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Why is there only one forum for books, an outrage! There are at least 7 on tantiric lucky number astrology. Anyway, what is my thread about? I don't know actually I just wanted to do a book one as I am an obsessive reader and need to be with my people. O.K. I'll just list my faviorites (I'm sure ye have done all this before, but its always good).

Favorite Author (Graham Green, my favorite is "The Heart of the Matter", though they are all brilliant)

Favorite Book (Probably LOTR cause its one of my oldest friends at this stage)

Favorite American Author (Daschiel Hammet)

Favorite Irish Author (Flann O'Brien)

Desert Island Book (Europe A History, Norman Davies, best one volume one ever)

Book Snob? (No, I think anything that involves people reading books is great, even Dan Brown, I've quite enjoyed the potter ones as well, though the last one was a bit tired)

Favorite Genre Book (The Culture Sci Fi ones by Iain M Banks, definetly the best Sci Fi I've ever read)

Most over rated serious author? (Burroughs)

Most Unexpectedly Good Book (A history of the World in Ten Chapters, by Julian Barnes) strange, wonderful book, read it by accident a total surprise!)

Books I'm reading at the moment. "The End of Oil", "Thus Spoke Zarathrusra" and "Consider Phlebas".

Greatest Book Ambition, (apart from writing one, getting through at least the first chapter of "Finnegans Wake".)

definately a bibliophile here, mostly non-fiction history, non-fiction crime, and for giggles, carl hiaasen.

Oh, I read history books(mostly Native American), sci-fi fiction if time permits, and not too much of the new stuff. I do not find many good novels lately, last one I liked was Life of Pi.

chonsigirl wrote: Oh, I read history books(mostly Native American), sci-fi fiction if time permits, and not too much of the new stuff. I do not find many good novels lately, last one I liked was Life of Pi.


Oh yeah, I've seen that one alright, is it worth reading, I kinda thought it was about the number Pi, but apparently I'm mistaken.

SnoozeControl wrote: I try to stick with literature that contains short words... the back of Life cereal is entertaining.


Yes Cherrio's do some nice word things on the back of their boxes! What are you reading at the moment? Apart from Rice Krispies' annotated Shakespear that is!

Galbally wrote: Why is there only one forum for books, an outrage! There are at least 7 on tantiric lucky number astrology. Anyway, what is my thread about? I don't know actually I just wanted to do a book one as I am an obsessive reader and need to be with my people. O.K. I'll just list my faviorites (I'm sure ye have done all this before, but its always good).

Favorite Author (Graham Green, my favorite is "The Heart of the Matter", though they are all brilliant)

Favorite Book (Probably LOTR cause its one of my oldest friends at this stage)

Favorite American Author (Daschiel Hammet)

Favorite Irish Author (Flann O'Brien)

Desert Island Book (Europe A History, Norman Davies, best one volume one ever)

Book Snob? (No, I think anything that involves people reading books is great, even Dan Brown, I've quite enjoyed the potter ones as well, though the last one was a bit tired)

Favorite Genre Book (The Culture Sci Fi ones by Iain M Banks, definetly the best Sci Fi I've ever read)

Most over rated serious author? (Burroughs)

Most Unexpectedly Good Book (A history of the World in Ten Chapters, by Julian Barnes) strange, wonderful book, read it by accident a total surprise!)

Books I'm reading at the moment. "The End of Oil", "Thus Spoke Zarathrusra" and "Consider Phlebas".

Greatest Book Ambition, (apart from writing one, getting through at least the first chapter of "Finnegans Wake".)


QUESTION:

When you write about your favorites, how far back do your choices go? Do they change over time?

If you could recommend ONE book, and ONLY ONE BOOK, what book would it be?

The Bible.

For literature, The Iliad.

Me, I'm into Psychology, human relations, self-improvement/help, true/unsolved crimes and the Civil War. I like the true-to-life stuff.

SOJOURNER wrote: QUESTION:

When you write about your favorites, how far back do your choices go? Do they change over time?

If you could recommend ONE book, and ONLY ONE BOOK, what book would it be?


