Arts & Humanities Books/Authors you like

[Igloo]

For those of you who are pretty keen readers, what are some books/authors you enjoy reading? Or what sort of genre do you enjoy reading the most?

I enjoyed all of Matthew Reilly's books, but am more into fantasy books (not erotica fantasy). David Eddings, etc.
I recently bought a book by Raymond Feist called Magician, and so far I reckon its great.

The biggest problem I have with choosing books to buy though is not knowing what are good ones to buy, or not knowing some good authors I may not have encountered before, so missing out on some good reads.

So I put it to you, posters of GD, what books do you like the most?

 

[Saint KFC]

[youtube]TFHs7AyBA20[/youtube]

 

[Igloo]

[YOUTUBE]p7w64fbqYQY[/YOUTUBE]

 

[BomberFletch31]

There's only one. Ian Fleming. I'm very much a Bond fan, so I'm somewhat biased, but I think Fleming is an excellent writer, and his best work, arguably, is Moonraker.

 

[grizzlym]

Oh god, too many books.... in no particular order:

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle - Murakami

Great Gatsby - Scott Fitzgerald

Proud Highway - Hunter S Thompson (the definitive collection of his letters, awesome)

Midnight's Children - Rushdie

Life a Users Manual - Georges Perec. Took me 3 attempts to read this book, once I was into it, I was hooked.

Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber. His other book under the skin is frightening.

The Leopard - can't remember the author

Tintin - Herge. Any of them. Just great.

America - Joe Queenan. Screamingly funny, but torturous too.

In Cold Blood - Truman Capote.

Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller.

Under the Volcano - Malcom Lowry. Absolutely harrowing book... when the dude digs up the bottle of booze he has hidden in the garden

A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess. Kubrik's film is amazing but this book is so inventive and creative it's a masterpiece in its own right.

Where I'm calling from - Raymond Carver. The most powerful short stories. Paul Kelly and Robert Altman have drawn inspiration from this dude.

Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco. I read it with a dictionary by my side - annoying. But a ripping, intelligent story.

Perfume - Patrick Suskind.

2022 - Roberto Bolano. A great book. Savage detectives is also good.

Everything is illuminated - Jonathon Saffran Froer

Stalingrad - Anthony Beever. Fantastic account of the battle that changed WW2

I love anything on conspiracy theories - the crappier the better.

 

[Caesar]

I won't talk about 'traditional' classics because they'll probably get covered by other people. I tend to be the sort of guy who latches onto an author and devours everything they've written, before moving on to the next one.

I'm basically a crime buff. I own very close to every book Agatha Christie ever wrote and the complete Sherlock Holmes anthology. As far as modern authors go Ian Rankin and P.D. James own all. I also some pulpy historical crime like Lindsay Davis' Falco series, and John Maddox Roberts' SPQR series.

Anybody who has the slightest interest in historical fiction or sailing should read C.S. Forester's Hornblower series... as a fan of both, this is pretty much my favourite series of books ever. I love Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series. As mentioned Ian Fleming's Bond books are a lot of fun, all boys should read them growing up IMO. Mathew Reilly's books are sometimes pretty cringy (stereotyped characters, awful dialogue, often predictable plotting) - but they're an absolute riot, kind of like a summer blockbuster movie in print. I am a big fan of Temple and Contest, his 'franchise' books not so much.

 

[beatlesmith]

Oh god, too many books.... in no particular order:

The Wind Up Bird Chronicle - Murakami

Great Gatsby - Scott Fitzgerald

Proud Highway - Hunter S Thompson (the definitive collection of his letters, awesome)

Midnight's Children - Rushdie

Life a Users Manual - Georges Perec. Took me 3 attempts to read this book, once I was into it, I was hooked.

Crimson Petal and the White - Michel Faber. His other book under the skin is frightening.

The Leopard - can't remember the author

Tintin - Herge. Any of them. Just great.

America - Joe Queenan. Screamingly funny, but torturous too.

In Cold Blood - Truman Capote.

Tropic of Cancer - Henry Miller.

Under the Volcano - Malcom Lowry. Absolutely harrowing book... when the dude digs up the bottle of booze he has hidden in the garden

A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess. Kubrik's film is amazing but this book is so inventive and creative it's a masterpiece in its own right.

Where I'm calling from - Raymond Carver. The most powerful short stories. Paul Kelly and Robert Altman have drawn inspiration from this dude.

Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco. I read it with a dictionary by my side - annoying. But a ripping, intelligent story.

Perfume - Patrick Suskind.

2022 - Roberto Bolano. A great book. Savage detectives is also good.

Everything is illuminated - Jonathon Saffran Froer

Stalingrad - Anthony Beever. Fantastic account of the battle that changed WW2

I love anything on conspiracy theories - the crappier the better.

