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bicentennial_baby Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:24 AM
Original message
Your Top 5 Books of All Time! List 'Em!!!
1) Lolita- Nabokov
2) The Great Gatsby- Fitzgerald
3) American Gods- Neil Gaiman
4) Drawing Blood- Poppy Z. Brite
5) Lost Souls- Poppy Z. Brite

Ok, what are yours? :bounce:
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bowens43 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:32 AM
Response to Original message
1. In no particular order......
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
The Pickwick Papers - Charles Dickens
The Foundation Trilogy - Isaac Asimov
Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein
Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
Another Roadside Attraction - Tom Robbins
Nature's End - Whitley Strieber

Okay, that's more then five....
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rbnyc Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 12:50 PM
Response to Reply #1
50. Can't believe I left Vonnegut off my list!
You picked my 2 favorite.

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jus_the_facts Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:35 AM
Response to Original message
2. 1. The Stand ~ Stephen King.....
...2. Our Angry Earth ~ Isaac Asimov
3. Stranger In A Strange Land ~ Robert Heinlein
4. Door Into Summer ~ Robert Heinlein
5. Robots and Murder ~ Isaac Asimov
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Shredr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 12:56 PM
Response to Reply #2
55. I left off SALEM'S LOT by Stephen King
Scared the crap out of me when I was a kid.
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jus_the_facts Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 07:52 PM
Response to Reply #55
69. I was too scared as a kid to read it...had to wait untill I was older...
...because the mini series scared the crap outta me as a youngster! :D He's my favorite writer by far...but I have a fasination for all things Asimov and Heinlein too...they're my top three favorites. :hi:
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jus_the_facts Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:38 PM
Response to Reply #2
92. Oooo how could I forget....Lord of the Rings?
....definite FAVORITE! :spank:
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Richardo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:37 AM
Response to Original message
3. 1) Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
Edited on Wed Jul-27-05 09:44 AM by Richardo
2) Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass - Lewis Carroll
3) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
4) All The President's Men - Woodward and Bernstein
5) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
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Mutley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:41 AM
Response to Original message
4. In no particular order
The World According to Garp - John Irving
A Prayer for Owen Meany - Irving
Les Miserable - Victor Hugo
The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald
Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
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Lilyhoney Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:33 AM
Response to Reply #4
17. You really liked The Catcher In The Rye???
Come on, did you really read that book? :hurts:
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Mutley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:38 AM
Response to Reply #17
22. Yeah!
I read it first when I was 9 or 10, and a few times since.
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Lilyhoney Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:50 AM
Response to Reply #22
28. I don't mean to be rude.
I read that book a couple of years ago and it made me so mad because it was so hard for me to read. It may have just been me. And I did'nt get what made it so good. It is a classic for a reason and it was'nt lost on you. :hi:
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Mutley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 11:00 AM
Response to Reply #28
33. I guess I identified somehow with Holden.
:shrug:
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Lilyhoney Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 01:43 PM
Response to Reply #33
64. It's just the writing was'nt good for me.
If I was'nt so irritated with the writing style, maybe I would have different about the story. Maybe I will give it another chance if I can find it on tape.

Thank you for listening.:headbang:
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Richardo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 11:45 AM
Response to Reply #28
41. I think you have to be of a certain age to 'get' Catcher.
Edited on Wed Jul-27-05 11:45 AM by Richardo
I read it about 3 months ago, and while I could see why it was such a ground-breaking book, it didn't really do much for me. Holden seemed to be something of a jerk and all.
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Lilyhoney Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 01:39 PM
Response to Reply #41
63. The book makes me angry.
I should'nt of even brought it up. My bad. :blush:
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rbnyc Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 12:51 PM
Response to Reply #17
51. LOL
I hate that book.

;-)
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Shredr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 12:57 PM
Response to Reply #17
56. I loved CATCHER in Jr. High
I tried to re-read it a few years ago and just couldn't relate anymore. I still think it's a good book -- at least it affected me when I was younger. I still like FRANKY AND ZOOEY.

