Books you can't live without

POSTED BY: BadgersHat
UPDATED: Thursday, May 12, 2005 14:58
VIEWED: 31257
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BADGERSHAT

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 4:42 PM

In the spirit of the DVD thread, here's one about books you can't live without...

-Icefire (Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens, great sci-fi writers, DAMN good thriller)
-Tom Sawyer (all time favorite)
-Harry Potter series
-The Indoor Grilling Bible

I'm sure there's others...

--Jefé The Hat

***************************
--Don't bother trying to predict, figure out, second guess, criticize, or suggest anything that comes from the mind of Joss Whedon, for you shall usually be wrong, and shall find out the Truth and Purpose in due time.
(This is the Truth of Whedoning)

"I like smackin 'em"--Jayne

STILLSHINY

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 4:52 PM

Bible
Steven Lawhead - The Song of Albion

Walk On - The Spiritual Journey of U2

Chronicles of Narnia (as they were originally released out of "chronological order")

Lord of the Rings

Paul Reiser - Couplehood & Babyhood (even better on audio book)

Jesse Duplaints - Close Encounters of the God kind

The Unforgettabel Fire - Definitive Biography of U2

Make It So - Leadership Lessons from Star Trek the Next Generation

Not really a big "reader" myself.

Check out my shop!
http://www.zazzle.com/contributors/products/gallery/browse_results.asp
?cid=238187680745956238

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the road less traveled by and they CANCELLED MY FRIKKIN' SHOW. I totally shoulda took the road that had all those people on it. Damn." --Joss

GORRAMREAVERS

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 5:03 PM

Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck

The Shining - Mr. King

All I can think of right now...

"..it is my very favorite gun."

MAUGWAI

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 5:24 PM

-Bruce Campbell's book, If Chins Could Kill
-Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse
-Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester
-The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton
-Night, by Elie Wiesel
-Bleak House, by Charles Dickens

Okay, there's way too many. Can I count every Shakespeare play ever except The Merry Wives of Windsor? Plays aren't really novels, but still. I don't think I could live without Hamlet or The Tempest.

Without books I would definitely curl up into a tiny ball and waste away to nothing, especially without Siddhartha.

"Dear diary, today I was pompous and my sister was crazy."

GEEZER

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 5:48 PM

Lord of The Rings
Glory Road & Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein
Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner
Red Storm Rising - Tom Clancy
Trout Fishing in the Shenandoah National Park - Harry Murray
Helms repair manual for the 1988 Honda CRX
Rand-McNally Road Atlas

"Keep the Shiny side up"

PURPLEBELLY

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 5:55 PM

Killer Angels
Grapes of Wrath
Anyone found a Good Bible?

NAKEDANDARTICULATE

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 7:07 PM

EVERYTHING WRITTEN BY ERIC BOGOSIAN(PLAYWRITER)
BROOKLYN DREAMS
THE SERENITY NOVELS
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
ISHMAEL

"Hamsters is nice."

LADYSILVER

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 7:22 PM

Since my entire house is filled with books, I'm not sure I'll be able to narrow it down too much. There aren't too many titles I can live without - I live to read! Here goes:

anything by Anne McCaffrey and Laurell Hamilton
Lord of the Rings (both books by Tolkien and DVDs by Jackson)
Harry Potter, etc.
Folly by Laurie King (and most of her other books!)
The Clairvoyant Countess by Dorothy Gilmore
early Patricia Cornwell
the Bookman series (and the author's name escapes me! aarrgh!)
Susan Grafton's alphabet series
J.D. Robb's series featuring Eve Dallas (I know, I know, it's really Nora Roberts, but what can I say? I'm a sucker for science fiction romantic mysteries!)

And I could go on, and on, and on, and on. In fact, I did! Oops!

I can see I will definitely have to check out the sci-fi/fantasy section of my library - and soon. The mysteries are taking over!

Happy Holidays, my fellow Browncoats!
—Jean

THATWEIRDGIRL

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 7:23 PM

my most favoritest book is The Little Prince.

I know some folks consider it a children's book, but it really is a story for adults. I can't count the number of time I've read it. I only took French in high school so I could translate it myself.

www.thatweirdgirl.com

MALICIOUS

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 8:19 PM

Jefe,

If my house were burning down, I'd save my son, my dog and The Stand by Stephen King.

Others I'd try to get are:

King:
The Shining
'Salem's Lot

James Thurber:
The Thurber Carnival

Any and all Dave Barry

and Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The rest would have to burn because The Stand--Complete and Uncut weighs a ton.

And if you were spending the night I'd save you too!

Mal-licious

Co-Holder of the Red Bell from Hell

SGTGUMP

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 8:33 PM

Well...

Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, Job: a Comedy of Justice - Heinlein

The Dune novels - Frank Herbert

Chuck Palahniuk - all of his books

The Hithchikers Guide, All of them - Douglas Adams

Lord of the Flies - William Golding

That's all I can think of for now.

NIKNAK

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 8:35 PM

The Hobbit
Lord of the Rings
The increasingly inaccurately named Hitch-Hiker's guide to the Galaxy trilogy

LETOV

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 8:48 PM

David Brin:
The Uplift series, all 6 books

Long list from Orson Scott Card:
Ender's books, esp Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow
Alvin Maker series

Douglas Adam's:
HitchHiker's Guide
The Dirk Gently books, love 'em more than the HitchHiker

Frank Herbert:
Dune series: "Children" being my favorite

I could go on for a while probably but just about any books above will get picked up when I feel like reading something but don't have something new on hand. I ride mass-transit to work so I enjoy my regular reading time every day.

CHEWIE

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 9:17 PM

Okay... This one took some thinking...

Anything Written by:

Kathy Reichs
James Patterson
Patricia Cornwell
Dan Brown
Janet Evanovich (The Stephanie Plum novels)
J.K Rowling

Then theres...

A Time to Kill by John Grisham
In the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Alanna: Song of the lioness by Tamora Pierce

And a few other hundred I can't think of off the to of my head!

GUNRUNNER

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 9:52 PM

Submarine! By Capt. Edward L. Beach, USN
(Ever useful) Jane’s Warship Recognition Guide 2nd Edition
Blind Man’s Bluff by Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew. (Best book on the Cold War period)
The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy.
Flight of the Intruder by Stephen Coonts.
The Star Wars: X-Wing Novels by Michael A. Stackpole and Aaron Allston
Bravo Two Zero by Sgt. Andy McNab, UK SAS
With Hostile Intent and Acts of Vengeance by Robert Gandt.

JABBY

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 11:14 PM

The Secret Garden

Wuthering Heights

Anything by Michael Crichton

The Bear Went Over the Mountain

FIREFLYWILDCARD1

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 11:16 PM

All books in The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey

The Book of Words Trilogy by J V Jones
The Sword of Shadows Trilogy by J V Jones

All books in the Starfist series by Dan Cragg and David Sherman

Books by Lurlene McDaniel (though if I had to I'd let them burn)

The Lord of the Rings

All of my Military History books (especially those written by veterans (not historians))

My useful technical books from school.

SERGEANTX

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 11:40 PM

"Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid"

by Douglas Hofstadter

If I could only find a woman who appreciates this book...

SergeantX

"Dream a little dream or you can live a little dream. I'd rather live it, cause dreamers always chase but never get it." Aesop Rock

STARPILOTGRAINGER

Thursday, December 23, 2004 1:01 AM

There are no books I can't live without. However, there are a good many that, if something happened and I lost all my books, I'd buy again just so I could have them to read if the mood strikes me.

These include (but are not limited to):
Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card
1984, by George Orwell
Jumper, by Steven Gould
The Hooded Swan/Star Pilot Grainger stories, by Brian Stableford
a number of Stephen King books, like The Stand, Firestarter, The Bachman Books, and now, the Dark Tower series
Dune, by Frank Herbert

Quite a lot.

Star Pilot Grainger
"Remember, the enemy's gate is down."
LJ: http://www.livejournal.com/users/newnumber6
http://www.unreachablestar.net - Comics & SF News/Reviews/Opinions
(some of the above-listed books are reviewed in the forums section of my website)

SGTGUMP

Thursday, December 23, 2004 1:43 AM

Well, I just got my first taste of Ayn Rand. I just read 'Anthem', took about 3 hours. I think that I'd have to put it right near the top of my favorite books list.

MELVILLE

Thursday, December 23, 2004 2:45 AM

My two all time favorets -
Emergence, David R. Palmer
Sea of Glass, Barry Longyear

MONTANAGIRL

Thursday, December 23, 2004 2:59 AM

The Belgariad, Mallorean, Elenium, and Tamuli series by David Eddings
Lord of the Rings
Pride and Prejudice
The Black Stallion
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
everything by Dave Barry

Packer fans welcome.
All others tolerated.

