Favorite Books

[lightspeed]

What are your favorite books?

Some of mine are:


"Disco Bloodbath" James St James

"Anthem" Ayn Rand

"1984" George Orwell


Will add more as I think of them...

 

[Ragnar]

Assuming this sticks with fiction...

"The Serial" Cyra McFadden
"The Suicide Club" Robert Louis Stevenson
"Dead Souls" Nicolai Gogol

 

[jimbus]

I like Anthem, but i like her longer stuffs too.

Middle Heinlein, not late Heinlein, so Stranger In A Strange Land, Time Enough For Love, and Starship Troopers.
Any Terry Pratchett.
Ender's Game, OS Card.
Steppenwolf, Herman Hesse.
Flowers For Algernon, Daniel Keyes.

 

[lightspeed]

"The Psychopath's Bible" Christopher S. Hyatt

 

[tanqttnml]

"The Vampire Chronicles" Anne Rice
"David Copperfield" Charles Dickens

*more to add*

 

[lightspeed]

I watched Naked Lunch last night. It was a film, written by William S. Burroughs, one of my favorite authors.

'Junkie' is a favorite too.

 

[loveofreason]

Resident Librarian mentioned banned books week on another thread, it prompted me to comment ...many civilisations have periodically declared certain tomes dangerous to the state, some have even gone for wholesale book burning.

One of my favourite books - because it challenges me every time I pick it up - is a great survivor of burnings, the I Ching.

It can be read on so many levels, and opens the door to some really left field revelations.

 

[Pustulio]

I have a tough time getting myself to read fiction at all.
However I felt a strong connection with the book "Flowers For Algernon" and I really like that book.

Non-fiction has to be "The Knucklebook" though.

 

[lightspeed]

Resident Librarian mentioned banned books week on another thread, it prompted me to comment ...many civilisations have periodically declared certain tomes dangerous to the state, some have even gone for wholesale book burning.

One of my favourite books - because it challenges me every time I pick it up - is a great survivor of burnings, the I Ching.

It can be read on so many levels, and opens the door to some really left field revelations.

I will have to add this to my to read list. Is this the same I Ching that can be used as an oracle?

Sounds very interesting.

 

[loveofreason]

One and the same.

It's not exactly what you pick up for light reading. I think it was Confucious who was credited with saying that if he had another lifetime over, he would devote it to the study of the I Ching - and he was already one of its most ardent students!

In fact he added many layers of text. The book has formed by accretion, gaining more and more text over time. It has been used as a formula for governance, and much of what Confucious added was aimed at directing appropriate social behaviour. But it is not just about social order. It can be interpreted on so many nesting levels ie. layers of explanation that adopt the same pattern, in the same way fractals are repeated at every level at which they are examined.

It is a treatise of analogous relationships - the ultimate pattern handbook, and utterly fascinating to my pattern driven mind. If you care to listen it will explain that this is like this as this is like this - it breaks all phenomena down into 64 essential states. 64 dynamic ways of being, and the nuances thereof.

Another of the I Ching's great students was Jung himself, who found the book an invaluable companion when exploring the complexities of the human psyche. It surpasses ordinary language, distilling everything to the ultimate qualitative essence.

I would recommend the book Tao of Chaos by Katya Walter if you want to pick up a volume that can help explain the I Ching. If you look for a copy of the I Ching itself, then the Wilhelm-Barnes translation is popular with most readers.

I think it is the perfect tool for honing the intuitive capacities if the NT types.

 

[Vrecknidj]

Fiction
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah and Jonathon Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach were favorites of mine when I was younger. Stranger in a Strange Land is indeed an excellent work, as is Catch-22. I particularly enjoyed The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. For fantasy, it's hard to beat Tolkein, though there are many contemporary authors who are quite good (Orson Scott Card is well-liked by many INTPs, for example).

Non-Fiction
In the sciences, I find Timothy Ferris and Sarah Hrdy particularly illuminating. There are many great science writers though, so these are only names to get people started.

In psychology, while I do find Jung's work illuminating, his vocabulary can be off-putting. However, there are many in the field that have that problem. Edward Edinger is one, I absolutely love his book Ego and Archetype. I also like Naomi Quenk's Beside Ourselves. Both He and She by Robert Johnson are recommended in this area.

Dave

 

[Yan]

One and the same.

It's not exactly what you pick up for light reading. I think it was Confucious who was credited with saying that if he had another lifetime over, he would devote it to the study of the I Ching - and he was already one of its most ardent students!

In fact he added many layers of text. The book has formed by accretion, gaining more and more text over time. It has been used as a formula for governance, and much of what Confucious added was aimed at directing appropriate social behaviour. But it is not just about social order. It can be interpreted on so many nesting levels ie. layers of explanation that adopt the same pattern, in the same way fractals are repeated at every level at which they are examined.

