher in the Rye (Salinger), Timbuktu (Auster), Anna Karenina (Tolstoy), Akunin's series about Mr.Fandorin, ...etc, etc.

as least favoutrite i'd name Joyce's a Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, The Scarlet Letter ...there were some other books, but I cannot recall really...

[Niamh]

Niamh, if you don't mind me asking...why didn't you like Breakfast on Pluto? I haven't read the book yet, but I loved the film. I've wanted to read the book for a while to compare the two.


I dont know why.. it just didnt grasp me if you get me. I also tried to watch the movie and still it didnt grasp my attention.. but in saying that, i do love Patrick MaCabes the butcher boy!


That's very interesting, it's my favourite play by Brecht as well. In case you ever feel like discussing it again, you know where to find me ;). It's nice to see people in other countries are actually reading a German book other than Mein Kampf :rolleyes:.


I was very lucky that i got to study it in college. ANd because i loved so much i decided to do my Theatre studies Essay on Brecht and the Berlin Ensemble. Facinating. I've another one of his plays in my house that i got for free from work,The resistable rise of Arturo Ui, that i keep meaning to read.

Dont worry i know theres more to germany than Mein Kampf.... Theres Erdingers!:p

[Saphira]

What Is Your Favourite/ Least Favourite book? It can be anything from classics, to modern fiction, Plays, biographies, non fiction/true crime, Fantasy or it could even be a collection of poems. Heres mine;(It's gonna be long!):lol: My favorites are:

The Septimus Heap trilogy by Angie Sage.
The Inheritance series by Christopher Paolini.

Christopher Paolini is my favorite author so far. His first book was Eragon, now a film, and I like that as well, but they changed half the story. It was still nice. I like them because I like dragons very much. :D

/Niki

[starbuck]

hmm thoughie but I will try and answer as best as i can...

Favorite(s): Pride and Prejudice, Jane Eyre, Harry Potter, Series of Unfortunate Events, Sylvia Plath works, Birthday Letters, Man in the High Castle, Great Gatsby, Shakespeare, Beowulf, Eragon, LOTR, Similirilian, etc

Least Favorites: Huckleberry Finn, any Twain, Thoreau, Wordsworth, Childhood's End,

I know i have more but tis way too early in the morning for me :-p

[King of Frogs]

It's hard to narrow it down to one favorite, so I'd have to say:

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Titus Groan and Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
Anything in the diskworld series by Terry Pratchett.
However, my least favourate is easy - The Testement by John Grisham. Seriously folks, don't read any Grisham, it was awful!

[McGrain]

If I had to go for just one work i'd go for King Lear. I'm not lighting your lamp when I tell you it changes every time I read it, that is a real experience for me. The key is discipline, leaving gaps between each reading - about a year works for me.

The worst thing I ever read was Stephen King's Wizard and Glass. I loved the first and second volumes of his gunslinger saga, but three and four were real slogs, to the extent where I can't go near five, six or seven.

Though I dead break one of the Ten Commandments when I read the very last page of seven, you know, just to see what happens.

[Schokokeks]

Anything by Jules Vernes????? Did you skip puberty as well?:lol:
There is a great number of people who will very readily assure you that indeed I did not. :lol:


I'm joking. Jules Vernes has shaped my imagination and marked the early years of my life.
I only started to read his works from, say, 17 onwards, and maybe that was already too late because by then I was looking for other things in books than a fantastic story ? ;)

[Schokokeks]

I was very lucky that i got to study it in college. ANd because i loved so much i decided to do my Theatre studies Essay on Brecht and the Berlin Ensemble. Facinating. I've another one of his plays in my house that i got for free from work,The resistable rise of Arturo Ui, that i keep meaning to read.
Wow! If you still happen to have that essay in digitalised form, mind sending it over ? :)


Dont worry i know theres more to germany than Mein Kampf.... Theres Erdingers!:p
:lol: That would also be one of the top three things a German would name :D. Having read Brecht and knowing about Erdinger, you're already half naturalised ;).

