Favourite Books & Favourite Writers

[Saramarie25]

Yeah, I love Dickens too. Except for Great Expectations, it never quite caught on with me. Maybe my expectations for it were too high, ahar har har....

 

Jane Austen's okay, I get restless after awhile though, I'm not sure why. I enjoyed one of the vampire knock-offs too, but again I was more than ready for it to be over by the end.

 

Robertson Davies, anyone? Loved the ones I read, need to go back for more.

I find Dickens hard going when I'm actually reading it. But when I get to the end I find I really enjoyed it haha.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I also remember from my school days that I loved pretty much anything we read by Dickens, and exactly nothing by Shakespeare (as a lit minor I'm pretty sure this is sacrilege).

While I rarely read anything by either of those authors nowadays, I've read a fair amount of each in school, and find that a number of their images have stuck in my head -- which presumably happens to a lot of people, thus explaining why no one feels the need to explain casual references to their works.

 

I was an English minor too, by the way -- but that was because I'm interested in language. Wasn't till I actually read the course catalog that I discovered "English" at my college meant "literature" -- except for "History of the Language," by far my favorite course.

[T.o.b.y]

I really didn't like hamlet: I hope benedict will make me change my mind. 

 

I love Hamlet. It's the only Shakespeare play I really like. I could never abide reading Shakespeare (seeing the plays on stage is fun, but reading? Nah...) until I came across an annotated Hamlet in my grandmother's bedroom. Gracious and generous lady that she was (sniff), she didn't so much mind my snooping around her things, and was rather thrilled that I was finally showing interest in her beloved playwright. So I read Hamlet, slowly, one page annotations for one of Shakespeare's, and suddenly it hit me what a great roaring marvel that thing is, and I fell in love with it. I so wish I could see Benedict Cumberbatch play him. That voice plus those lines... Maybe it's all for the best that I will never be exposed to that combination. I might swoon and make a fool of myself.

 

I don't enjoy reading Shakespeare, but I do enjoy a really good performance of most of the plays. Not amateur performances, though, I'd rather shoot myself in the foot.

 

Mmmm, I don't know, I went to a school that did lots of theater and also Shakespeare, of course, and I often like it better when kids do those plays in a fairly unselfconscious, straight-forward manner, as when some fancy director tries to reinvent the whole play, show off his own crazy imagination and ends up with Romeo and Juliet having sex on stage while bombs explode in the background, or something like that. But I like amateur theater, anyway. Or semiprofessional.

 

This is going to sound completely boring and commonplace, but I love Jane Austen.  I also get irrationally annoyed by people, my husband included, who write her books off as "romance novels" without ever reading them.  Um, no.  They are witty, satirical, and fabulous social commentaries.  Girl was funny and brilliant. They are not just schmoopy romance novels of the 1800's.

 

 

YES! YES! YES! This exactly. I blame the films in part for creating that impression, though...

 

Yeah, I love Dickens too. Except for Great Expectations, it never quite caught on with me. Maybe my expectations for it were too high, ahar har har....

 

In my limited experience, usually people who like Dickens novels in general don't like Great Expectations, and those who don't like them do warm to that particular book. I like Great Expectations in spite of being a regular Dickens junkie, but it took me a while. I certainly don't read if for the same reasons as his other books. I like the ending. Especially the old ending - the one that wasn't published in the end because it was "too bleak". But it wasn't sad; I thought it was good, realistic. (Just like I love the "old" ending for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - why oh why were these authors always talked into rewriting their stuff to make more sap?).

[Arcadia]

...why oh why were these authors always talked into rewriting their stuff to make more sap?).

MONEY.... Publishers love the stuff.

[sittything]

Yeah, I love Dickens too. Except for Great Expectations, it never quite caught on with me. Maybe my expectations for it were too high, ahar har har....

 

Oh, Great Expecations was by far my favorite Dickens novel I've read.  Although, I haven't read them all.  I really, really want to watch the newer Great Expectations series with Gillian Anderson.

 

 

 

I also remember from my school days that I loved pretty much anything we read by Dickens, and exactly nothing by Shakespeare (as a lit minor I'm pretty sure this is sacrilege).

I was an English minor too, by the way -- but that was because I'm interested in language. Wasn't till I actually read the course catalog that I discovered "English" at my college meant "literature" -- except for "History of the Language," by far my favorite course.

