Best book you've ever read

[fnord33]

This thread might already exist and I apologize if it does. I didn't notice one.


What's the best book you have ever read and why. This isn't necessarily a desert island scenario. It doesn't have to be a book that you want to read a million times. Imagine that some high school sports star was blowing his brains out with crystal meth and he nabbed you and held a gun to your head and said that he was going to decorate his hummer with your gray matter if you couldn't show him what was so great about literature in the next five minutes. What book would you wish was in your backpack at the time?

I'd be screwed because the first thing that pops into my head is the "Illuninatus" trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson. Most people can't get through it on their first read. The reason that I would pick "Illuninatus" is that it's enlightening without being pretentious. It redefines reality as well as the most complex psychological interactions in simple terms which are capable of inspiring a mental quantum leap. It is the penultimate social satire, the most complex twistyness that the human mind is capable of and a self help book all at the same time. Unfortunately, most people are overwhelmed on their first go and put it down. It isn't so much an intellect thing as whether or not you are ready for it. In any case, I'd be dead.  Maybe this should be two different threads. Oh well. My second choice would probably be "Still Life With Woodpecker" by Tom Robbins. That would probably get me killed too. In all honesty the best solution would probably be to conjure up a copy of Penthouse, but imagine that the tweaker in question was capable of appreciating this book on the same level as you. What would you want to have on you.     
 

[delph_ambi]

I haven't a clue, off the top of my head. I LOVED Illuminatus, but haven't read it in decades, so have no idea if it would still blow my mind the way it did when I was a teenager. The only other book that comes close in scope is probably Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum", and that would certainly be high up on my list. Then there's Stephen Donaldson's seminal "Gap" series, and Vernor Vinge's superb "A Fire Upon the Deep". So, my all time fave is therefore a toss up between Jane Austen's "Persuasion" and Charlotte Bronte's "Shirley". I'll have to return to this thread. Really can't decide at the moment.

[leatherdykeuk]

Difficult question. At this moment I'll say either Iain Banks' 'Crow Road' or Kate Atkinson's 'Human Croquet' because both books made me want to write. Tomorrow I'll say something different.

[fnord33]

I like your answers. I've never read any of those, but they seem to be an interesting assortment which proves the importance of diversity of thought. I'll certainly keep a lookout for those titles. They all looked like things that I'd like to read.

Another book that I was completely blown away by was "The Satanic Verses". I didn't know much about Islam when I read it. I still don't think that I know enough to get everything, but it's one of the few books that really impressed me as both art and entertainment. I noticed that there was a symbolic arrangement of page numbers, but I never figured out the significance. Not getting it only stoked my curiosity and made me want to re-read it. In any case it was a damn good book. It, "Wicked," "The mythology of Transgression" by Jamake Highwater, and Voltaire's "Candide" probably had the most influence on my early philosophy of all the books I'd read. Of course, I was an arrogant cunt when I was young. At the age of thirteen I identified most strongly with the Marquis DeSade. Later in life I came to understand that most philosophy is counterproductive because the things which can be observed objectively imply an overwhelming tendency towards entropy despite the fact that several of the greatest mathematicians have proven (mathematically anyway) that negative entropy is a more powerful force in a system saturated with information. As even the stupidest of humans become super-saturated with information it is inevitable that we be drawn out of the muck and into a much weirder and more beautiful future than has been previously anticipated.


Why do we not have a drunk emoticon? It makes so much more sense than the little oral sex one  Seriously. I can't be the only person in the world who's more prone to posting on forums when I've been drinking. A drunkicon would be a convenient way for me to mark posts as unreadable rambling garbage so that fine, upstanding, sober persons wouldn't have to read them. I'm still trying to figure out the usage of about half of the ones we have. What is the proper use of  ? Does that mean that you're on crystal meth?  If the tweakers get their own emoticon then the drunks should too.

[Caz]

This one is easy  It means you just stuck your fingers in the power socket.

[Rev. Austin]

hahaha

Definitely top of my list is A Fine Dark Line by Joe Lansdale.  Incredible coming-of-age story set in the 50's, I think.  It's like reading a Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds song!  (And yes I've read And The Ass Saw The Angel by Cave but it wasn't as good as A Fine Dark Line) 

[jingold]

Blindness by Jose Saramago.

There's no dialogue, no character is named, and it's exhausting to read.  But everything about it works.  Everything about it is disturbing.  I only read it once, but lines from that novel have stuck in my head for years.  It makes me wish I could read Portuguese, so I could see the author's untranslated words.

Second choice:  Alice in Wonderland.  For sheer wordplay.

[Geoff_N]

The Thought Gang by Tibor Fischer.
It's hilarious, it uses all the Z words in the dictionary and it touches on philosophy. It made me want to write.