[Virgil]

My overall favourite book is A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving.
While I've never read John Irving, I found it startling that this would be someone's favorite. It makes me want to go out and get it. I wil have to find an excuse.

As to my favorites, this is hard:
Light In August by Faulkner
Moby Dick by Melville
The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence
Ullysses by Joyce
The Great Gatsby by Fiztgerald
Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, and Lord Jim by Conrad (He's the greatest novelist)
Great Expexctations by Dickens
To The Lighthouse by Woolf
Brideshead Revisited by Waugh
Kim by Kipling
Emma by Austen

I'm sure I've forgotten many. Don't like to think of the ones I didn't like.

[Schokokeks]

While I've never read John Irving, I found it startling that this would be someone's favorite.
Well, I guess I picked that one as my favourite because it is simply heartwarming in an intelligent, non-sentimental way, although Ulysses may be a greater "work of art". I've reread it twice or three times since, and I still discovered new things that made me smile in amazement :).

Joseph Conrad is the very next on my personal reading list. I've never read anything by him so far (yes, shame on me :p). My first pick would be Heart of Darkness, or would you suggest another title of his to begin with ?

[Virgil]

Well, I guess I picked that one as my favourite because it is simply heartwarming in an intelligent, non-sentimental way, although Ulysses may be a greater "work of art". I've reread it twice or three times since, and I still discovered new things that made me smile in amazement :).

Joseph Conrad is the very next on my personal reading list. I've never read anything by him so far (yes, shame on me :p). My first pick would be Heart of Darkness, or would you suggest another title of his to begin with ?
I would suggest Heart of Darkness.

[Niamh]

Wow! If you still happen to have that essay in digitalised form, mind sending it over ? :)
i'll have a look for you during the week. its been seven years so it could be under my bed somewhere growing very dusty!

:lol: That would also be one of the top three things a German would name :D. Having read Brecht and knowing about Erdinger, you're already half naturalised ;).
Well i did discover Erdingers while i was in college studying Brecht!:p Whats the third? IT better not be black forest gateaux.:sick:

[Domer121]

I think my favorite books are:
Long Day's journey into Night- O'Neil
The Great Gatsby- Fitzgerald
The Sun also Rises- Hemingway
The Man who was Thursday- Chesterton
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn- Smith

As far as least favorite I think Lolita- Nabakov...not that it was bad, just disturbing....plus it got really slow in the middle...

[Schokokeks]

i'll have a look for you during the week.
Thanks :).


Whats the third? IT better not be black forest gateaux.:sick:I guess I would be the national football team :D.

[ngtotd_dtrt]

Favorite(s) - Count of Monte Cristo; Brothers Karamazov
Least Favorite(s) - most of the things assigned in high-school that I should now reread and form an adult opinion (Walden, Scarlet Letter, etc).

ok, I tried to leave it at that, but can't stop the elaboration...

Love the comments on this thread...opinions/experiences all vary.
Very tough (and I'm limited in how much I've read and to the types of books I'm drawn)...

Favs -
Crime & Punishment, Brothers Karamazov; Count of Monte Cristo, any of Dumas romance-series (Valois, Musketeer, Antoinette); Les Miserables; Anna Karenina; all of the Scarlet Pimpernel novels (17?, 18?, some better than others, but loved them as a whole); Silas Marner; The Good Earth; Grapes of Wrath; Importance of Being Earnest (guess that's a play); Jane Eyre; Animal Farm.

least favs -
A Christmas Carol (just like the movie but with blathering, endless descriptions...should've read the book first :) ); first half of 'A Tale of Two Cities' (took 250 pages to start the story!); War and Peace (enjoyed the story...he belabored/murdered the point at the end/epilogue..left me not enjoying the experience); Emma (same reasons as mentioned on this thread...heroine was annoying); any Anne Rice; most Twain (liked 'Huck Finn' though);