I tried to watch SAY ANYTHING the other night -- which I loved when I was in high school -- and had the same response. I just couldn't relate anymore.
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Lilyhoney Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 03:55 PM
Response to Reply #56
65. In no order
The Last Flower by James Thurber

The Chronicles Of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

Essential Tales Of Edgar Allen Poe

Song Of Myself by Walt Whitman
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yellowdogintexas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:36 PM
Response to Reply #17
91. I hate that book nt
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Hosnon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 11:04 AM
Response to Reply #4
36. Les Miserables is definitely one of the best - unabridged of course. nt
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Mutley Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 05:56 PM
Response to Reply #4
67. Wow.
Who knew my list would start a flame war? :rofl: I don't know. Something about Catcher just always stuck with me.
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Wetzelbill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:08 PM
Response to Reply #4
72. Nice Mutley, good stuff
I am much like Holden Caulfield. :)
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swag Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:43 AM
Response to Original message
5. These are the ones I have reread most often
Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
Palimpsest - Gore Vidal
Myra Breckinridge - Gore Vidal
Two Girls Fat and Thin - Mary Gaitskill
The Secret History - Donna Tartt


And here's a nice photo of the last author listed
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pitohui Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:15 PM
Response to Reply #5
76. heh heh
i like the way your mind works
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Felix Mala Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:49 AM
Response to Original message
6. Catch-22, America's greatest contribution to literature
1. Catch-22 - Heller
2. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Twain
3. Slaughterhouse-Five - Vonnegut
4. Myra Breckinridge - Gore Vidal
5. Dracula - Bram Stoker (My favorite Victorian novel.)

These are my favorites, not necessarily the best.
The best would have to include Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders, Gulliver's Travels, Madame Bovary, Brothers Karamazov, Sons & Lovers, The Great Gatsby or The Grapes of Wrath.
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swag Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:53 AM
Response to Reply #6
8. Nice list. I need to revisit the Heller and Vonnegut. Thanks for the
reminders.
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Felix Mala Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:54 AM
Response to Reply #8
29. I highly recommend Heller's "Something Happened" as well.
Talk about upper-middle-class, suburban angst....
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Shredr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 01:00 PM
Response to Reply #6
57. CATCH-22 is on my "to read" shelf.
As is SOMETHING HAPPENED.

How could I forget DRACULA!?

Have you read THE HISTORIAN yet? Heard it's engrossing, haven't gotten around to it yet.
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Catch22Dem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:40 PM
Response to Reply #6
110. Needless to say, I agree!
;)
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XNASA Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:51 AM
Response to Original message
7. INPO
"Tropic of Cancer" Henry Miller
"Foucault's Pendulum" Umberto Eco
"Slaughterhouse 5" Vonnegut
"Confederacy of Dunces" Toole
"1984" George Orwell
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swag Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:59 AM
Response to Reply #7
10. "Tropic of Cancer" was a crazy thrill.
I plunged through "Capricorn," the ol' Roxy Crucifixion threesome, and others trying to find something as good in Miller's later work, but he never matched that beautiful, demented jewel.
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XNASA Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:32 AM
Response to Reply #10
16. I picked up......
"Under the Roofs of Paris" looking for more insight from Henry...

All I got was a bulge.

If you're looking for Miller at his most demented, that book is a must read. But be careful, I wouldn't read it in public.
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swag Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:42 AM
Response to Reply #16
25. Thanks.
I'll keep my peepers peeled.
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Hosnon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 11:05 AM
Response to Reply #7
37. Confederacy of Dunces
I keep getting recommendations for that book but can't find it anywhere!! Ugh...
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yellowdogintexas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:43 PM
Response to Reply #37
94. new edition out on the tables @ Borders last week. It is a great
read.
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MN ChimpH8R Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:57 AM
Response to Original message
9. 1. Patrick O'Brien - The Aubrey/Maturin series
(20 volumes, but it's all one story)
2. Robert McCammon - Boy's Life
3. Barry Hughart - the Master Li/Number Ten Ox books
(Bridge of Birds/The Story of the Stone/Eight Skilled Gentlemen)
4. Dan Simmons - Summer of Night
5. J.K. Rowling - the Harry Potter series

n.b. fiction only
I am missing many favorites, to be sure.
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bicentennial_baby Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:59 AM
Response to Reply #9
11. Summer of Night is excellent
Big Simmons fan :thumbsup:

'Carrion Comfort' is my fave of his.
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MN ChimpH8R Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:13 AM
Response to Reply #11
14. If you like "Summer of Night"
you'd love "Boy's Life" - a lovely and nostalgic (though sometimes creepy) exercise in magical realism. Check it out!

