Books You Love

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 11/15/08 at 9:57am

Well, I've been bashing Twilight a lot on BWW... so I thought I'd start a positive thread for listing our favourite books.

Other than Harry Potter (and keep in mind that I am a teenager who doesn't have very sophisticated tastes in literature), here are some of the ones I like the best:

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series
The Bartimaeus Trilogy
The Midnighters Trilogy (and I really don't like Scott Westerfeld's other books)
Hitchhiker's Guide (though I think the later books in the series aren't as good as the earlier ones)
Les Miserables, which I didn't think I'd like, but turned out loving even better than the musical
The Artemis Fowl books
Basically anything Sherlock Holmes.

[danmag]

Posted: 11/15/08 at 11:01am

The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe (kind of a book version of Mad Men)
A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
The Corrections (Jonathan Franzen)
The Broom of the System (David Foster Wallace- rip)
Rabbit Run (actually all the Rabbit books) by John Updike
I guess that's it - although you could really go on forever with this list!

[Weez]

Posted: 11/15/08 at 11:06am

Hmmm... Split into sections.

Grown-up books
- 'The Lost World' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I only wish someone would make a *faithful* adaptation of it for the screen (read: NO WOMEN).
- 'The Godfather' by Mario Puzo. I read it so many times that I can't watch the films because they don't match up with my mental pictures.
- 'Different Seasons' by Stephen King. He's not (just) a trashy horror author, he writes wonderful straighter works too. And any book that can spawn both 'The Shawshank Redemption' and 'Stand By Me' as movies is okay by me!
- 'The Stars, My Destination' by Alfred Bester. Simply the greatest sci-fi novel I've ever read. Absolutely stunning, and I find it hard to take in that it's well over fifty years old.
- 'Kiss of the Spider Woman' by Manuel Puig. Saw the play, loved it. Read the novel, couldn't put it down.

Picture books
- 'Lost and Found' by Oliver Jeffers. I love Oliver Jeffers books, and this is my favourite of his.
- 'The Red Tree' by Shaun Tan. Guaranteed to fill you with warm fuzzies after the hardest of days. I only wish I had my own copy.
- 'How to Live Forever' by Colin Thompson. He does beautifully detailed illustrations, and this is the Thompson-created world I most long to be sucked into.
- 'The Mousehole Cat' by Antonia Barber. It's SO beautifully illustrated! I want a huge print of the storm cat for my bedroom wall.
- 'Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus' by Mo Willems. Mo Willems cracks me up, and the pigeon is my literary hero. :3

Kids books
- 'Double or Die' by Charlie Higson. I love the whole Young Bond series, and this is my undisputed favourite of the lot. It's what Dan Brown wishes he could have written.
- 'Scorpia' by Anthony Horowitz. I don't mind telling you that I have a MASSIVE crush on Anthony Horowitz. Before 'Double or Die' was published, this book was - in my oh-so-humble opinion - the finest young adult novel in existence.
- 'The Graveyard Book' by Neil Gaiman. It's brand-spanking new, but deserves to go down in history. Beautiful for both adults and children, works as either a continuous novel or a collection of short stories, and is just plain wonderful.
- 'Mortal Engines' by Philip Reeve. One of the most awe-inspiring YA novels I've ever come across. Philip Reeve is just plain fabulous.
- 'Larklight' by Philip Reeve. No, really, he's FABULOUS. I enjoy reading classic sci-fi from the Victorian era, and one of the things I love about it is that sly sense of humour sneaking underneath. Philip Reeve GETS that, and has inserted it wonderfully into this series.

Miscellaneous
- 'The Arrival' by Shaun Tan. If you can find a more phenomenally beautiful and wonderful graphic novel than this, I'll eat my orange woolly hat. There's not a single word spoken or written in this book, and it apparently took him, like, five years to do. My claim to fame is that I "encouraged" Philip Reeve to buy a copy. Which he did. I <3 Philip Reeve.
- 'Journey's End' by R.C. Sherriff. I don't really want to add too many plays to this list, because performance is where they really come alive, but some plays are just so wonderfully written that they don't need to be performed to be powerful.
- 'The Pillowman' by Martin McDonagh. I harbour a fantasy of one day getting Martin McDonagh together with a picture book illustrator (my dream shortlist is Oliver Jeffers, Shaun Tan, and Dave McKean) and having them produce a graphic novel of the story of the Pillowman. Jeffers would be ideal, because his art style would just be so incongruous with the story that it would be jarring and brilliant; but Tan can do "incredibly disturbing" just as well as he can do "incredibly beautiful", and McKean is - of my shortlist - the most likely to do it.

I'm also a big fan of J.K. Rowling, Meg Cabot, and Robert Muchamore, but in a more general "I devour everything they write!" kinda way, rather than the "OMG this book right here is SO GOOD O_o" way.

