Your Library II: List 10 MORE Favorite Works of Fiction

[Zomby Woof]

The first thread I did a few days ago demonstrated that it was hard for all of us to list just 10 favorites. So I think a sequel is merited. :-)

1. Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
2. The Call of the Wild - Jack London
3. Live From Golgotha - Gore Vidal
4. Moby-Dick - Herman Melville
5. Naked Lunch - William Burroughs
6. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce
7. R.L.'s Dream - Walter Mosley
8. The Lady In The Lake - Raymond Chandler
9. The Castle - Franz Kafka
10. The Killer Angels - Michael Shaara

And I am sure a third thread is on the way... :D

[WritingIsMyReligion]

1. Well, I didn't do a first list, but here are some books I dig:

His Dark Materials trilogy: The Golden Compass(US)/Northern Lights(UK), The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass--Philip Pullman (HIGHLY recommended!)
Little Women, Little Men, Jo's Boys (read like a trilogy)--Louisa May Alcott
The Great Gatsby--F. Scott Fitzgerald
My Antonia--Willa Cather
Memoirs of a Geisha--Arthur Golden

Etc.

:D

[Zomby Woof]

8. I loved My Antonia!

It almost made this new list. :-)

[Ramsey]

18. Tell us more about the Pullman books

Sounds interesting!

[nosillies]

19. Here's a quick link

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0440238609/sr=1-2/qid=1156800746/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-6016431-8508157?ie=UTF8&s=books

They're actual children's lit/fantasy. Something about them sucks you in. He's actual written many other books, but they are a little more juvenile than this trilogy. I still read all of his stuff.

[MrCoffee]

2. In no particular order...

1. Generation X – Douglas Coupland
2. Foucault’s Pendulum – Umberto Eco
3. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
4. Neuromancer – William Gibson
5. Louisiana Power and Light – John Dufresne
6. All the Pretty Horses – Cormac McCarthy
7. Motor City Blue – Loren Estleman
8. Sarum – William Rutherford
9. Perdido Street Station – China Mieville
10. Valis; The Divine Invasion; The Transmigration of Timothy Archer (it’s a trilogy) – Philip K. Dick.

There's no such thing as too much sci-fi.

[Zomby Woof]

4. I want to read the McCarthy

It has been highly recommended by many people whose opinions I respect.

I enjoyed Generation X too. I have that and Microserfs on my shelf.

[MrCoffee]

9. The whole Border Trilogy is outstanding...McCarthy can write.

[Mike03]

21. Were you disappointed at all

in the third installment, CITIES OF THE PLAIN? Maybe it's just me, but I was so disappointed by that novel, and further disappointed to learn that it was simply a novelization of a screenplay he had been unable to get green-lighted in Hollywood. But as far as the first two novels go, they almost render me speechless in awe by how powerful they are. THE CROSSING is probably the most emotional experience I have ever had reading a book--so emotional that it's hard to talk about.

He's truly awesome.

[Crazy Dave]

3. My short list

Gorky Park by Martin Cruz Smith

1984 by George Orwell (which may not currently be considered fiction)

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

[Zomby Woof]

5. *morbid laugh*

About the 1984 comment.

[buddhamama]

6. cool

I have a difficult time choosing favorites, although I will state for the record any Vonnegut book should be considered favorites of mine.

a impromptu list

1. The Stranger- Albert Camus
2. The Metamorphosis- Franz Kafka
3. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich: A Novel- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
4. The Tin Drum (also, honorable mention to Dog Years) - Gunter Grass
5. Siddhartha- Herman Hesse
6. A Song of Ice and Fire Trilogy- George R.R. Martin
7. The Farseer Trilogy- Robin Hobbs
8. The Plague- Albert Camus
9. Animal Farm- George Orwell
10. The Sorrows of Young Werther- Goethe

[Zomby Woof]

10. I am with you on Vonnegut

I am somewhat upset with myself for leaving him off the first list, so I tried to atone by making him number one on this list. :-)

