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Top 5?
Sept 29, 2009 5:30:19 GMT
Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2009 5:30:19 GMT
Your top 5 books, simple as it sounds 1 Death Note The Last Note 2 Dan Brown's Deception Point 3 The Complete Ark 4 Transformers Ultimate Guide 5 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows mines not in any particular order
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Top 5?
Sept 29, 2009 6:49:22 GMT
Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Sept 29, 2009 6:49:22 GMT
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Alice in Wonderland / Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll A Thousand and One Nights (aka The Arabian Nights) The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Very close behind these would come Winnie-the-Pooh / The House at Pooh Corner and The Lord of the Rings. On some days you might get me putting either of them in my Top 5. Oh, and Don Quixote too.
Unlike the greatest plays, most of the greatest books in the world were not written first in the English language. Though I can only read them in English translation, good English translations of the best foreign authors still beat the pants off most English-written stuff.
Martin
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Top 5?
Sept 29, 2009 8:06:47 GMT
Post by Bogatan on Sept 29, 2009 8:06:47 GMT
The Princess Bride by William Goldman The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett, the illustrations or amazing. A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin Sharpes Waterloo by Bernard Cornwell Harry Potter and the order of the Phoenix
As most of those are series the individual book can be different at any time. though Game of throne I think of as one giant book as none of the individual volumes have proper beginnings or endings, they just stop when the book is becoming to big to lift. And the Princess Bride is just a head trip. I need to reread it one day.
Andy
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Top 5?
Sept 29, 2009 8:37:32 GMT
Post by Philip Ayres on Sept 29, 2009 8:37:32 GMT
For a Pratchett book I would have said Mort for many years but my TP of choice now is The Truth.
So Long & Thanks For All The Fish (Douglas Adams)
2010 by Arthur C Clarke. It's a toss up between this and 2061 and my answer will be different on a different day
Remorseful Day by Colin Dexter - blows the TV version off the screen
The Secret History by Donna Tartt - a present from an ex girlfriend but a very good book.
which leaves Timewyrn: Exodus by Terrance Dicks just missing the cut.
I've confined myself to novels so stuff like the Bible, Mark Lewisohn RT Guide to TV Comedy (The best TV reference work ever) various Wisden, DW referance books and Japanes TF books miss out
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Top 5?
Sept 29, 2009 9:41:35 GMT
Post by jameso on Sept 29, 2009 9:41:35 GMT
My favourite book is American Psycho. There's way, way too many books that I haven't read, and way, way too many that I have that are Star Wars books to make a top list. (Not that favourite is really the right word for American Psycho!)
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Top 5?
Sept 29, 2009 10:02:45 GMT
Post by The Doctor on Sept 29, 2009 10:02:45 GMT
Well I don't know about a 'top 5' as such, but books I find myself coming back to quite often are:
-Douglas Adams' HHGTTG books, in particular 'So Long, and Thanks for All The Fish', which was my least favourite as a child, but works much better for me as an adult.
-'Mort' by Terry Partchett. Very funny and sweet story.
'-Childhood's End' by Arthur C Clarke. Blew my mind as a child.
-'Dead Romance' by Lawrence Miles. Always get something new out of it.
-'Doctor Who: Alien Bodies' by Lawrence Miles. Really exploded my view of what tie-in fiction/merchandise can do.
-Ralph
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Top 5?
Sept 29, 2009 10:08:55 GMT
Post by Andy Turnbull on Sept 29, 2009 10:08:55 GMT
In a similar vein to Ralph.
Interesting Times by TP - funniest book of the lot. Hawkmoon by Michael Moorcock Dead Romance by Lawrence Miles Doctor Who: Alien Bodies by Lawrence Miles I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Ralph steered me towards Miles work and I rate it very highly, not just as tie-in merch but as well constructed, interesting works in their own right.
Andy
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Top 5?
Sept 29, 2009 17:52:40 GMT
Post by Kingoji on Sept 29, 2009 17:52:40 GMT
The War Of The Worlds ~ HG Wells Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas ~ Hunter S Thompson World War Z ~ Max Brooks Godzilla Returns ~ Marc Cerasini Jurassic Park ~ Micheal Crichton
Trying to avoid things that are ongoing, like the Haruhi Suzumiya stuff. I'd like to read some more proper classics like the Odyssey and stuff.
