Favorite book of all time
Aug 15th, 2008, 08:30 PM
#161
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My goodness, I don't know how I missed this the first time around.
It's impossible to choose a favorite book! There have been some interesting notes here.
A couple I haven't seen that had a great influence on me, and that I typically reread every year or so--People With Dirty Hands--a book of essays about gardening/gardeners. I generally read it every spring of course! And, The Wild Swan...three generations of Chinese women in one family. One a concubine, the next a communist, the final the author. I loaned it to a friend and never got it back so happily picked up at the half-price bookstore again recently.
A side note back to the original set of notes. A friend of mine once worked for Ayn Rand. His comments "It was interesting." He also occasionally played duets on the piano with Alan Greenspan during that time
It's impossible to choose a favorite book! There have been some interesting notes here.
A couple I haven't seen that had a great influence on me, and that I typically reread every year or so--People With Dirty Hands--a book of essays about gardening/gardeners. I generally read it every spring of course! And, The Wild Swan...three generations of Chinese women in one family. One a concubine, the next a communist, the final the author. I loaned it to a friend and never got it back so happily picked up at the half-price bookstore again recently.
A side note back to the original set of notes. A friend of mine once worked for Ayn Rand. His comments "It was interesting." He also occasionally played duets on the piano with Alan Greenspan during that time
Aug 16th, 2008, 03:01 AM
#162
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I recently re-read Rumer Godden's In This House of Brede because it was on this list (toward the beginning). I wouldn't say it is my favorite book of all time but definitely a good one. I also re-read Godden's Take Three Tenses and China Court. The last is still my favorite of hers but all are very good.
Aug 16th, 2008, 07:02 AM
#163
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Reading is my passion - to the detriment of the dissertation I am meant to be working on .....
There are sooooo many books I love. The most memorable ones at various stages of my life were:
As a little child - Mumphy / Just So Stories / Every book Enid Blyton wrote (!!!)
As a ten year old - Jane Eyre
As a 13 year old - Cry the Beloved Country
As a 16 year old - The Great Gatsby
As an 18 year old - Atlas Shrugged
And as an adult - Desert Rose, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Witch of Exmoor, Balzac and the little Chinese seamstress, Oryx & Crake, Mao's last dancer, The curious incident of the dog in the night time .......
I had better stop now !!!!
There are sooooo many books I love. The most memorable ones at various stages of my life were:
As a little child - Mumphy / Just So Stories / Every book Enid Blyton wrote (!!!)
As a ten year old - Jane Eyre
As a 13 year old - Cry the Beloved Country
As a 16 year old - The Great Gatsby
As an 18 year old - Atlas Shrugged
And as an adult - Desert Rose, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Witch of Exmoor, Balzac and the little Chinese seamstress, Oryx & Crake, Mao's last dancer, The curious incident of the dog in the night time .......
I had better stop now !!!!
Aug 16th, 2008, 07:20 AM
#164
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In my teens, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn;
In my 20s and 30s, I was very touched by ee cummings' Enormous Room, Capote's Other Voices, Other Rooms and Falkner's Sound and the Fury;
Read and re-read Katharine Graham's autobiography. She was an amazing person and knew sooooo many people who are part of the fabric of American life.
Now I adore, Grafton, Evanovich and early Dick Francis.
I remember "inhaling" all of the Rand books when I was in college-will re-read them since they have raised such a fuss here.
I loved Prince of Tides and knew a couple of people who thought it was trash and should be burned.
Like travelling, looks like reading is pretty personal as well!
In my 20s and 30s, I was very touched by ee cummings' Enormous Room, Capote's Other Voices, Other Rooms and Falkner's Sound and the Fury;
Read and re-read Katharine Graham's autobiography. She was an amazing person and knew sooooo many people who are part of the fabric of American life.
Now I adore, Grafton, Evanovich and early Dick Francis.
I remember "inhaling" all of the Rand books when I was in college-will re-read them since they have raised such a fuss here.
I loved Prince of Tides and knew a couple of people who thought it was trash and should be burned.
Like travelling, looks like reading is pretty personal as well!
