The Book Thread Book • Page 13

Are you still interested in the tv show? Because I still am, even with not loving the story as much as I used to.

 

Started Eula Biss - Notes From No Man's Land last night. Heavy but enjoying it so far.

 

Read Joyland by Stephen King the other day. Absolutely loved it. Reminded me a lot of the film Adventureland which I love, so this was a perfect match. Really the only "complaint" I could have is that it isn't really scary / horror like I thought it would be. But it was so great that I didn't mind the lack of scares and thrills.

I honestly think King doesn't get enough recognition for what he does outside of horror. I think too many people assume he's just writing It or The Shining rehashes or knockoffs. His work outside of horror is still great writing and stories (11/22/63, The Eyes of the Dragon, Joyland).

 

I think his non horror is better than his horror

 

He has two short stories that I always read at Halloween: October in the Chair and The Witch's Headstone-this one ties into The Graveyard Book and also The Ocean at the End of the Lane (if you've read that one)

 

I've been readin Greg Egan's Diaspora. I definitely recommended it for anyone into Hard Sci-fi. I never imagined a story like this existing, but once you read it it's hard not to believe it's our future set in motion.

 

What are everyone's top book(s) of all time?
I would really love to know and see if there is any extreme variations in the genres. I feel like my Top 5 are all pretty similar.

I know there is a book lists thread but that seems to be what everyone is currently reading and I want to know all-time favorites or most re-read.

 

Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut - Breakfast of Champions
Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange
Walt Whitman - Leaves of Grass
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
Rob Sheffield - Love Is A Mix Tape
Caitlin Doughty - Smoke Gets In Your Eyes And Other Lessons From The Crematory
Jack Kerouac - On The Road
Sarah Hepola - Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget
Paolo Coelho - The Alchemist

Just off the top of my head. I really enjoyed This Is How You Lose Her too, I can see that eventually cracking my top 10.

 

House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski is pretty easily my all-time favorite. Not sure how the rest of these would rank, but the rest of my top five would probably be:

Cormac McCarthy - The Road
Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game
Stephen King - either IT or Joyland
JK Rowling - Harry Potter series (Half Blood Prince if I have to pick just one)
Italo Calvino - If On a Winter's Night a Traveler...
Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale

 

Just finished reading The Twenty-Three by Linwood Barclay that's out tomorrow. Pretty good book, but I hadn't realized it was a final book in a trilogy. Still worked fine as a standalone book though. Up next is This Is Your Brain On Sports.

As far as favorite books go, Fight Club, Catcher in the Rye, and The Shining would probably be on my list right now. I more so have favorite authors than specific books I think. I'll read anything by Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, Chuck Klosterman, Chuck Palahniuk, and Hemingway. I'm sure there's some others. Like @troyplaysbass I loved House of Leaves, but not sure where it would land.

 

1. The Ocean at the End of the Lane-Neil Gaiman
2. Weetzie Bat-Francesca Lia Block
3. Harry Potter books (all of them)-JK Rowling
4. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy-Stieg Larsson
5. We Have Always Lived in the Castle-Shirley Jackson
6. Exit, Pursued by a Bear-EK Johnston
7. The Great Gatsby-F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. The Price of Salt-Patricia Highsmith

 

I have a lot of free time at work so I've thought about this a lot the last few weeks:

1 The Secret History
2 Watership Down
3 The Corrections
4 A Wild Sheep Chase
5 The Virgin Suicides
6 For Whom the Bell Tolls
7 White Noise
8 The Bell Jar
9 The New York Trilogy
10 The Winter of Our Discontent

Having read over 500 books this was pretty easy for me. I absolutely loved each and every one of these from the first page to the last and they've stuck with me for years.

 

Steinbeck-East of Eden
To a God Unknown
Winter of Our Discontent
Lois Lowry-Giver Quartet
Paulo Coehlo-The Alchemist
Tolkien-Children of Hurin/Silmarillion
Crichton-Andromeda Strain (hard to pick a favorite Crichton, but this one really stands out)
Dave Eggers-You Shall Know Our Velocity

i've got soooo many books on my shelves that i just haven't gotten to reading that i know i'll love, too. most of these are just what i read in high school, haha.

 

Tolkien - Lord of the Rings
Carlos Ruiz Zafon - Shadow of the Wind

Top two.

 

Infinite Jest
Gravity's Rainbow
The Road
Girl With Curious Hair
Lost in the Funhouse
Naked Lunch
The Recognitions
Dubliners
The Sun Also Rises
Ariel

 

Love Is a Mixtape
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Freedom
So Much for That
Empire Falls

 

Freedom by Franzen?

 

Ariel by Plath? If so, do you recommend any other poets? If not, who is this by? Hahah

 

Been dying to read We Have Always Lived in the Castle so this just pushed it to the top of my list. Thanks!

 

Yes, The Corrections has been on my list forever I just haven't gotten to it yet.

 

off the top of my head:

Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevski
The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
A Man of the People by Chinua Achebe
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

also, I only did novels but Angels In America is my favorite play

 

do it now. put everything else on hold and read The Corrections. yeah, it's 550+ some pages, but it took me like, 8 hours to get through. read it in one sitting and started it again as soon as i finished it. i can't say enough good things about it.

 

That makes me want to read it sooner now. I'll have to give it a go once I'm finished with All the King's Men

 

yes, and it is beautiful. I would recommend Lorca. he's one of my favorite poets. obviously Plath. Bukowski is brilliant. Lawrence Ferlinghetti is a beat poet I really enjoy. Charles Wright is a genius. you should enjoy at least one of those

 

The story itself is pretty predictable but the characters are so bizarre and offbeat and I love them