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2009-11-03 1:46 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books
The Stand is very, very near to the top of my list of all-time favorite books. Love it.


2009-11-03 1:47 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books
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

Edited by mrbbrad 2009-11-03 1:51 PM
2009-11-03 1:49 PM
in reply to: #2495427

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Subject: RE: Must read books
Didn't Milton write Paradise Lost?
2009-11-03 1:52 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books

Old Man and the Sea - Hemingway

Animal Farm - George Orwell

Thurbers Carnival - Modern Library collection of James Thurber's writings

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

The Call of the Wild - Jack London

Robot Trilogy - Isaac Asimov

2009-11-03 1:52 PM
in reply to: #2495679

Subject: RE: Must read books

mmrocker13 - 2009-11-03 2:49 PM Didn't Milton write Paradise Lost?

Yes, and a few centuries before Fitzgerald wrote "This Side of Paradise".

2009-11-03 1:56 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books

mmrocker13 - 2009-11-03 1:49 PM Didn't Milton write Paradise Lost?

It's even online -

http://www.online-literature.com/milton/paradiselost/



2009-11-03 1:57 PM
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Iron Donkey
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Subject: RE: Must read books

Horton Hears A Who.  Hey, it's got a powerful theme.

2009-11-03 1:58 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books

mrbbrad - 2009-11-03 1:47 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

Hemingway's style was very new at the time. No-one else was writing in the short, clipped, spare sentences and restricted vocabulary that he used. I also think that because of his style, his work has been a favorite of high school anthologies. Exposure has kept his star polished. On the other hand, were it not for Hemingway, we wouldn't have Cormac McCarthy.

2009-11-03 2:16 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books
mmrocker13 - 2009-11-03 2:46 PM The Stand is very, very near to the top of my list of all-time favorite books. Love it.

Yep, great book. I read the uncut version. I think it was 7 million pages. Laughing
2009-11-03 2:23 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books
swimbikeandrun - 2009-11-03 2:16 PM
mmrocker13 - 2009-11-03 2:46 PM The Stand is very, very near to the top of my list of all-time favorite books. Love it.

Yep, great book. I read the uncut version. I think it was 7 million pages. Laughing


Right at the top of my personal ALL TIME BEST list too.
Read both the revised (original release) and the un-cut version.
I do think at times SK gets lost in his own words but for the most part love his books.
2009-11-03 2:30 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books
As for lit that is "supposed" to be read in school:
x2 on the Jungle
x2 on Old Man and the Sea
All Quiet on the Western Front- Erich Maria Remarque

Non- school books that are my favorites:
Courtney Series by Wilbur Smith (Maybe 10 or 12 books now, visit his website and you can decide whether to start at the beginning of the series or where he began writing them)  How can you not love historical fiction that's at least half pirates?

My Sister's Keeper, Keeping Faith (or pretty much anything else by) Jodi Piccoult.  This is probably considered "chick lit" by many, but the issues she brings up make you really sit back and question your own moral compass and the world in general.  She poses interesting questions in the form of great stories.


2009-11-03 3:23 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books
x2 on Catch 22 and Johnny Got His Gun.

I loved Life of Pi.
2009-11-03 3:45 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books
"The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara.

Not only a fantastic account of the defining battle in American history (Gettysburg), it is darn good novel with well-defined characters. You DO NOT have to be a Civil War buff to appreciate this incredible work of fictionalized history (it also won a Pulitzer).

"The Stranger" by Albert Camus.

One of the best examples of existential literature and the book upon which The Cure based their song "Killing an Arab". I don't even know why I like this book so much-- I guess I relate to it on a few levels.
2009-11-03 4:01 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books
  Why do you folks hate America!!!?  Number one has to be ..(drum roll)...

        Hemingway- For Whom the Bell Tolls (read all of his books, this is my #1)

   others...

Dostoyevsky-   The Brothers Karamazov (The Grand Inquisitor is the most interesting chapter I have ever read, and still gives me chills when I read it/think about it

The Magus- John Fowles;  best read while eating mushrooms

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ- Saramango; (may drop if he keeps spouting off)

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha-  Roddy Doyle (Angela's Ashes but funnier and better [and true!]

Cereus Blooms at Night- Shani Mootoo (unknown gem)

The Beach- Alex Garland and
Snow Falling on Cedars- DavidGuterson great reads, avoid the movies at all costs!

100 years of Solitude- Gabriel Garcia Marquez


 for Pennstate, NXS, Jackemy, Bradword, Cruse Vegas and the rest of the conservative crowd, William F. Buckleys great friend's book-

  The Affluent Society- John Kenneth Galbraith (first praised, then ridiculed, now praised again)

for ericcooper, Acesfull, ridelikeustoleit and the left of center crowd, John K. Galbraiths close friend's book

  Atlantic High- William F Buckley, Jr.  a great read of a sailing journey that is really about a unsentimental author beginning to understand that his son is growing into a man, and a reflection on insights into friendships and fatherhood.  

like many here, I also enjoyed Tolkien- read the Lord of the Rings during calculus in college- 8:30 class, too early to focus on numbers...

  that's all I've got- I love books!



   

 
2009-11-03 4:19 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books
Life of Pi - Martell
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy
Song of Fire and Ice - George R.R. Martin
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues - Tom Robbins
Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
2009-11-03 4:22 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books
Dune

If you can read the whole storyline, good for you.  Either way, you're missing out if you haven't read the first book.


