If I had to pick one, I suppose it would be Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle, by Valdimir Nabokov. But really, who wants to pick just one?
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If I had to pick one, I suppose it would be Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle, by Valdimir Nabokov. But really, who wants to pick just one?
Choosing just one I find is kind of limiting, but my top favorites are *drum roll*
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (an ultimate classic, gothic but not ridiculously so, characters that I believe I'll always remember and feel for) I cry every time on the part when Helen dies.:bawling:
Désirée by Annemarie Selinko. Best historical "romance" period. I weird favorite I guess. I borrowed my mom's early edition of it and it immediately became a favorite of mine.
The Little Prince....Antoine de Saint-Exupery
What is your favorite books and why?
It was The Count of Monte Cristo. I loved the journary of Dantes and how at the last minute he was able to pull back enough to save himself. Now though I have picked up East of Eden and The Count has been knocked off from first place. The truths that John Steinbeck has captured in East of Eden are just incrediable. I am now sold on John Steinbeck and will be reading him for awhile. Eighth grade English and reading The Pearl unfornately kept me away from this brillant writer.
One of my favorite books is "Uncle Tom's Cabin." It really opens your eye to slavery and oppression. It makes you appreciate the importance of freedom for all mankind, and the work that still needs to be done.
I have so many - but off the top of my head I'd say Notes From Underground, To Kill a Mockingbird and Christ Stopped at Eboli. What a horribly hard question though!
One biggie I have never managed to get on with though is Joyce: I can only take so many metaphors and my mind starts wandering... ditto some of Woolf. Ulysses and The Waves are both gathering dust on my bookshelf...
I also would have to say The Count of Monte Cristo. It's been a couple of years since I last read it, but I remember thinking, wow, I wish all classic books were this much fun to read. I sailed through it so quickly, I should go back and read it again.
More like 190 actually!Quote:
Originally Posted by Admin
Hello Forum Members;
I am looking forward to sharing information with all of you, and all you sharing with me. I have Les Miserables in two volumes, printed by T. Nelson & Sons, Ltd. They were printed in Great Britain before
1924. If you know who the interpreter was, please let me know.
Err, do you mean translator?Quote:
Originally Posted by read old books
Lascelles Wraxall produced the first British translation in 1862. Other translators of Les Miserables include Charles E. Wilbur, Isabel F. Hapgood, Norman Denny, Lee Fahnestock and Norman MacAfee, and, at last, Anonymous.
Some of my favorite books have be by John Steinbeck. I loved "The Winter of our Discontent" when Mary says to Ethan (the main character) "You say such dreadful things even to the children....And they to me. Ellen, only last night, asked, 'Daddy when will we be rich?' But I did not say to her what I know: 'We will be rich soon, and you who handle poverty badly will handle riches equally badly.' And that is true. In poverty she is envious. In riches she may be a snob. Money does not change the sickness, only the symptoms."
Also Steinbeck's book "Cannery Row" when Doc says, "It has always seemed strange to me......The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding, and feeling; are the concomitatants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism, and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce ofthe second!"
Also, his Nobel Prize Banquet speech was one of the best I've ever read and so true to where we stand in our humanity.
hey everybody! everyone had a lot of author's works that they read, now here's another question:What are your favorite books?
i know i hve a few, so i will start this off.
1.The Host by Stephenie Meyers. i just justfinished this book...it was really good!
2.Twilight by Stephenie Meyers
3.New Moon by Stephenie Meyers
4.Eclipse by Stephenie Meyers
5.Rosehaven by Catherine Coulter.Very good book to those who love romances.
6.Time and Again by Nora Roberts.
7.Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux
8.The More I See You by Lynn Kurland
9.Until You by Judith McNaught
10.Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. this book is in my top ten favorite books mostly because even thoughi had to read it for my class, i enjoyed it...(i hate reading assigned books for some reason)and i can remember everything that happened in the book. only books i loved are the ones i remember.
this is my top ten favorite books. what's yours?
''The Good Soldier Svejk'' by Jaoslav Hasek.
'Charley' by Joan G. Robinson
It's about an 11 yr old girl who runs away from home, and lives in a forest for two weeks. She felt that no one loved her, or cared for her. When she was found, she realised that they had all cared about her.
hmmm...sounds interesting Tournesol...i think i'll check it out!
