Favourite Books

[Marmora Man]

Not a top ten and not a list of must read books - just those that I return to time and time again. I list a few and ask others for the "comfort reads" for wet weather summers and other times:

Count of Monte Cristo

Pride & Prejudice

Master & Commander (in fact pretty much anything in the Aubrey / Maturin series)

Smiley's People

The Honourable Schoolboy

Send Down a Dove

Gorky Park

War & Peace (honestly)

[Jah Lush]

I don't tend to reread books as there are far too many out there and life's too short but here's a few I've reread and maybe a few I'd like to read again and maybe a couple of odd favourites of the top of my head.

The Master And Margarita - Mikail Bulgakov

The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Oblomov - Ivan Goncharov

The Sea Wolf - Jack London

A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

Saturday Night And Sunday Morning - Alan Silitoe

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas - Hunter S Thompson

Blimey this is harder than I thought because off the top of my head I can't remember much first thing in the morning. I'm sure there's load of French stuff I could put in there and more contemporary stuff too. Damn! I don't do mornings.

[dulwich bhoy]

If Not Now, When - Primo Levi

If This Is A Man - Primo Levi

Sabriel - Garth Nix

Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer

Paris Trance - Geoff Dyer

Hard Times - Charles Dickens

The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks

There are other books I have read and really enjoyed but these 7 are the only ones that really stick.

[candj]

Crikey, where to begin? What genre? What century?? Much more difficult than movies.

Off the top of my head:

Master & Margarita (Bulgakov) - Agreed Jah Lush, one of my favourite books!

The Moors Last Sigh (Rushdi)

Midnight's Children (Rushdi)

A Suitable Boy (Seth, in fact, everything V. Seth is wonderful)

Golden Gate (Seth)

The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald)

Travels with Charley (Steinbeck)

Middlesex (Eugenides)

Independence Day (Ford)

To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee)

English Patient (Ondaatje)

Breakfast at Tiffany's (Capote)

Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)

Heart of Darkness (Conrad)

Such an endless list ..... have to go take a look at the book shelves!

[candj]

dulwich bhoy Wrote:

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> If This Is A Man - Primo Levi

>

>

Oh God, this was difficult! Great book though.

[dulwich bhoy]

Candj very tough but I felt it was incredibly humbling, as he wrote with such compassion. Its the single book that most affected me and how I look at life. Dont mean to sound all heavy but having read it, you will hopefully understand what I mean.

[HonaloochieB]

My rereads are pretty much any P. G. Wodehouse.

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - Robert Tressel.

A Confederacy Of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole.

All of Calvin & Hobbes

[citizenED]

Mine seem to come from a different part of the literary canon;

London Fields - Martin Amis

The Information - Martin Amis

The Corrections - Jonathan Franzen

Charlie Hot Potatoes - Phil Robinson

The Secret History - Donna Tarrt (sorry Sean)

[Jah Lush]

I'm waking up now.

The Secret Agent - Joseph Conrad

To Kill A Mocking Bird - Harper Lee (Good call Candj)

The Beautiful And The Damned - F Scott Fitzgerald

The Scarlet & Black - Stendal

The Strange Life Of Ivan Osokin - P D Ouspensky

Madame Bovary - Gustav Flaubert

Crime And Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Diary Of A Madman & Other Stories - Nikolai Gogol

Down And Out In Paris And London - George Orwell

Billy Liar - Keith Waterhouse

Bass Culture (When Reggae Was King) - Lloyd Bradley

Keith Richards (The Unauthorised biography) - Victor Bockris

S.T.P. A Journey Through America with The Rolling Stones - Robert Greenfield

A Confederacy Of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole (another good call HonaloochieB).

[Brendan]

Mine are mostly clich?s but I can always reread these.

All five of the Hitchhikers Guide books - Douglas Adams

The Antipope - Robert Rankin (or any of his Brentford trilogy books)

Catch 22 - Joseph Heller

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S Thompson

Anything by Terry Pritchett (I think I have read all his books at least twice now)

So basically anything that will make me laugh out loud.

[Brendan]

And from the, shamefully ignored by most people but thoroughly delightful, art form that is comic, Asterix, tank girl and transmetropolitan.