MELEAUX

Thursday, December 23, 2004 3:38 AM

1)The Friendly Persuasion by Jessamyn West
2) The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter
3) An Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden
4) Watership Down by Richard Addams

She understands, she doesn't comprehend

GAVIDA

Thursday, December 23, 2004 9:42 AM

Hmm, just from the top of my head:

The Dragon and the George - Gordon R. Dickson

Who goes here? - Bob Shaw

Spellsinger - Alan Dean Foster

The Doomfarers of Coramonde - Brian Daley

Janissaries - Jerry Pournelle

Well and the one or other Discworld Novel :)

Keep flying,

Gavida

THESOMNAMBULIST

Thursday, December 23, 2004 12:49 PM

All the Asterix books.

Those things inspired me to become a cartoonist - I couldn't ever live without them.

Also as my niece and nephews grow up I can read the stories to them, which is wonderful because I was about their age when I first came across them.

and

100 Years of Solitude I read it every summer.

www.cirqus.com

HUITZIL

Thursday, December 23, 2004 2:54 PM

The Left Hand of Darkness
Pride and Prejudice
The Neverending Story
any of the M R James compilations as long as its got 'Oh whistle..', and 'Number 13' in it!

___________
the turtle and the wolf are natural enemies

PHOEBE

Thursday, December 23, 2004 5:17 PM

The Shining - Stephen King
The Dark Tower (books 1 through 7 ) - Stephen King
Desperaiton - Stephen King
And the rest of my massively large King collection.

Hmmm.... anyone would think I have an obsession.

MAUGWAI

Thursday, December 23, 2004 5:20 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by TheSomnambulist:
All the Asterix books.

Those things inspired me to become a cartoonist - I couldn't ever live without them.

Also as my niece and nephews grow up I can read the stories to them, which is wonderful because I was about their age when I first came across them.

I love Asterix! It's difficult to find those books in America. I've been trying to find the vidoes I once saw in French class. Any idea where I can get either books or videos?

"Dear diary, today I was pompous and my sister was crazy."

THESOMNAMBULIST

Thursday, December 23, 2004 6:49 PM

Well they sell them in all bookstores here in England, and often I go to Brussels to visit a friend - and over there they're everywhere.

I'm not aware of anything online just because I've never had to search to that extent.

However if you like I'd be happy to grab a selection for you and post them your way.

Would this be ok?

TheSomnambulist

www.cirqus.com

ANKHAGOGO

Thursday, December 23, 2004 10:18 PM

Mmmm....books. Yummy.
These are in no order - just as I see them on the shelf. :)

Lord of the Rings, like a bunch of others here

The His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman - I don't know them back to front, but they're just fabulous

Any anthology or stand-alone novel in the Bordertown series (edited by Terri Windling)

Oh, my Elfquest -- up to a point, then they kind of start to meander off to characters I'm not connected to.

Most anything by Roddy Doyle

Huckleberry Finn, and Tom Sawyer as well. But I've always preferred Huck.

Lonesome Dove

Preacher

Harry Potter. Can't help it; love em.

Neil Gaiman -- Neverwhere

Gone With the Wind

Little Women & Little Men

Peter Pan

"I know your name, jackass!"

OZYMANDIAS

Friday, December 24, 2004 12:37 AM

Everything by heinlein, specifically starship troopers, puppet masters, and farnhams freehold

The ender saga, by orson scott card, and also enchantment

sphere by crichton

All chuck palanuik books, especially diary

All Hunter S. Thompson books (Fear and Loathing in Las vegas, Kindgom of fear and Generation of swine especially)

and last but certainly not least...

ARMOR, by John Steakley. Without a doubt one of the best three books I have ever read in ANY genre. If you haven't read this book, get off your gorram ass and buy it

And Melkor fled before the laughter of Tulkas, and hated him ever after

ZOID

Friday, December 24, 2004 12:44 AM

El Jefé Magnifico asked us all which books we cannot live without:

Well, that is a toughie... Phrasing it another way (y'all knew I'd do that, didn't you?), this a short-list of books I think everyone should read at some point in their lives:

The Holy Bible: Straight, old King James version, please. Particular attention paid to the New Testament, because Jesus replaced the 'eye for an eye' OT values with 'turn the other cheek', among other revolutionary tenets that modern Christians have such a hard time embracing. Still, whether you're a 'believer' or not, Western civilization is based on the Judeo-Christian ethic. If you're playing the game, you might consider knowing the rules, regardless whether you buy into the underlying system of faith... (NB: I am a Christian; this is not an attempt to proselytize or discredit other faiths; I do not judge others' relationship with God.)

The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene: An acclaimed and fascinating book discussing the various 'n-dimensional' (super)string theories attempting to describe the nature of the Universe and reality. There are many other books of this ilk -- Hawking's "A Brief History..." or Smolin's "Three Roads to Quantum Gravity" among many examples -- but I like this one best. Starts out simple and works the reader up to an advanced snapshot of the recent state of theoretical physics. Things have changed somewhat since the book was published, but if you can manage to comprehend it through to its end, you should be able to follow the advances made since. (I get all my latest 'pop sci' from Scientific American, available at a bookseller near you).

How the Leopard Changed Its Spots: The Evolution of Complexity, Brian Goodwin: An alternative to straight Darwinism, this is not some neo-Creationist tripe. It attempts to explain the 'staccato' nature of the fossil record, and how new forms can arise spontaneously. When you've done with this book, you should immediately read Darwin's Radio and Darwin's Children, by Greg Bear, in order to cement these ideas. The scientific premise for these books is that dormant genes and introns are the machines of evolution, and can bring about a massive change of species within a single generation. He's even got a nice -- if perhaps fanciful -- scene of a dig that uncovers a nomadic group made up of h. sapiens and h. erectus, working and living (and possibly engaging in interspecies sexual activity) together. And of course, it's Bear, so it's a very engaging read.

Dune, Frank Herbert: For all the reasons I've stated numerous times; but mostly for its Machiavellian political/religious insights. Some things never change throughout human history; Herbert's work provides a more or less complete insight into these, if one reads deeply enough. And overlaying all that practical insight is a story laden with elements reminiscent of the best of Shakespeare: witches and noblemen and stabbings and poison and children of questionable birthright from secretly incestuous pairings (only the witches know for sure who's related to whom).

I could name many others, but if I had to list the essentials only, I would say read these books (and then read everything else). I think you'll find enough polarity in these viewpoints to give you a well-rounded vantage of the 'big picture' of reality. I have actually managed to reconcile them; as a consequence, I am philosophically unwelcome just about everywhere I go...

You have been warned.

Literarily,

zoid

P.S.
Folks, remember to read more than fiction. History is good. So are archaeology and the natural sciences. Mix up your reading diet.

P.P.S.
The books I can't live without are the ones I have yet to read. Life would be pretty unbearable without the prospect of great books to read for the remainder of my time here...
_________________________________________________

"Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me." The Ballad of Serenity

CORNCOBB

Friday, December 24, 2004 1:43 AM

I'm gonna echoe the support for Lord of the Rings and The Hitchhiker's Guide and also sing the praises of War of the Worlds by HG Wells and Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I'm only halfway through the latter book and it's already a contendor for my all-time favourite. If you haven't read it yet you should.

"Gorramit Mal... I've forgotten my line."

ALIENZOOKEEPER

Friday, December 24, 2004 5:39 AM

Anything by Lois McMaster Bujold, but especially her Miles Vorkosigan stories. The first two novels, by internal chronology, Shards of Honor and Barrayar, are about the hero's Mom!

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Orphans in the Sky, and Citizen of the Galaxy by Robert Heinlien.

With The Lightnings and Lt. Leary Commanding by David Drake (Scary writer who's mellowed to the point where I imagine he wouldn't scare Bothari, if the two of them were to meet in a dark alley...) Third book is not quite as good, with all due respect to Mr. Drake.

Most anything by Mark Twain, but especially Huckleberry Finn, the most seditious book you can give a teenager to read. Huck would understand Mal, and vice versa.

The Guards books out of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series (silly, true, but also full good ideas and great characters). Read the whole series and watch a silly send up of modern fantasy rip-offs of Tolkien grow into something more.

Vince the Alien Zookeeper

AURAPTOR

Friday, December 24, 2004 2:02 PM

Demon Haunted World - Carl Sagan

Lord of the Rings trilogy - So it's in 3 seperate parts. I Like to reread it every year or so.

Dinosaur Heresies - Dr. Robert Bakker

" They don't like it when you shoot at 'em. I worked that out myself. "

ZOID

Friday, December 24, 2004 2:38 PM

AURaptor:

Thanks for your list. I'll check out the Sagan and Bakker. Can you clue me on why those books are great?

