The GREATEST books ever

[Moss]

Someday that will hit me the right way and I'll read it (tried twice).

 

I have heard that from others as well. Somebody gave me the book because they hated it.

[M. (hristine]

I know what you mean. I think it's just one of those books you have to finish if you want to have any hope of getting it.

I'll take it from the bookshelf. It's such a slim volume too.

[Moe_Syzlak]

And PS, while John Irving has written some of my favorite books, I have started Prayer ay least 3 times and never finished it. Dunno.

I started it once and gave up too. Then a friend insisted I read it all the way through insisting I would not regret it. It does start slow and you feel like where is this going, but trust me every little thing in that book has a reason to be there. I always say that Irving's notes for the book must have been 10X as long as the book itself!

[Sir Stewart]

Owen Meany was recommended by a friend who told me he tried and stopped twice over the course of a year before getting through it his third time. I think that helped me keep going.

[myboyblue]

Love Medicine (1984)

The Beet Queen (1986)

Tracks (1988)

 

(I recall this was a heck of a wait.)

 

The Bingo Palace (1994)

 

I have read all but Tracks... i'll have to check that out. Really great writer.

[M. (hristine]

Every one of my literary friends have brow beat me about this book for years. It's a standing joke actually.

 

Ok, ok.

[Moss]

Sometimes A Great Notion ~ Ken Kesey

 

A few people have mentioned this one which I can't believe I forgot.

 

This has to be in my top 5 as well. Damn, I think I'm up to about 10!

 

Great to be getting all these recommendations.

[Analogman]

I have read all but Tracks... i'll have to check that out. Really great writer.

 

Of course, that does not match the length of time people had to wait for The Dark Tower:

 

1. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (1982)

2. The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987)

3. The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (1991)

4. The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass (1997)

5. The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla (2003)

6. The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah (2004)

7. The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower (2004)

 

I am not that much of a Stephen King fan, but those books are among the greatest books I have ever read.

[austrya]

The first time I tried reading Owen Meany I didn't finish. About a year later I picked it up and swore I was going to finish it and ended up loving it. Although every time I see something typed in all caps, I can't help but hear the voice of Owen Meany. Or what I think the voice should sound like.

[Good Old Neon]

Of course, that does not match the length of time people had to wait for The Dark Tower:

 

1. The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (1982)

2. The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three (1987)

3. The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands (1991)

4. The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass (1997)

5. The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla (2003)

6. The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah (2004)

7. The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower (2004)

 

I am not that much of a Stephen King fan, but those books are among the greatest books I have ever read.

 

Yeah, I

[Analogman]

Yeah, I

[anthony]

Man, the more I read these lists, the more I realize you cannot narrow to 5.

 

How could I leave off Hitchhiker? The foremost influence on my odd (some say too dry) sense of humor?

 

Crytomicon almost made the list. Probably should have.

 

and King's The Stand also deserves placement.

 

Also need to consider Siddartha, 1984 & Lord of the Flies. Novels that first got me into reading in the first place.

 

too tough...too much good stuff.

[Griddles]

Have you read Blink or Outliers?

Yep The day they came out. Outliers was better than Blink, and The Tipping point is the best one. He is a funny little man.

If you like these I would suggest freakonomics by Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt. It touches on some of the same things as The tipping point but much more connected with economics, rather than people.

 

 

The Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy, (all 5) is the best book ever.

[yermom]

I love spoken word as a medium

[Moss]

Yeah, I

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

I keep coming into this thread to post my favorites, but I kept getting stuck at my fifth. I finally picked one, though. I wonder what it says about my psyche that all of these books are basically about broken but beautiful things?

 

1. The Sun Also Rises--Ernest Hemingway

I first read this book when I was a junior in high school. My religion teacher took us to the library to do some sort of project. I remember half-assing my way through it, then checking out this book and hiding in a corner of the library to start reading it. I'd read a few other books by Hemingway, but this one completely sucked me in. It was the book that made me decide that without a doubt I wanted to be a writer. What amazed me is how powerfully he evokes the characters in such simple, straightforward language. His prose seems a little too overly simplistic in places to me sometimes now, but this is a book I always go back to when I feel like my own writing style is getting too complicated.

 

2. The Only World--Lynda Hull

I first read Lynda Hull's work in a poetry class in college. It overwhelmed me at first--in its density, its style, and its subject matter--but something about it made me want to keep rereading those poems in the textbook until I understood them, and when I finally did, I immediately went off in search of her books. All three of them were out of print, itt took me six or seven years to find a copy of this book that I could afford. I'd argue Lynda Hull is one of the most underappreciated poets of the second half of the 20th century. Graywolf Press finally put out her Collected Poems a few years ago, so she's finally back in print, and her work is finally starting to get some attention again. This book is a dark beauty, challenging but in a way that pays off immensely if you're willing to take the time to unravel it.

 

3. Heaven's Coast--Mark Doty

This book saved my life in a lot of ways. It's a long story, but what it comes down to is that this is the truest book about grief I've ever read--and I mean true not in terms of factual accuracy but in terms of emotions. Doty is primarily a poet, and his prose has a gorgeous poetic quality to it.

 

4. The God of Small Things--Arundhati Roy

Another terribly sad, terribly beautiful novel. Roy said not long after the book's publication that she'd never write another novel because she was so overwhelmed by the sadness of this book, but she does an amazing job of manipulating the style and syntax of her writing to capture the trauma the brother and sister at the center of this novel suffer.

 

5. Underworld--Don DeLillo

It took me six or eight weeks of reading for a few hours a day to finally get through this. It's one of those books it's probably going to take me a lifetime of rereads to fully understand, but it knocked me on my ass more than probably any other book I've ever read. How the hell can one person think up something this vast and challenging?

[bjorn_skurj]

You know, this thread is just making me realize how little i've read over the past few years, and I think this is the reason I feel like my writing is getting worse and I'm getting dumber.

I always tell my apprentices that key to improving their writing is reading good writing.

[kidsmoke]

I've got three books (adult level) and one children's book that would make the cut, and although I know a 5th (and more) exist out there, I just can't call them to mind right now. So I'll go ahead and post these 4 beloved books that moved me so powerfully.

 

1.) The Brothers K, by David James Duncan - A beautifully told family saga that lives on in your head long after reading. His "The River Why" is terrific, too.

 

2.) A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving - HOW CAN YOU HELP BUT LOVE OWEN & THIS BOOK? That was to be read in Owen's voice, and was for Austrya.

 

3.) The "Awakenings" special edition, by Oliver Sacks - ok, cheating a little here since this special edition brings together 4 of his books (Awakenings, A Leg to Stand On, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and Seeing Voices) Who knew a neurologist could write about his cases in such a fascinating, compelling, and poignant manner? This is a great big volume, but was so mesmerizing that I carried it with me everywhere for weeks when I read it the first time. I could hardly bear to set it down.

 

and my last entry, the children's book which I think speaks to all ages,

 

4.) The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

I always tell my apprentices that key to improving their writing is reading good writing.

 

I tell my students that, too, but most of the time they don't believe me.

[Sweet Papa Crimbo]

Dune --- Frank Herbert

Lord of the Rings Trilogy --- J. R. R. Tolkien

War and Peace --- Leo Tolstoy

Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich --- William Shirer

Lonesome Dove --- Larry McMurtry

 

I am not very high brow in my reading tastes.

[kidsmoke]

Maggie, I just noticed Mark Doty's name on your list....I'll have to read Heaven's Coast! Doty's "Dog Years" was a gorgeous, gorgeous book. If you haven't read that one, do!

[bjorn_skurj]

Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov. Nabokov is to this English major the master of masters of the English language. This is like the novelistic equivalent of Dvorak's New World Symphony - perfection abideth in its lyricism. Nabokov and Joseph Conrad both blow me away, how good they are with English even though it is not their native language.

Breakfast of Champions and/or Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut. Pretty much everything I learned about being decent and kind to others I got from Vonnegut.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson - Boy, did this book have a huge impact on my worldview and writing style. One of the greatest pieces of comic writing of all time.

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte. Hoo boy, do I have an inner Heathcliff. It may be my entire struggle is to keep I.H. under wraps and use my power for good and not to crush the souls of those who have hurt my feelings.

 

Gotta think more about the fifth.

[Preferred B]

4. The God of Small Things--Arundhati Roy

Another terribly sad, terribly beautiful novel. Roy said not long after the book's publication that she'd never write another novel because she was so overwhelmed by the sadness of this book, but she does an amazing job of manipulating the style and syntax of her writing to capture the trauma the brother and sister at the center of this novel suffer.

Has she really never written another novel? This book was one of only two I knew had to be on my list when I started it earlier in the thread - but somehow I've never checked to see if she's written anything else.

 

I thought of another, though.

 

3. Behind the Scenes at the Museum - Kate Atkinson

I read everything Atkinson writes, but although I like her more recent output, for me nothing has matched this book. She won a Whitbread Prize for it.

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

All of her other books up until now have been nonfiction, mostly with more of a political activist slant to them. I thought I heard somewhere in the last year or two that she was trying to write fiction again, but I still haven't seen another novel from her. I wrote a paper about the novel in grad school and read a great interview with her online somewhere, I think it might've been on Salon.

 

And I have Dog Years and have tried to read it. For some reason, it's the only Mark Doty book I haven't been able to make it through. Give me a whole stack of sad books about people and I'm fine, but give me one book about pets that's potentially sad, and I wimp out. I do hope to go back to it at some point, though, because I'm sure it's wonderfully written.

[Lammycat]

re: Reading /Writing.

 

I tell my students (and live by it myself): read to write and write to read. Can't really have one without the other....