A lifetime of must reads

[Mano]

Some of my favorites:

Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Huckleberry Finn
To Kill a Mockingbird
all Kurt Vonnegut novels - favorites in order are Sirens of Titan, Slaughterhouse Five and Cat's Cradle
Aazimov's Foundation series of novels
Aazimov's Robot series of novels
For Whom the Bell Toll's
The Old Man and the Sea
Crime and Punishment
David Copperfield
Catch-22
The Stranger
The Great Gatsby
The World According to Garp

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
"Gödel, Escher, Bach, an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter"

He didn't ask for books that take a lifetime to read.

Seriously,

I am Charlotte Simmons Tom Wolfe
Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt
Germs, Guns, and Steel Jarrod Diamond
The God Delusion Richard Dawkins

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, I've actually read three out of those four and hope to read Germs, Guns, and Steel.

I liked 'I am Charlotte Simmons" but if you want to read a better and more highly praised Tom Wolfe book read "Bonfire of the Vanities". It's the best book written about the eighties (and the worse movie adaptation).

~ Rick

[Rick Nebiolo]

[ QUOTE ]
Lately i've really rediscovered a love for reading. Unfortunately, my literary knowledge is adequate at best.

What books would you guys consider must/great reads that have to be done in a lifetime.

Please include anything and everything: Fiction, non fiction, biography, philosophy, science, history, etc etc.

Let me know what i'm missing.

Also, if this thread has already happened (seems like the type that would around here) then my bad and please remove.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you have a lifetime to spare consider Patrick O'Brien's
20 volume historical fiction series on the British Navy in the early 19th century. The movie "Master and Commander" was based on this series.

Without a spare lifetime check out Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove. It's a timeless masterpiece that two great friends, a wife and girlfriend all enjoyed tremendously.

~ Rick

[Rick Nebiolo]

One thing I've noticed is that so far (including my own choices) there haven't been many books listed written by women.

If you want to get into their head and perhaps later into bed it's not such a bad idea to get an idea of the way they think and look at the world through their contemporary fiction.

Anne Tyler is probably my favorite recent woman author. She seems to have extraordinary insight into ordinary situations and people. I'd start with "The Accidental Tourist" but "Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant" and "A Slipping-Down Life" and "Breathing Lessons" and "Saint Maybe" also would be good choices.

Amy Tan is also very good.

Come to thing of it this is probably worth a thread of its own (but may be better placed on The Lounge where some thinking, smart women seem to post).

~ Rick

[jtr]

Blueman, I didn't say he had to become a personal fan of Harold Bloom. You also misrepresent the canonical list quite a bit by quoting only the oldest section. The 20th century list includes the obvious Faulkner, Fitzgerald and Hemingway but also James Salter, Cormac McCarthy, Philip Roth, Carson McCullers, Vladimir Nabokov, etc., etc., etc.

I have no idea what Bloom's conduct towards Wolf was, but I'd hazard a guess that it wasn't any worse than the way a typical OOT reader would behave towards Wolf.

[jtr]

[ QUOTE ]
I forgot to add Guns, Germs, and Steel. Amazing book that won a nobel prize.

[/ QUOTE ]

Diamond won the Pulitzer prize, not the Nobel.

[jlocdog]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I forgot to add Guns, Germs, and Steel. Amazing book that won a nobel prize.

[/ QUOTE ]

Diamond won the Pulitzer prize, not the Nobel.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hilarious...is what I meant [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[jhodges]

How about in no particular order: Enders Game(Orson Scott Card), Shibumi(Trevanian), The Stand(Stephen King), Dune and sequels(Frank Herbert), Master and Comander and 18 sequels(Patrick O Brian), The 5th Head of Cerubus(Gene Wolfe), The Lord of the Rings trilogy(Tolkien), Game of Thrones and sequels (George R.R.Martin), Startide Rising (David
Brin) Hornblower series(C.S. Forester), and my hidden treaure the Dread Empire books by Glen Cook (7 in all but start with Shadow of all Night Falling).

[fanmail]

High Treason 2 by Harrison E. Livingstone - great read on JFK's murder, read it about 10 years ago

A Theory of Everything by Ken Wilber, (or any Wilber book)
Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat Zinn
The Book by Alan Watts
Remember Be Here Now by Dr. Richard Alpert (Baba Ram Dass)
any book by J. Krishnamurti particularly Think on These Things
any book by Osho

All of these books shaped me from a somewhat immature college kid into the man I am now. My life is so much better having read them, I recommend them all to anyone.

[Astyanax]

Trueman Capote - In Cold Blood
Homer - The Iliad
Homer - The Odyssey
Virgil - The Aeneid