Geoff

[Pharosian]

Wow. Y'all read such intellectual books! When I think about my favorite reading, I come up with books in series: His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, The Song of Ice and Fire books by George R. R. Martin, and The Abhorsen Trilogy by Garth Nix.

As for being impressed by sheer writing ability, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien comes to the top of my mind even though it's been years since I read it. I picked up The Satanic Verses and was fascinated by the first few pages, but I didn't buy it for some reason, and I haven't got around to reading it yet. Rushdie has an incredible voice, though.

[Caz]

  First off I'd show the sports star a copy of Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, it's the story that kicked off my love of reading after many years in a book-less wilderness. Then it would be a copy of The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson so that he would know what it's like to face a fearsome adversary. Next it would be The Good Guy, call them brick bonds mister Koontz? and King's The Stand. Whilst he was busy digesting that lot I would smack him in the head with a hardback copy of Under The Dome and when he woke up, and now that I have his gun, politely tell him that he must read The Road.
 
  I'm sure he'd soon get the message, and in time he would not have one best book but a list of them.

[delboy]

Wow. Y'all read such intellectual books!

You took the words right out of my mouth! I feel like I ought to be mentioning some literary classic like Moby Dick or War & Peace, but alas it's more like to be a pulp crime novel... In terms of classics (although not literary ones) I did love The Naked & The Dead, The Great Gatsby, and The Fountainhead. I'm sure that before my reading days are through there'll be a few more classics to add to the list.

Other contenders include The Thirteenth Valley, The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, Mystery (one of the few books that I borrowed then immediately went out and bought a copy of because I had to have it in my collection), and The Rotters Club (which I liked so much I went out and bought all of Coe's other books).

Another author of whom I have all his books and who definitely deserves a mention if only because he's obscure and forgotten is Earl Thompson. His Tattoo would be on my favourites list, too.

Tomorrow I'll say something different.

Some more words taken out of my mouth.

But there are four or five books that over the years have moved me more than any others. I've come to realise that this is what I like best about fiction - being moved by the story. All of those already mentioned moved me, too, and I could list scores more. But the following have moved me the most, I guess because there's some resonance in there that particulary hit me, even if I don't know why:

Tortilla Flat - John Steinbeck
The Body - Stephen King
Goodbye Mickey Mouse - Len Deighton
Bomber - Len Deighton

All these four, and several of the others, involve groups of people who come together, go on an adventure of some sort, and then face a parting of the ways. I guess that's the story that affects me most of all. Lord of the Rings is kind of like that, but it was just too big to be able to hold inside my head and thus it never quite had the impact it ought. Stephen King's It was another - but I never bought into the ending so it slips down my personal ranking.

One other book should be added to today's version of this list: Love On A Branch Line by John Hadfield. Pure fantasy of an England that never really was, but it' a beautiful love story and I'm a sucker for those.

Out of all these if I had to chose one it would be between Steinbeck and King...

Today, probably the King. Tomorrow, who knows?

Derek

[Geoff_N]

Okay, so now I do two things with these lists -

1) I put some in my Amazon wish list but I'm months away from my birthday, etc
2) write in tiny print on a card in my wallet. I take this with me on my infrequent bike rides to Llangollen where the largest second hand bookshop in Wales lures me in via the cafe on the ground floor. To be fair I've only ever found one book on my list there even though they have over 20,000 books in the genre of science ficiton and fantasy alone.

Have you ever gone into a charity shop, browsed their book collection and actually found a book on your list of must reads?

Geoff

[Grillmeat]

An interesting question. I think I came out of the womb reading and I've read and enjoyed everything from pulp fiction and comic books to Shakespeare, Steinbeck and Ayn Rand. If I had to come up with one example of great literature I'd be hard pressed.  I guess, if the gun is to my head, I'd hope I had the Lord of the Rings in my back pack. Not because the writing as a whole is superior ( I think there are numerous examples of "better" writing) but because of scope of the writing, the creative dimension involved and the ability of the work to bring out tremendous emotion and sustenance to the spirit.
Another book I'd consider is Stephen King's the Stand. I first read it in high school and, looking back, I think it is the book that made me want to do more with my writing than just keep a journal or finish english writing assignments.....

[delboy]

Have you ever gone into a charity shop, browsed their book collection and actually found a book on your list of must reads?

Geoff, before the days of the internet when my love affair with the work of John D MacDonald first started I used to look everywhere for his books. I found one at jumble sale, but that was it. I remember going to Hay on Wye convinced I fill my boots... in all of the bookshops in the town they had just one JDM. Needless to say I bought it.

Derek

[Pharosian]

I'm glad to see some mention of books by Ayn Rand and Stephen King. I only read The Stand once, but I remember being really impressed. And I think The Shining was the only book that ever made me think twice about turning the lights out.