I almost put "Carrion Comfort" on my list...
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regularguy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:02 AM
Response to Original message
12. I seem to like Roths:
Radetsky March, Joseph Roth
Zuckerman Bound, Phillip Roth
Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut
Money, Martin Amis
The Emperor has no Clothes, Jack Herrer
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Twillig Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 11:26 AM
Response to Reply #12
38. Money, Martin Amis!
I thought I was all alone here on DU.

Reading Amis can be quite sadistically satisfying given what nasty things he does to his characters.

:evilgrin:
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jane_pippin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:06 AM
Response to Original message
13. In no order:
Franny & Zooey--J.D. Salinger
Cat's Cradle--Kurt Vonnegut
Me Talk Pretty One Day--David Sedaris
Short story collection--Flannery O'Connor
Middlesex--Jeffery Eugenides
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Wetzelbill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:12 PM
Response to Reply #13
73. I need to read Middlesex
I loved The Virgin Suicides. Eugenides is a sickeningly talented man.
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Jean Louise Finch Donating Member (651 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:10 PM
Response to Reply #73
102. Middlesex is ridiculously brilliant
I liked the Virgin Suicides, but it pales to Middlesex. It's just so good.
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Wetzelbill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:49 PM
Response to Reply #102
111. that's what I've heard
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existentialist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:20 AM
Response to Original message
15. Great Books
The Republic (Plato)
Beyond Good and Evil (Nietzsche)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, an Inquiry into Values
(Pirsig)
Tristes Tropiques (Levi-Strauss)
In Search of History (T.H. White)

Oh my, I left out Notes from Underground (Dostoevsky) the list must therefore be defective.
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Felix Mala Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:56 AM
Response to Reply #15
31. I just came across my copy of Zen and art of... while I was doing
some Spring cleaning. What that book really needed was a good editor.
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Wetzelbill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:16 PM
Response to Reply #15
77. We have a philosopher here
Plato's Republic is dense with pure brilliance. Not unlike The Prince by Machiavelli in that every line yields something that makes you really think. Very applicable in analyzing politics of today too. If you like those I would recommend Thomas More's Utopia as well. You may even like Shakespeare's The Tempest, although it is a little different topically, but they all compliment each other well, in that they are dialogues.
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Spider Jerusalem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:35 AM
Response to Original message
18. Mine...
1)Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pynchon
2)the Red Night trilogy (Cities of the Red Night, The Place of Dead Roads, The Western Lands) - William S Burroughs (I count these as one, since they go together)
3)Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace
4)The Great Gatsby (THE "Great American Novel", and Fitzgerald is a distant cousin...hehe)
5) Lolita - Gorgeous, singing, almost poetic language; disturbing and obsessive, lyrical and heartrending...few native English speakers write as well as Nabokov.

you have good taste, by the way :)
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XemaSab Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:37 AM
Response to Reply #18
21. Joseph Conrad
is another non-native English speaker who crafts a DAMN fine sentance, IMHO. Funny how that works out...
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Spider Jerusalem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:44 AM
Response to Reply #21
26. Yes indeed...
and he and Nabokov were both Eastern Europeans, too.
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bicentennial_baby Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 12:09 PM
Response to Reply #18
45. As do you my friend...
I think we'd get along quite well :)
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upoceg Donating Member (41 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:32 PM
Response to Reply #18
85. i thought about mentioning Spider Jerusalem
but then spider mentioned other books.
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July Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:35 AM
Response to Original message
19. Are we talking all books or novels? nt
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XemaSab Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:36 AM
Response to Original message
20. Some of my favorites:
Lord of the Flies
Name of the Rose
"His Dark Materials" Trilogy (By Philip Pullman)(written just to irritate the people who thought Harry Potter was Satanic)
The Sabbathday River (By Jean Hanff Korelitz)
The History of Luminous Motion (By Scott Bradfield)

Honorable mentions are Harry Potter, Boy's Life, Lolita, Secret History, and Confederacy of Dunces.


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moof Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:41 AM
Response to Original message
23. The Power of Myth - Joe Campbell
Manufacturing Consent - Noam Chomsky

Drama of the Gifted Child - Alice Miller

After reading these three there seemed little point to reading any more.