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Top 5?
Sept 29, 2009 17:59:27 GMT
Post by karla on Sept 29, 2009 17:59:27 GMT
One flew over the cuckoo's nest- Ken Kesey Tortilla Flat- John Steinbeck Salem's lot- Stephen King Kafka on the shore- Haruki Murakami Molesworth- Geoffrey Willans & Ronald Searle Though i'm getting into Asimov now and some russian whos name I can't spell
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Top 5?
Sept 29, 2009 18:01:57 GMT
Post by blueshift on Sept 29, 2009 18:01:57 GMT
I enjoy Asimov's early stuff.
His last works were completely insane though, he started trying to tie all his novels together into a giant continuity, and also wrote about sexy ninja robot girls who had sweaty love with old scientists.
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Top 5?
Sept 29, 2009 19:05:41 GMT
Post by Grand Moff Muffin on Sept 29, 2009 19:05:41 GMT
I'd like to read some more proper classics like the Odyssey and stuff. Definitely worth it in my experience. In my life I've gone through phases of reading lots of Star Trek novels, lots of Stars Wars novels, lots of Bernard Cornwell novels (I still have Sharpe's Trafalgar and Waterloo) and so on, but they are all pretty shallow and churned out on demand - even Pratchett. I strongly feel that the very best novels in the world are the ones that the author has only written one of. If it's part of a neverending series, it can't have been that special. Apart from James Bond and Sharpe, which I got into later on fully aware that I was only reading them for cheap thrills, I stopped reading production-line series of novels when as a student. After lapping up Star Trek and Star Wars for a few years straight and thinking I knew what I liked, I was talked into reading 'The Lord of the Rings'. It absorbed me so utterly for a few weeks that I felt I'd never read a real book before. I realised when I finished it that I would never need to read another serious fantasy novel in my life because I'd read the original and best one first. It was unlikely that anything in the same genre would be sufficiently different and ground-breaking in its own right to warrant the same attention, and not be a disappointment in comparison. I dropped science-fiction novels pretty quick after that. I did try some serious SF like Asimov but never found it very appealing. I never found the beauty of space in SF prose that I found in TV shows like Babylon 5. So, where to go after 'The Lord of the Rings'? Had I read the best that the world had to offer by the time I was in my early 20s? Thankfully, I hadn't, and in the decade or so since then I have discovered the very best books in other categories - 'Don Quixote', the world's greatest satire on knight-errantry, 'Gulliver's Travels', the world's greatest fantasy voyage political satire, 'War and Peace', the world's greatest sweeping historical epic, and so on. (The pioneers of genres tend to be rightly judged the best by history because you get a better novel from an author talented enough to invent a new genre than you do from one who is only good enough to write in an existing genre.) Don't get stuck in a rut or you won't know what you're missing. You're only on this Earth for a certain number of years, so you may as well read the best there is while you are here. Martin
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Top 5?
Sept 29, 2009 20:46:19 GMT
Post by Bogatan on Sept 29, 2009 20:46:19 GMT
, I was talked into reading 'The Lord of the Rings'. It absorbed me so utterly for a few weeks that I felt I'd never read a real book before. I realised when I finished it that I would never need to read another serious fantasy novel in my life because I'd read the original and best one first. It was unlikely that anything in the same genre would be sufficiently different and ground-breaking in its own right to warrant the same attention, and not be a disappointment in comparison. Martin I have never been able to read LOTR, I try but it never grips me. But I had a similar experience to you when I began reading Game of Thrones though. It totally engrossed me. There is no clear story running through it. It more charts the events of a power struggle and civil war trough the eyes of the most suitable character. Any time a plot appears to be developing in an expectable way its quickly derailed often by the death of a major character. The best Ive been able to describe it is comparing it to living through an event like world WWII and following it in the news media as it happens. Most other books read as history book telling the story after its done focusing on what actually turned out being important rather than what the daily papers would find important as it was happening. Not knowing that Frodo or Richard Sharpe or Rincewind (for example) is the main character makes reading the story a lot less predictable and much more interesting to me. Course at this rate the author is going to die before finishing the story. Oh and I actually meant to write Sharpes Trafalgar, for some reason I mix the book titles but not the historical events. Andy
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Top 5?