Of course, I've read the Tolkien. The historical subtext is worth the effort, on its own, apart from the great fantasy. I reckon it's the template for pretty much every other fantasy (read: 'sword and sorcery') novel since; LotR is the progenitor -- and still best example -- of the entire genre.

v/r,
-zed

BANDANAGIRL

Friday, December 24, 2004 7:03 PM

Uh well I can think of one book right now that I'm currently reading.

The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien. It takes place before the Hobbit and LOTR. I read it first before any other Tolkien book, but while watching movies it helped me understand them alot more. Also you realize there is a greater signifigance to certain things (like the Phial of Galadriel for instance).

Frell me dead!!!

DEBBIEBUK

Friday, December 24, 2004 10:12 PM

Sorry I can't resist this thread. Had a go last night and gave up, but would also stress the importance of non-fiction. I keep trying to get rid of books but these are the ones I keep:

Non-Fiction
In my case it's mainly cookery books (reflected in my shape)
Madhur Jaffery, Antonio Carlucci, Arabella Boxer, Sophie Grigson and a great one from Bill Granger called Sydney Food.
And foreign language dictionaries but they don't count.

Other non-fiction
Apollo 13 - a great story of real human ingenuity
Infectious Greed - Frank Portnoy (explained a lot about the way the stock markets work and the people who influenced them, also for helped me understand a lot more about the telecoms world in 1999-2002 which bit me and a lot of others in the backside)
Richard Feynman's books (two or three of them I think)
Random Walks in Science
Iain Sinclair - London Orbital (about a walk round the M25 and why it is where and what it is, not sure if that is what they call psychogeography)

All the Lonely Planet/ Rough Guides I collect for places I'll probably never get to - great inspiration

Fiction
Left Hand of darkness/ Always coming home Ursula le guin
Forever War - Haldeman I think
Mission of Gravity - Hal Clement
Gameplayers of Zan - can't remember who wrote that one
A lot of stuff by Azimov
Barbara Hambly's books about the wizard, ? tower erm one is called twisting the rope I think.
Lord of the Rings (sorry but it was an inspiration even from school)
Most of Terry Pratchett's stuff, favourite is probably Soul Music, but I reread them every couple of years or so when I'm feeling depressed.
Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban (post apocalyptic folks rediscovering gunpowder, but set in East Kent where I grew up so the geography is important)

James Lee Burke - would have to be one or two of those in there

And on another angle, what about books you've never finished? Gravity's Rainbow - should be the sort of thing I love, very complex, rockets, physics, history, Europe. Just couldn't get past the first two hundred pages. Didn't care any more.

Debbie

RUXTON

Friday, December 24, 2004 10:43 PM

"Pondoro" by John Taylor

"Hell, I Was There" by Elmer Keith

Complete (annotated) Sherlock Holmes, by A. Conan Doyle
(No one else appreciates Holmes?)

"Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain

The complete works of Richard Bach

"Life in the Far West" by George Frederick Ruxton

TERRYO

Saturday, December 25, 2004 4:13 AM

I'll see your Holmes and raise you one Annotated Alice in Wonderland. {g} My grandmother's maiden name was Norton, btw.

Books everywhere - what would I throw in a box if the house was burning?

The Bible (The Books of Job, Psalms and Isaiah, especially)

Gifts from the Sea - Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Michael Phillips - The Seven Laws of Money (one of the Whole Earth Catalog guys)

Possum Living - Dolly Freed (and who was her father anyway?)

Julia Cameron's The Artists Way

84 Charing Cross Road

Joy of Cooking

Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series

Sharon Lee and Steve Miller's Liaden series

the latest Sara Paretsky, Sue Grafton, Janet Evanovich, Julie Smith, and Kate Wilhem books, whatever they are...

Alas Babylon - Pat Frank

Josephine Tey - Daughter of Time

The Ivy Tree - Mary Stewart

Sarah Smith - Chasing Shakespeare

Pride and Prejudice

Collected works of Wm Shakespeare (cheating, I know but Hamlet is - well - Hamlet)

Griffin and Sabine (picture books for grown-ups)

A few early Nora Roberts paperbacks

Harry Harrison - grab a few

Ishmael - the Star Trek novel; hated it the first time I read it but it grew on me. Also anything Trek or not by Peter David.

Tam Lin - Pamela Dean

Marelon the Magician - Patricia Wrede

Early Burglar books by Lawrence Block

--beloved childhood favorites--

Sally Watson's Lark and Linnet (YA) - mine

Barbary - Vonda McIntyre (I like her other books but this one is special)

The Hobbit - Tolkien

From my kids shelf:

Mick Hart Was Here

The Face on the Milk Carton

--picture books--
More Spaghetti I Say - Rita Golden Gelman

Good Night Moon

Green Eggs and Ham

Luckily for me, I have half of these in pda format.

Quote:
Originally posted by Ruxton:
"Pondoro" by John Taylor

{snip}
Complete (annotated) Sherlock Holmes, by A. Conan Doyle
(No one else appreciates Holmes?)

TERRYO

Saturday, December 25, 2004 4:28 AM

Sadly, the above list is a tiny percentage of the books I have - but now I feel this weird compulsion to put them all together on one shelf. (Just in case, you know.)

terry

p.s. I forgot the poetry. Toss at least one major collection in with the rest.

Oh - and the Perl books, can't forget the Camel.

EST120

Saturday, December 25, 2004 2:25 PM

a prayer for owen meany.

by far my favorite book of all time.

a rather distant second is the fountainhead.

MALICIOUS

Sunday, December 26, 2004 1:23 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by debbiebuk:
And on another angle, what about books you've never finished?

Oddly enough, the one book I never finished (I forced myself to read as far as I did) was....The Fountainhead--Ayn Rand!

Mal-licious

Co-Holder of the Red Bell from Hell

FIREFLYWILDCARD1

Sunday, December 26, 2004 3:36 AM

And on another angle, what about books you've never finished?

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein I've tried three times to read this book all the way through and I keep getting stuck about a third of the way through and can't get past that point. Oh well.

A couple of military history books (on submarines) I couldn't get through because they were just too dry.

However, one of my all time favorite books is Thunder Below! by Rear Admiral Eugene Fluckey (USN Restired). It's about his tours on a submarine durring WWII. Very good read.

SOUPCATCHER

Sunday, December 26, 2004 7:42 AM

I love this thread!!

Let's just say that if there was a fire in the apartment I would have to fight it as best I could because there's no way I could get out all my favorite books in time. But I'll try to give a reduced list (I started to post a few days ago and the list got completely out of control very quickly).

Have survived the “storage purges” that accompany every move
Battle of Midway by Ira Peck
Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
Lost Horizon by James Hilton
Give a Man a Gun by John Creasey
Dayworld by Philip Jose Farmer
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Out of the Silent Planet by C S Lewis
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Bible the King James version
Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

Will join the above list the next time I move
Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean
Pretty Boy: The Life and Times of Charles Arthur Floyd by Michael Wallis
30-Minute Meals 2 by Rachael Ray
You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train by Howard Zinn
A People’s History of the American Revolution by Ray Raphael
Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She? by Molly Ivins

First editions
California: a Guide to the Golden State by the Federal Writers’ Project of the WPA
New Worlds to Conquer by Richard Halliburton - although if I couldn’t save all of my Halliburton collection that would just be wrong.

Regional type stuff
Jack Smith’s LA by Jack Smith
California Historical Landmarks edited by Linda McDonald and Carol Cullens
Lost Legends of the West by Brad Williams and Choral Pepper

Course assigned books that I fell in love with
Labor and Monopoly Capital by Harry Braverman
Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees by Lawrence Weschler
Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut
The Iliad of Homer translated by Richard Lattimore
The Parables of Jesus by Joachim Jeremias
The Parables Then and Now by Archibald Hunter

Disciplinary stuff
Analysing Design Activity edited by Cross, Christiaans and Dorst
Conceptual Blockbusting by James Adams
Mechanical Engineering Design by Shigley and Mishke
Experiences in Visual Thinking by Bob McKim

Mystery
Folly and O, Jerusalem by Laurie King *(Like LadySilver, I have most of her books)
Blind Descent by Nevada Barr
Home Fires by Margaret Maron
No Colder Place by S J Rozan

Science Fiction/Fantasy
I’m not even going to try and figure this one out .
* (I'm with AlienZookeeper on David Drake - With the Lightnings would be in this section along with at least one Hammer's Slammers book).

Peace on Earth. Goodwill to everyone.

