The five books you must read before you die

[elevation2u]

i'll try, these are some of my favorites

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Breakfast of Champions
The Alchemist
On the Road
Naked Lunch
Tuesdays with Morrie
A clockwork orange
Fountainhead
FIght Club
Brave new world
catcher in the rye
The grapes of wrath
100 years of solitude
1984
lord of the flies
A confedrancy of dunces
A people's history of the USA
Bob Dylan's Chronicles
and the Bible

 

[U2@NYC]

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

Great, thanks!

Let me contribute some Latin American literature to the list (I also agree with many of the books posted here):

1. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (masterpiece, masterpiece, masterpiece... although it is easy to get lost in it)

2. Complete Short Stories - Julio Cortazar ('Letter to a Lady in Paris' and 'The Sweater' are two masterpieces)

3. The Aleph - Jorge Luis Borges

4. The Tunnel - Ernesto Sabato (masterpiece, masterpiece, masterpiece)

5. Mist - Miguel de Unamuno

 

[Jack In The Box]

quoting myself is so lame, but i forgot:

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

no! he sucks, believe me

 

[U2@NYC]

no! he sucks, believe me

Agreed.

I was recommended the Alchemist by a couple of friends and the book just sucks. Please, avoid this piece of baloney.

 

[elevation2u]

no! he sucks, believe me

well they ARE your opinions, how are they more valid than anyone else?

 

[U2@NYC]

well they ARE your opinions, how are they more valid than anyone else?

Elevation2u, everything is an opinion in this forum. So, post readers may or may not follow other poster's advice. It is up to them.

 

[elevation2u]

yea i know, but some people are too condescending, but whatevere

 

[U2@NYC]

yea i know, but some people are too condescending, but whatevere

Whatever is a great word...

 

[elevation2u]

it is, isn't it?

 

[BlackElectric]

DaVinci Code by Dan Brown along with Angels and Demons also by Dan Brown
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
The Shining by S. King
A Child Called It by Dave Peltzer
and my favorite classic, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, I belive.

 

[lmjhitman]

1. harry potter

2. harry potter

3. harry potter

4. harry potter

5. harry potter

6. harry potter

7. harry potter

duh.

whorey petter?

 

[lmjhitman]

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

i read a while back that new line cinema bought the rights to the books, but that they have been stuck on the screenplay, as well as casting the 2 leads.

if they ever get the movie made, great. but the movie almost never does justice to the book.

 

[yertle-the-turtle]

1. 'If On A Winter's Night A Traveler', by Italo Calvino
2. 'The Hound Of The Baskervilles', by AC Doyle
3. 'Tales Of Old Japan', compiled by Lord Redesdale
4. 'Time's Arrrow', by Martin Amis
5. 'High Fidelity', by Nick Hornby

 

[Dalton]

1. The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky
2. The Brothers K - Duncan (read them right after one another)
3. Haroun and the Sea of Stories - Rushdie
4. If on a winters night a traveler - Calvino
5. Collected Fictions, Vol. 3 - Borges (makes my back tingle just to write his name.)

 

[Dalton]

1. 'If On A Winter's Night A Traveler', by Italo Calvino

Very nice Yertle.

 

[Dalton]

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

Borges

 

[bono_gal]

5 books, I've read and loved!

1, Tolkien- Lord Of The rings
2, Thomas Hardy- Far From The Madding Crowd
3, William Golding- Lord Of The Flies
4, George Orwell- 1984
5, ALL HARRY POTTER BOOKS

to be awkward throw in a few more...

George Orwell- Animal Farm
Frank McCourt- Angelas Ashes

Ok...I'm going off on 1 now! 1 more pleeeeaasse!

John Steinbeck- Of Mice And Men


All of these books!

 

[dandy]

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

anton chekhov's short stories are every bit as good as his plays.

 

[Landslide]

1) The Bible (Gospel of John/ Book of Romans)

2) The Prophet - Khalil Gibran

3) The Road Less Traveled - M. Scott Peck

4) He Chose the Nails - Max Lucado

5) Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Album

 

[Slapnutz]

Agreed.

I was recommended the Alchemist by a couple of friends and the book just sucks. Please, avoid this piece of baloney.

I disliked the last 30 pages or so of the Alchemist greatly. But Veronika Decides to Die was a very pleasant surprise. I love his descriptions regarding the healing power of music. Very moving.

 

[Snowlock]

1) Memory, Sorrow & Thorn - Trilogy by Tad Williams
2) The Sum Of All Fears - Tom Clancy
3) Labyrinth Of Evil-Revenge Of The Sith
4) The Left Behind Series - Lehaye & Jenkins
5) Harry Potter Series - Rowling

What can I say? I like pop literature!

 

[foundu2]

ok here are mine

#1 The Bible

the rest are simply books I enjoy, in no particualr order...

Animal Farm - George Orwell
Lion, Witch and The Wardrobe- C. S. Lewis
Surprised By Joy- C.S. Lewis
Mere Christianity- C.S. Lewis
Charlotte's Web -E.B. White
Charlie and The Chocolate Factory - Ronald Dahl

 

[Jack In The Box]

no, isn't my opinion, Coelho just sucks... oh, well, yes it's my opinion but he still sucks

anyway, here are my choices:
- No Logo by Naomi Klein
- Animal Farm by George Orwell
- One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
- Faust by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

and many more...

 

[Saracene]

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

Guy de Maupassant. He is considered by many to be the greatest French writer of short stories and I find it hard to disagree.

I also always loved O. Henry's short stories. He's a master of twist endings and his stories are alternately laugh-out-loud funny and poignant.

I'd also add Terry Pratchett's Discworld series to my list of books-to-read. I love them to death.

 

[jkid]

Here are mine (no order):

"The Iliad" by Homer

"The Odyssey" by Homer

"Aeneid" by Virgil

"The Divine Comedy" by Dante

"Paradise Lost " by John Milton

"The Ramayana" by Valmiki

"Naked Lunch" by William S. Burroughs

"Junky" by William S. Burroughs

"Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk

"Mexico City Blues" by Jack Kerouac

"On The Road" by Jack Kerouac

"Trainspotting" by Irvine Welsh

"One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey

"Double Indemnity" by James M. Cain

"The Collected Poems Of Langston Hughes" by Langston Hughes

"Howl And Other Poems" by Allen Ginsberg

"The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath

"U2: At The End Of The World" by Bill Flanagan

"Down The Highway: The Life Of Bob Dylan" by Howard Sounes

"Ulysses" by James Joyce

"The Tanakh"

"The Noble Qur'an"

"The New Testament"

That's it. They are all good books. Sorry I couldn't pick 5.

 

[elevation2u]

^^ whoever is above me had some good choices

 

[xtal]

The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown

The Gifts of the Jews, Thomas Cahill

How the Irish Saved Civilisation, Thomas Cahill

The Testament, John Grisham

The Five People You Meet In Heaven

 

[BrownEyedBoy]

Anything by Gabriel García Márquez. Genius.

 

[xtal]

Oh *Bleep*!

Best Book Ever:

Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee.

 

[U2@NYC]

Borges

I like him... but sometimes he is a tad hard to follow, don't you think?