Also the phrase "those that know do not say" was finally understood.
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Shredr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 01:02 PM
Response to Reply #23
58. Joseph Campbell and Noam Chomsky!
Thanks for putting up two names I didn't even think about who definitely deserve to be represented here!
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Bassic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:41 AM
Response to Original message
24. Well, let's see
On the Road - Jack Kerouac
Lord of the Rings - Tolkien (no brainer much)
Foundation Trilogy - Isaac Asimov
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
1984 - George Orwell
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ikri Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:48 AM
Response to Original message
27. In no real order except the first
1. Dune, the whole series, Frank Herbert
2. Catch 22, Joseph Heller
3. The Night's Dawn Trilogy, Peter F. Hamilton
4. Cryptonomicon, Neal Stephenson
5. Foundation, the whole series, Isaac Asimov
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caty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:55 AM
Response to Original message
30. Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Pride and Prejudice
Wuthering Heights
Jane Eyre
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Hosnon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 10:58 AM
Response to Original message
32. 1) Les Miserables - Hugo
2) Following the Equator - Twain
3) Beyond Good and Evil - Nietzsche
4) Nichomachean Ethics - Aristotle
5) Philosophical Investigations - Wittgenstein
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Reverend_Smitty Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 11:01 AM
Response to Original message
34. It seems we all have similar tastes here
1. Catch 22- Joseph Heller
2. To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee
3. The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald
4. 1984- George Orwell
5. Can't think of a 5th one off the top of my head but those were the only 4 novels that I can read over and over again. I could also name a few Shakespeare plays that I love but they are not technically novels.
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Z_I_Peevey Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 11:01 AM
Response to Original message
35. Here ya go--
The Grapes of Wrath
Jitterbug Perfume
A Prayer for Owen Meany
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
David Copperfield
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Taverner Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 11:29 AM
Response to Original message
39. My obscure list (all 20th century writers tho :) )
1 - Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck (excellent case for Socialism. Best I've ever seen laid out. Would warm even the coldest Freeper to the merits of a welfare state.)

2 - Choke by Chuck Palahniuk

3 - Farewell to Arms by Hemmingway

4 - UBIK by Phillip K Dick

5 - Cien Anos de Soledad by Gabriel Garcia Marcos
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Wetzelbill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:19 PM
Response to Reply #39
79. I listed Choke too, great book
Edited on Wed Jul-27-05 08:20 PM by Wetzelbill
As an honorable mention I should say.
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I Know How To Do it Donating Member (499 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 11:42 AM
Response to Original message
40. The Growth of Biological Thought - Ernst Mayr
Gravity's Rainbow - Pynchon
Mao II (maybe White Noise) - Delillo
The Trial - Kafka
Junkie - William Burroughs
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jpgray Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 11:50 AM
Response to Original message
42. Off the top of my head
Edited on Wed Jul-27-05 11:55 AM by jpgray
1. The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky
2. Personal Memoirs - Grant
3. Prologema - Ibn Khaldun
4. Poetic Edda
5. Clans of the Alphane Moon - Dick (hilarious)
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TrogL Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 11:50 AM
Response to Original message
43. I tend towards speculative fiction
1. Dhalgren - Delaney
2. Virtual Light (or pretty much anything else by) - William Gibson
3. Stranger in a Strange Land - Heinlein
4. Dangerous Visions (or anything else written or edited by) - Harlan Ellison
5. Rescuing the Bible from Fundamentalism (or anything else written by) - Spong
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kevsand Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:08 PM
Response to Reply #43
100. Dhalgren!!!!
What an amazing piece of work. I can't believe anyone remembers it. Even though it was supposedly sf, when I read it thirty years ago, it seemed to me to be the most realistic book I'd ever found. (Hey, it was the seventies...)
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LynneSin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 11:54 AM
Response to Original message
44. My seven
Edited on Wed Jul-27-05 11:57 AM by LynneSin

  • Divine Comedy by Dante (I love the whole book)
  • Memoirs of a Geisha by Andrew Goldman
  • Cider House Rules by John Irving (hate the movie)
  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl - prefer the older version with drawings by Silversen
  • The Handmaid Tale by Margaret Atwood
  • The Thorn Birds by Collen McCollough
  • Venus in Furs by Leopold Von Sacher-Masoch
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Mz Pip Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 12:33 PM
Response to Original message
46. Tough to do but here goes:
Anna Karinina - Tolstoy
Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clark
Fortyte Sage (6 books) - John Galsworthy
The Magus - John Fowles
Lord of the Rings Trilogy - Tolkien

runners up:

Dragons of Eden - Carl Sagan
Mystic River - Dennis Lehane
City - Clifford Simak

I'm chosing books I've read more than once.