NEEDLESEYE

Sunday, December 26, 2004 7:43 AM

Dune series, Frank Herbert
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
Rubaiyat - a 1960's printing with a beatiful binding, and it's MINE! ALL MINE!
Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book- My copy is from 1990. Everyone should have it. If for some reason you can't remember how long to boil an egg or how to cook a rump roast, this will tell you and give you recipies.

GOJIRO

Sunday, December 26, 2004 4:15 PM

Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah -- Richard Bach

Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson

I have many, many, MANY other books I absolutely love (including the entire Baroque Cycle trilogy, again by Stephenson), but these two are the absolute best books I've ever read. And I have read a lot. Trust me on that.

I imagine Cryptonomicon would appeal to most of the crowd here, but cheers to Ruxton for including Bach's oeuvre.

-------
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RUXTON

Sunday, December 26, 2004 9:30 PM

Thanks, Gojiro. Bach is sometimes overlooked, but ever fascinating.

I'd like to add to my list a book I'm currently reading, for it is fascinating, cuts like a knife, and reminds us to remember history. I suspect it will also sustain my interest with repeated readings over time:

"Unintended Consequences" by John Ross.

JULIABUG

Sunday, December 26, 2004 10:04 PM

How about:

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Wild Seed by Octavia Butler

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susannah Clarke

Forever War by Joe Haldeman

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

and my all-time childhood favorite

Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss

Julia

PEDME84

Sunday, December 26, 2004 10:16 PM

anything and everything by Rumi

Lord of the Rings

Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell

Hamlet's Mill - this is something i was assigned in a class and i'm rereading right now. if you're interested in myth, especially comparative mythology, this is a must read! just be sure to have a couple of basic astronomy books handy if you're like me and know nothing about that sort of thing.

Stories (Layla & Majnun, etc.) by Nizami

The Sacred and Profane by Mircea Eliade

everything else by Joseph Campbell

- emily

ANNIK

Monday, December 27, 2004 12:31 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by sgtgump:
Well, I just got my first taste of Ayn Rand. I just read 'Anthem', took about 3 hours. I think that I'd have to put it right near the top of my favorite books list.

Anthem is fantastic, and one of my all-time favourites. I've read many others by Rand, but none have stuck with me the way this one did.

I'd also want to take my Frank Herbert collection, most especially the Dune series.

And I'd really hurt if I failed to take my various 'best of'-style anthologies from 1940 onwards. I *love* short speculative fiction!

BUT ... if faced with a fire, I would happily watch the Dune "prequels" burn to the last puff of flying ash. Pure crap, sadly. However, I'd have to watch them burn someplace else ... they're so bad I haven't bothered to purchase any for myself, LOL!

Cheers,
Annik
... my sister's a ship. We had a complicated childhood.

YT

Monday, December 27, 2004 10:42 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by LadySilver:
the Bookman series (and the author's name escapes me! aarrgh!)

John Dunning. I'm not that impressed with the Bookman series, but I love 2am Eastern WarTime.

Keep the Shiny Side Up

YT

Monday, December 27, 2004 11:03 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by zoid:
Folks, remember to read more than fiction. History is good. So are archaeology and the natural sciences. Mix up your reading diet.

P.P.S.
The books I can't live without are the ones I have yet to read. Life would be pretty unbearable without the prospect of great books to read for the remainder of my time here...

I would have a hard time saying I couldn't live without a particular book that I haven't read. And though a lot of the history, economics, politics, physics & mathematics that I've read is probably still in my library, the reason I'm not sure is I haven't felt the need to reread much of it. To put it another way, if it's already missing, reckon I didn't miss it.

What I would miss are the books I reread over & over again:

Neutron Star, Larry Niven
Neuromancer, William Gibson
Burning Chrome, William Gibson
Snow Crash, Neil Stephenson
Point of Impact, Stephen Hunter
the War in 2020, Ralph Peters

Keep the Shiny Side Up

ZOID

Monday, December 27, 2004 4:52 PM

YT responded thus:

Quote:
I would have a hard time saying I couldn't live without a particular book that I haven't read. And though a lot of the history, economics, politics, physics & mathematics that I've read is probably still in my library, the reason I'm not sure is I haven't felt the need to reread much of it. To put it another way, if it's already missing, reckon I didn't miss it.

What I would miss are the books I reread over & over again:

Neutron Star, Larry Niven
Neuromancer, William Gibson
Burning Chrome, William Gibson
Snow Crash, Neil Stephenson
Point of Impact, Stephen Hunter
the War in 2020, Ralph Peters

Keep the Shiny Side Up

Hmmm... Your points are well taken; but I fear we've had a bit of a miscommunication, so I'll rephrase somewhat, to give my statement depth (width? height?).

My statement, "The books I can't live without are the ones I have yet to read", means that I'm really looking forward to Greg Bear's next novel, David Brin's next, Gregory Benford's next book, whenever these might come out, whatever they may be about. These are the books I can't live without. I am currently eagerly anticipating William Gibson's "Pattern Recognition" in paperback; I don't buy hardcovers because I only like to read a book once (it's a long and boring story).

Suffice to say, it takes a special book to make me reread it, to warrant a hard-backed edition, and to make my elite list of books I can't live without. All 4 of my examples, above, fall into this category. Not many others do.

Having said that, I hafta get hardcovers for LoTR trilogy. Might want to lend them to the grandkids, someday...

Thanks for your list. Care to point out the reasons that make your list so re-readable? I dig Gibson, but I 'get' him on the first go 'round, and don't really see hidden depths in his work like Herbert's 'wheels within wheels' writing style, which can be interpreted at least three different ways, depending on how you set your mind to receive it. I suspect I could reread "Dune" from now to eternity and get something different, something revelatory out of it each time. In my evaluation, a great novel -- like a great movie -- doesn't just play over your eyes and capture your imagination (and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with pure escapism). Instead, the great novel or film runs through you from brain, to heart, through your 'dangly (or moist) bits' and out your feet, like a thunderbolt from God; an intense packet of multi-dimensional information that changes over time, yet remains valid and instructive.

And lest we forget, I consider "Firefly" to be in that class of entertainment. So, right now, the movies at the top of my 'I can't live without' list are "Serenity", "Shadow" and "Firefly", even though I've never seen them...

Explanatorily,

zoid

P.S.
I am also eagerly awaiting Neil Gaiman's next novel, having read all of his work to date. I highly recommend him to anyone with a sense of humor. Not 'science fiction-y', more of a 'Harry Potter' for adults (sort of 'world mythology-fiction'), but with a wicked wit that had me laughing out loud in doctors' waiting rooms, which are generally not funny places. If anybody knows Neil personally, could they please drag his ass out of whatever pub he's enjoying and chain him -- Prometheus-like -- to his typewriter?
_________________________________________________

"Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me." The Ballad of Serenity

CORNCOBB

Monday, December 27, 2004 6:24 PM

The Kama Sutra and the Necrotelecomnicon

"Gorramit Mal... I've forgotten my line."

BRUISERSMOM

Tuesday, December 28, 2004 12:08 AM

Star Trek books

Harry Potter series

Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles from Interview with a Vampire to Memnoch the Devil The rest of her vampire books are crap. She should listen to her editor.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy

Firefly books when/if they come out and are good.

GUITARCHICK

Tuesday, December 28, 2004 1:32 AM

Anything that has to do with Harry Potter (I love fairy tales).

And stuff by Marrion Zimmer Bradley. Ooh! And Madeline L'Engle.

Sci-fi in general and tattoo magazines!

ALTA

Tuesday, December 28, 2004 1:45 AM

Stephen King: The Stand: Dark Tower series, It, pretty much all of his stuff.
Richard Adams:Watership Down
Neil Gaiman: American Gods
Harlan Ellison:Anything he has ever written.
Daphne Du Maurier: Rebecca
Too many more to list.

*****************************
There's no place I can be
Since I found Serenity

GUITARCHICK

Tuesday, December 28, 2004 2:18 AM

ooooooooh! forgot about watership downs. and tailchaser's song.

ANNIK

Tuesday, December 28, 2004 5:34 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by zoid:
Folks, remember to read more than fiction. History is good. So are archaeology and the natural sciences. Mix up your reading diet.

P.P.S.
The books I can't live without are the ones I have yet to read. Life would be pretty unbearable without the prospect of great books to read for the remainder of my time here...

Great advice, Zoid. I'd say that I read two fiction books per week (as nighttime reading), and anywhere from one to three factual books in any area of interest (which is everything except sports -- I just can't get into sport stuff).

One of the more interesting factual books I ran across awhile ago is "Prehistory of Sex" by Doctor Timothy Taylor. And the Building Big series is great for us non-engineers to understand civil engineering issues and innovations.

If I could live forever, I'd really need access to a good library.

Cheers,
Annik
... my sister's a ship. We had a complicated childhood.