 

 

Heh, your college sounds like my college!  I was technically an English minor, but it didn't result in me taking any additional composition classes;  it was basically just a bunch of extra lit classes.  As someone who loves to read, easiest minor ever!!  I always tell people I'm a lit minor, because I feel like English doesn't accurately reflect what it was.  I don't want people thinking I can write, or that I know anything about punctuation or grammar, because yeah... no.  

[Carol the Dabbler]

... I could never abide reading Shakespeare ... until I came across an annotated Hamlet in my grandmother's bedroom.

Too bad I didn't read that book, then! Aside from having read a few of his plays and poems, I'm probably most familiar with Shakespeare through a little book called Twisted Tales from Shakespeare by Richard Armour. Despite the frequent jokes, Armour does get the plots right, so his book is about as informative as Cliff's Notes and a whole lot more fun!

 

In my limited experience, usually people who like Dickens novels in general don't like Great Expectations, and those who don't like them do warm to that particular book.

Well, that explains it, I guess. I like Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol -- though I cannot swear that I've read all of the former.  We may have had just a lengthy excerpt in one of our high-school books, but in any case, poor old Miss Havisham with her one shoe has stuck with me all these years.

 

[T.o.b.y]

Alphabetize? Are u peeple nutz?!?!?!? Dewey decimal!!!!!!  Yeesh.

 

I have my books organized by genre, so there. (Okay, okay, then alpha by author, then chrono.) It's never occurred to me to organize my DVDs, isn't that what that little storage space under the TV is for?

 

Organize? Huh? :P

 

I guess there is some kind of order to my books, but it's neither really alphabetical nor by any other rule I could name. I tend to have all of one author's works in one place, and there's a shelf where there's more classics, and one area where I keep most of my crime fiction, but then Sherlock Holmes is next to fairy tales, which I hope poor old Sir Arthur wouldn't take offense at. It's just that the complete collection I own is a large hardcover, and so is my Grimms Fairy Tales, and I only have one shelf that has enough space for those tall volumes. I have a section for children's books, but Winnie-The-Pooh is next to the bible, and Anne of Green Gables is sandwiched between the fairy tales and a few thick art collections, because those old paperbacks are so limp from having been carried around with me all over the place and re-read hundreds of times that they need really strong neighbors for them to stay upright. And so on. 

 

My DVDs are a mess. I ought to do something about them. Some day.

[SherlockedCAMPer]

My DVDs are in a vertical stack on top of a bookshelf the stack is usually topped off by my Sherlock collection in it's box. The only book out if order is Sherlock: Chronicles. It's by my foreign language as it is the only shelf that had space and was tall enough otherwise it would have been by the Sherlock & John mini-busts which are on a random collections shelf.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Alex pointed out Wikipedia's list of Best-Selling Books to me the other day, and I'm amazed by some of what's on it (and where), as well as by some of what's not on it.  (Note: The list does NOT include the Bible, the Koran, etc., due to widely fluctuating estimates of number sold.)

 

Before you read the list, you might want to guess what's on top, as well as what's not even on it.  Then check the list.  Then feel free to read my comments if you like.

 

What's NOT on it

 

Sherlock Holmes!  I'm guessing that's because the tales sometimes appear in random collections of short stories, rather than as Conan Doyle's more-or-less official collections.  The closest the list gets to Sherlock is Calico Cat Holmes, a series of Japanese novels about a cat who helps a police detective solves crimes.

 

 

What's on top

 

#1: Lord of the Rings

#2: The Hobbit

 

Yay!  Guess Alex and I have helped those along -- we have several copies of each.

 

 

[Arcadia]

I'm amazed to find I've read nearly all of those. I'm wondering if that's a good thing, or a bad thing?

I guessed what #1 was because I read a similar list years ago. The literati howled with dismay. I felt all warm and glowy inside.
 

[Carol the Dabbler]

I'm amazed to find I've read nearly all of those. I'm wondering if that's a good thing, or a bad thing?

 

Well, you shouldn't have much trouble discussing books with other readers. I'd say that's a good thing, as long as you enjoy those books.

 

I do wonder about people who choose their books (and music) according to what's "good for them" rather than what they enjoy. I don't think that's you, though.

[Carol the Dabbler]

I've read something like 30 of the single-volume works. And a whole lot of things that aren't on the list.

[Arcadia]

 

I'm amazed to find I've read nearly all of those. I'm wondering if that's a good thing, or a bad thing?

Well, you shouldn't have much trouble discussing books with other readers. I'd say that's a good thing, as long as you enjoy those books.

 

I do wonder about people who choose their books (and music) according to what's "good for them" rather than what they enjoy. I don't think that's you, though.

 

 

Good guess! What was the tip off? xd

 

I'm tempted to read the rest on the list. After all, if I liked that many of them, I might like the rest of them.

 

[Arcadia]

Oh geez, the first thing on the list I haven't read already is Think and Grow Rich. No, I don't think I'll bother. Gawd, the next one I haven't read is Lolita. Okay, I'll just remain in ignorance. :p

 

I did read 100 Years of Solitude because I thought I should, and because a friend said it was "brilliant." Hated it!

[SherlockedCAMPer]

I've read 15 of the single books, 7 of the series (not necessarily the whole series but a large chunk). And have seen many of the tv/movie adaptations for a he books I haven't read.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Oh geez, the first thing on the list I haven't read already is Think and Grow Rich. No, I don't think I'll bother. Gawd, the next one I haven't read is Lolita. Okay, I'll just remain in ignorance. :p

 

I haven't read Lolita either, but may some day. It sounds like an interesting character study --and presumably pretty tame by today's standards, except for Lolita being about twelve years old. (And yes, I do read Penthouse for the articles, thank you.)

[T.o.b.y]

I just counted... Have read 27 from the single volumes list and 9 from the series.

 

I am very amazed at what's not on there, but like the article said, for some works, there just aren't any reliable numbers, so I guess that explains it.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Also some books are very popular, but only in certain circles.

[hann156]

This is a really hard question, because I have read so many good books in my life. Here are some of my favorites:

 

Atonement by Ian McEwan

I haven't read any other McEwan's novels, but Atonement definitely hit me. It's tragic and sad, but also very romantic and deep. It's a credible story how misunderstandings affect persons life, even though he tries to change things with his own actions and choices.

 

They know not what they do by Jussi Valtonen

A Finnish author's massive novel, which is also translated to many other languages. It's deep, scary and very timely story about how technology and government's control is going to take over. There are also many more topics dealt with, like cultural differences, animal rights and activism.

 

A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

I think many of you have read this classic. Frightening description about how things could mess up if we wanted to play God.

 

The Lord of The Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien

Another classic which doesn't need further description. This summer I finally managed to read the whole series (I used to have some negative feelings for LoTR for some unknown reason) and it really was brilliant and deserves all the hype. Well-written, thrilling, reliable and personal characters, nice atmosphere...it has everything.

 

 

[Amber§]

Aw, this is a lovely topic!

 

I've read a lot of sagas, so I'm going to talk about them as they were a single book, beacuseI usually love all the books of a saga.

 

Percy Jackson and the gods of Olympus- and the heroes of Holympus

The writer imagines a world where Gods of Olympus really exist, as all mythologic creatures. God can have sons and daughters also with human people, so we have a lot of demigods. This guys have to face a lot of difficulties beacuse monsters try to kill them and a war is approaching.....

I think that's the best of all the fantasy stories. The books are so catching that when I start reading, I can't stop. The style of writing is perfect: not too hard to read, not too complicated but also not too simple. Perfect. The plot is amazing.

 

Shadowhunters

Another fantasy saga, this time involving vampires, werewolves, fairies, warlocks, demons and shadowhunters, who are in part angels, in part humans and have the duty to protect humans from demons. But an evil shadowhunter tries to destroy the world and somebody has to stop him....

The plot is very interesting. There are a lot of complicated love stories that interested me very much. Sometimes the story is a bit slow and it happens that some chapters are a bit useless for the plot, but it's very interesting anyway.

 

Harry Potter

Everybody knows it and there's nothing to add ;)

 

[Arcadia]

I really liked the "His Dark Materials" series by Philip Pullman.

[Raspppberyl]

I could never make a "Favourite Books" list and not include Harry Potter. I grew up with them, both the books and films and I love them both equally but as for less common authors or books/series I really like the following

 

The Chronicles of Ixia by Maria V. Snyder (9 Books) - Fell in love from the first chapter of the first book

The Power of Five by Anthony Horowitz (5 Books) - Another series I grew up with

 

There are so many other books that I've picked up that look promising but I haven't got round to them yet. 

[Arcadia]

Clearly I need to go back to reading. Those both sound interesting just from the titles, yet I've never heard of either of them. Ak! Okay, that's it, I'm retiring to a cottage in Sussex and will do nothing but read for the next 40 years.....

[SherlockedCAMPer]

I've heard of the last one only because my sister found part or all of that series.