What's your favourite book?

#1

Hey, just wondering, what’s the best book that you’ve ever read in your life ? Any genres…

Like mine…

To have or to be --> Erich Fromm

#3

The Cheese Monkeys.

By Chip Kidd

The graphic designer. One of those graphic designers that deserve a “the” before their name.

It’s an autobiography of sorts, about his time at art college.

I HIGHLY recommend it.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

#4

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
Totally changed my life :slight_smile:

Also Lord of the Rings by Tolkien, The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco and 1984 by George Orwell.

#5

Band of Brothers - They just don’t make men like that anymore.

RIght now I’m reading Killing Pablo about the hunt for Pablo Escobar, the head of the Medllin drug cartel. Fascinating and scary all at once:surprised

-Dave

sneaks in edit And the Bible!!! :blush:

#6

HEATHENS! no one mentioned The Bible yet? :scream:

umm.

Green Eggs and Ham or The Berstein Bears

#7

SNOW CRASH and THE DIAMOND AGE - NEAL STEPHENSON
FIGHT CLUB and CHOKE - CHUCK PALAHNIUK(?)
THE FOUNTAINHEAD and ATLAS SHRUGGED - AYN RAND

#8

Originally posted by Leigh
[B]The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
Totally changed my life :slight_smile:

Also Lord of the Rings by Tolkien [/B]

You know, I read both, and I really wanted to like both, since the reviews were so positive. LOTR I had to force myself to keep reading it. I think it’s because I was raised on fantasy novels that had already taken the formula created by Tolkien and perfected it more–stuff like Terry Goodkind’s Wizard’s First Rule, Jennifer Roberson’s Sword Dancer, Patricia C. Wrede’s Caught In Crystal were the ones I grew up with and loved.

The Alchemist was a short and sweet read, but I think I was expecting some kind of earth-shattering conclusion where I learn something new that’ll change my life. I think it’s because at age 31 and having lived a pretty colorful and difficult life, all the lessons taught in The Alchemist I’ve already learned from my own life experiences? However it is a good book and I recommend it.

For my own favorite, it’s a Chinese book titled “Journey.” It’s just an incredible book about the choices you make in life, and that when you get what you’ve always wanted, you might realize it’s not what you imagined, and you all the things you’ve sacrificed along the way to get there, are now gone and you can never get them back–relationships, dreams, goals…etc.

For English books, I haven’t read one yet that I liked as much as the Chinese novels I’ve read. Maybe “Ex Libris: confessions of a common Reader” It’s a charming book by Anne Fadiman about her love for books and how it intertwined with her life and memories. For fantasy, it would have to be Wizard’s First Rule. For Sci-Fi, probably Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg–but that’s really more general literature than genre writing. It was such a powerful read for me, because that was the book that opened my eyes to the possibilities of serious writing in literature–but in a genre that are usually not taken seriously by the literary world. Smilla’s Sense of Snow taught me that you can write from you heart and soul–as any Pulitzer award-winning author would, even for genre fiction–and if it’s that good, the literary folks WILL take you seriously.

#9

Where the Wild Things Are:buttrock:

#10

John Steakley’s Armor (Vampire$ kicks ass too, ignore the movie)
Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash
William Gibson’s Neuromancer
Douglas Adams Hitchhiker Trilogy
James Clavell’s Shogun.

Probably read each of those at least 5 times, love em.

#11

Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables
Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings
Frank Herbert’s Dune (all books)

#12

animal farm, though i can’t read it any more because i become so horribly depressed.

i also like to read physics books when i have free time… i htikn i reread breif history of the universe about 3 years ago… when i had free time:p

#13

Originally posted by Dennik
Frank Herbert’s Dune (all books)

The first two were good but the rest were the most terrible books i’ve ever read in my life. They seemed to be written by some horny just-hit-puberty kid.
Anyways for me:
All Quiet on the Western Front
Something Wicked This Way Comes - Bradbury

#14

Favorite Serious:

      "The Stranger"  by  Camus

-I could really relate to this character.

Favorite Funny:

      "Lies and the Lying Liers who Tell Them, a Fair and Balanced Look at the Right"  by  Al Franken

-Just damn hilarious.

#15

How the mind works - Steven Pinker

The structure of evolutionary theory - Stephen Jay Gould (of course, look at the avatar)

Combine these two: atheism/skepticism 101! :wink:

#16

“Panda’s thumb” not really a book so much as a colleciton of essays from Stephen Jay Gould

#17

The Gap Series by Stephen R Donaldson
Any Neil Gaiman, Neal Stephenson, and Hunter S. Thompson

There’s more but the above authors and their works is what I often recollect and reread the most.

#18

The Catcher in The Rye Soooo goooooood…
For Whom The Bell Tolls, The Old Man and The Sea Also quite good.
Goodbye, Columbus
The Great Gatsby

My favorite books in order of… well, how much a favorite they were. I mean, you can’t really say “least favorite” if you liked it…

#19

I have quite a few…

All Quiet on the Western Front
Ishmael
Story of B
Realistic Image Synthesis Using Photon Mapping (it may sound like a weird choice, but this is the book that convinced me to persue studies pertaining to CG)

#20

Currently reading The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, and loving it! :buttrock:

Giles3

#21

Originally posted by Giles3
[B]Currently reading The Hot Zone by Richard Preston, and loving it! :buttrock:

Giles3 [/B]

yaya. great book. I read it when I was pretty young (I think I was 13 or 14 at the time?). Anyhow, it made me want to become a virologist at the time. Doesnt look like that is going to happen any time soon though :smiley: