Must read books (Page 5)

Paulettejo - 2009-11-05 12:59 AM

Book nerd here...this thread totally got me al hott and bothered:

 

Let's see..

Garden of Eden (by FAR hemmingway's best!)

MadMathemagician - 2009-11-04 10:17
Most anything by Poe. 

You want nerd?   I double majored in college in math and physics.   Lately, I have just finished getting a B.A in English.    Just for the bloody hell and joy of it....

blairrob - 2009-11-05 1:14 AM



Love Poe as well. Even Travels with a Donkey.


B.A in English=  not good

double major in math and physics=  far beyond not good

double major in math and physics and a B.A in English=  rather well rounded.

I think your getting thrown off the nerd boat for that last one. You were doing so well!


So nobody thinks any of the Beat Generation belong on their must read list? No Kerouac? I read 'On the Road' and could not get into it. Seemed quite aimless. Rather like following COJ sometimes...  

laughingman - 2009-11-05 12:08 AM x2 or x3 for Kafka's "The Trial"--I read it last summer and now I can't stop seeing echoes of it everywhere I go...

I liked Junot Diaz's short story collection "Drown" but I hated "Brief and Wonderous Life..." (I couldn't manage to finish it.)

My quick picks for "must reads" go to:

"The Collected Stories of John Cheever"
"Jesus' Son" by Denis Johnson
and
"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien

My "must reads" for high school kids are:
"The Lord of the Flies" by Golding
"A Separate Peace" by Knowles
"The Catcher in the Rye" by Salinger
"Death of a Salesman" by Miller
"The Crucible" by Miller
and, well,
"The Things They Carried" by O'Brien

My 'pretentious picks' are:
Dostoevsky's "Notes from the Underground"
Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina"
and
Faulkner's "Absalom, Absalom!"

"Chick Lit":
"Emma" by Jane Austen


Huge props to the thread starter and the contributors to the thread--have I mentioned lately how much I love the BT community???

-laugher

For some light hearted reading I would suggest:

The Zombie Survival Guide
World War Z
Day by Day to Armafgaedon (sp?)- almost done with this one now

laughingman - 2009-11-05 1:08 AM

My 'pretentious picks' are:
Dostoevsky's "Notes from the Underground"
Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina"
and
Faulkner's "Absalom, Absalom!"

mrbbrad - 2009-11-02 2:47 PM My wife and I started on an American Classics Crusade of sorts; Vonnegut, Steinbeck, Salinger, etc. and I have hit a bit of a wall with Hemingway. I struggled through Sun Also Rises and am almost done with Farewell to Arms. Frankly, I don't get it. Why is he considered by many to be a great author? Mind you, there are gems throughout both books but you really have to mine for them. I have skimmed over several pages of inane dialogue and pointless prose. What is the deal? Any lit majors out there?

eta whole words

jeffnboise - 2009-11-05 5:23 PM ANOTHER vote for "A Prayer for Owen Meany".   John Irving writes such unusual heros.

tracyhmcd - 2009-11-05 12:50 PM

Where the Truth Lies - Rupert Holmes (there's a movie too, though not as good)

tracyhmcd - 2009-11-06 1:50 PM=

= Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco

moondawg14 - 2009-11-06 12:03 PM