[mockney piers]

Ooh pictures...

Watchmen, From Hell, Cerebus the Aardvark, Akira, V for Vendetta, Sandman, Arkham Asylum, Persepolis.....

[Brendan]

V for Vendetta is possibly one of the best books (comic or otherwise) I have ever read.

[mockney piers]

Alan Mooreis extraordinarily good.

From Hell is so meticulously researched you begin to wonder if he has some esoteric knowledge regarding Jack the Ripper. Plus it has a picture of the half moon pub in it.

[Sonners]

The Magus - John Fowles

Anything by Ian Banks or Terry Pratchett or in the Artemis Fowl series - it seems that I have some similar tastes to other EDFers...

[candj]

Jah Lush - I forgot about Gogol - The Overcoat (and other short stories)

Dulwich Bhoy - Agreed very hard core book, but everyone should read it as it will change one's outlook on the world.

What great lists everyone is compiling - Some I haven't read so will use this thread as a guide! Thanks!

[Jah Lush]

Candj The Overcoat is brilliant and it's in the collection that I mentioned earlier.

I also forgot to add:- The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers.

[Keef]

I read a lot, but nothing all that high brow I'm afraid (am usually reading on the bus with a hangover).

A guilty pleasure of mine is the books of Raymond E Fiest, especially his first, The Magician, which for me is up there with anything in the Fantasy genre! Recently I think he's run out of ideas a bit and getting repetative.

Mike Gayle has written a couple of good ones, Mr Commitment being my fave.

Like Stephen Clarke's "Merde" books

Love Red Dragon & Hannibal. Ironically "Silence of the lambs" is IMO one of the few times a film has been better than a book. Something that definitely can't be said for The Bone Collector, which is a great read if you like a thriller/crime type thingy.

I am also a big fan of Harlan Coben, particularly Tell No One, but also like his books featuring his character Myron Bolitar (surely the worst name ever).

I liked Man & Boy by Tony Parsons.

One I loved, but then leant to people and never saw again, Gone but not forgotten by Philip Margolin,.

Finally, I need your help. I once read a book and really enjoyed it, but then leant it to my boss, and it was burnt when he had a house fire. I have no idea what it was called, or who it was by. It was about 4 friends who meet every year, and go off to a mystery destination. This time they go to Ireland, and get involved with some dodgy characters one of them used to know. The cover had a picture of a redhead lass, with a snake tatto winding all the way down her arm. If anyone knows what this is, I would be very grateful.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

If there was a dog involved Keef, it was probably Five go to Kirrin Island.

[Jah Lush]

> Keef wrote:

> One I loved, but then leant to people and never

> saw again, Gone but not forgotten by Philip

> Margolin,.

>

Hmmm...yes, obviously that's gone but you haven't forgotten it, unlike the next one.

> Finally, I need your help. I once read a book and

> really enjoyed it, but then leant it to my boss,

> and it was burnt when he had a house fire. I have

> no idea what it was called, or who it was by. It

> was about 4 friends who meet every year, and go

> off to a mystery destination. This time they go to

> Ireland, and get involved with some dodgy

> characters one of them used to know. The cover had

> a picture of a redhead lass, with a snake tatto

> winding all the way down her arm. If anyone knows

> what this is, I would be very grateful.

[Keef]

Nope, no dogs.

More details... One of the characters was a TV archiologist or something like that, the book is written as if by one of the other members of the fousome. They go away on the same day each year for tv archiologist's "fake birthday". The other 2 members of the group are a man who they all call The Wop (I think), and a woman. These 2 row loads, then get it on.

Funny the details you remember.

[Keef]

Jah, Boom Boom as Basil Brush would say ;-)

[mockney piers]

On a Keef theme, has anyone else read a book about Jesus still being alive and a drug dealer down under. It was very entertaining, but I lent it to a girl I was trying to woo, who REALLY didn't like my friends at a party, and that was last I saw of girl and book.

Wouldn't mind tracking that one down again (just the book, not the girl).

[Moos]

Here you go, Mockers. Joe Panther

[mockney piers]

You aer, as ever, an absolute superstar, that was the fella!!!!!!

You weren't having a birthday party in the Bedford circa 1999 were you? My memories are pretty fogged.....