Here's a recent cartoon I love:



David Horsey is brilliant. He is my favorite political cartoonist. :D

[sir_captain]

7. Ok

1) The Mysterious Island -- Jules Verne
2) Invisible Man -- Ralph Ellison
3) Maus -- Art Spiegelman
4) Fahrenheit 451 -- Ray Bradbury
5) The Aeneid -- Vergil
6) Native Son -- Richard A. Wright
7) Flowers for Algernon -- Daniel Keyes
8) The Great American Novel -- Philip Roth
9) Lolita -- Vladimir Nabokov
10) Metamorphoses -- Ovid

[Zomby Woof]

11. Solid

Ellison, Wright, Verne... :thumbsup:

[sir_captain]

12. Heh ... this is a fun excercise

Mysterious Island may not be in the class of some of the others on peoples' lists, but damn I love that book.

I've got plenty saved up for thread #3 too. ;-)

[Zomby Woof]

13. .

[querelle]

14. My Top Ten

1. The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
2. Anna Kerenina - Leo Tolstoy (French translation)
3. The Diviners - Margaret Laurence
4. White Teeth - Zadie Smith
5. Blindness - Jose Saramago
6. De quoi t'ennuies-tu, Éveline? - Gabrielle Roy
7. La Sagouine - Antonine Maillet
8. De l'amour et autre mensonges - Lucia Etxebarria
9. Tender is the Night - F. Scott Fitzgerald
10. Running With Scissors - Augustyn Burroughs

Q

[nosillies]

15. Missed part 1, but I'll play

1. Drifters -- James Michener
2. Contact -- Carl Sagan
3. Dune -- Frank Herbert
4. The Razor's Edge -- W. Somerset Maugham
5. London -- Edward Rutherford
6. A Prayer for Owen Meany -- John Irving
7. Sons and Lovers -- D.H. Lawrence
8. His Dark Materials Trilogy -- Philip Pullman
9. The Kite Runner -- Khaled Hosseini
10. The Sandman Series -- Neil Gaiman

OK, ready for part 3.

[Ohio Joe]

16. Lets see

Shadow of a Broken Man - George C. Chesbro
The Beasts of Valhalla - George C. Chesbro
All My Sins Remembered - Joe Haldeman
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
Hot Time in Old Town (Matt Swain Book 1) - Mike Mcquay
When Trouble Beckons (Matt Swain book 2) - Mike Mcquay
Dune - Frank Herbert
The Stainless Steel Rat - Harry Harrison
There is no Darkness - Joe Haldeman & Jack C. Haldeman
Wheel of Time series - Robert Jordan

[Ramsey]

17. An intial list

1. Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. Dune, Frank Herbert
4. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
5. Persuasion, AS Byatt
6. The Crystal Cave/Hollow Hills/Last Enchantment- Arthurian Triology, Mary Stewart, and The Once and Future King, TH White
7. Equus, Peter Schafer
8. Le Rouge et le Noir, Stendhal
9. Alcools, Guilliam Appollinaire
10. I'm Not Stiller, Max Frisch

[Mike03]

20. Top Ten or So (provisional)

Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
Gravity's Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
The Crossing, Cormac McCarthy
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, Mario Vargas Llosa
Underworld, Don Delillo
Libra, Don Delillo
All The Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy
Rabbit is Rich, John Updike
Who Killed Palomino Molero?, Mario Vargas Llosa
Feast of The Goat, Mario Vargas Llosa
Outer Dark, Cormac McCarthy
Child of God, Cormac McCarthy (for sheer audacity, and for inventing the profile of the serial killer eight years before the FBI thought of it)
World's End, T. Coraghessan Boyle
The World According to Garp, John Irving
Hotel New Hampshire, John Irving

Basically, Cormac McCarthy is my favorite author. All of his novels are, IMHO, monumentally important to American literature. I would love to see him with the Nobel Prize for Lit before he dies.

