Favorite books

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RedEdge77

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Jul 13, 2005
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So what books are your favorites?

A few of mine are The dark Tower series by Steven King, At all costs by john Gilstrap, neil Gaiman books, and mostly Just adventure type books.

Well whats your faves?
 
Have loved the Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwall, wish he'd do more of them, although I also love the new series he is starting with "The Last Kingdom".

Once in a while I enjoy some Clive Cussler stuff, and bio's.
 
Jackknife, have you gotten The Pale Horseman yet? It is the second in "The Last Kingdom" series. And, if you can stomach Cornwell hostility toward Christianity in those books, may I recommend his "Warlord Chronicles", a trilogy on Arthur: The Winter King, Enemy of God, and Excalibur. I particularly enjoyed Cromwell's take on the Guinevere/Lancelot affair.:D
 
Having been an avid reader since childhood (1950s), I have difficulty keeping track of all the books I've read, much less determining favorites....:D

A few I go back to again and again:

The Lord of the Rings
The Once and Future King, by T.H. White
The Worm Oroborous, by E.R.R. Eddison
Nine Princes in Amber, by Roger Zelazney
The entire group of Fafherd and Grey Mouser stories, by Fritz Lieber
The Demon Princes novels by Jack Vance
The three "cyberpunk" novels by William Gibson
(Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive)
Likewise the two connected near-future novels by Gibson,
Virtual Light and All Tomorrow's Parties
Most anything by Greg Bear, but especially Forge of God and Anvil of Stars
All three novels by China Miehville
And many more that I can't recall at present....hehe.
 
You're asking for the impossible. I probably read 150 to 200 books a year, and like pretty much all of them.

In case you're wondering how I do that, most nights I read instead of sleep. Yeah, I know, I shouldn't do that.
 
Favorites? Lord of the Rings, Hobbit, Silmarillion was interesting. Any short stories by William Gibson or Philip K Dick. I used to like some select sci fi and fantasy, I primarily like sci fi and fantasy movies over the books. Some of the Star Wars books were good, except for the ending of the one where Chewbacca was killed.

Recently I've been reading a lot of biographies and history books, and some period pieces. I've recently read about Liver Eatin' Johnson, who was not the likeable simple man that Robert Redford portrayed. I read a biography of Captain Kidd also that was really good, it was called the Pirate Hunter, by Richard Zacks.
 
for older stuff
R.E. Howard
Lovecraft
and a few other that I have in some compilation books
modern
G.R.R.Martin and David Gemmell are my top two right now

Mostly like stuff in the fantasy genre
 
FullerH said:
Jackknife, have you gotten The Pale Horseman yet? It is the second in "The Last Kingdom" series. And, if you can stomach Cornwell hostility toward Christianity in those books, may I recommend his "Warlord Chronicles", a trilogy on Arthur: The Winter King, Enemy of God, and Excalibur. I particularly enjoyed Cromwell's take on the Guinevere/Lancelot affair.:D
Click to expand...

No, I have not gotten the second one yet, I did not know it was out. Have to look for it.

I have noted that he does have some sort of hostility for the church, I don't know what the heck that is about! Saw it in "The Archers Tale" and "Heritic" as well. Good reads though, captures the dirty, gritty reality of the life back then.
 
It is my understanding from posts in various fora that he was raised in a very strict, very rigid Protestant sect and that what you see is his rebellion from that upbringing.
 
FullerH-

Ah hah! That would make sense, and I can identify with the poor guy. Sometimes parents have no idea what they can do with a little over zelous enforcement of some things.

Thanks.
 
Yep. One of the more unfortunate aspects of the Quaker tesstimony against creeds is that we get all sorts of "Bible-battered" folks for whom Christianity seems a nasty word. Some of us refer to them as "ABC Universalists" or "Anything But Christianity Universalists." I can sympathize, but I wish that they would stop trying to tell me that the Religious Society of the Friends of Truth, to use the full and proper title, is not a Christian sect. All that they need do is to read George Fox or any of the other early Quakers.

Sorry about the rant, but I do get tired of theABC Unversalists. if that is what they want, why not go and join the Unitarian-Universalists?:confused:

For much of my life, I was of the more or less Bible-battered sort, having gone to an Episcopalian prep school attached to the National Cathederal. In the 1950s, you had best believe that we were thoroughly indoctorinated and I fled the system, calling myself a "Christian Anarchist" for many years. Then I found the Quakers and the Christocentric variety fit me like a glove. But I can identify with Cornwell's angers, which is how I can still read his books.
 
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
The Stand - Stephen King
Unintended Consequences - John Ross
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
Titan/Wizard/Demon - John Varley
Red Storm Rising - Tom Clancy
The Bible- God

There are more, but if stranded on a deserted island, I could survive by re-reading those above.
 
sheltot said:
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
The Stand - Stephen King
Unintended Consequences - John Ross
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
Titan/Wizard/Demon - John Varley
Red Storm Rising - Tom Clancy
The Bible- God

There are more, but if stranded on a deserted island, I could survive by re-reading those above.
Click to expand...

I didn't know Clancy had a book by that title... I might have picked a different title for mine if I'd known...

http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=red+god+rising&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&sa=N&tab=ff&oi=froogler
(hope this doesn't come off as spam, it was the first link I got when I Googled my title)

Oh... The Stand is one of my favs. Armor by John Steakley IS my favorite. LotR series is excellent, but I didn't really care for Silmarillion.
 
A Happy Death and The First Man by Albert Camus
Morvern Callar by Alan Warner
Adios Muchachos by Daniel Chavarria
 
Hm, off the top of my head:
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter Miller
The Two Cultures - C.P. Snow
How Real Is Real? - Paul Watzlawick
An Introduction to Information Theory : Symbols, Signals and Noise - J R Pierce
QED The Strange Theory of Light and Matter - Richard Feynman
Makura no soshi (The Pillow Book) - Sei Shonagon
The Late Devonian Mass Extinction - George R. McGhee Jr.
The Mightiest Machine - John W. Campbell
The Man Who Folded Himself - David Gerrold
Bone Dance - Emma Bull
The basement : meditations on a human sacrifice - Kate Millett
Time, fourth dimension of the mind - Robert Wallis
Science and the Common Understanding - J. Robert Oppenheimer
Secrets of RF Circuit Design - Joseph J Carr

Yeah, I know, it's a pretty eclectic combination ;)
 
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