That other forum stalwart - Fave Books

[Flying_Monkey]

For me, fantasy and sci-fi are ephemeral,

Well, everything is ultimately ephemeral... I can't see any reason to generalise about specific genres of fiction in this way...

 

[Chuffy]

Just read LoTR for the (counts fingers, runs out) 'th time. Everytime I read it I find something different and I've been reading the damn thing for almost 30 years now (yes, I have finished it, before some smartarse makes a comment. )

Er, I used to be a voracious reader. I had to persuade the library to let me have more than my card allowed and that still wasn't enough.

As for books that have mattered to me, over the years:-

• LoTR
• Spike Milligan's war memoirs
• Siddhartha
• The Sneeches and Other Stories
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld series
• Neil Gaiman's Sandman series
• PG Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster series (and the Blandings books)
• Robert Jordan's epic Wheel of Time series (one book left to go and the bastard went and died last year....)

I can't be doing with 'proper' literature on the whole. I either like stuff, or I don't. Being forced to read utter bilge like Wuthering Heights or Far From the Madding Crowd was painful.

 

[jonesy]

Just read LoTR for the (counts fingers, runs out) 'th time. Everytime I read it I find something different and I've been reading the damn thing for almost 30 years now (yes, I have finished it, before some smartarse makes a comment. )
...

+1

(Cue pompous comment from FM about how he grew out of LOTR by age 9 and these days much prefers Tolkien's translations from the anglo-saxon! )

 

[wafflycat]

As much as I love reading fantasy, I just could never get into LOTR and as far as the films went... AAARRRGGGHHHHH! ... overrated

 

[goo_mason]

Just read LoTR for the (counts fingers, runs out) 'th time. Everytime I read it I find something different and I've been reading the damn thing for almost 30 years now (yes, I have finished it, before some smartarse makes a comment. )

Er, I used to be a voracious reader. I had to persuade the library to let me have more than my card allowed and that still wasn't enough.

As for books that have mattered to me, over the years:-

• LoTR
• Spike Milligan's war memoirs
• Siddhartha
• The Sneeches and Other Stories
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld series
• Neil Gaiman's Sandman series
• PG Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster series (and the Blandings books)
• Robert Jordan's epic Wheel of Time series (one book left to go and the bastard went and died last year....)

I can't be doing with 'proper' literature on the whole. I either like stuff, or I don't. Being forced to read utter bilge like Wuthering Heights or Far From the Madding Crowd was painful.

That reminds me - Hesse's 'Siddharta' was a book I first read at the age of 17 (23 years ago now), which I have never re-read and keep meaning to buy myself. Cheers Chuffy - I can add that to my 'Christmas wish-list'. The other thing I must do sometime is finish "The Glass Bead Game"; I've started it so many times but never had an extended period where I can sit and read it until I'm done.

 

[User169]

Lots of favourites already covered, to which I'd add:

The Buddenbrooks - Thomas Mann
A Dance to the Music of Time - Anthony Powell
Black Lamb and Grey Falcon - Rebecca West

 

[goo_mason]

Goo, as someone who had to study both that and The Glass Bead Game for my first degree, if you enjoyed them, may I recommend memorising a copy of the 1973 Helsinki telephone book and removing a few of your own teeth with a pair of pliers?

I don't remember Siddharta being as bad as that ! My English teacher did say that she failed to understand or finish The Glass Bead Game though.

Recently read "Narcissus & Goldmund" for the first time and really enjoyed it. Hesse has that ability to lure me in and make me forget about the world around me for a while.

Mind you, there's a HUGE difference between reading a book and studying it. I couldn't read for pleasure for almost two years after completing my SYS English, as all the fun had been taken out of books through 'study' and it took me a while to get over that and just 'read' again.