Yes they do change, faviourite lists are a bit silly really, as having favorites is a bit juvenille, but its a useful way to outline what you are currently most enamoured with. Some of mine have been for a long time, like LOTR, which I first read when I was 13, so thats 20 years ago now, I discovered Greene, in my early 20s, others are more recent, though none are very recent coz you need a bit of time to assess something properly. Its like 80s music, I didn't like it at the time, but now I quite like the good stuff, as its easier to tell at a distance what actually has laste and still sounds good. Books are like that too, though they are much more in depth thngs than 80s pop songs so It can take a very long time for a books reputation to really be established, though you don't need that long yourself to decide what you admire.

As for the ONE book thing, thats an extremely difficult book to decide on, coz it depends on what you like, and what situation you are in. I'm not a religious person at all, so I wouldn't choose the bible, though its a great book simply as a book for lots of obvious reasons. Its very old, it covers a lot of ground, its fascinating, it contains many stories, ideas, and writing styles so It would certainly be worth considering, but I wouldn't choose it. For literature probably the comlpete works of Shakespear, for History I would choose the Norman Davies book, though its only Europe so if I find a really good (it would have to be impossibly big) one-volume world history book then maybe that. Anyway, it really does depend on your taste and circumstances. Just as a current book, I would recommend the "End of Oil" as its abouut, well, the future of Energy, and Oil, and all that so it brings us a lot of very very current issues regarding the war, climate change, conservation, new technology, business etc etc. Actually on that type of a theme, there was a great book called "The Reckoning" written in the late 80's about the Japanese and U.S. car industries using Nissan and Ford as a template. Sounds like a dull book, but it is actually brilliant and gripping, going from the invention of the car to the 70's oil crisis and the eventual dominance of the Japanese taking in all aspects of business, geopolitics, oil, trade unions, management, ordinary people, a very good book, but again only really useful if you like that sort of thing. So none of that really answers your question. One book eh? Nope, can't do it.

Valerie100 wrote: Me, I'm into Psychology, human relations, self-improvement/help, true/unsolved crimes and the Civil War. I like the true-to-life stuff.


Have you read "The Battlecry of Freedom" by James M. McPherson on the civil war? Its a good one volume account.

Currently reading Rough Crossings by Simon Scharma

one of my favourites A Brief History of nearly everything by Bill Bryson

I rarely read fiction but LC put me on to Carl Hiaasen which made me laugh

The First World War AJP Taylor a must read for those interested

Any Dickens but especially Great Expectations

Desert Island Book, collected works of the bard

ps I never somehow classify Sakespeare and Dickens as fiction

YES! ANY DICKENS!.......

Galbally wrote: Yes they do change

So none of that really answers your question. One book eh? Nope, can't do it.


Not so. It helps me to understand why I can't come up with favorites when I'm asked these questions.

Each book is different and means something different to each of us depending on who we are at the time we read them...........

Many years ago I use to alternate my reading between something heavy and then something lightweight, something serious than something funny. I felt I needed the variety to enjoy the books and not get in a rut.

Another period I read only books on prehistoric man, then only murder mysteries, then books on werewolves, and then only books about strong women in unusal jobs.

More recently I found I wanted to read only books that were a continuing series of books with the same character(s). I wanted to get them all and just devour them from start to finish and not be frustration with waiting for another book to be finished and then published.

Now I feel the need to delve into non-fiction and fiction with more depth to them. So, I've joined a book discussion group up at the local college. I am very much enjoying the opportunity to talk about something I've read with others, especially when they have different thoughts about the book than I do.

Thanks for sharing.

SnoozeControl wrote:



That Oprah book list? Who the hell is she to recommend reading?good point! ...did i tell you i was a guest on oprah? yep, i'm famous.

SnoozeControl wrote: then i'm supremely obsequious.:rolleyes:no need, noblesse oblige.

lady cop wrote: good point! ...did i tell you i was a guest on oprah? yep, i'm famous.


......and why were you so honored?

SOJOURNER wrote: ......and why were you so honored?long and touching story, but i don't want to hijack this thread... here is story----adoption

Wow, am I glad I found this thread. I was hoping to find out what people are reading as part of my research for an online bookclub I'm hoping to start.

Anyway, I love to read. Someone once asked me this question "If you had a million dollars and a week off what would you do?" The one thing that flashed through my mind was lying beside a pool somewhere reading a book. Obviously, there would be people all around me serving me drinks etc, but you get my drift.

I love to read fiction. Good suspense novels, I'm currently working my way through James Patterson books, he's the guy who wrote "Kiss the girls", "Along came a spider" and all the "Alex Cross" detective books.