The Hours by Michael Cunningham and Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf in conjuntion with one another. There is a lot in the way of insight bewtween the two of them.
From what I've read up until now, my favorite is either Lord of the Flies (William Golding) or Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck). I just loooved both works, from beginning to end. The characters in them were really well written and developed. And in both cases, I wasn't sure how they were going to end which defiantly kept me interested. Least favorite: Anything by Jane Austen. I just find her writing very dry.
Les Miserables without a doubt! The plot is just so all-encompassing and powerful, the characters so realistic! ah I can't get enough of it!
theodor w. adorno - minima moralia
That's a great favorite book! I'm looking forward to taking it off my shelf and reading it...eventually...Quote:
Originally Posted by jaywalker
The Swimming-Pool Library & The Line of Beauty, both by Alan Hollinghurst (he writes beautifully)
The Stranger by Albert Camus
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (his short stories are great too)
The Witches by Roald Dahl :)
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
I'm sure there's more but I can't remember...
Plays:
Anything Shakespeare wrote!
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams (the only one I read from him -- but I'm sure I'll love his other works as well)
Crave, Phaedra's Love & 4.48 Psychosis by Sarah Kane
In Japanese:
The Sputnik Sweetheart & The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, both by Haruki Murakami
AMEBIC by Hitomi Kanehara
Favorites:
Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
The Stranger by Albert Camus
Hunger by Knut Hamsun
A Dream Play by August Strindberg
The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
Candide by Voltaire
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Life: A User's Manual by Georges Perec
Last Days by Raymond Queneau
The Electric Kool-aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
Hated:
Harry Potter
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Hello, this is my first post, my favorite book is A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole published in 1980, eleven years after his death. It's one of the few books I feel the desire to read again and I think I'll read it every few years for quite a while.....very funny.
I was so happy to see that it was someone elses favorite book, even though they posted that 8 years ago! This is one historic thread!
Probably my favourite work of fiction is Wedding Song, by Mahfouz. It's only a novella, but there was a sense of urgency in it that I won't forget.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Admin
If you like Gatsby, you might like Tender is the Night by Fitzgerald, or For Whom the Bells Tolls by Hemingway
Those are a couple of my all-time favorites, in addition to The Grapes of Wrath, The Prodigal Parents by Sinclair Lewis, The Possessed by Dostoevsky...
I'm not trying to be obstreperous, I just thought it was funny that three of my favorite books are,Quote:
Originally Posted by Admin
Crime and Punishment
The Scarlet Letter
and... Lord of the Flies
I actually feel about 'Lord of the Flies' as Nabokov felt about Shakespeare, something like: You know he is quite good, despite how many people like him.
If I had to chose my single favorite work it would probably be... Melville's "Piazza Tales"
Tom Robbins is my favorite! I love all of his books. Also Siddhartha by Herman Hesse is a great read :nod: and there is a new version with a foreward to Tom Robbins. It all comes full circle.Quote:
Originally Posted by Siddhartha
I've read a few short stories that were good:
"The Boat" by Alistair Macleod.
"The Shadow Over Innsmouth" by H.P. Lovecraft.
"Rats in the Walls" by H.P. Lovecraft.
....
Shakespeare plays, "Othello" and "Hamlet".
Oedipus Rex....
The Bible....
....
"Dracula" by Bram Stoker (powerful description).
"Treasure Island" by Stevinson (great characters).
I liked the Harry Potter books 1 - 3.
I liked a few of the Ravenloft fantasy horror books.
I'd read more but I lose interest quickly, however occasionally I can get right into a story and get a lot out of it. I find it hard work, especially, literature.
I found "The Hunger Artist" by Kafka to be my favorite piece of literature.
It's very hard to pick just one, but if I had to pick one book i could read over and over again it would be The Divine Comedy.
I am not tired of recommending the Prophet by Khalil Gibran.
ive read scarlet letter and lord of the flies..... they certainly are not favorites of mine, but they are classics, they are good books. just not..... enjoyable i guess.
i like dune... by frank herbert
and light of eidon sereis by karen hancock
and blood of kings by Jill williamson
thats just a few of my favorites.