Currently reading 'Middlemarch'. I'm half-way through it and both agree with the comments here that it's a slog, but then I enjoy a good slog now and then...people pay tens of thousands to climb big mountains, I just pick up an overstuffed book for free at the library :) . Characters seem a little under-developed...quite an accomplishment considering all the excessive descriptions (Dickens-like, even). Maybe they're meant to be satirical. Still, I kinda like it..insightful overall with bouts of genius...and hints of melon and smoked-cherry... Hmm, is bloated genius still genius?

next up, 'The Possessed/Devil', and 'The Idiot' by Dostoevsky; Adam Bede; Don Quixote; a re-read of Wuthering Heights (enjoyed it the first time, need to give it a fair shot with the comments here :lol: ), and some favorites from others here.

[Vulpes]

Novels -

The Waves by Virginia Woolf
Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
Knulp by Hermann Hesse
The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa
The Tin Drum by Gunther Grass
The Outsider by Albert Camus
The First Man by Albert Camus
The Trial by Franz Kafka
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Adam Bede by George Eliot

Plays -

Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

:) :) :)

[Asa Adams]

The hobbit is a fav of mine. That's all for now.

[bazarov]

The hobbit is a fav of mine. That's all for now.
Nice avatar like your's doesn't go with hobbit:lol:

[Behemoth]

Favourites:
Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
Derek Walcott, Omeros
Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita, The Heart of a Dog, Black Snow
Andrey Kurkov, Death and The Penguin
William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Othello, Richard III, King Lear
Brian Friel, Translations
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

Least Favourites:
James Joyce, Ulysses (sorry, but it's right up there in the no.1 spot folks!)
Ngugi wa thiong'o, A Grain of Wheat
Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

[jab]

There are relatively many Gatsby fans and Twain disdainers here. Interesting.

I have enjoyed a good number of Twain short stories and Huck Finn, though I dislike Tom Sawyer and have not finished A Connecticut Yankee despite two attempts.

My favorite books this year are: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, Black Like Me (Griffin), The Histories (Herodotus), One Hundred Years of Solitude (Garcia Marquez), and Ethan Frome (Wharton). Harry Potter I have to mention also, despite not having read them this year, for they were quite engrossing, being something like an alluring fantasy of an adolescence for me who did not seize that time.

I have reviewed each of the books I've read this year at http://thelockandkey.blogspot.com/2000_01_01_archive.html.

[Stieg]

Least favorite:

Any apocalyptical measure of tripe written by Dan Brown. Give me a break!

[bazarov]

Least favorite:

Any apocalyptical measure of tripe written by Dan Brown. Give me a break!
Bravo!

[Niamh]

Least favorite:

Any apocalyptical measure of tripe written by Dan Brown. Give me a break!


*Claps* totally agree!

[pamroder1]

To Mary Sue,
Agree with you on the Thomas Covenant series. Only read three and then was finished. Reading about an anti hero is tough business. No thanks.

[Stieg]

To Mary Sue,
Agree with you on the Thomas Covenant series. Only read three and then was finished. Reading about an anti hero is tough business. No thanks.

Yes Thomas Covenant does whine and gripe consistantly and screw up plenty page after page after page. Makes for difficult reading however Donaldson's world-building is freakin awesome and the books kept me going forward with promises of greater mysteries unveiled if not nearly defeated and dulled by Covenant himself.

A tough endurance challenge.

[pamroder1]

Guess I didn't have enough "sticktoitness" to endure the rest of Donaldson's series. Found the descriptions of land layout laborious. Covenant was selfish and egocentric. Just couldn't enjoy.