A lot of win in here, particularly the Great Gatsby.
Last paragraph gets me every time.
"And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne ceaselessly back in to the past"

Myself i'm quite diverse. Usually read some crime fiction like Harlan Coben, but when i'm travelling I indulge in to some action/adventure because it's easier to pick up sporadically. Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler.

The books Imperium and Lustrum by Robert Harris about Cicero and late-republican Rome are fantastic.

 

[grizzlym]

Oh yeah, I also enjoyed Shantaram, that's a cracking story. And the first book in the Millennium Trilogy is also very good - Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

 

[grizzlym]

I won't talk about 'traditional' classics because they'll probably get covered by other people. I tend to be the sort of guy who latches onto an author and devours everything they've written, before moving on to the next one.

I'm basically a crime buff. I own very close to every book Agatha Christie ever wrote and the complete Sherlock Holmes anthology. As far as modern authors go Ian Rankin and P.D. James own all. I also some pulpy historical crime like Lindsay Davis' Falco series, and John Maddox Roberts' SPQR series.

Anybody who has the slightest interest in historical fiction or sailing should read C.S. Forester's Hornblower series... as a fan of both, this is pretty much my favourite series of books ever. I love Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series. As mentioned Ian Fleming's Bond books are a lot of fun, all boys should read them growing up IMO. Mathew Reilly's books are sometimes pretty cringy (stereotyped characters, awful dialogue, often predictable plotting) - but they're an absolute riot, kind of like a summer blockbuster movie in print. I am a big fan of Temple and Contest, his 'franchise' books not so much.

I got put onto the Martin Beck series of detective novels a few years back. 10 books by a husband and wife team. Sort of started the police procedural genre. They're well worth a look.

 

[Caesar]

Foucault's Pendulum - Umberto Eco. I read it with a dictionary by my side - annoying. But a ripping, intelligent story.

God I forgot completely about this - I LOVED this book. It was like what The Da Vinci Code could have been if it wasn't written as an airport paperback.

Eco is a phoneomenal author, The Name Of The Rose is one of my favourite crime novels ever.

I got put onto the Martin Beck series of detective novels a few years back. 10 books by a husband and wife team. Sort of started the police procedural genre. They're well worth a look.

Cheers for the tip. Are they more American or British-style crime? I've pretty much exclusively read British crime authors previously, but have actually been getting really into the American hardboiled genre recently - Raymond Chandler and all that jazz.

Has anyone read the Nils Larsson trilogy? I have heard lots of good things.

 

[grizzlym]

God I forgot completely about this - I LOVED this book. It was like what The Da Vinci Code could have been if it wasn't written as an airport paperback.

Eco is a phoneomenal author, The Name Of The Rose is one of my favourite crime novels ever.


Cheers for the tip. Are they more American or British-style crime? I've pretty much exclusively read British crime authors previously, but have actually been getting really into the American hardboiled genre recently - Raymond Chandler and all that jazz.

Has anyone read the Nils Larsson trilogy? I have heard lots of good things.

I'm not a big crime reader so I can't give you an accurate comparison. They are very matter of fact, but with a very dry sense of humour, which sometimes can be a little naff, that occasionally pokes through. But the characters are good, the crimes well thought out, and a they have a social (left-leaning) conscience. The characters really evolve over the 10 books too.

 

[grizzlym]

Umberto Eco's later books were rubbish though. Pretentious collections of words that just meandered into intellectual wank.

I agree with your assessment of Pendulum and Da Vinci code.

 

[Caesar]

To be honest I haven't read his other books. I've picked them up a couple of times in bookshops but the plots don't look remotely engaging, and given his writing style I don't know if I could slog through them without a strong story.

Speaking of disappointing books, War & Peace. I don't know about others, but I was pretty pissed that I made it all the way through, just for my personal favourite character to get completely screwed right at the end.

 

[Lazarus]

Great Gatsby is probably the best book I have ever read.

 

[grizzlym]

To be honest I haven't read his other books. I've picked them up a couple of times in bookshops but the plots don't look remotely engaging, and given his writing style I don't know if I could slog through them without a strong story.

Speaking of disappointing books, War & Peace. I don't know about others, but I was pretty pissed that I made it all the way through, just for my personal favourite character to get completely screwed right at the end.

War & Peace is a slog, no doubt. I do love Russian literature though. Master and Margarita is my favourite, perhaps not in the zone of most Russian books but a great, great book.

Speaking of detective books, you ever read any Benjamin Black?

He's the pen name of John Banville, the Irish author. They are great. Beautifully written, good characters, good stories.

 

[THRILLHO]

AC/DC - High Voltage.

 

[grizzlym]

Great Gatsby is probably the best book I have ever read.