[khashka]

22. I'll give it a shot

1. Lost Souls: Poppy Z. Brite- love, sacrifice, fear. And the best depiction ever of the love two heterosexual men can have for each other.

2. Claudine At School:Collette - The story of a young girl at school. Very transgressive, very sexy, very enlightening.

3. Bastard Out Of Carolina: Dorothy Allison - what if you are are being horribly abused but it makes you understand yourself better and makes you be the best you can be? Scary as hell, but a great lesson.

4. Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand - Sam Delaney at his best. (And I think he may be the greatest writer in the last century.)

5. The Doomsday Book: Connie Willis. Lost in a world she can't understand, Kivrin discovers the man she feared most is the only man she can trust. And she learns to love him for his nobility.



6. The Left Hand of Darkness: Ursula Le Guin. Gender politics at it's best. Totally redefines male/female and what it means.

7.Time As A Helix of Semi-Precious Stones: Delaney again. Apparently no one has truly understood this since it was first published in the 60's. I think every time I read it I get a little closer.

8. The Elder: Brite again. How a man's unconditional love for his dead baby son leads him to something necessary, horrible and heart- breaking. If this doesn't make you cry, I'm not sure I want to know you.


9. Steel Beach: John Varley. A novel of repeated attempts at suicide that will leave you laughing and with more compassion.

10. Use Of Weapons: Iain M. Banks. How capable are you of evil? How far will you go to redeem yourself? Oddly structured and a difficult read, it leaves you with haunting images and words that echo. Incredibly violent - so not reccomended for the faint of heart or sqeamish.


Khash.

[RetroLounge]

23. Okay, 10 more works of fiction

1) The Haunted Bookshop - Christopher Morley.
2) Oh, The Places You'll Go - Dr. Seuss.
3) The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love - Oscar Hijelos.
4) The Loop - Joe Coomer.
5) Apologizing to Dogs - Joe Coomer.
6) World's End - T.C. Boyle.
7) Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad.
8) The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger.
9) Dracula - Bram Stoker.
10) Mysteries of Pittsburgh - Michael Chabon

RL

[Broken_Hero]

24. hmm...

1. Needful Things-S. King

2. Vampire Lestat-Anne Rice

3. Clear and Present Danger-T. Clancy

4. Debt of Honor T. Clancy

5. Cleric Quintet by RA Salvatore

6. Eyes of the Dragon-S. King

7. Whole Drizzt line by RA Salvatore

8. Black House-S. King

9. Horned King set, by Lloyd Alexander

10. Tripod Series -John Christopher...:)

[yellowdogintexas]

25. based on books I have read more than once:

in no particular order other than that I remember them:

1. A Song of Ice and Fire series: George R R Martin
2. The Joyous Season : Patrick Dennis
3. Auntie Mame: Patrick Dennis
4. Jane Eyre: Charlotte Bronte
5. Gone With the Wind: Margaret Mitchell
6. Life Among the Savages: Shirley Jackson
7. Raising Demons: Shirley Jackson
8. The Godfather: Mario Puzo
9. A Short History of a Small Place: T R Pearson
10. Eight Cousins & Rose In Bloom: Louisa May Alcott
11. Tom Sawyer: Mark Twain
12. Whirlwind: James Clavell
13. Shogun: James Clavell
14: Exodus: Leon Uris
15 To Kill a Mockingbird: Harper Lee

Yes, that is Shirley Jackson, famous for the weird, as in "The Lottery" that creepy short story you read in 9th grade Lit. But these two books are based on her life in a big drafty old house in Vermont with her husband and their 4 or 5 children. HILARIOUS.

[WCGreen]

26. Saturday - Ian McEwan

The Human Stain - Philip Roth
The First Man In Rome - Colleen McCullough
The Cider House Rules - John Irving
Nobody's Fool - Richard Russo
Julian - Gore Vidal
The Source - James Michner
Slaughtehouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
The Winds of War - Herman Wouk
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeline L'Engle

These may not be the best books ever written, but they all had an impact on me at different tims of my life....