2009-11-03 4:38 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books
ride_like_u_stole_it - 2009-11-03 1:00 PM

A Confederacy of Dunces



I loved this book.

Sick Puppy by Carl Hiaasen is another favorite of mine. I'm reading it again right now.

Some more non science/non nature classics would be:
To Kill a Mocking Bird. I read it as a kid and it didn't do much for me. Read it again a few years ago and loved it.
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins one of the few novels I kept from college literature.
Heart of Darkness

I'm sure I'm forgetting some

Since I am a scientist at heart as well as a bit of a misanthropic tree hugger my other less exciting list of must reads are:

A brief history of time by Stephen Hawking
Origin of Species by Darwin
Walden

I've tried to start all three on several occasions and have yet to get through them. Another must read was Silent Spring by Rachel Carson. This one was a tough read with a decent amount of technical chemistry writing in it. However, since reading this I have not and will never use pesticides/insecticides or weed killers near my family or on my property.

Also:
The End of Nature by Bill McKibben


2009-11-03 4:49 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books
on the less fiction side for me I have recently enjoyed: The world without us (can't recall the authors name off the top of my head.) and last child in the woods.
2009-11-03 5:02 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books
The Illiad
The Odyssey
The Orestia
Fight Club
Paradise Lost
Virgil's Aneid
The Virtue's of Selfishness
48 Laws of Power
Art of Seduction
Influence
The art of War
Starship Troopers
Ulysses
The King must Die
Theogony
The Little Illiad

at the moment reading The Romantic Manifesto
2009-11-03 5:04 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books
Leegoocrap - 2009-11-03 4:02 PM The Illiad
The art of War


Ahh... The Art of War.... Very wise, very wise....
2009-11-03 5:11 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books

Dune, as posted by an earlier poster. I loved the first book, read it again as soon as I'd finished the first time. But, I found that after that, Frank Herbert seemed to run out of plot a bit in the others, so I gave up.

The Eight, Katharine Neville. I've read this about a dozen times and never get sick of it.

Mort, Terry Pratchett. I have read a whole heap of his books, and generally enjoy them, but Mort is by far and away the best of them, in my opinion. After reading that, I never got such a buzz from the other of his books. I also met the author once, and it wasn't a great marketing moment for him....



2009-11-03 5:30 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books

A Prayer for Owen Meany

Memnoch the Devil

The Gunslinger

Foundation Trilogy

To Kill a Mockingbird

Turning Angel

Balance of Power

2009-11-03 5:58 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books
gsmacleod - 2009-11-03 7:30 PM

A Prayer for Owen Meany

Memnoch the Devil

The Gunslinger

Foundation Trilogy

To Kill a Mockingbird

Turning Angel

Balance of Power



    Geez, I didn't think they had books in Dartmouth! Tongue out

I loved Owen Meany, but was really disappointed by the movie. I guess Irving just doesn't translate well to the screen.
2009-11-03 6:14 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books
Hey, what's this box marked "Pandora?"

Iliad and Odyssey - Homer, conventionally
Symposium - Plato (the Benardete translation is good; the Loeb dual-language edition is a little dry)
Republic - Plato
Nicomachean Ethics and Politics - Aristotle
Divine Comedy, particularly Inferno - Dante (the Hollander translation is my favorite; I'd stay away from Pinsky's)
Leviathan - Hobbes
Letters Concerning Toleration and Two Treatises of Government - Locke
The Social Contract, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality among Men, and Discourse on the Arts and Sciences - Rousseau
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism - Weber


Tearing myself away from my Classics of Social & Political Thought reading list...

The Jungle - Sinclair
1984 and Animal Farm - Orwell
Brave New World - Huxley
Letters to a Young Poet - Rilke (I like the Mitchell translation)
Siddhartha - Hesse
Cloud Atlas - Mitchell
The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Rhodes

(Note: if a work isn't originally in English and I don't recommend a translation, it's because either I've only read one translation and don't know if that that one was particularly good, or I'm only familiar with the original language work.)
2009-11-03 7:53 PM
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Subject: RE: Must read books
puellasolis - 2009-11-03 8:14 PM Hey, what's this box marked "Pandora?" Iliad and Odyssey - Homer, conventionally Symposium - Plato (the Benardete translation is good; the Loeb dual-language edition is a little dry) Republic - Plato Nicomachean Ethics and Politics - Aristotle Divine Comedy, particularly Inferno - Dante (the Hollander translation is my favorite; I'd stay away from Pinsky's) Leviathan - Hobbes Letters Concerning Toleration and Two Treatises of Government - Locke The Social Contract, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality among Men, and Discourse on the Arts and Sciences - Rousseau The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism - Weber Tearing myself away from my Classics of Social & Political Thought reading list... The Jungle - Sinclair 1984 and Animal Farm - Orwell Brave New World - Huxley Letters to a Young Poet - Rilke (I like the Mitchell translation) Siddhartha - Hesse Cloud Atlas - Mitchell The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Rhodes (Note: if a work isn't originally in English and I don't recommend a translation, it's because either I've only read one translation and don't know if that that one was particularly good, or I'm only familiar with the original language work.)


Why do I all of a sudden feel like I've been reading comic books all my life?Embarassed
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