Best Book You Ever Read?

[Esmeralda]

I read a good book at least 1 hour a day now having worked my way up from 10 minutes. I am always on the lookout for more good books to add to my library. What are some of the most influential books you have read and why?

Books are very much a personal choice. What one person considers a good book, another might think is fairly useless and uninteresting. One book I recommend for you, as well as I know you, is Native Son by Richard Wright. If you haven't already read it. I think you'd like it. Why? Go here: [ame]http://www.amazon.com/Native-Son-Richard-Wright/dp/0061148504and[/ame] read the Editorial Reviews.

I don't really do 'favorites' in anything. I like a lot of things and don't have anything in any area (literature or life in general) I can say is a favorite. However, I hold dear Doris Lessing's 5 book series: Children of Violence.

The individual volumes are:

Book 1: Martha Quest
Book 2: A Proper Marriage
Book 3: A Ripple from the Storm
Book 4: Landlocked
Book 5: The Four-Gated City

I am planning to read them again this summer, as well as some other books, but it is time to re-read these again. Why do I like this group of books? Well, I like Lessing's work. But this particular series, I just identify with the main character, and I like the settings, etc. I feel comfortable inside these books, if that makes any sense. I'm not recommending them to anyone. I like them. Don't care if anyone else does and don't expect anyone to value them as I do.

 

[Missourian]

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

The Source by James Michener

 

[Missourian]

There's no way I could ever list just one. Here's just the first to come to mind:

The Great Gatsby
A Scanner Darkly
Snow Crash
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
The War of the Worlds
Watchmen (graphic novel)

And everything Hunter S. Thompson ever wrote.

One of my favorites too! I liked it much better than his more popular "Stranger In A Strange Land."

Don't leave out Starship Troopers.

Strangely, Mistress was my least favorite of the three.

Perhaps I should revisit it.

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

I read a good book at least 1 hour a day now having worked my way up from 10 minutes. I am always on the lookout for more good books to add to my library. What are some of the most influential books you have read and why?

The bible. Because there is no other book like it. Other books I found helpful Thomas A Kempis Imitation of Christ, Oswald Chambers, My utmost for his highest, William Gurnall. Complete Armor, the volume of Philokalia is an early work and a treasure of information. My interest is in religious writers telling the story of their lives, their diaries, devotionals. I find it very inspiring.

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

Joel Rosenbergs novels are very good. The Ezekiel Option was excellent.

 

[Iceweasel]

Nelson DeMille is my favorite author, The Gate House is one of his best but my favorite is probably 'Pillars of the Earth' and 'World Without End' by Ken Follett. Most of his writing is WW2 spy stuff that I am not crazy about but those two are masterful works. He must have done a lot of research into the middle ages and makes you feel like you are there in the daily life of what it must have been like back then. It focuses mostly on a church builder and generations after and how things were under the monastery and king.

 

[wavingrl]

for fun--maybe not the best.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5600151-dog-on-it

<Dog on It (Chet and Bernie #1)

by Spencer Quinn (Goodreads Author)

As sidekicks, Maxwell Smart and Agent 99 have nothing on Chet and Bernie. This charming detective duo make their debut in Dog On It, the first volume in Spencer Quinn's new mystery series. The fast-paced and funny tale is narrated by the inimitable Chet, Bernie's best friend and canine partner, whose personality and preferences are never in doubt: "I liked to sleep at the...more >



among The Best---Bill Byrson---I have enjoyed several.
http://www.billbryson.co.uk/

lol--Robert Redford is filming a movie in GA--'A Walk in the Woods'--Redford as Bill Bryson--expat who spent a couple of decades in the UK---something of a stretch--but we shall see.

http://www.billbryson.co.uk/index.php/a-walk-in-the-woods/

why I liked them--<Bryson&#8217;s writing is very readable. The reader feels no need to struggle with the complexity of the daunting written word. Bryson expertly covers a vast amount of information in short pieces that keep the reader engrossed and provide him with just the right amount of information that will keep him interested. The book is like a well-cooked meal. The diner eats his fill, is satisfied and doesn&#8217;t care to overindulge making himself sick with gluttony.

Critics often envy Bryson and his style. He makes it seem so easy to write. It&#8217;s as though he were going about his routine just scribbling down some ideas as they occur to him, and lo; he has a book. His style is easy and it carries the reader along in a state of flow, to the final end. Though his work &#8216;carries a moral bent&#8217;, it is not overpoweringly moralizing. It has a subtlety that is appealing and endearing. Bryson&#8217;s latest works take readers &#8216;Down Under&#8217; to Australia. Engaging with mild-mannered, witty Bryson through his work is an experience to enjoy.
>