WILLIAMX

Tuesday, December 28, 2004 6:54 AM

I see
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
"The sprawl series* -William Gibson

Stuff I havn't seen:
A Distant Mirror - Barbara Tuchman

Regeneration
The Eye in the Door - Pat Barker
The Ghost Road

Bogeys and Bandits - Robert Gandt
Punks war - Ward Carroll

and the tons load of classics, atlases and military history I see laying around . . .

GORRAMREAVERS

Tuesday, December 28, 2004 1:28 PM

Shepard Book.

"..it is my very favorite gun."

BROWNCOAT1

Tuesday, December 28, 2004 2:10 PM

Here are mine:

- Lord of the Rings trilogy
- "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert Heinlein
- "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert Heinlein
- "Starship Troopers" by Robert Heinlein
- "The Forever War" by Joe Hadleman
- "MacBeth" by Shakespeare

__________________________________________

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

Richmond, VA & surrounding area Firefly Meet Up:
http://firefly.meetup.com/9/boards/

YT

Thursday, December 30, 2004 1:13 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by zoid:
I am currently eagerly anticipating William Gibson's "Pattern Recognition" in paperback; I don't buy hardcovers because I only like to read a book once (it's a long and boring story).

We have an extra five months . . .

I, on the other hand, don't purchase paperbacks 'cause, if I'm only going to read the book once, I'll support my local library.

Quote:
Suffice to say, it takes a special book to make me reread it, to warrant a hard-backed edition, and to make my elite list of books I can't live without.
...
Having said that, I hafta get hardcovers for LoTR trilogy. Might want to lend them to the grandkids, someday...

I applaud your sense of grandfatherly responsibility.

Quote:
Thanks for your list. Care to point out the reasons that make your list so re-readable?

Familiar books are like time machines; rereading them takes me back to the first time. Neutron Star may mean more to me, for that reason, than to a new fan. It is a collection of hard SF, published in 1966. Larry Niven was on his way to becoming the O Henry of science fiction when he was seduced, by awards & scads of money, into working only on novels. But before that, he saved SF from the new wave.

William Gibson's science fiction (as opposed to his more recent stuff, which ain't exactly SF) is the most information-dense literature I've ever encountered. He can invent a word, and show me a whole new world. He deserves a section in the next edition of Elements of Style, & I need a new word to describe what he does. I think of it as an evolution of imagery, his language conjuring not just pictures but societal frameworks. Gibson affects me the way poetry is supposed to, but almost never has. But the time machine may be @work here, too. I had lost my faith in SF when I found Gibson, and was reborn.

There are flaws in Snow Crash but, two great characters, & concepts spanning all of recorded history, kept me so engrossed that I didn't begin to notice the flaws until I'd read it several times. Stephenson can also create a world with a word.

I love conspiracy theories; I even liked the Lone Gunmen. Point of Impact is the conspiracy theory of a lone gunman, & fascinatin' character.

Ralph Peters is a retired US Army officer. He has written several novels, most involving small unit combat. Some folk might call that military fiction but, as it says on the tin, the War in 2020 is set in the future, which quacks like SF to me. The time machine means it always feels like I'm reading it when the USSR still mattered.

Thinking of these books is like remembering my first kiss. Rereading one of them is like feeling it again.

Rereading Little Big, by John Crowley, is like tasting it.

Keep the Shiny Side Up

XENOCIDE

Thursday, December 30, 2004 4:01 PM

I couldn't possibly save all the Heinlein I own (in the proverbial fire.) I am amazed that everyone seems to be willing to save Starship Troopers. Personally Heinleins nod to facism would get left as I sacrificed my flesh for:

Moon is a Harsh Mistress (and any of Heinleins more libertarian treatises)

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Books,

Harvest the Fire; The Stars are Also Fire and the rest of that Series.

Books by Ken MacLeod especially The Cassini Division and other books in that series.

Forever War would make the cut but not Forever Free. Did anyone Read that? I mean what the hell kind of drugs was he doing that day. Talk about God in the machine.

Fallen Angels by Niven and Pournelle? Maybe? Introduced me to fandom and so I owe that book a debt.

And of course Farenheit 451. If that book burned the irony alone might kill me.
Outside of fiction:

All the poetry of Pablo Neruda.

Bastiat's "The Law"

Free Market Environmentalism

The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche

The Complete Works of Weber

The Marx Reader

501 Spanish Verbs (awesome book with conjugations and colloquial meanings and useful phrases)

Civilization and Its Discontents (the only good thing ever written by Freud IMNSHO)

The Jefferson Bible.

The NRSV Bible. Maybe Darby in a pinch. And the old family king james (but only cause it has the family tree...the translation sucks.)

"The Art of Happiness" from the Dalai Lama

The State by Peter Kropotkin

Anarchy in Action by Colin Ward

And...and...and...

nevermind. If the books must burn I am staying in my study!

-Eli

"If voting mattered it would be illegal."

XENOCIDE

Thursday, December 30, 2004 4:01 PM

Double post Sorry.

SSPRINGS

Thursday, December 30, 2004 11:31 PM

The Giver by Lois Lowry

The Jefferson Bible by Thomas Jefferson

ZOID

Friday, December 31, 2004 12:05 AM

xenocide:

Great list! You wrote:

Quote:
...I am amazed that everyone seems to be willing to save Starship Troopers...

The first Heinlein I ever read was "Revolt in 2100". When I saw the trailer for the original Star Wars back in nineteen-seventy-*mumble*, I took one look at the light sabres and exclaimed -- sotto voce -- in the theatre, "Cool! Vibroblades!". In similar fashion, when "The Empire Strikes Back" trailered, I muttered, "What a rip! That's a sandworm from 'Dune'".

Quote:
...Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Books...

Read 'em, dug 'em all; red, green and blue.

Quote:
...Niven and Pournelle...

Great team. Loved the Heorot/Beowulf books. Very good characters and believable alien lifeforms. Nobody's mentioned Frederick Pohl, so I'm gonna lump the Heechee in with Niven's Ring denizens as best of genre.

Quote:
...The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche ...

Seriously? Ubermensch socialism that so appealed to Hitler? Nietzsche was wrong, bass-ackwards: The State exists to serve the People, not the other way 'round. Do you like his stuff as an example of logical folly? I mean, no offense intended to you, but, whoa!

Quote:
..."The Art of Happiness" from the Dalai Lama...

Good call there, though strange bedfellows with FN and Weber. On a similar note, "Zen and the Art of Making a Living", by Laurence Boldt changed my way of looking at my life's work. Read my profile page, regarding 'never wanting to retire'. Since reading his book, I have striven to make my life's work an artform that I perfect every day. As a result, I am fully self-actualized in my profession.

Quote:
...If the books must burn I am staying in my study!

One of the more memorable images from Fahrenheit 451. And I'll be right there with you, Brother, pouring the brandy and offering you a last cigar (and probably arguing with you 'til the flames embrace us that a true ubermensch knows he must serve others, not force them to serve him). If the thirst for knowledge and enlightenment ever totally leaves Humanity, I'm going with it. Let's hope that 'reality TV', "Judge Judy" and "Entertainment Tonight" and their ilk are just passing phases, not the barbarians at the gates...

Appreciatively,

zoid
_________________________________________________

"Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me." The Ballad of Serenity

MALICIOUS

Friday, December 31, 2004 12:28 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Alta:
Daphne Du Maurier: Rebecca

Hi, Alta!

Ever read "The House on the Strand" by Ms. Du Maurier? If not, I HIGHLY recommend it.

Mal-licious

Co-Holder of the Red Bell from Hell

AX

Friday, December 31, 2004 1:10 AM

Wow! I love threads like this. I need to go through and make a list of books I haven't read yet.

My List:

Sandman, all volumes, by Neil Gaiman: One of the best comic books of all time. Brilliant, moving, and meaningfull. I love everything else by Gaiman, but the Sandman is easily at the top of the list.

The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings, by JRR Tolkien: I love the Silmarillion because it tells the history of an entire people in a way that moves me. More than once I found myself overwhelmed by the courage of the characters, and the tradgedy that they bring down on themselves. The Hobbbit is a brilliant children's story that hints at darker happenings. The Lord of the Rings is filled with a diverse cast of fleshed out characters, and gives builds on the themes of how even the smallest person can change the world.

White Apples, by Jonathan Carroll: I love everything I've ever read by this author, but his most recent story takes a high place on my list.
From the perspective of a man who has been brought back from death to help protect his son from Chaos, this novel is filled with detailed characters and asks a lot of really great questions about life and death.

Kushiel's Dart, by Jacqueline Carey: An intricate fantasy, told from the first person prospective of a prostitute. This woman though has been touched by a god and plays an important role in a struggle taking place for her country. Describing the story is difficult, but there are a lot of really neat ideas in this book. A very unique fantasy.

A lot of the other books I'd put on my list have been mentioned (Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, To Kill a Mockingbird, anything by Ray Bradbury, The Dark Tower Books), so I'm going to call it good for now.

"Blue so deep it swallowed me / Like the sky eating the birds." Matt Lindquist

TERRYO

Friday, December 31, 2004 2:35 AM

Great, now where did I put my copy of The House on the Strand?

Any book that echoes in your mind decades after you've read it gets 5 stars, no question.

terry

p.s. am I the only one who thinks that the AddAll site is even better than half.com? http://used.addall.com/

Quote:
Originally posted by Malicious:
Quote:
Originally posted by Alta:
Daphne Du Maurier: Rebecca

Hi, Alta!

Ever read "The House on the Strand" by Ms. Du Maurier? If not, I HIGHLY recommend it.

Mal-licious

Co-Holder of the Red Bell from Hell

NEUTRINOLAD

Friday, December 31, 2004 4:09 AM

I'm going to try to not duplicate any of the many fine entries already cited.
This is from memory, sorry if I misspell an author's name or get the title wrong.

1. Tales of The Dying Earth Jack Vance
2. Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
3. Ken's Guide To The Bible Ken Smith
4. Stories from the Thousand and One Nights Harvard Classics Edition
5. The Whys of a Philisophical Scrivener Martin Gardner
6. Reminiscences of a Stock Operator Edwin Lefevre
7. Silverlock John Myers Myers
8. Symbolic Logic Lewis Carroll
9. The American Language H. L. Mencken
10. Reference Data for Radio Engineers
11. Rudyard Kipling Complete Verse
12. The Physiology of TasteBrillat Savarin, love the MFK Fisher translation with her notes
13. Expert C Programming Peter van der Linden, an entertaiing book about programming for programmers
14. The Mythical Man Month F. P. Brooks Jr.
15. The World of Mathematics ed. J.R. Newman
16. any Benchley collection
17. 3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated Donald Knuth
18. Jeeves and Wooster stories PG Wodehouse
19. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
20. The Story of Philosophy Will Durant
21. A Wrinkle In Time Madeleine L'Engle
22. The Dark Knight Returns/The Complete Frank Miller Batman Frank Miller, The edition I have is a really beautiful example of the bookmaker's art.

Still way too many to actually carry, but all worth re-reading.

XENOCIDE

Friday, December 31, 2004 2:45 PM

Zoid:
I'll gladly accept the cigar, and the arguments...

Quote:
...The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche ... Seriously? Ubermensch socialism that so appealed to Hitler? Nietzsche was wrong, bass-ackwards: The State exists to serve the People, not the other way 'round. Do you like his stuff as an example of logical folly? I mean, no offense intended to you, but, whoa!

Nietzsche gets a bad rap because Hitler misread him and said he liked him. Have you read zarathustra? Nietzsche hates the state and limiting religion. His work is about becoming your true self...self actualization. Just look at the choice of word mensch. German has a lot of words for man that would better fit the typical interpretation. But he uses mensch which means (colloquially) a decent guy.

The idea of the Ubermensch is meant to mean someone who was freed himself. Zarathustra tries to persuade all men to free themselves from chains to state and religion and other constucted loyalties that make us less than we can be. It is not about the slavery to the state that hitler (and every other authoritarian from plato on) proposes. It is about mental and spiritual freedom.

But in fairness, Nietzche is more literature than consistent philosphy. I'm at work now, but I'll try and bring in some juicy quotes on monday.

-Eli

"If voting mattered, they'd make it illegal."

MONTANAGIRL

Friday, December 31, 2004 10:20 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by xenocide:
And of course Farenheit 451. If that book burned the irony alone might kill me.

I love this thread! It's great to see so many old favorites get mentioned, and it's added incredibly to my list of books to read. Thank you everyone!

Packer fans welcome.
All others tolerated.

UNCHARTEDOUTLAW

Saturday, January 1, 2005 12:40 AM

Well, I would definitely say anything by Stephen Baxter. He rocks! But I'd most definitely say his new book _Coalescent_ and its sequel _Exultant_. Both of them are top-notch reads!

-Taylor

The Uncharted Outlaw!
Captain of Prosperity (99-K64)

See my Site:
http://www.geocities.com/norcalriviera
See my Firefly Store: http://www.cafepress.com/NorCalRiviera

ECGORDON

Saturday, January 1, 2005 1:08 AM

I've been meaning to respond to this thread ever since El Jefé started it, and even started several lists which became too long and cumbersome, so I'm gonna just mention a few that I absolutely could not live without.

I did read through the entire thread and I am sure no one mentioned the book I consider to be the best I have ever read - Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker.

Robert Heinlein is my all-time favorite author and I would not want to be without any of his books, but most especially The Moon is A Harsh Mistress, Starship Troopers, Friday, and Job: A Comedy of Justice. I am anxiously awaiting the day that Tim Minear's screenplay version of "Moon" is greenlighted, and if Joss directs I might have to assume I have died and gone to heaven.

My favorite of current authors is Gene Wolfe, and his best include The Fifth Head of Cerberus, The Book of the New Sun, and the Latro novels, Soldier of the Mist and Soldier of Arete. I have read The Knight but have not yet gotten its follow-up The Wizard.

I also want to mention a book brought up by Debbiebuk. I believe this is the first time I've encountered anyone else who has read Riddley Walker. I've only read it once, but recall it fondly. It was probably easier for someone in the UK, but for me I had to read a lot of it out loud (with a feeble attempt at a British accent) to understand some of the phrasing.

MALICIOUS

Saturday, January 1, 2005 1:46 AM

I'm sorry, but I instantly read your post with John Cleese's voice in my head!

Mal-licious

Co-Holder of the Red Bell from Hell

SAMSONITEGORILLATEST

Saturday, January 1, 2005 4:57 AM

Congratulations on getting the titles right!

YT

Tuesday, January 4, 2005 11:32 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by zoid:
Nobody's mentioned Frederick Pohl, so I'm gonna lump the Heechee in with Niven's Ring denizens as best of genre.

Ringworld, or Smoke Ring? I loved Ringworld (think he's been slackin' with the sequels (actually, with all of his sequels)), but could never get into the Smoke Ring. The concept is so foreign I just have trouble believing that any of its denizens would have enough in common with me to communicate anything more personal than physics.

Keep the Shiny Side Up

Wutzon: Stones, "Exile On Main Street"

ZOID

Wednesday, January 5, 2005 2:18 AM

YT:

Should read, "...Ringworld denizens". Sorry. I always just thought of the place as The Ring.

Since we're on the subject of good reads (as opposed to books we can't live without), have you read Niven's "Destiny Road"? I thought that was eminently readable and novel. Kinda Firefly-like, in that the human settlers just get dropped off in a place, and then the supplies run out and they're left to their own resources. Culture devolves to match the strains of the environment, et cetera.

Very entertaining, I thought.

Respectfully,

zoid
_________________________________________________

"Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me." The Ballad of Serenity

YT

Wednesday, January 5, 2005 3:50 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by zoid:

Should read, "...Ringworld denizens". Sorry. I always just thought of the place as The Ring.

So did I &, I expect, everyone else, until he wrote the Smoke Ring novels.

Quote:
have you read Niven's "Destiny Road"? I thought that was eminently readable and novel. Kinda Firefly-like, in that the human settlers just get dropped off in a place, and then the supplies run out and they're left to their own resources. Culture devolves to match the strains of the environment, et cetera.

No, but I have it (around here (somewhere)). I'm looking forward to the difference between the society he creates & that of "Legacy of Heorot". The latter was Jerry Pournelle's concept, & is influenced by his philosophy that a society has the morality it can afford.

Keep the Shiny Side Up

Wutzon: SRV, "the Sky Is Crying"

INDIGO

Wednesday, January 5, 2005 10:39 PM

Yay! One of the best games ever -- difficult too. My but aren't we a well read bunch!
Some of my favorite books are those that I have read while travelling and so are associated with the memories of those times and places and the intense attention that I placed upon the book, because it and the moment were so precious (I put a + sign by them). Severely limiting myself:

Non Fiction:
A good dictionary
The Elements of Style - W. Strunk Jr. & E. B. White, 1979, 3rd ed. If you write, you must have this or its like.
+ A Distant Mirror; the Calamitous 14th Century - Barbara Tuchman, 1978
+ The Dream at the End of the World; Paul Bowles and the Literary Renegades in Tangier - Michelle Green, 1992
Man and His Symbols - Carl Jung, 1964
The Tao of Physics - Fritjof Capra, 1991, 3rd ed.
The Power of Limits: Proportional Harmonies in Nature, Art & Architecture - Gyorgy Doczi, 1985
Chaos - James Gleick, 1987
(And yes, I did like Goedel, Escher, Bach!)
+ Shelter - a neato, big book published by the folks at Whole Earth Catalogue. Don't own it now, but it was so cool to look through; a compedium of architectures around the earth.

