ProudlyAnonymous

So, what's your all-time favorite ficiton novel / non-fiction book?

Fiction - War And Peace, Leo Tolstoy
Non-Ficiton- Bible, GOD

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"You see, that’s it. Weapons are not the most powerful things in history, bullets can kill only men and animals, bombs can only destroy cities. But that’s all insignificant. The most powerful things in all of human history are words. Words and Ideas, words and ideas.” -James Matthew Capella XI.

citygirl

I read, Forever Amber, many years ago, can't remember the author, but it was an excellent story in the late 1600's. I liked the name Amber, and so the charater in my story is Amber. Besides that I am not sure, as I have read many good books since then. I find Fiction, some Non-Fiction and the Bible very interesting. I guess I like variety cg

PianoGirl

Twilight by Stephenie Meyers. I love this book. I can't seem to get the sequels tho. It's really bugging me.

Matt3483

Hahaha. Surely you don't actually believe 'God' wrote the Bible. Or do you?

Even Christians believe that it was written by twelve guys who followed another guy around. Maybe it was a typo, but that was just too funny to ignore.

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Rathma

I read John Mardens Tomorrow Series - my favourite.

I also like Tobruk, the Bible and 800 Lighthorse men

ieuan

Christians normally will say about the Bible that it is the best ever literature ever written. Written by dozens of different authors spanning six or more thousand years. That to compare with a similar piece of work one would need to combine Milton, Blake and Shakespeare all in one, and yet it is better than those by far in style, pathos, poetry and content. It is written by different people from different nations, Moses was Egyption, Job was not a Jew, inpsired by the WORD of God. Jesus is the WORD of God.

The Holy Bible is acknowledged as the most holy of books by Christians, Jews, Moslems, Hindus and Buddists, in all possibly a thousand million people or if you like a billion people. They come from all the nations of the globe, of all classes and intellect, of low and the highest education, encompassing labourers to professors and some genuis'. And that would include people much brighter than our own Ox.

So why you Matt3483 seek to mock the Almighty is a puzzle to me. The Bible say you have eyes but cannot see, have ears but cannot hear, have a tongue but it mouths violence and vile things; and yet you have been made by God, yet rivile Him. You would rather believe that you have evolved from slime yet take offence if we remind you of your origin. You cannot comprehend the glory of the Almighty because you are a child of perdition, spawned by Satan. You are your father's son.

I hope one day you will turn for the sake of your own soul.

Don't accuse me of preaching, you brought it up and in doing so bring condemnation on your own head.

regards

Ieuan

Rathma

Matt3483,

12 guys didn't write the Bible! Four wrote the first four books in the New Testament, then a few more wrote more. Majority of the New Testament was written by one bloke named Paul/Saul. The Old Testament was written by more guys that I'll ever know.

God didn't really write them, He said what he wanted to be written down, then his writier will write it down (or something close to that).

Malone

Some of the stuff in the bible is timeless. I certainly wouldn't compare it to real authors as far as style goes though. It's mostly just little parables and shit passed down by mouth that some cult members wrote down, or exaggerated variations of old incidents (like Noah's flood).

My favorite (adult) books are probably a tie of Confederacy of Dunces and American Psycho.

ieuan

Malone, it not just me saying that the Bible is a literery masterpiece, it is countless literary masters.

Read some of the books, Malone; the literature is rich and outstanding as narrative. Try the book of Job, nothing has ever been written like the book of Job, or try the Book of Revelation, or the story of Ruth the Moabite woman, some of the statements made by Ruth have been copied by statesmen for thousands of years.

Remeber Harry Hopkins and Winston Churchill in the dark days of 1942?

'They people will be my people and thy God my God, witherest thou goest I will go...'

regards

ieuan

delilah_sighs

my favorite work of fiction is(in no particular order): An American Tragedy by theordore dreisder; a prayer for owen meany by john irving
non-fiction: none in paticular

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Matt3483

This just makes me pity you, Ieuan.

I was simply pointing out that 'God' himself did not sit down at his big wooden desk with a pen and paper and write the Bible. Or am I mistaken?

P.S. - What does this have to do with Ox?

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Reading is to me like water is to a fish: I can't live without it.

Seeker

Oh. Sorry. I thought this was a favorite book thread.

Backs out.

Malone

ieaun I didn't mean to imply you were alone in holding the bible in such high regard, nor that is was poorly written. It's just that from what I remember of reading it, it was very jumbled, pieced together, and often boring. I just didn't feel it was worth of Dickens or others with more prestige. I reread some of it today, mostly what you suggested, and you're right, it's pretty good stuff at times.

To call it non-fiction, though, is bullshit by any definition.

JosephB

To Kill a Mocking Bird. Read it as kid, and still revisit it from time to time.

"Non-fiction (sort of), In Cold Blood, hands down.

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"I am really only interested in a fiction of miracles."
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Just Me

A few thoughts on the Bible:
- To call the Bible a work of non-fiction is laughable.
- As said earlier, it wasn't authored by god (assuming that it is non-fiction), it was authored by several people to whom it was dictated by god. Additionally, unless you're reading it in its original Hebrew, you're not even reading the work of said authors, you're reading the work of the translator.
- The bible isn't really pieced together all too well, as Malone highlighted on earlier. If it was well-written, there wouldn't be a need for several volumes of commentary on each volume of the Bible, would there? Yes, there were a few stories in there that were half-decent, but it was also incredibly boring. What of the book of Leviticus? Not exactly what I call great literature. And it's incredibly repetitive.

As for personal favorites, it's hard to say. There are a lot of books that I've read that have deeply impacted me, that I think are amazing literary works, it's too difficult to narrow it down to specifics. Usually the books I've most recently read stand out most making it even more difficult.

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"And at the end of the day, is magic underwear really that much crazier than giant arks, or virgin births, or talking bushes. You're either a rationalist or you're not. And the good news is, a recent poll found 20% of adults under 30 say they are rationalists and have figured out that Santa Claus and Jesus are really the same guy."
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