It is a treatise of analogous relationships - the ultimate pattern handbook, and utterly fascinating to my pattern driven mind. If you care to listen it will explain that this is like this as this is like this - it breaks all phenomena down into 64 essential states. 64 dynamic ways of being, and the nuances thereof.

Another of the I Ching's great students was Jung himself, who found the book an invaluable companion when exploring the complexities of the human psyche. It surpasses ordinary language, distilling everything to the ultimate qualitative essence.

I would recommend the book Tao of Chaos by Katya Walter if you want to pick up a volume that can help explain the I Ching. If you look for a copy of the I Ching itself, then the Wilhelm-Barnes translation is popular with most readers.

I think it is the perfect tool for honing the intuitive capacities if the NT types.

Compared with I Ching, I am more fascinated by astrological readings, like Dane Rudhyar's, though I am Chinese.

I have a few books on I Ching written by one who is good at fortune telling (I do not prefer to call "it" fortune telling actually, but I cannot find a perfect word. You name it, ^_^).It is a shame I did not read them. It is easier to understand those materials in English than in Chinese or even in Ancient Chinese, although English translation cannot fully decipher the originals. Never mind, NT types can read between lines, I think.

Jung's biography is one of my favorites.

 

[ignatius]

What initially comes to mind:
The Hitchhiker's Guide
Lord of the Rings
Brave New World (I thought this was better than 1984.. but they're pretty similar)
Ender's Shadow (I accidentally read it before E's Game, so I guess that's why I like it better)
The Traveler, by John Twelve Hawks
...
And I'm currently reading The Anarchist in the Library, which seems good so far. Well, was reading.. it seems to have lost itself temporarily. >.< That and my library card...

 

[Ermine]

What are your favorite books?

Some of mine are:


"Disco Bloodbath" James St James

"Anthem" Ayn Rand

"1984" George Orwell


Will add more as I think of them...

Ever read Night by Elie Wiesel? I think you would really like that book. Oh, and most anything by Richard Wright.

 

[loveofreason]

Compared with I Ching, I am more fascinated by astrological readings, like Dane Rudhyar's, though I am Chinese.

I have a few books on I Ching written by one who is good at fortune telling (I do not prefer to call "it" fortune telling actually, but I cannot find a perfect word. You name it, ^_^).It is a shame I did not read them. It is easier to understand those materials in English than in Chinese or even in Ancient Chinese, although English translation cannot fully decipher the originals. Never mind, NT types can read between lines, I think.

Jung's biography is one of my favorites.

I think that's the secret of any book that holds my attention - I like plenty of space for reading between the lines

 

[Gaupa]

Oh, Douglas Addams books are wonderful - absurd and funny.

I read to be distracted (just have fun or dive into a sea of emotions), or to learn more. Recently I've mostly read for the second reason. Handbooks (on historical crafts or on how to coach yourself).

 

[hairlessbluetick]

For fiction, what's coming to mind off the top of my head:

East of Eden
His Dark Materials trilogy (that movie was so disappointing!)
Lives of the Monster Dogs
The Blood Countess

... will add more as I think of them.

 

[Wisp]

Hmm... I tend to like fantasy in its many forms... including...
Orson Scott Card, particularly Ender's Shadow
The Star Wars Books, notably Timothy Zahn
All of the books by Tamora Pierce... the Tortall Saga.
Dragonlance...
The Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix
And anything that looks interesting...

 

[lightspeed]

Ever read Night by Elie Wiesel? I think you would really like that book. Oh, and most anything by Richard Wright.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_(book) looks interesting. Will check it out, when I swing by the library today. I hope it's there.

 

[Ser]

I'm a rather large fan of cat-in-the-hat. If you give a mouse a cookie was also decent.

 

[Yozuki]

Yozuki is too much the enjoying the Harry Potter, Boxcar Children, Guinnes World Records 2000, the technical computer the machine, and the Internet reading.

Too much the naught the reading of the Sonic the Hedgehog the Archie Comic it is.

 

[mm1991]

The Chronicles of Narnia (I'm a super mega, nerdy fan, you can find me at the narniaweb forums), Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, Sweet Valley, Sugar Creek Gang.

 

[Ex-User (221)]

Hmmmm..... Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare, Bram Stoker's "Dracula"....I don't love any modern writers to be honest. All the good ideas have already been used and once you have a good look at it, you can see that anythng new and "original" is really just a blend of countless other endlessly recycled stories...Mythology and legends are pretty good too.

 

[Zero]

Catcher in the Rye anyone?

 

[thirtyshackles]

Amerika, Han Feizi and Venus in Furs are always the ones which come to mind; also anything Agatha Christie. Being upbeat and happy, generally, I read what's missing. Does anyone else find that to be true?

 

[smallbird]

I love classics - all of them. However, The Tale of Two Cities is # 1.

I also appreciated the symbolism in the Narnia Chronicles.

My all time favorite though is 1984 by George Orwell.

 

[Cabbo Pearimo]

Anything by anyone good and innovative. Wodehouse is king.

 

[hedgehogbe]

Hmmm... I love sooooooo many books. I will try to name a few that come to mind.

Gateway (and all the books that came after) Frederick Pohl
Foundation series and Robots series by Asimov
Childhood's End. AMAZING book by Arthur C. Clarke
Rama series by Arthur C. Clarke.
Well... Anything by Arthur C. Clarke lol
Heinlein I haven't read too much of, but I loved The Puppet Masters and Starship Troopers.
Ender's Game. I didn't like the sequels nearly as much.
Kilnpeople by David Brin


So that's most of what I like in SF. Fantasy I haven't read much of but here's what I do like:

Tolkien
Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin


Other books I have way too many to list here, but I did really like War and Peace and Moby Dick.

 

[Radioactive_Springtime]

Lovecraft- I enjoyed the whole idea of human existence as being a pointless out of control and ultimately ignored and forgotten

And most science texts, especially physics and astronomy

 

[hedgehogbe]

Lovecraft is quite amazing.

I forgot to add Philosophy in general... Though it depends a hell of a lot on the style.

 

[Gandalf]

Lets see. The Outsiders by SE Hilton, The Lord of the Rings, Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams(Hitchhiker series, Dirk Gently wasn't as good) Dean Koontz The door to December. I'll think of more later.

 

[CowSavior]

If anybody likes fantasy...
READ ERAGON!

It's the best thing I've ever read.
There is a sequal to Eragon, called Eldest, and the writter, Paolini, is working on a third book, and maybe even a fourth book.

I read it and it was all crazy, and whatnot, becauseit's like...
A cross between Lord Of TheRings, and DBZ.
Sounds wierd, but... really.

The story is put together very well, almost as if every single letter in the book coincides with one another, and the characters have been written very well, also; each of them has their own diverse personality.

"But don't take my word for it!"

 

[Aphasia]

Neil Gaiman's books are excellent. The Sandman comics (not really books, but still good) and the anthology Fragile Things are my favorites, although only by a notch or two.

Favorite quote (from Fragile Things):
"As I write this now, it occurs to me that the peculiarity of most things we think of as fragile is how truly tough they are"

There are lots of books and authors I and love, but this sentence (and the accompanying paragraph) is the one that I like most by far.




For some reason, I'm suddenly thinking of book clubs.

 

[whojgalt]

I'll leave out a lot, because I can never think of them all at once, but...

Atlas Shrugged (read it six times and never skipped the speech) or anything by Ayn Rand. Though I bet you could have guessed that.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Heinlein

A Memory of Whiteness - Kim Stanley Robinson (he's the only writer I've read who can write about music and make you think you're actually hearing it).

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

LOTR and Hitchhiker, though it seems like those almost go without saying here.

I've seen Catcher in the Rye, Ender's Shadow, His Dark Materials, and various Gaiman, mentioned here. I like those a lot as well, but wouldn't put them in a top ten list, maybe in a top 50 list though.


Damn, I know I'm forgetting some really important ones...

 

[Dissident]

Most of it has already been metioned but some of my favourites are:

Demian by Hesse
Steppenwolf by Hesse
Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein
Also Sprach Zaratustra by Nietszche

Dragonlance first and second trilogies

Truth and Juridical Forms by Foucault
A brief History of Time by Stephen Hawkin

Some comics (Sandman, Berserk)

 

[Wisp]

Dragonlance! Win! There aren't that many who know much about it. Tasslehoff all the way.

Anyways, as for Eragon, try again. I read Eragon at a point, and loved it, and still plan to finish the series, once Paolini gets off his ass and writes the expected predictable ending, but anyways, it's just Star Wars, plus LotR thematics, with a cool magic system(best part of book) and Dragons. I wrote a post on it, I'll edit it in if I find it.

 

[LeeLeeIsMe]

Three of my favorties are:

The Human Comedy by William Saroyan

Skinny by Ibi Kaslik

When I Was FIve I Killed Myself by Howard Buten

 

[murkrow]

I'm an ENTJ (as in don't take this as a tailored book for INTPs)

My favorite book is All Quiet on the Western Front

 

[Vulture]

We (Yevgeny Zamyatin)


One of the first utopian novels for all of you 1984 and Anthem lovers.

 

[Privateer]

Watership Down.

'Your chief...?'

 

[wreckoning]

In no particular order, fiction:

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood
Calculating God - Robert J Sawyer
Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K Le Guin
Expendable - James Alan Gardner
Watership Down - Richard Adams
Survivor - Chuck Palahniuk
The Shore of Women - Pamela Sargent
Belinda - Anne Rice
Halfway Human - Carolyn Ives Gilman
Foundation - Isaac Asimov
Story of O - Pauline Réage

 

[andrew]

Anything by Franz Kafka.

A few other authors here and there.


I like a lot of anciet greek stuff, like Plato (I just finished the Republic).

Non-fiction on topics of philosophy, economics and political science (and history involving one of the three).

 

[Frosty]

Non-fiction on topics of philosophy, economics and political science (and history involving one of the three).

+1

... and science ... and theology.

 

[Mischz]

Most of it has already been metioned but some of my favourites are:

Demian by Hesse
Steppenwolf by Hesse
Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein
Also Sprach Zaratustra by Nietszche

Dragonlance first and second trilogies

Truth and Juridical Forms by Foucault
A brief History of Time by Stephen Hawkin

Some comics (Sandman, Berserk)

Hesse is very good. I've finished Narcissus, Steppenwolf and Siddhartha but never tried Demian. Probably will... Sandman is good too and Nietzche's Thus Spake Zarathustra was funny.

I tried to list some "favourites" and ended up with too many. ><" So I removed all instead. Damn.

But on my next book hunt, I will probably refer to the lists you guys generated instead of random fishing. May find another delicious book to devour. =D

 

[Gigazz]

I don't read as much as I should, but my bookshelf(one shelf, actually, if I get around to reading more perhaps I'll make it *gasp* TWO shelves!) contains Terry Pratchett books - Pyramids, Monstrous Regiment, Reaper Man, and Feet of Clay(haven't read the last one yet) - Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman(quite possibly my favorite book ever), a Children's Bible(with adorable pictures :3 ), The Little Book of Voodoo, Some political books by Bernie Goldberg, Mark Levin, and Bill O'Reilly, and my most recently read, East of Eden. I cried at the end, I admit it.

 

[Zero]

I hated Eragon. I didn't get past the first few pages, the writing style was horrid (immature), it was generic and the hero was already boring. I didn't like it at all whatsoever. I didn't understand why it was so popular, but getting the back ground information on it....

It's an example of what I hate about the writing world.

 

[Dissident]

Hesse is very good. I've finished Narcissus, Steppenwolf and Siddhartha but never tried Demian. Probably will...

I humbly suggest that you do read Demian, if you like Hesse you will find it SO good.

"The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must destroy a world. The bird flies to God. That God's name is Abraxas"

 

[zxc]

I won't bother with non-fiction. Anyone who loves fantasy should try the books I list, if you haven't read them.

Sara Douglass - Axis Trilogy, Wayfarer Redemption Trilogy, Darkglass Mountain Trilogy (though 3rd book isn't finished - 2nd book only recently came out)


Raymond E. Feist - Magician, Silverthorn, and A Darkness at Sethanon (there's more books set in the same world and that continue, but I couldn't get into them as much as these first three)

Robin Hobb - The Farseer Trilogy, and The Tawny Man Trilogy

Fiona McIntosh - Trinity Trilogy

Phillip Pullman - His Dark Materials Trilogy

Isobelle Carmody - The Obernewtyn Chronicles

George Orwell - Nineteen Eighty-Four

Bram Stoker - Dracula

Celia Friedman - Feast of Souls

Dan Brown - Angels and Demons, and The Da Vinci Code

Robert Ludlum - The Bourne series, as well as The Ambler Warning

J.R.R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings, and The Hobbit

John Marsden - Tomorrow, When The War Began series


Many more books, but I don't have my bookshelves in front of me, so those are the only ones I can recall (that were really awesome).

 

[Gandalf]

I don't read as much as I should, but my bookshelf(one shelf, actually, if I get around to reading more perhaps I'll make it *gasp* TWO shelves!) contains Terry Pratchett books - Pyramids, Monstrous Regiment, Reaper Man, and Feet of Clay(haven't read the last one yet) - Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman(quite possibly my favorite book ever), a Children's Bible(with adorable pictures :3 ), The Little Book of Voodoo, Some political books by Bernie Goldberg, Mark Levin, and Bill O'Reilly, and my most recently read, East of Eden. I cried at the end, I admit it.

What characters do you like from Terry Pratchett's books? I love Death, the Librarian, Windle Poons and Greebo.

 

[Gigazz]

I really liked Reg Shoe and Death from Reaper Man, but I also liked Teppic from Pyramids a whole lot. In Monstrous Regiment I liked Maladict(a) the best. Out of them, I think I have to say Reg is my favorite.