I enjoy Maeve Binchy books for a bit of light reading, great human interest type stories.

If you're into horse racing, then you should read anything you can find written by a guy named Dick Francis, I know, not exactly a cool name, but all his books are written around the horse racing theme, sort of crime novels with a horsey look about them. Very well written, suspense novels. I think I may have read everything he's written.

Anyway, I could go on for hours, but I won't.

DonnaMarie

Dick Francis has pretty good books, I do read some of them!

Sci-fi fan right here, Arthur C. Clark mainly.

although when i'm not reading them those Mathew Rilley books provide for some absolutely riviting reading.

Bothwell wrote: Currently reading Rough Crossings by Simon Scharma

one of my favourites A Brief History of nearly everything by Bill Bryson

I rarely read fiction but LC put me on to Carl Hiaasen which made me laugh

The First World War AJP Taylor a must read for those interested

Any Dickens but especially Great Expectations

Desert Island Book, collected works of the bard

ps I never somehow classify Sakespeare and Dickens as fiction


I must read that Bill Bryson book, he is an amazingly informed guy, and of course his travel books are quite funny. I keep meaning to get Talyor, but you know how it goes. I have Liddle Harts' WWI and WWII books, which are standards. Carl Hiassen I don't know about, so I will check him out. I think if I had no choice but to pick out one book it would be the collected works of Shakespear as well, I got mine for a five euro (one of those wordsworth classic editions). You will never get more value for your money than that. Actually I also got gibbons "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" brand new for five euro as well, thats nearly as much of a bargain.

I enjoy Maeve Binchy books for a bit of light reading, great human interest type stories.

Anyway, I could go on for hours, but I won't.

DonnaMarie


I wouldn't exactly be a Binchey fan myself, but on an interesting sideline, I was an extra in that film they made of "Circle of Friends" when I was younger, in fact my whole town was a extra so everyone I know is in that film, its gas to look at it now! As for Dick Francis, I don't read his stuff but I know who he is, I thought he was very well known, perhaps not so in America, but over here anyone who reads would probably know of him.

Actually where people read is interesting, as I find it hard to read anywhere except tucked up in bed. So where do people like to read?

Alfred wrote: Sci-fi fan right here, Arthur C. Clark mainly.

although when i'm not reading them those Mathew Rilley books provide for some absolutely riviting reading.


Yes I go through periods of being into Sci Fi as they are my favourite genre type books, clark is good, though I have become a big fan of Iain M Banks and his Culture novels as they are amazing. I also really loved the Helliconia series by Brian Aldiss, which is a bit of a cross-over sci-fi fantasy thing, but brilliantly done.

Galbally wrote:

Actually where people read is interesting, as I find it hard to read anywhere except tucked up in bed. So where do people like to read?




In the bath for me!

Never been able to read Sci Fi don't know why

Galbally I have tried to plow through Decline and Fall on numerous occassions and never made it, I will persevere.

James Joyce Ulysees is another I feel I ought to read but have never got past 50 pages.

Whilst I am on the subject, the Brontes, good or bad? I just dont get it, the minutely observed stories of manners just drive me nuts

James Joyce Ulysses I found not a friendly read, the style of writing.(give me the real Ulysses in the Odyssey anyday)

The Bronte's are great, thick of course, but geared more for the females. I have them all in a collection. For manners and a good time, Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice.

Pride and Prjudice I managed and quite liked.

Homer and Virgil and absolute must, it's the only thing I thank about my Catholic school upbringing for

Bothwell wrote: Never been able to read Sci Fi don't know why

Galbally I have tried to plow through Decline and Fall on numerous occassions and never made it, I will persevere.

James Joyce Ulysees is another I feel I ought to read but have never got past 50 pages.

Whilst I am on the subject, the Brontes, good or bad? I just dont get it, the minutely observed stories of manners just drive me nuts


Sci-Fi is something you either like or loathe I think. The Decline is well worth it, I would definetly try again if I was you, once you get past the prose style its a really great book, remarkable for its time really. Yeah, Joyce, well I have read ulysess but I didn't really enjoy it much, to abstract for me, I think its one of those books that people pretend they love to appear intellectual, Finnegans Wake is worse, almost impossible to read in my opinion, I've never got past about 15 pages anyway.

The Brontes, well I'm not sure about all of their work but I read "Wuthering Heights" once and its a great book, well worthy of its reputation in my opinion.