Religion and Philosophy:
Well, that's difficult so I'll limit myself harshly (I study mythology).
The Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu
+ A Witches Bible Compleat - Janet & Stewart Farrar, 1981
The Prologemena, Themis, & Epilegomena - a Study of the Social Origins of Greek Religion - Jane Ellen Harrison, 1903-1921
The Eddas (haven't finished them yet; think Beowulf)

Poetry:
All the Night Wings - Loren Eiseley
+ Anything by Gary Snyder
+ Modern Greek Poetry - ed. & trans. by Kimon Friar, pub. 1993

Prose and other Fiction:
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll (odd, no date on my old edition; probably the first book that I remember reading and will do so again every few years - best out loud!)
Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco. Hell, one of the best books *ever*.
Anything by Neal Stephenson. Yum, yum, yum.
Most of + Herman Hesse, + Lawrence Durrell, Paul Bowles, H. P. Lovecraft, Lois McMaster Bujold, Bruce Sterling, Ray Bradbury, Robert Holdstock, Spider Robinson, Gene Wolfe (!!!), John Fowles, Tanith Lee, and all time favorite... Charles de Lint (*nice* people too, he and his wife).
+ A Movable Feast - Hemingway (short book, but I read it 5 times on a **long** bus ride once, and it held up every time).
+ Desert Solitaire; A Season in the Wilderness - Edward Abbey, 1968. That book has been everywhere with me.
And but of course: Euripides and Homer.

But I ramble, agh, this is an impossible task.
--Indigo

Art is Long and Time is fleeting -- Longfellow

NICOLACLARKE

Thursday, January 6, 2005 12:13 PM

I've actually been avoiding this thread, because I know that once I start listing my favourite books I'll never stop. Still, am in a mood to procrastinate right now, so here goes.

SF/fantasy:
The Lions of al-Rassan - Guy Gavriel Kay
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula Le Guin
Ash - Mary Gentle
Mythago Wood - Robert Holdstock
The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell
Collected Sandman - Neil Gaiman et al
Use of Weapons - Iain M Banks
Pavane - Keith Roberts
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Gap Series - Stephen Donaldson
A Song of Ice and Fire (thus far) - George RR Martin
The Broken Crown - Michelle West
Grass - Sheri S Tepper
Dragon Star trilogy - Melanie Rawn
The Mists of Avalon - Marion Zimmer Bradley

Other fiction:
A Game of Kings - Dorothy Dunnett
The Diary of a Madman and other stories - Nikolai Gogol
The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco
The Crimson Petal and the White - Michael Faber
The Castle of Crossed Destinies - Italo Calvino
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov
Fingersmith - Sarah Waters
The Tin Drum - Gunter Grass
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

Random (auto)biographical-ness:
The Travels - Ibn Battuta
The Baburnama
Six Records of a Floating Life - Shen Fu
Wild Swans - Jung Chang

History:
The Annals - Tacitus
The Twelve Caesars - Suetonius
White Mughals - William Dalrymple
Captives: Britons, Empire and the World - Linda Colley
Enlightenment - Roy Porter
Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Colour - Philip Ball
Moorish Spain - Richard Fletcher
The Incas - Terence N. D'Altroy
The Legacy of Muslim Spain - Salma Khadra Jayyusi (ed)
Orientalism - Edward Said
God's Caliph: Religious Authority in the first centuries of Islam - Patricia Crone and Martin Hinds

Poetry/drama/saga:
Anything by Euripides, especially Medea and Bacchae
Aeneid - Virgil
Gulistan (The Rose Garden) - Sa'di
Sonnets to Orpheus - Rainer Maria Rilke
The Conference of the Birds - Farid al-Din Attar
Yeats
The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Basho
Njal's saga
The Duchess of Malfi - John Webster
Various Shakespeare, esp. Othello

Misc:
The Symposium - Plato
Hans Wehr's Arabic-English Dictionary (4th ed)

...enough already? Anyone curious about any of these books, just ask

/ pure intentions, juxtaposed /

ZOID

Friday, January 7, 2005 5:18 AM

YT:

Ahhh! Two days without electricity in an 18 degree (hi temp) ice storm! Midwest livin' at its finest!

Heorot differs from Destiny in that the Beowulf/Heorot settlers are few and the tech they bring with them is prodigious. In Destiny, the settlers are prodigious, but the planet lacks the necessary natural resources to support a technical -- or even industrial -- society. Lots of neat cultural insights, more than Man-Versus-Critters (although I did love the dragons).

Respectfully,

zoid
_________________________________________________

"Burn the land (for wamth) and boil the sea (over the burning land, 'cause the microwave ain't runnin'), you can't take the sky from me." The Ballad of Serenity

NKYJAY

Friday, January 7, 2005 9:51 AM

never can resist these threads

So, for some of my favourites.

Sci-fi:
Downbelow Station, Rimrunners, Heavy Time, Hellburner all by CJ Cherryh. Really enjoyed her fantasy Morgaine trilogy too.
The Uplift Wars series by David Brin
Dune
Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin, and loved her fantasy Earthsea series too
House of the Wolf series by MK Wren
Ender's Game and Xenocide, Orson Scott Card
Grass and Beauty by Sheri S. Tepper
The Gandalaran Cycle (Glass of Dyskornis, Search for Ka, Bronze of Eddarta, Steel of Raithskar and The River Wall) by Randall Garrett
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Farenheit 451

Fantasy:
The Last Unicorn by Peter Beagle
Dragonslayer, Knight of the Demon Queen, Dragonstar (and I'm forgetting one in this series) by Barbara Hambley
The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings for defining the genre
Greenwich, Over sea under Stone, The Grey King (and again forgetting a couple of titles) by Susan Cooper, which introduced me to fantasy at the tender age of 10
Bridge of Birds - never fails to cheer me up

Other:
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Prince of Tides
The Great Gatsby
Turtle Moon, Susan Howard
An Instant in the Wind by Andre Brink
Before Adam
Firestarter by Stephen King
Any poetry by Roy Campbell, but particularly Zulu Girl and Horses of the Camargue

...and there are plenty more, but I'll leave it at that for now.

I have a slight flaw in my character

IAMZOE

Friday, January 7, 2005 3:09 PM

When the arsonist set my house on fire, I didn’t stop to pick up anything. Not even books. Me and my flatmate just ran out into the snow in our pyjamas and a weird assortment of whatever warm clothes were to hand.
Weirdly, it wasn’t that scarey at the time, but, wow, I get some nightmares now.
However, assuming that a very slow emergency was happening, which gave me time to look through some books and choose some of the best ones, I would pick:

1. something or everything by Antonia Forest – a true unrecognised genius
2. at least one book by Charles Ritchie – probably the one about his childhood – Canada’s best diary-writer
3. The Three Muskateers – I still want to be d’Artagnan
4. Love and Zen in the Outer Hebrides by Kevin Macneil - perfect
5. No Great Mischief by Alistair Macleod – see above

I liked a lot of the lists above… glad people mentioned Little Women. Also nice to see Jack Vance on a list – a friend gave me Tales of the Dying Earth last year with the recommendation that it they were the best SF novels he’d ever read. It’s my aim to finish them this year – I got to the book where he has to start that journey all over again (trying not to spoil it here) and I just couldn’t take it. There are some recommendations I’ll be checking out… plus, The Face on the Milk Carton – I haven’t seen that for years!

Final book list: ones that I have just read recently, so can’t be put on the first list, but which I am currently recommending:

1. Madame by Antoni Libera – oooh, Polish
2. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber – it is too short. Really, Just start, and you’ll see what I mean.

SIMONWHO

Wednesday, January 12, 2005 2:48 AM

I must admit, even though I'm an avid reader, I'm not that much of a re-reader, plus there's loads of great books out there I haven't read yet but then I'd never know how great they were if they disappeared off the planet.

Books that meant a lot when I read them for the first time:

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - an endless succession of brilliant ideas, jokes and thoughts. This is undoubtably the unfashionable end of the Milky Way.

The Catcher in the Rye - I read this at just the right age but haven't re-read it since. I almost don't want to since I have grown up but Holden hasn't.

The Sherlock Holmes stories - I now know the twists of these plots like the back of my hand but the pace of the writing and the evocation of the era raises above other mystery stories.