I think I lol'd all the way through this one 'The Lost Continent-Small Town America'
http://www.billbryson.co.uk/index.php/the-lost-continent/#uk

~~~~~~~~
a thriller--The Ghost-Robert Harris--

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/sep/30/fiction.features3

I read it one afternoon---good escape.

 

[MaxGrit]

Bible.

 

[wavingrl]

Book review: ?The Rathbones? by Janice Clark - Books - The Boston Globe


<Set in the middle years of the 19th century in Naiwayonk, Conn. (today&#8217;s Noank, within the town of Groton), Janice Clark&#8217;s debut novel is fabulous &#8212; in the word&#8217;s earlier definitions of &#8220;suggesting a fable&#8221; and &#8220;astonishing,&#8221; as well as its modern meaning of &#8220;terrific&#8221; and &#8220;awesome.&#8221; &#8220;The Rathbones&#8221; is both cleverly crafted and a beguiling read, limning (a favorite word of Clark&#8217;s) the saga of the Rathbone whaling family. Part fairy tale, part sea yarn (with nods to Melville and Hemingway), part Homeric epic, it is also a story of star-crossed love, spiced with Gothic Poe-like details and a dollop of farce.

In the 1770s, the family&#8217;s patriarch, the sinewy, single-minded whale-whisperer Moses Rathbone, begat upon 17 &#8220;worn wives&#8221; 30-some sons, who for four generations plied the waters off New England in search of the majestic sperm whales so numerous they could be seen from land. Moses&#8217; sons and their sons and grandsons ruled the Atlantic coast for decades, their whaleboats faster, their navigational skills sharper, their harpoonry the stuff of legend. With his wooden spear, Moses faced the huge monsters alone, unerringly dealing a death blow to the whales who seemed to understand they were surrendering their oil to a worthy adversary. The Rathbones sold their harvest to hardy New Englanders who lined the Rathbones&#8217; coffers with so much gold they couldn&#8217;t spend it all.
>

 

[wavingrl]

'Under the Wide and Starry Sky' author Nancy Horan discusses Robert Louis Stevenson and his marriage - CSMonitor.com


http://nancyhoran.com/under-the-wide-starry-sky/


~~~~~~~~~
http://bashapirobooks.com/books/the-art-forger-overview

 

[Marianne]

I can't pick just one . I'm going to say the Crucible. It was with that book I realized that I didn't hate reading, I just hated the boring books I had to read in school.

Ben Hur is good too.

And it was written by my...great grandfather's...uncle? I think?

Which makes it cool.

I also went through a period where I was reading Christian testimonies..I remember reading a couple of books by Dale Evans, and some other books like it.

As a little girl I had a really nice, illustrated bible stories book.

And I LOVED Hans Christian Anderson...and O.Henry.

I read mostly mysteries now but I occasionally branch out to fantasy or historical novels.

 

[SmedlyButler]

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

The Source by James Michener

Can do a good job with "The Forever War"? It's going to need 2 or 3 movies to get it all in properly I would think. It's going to be a mindboggling complex script, going to need some real superior writing.

 

[bripat9643]

I read a good book at least 1 hour a day now having worked my way up from 10 minutes. I am always on the lookout for more good books to add to my library. What are some of the most influential books you have read and why?

Influential or Good? I could give you a long list of good books to read. Fiction is good reading, but not influential. If you want to read great literature I suggest "The Last of the Mohicans" or "Moby Dick." These are both great reading and great books.

 

[bripat9643]

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

He wrote The Jungle to expose the appalling working conditions in the unregulated meat-packing industry. His description of diseased, rotten, and contaminated meat shocked the public and led to new federal food safety laws.



Amazon.com: The Jungle (Dover Thrift Editions) (9780486419237): Upton Sinclair: Books

You're obviously addicted to lying propaganda.

 

[bripat9643]

Catch 22 I read in school when if first came out. After a couple years in the Navy, I figured Heller had the military pegged pretty good. Politics too. We get these empty suits and expect they'll serve the people. I liked Milo Minderbender in the book. He subcontracted with the Germans to bomb his own base because he could do it cheaper, (but at least warned his buddies first). Milo, the first global corporatist. Profit first and screw everyone else. Mitt romney would be proud of him.

Yes, I liked that book a great deal. I couldn't put it down until I finished reading it. However, school tended to get in the way.

 

[bripat9643]

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Yep. That would be mine as well, though I probably enjoy the fuller body of work of Hemingway and Dickens better than what I have read of Twain's other writings.

H.L. Mencken thought The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was the greatest piece of fiction ever written.

 

[candycorn]

I read a good book at least 1 hour a day now having worked my way up from 10 minutes. I am always on the lookout for more good books to add to my library. What are some of the most influential books you have read and why?

The Lexus and the Olive Tree Maybe not the "best" (I read several genres) but Friedman is right on the money

 

[koshergrl]

I loved all the Narnia books....also T.H. White's Once & Future King..and the Mists of Avalon.

 

[Unkotare]

Did anyone mention Gatsby yet?

 

[Missourian]

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

The Source by James Michener

Can do a good job with "The Forever War"? It's going to need 2 or 3 movies to get it all in properly I would think. It's going to be a mindboggling complex script, going to need some real superior writing.

I'm usually disappointed by screenplays based on complex book plots.

Tom Clancy immediately springs to mind.

If he pulls it off, it will be a miracle.

That said...I looked up The Forever War on Wiki and discovered I had read the original abridged novel, and that there is a newer, complete version available.

In 1997, Avon published the version that Haldeman called "definitive," with "everything restored" and "a less funny cover illustration."[11] This version was republished twice, first in October 2001 as a hardback with a cover showing spaceships in battle over a planet, and again in September 2003, with the cover art depicting a device worn over the eye of a soldier.

The Forever War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia