Books everyone should have read.

[spikeyhead]

If you're going to read Tolkien then it should be the Silmarillion.

I still think that Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is the must read book.

[98elise]

spikeyhead said:

If you're going to read Tolkien then it should be the Silmarillion.

I still think that Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is the must read book.

I gave Zen a go as one the books I should have read by now. I couldn't get into it. 1984 was on the same list though, and ended up reading it twice.

[TheExcession]

spikeyhead said:

I still think that Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is the must read book.

Oh gosh, Lila is such a better novel. I read them backwards, Lila then Zen.

Lila had me coming back time and time again to read it.

Edited by TheExcession on Thursday 7th November 00:36

[Ilikebeaver]

Firmin, by Sam Savage

Amazingly clever & touching, yet funny story of a rat surviving in a Boston bookstore.

Very dark humour

[scdan4]

TheExcession said:

Oh gosh, Lila is such a better novel. I read them backwards, Lila then Zen.

Lila had me coming back time and time again to read it.

Edited by TheExcession on Thursday 7th November 00:36

Oh. I've just given up in frustration with it.

Didn't really get on with Zen either, although I managed to finish it. (The last third was slow and difficult)

What am I missing / not getting?

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Cancer Ward - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

A depressingly uplifting book. If you have cancer, read this and you'll probably feel that life has handed you a decent break, by giving you cancer here and now instead of having cancer in the Soviet Union in 1954.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

jmcc500 said:

Agree with Catch 22, a great book.

Really...I just don't get it. Or Catcher in the Rye. I thought both were awful.

[jmcc500]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

Really...I just don't get it. Or Catcher in the Rye. I thought both were awful.

Isn't it great that we can like different things! I thought Great Expectations was terrible, but maybe that's because it was a compulsory text at school? And I tried Catcher and got nowhere so agree on that.

[K12beano]

spikeyhead said:

I still think that Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is the must read book.

I read it once a decade... Due to read it again soon....

[spikeyhead]

K12beano said:

spikeyhead said:

I still think that Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is the must read book.

I read it once a decade... Due to read it again soon....

It's probably time I read it again too. I've no idea how people can prefer Lila. Sure it's an easier read, but then so are most other books but they too are nowhere near as satisfying.

[K12beano]

Hmm "Lila"....?

Well ... " interesting" but not a must-read

[MrAndyW]

Animal Farm.
The classic line "All animals are equal,just some are more equal than others."

I always think of that when the politicians say things like, "we're all in this together."

[scdan4]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

jmcc500 said:

Agree with Catch 22, a great book.

Really...I just don't get it. Or Catcher in the Rye. I thought both were awful.

Catcher in the Rye I found very meh at the time of reading but it somehow it has left a remarkable impression / image with me. The very image conjured up by the title is somehow the wind meandering across endless and listless crop fields is evocative for me.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being is another good one for leaving a long lasting impression, and a much easier to read story than Catcher.

Catch 22 also matures well. I love the insanity of it all and empathise with the final image of Yossarian paddling madly off into the sunset.

I'd suggest Wild Swans by Jung Chang - an amazing view on the peoples revolution in china and a very good read, and have we had Lolita yet?

kenny Chim 4 said:

A thought changing novel that I read aged 22 (lent to me by a dear uncle) was Mikhail Bulgakov's 'The Master and Margarita'.

In a nutshell, Satan descends on 30's Russia (as a black cat with a machine gun!) and it becomes a critique of not only communism but the horrendous robotic bureaucracy that was born of it.
...............

Amazoned it and am currently thoroughly enjoying it, thanks.

[TheExcession]

scdan4 said:

TheExcession said:

Oh gosh, Lila is such a better novel. I read them backwards, Lila then Zen.

Lila had me coming back time and time again to read it.

Edited by TheExcession on Thursday 7th November 00:36

Oh. I've just given up in frustration with it.

Didn't really get on with Zen either, although I managed to finish it. (The last third was slow and difficult)

What am I missing / not getting?

Ummm, that's a tricky question. Frustration you say, how far did you get?

Zen bored me to tears, but I found Lila a 'flight into fantasy'. For want of a better term, Lila is a toilet book. By that I mean it is a book you can read a few pages and then go off for a think. You come back wanting to read a few more pages and rinse and repeat,

I will say though, there is a point when reading Lila that you kind of crest the hill and suddenly it speeds up and gets interesting.

How far did you get? (Maybe you might quote a troublesome passage or give a page number)

Please don't give up on it - it really is a fantastic book!

[Legend83]

The Pillars of the Earth.

A fricking tour de force.

[98elise]

jmcc500 said:

Agree with Catch 22, a great book.

I found it ok but not great. A mate told me he only got as far as "Major Major Major Major", so I was pleased when I got past that point

[scdan4]

TheExcession said:

Ummm, that's a tricky question. Frustration you say, how far did you get?

Zen bored me to tears, but I found Lila a 'flight into fantasy'. For want of a better term, Lila is a toilet book. By that I mean it is a book you can read a few pages and then go off for a think. You come back wanting to read a few more pages and rinse and repeat,

I will say though, there is a point when reading Lila that you kind of crest the hill and suddenly it speeds up and gets interesting.

How far did you get? (Maybe you might quote a troublesome passage or give a page number)

Please don't give up on it - it really is a fantastic book!

at a guess a fifth to a quarter of the way in. They were still heading down the river and were not getting along if that helps (not having finished they may never have got off it!)

I read at a fair rate and demolish books when I get into them, but this just did not grab me, and then became a bit of a chore. Felt very "bearded and earnest" if that makes sense.

I think it is still on the shelf so may well chuck it in the bog on the pile of BSH and see if that helps!

[Cactussed]

Shantaram.

[Halb]

Small Gods.

[robsa]

I love things like this, always a rich seam for harvesting great new reads. My list of 'must read' books probably changes yearly, but...

I take it we mean fiction?

Great Expectations - A true classic, and I still cry when I read it.
The Count of Monte Cristo - another classic for good reason.
Frankenstein - Mary Shelley - Such a misunderstood book.
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte - Probably my fave book of all time.

I think everyone should read some Bukowski too personally. Shows how to write a book with practically no grammar, narrow vocabulary etc and be totally awesome.

Probably many I will remember when I am in bed later!