The five books you must read before you die

[financeguy]

Now finally, a serious thread, for the adults (*) here.


(1) The Informers - Brett Easton Ellis

(2) Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

(3) Espedair Street - Iain Banks

(4) Money - Martin Amis

(5) The Light and the Dark - CP Snow

What are yours?



* Adults in this context referring to mental proficiency rather than actual age.

 

[pax]

only five?

 

[financeguy]

List more than 5 if you prefer.

 

[beegee]

lolita - vladimir nabokov

cruddy - lynda barry

fear and loathing in las vegas - hunter thompson

bell jar - sylvia plath

anything by charles bukowski


lol, five just isn't enough. my list could go on and on.

 

[beegee]

wait

are these five books that i must read, or that i think you all should read?

cuz i've already read the ones on my list

 

[financeguy]

Five that you have read, and think everyone else should read too.

 

[miss becky]

1. The Lord of the Rings -- JRR Tolkien
2. Cat's Eye -- Margaret Atwood
3. Ethan Frome -- Edith Wharton
4. Pride and Prejudice -- Jane Austen
5. A Map of the World -- Jane Hamilton

 

[Mullen4Prez]

1.) hansel and gretel

2.) the gingerbread man

3.) Prey by Michael Crichton

4.) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

5.) BFG

 

[dandy]

arrgh, this is hard.

anne frank - the diary of a young girl

franz kafka - the metamorphosis

oscar wilde - the picture of dorian gray

anton chekhov - five plays

shel silverstein - the giving tree

 

[lmjhitman]

2. Cat's Eye -- Margaret Atwood

my very favourite author. ever.

i could make my whole list out of atwood's books: the handmaid's tale, the robber bride, the blind assassin, but most definitely, alias grace.

but, including others, in no particular order:

- margaret atwood - alias grace
- tolkien - lord of the rings
- amy tan - the hundred secret senses
- david adams richards - mercy among the children
- phillip pullman - his dark materials
- charlotte bronte - jane eyre

i know there are waaaay more...

 

[Mullen4Prez]

Any Michael Crichton fans?

 

[dandy]

charlotte bronte - jane eyre

still one of my favourite books ever.

 

[BonosSaint]

1. You Can't Go Home Again--Wolfe
2. Prayer for Owen Meany--Irving
3. Sometimes a Great Notion--Kesey
4. The Idiot--Dostoevsky
5. Anne of Green Gables--Montgomery

 

[U2democrat]

1. To Kill a Mockingbird-Harper Lee
2. The Hiding Place-Corrie Ten Boom
3. The Diary of Anne Frank


There are SO many all I can think of are three

 

[pax]

Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank (get the uncensored version published after her father's death)
The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
For the Time Being, Annie Dillard
Matilda, Roald Dahl
Hope for the Flowers, Trina Paulus
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
The Captain's Verses, Pablo Neruda
Microserfs, Douglas Coupland
Otherwise: New and Selected Poems, Jane Kenyon
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
Letters and Papers from Prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Either/Or, Soren Kierkegaard
The Ethics of Ambiguity, Simone de Beauvoir
A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn
Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott

+ the religious text of your particular tradition (Bible, Qu'ran, whatever); or, if you are atheist, Why I Am Not a Christian or The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell

 

[nbcrusader]

The Bible

and 4 others

 

[anitram]

The Prince - Machiavelli
Walden - Thoreau
The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Kundera
Siddhartha - Hesse
On Death and Dying - Kubler-Ross

 

[saltwaterkiss26]

1. The Satanic Verses - Salman Rushdie
2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
3. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
4. Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
5. American Gods - Neil Gaiman
...
6. Master & Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
7. The Crimson Petal and the White - Michael Faber
8. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
9. Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
10. The Lord of the Flies - William Golding

Stopping at 10.

 

[lmjhitman]

but, including others, in no particular order:

- margaret atwood - alias grace
- tolkien - lord of the rings
- amy tan - the hundred secret senses
- david adams richards - mercy among the children
- phillip pullman - his dark materials
- charlotte bronte - jane eyre

i know there are waaaay more...

quoting myself is so lame, but i forgot:

the alchemist and veronika decides to die, both by paulo coelho

 

[beegee]

shel silverstein - the giving tree

EXCELLENT choice.

i STILL can't read that book without choking up.

bravo

 

[starsgoblue]

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn --Betty Smith

Dubliners --James Joyce

On The Road -- Jack Kerouac

Interview With A Vampire -- Anne Rice

Les Mis -- Victor Hugo

 

[Saracene]

Hmm, a tough list to make.


Master & Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov

Madam Bovary - Gustav Flaubert

The Portrait of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

Titus Groan & Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake

It Is Hard to Be a God - B. & A. Strugatski

Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell

Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

 

[miss becky]

- phillip pullman - his dark materials

Yesss! Excellent choice. Did you know they are making the first book into a movie?

 

[1stepcloser]

anything by Bill Bryson

'Neither here nor there' is my fav

 

[Se7en]

1. harry potter

2. harry potter

3. harry potter

4. harry potter

5. harry potter

6. harry potter

7. harry potter

duh.

 

[U2@NYC]

Can anyone recommend a good author / book for short stories?

 

[Cassis]

so if i dont read any 5 of these books i wont die?

 

[U2Girl1978]

1. The DaVinci Code-Dan Brown

2. Skinny Dipping-Carl Hiassan(sp) (if you like elmore leonards stuff, read that)

3. Girl With a Pearl Earring-Tracy Chevalier

4. Psycho Ex Files- Merrill Markoe and Andy Prieboy

5. I Know This Much is True-Wally Lamb

6. The Lovely Bones-Alice Sebold

arghh so many others...

 

[Sherry Darling]

Wow, so many great choices here. Jane Eyre, Anne Frank, Lolita, On the Road, 451 Fahrenheit, Satanic Verses, Tolkein, Simone De B, Victor Hugo. And of course Harrrrryyyy! Everyone I mean everyone should read To Kill a Mockingbird.

Let me name some that haven't been named.

Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn
Shakespeare's Hamlet
Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Orwell Animal Farm
Naifsi Reading Lolita in Tehran

RE short stories, Dubliners is great, as mentioned. Flannery O'Connor writes amazing short stories, too.

 

[FlyYourKite]

Some of these were already mentioned but they are worth repeating:

1. Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom
2. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
3. Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger
4. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
5. The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver (SO good)


Reading