Posted on 08/29/2007 9:01:26 PM PDT by samadams2000
Just finished this gem of a book. In 2 days. I would appreciate hearing about the favorites of fellow Freepers. Summer is a closin and I want to suck as much diversion as I can out of it. Regards.
Try Chat.
no, this should be in breaking news.
“Unfit for Command’
Kama Sutra. Scratch and Sniff version.
Yep. Sorry. Wrong section. But damn its a great book....
That looks like a winner. Thank you.
LOL!
Wind in the Willows. Mr. Toad rocks!
If you liked The Virginan by Owen Wister try books from Louie L’Amore.
The Bible for $1000, Alex.
Most of the early Heinlein, his later stuff was not as good, the thicker the book, the worse it is.
CS Lewis, “There once was a boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb and he almost deserved it.”
Replay, by Ken Grimwood
Of Heinlein's stuff, I've got to go with Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven will do tall time in hell for his excremental film!) or Time Enough for Love.
Off the top of my head...
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Memoirs of an Invisible Man by H.F. Saint
Without Remorse by Tom Clancy
The Cay by Theodore Taylor (short, but very good)
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
Firestarter, Needful Things, and Different Seasons by Stephen King
Forgot one...
The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov. Read it as a teenager and couldn’t put it down.
Happy ending?
“A Perfect Spy” by John LeCarre.
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson
1776 by David McCollough
Til We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis
Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis
The Odyssey(trans. Fitzgerald)
The Iliad(trans. Lattimore)
The Complete Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton
I have read literally hundreds of books tho I am not a heavy reader. I honestly can’t think of a single one which just stands out as great.
For some reason a fairly obscure book by Xenophon called “The Anabasis” or “The March up Country” stands out as an extraordinary book about extraordinary times.
The adventures of 10,000 Greek mercenaries trapped a thousand miles from home in Persia. How they fought their way home after the Persians treacherously murdered their generals during a peace conference.
Xenophon, who was an Athenian and a Spartan, whose name I can’t recall, were elected generals by the troups and the two worked perfectly together. I think around 6400 finally made it back to Greece.
I liked David McCullough’s: John Adams.
it’s okay, the 19th century prose was a little hard for me to get through. BTW, it’s based on the so called Johnson County War, between large cattle operations—often owned by Eastern and/or foreign interest—and small indpendent ranchers. Wister took the side of the big ranchers, whom history has judged to have been in the wrong. The definitive nonfiction account is The War on Powder River, by Helena Huntington Smit, written in the fifties and still available thru Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/War-Powder-River-H-Smith/dp/0803251882
That was a hard week I tell you what...
The best book I have ever read would be Hostage To The Devil if you are into exorcism and possession. Also The Enemies series Foreign and Domestic, Domestic etc. Just finished Dracula and it was by far better than anything Hollywood has produced about it, highly recommended.
“........try books by Louie L’Amour”.
My favorite is “Last of the Breed”. Too bad he never got around to writing the sequel. He left an opening for one but I guess his health had deteriorated before he got to it.
I didn’t realize you were still around. I understand you were a student of Socrates and also wrote books on Dog breeding and horses.
“Well,” said Uncle Andrew with a chuckle, “it depends what you call wrong. People are so narrow minded. She certainly got very queer in later life. Did very unwise things. That was why they shut her up.”
“In an asylum, do you mean?”
“Oh no, no, no,” said Uncle Andrew in a shocked voice. “Nothing of the sort. Only in prison.”
That was one of my favorites too, but it gave me a rash and then these pustules appeared, and then -- well, after the antibiotics I was OK.
Happy ending?
There’s a peaceful scene at the light house...
Have you ever tried David Gemmel’s “Jerusalem Man” series?
I first read “The Wizard of Oz” When I was in the 4th grade. We had an interesting setup where each classroom had it’s own library. They had two copies of it.
I read some of the other OZ stories recently and they are about as good as “The Wizard”.
There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.
The whole first opening page of that book is just fabulously, unbelievably well written. One of my all-time favorites.
Serious:
The Pelaponnesian War Thucydides
Lives Plutarch
This site has Plutarch and much more.
Have you ever read “To Kill a Mockingbird”?
It’s not there, but for hours of good reading, I recommend visiting http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/
Have you heard the Focus on the Family Radio Theatre productions of the Narnian Chronicles.
They are fabulouly entertaining and well done. Great for traveling and rainy afternoons.
The greatest work of English fiction.
That horrible cinema thing was as mean and nasty a rewriting as one could expect from Gollum himself. Speaking of Gollum, Smeagol was the only character that Jackson did without lies. Boromir was acceptable. Certainly Jackson has no grasp of honor, nobility, obligation, or what the story was about.
A Separate Peace
Yes. Our family also enjoys the Adventure In Odyssey CD’s.
No, I haven’t — but they sound like great fun!
Have you read The Inklings by Carpenter?
No, but I shall add it to my library list. Thanks for the tip.
For military fiction, I enjoy Tom Clancy and Harold Coyle (also check out of fellow FReeper Jeff Head's Dragon's Fury).
But my one true love has to be science fiction. Some of my favorite authors include Timothy Zahn, Elizabeth Moon, Isaac Asminov, David Drake, Eric Flint, Orson Scott Card, John Ringo, Harry Turtledove, and David Weber.
Lord of Darkness by Robert Silverberg
A Prayer for Owen Meaney by John Irving is one of mine.
As far as a "perfect" book, it's hard to say. A Farewell To Arms was a masterpiece of construction. Another one good enough to teach courses around is, believe it or not, a Stephen King novel, Salem's Lot. Concision, pacing, character development, and the emotional arc between story and reader - these two are pretty good models of the art form. Already mentioned, Gibson's Neuromancer was very stylish. 1984 was simply bone-chilling, a masterpiece of horror that wasn't even a horror novel. I don't think any of these is likely to leave you feeling cheated.
The Pistoleer (James Carlos Blake) is a taut and engrossing fictionalized account of John Wesley Hardin's life. Blake has also written some of the most violent westerns I've ever read, such as In The Rogue Blood. And his short stories will knock you on your keister.
Desperadoes (Ron Hansen) is an excellent tale of the Dalton Gang. He also does a fine job in The Assassination of Jesse James.
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