Mz Pip
:dem:
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ceile Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 12:45 PM
Response to Reply #46
48. Did you watch the Master Piece Theatre
adaptation of the Forsyte saga? I thought it was quite good. I guess now I'll pick up the books.
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Mz Pip Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 05:38 PM
Response to Reply #48
66. I have the original 1967 BBC
production in black and white which was very true to the books and continues the saga up through the late 1920s.

I watch the new one. I liked it but thought Irene was terribly miscast.

The books are wonderful. Galsworthy won the Nobel prize for literature for this body of work.

Mz Pip
:dem:
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rbnyc Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 12:54 PM
Response to Reply #46
52. I almost put Childhood's end on my list...
...haven't read it in about 2o years, tho.

Love Clarke.
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ceile Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 12:40 PM
Response to Original message
47. Tough one
Edited on Wed Jul-27-05 12:42 PM by ceile
1. Wuthering Heights-Bronte
2. White Teeth-Zadie Smith
3. Mayor of Castor Bridge-THomas Hardy
4. Dune-Frank Herbert
5. Steppenwolf-Herman Hesse
No particular order

edited to add authors
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rbnyc Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 12:47 PM
Response to Original message
49. 1. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
2. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
3. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
4. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
5. The Lights of Earth by Gina Berriault

I don't know about "of all time" but these are the closest to my heart.
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Shredr Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 12:54 PM
Response to Original message
53. I LOVE Poppy Z. Brite!
LOST SOULS is definitely in my top ten. But my top 5, hmm....

In no particular order:

GIOVANNI'S ROOM James Baldwin
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY Theodore Roosevelt
A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES Howard Zinn
SAINT FRANCIS Nikos Kazantzakis
THE GRAPES OF WRATH John Steinbeck
A MOVEABLE FEAST Ernest Hemingway

Well, it's 6. That's close to 5.
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edbermac Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 12:55 PM
Response to Original message
54. Here are mine...
1 Catcher In The Rye
2 Clockwork Orange
3 In Cold Blood
4 The Right Stuff
5 Playboy's Party Jokes #7

:bounce:
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Wetzelbill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:23 PM
Response to Reply #54
80. Just had to throw in Playboy's party Jokes didn't you?
:)
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edbermac Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jul-28-05 03:11 PM
Response to Reply #80
113. A classic...written by Bill Shakespeare himself...
:evilgrin:
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anarch Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 01:07 PM
Response to Original message
59. ummmm
at least right at this moment:

Seeker After Truth - Idries Shah
Sympathy for the Devil - Kent Anderson
A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick
Dune - Frank Herbert
Use of Weapons - Iain M. Banks

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Burma Jones Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 01:15 PM
Response to Original message
60. Collected works of William Shakespere
Edited on Wed Jul-27-05 01:19 PM by new_beawr
and

The King James Bible
The Iliad
Baby and Child Care - Dr. Benjamin Spock
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica - Isaac Newton



Now, if you want the top 5 I like reading, they would be:

Shakespere
LOTR
A Confederacy of Dunces
Any and all Vonnegut
The Sun Also Rises

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MissMillie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 01:26 PM
Response to Original message
61. Hmmmm.... let's see
A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
The Hotel New Hampshire - John Irving
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
The Color Purple - Alice Walker
Lies and the Lying Liars that Tell Them - Al Franken
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Nigel_Tufnel Donating Member (98 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 01:30 PM
Response to Original message
62. The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley is my favorite...
Any of the Harry Potter books, especially the first
The Stand by Stephen King
The Vampire Lestat or anything by Anne Rice
The Green Mile by Stephen King

I also like 1984 by Orwell - Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - Brave New World by Huxley and Logan's Run by Johnson/Nolan. Can't read them right now -- they're too much like current conditions...
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JohnnyBoots Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 06:11 PM
Response to Original message
68. Tough, but ranked
1. Power of One - Bryce Courteney
2. Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
3. Travels with Charley - Steinbeck
4. The Three Musketeers - Dumas
5. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations-Bartlett
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mac56 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 07:55 PM
Response to Original message
70. I just did this for a work project.
No particular order: "Catch-22", "Huckleberry Finn", "Cat's Cradle", "Cannery Row", "To Kill A Mockingbird".
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Wetzelbill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:06 PM
Response to Original message
71. Ok here we go.....
In no order:

1.Fools Crow -James Welch
2.Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
3.Old Man and The Sea -Ernest Hemingway
4.All Quiet On The Western Front -Erich Maria Remarque
5.The House Made Of Dawn- N.Scott Momaday

Really close honorable Mentions:

Reservation Blues -Sherman Alexie
The Lone Ranger and Tonto FistFight In Heaven -Sherman Alexie
Winter In The Blood- James Welch
Choke- Chuck Palahniuk
The HeartSong of Charging Elk -James Welch
The Virgin Suicides-Jeffrey Eugenides
Strange Pilgrims -Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Greasy Lake and Other Stories -T.Coraghessan Boyle

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enigmatic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:25 PM
Response to Reply #71
81. Gabriel Garcia Marquez is awesome
Alexie, too..
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Wetzelbill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:29 PM
Response to Reply #81
82. I interviewed Sherman Alexie two years ago, talked to him for about
an hour on the phone. Recorded it and everything. I also used to talk to James Welch from time to time and I met Scott Momaday. So I've been lucky enough to talk to some of the people on my list.

Marquez is a great writer. Man, I would love to take "Love In The Time Of Cholera" and adapt it into a screenplay. That would be unbelievably awesome.
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enigmatic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:30 PM
Response to Reply #82
83. Really?
I'd love to hear that; do you still have it around?
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Wetzelbill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:33 PM
Response to Reply #83
86. yeah, I have it on a little mini-recording tape
I got a Will Pitt interview that I did, two Howard Dean speeches, a John Kerry speech and me rambling on reading my poetry and essays on another one, haha.

If you think you can make copies I'll mail it to you if you want and you can send it back whenever you're done.
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enigmatic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:36 PM
Response to Reply #86
90. Can you convert it to an mp3 file?
How long is the interview? I've got a few programs that I could let you borrow..
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Wetzelbill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:01 PM
Response to Reply #90
97. I wouldn't even know how to do it
It's about 40 minutes maybe. I don't even know how to get it onto my computer or anything.
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enigmatic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:08 PM
Response to Reply #97
101. Let me think about this
I'll E you when I have an idea on what to do..
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Wetzelbill Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:12 PM
Response to Reply #101
103. cool
As I said, I have no problem sending to you. If you try to rip me off I just won't pay you royalties for using your intellectual property in my sig. :)
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XemaSab Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:01 PM
Response to Reply #71
96. Might want to stay out of
most hated books....
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bikebloke Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:12 PM
Response to Original message
74. No particular order:
The Magus by John Fowles
The Riders by Tim Winton
Money by Martin Amis
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Tin Drum by Günter Grass

There are a few others by John Fowles I'm impressed with as well.
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enigmatic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:15 PM
Response to Original message
75. Mine
In no order:

"Winesburg, Ohio"- Sherwood Anderson
"The Razor's Edge"- Somerset Maughm
"Big Sur"- Kerouac
"The Music Of Chance"- Paul Auster
"Factotum"- Bukowski
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Blue_In_AK Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:18 PM
Response to Original message
78. No particular order...
I liked The Stand, East of Eden, Executioner's Song,

and collectively Ann Rule's true crime books. There's just something about those serial killers.
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upoceg Donating Member (41 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:31 PM
Response to Original message
84. in no order, but with some commentary
Nabokov-Ada, or Ardor

All you lolita folks will agree with me if you read it.

Alain Robbe-Grillet-Project for a Revolution in Manhattan

A little crazy, but WOW, gets top 5 for style and skill alone (not to mention brilliance)

Alan Moore-Watchmen

Always lives up under scrutiny. Proves the Graphic novel an art form (would have Maus here, but, c'mon, it's Alan Moore)

Knut Hamsun-Hunger

book speaks for itself

ee cummings-collected poems 1922-1938

everything you never imagined that you can do with words, but can


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XemaSab Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:03 PM
Response to Reply #84
98. Ada, or Ardor
was a filthy book.

:evilgrin:
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upoceg Donating Member (41 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:20 PM
Response to Reply #98
105. dirty filthy dirty dirty nasty filthy....
forgot how clean lolita was in comparison;)

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XemaSab Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:22 PM
Response to Reply #105
106. oh for sure
Nabokov said he put in all the dirty parts that people were disappointed Lolita didn't have.
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upoceg Donating Member (41 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:30 PM
Response to Reply #106
108. reads better than DH Lawrence.
gotta love an opus though Xema.O8)
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XemaSab Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:37 PM
Response to Reply #108
109. word
n/t
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yellowdogintexas Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:34 PM
Response to Original message
87. OK, my list:
To Kill A Mockingbird
Jane Eyre
Gone With the Wind
Huckleberry Finn
All The King's Men
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grannylib Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:36 PM
Response to Original message
88. OK here's my list in no particular order:
1. The Women's Room - Marilyn French
2. In This House of Brede - Rumer Godden
3. Anything by John Sanford
4. Anything by Patricia Cornwell
5. The Harry Potter series

that's it right now anyway...give me five minutes and I'd think of a hundred more...books rock.
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pitohui Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:36 PM
Response to Original message
89. ok here's five
woman on the edge of time -- marge pearcy
libra - don delillo
infinite jest -- david foster wallace
golden notebook -- doris lessing
the three stigmata of palmer eldritch -- philip k dick

clearly i'm into the slipstream thing
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greendog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:40 PM
Response to Original message
93. In no particular order...
"A Pattern Language"...Christopher Alexander

"Cat's Cradle"... Vonnegut

"Tropic of Cancer"...Miller

"Underworld"...Don DeLillo

'A Peoples History of the United States" ...Zinn


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AVulgarianHue Donating Member (583 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 08:58 PM
Response to Original message
95. Paring it to 5 is tough..here goes
Steppenwolf - Herman Hesse
Jitterbug Perfume - Tom Robbins
Gate to Women's Country - Sherri S. Tepper
Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut
Lincoln's Dreams - Connie Willis

Oh, must sneak in a 6th...
The Accidental Tourist - Anne Tyler
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Redstone Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:06 PM
Response to Original message
99. Okla Hannali, by R.A. Lafferty. So far above any other,
that I almost don't want to list four more. But I will.

A Certain Protocol, by Lawrence Robbins.

Frost On My Moustache, but Tim Moore.

Random Wanderings, by an author who shall remain unnamed.

The Alden Balch Memorial Library 100th Anniversary Cookbook, by the same unnamed author.

Redstone
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Jean Louise Finch Donating Member (651 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:16 PM
Response to Original message
104. My list, in no particular order
To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
Another Roadside Attraction, Tom Robbins

I guess that's actually 6. Never Let Me Go is a very new addition to the list.
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kevsand Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:24 PM
Response to Original message
107. Had to think about this a while.
The Princess Bride - William Goldman (the original red ink editions)
The Last Unicorn - Peter S. Beagle
The Rose - Charles Harness
Gilgamesh - Herbert Mason
Tao te Ching - Lao Tsu
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Glorfindel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Jul-27-05 09:51 PM
Response to Original message
112. Tough! Here goes:
In no particular order:

The City and the Pillar by Gore Vidal*
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
The Winds of War & War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien

*Reading this was one of the great experiences of my life. I discovered that there were other gay men, many of them, and they were as brilliant and productive and grand as anyone else. I'll be forever grateful to Mr. Vidal.

Plus, I'm old enough to remember the end of censorship and discovering a WHOLE NEW UNIVERSE when Americans were finally allowed to read "Ulysses," "Lady Chatterly's Lover," "Tropic of Cancer," and all those wonderful books that were sure to send us all straight to hell.

Good grief! I'm a book FIEND; I could probably list 75 favorites and mean each one of them sincerely. "Moby Dick" "Huckelberry Finn" all the glorious "Foundation" and "Robot" books; most of the output of Stephen King; "The Last of the Mohicans" .... I'll stop.
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MrSlayer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jul-28-05 03:36 PM
Response to Original message
114. Mine are almost all trilogies or series.
1. DragonLance Chronicles and Legends
2. Lord of the Rings
3. Harry Potter series
4. "IT" by King
5. "The Stand" by King
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