Favorite Book?

[KevinM]

If I were being prescriptive, I'd rec the Great American novels: Huck Finn, Scarlet Letter, Moby Dick and Grapes of Wrath. MD has special themes for this board. Cap'n Ahab and Stubb, one of the mates, are both briar bros. Ahab throws his pipe overboard as a symbolic rejection of human comforts. Stubb keeps six (I think) pipes loaded and ready to go for each day. Some readers have said MD has too many digressions, but I can't think of a single one of 'em that the book would be better without.

If you'd just like a fun read try Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon. Fellow Pittsburghers should read Annie Dillards, An American Childhood.

You may also enjoy Cormac McCarthy's The Road, or No Country for Old Men, though I like better one of his earlier books, Suttree, in which McCarthy offers a sub-plot in which our hero takes up with a fetching young thing when every fiber of his being should scream nononononoNO! But McCarthy follows the trail well past the point of consummation, and, faced with the need to put a bow on this package . . . Well, no, I won't spoil it.

 

[idbowman]

If anyone is having a go at the American Classics, I think A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith, 1943) is a must.

 

[kodos44]

The Game of Thrones series (thus far) by George RR Martin (fantasy)
Mission Earth, umm dekology hah, by L Ron Hubbard (sci fi)
Enders Game by Orson Scott Card (sci fi)
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

 

[Variable]

Can't pick just one!

"The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy" by Douglas Adams
I read the collected stories of H.P Lovecraft year round for some reason. I have four of the compilation books published by Arkham House some years ago.

 

[idbowman]

Enders Game by Orson Scott Card (sci fi)

My favorite sci-fi book/series, hands down. Truly excellent.

 

[KevinM]

The Life of Johnson by James Boswell, Esq., is arguably the greatest biography in the English language. Johnson was a writer in 18th C. England, Boswell was his buddy and the the two rambled around London and England with Bozzy taking notes on everything J said and did. It's like a visit back a couple centuries to another country. Yes, the book is a real doorstop, but Johnson was such an interesting, politically incorrect (for today) and outrageous character that the book can be memorable if it selects you as its right reader. Besides, it doesn't have to be read from beginning to end. It lends itself to serendippity.

 

[WilliamtheWorldEater]

Geeeeezus, where to start?
If I named a specific book as being my favorite, Id probably end up revising it within a few minutes.

My universe of favorite writers probably runs like the Mayan pantheon.....

The writers who have had, and continue to have, the most profound effect on my life and thought:
HENRY MILLER!!!!(read the Tropic books more times than I can count)
Hermann Hesse
William S. Burroughs
Hunter Thompson

Ive been reading the work of Chuck Palahniuk, off and on, since I was in Iraq in '08/'09.

Recently, I read Burroughs' Red Night trilogy(Cities Of The Red Night, The Place Of Dead Roads, and The Western Lands). Couldnt recommend them highly enough; however, they contain subject matter a lot of people cant seem to handle, which is a shame, because they are cheating themselves out of wholly unique and profound literary experience.

 

[GamleVking]

This is one of the first books I ever read on the subject of pipes. This is a great read for someone just getting into the hobbie.

 

[KevinM]

Herment's book is a terrific read. Only problem is I'm pretty sure it's been out of print for quite some time. So the BofB's should do this -- Go on Amazon, do a search in books and click the link that says it should be published in Kindle format. (I'm assuming that the publisher doesn't see enough demand to do another hard copy edition.) You can get it used, of course. The line art in the book is excellent; hope they'd include it in an e-version, but they ofen do not:-(

 

[Hurckles]

The Count of Monte Cristo.
...an Amazing book...have not read it in years, but it surely is deserving of the title "a Classic"...unfortunately hollywood trashed the ending in a decent attempt to tell the story, but hey, happy endings sell movie tickets i guess.

 

[Hurckles]

I have read many, many fantastic books, but the only one I have ever thought of immediately re-reading was the Count of Monte Cristo. Sweet, sweet revenge!

I just posted this as my favorite, glad to see another CMC fan out there.

 

[MrFox]

As a seminary student, am I obligated to say The Bible (ESV)? Lol.

Well, besides that I'd say:

The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul

The entire Harry Potter series. I've read through the first 4 books 10+ times (Nerd!) and the last 3 multiple times as well.

I also absolutely love anything by Dumas. Particularly The Count of Monte Cristo, which I've now read 3 times and is the longest book I've ever read. That is, until I manage to finish War and Peace someday.

 

[Deleted member 2386]

I realized a long time ago I wasn't the sort of person who could ever settle on a favorite anything for very long--too many beloved great works to narrow it down to just one! That said, I certainly have texts I return to again and again, and find both familiar comforts and new nuances each time I do so. Fiction-wise, my tastes are quite broad, extending from the supposed lofty heights of classic works and "literary fiction" all the way down to the so-called ghettos of sundry genres. As the weather warms and the skeletal aspen copses again thicken with leaves, I find myself recalling passages from two of my favorite Italo Calvino novels, The Cloven Viscount and The Baron in the Trees. Both are marvelous works that balance the profound with the whimsical, and fit a late spring mindset to a T.

Of course, if I did have to pick just one, Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian; or, The Evening Redness in the West might fit the bill--probably his least accessible work, it's the sort of once-in-a-generation novel that demands the reader's full, careful engagement with the text lest they be lost in a whirlwind of poetic prose that spins them out of the narrative. It's as brilliant a meditation on the human condition and our inherent brutality as I've ever read, and that it's rendered in such beautiful yet elegiac language is what elevates it to masterpiece status. If you enjoy a challenging Western along the lines of John Hillcoat's film The Proposition, where the meticulously researched history imbues the proceedings with a haunting inevitability, then this is the book you've been waiting for.

Also recommended to those who just want to read about the baddest of badasses shooting it out in a vision of the West that borders on the surreal but is probably closer to the reality than your average Buckskin Brown paperback!

 

[TheSmokeamater]

Joris-Karl Huysmans, Against Nature.

 

[Fishfuzz]

While not a single book, per se, The Dark Tower series has to be one of my top (followed closely by The Princess Bride).

 

[Buckshot]

While not a single book, per se, The Dark Tower series has to be one of my top (followed closely by The Princess Bride).

The Dark Tower series is one of my all time favorites. Have you heard that he has another volume in the series that is supposed to fit somewhere in the middle of the series, like volume 4.5 or something like that? I think it is already out in hardcover. :cheers: :cheers:

 

[Fishfuzz]

While not a single book, per se, The Dark Tower series has to be one of my top (followed closely by The Princess Bride).

The Dark Tower series is one of my all time favorites. Have you heard that he has another volume in the series that is supposed to fit somewhere in the middle of the series, like volume 4.5 or something like that? I think it is already out in hardcover. :cheers: :cheers:

The Wind Through the Keyhole
http://goo.gl/UsPDu

I found it to be an excellent addition to the series.

 

[i.keenum]

Terry goodkind's sword of truth series are the best ever.

 

[idbowman]

Just saw the posts on the Dark Tower series.

Coincidentally, I'm in the process of a good re-read of the entire Dune saga (including prequels and all that...so it's gonna take some time). As soon as I wrap that up, DT is next on the list!

...I'm also "re-reading" The Count of Monte Cristo for the the umpteenth time (by which I mean I'm listening to the unabridged version on CD whenever I"m in the car).

 

[klause]

The book I re-read most often, or sometimes, just dip into is the Gormenghast trilogy, by Mervyn Peake.

Peake was, first and foremost, an artist.

To me, he painted with words - and created a work of unsurpassed beauty.