Sept 29, 2009 20:51:39 GMT
Post by The Doctor on Sept 29, 2009 20:51:39 GMT
I've read The Lord of the Rings and found it to be just ok. Not terrible, not amazing...just 'ok'. The mass appeal of it escapes me. I did enjoy The Hobbit a great deal though.
Read Homer's The Odyssey at Uni. Damn good read. You can usually find a copies cheap as chips so no excuse not to try it.
-Ralph
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Gav
Drone
John Travoltage!
Posts: 2,045
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Top 5?
Sept 29, 2009 21:52:39 GMT
Post by Gav on Sept 29, 2009 21:52:39 GMT
Hmmm...took me a while to whittle this one down.
1: House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski
This remains the only book that can still truly leave me feeling scared after several readings. I can't recommend it highly enough. Besides the gimmicky use of layout - it's incredibly effective at setting an atmosphere.
2: I am Legend - Richard Matheson
Something I read as a child that stayed with me for years before being lost in a sea of horribly written horror (Shaun Hutson I'm looking at you). It wasn't until I read the comic adapt ion years later that i rediscovered my love of this wee story.
3: It - Stephen King
Another childhood memory classic. Coupled with memories of the awful TV miniseries, gave me many a sleepless night.
4: Conan Collected - Robert E. Howard
Not really a complete book - but the words of Howard are to be commended. Fantastic fantasy.
5: Savage Membrane - Steve Niles
Hardly a literary classic, but the novel that got me back on the path to loving the horror genre. A supernatural drug-addled pulp detective crime thriller.
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Deleted
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Top 5?
Sept 29, 2009 22:08:00 GMT
Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2009 22:08:00 GMT
I've recently watched the Lord of the Rings trilogy of movies and, although the second film didn't grip me too much I did enjoy the first one and parts of the third which has prompted me to read the novels at some point.
Some of my favourite books are ones that I read many, many years ago in several Readers Digest condensed books and they are The Sands of Sakkara by Glenn Meade The Bombmaker by Stephen Leather The Devils Teardrop by Jeffery Deaver
I also like most the James Bond novels I have read so far, some of the Chronicles of Narnia books and the first two Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books.
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Top 5?
Sept 29, 2009 22:36:03 GMT
Post by The Doctor on Sept 29, 2009 22:36:03 GMT
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Top 5?
Sept 29, 2009 22:37:58 GMT
Post by Andy Turnbull on Sept 29, 2009 22:37:58 GMT
I enjoyed It by Stephen King, although having seen the mini-series first it's difficult to get Tim Curry's Pennywise out of your head when reading the book.
The turtle stuff also suffers a little I think.
Andy
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Gav
Drone
John Travoltage!
Posts: 2,045
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Top 5?
Sept 30, 2009 7:35:36 GMT
Post by Gav on Sept 30, 2009 7:35:36 GMT
I enjoyed It by Stephen King, although having seen the mini-series first it's difficult to get Tim Curry's Pennywise out of your head when reading the book. The turtle stuff also suffers a little I think. Andy Oh definitely. The film essentially whitewashes over the whole cosmic entity struggle - and just goes IT WAS A GIANT SPIDER ALL ALONG OKAY?
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Top 5?
Sept 30, 2009 9:26:27 GMT
Post by karla on Sept 30, 2009 9:26:27 GMT
I really need to finish his dark tower series! Roland the gunslinger I enjoy Asimov's early stuff. His last works were completely insane though, he started trying to tie all his novels together into a giant continuity, and also wrote about sexy ninja robot girls who had sweaty love with old scientists. and thats supposed to put me off or encourage me?
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Top 5?
Sept 30, 2009 18:33:27 GMT
Post by Andy Turnbull on Sept 30, 2009 18:33:27 GMT
I enjoyed It by Stephen King, although having seen the mini-series first it's difficult to get Tim Curry's Pennywise out of your head when reading the book. The turtle stuff also suffers a little I think. Andy Oh definitely. The film essentially whitewashes over the whole cosmic entity struggle - and just goes IT WAS A GIANT SPIDER ALL ALONG OKAY? Still a cracking adapation though and at that point the best King effort. Also you watch that and think how much better Tim Curry would have been as the Joker in the 1989 Batman film. Andy
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