Aug 20th, 2008, 04:32 PM
#166
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I can't narrow it down to one. Here are my top three:
1. Not Wanted on the Voyage (Timothy Findley) - a cross between Paradise Lost and Animal Farm
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. Pale Fire (Vladimir Nabokov) - a novel presented in the form of a poem written by a fictional author, together with an introduction and notes written by a fictional editor who claims to be his friend. Soon you realize that the editor/friend is self-obsessed and probably insane. Beautiful and incredibly funny at the same time.
1. Not Wanted on the Voyage (Timothy Findley) - a cross between Paradise Lost and Animal Farm
2. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
3. Pale Fire (Vladimir Nabokov) - a novel presented in the form of a poem written by a fictional author, together with an introduction and notes written by a fictional editor who claims to be his friend. Soon you realize that the editor/friend is self-obsessed and probably insane. Beautiful and incredibly funny at the same time.
Aug 22nd, 2008, 07:46 AM
#169
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Only one? Maybe duMaurier's "Frenchman's Creek".
When I was 13 I actually tried to memorize "Anne of Green Gables" and made it through the first chapter. "Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow....."
Recently reread "The Three Musketeers" expecting it to be archaiclly dull but loved it.
I love Hemingway though would rather read 'about' him. I guess my favorite there would be "A Moveable Feast". Ditto for Fitzgerald although I reread "The Great Gatsby" once in awhile. "Living Well is the Best Revenge"--does biographical stuff count?
Isak Dinesen's "Out of Africa". Oddly Hemingway thought she should have gotten the Nobel although for her fiction.
When I was 13 I actually tried to memorize "Anne of Green Gables" and made it through the first chapter. "Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow....."
Recently reread "The Three Musketeers" expecting it to be archaiclly dull but loved it.
I love Hemingway though would rather read 'about' him. I guess my favorite there would be "A Moveable Feast". Ditto for Fitzgerald although I reread "The Great Gatsby" once in awhile. "Living Well is the Best Revenge"--does biographical stuff count?
Isak Dinesen's "Out of Africa". Oddly Hemingway thought she should have gotten the Nobel although for her fiction.
Aug 22nd, 2008, 08:16 AM
#172
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Wow -- going through the list, I realize there are quite a few books I need to read, or re-read.
My favorite?
"The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair.
Following closed behind:
"The Stand (Unabridged Version) - Stephen King
"The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies
"One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
"The Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
Think I'll go to the bookstore this weekend ...
My favorite?
"The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair.
Following closed behind:
"The Stand (Unabridged Version) - Stephen King
"The Rebel Angels" by Robertson Davies
"One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
"The Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
Think I'll go to the bookstore this weekend ...
Aug 22nd, 2008, 08:19 AM
#173
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Agree with all those who say picking just one is impossible. I also agree with many of the suggestions here but have not seen "A Fine Balance" by Rohinton Mistry (yes it was an Oprah book but don't be influenced by that.)
If you haven't read it I envy you. It was one of those books that I did not have to read - I just turned the pages and it read itself to me. I read it in two sittings, gorging myself on the words - I should have taken my time and savoured it. I have re-read it but, to me, there is nothing like the first read.
If you haven't read it I envy you. It was one of those books that I did not have to read - I just turned the pages and it read itself to me. I read it in two sittings, gorging myself on the words - I should have taken my time and savoured it. I have re-read it but, to me, there is nothing like the first read.
Aug 27th, 2008, 04:49 PM
#175
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A couple I finished this year that I liked:
"The Man Without Qualities" - Robert Musil (This book took me about 5 years to finish - but it was amazing)
"Magic Mountain" (in English) - Thomas Mann
"Great Expectations" - Dickens
"Angle of Repose" - Wallace Stegner
The "Rabbit" novels by John Updike
"The Man Without Qualities" - Robert Musil (This book took me about 5 years to finish - but it was amazing)
"Magic Mountain" (in English) - Thomas Mann
"Great Expectations" - Dickens
"Angle of Repose" - Wallace Stegner
The "Rabbit" novels by John Updike