Yeah, it's great. Funnily enough, someone told me the other day they hated the book. I immediately thought much less of them!

It's probably the great American novel. Ernest Hemmingway was a huge fan of Fitzgerald. Incidentally, he wrote an insightful assessment of Scott and his talent in a Moveable Feast.

 

[THRILLHO]

O wai, we doing it for real?

-- A Confederacy of Dunces, JKT
-- A Fortunate Life, AB Facey
-- The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, John Boyne

 

[Caesar]

The only other Russian book I've read is Crime & Punishment, which I loved... I should really get less lazy and take on a few more of those meatier books. I haven't read any Black... I must check him out. I like getting recommendations on modern authors because I struggle to find ones I like.

A couple of others I've thought of... John Buchan's Richard Hannay series (starting with The Thirty-Nine Steps) - real boys-own spy/adventure stories set before, during and after WW1, my favourite books growing up. Also loved the Three Musketeers by Dumas, although the sequels are pretty crap.

 

[beatlesmith]

Great Gatsby is probably the best book I have ever read.

Hear hear!

 

[AsianWithAFro]

Dan Brown

Harlan Coben

John Grisham

Matthew Reilly

P.S I am drunk went i wrote this

 

[grizzlym]

The only other Russian book I've read is Crime & Punishment, which I loved... I should really get less lazy and take on a few more of those meatier books. I haven't read any Black... I must check him out.

Well, that's not a bad 'other' book to have read. That and Brothers Kazaramov are top shelf.

If you want to read a couple of contemporary classics (in my opinion) the first book I posted, Wind Up Bird Chronicle, is hard to beat. Also have a look at Disgrace by Coetzee. And kicking around in those $10 Penguins is Donna Tartt's Secret History.

 

[Mooster7]

In no particular order:

History etc - Most of the time I'm reading History and Biographies. No favorite author. Military History most of the time and I'll read anything about Thomas Jefferson, Queen Elizabeth I, the Tudor & Elizabethan Periods.

Charles Dickens - Anything he's written, but 'A Christmas Carol' is my favoirte of his. Only 22 days remaining before the annual reading. I could teach that book at a collegiate post-graduate level without using notes.

Tom Clancy - Notably the Jack Ryan series. Although he tends to be a bit preachy. In his world, only Catholics from from the US East Coast can save the world. Non-Catholics not from the US East Coast are responsible for all the ills of the world. Extra super hero points if you went to ****ing Boston College. Still, they're good stories. Clancy's non-fiction is pretty good too.

J. R. R. Tolkien- The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. I'm no band wagon jumper. I loved these stories long before Peter Jackson decided to become a film producer. I've read these books once a year since Grade 6. I learn something new each read. Other than that, I don't care for the fantasy genre at all.

Mark Twain - Just about all of his stuff but I prefer his later writings when he's pissed off at the world.

Frederick Forsyth - Spy Book guy and one of the best. Any and all of his books are a good read.

Various Favorites I read from time to time- Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, I, Claudius by Robert Graves and others that I can't think of now.

Cheap Pulp Fiction - When reading gets a little too dry and serious, I like a good cheap read. The Casca series by Barry Sadler. The Destroyer by Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir is a hoot. The original Tarzan Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Some Conan by Robert E. Howard. All good casual, relaxing & enjoyable shit.

God - Great writer. Just one book: The Holy Bible KJV. Whether or not you believe what's in it, no one has ever topped this book.


This is a great thread for profiling purposes. We get to find out who the psychos are when they say, "I only read The Cather in the Rye over and over and over and over and..."

 

[Caesar]

Tom Clancy - Notably the Jack Ryan series. Although he tends to be a bit preachy. In his world, only Catholics from from the US East Coast can save the world. Non-Catholics not from the US East Coast are responsible for all the ills of the world. Extra super hero points if you went to ****ing Boston College. Still, they're good stories. Clancy's non-fiction is pretty good too.

I love Rainbow Six, I have struggled to read most of his other stuff though. Had to lol at the Catholics thing... it's so true.

Frederick Forsyth - Spy Book guy and one of the best. Any and all of his books are a good read.

Excellent call.

On this note, I have to give a shout out to John le Carre (especially The Spy Who Came In From The Cold) and Len Deighton's Bernard Samson series.

 

[chickawah]

Favourite author would have to be Kerouac or Tolkien, On the Road (inb4cliche) or the Silmarillion would be my all time favourite books (probably.)

Love most of the 'beat poets:' Ginsberg, Burroughs etc etc.

Read a lot of Russian literature, agree on War & Peace; it's a good novel, but Anna Karenina is far better imo.

Heaps more which I can't be bothered thinking of right now. Will add later perhaps.

Edit: Good thread.