[pamroder1]

Favorite books:
How Green Was My Valley- Llewelyn, As I Lay Dying-
Faulkner, Breakfast of Champions-Vonnegut, Confederacy of Dunces-Toole
LOTR-Tolkien, The Scarlett Letter-Hawthorne
Liked Harry Potter series but the last few books could have used a good editing. Book 5 especially-
least fav:
Interview With a Vampire-Rice, Thomas Covenant-Donaldson, The Unbearable Lightness of Being-Kundera. Would have been great had the author had more faith in his reader. Had to explain what he had just written. We got it!

[Stieg]

Guess I didn't have enough "sticktoitness" to endure the rest of Donaldson's series. Found the descriptions of land layout laborious. Covenant was selfish and egocentric. Just couldn't enjoy.

No, despite being very popular fantasy books they are tough to get through. And there is a huge lack of character development in the whole series especially Covenant himself and why does he continuelly dwell on subjects for 3-5 pages in length and return to them the next chapter for equal length. Tedious! I always felt the "Land" should have jumped him and took the white gold for their own benevolent purposes.

[AChristieFan]

My favorite books are The Lord Of The Rings by Tolkien. I have a question, Is Tolkien allowed on this forum?

[grace86]

Because of copyright issues his literature cannot be put on the site.

[AChristieFan]

Not even to discuss?

[Niamh]

he can be discussed i'm sure but they just cant put his writings on because they are copyrighted.:)

[AChristieFan]

Thanks! I was just wondering why his name wasn't on the Sub Forums. That answered my question.

[Niamh]

welcome to litnet by the way!

[Slangalang18ca]

Favourite Books:
A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Betty Smith
His Dark Materials Trilogy, Philip Pullman
I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith
Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golding
The Fountainhead, Ayn Rand
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Mordecai Richler
The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

Favourite Plays:
Cyrano de Bergerac
Antigone

Favourite Poems:
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, T.S. Eliot

Least Favourites:
Lord of the Rings Trilogy... I couldn't get past the first 1/3 of Book I, and I tried multiple times... it just seemed so pointless.
Maria Chapdelaine, Louis Hemon
Bonheur d'Occasion, Gabrielle Roy

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"I will eviscerate you in fiction. Every last pimple, every last character flaw. I was naked for a day; you'll be naked for all eternity." - A Knight's Tale

[karmalife]

Hi

I have just joined up ... My least favorite book at the moment is one I started reading this week and put it down after about 20 pages and that was "Ask and it is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks

My favourite which kept me up all night as I couldn't put it down was "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck ... absolutely brillant

[jimbone11]

favs:
brothers karamazov, war and peace, a tale of two cities.

least favs:
heart of darkness didn't move me much. I've read many non-fiction accounts of colonial times and life in the congo, and I enjoyed them a lot more. good thing it was 100 pages.
I find that I've learned very little from all of the shakespeare I've read as well. Cumulative disappointment I would say

[jimbone11]

I have just joined up ... My least favorite book at the moment is one I started reading this week and put it down after about 20 pages and that was "Ask and it is Given by Esther and Jerry Hicks

funny you mention that book karma. someone gave me a book my esther and jery hicks and I read a few pages, glanced through it, and determined that it was complete trash as well.

[beat wanderer]

Yay for my first post
I have a few favourite books but probably the stand out just for its effect on me would have to be On The Road by Jack Kerouac as it inspired me and really spoke to me at that time in my life. Its the book that kind of ignited my passion for literature. Until then i never knew books could speak to me and leave such a psychological impact.
Other notables on the favourite list include

The Beach - Alex Garland
Of Mice and Men- John Steinbeck
Catcher in the Rye- JD Salinger
A Confederacy of Dunces-John Kennedy Toole
Farenheit 451- Ray Bradbury
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas- Hunter S Thompson
The Dharma Bums- Jack Kerouac
Siddhartha- Herman Hesse
Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance- Robert Pirsig
1984- George Orwell

I don't know if i have any books that i really hate but the biggest dissapointment of late would probably be The Alchemist by Paulo Coelo i found it too simplistic and child like. It wasn't bad i just felt it was overhyped