My friend is currently reading a copy of "Small Town" so I will be able to get a loan of it shortly, he has been going on about this great writer for weeks, but I never made the connection till today, strange world eh?

Galbally, what was your favorite book as a child?

I used to read the H. R. Haggard series, I thought they were adventerous tales. More exciting then Nancy Drew and other usual fare.

chonsigirl wrote: Galbally, what was your favorite book as a child?

I used to read the H. R. Haggard series, I thought they were adventerous tales. More exciting then Nancy Drew and other usual fare.


God I had loads, when I was really young I loved Dr. Suess and then Roald Dhal like everyone else. I always liked those kid fact books about the planets or volcanos or things like that. When I was a bit older I liked enid blightons "Secret Seven" and "Famous Five" I even read one or two of the nancy drew books (I must have been a bit girly then!). I was lucky because my mom and dad were big book people and they always bought us loads, so I have great old fashioned books about steam trains and the pyramids and several old fashioned atlases from when I was a kid, I still love atlases to this day! I think the first proper adult book I read was "Lord of the Rings" when I was 12, that really got me hooked on all that fantasy and sci fi stuff during my teens, which I still have a fondness for. So I think that my tastes were fairly similar to most bookish kids when I was young.

You may all hate me for this, but I never cared for Lord of the Rings, in book or movie form. I guess fantasy is not my thing. By 12 my favorite books were Plutarch's Lives, I still love them very much.

chonsigirl wrote: You may all hate me for this, but I never cared for Lord of the Rings, in book or movie form. I guess fantasy is not my thing. By 12 my favorite books were Plutarch's Lives, I still love them very much.


Fantasy is something you either like or loathe I think, I think its something you develop in childhood, as I remember I also loved the Narnia books and the Grimm fairy tales. As well as that is that one of the best things about growing up in the country side in Ireland is that the older people still have all the folk tales and there are lots of things like fairy forts and dolmens and Celtic barrows and things where I live, so you kind of grow up in that "old-world" atmosphere, I remember us all going Banshee hunting with torches and home-made swords when were about 11 into the woods, brilliant fun.

You were reading Plutarch at 12? I didn't even get to Suetonius till I was 14 and 8 months! I must have been a late developer! I do like the roman authors though, and the greeks, fascinating. I love Livy, where he's giving one of those "of the youth of today, they don't know they are born do they?" speeches, complaining that the delining morality of youth was the end of the world, in about 100 AD!, brilliant. "These crazy kids with their souped-up chariots, loud lyre music, baggy togas, and fortified wine!

Josephine Cox, Catherine Cookson, Patricia Cornwell, Steven King. Just a few of my favourite Authors. I haven't read too much lately..must start again.

I have a lovely stack of nook for Christmas vacation, I hope I get to read some of them!

The GReek myth-I keep a Bullfinch Mythology at school, I read them one every once in awhile, especially if a moral story needs taught! I can use the excuse I am reading literature to them!:wah:

John Jake's eight books, starting with "The Bastard." They're the Kent Family Chronicles. If you like history, he takes the reader on a journey with the Kent Family from pre-revolution times up to about the 1930's. He weaves real historical facts and historical characters into this book series. I think the books are out of print now, but I have a copy of the whole series. It is truly one of my all-time favorites!

Anyone read Manda Scott's Boudicca trilogy ? They're really good - well-researched, but also poetic about the culture of the Celts. The final book in the series, The Dreaming of the Serpent Spear is due out next Spring.

Have you read my stories here at FG, Gallbally?

Jives wrote: Have you read my stories here at FG, Gallbally?


Well if they are anything like your airplane landing adventure I want to read more! Brilliant!

ArnoldLayne wrote: One of my favourite books from my childhood is "Edward Lear's Book of Nonsense"


You have good taste, Mr. Layne, one of John Lennon's favorites as well by all accounts, so there you go!

Galbally wrote: Well if they are anything like your airplane landing adventure I want to read more! Brilliant!


You got it dude, here they are:

This is the first one I wrote and it's just kind of "fun" and "light-hearted".

http://www.forumgarden.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3437

This one I wrote to have a bit more of an "edge" than the first:

http://www.forumgarden.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3367

I'll read absolutely anything i can get my hands on . At the moment im reading Happy Like Murderers ~ Gordon Burn. Its about Fred + Rosemary West. Its probably the most shocking book ive ever read.