I'd also really miss all the books of Terry Pratchett, Dick Francis, Tolkien and my compendiums of Far Side, Calvin and Hobbes and Dilbert but I don't think there's any "one" book I just couldn't live without.

WHISPER

Thursday, April 28, 2005 4:44 AM

oOoOoh! Books, yay!

If i had to pick one and only one it would be:

"The Light Bearer" by Donna Gillespie.

Absolutely my all time favorite. Wonderfully, epic, violent, and romantic. Quote from back of book "She was a warrior, a priestess, and a threat to the powers of ancient Rome." Highly, HIGHLY recommend this novel.

If i had a box to carry books in:

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (like an adult Harry Potter- very good, very funny)

Merry Gentry series/ Anita Blake series by Laurell K Hamilton (sexy, smutty, fantasy fun)

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Jayne Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde (Fun, witty and whimsical series about a literary detective that can jump into books and interact with the characters. The first book is called "The Eyre Affair" and Thursday jumps into Jane Eyre to stop an assination plot and ends up changing the ending of the book. Very cute series.)

Those are all for now. That box would be pretty damn heavy.

www.whispergraphics.net

MANWITHPEZ

Thursday, April 28, 2005 5:07 AM

All right! I was hoping this one would turn up again...

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux...So very pretty!

Bag Of Bones by Stephen King...You may not be a King fan, but you don't have to be to love this book. So good!

American Tabloid by James Ellroy...I was going to put The Black Dahlia, but that book was like a kindergarten primer compared to this one.

MacBeth/Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare...I won't try to include all of his stuff, so here's my two favorites.

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby...If you've seen the movie, you don't have the whole story (Not a dig on the movie, I love that movie, but this book!)

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving...Read this book and try to not think of Autumn...go ahead, try!

Watchers by Dean R. Koontz...hailed by some critics as the most accomplished poopular novel of the 80s...you could do a lot worse than reading Lightning as well.

The Tick: Omnibus #1 by Ben Edlund...Yeah, I know he writes for the Jossverse, and that alone should give him the tip, but The Tick was just so mind numbingly...well, stupid, and probably one of the funniest things I've ever read.

Bring Me The Head of Prince Charming by Roger Zelazny and Robert Sheckley...I choked laughing out loud at this book. A little hard to find now, though, and I've never read any of the others in this series.

A Night In The Lonesome October by Gahan Wilson and Roger Zelazny...Jack the Ripper a good guy? Animal familiars telling the stories of some of the victorian eras greatest monsters and detectives...Also, hard to find.

There's a few to start...

Kaylee: "What's so damn important about being proper? It don't mean nothing out here in the black."
Simon: "It means more out here. It's all I have..."

HANITRADER

Thursday, April 28, 2005 5:45 AM

Scrolling through the Thread...

Most folk seemed to have seem to have hit upon the major titles...

But what of the Novels that have paved the way for Firefly???

Andre Norton: The Solar Queen Series.
C.J. Cherryh: Downbelow Station and Chanur Series.
Poul Anderson: The Polesotechnic League Series.
John Clute: Appleseed.

Interstellar Traders and Freelancers abound- jobs and mayhem everywhere- Have'nt read them? Check them out.

Just cannot wait for the Movie!!!!

COTTONWOOLFAIRY

Thursday, April 28, 2005 10:07 AM

For books to save from a fire I would have to choose:

First and foremost all 9 Robin Hobb books: The Farseer Trilogy, The Liveships Series and the Tawny Man Trilogy - utterly wonderful fantasy.
Watership Down by Richard Adams
The Colditz Story and its sequel, The Latter Days At Colditz, by Pat Reid
As many Anne Mccaffrey and Terry Pratchett books as I could carry
The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart

These are the only ones I can think of off hand (not counting Harry Potter or LOTR).

Of course since I'm currently at uni and the bookshelf (singular!) is microscopic, most of the books I have with me have titles like: 'Engineering Mathematics' and 'The Astronomical Almanac 2005'. Not sure I'd risk anything to rescue Physics textbooks from a fire!

YT

Monday, May 2, 2005 9:05 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Whisper:
Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde

Hey Whisper, glad to see you're getting out of the Blue Sun room, and congratulations on finding this thread. The best old thread, imo, is "Ten things I learned from watching Firefly" http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=4&t=1967 .

As for Jasper, I second your endorsement of the Eyre Affair. It's even more difficult to classify than Firefly. Ffolks, just find a copy & start reading it. I thought Lost In a Good Book, & the Well of Lost Plots (sequels) were something of a comedown. But I highly recommend his website http://www.jasperfforde.com/ ; you might want to stop in for upgrades to your copies of his novels.

Quote:
www.whispergraphics.net

I can also recommend this website.

Keep the Shiny Side Up . . . (wutzon) Squeeze, "Tempted", from "GH"

YT

Monday, May 2, 2005 9:19 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by cottonwoolfairy:
The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart

The whole tetralogy (+ Hollow Hills, Last Enchantment, & Wicked Day). Mary Stewart fixed the mistakes made by Geoffrey of Monmouth, Sir Thomas Malory & T H White. This is as close as we're likely to get to the true story of Merlin & Arthur, and it's wonderful.

Keep the Shiny Side Up . . . (wutzon) Bob Marley & the Wailers, "Jammin' ", from "One Love"

COTTONWOOLFAIRY

Monday, May 2, 2005 9:50 PM

yeah, I've read the first three many times and love them dearly, but we don't have Wicked Day at home - did it come out more recently?

YT

Monday, May 2, 2005 10:17 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by cottonwoolfairy:
we don't have Wicked Day at home - did it come out more recently?

There was a bit of a gap, but it was published in 1983. Mary Stewart originally envisioned a trilogy about Merlin, which is what you have read. The fourth book is about, with much of it told from the point of view of, Mordred.

Amusingly, 'though it's been known as the four-novel Arthurian Saga for a couple of decades, an omnibus volume of the Merlin trilogy (the first three novels) was released just last year.

Keep the Shiny Side Up . . . (wutzon) Moe, "Seat of My Pants", from "Warts & All, vol 2"

CAPTAINCDC

Monday, May 2, 2005 10:26 PM

Among many these stand out for me:

The Sword Of Truth series by Terry Goodkind

Lord Of The Rings

The Stand, It, Dark Tower series, Talisman and Black House, Insomnia by Stephen King

---------------------------------------

The only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason!

BLACKEYEDGIRL

Tuesday, May 3, 2005 2:09 AM

The Hitchhiker's Guide series (all 5 in the trilogy)
Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale: The Philosophy of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Francesca Lia Block's Weetzie Bay series, now all in one book called Dangerous Angels

That's about all I can't live without, lots of books I'd love to keep though!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Inara: "Do aliens live among us?"
Kaylee: "Yes. One of them's a doctor."

FILMGODDESS

Tuesday, May 3, 2005 3:48 AM

hmmmm, good question.

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley - Favorite book of all time
All of Chuck Palahniuk's books (he's amazing)
1984, and Clergyman's daughter - George Orwell.
(I seem to have a think for Satire)

The lord of the Ring Trilogy
The Harry Potter series
The Zahn Star Wars Books

And I can't think of anything else at the moment so I guess they're not as important

"If you're stupid, surround yourself with smart people. If you're smart, surround youself with smart people who disagree with you"
- Isaac from Sports Night

WHISPER

Tuesday, May 3, 2005 4:03 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by YT:

I thought Lost In a Good Book, & the Well of Lost Plots (sequels) were something of a comedown.

I agree, YT. I am currently reading Something Rotten, the fourth (and last?) novel in the series. It too seems to have lost some of the charm the original had. It still makes me laugh out loud though in some spots. Which can get you some pretty weird looks, when around other people!

Quote:

Quote:
www.whispergraphics.net

I can also recommend this website.

Thanks for the endorsement! This is the first site I've ever done, so I'm just kind of muddling my way through it. So it means a lot. Thanks!

Quote:
The best old thread, imo, is "Ten things I learned from watching Firefly"

I'll check it out, thanks!

SHINEY

Tuesday, May 3, 2005 4:18 AM

The Oustsiders by SE Hinton

Dune novels by Frank Herbert.

Harry Potter novels by JK Rowling

Lioness Rampant novels by Tamora Pierce
(classics from my youth)

Friday by Robert Heinlein

Xanth novels by Piers Anthony

A Wrinke in Time by ( shoot I forgot how to spell her name)

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Merry Gentry novels by Laurell K Hamilton

Artemis Fowl books by Eion Colfer

A Series of Unfortunate Events books by Lemony Snickett

Hitchicker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

There's more but since I'm such a bookworm I'll cut it at that length.

"Oh My God It's Grotesque! Oh And There's Something In A Jar."

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