Schmergy, what do you think of the news that Eoin Colfer is writing a new Hitch-Hiker's Guide novel? Personally, I'm disappointed, because I find Colfer's writing to be terribly puerile and don't believe that he'll be able to do Adams's divine wit and surreality justice, but I wondered if someone who is a fan of both might have a different outlook. Do you have faith? Or do you think Colfer mayn't be the best match even though you love his works? (Uh-oh, leading questions! XD)

Updated On: 11/15/08 at 11:06 AM

[wonkit]

Posted: 11/15/08 at 11:49am

THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 11/15/08 at 11:58am

Hmmm, I'll do my top three.

1. Gone With the Wind - Margaret Mitchell
2. The Nanny Diaries - Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin
3. Nineteen Minutes - Jodi Picoult

[Schmerg_The_Impaler]

Posted: 11/15/08 at 12:24pm

Schmergy, what do you think of the news that Eoin Colfer is writing a new Hitch-Hiker's Guide novel? Personally, I'm disappointed, because I find Colfer's writing to be terribly puerile and don't believe that he'll be able to do Adams's divine wit and surreality justice, but I wondered if someone who is a fan of both might have a different outlook. Do you have faith? Or do you think Colfer mayn't be the best match even though you love his works?

I love the Artemis Fowl books, but I don't think they're very well-written at all. I like them because they're wildly creative, unpredictable, and very different from usual fantasy. And while those ARE qualities you'd want in Hitchhiker's Guide... all I can say about Eoin Colfer writing another Hitchhiker's Guide book is, "DO. NOT. WANT."

The biggest detractor is that they have really different writing styles and very difficult senses of humour. Terry Pratchett is a much closer match to Douglas Adams, but I wouldn't want even him to "complete" the series. If I was the author of a series of popular books and I died, I wouldn't want anyone to 'finish' the series. Eoin Colfer can just go post his next Hitchhiker's book on fanfiction.net or whatever.

[CJR]

Posted: 11/15/08 at 12:33pm

The Twilight Series (shush - I never said it was fantastic literature)
The Host - Stephenie Meyer
The Wicked Trilogy - Gregory Maguire
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
Summer Sisters - Judy Blume
Change of Heart - Jodi Piccolt
My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Piccolt
The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom (seriously, favorite book in a LONG time)
The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks
The Friday Night Knitting Club (I can't remember the author)
The Shopaholic Series - Sophie Kinsella

Updated On: 11/15/08 at 12:33 PM

[StockardFan]

Posted: 11/15/08 at 12:36pm

I totally agree with the Book Theif! And I love all of Jodi Picoult's books. I just started Harvesting the Heart last night.

Oh and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Kahled Hosseini was one of the best books I've ever read (he's the guy who wrote The Kite Runner - also good)

Updated On: 11/15/08 at 12:36 PM

[purpleprince101]

Posted: 11/15/08 at 1:53pm

Secret Life Of Bees- Sue Monk Kidd
Great Expectations- Dickens
Night- Elie Wiesel
Misery- Stephen King
Kite Runner
Gone With the Wind
The Wizard of Oz

They all come to mind.

[sally1112]

Posted: 11/15/08 at 7:01pm

ok Wonlit, you bet me to it!

I opened this thread just to post about the Book Thief. I finished reading it earlier this week and I think everyone I know is going to get a copy for Christmas.
It is a great book.

[StockardFan]

Posted: 11/15/08 at 7:01pm

I didn't think I was going to like the Book Theif, but once I got into it it was awesome!

[NYadgal]

Posted: 11/15/08 at 7:09pm

Oh my, there are SO many, but a true favorite is:

"The Winthrop Woman" by Anya Seton.

[artscallion]

Posted: 11/15/08 at 7:15pm

There are millions of good books. My favorites:

Sophie's Choice - William Styron
The Diary of Nat Turner - William Styron
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Good Earth Trilogy - Pearl S. Buck

[wonkit]

Posted: 11/15/08 at 8:40pm

I just finished BOOK THIEF this week, too! My sister gave it to me for Christmas last year, with a glowing recommendation, but I kept putting off starting it. Once I started, I read it in two days. Amazing and touching, with exquisite descriptions. I think Rudy Steiner and Papa were my two favorite characters. I am going to be carrying them around with me for the rest of my life.

[heathurr2]

Posted: 11/15/08 at 8:47pm

ALL of Michael Cunningham's! Especially 'A Home at the End of the World' and 'Specimen Days'. Interestingly, his most popular and well liked book 'The Hours' is my least favourite of his.

[KelRel]

Posted: 11/15/08 at 9:13pm

Outlander and the subsequent installments by Diana Gabaldon
The Harry Potter series
The Notebook and A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks
A Prayer for Owen Meany
The Chronicles of Narnia
Beloved
The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice

[KathyGriffinLovesYou]

Posted: 11/15/08 at 9:52pm

The Normal Heart
W;t (if you havent read it, and you have a terminal close one or know a cancer patient, READ. you'll cry.)
Jeffrey
Into The Woods
HP Series
The God Delusion
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Rocky Horror (you really dont know how insane it is until youve seen it on paper)

[clever name]

Posted: 11/15/08 at 10:06pm

oh man, too many to mention. I love so many books! But a few here:

Nine Stories - JD Salinger
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers
The Watcher - Dean Koontz (dont judge me)
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle - David Wroblewski
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee