What are your 5 favourite books?

[Trinigordo]

Has anyone read either Atlas Shrugged or Fountainhead? Were they any good?

So many people keep telling me that Ayn Rand will change my perception of things. I am reluctant for some reason though.

 

[mase]

Has anyone read either Atlas Shrugged or Fountainhead? Were they any good?

So many people keep telling me that Ayn Rand will change my perception of things. I am reluctant for some reason though.

Read them both many years ago and enjoyed them very much. Didn't change my perception of things. Her philosophy "Objectivism" is good food for thought. Is it Selfish or necessary for advancement?
Some of my favorite Books or Authors:
Pat Conroy - Pricnce of Tides
Anything by Richard Russo - Paticularly: Nobody's Fool, The risk Pool and Empire Falls.
John Irving: Cider House Rules, The world according to Garp, The Hotel New Hampshire, A prayer for Owen Meany (His later Novels did not live up to his earlier writings)
Gunter Grass - The Tin Drum
Nikos Kazanzajis - Freedom or Death, The Greek Passion
Joseph Heller - Catch 22
B. Traven - The Death Ship, The Jungle Novels (6 in the series)
Many, many more but these came to mind immediately. Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Robbins and Christopher Moore are all great for irreverant laughs. Bernard Malmud, Issac Beshevis Singer ... I better stop, way beyond top 5.

 

[Thalassamania]

Wow, 5 is tough.

A Bright Shining Lie
Lord of the Rings
Sharpe’s Rifles Series
On the Road
The Sun Also Rises

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Lord of the Rings
The Silmarillion
Moby Dick
Complete Sherlock Holmes
Robinson Crusoe
Treasure Island
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea

And about 30 others. 5 is a short list I could do that many in a week.

 

[Trinigordo]

Lord of the Rings
The Silmarillion
Moby Dick
Complete Sherlock Holmes
Robinson Crusoe
Treasure Island
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea

And about 30 others. 5 is a short list I could do that many in a week.

And a great list it is... I got all of them except sherlock holmes on mine, chalk another one up to oversight.

 

[Trinigordo]

Vonnegut seems to be popping up on alot of lists, is it good reading like tolstoy or just good reading?

Because for some reason people really like Tolstoy and I find it unbearable to read. Do Vonnegut's books read well for those not so initiated in the world of literature?

 

[crazyTomato]

Vonnegut seems to be popping up on alot of lists, is it good reading like tolstoy or just good reading?

Because for some reason people really like Tolstoy and I find it unbearable to read. Do Vonnegut's books read well for those not so initiated in the world of literature?

If you think Tolstoy is bad......just try Ulysess by James Joyce. It's so much fun!!!!!!!!! :54:

Ok, if you ever get your hands on that book, you'll see what I mean. You'll be lucky to have made it past the first page.

To those who have read the entire book, I bow down to you guys!!!!!!!!!! That is an achievement for sure!

 

[CLEAR BLUE]

1. Lord of the Rings trilogy (and The Hobbit)
2. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and all others by Tom Robbins (very bizarre sense of humor)
3. Anything in The Cat Who series by Lillian Jackson Braun
4. Like Water For Chocolate
5. Clan of the Cave Bear


This is just the tip of the iceberg. Many of the classics are assumed. I was trying to think of some different stuff.

 

[DiverBeth]

In no particular order:
1. Moby Dick
2. Lord of the Rings - trilogy
3. The Rubyfruit Jungle
4. A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
5. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I didn't realize divers had time to read books!

Hey what else do we have to do during a surface interval? On my last liveaboard I read 2 1/2 books!

 

[TSandM]

1. My favorite writer in the English language: Dorothy Dunnett. Anything by her makes the #1 spot.

2. Lord of the Rings. I've read it a gazillion times.

3. Dune, by Frank Herbert. Much better than the books that followed.

4. William Gibson's Neuromancer trilogy. Opened a whole new realm of science fiction.

5. Roger Zelazny's Creatures of Light and Darkness. Most all of Zelazny's books, actually.

I'm a long-term science fiction nut, because I love the creativity involved in imagining an internally consistent future universe.