Books that everyone should read - WritingForums.com - Writing Forums, Writing Challenges, Critiques and Help for Writers

jen5079 · 04-27-2008, 06:58 PM

What are the books that you think that someone must read? I've read a few of the classics, but I just want to know what you guys think is a book that is so good that if you had it your way everyone would read.

J.S.S · 04-28-2008, 08:42 PM

American Psycho is a must read, it is on a lot of books to read before you die lists. Glamorama is also good and it kind of stuck with me, with certain lines resonating in my skull but maybe that is just me.
Wind-up Bird Chronicle also made me think about a few things. Great book if you can get through it.

RebelGoddess · 04-29-2008, 05:55 AM

Instead of suggesting my favorite author, which I do wayyyy too much LOL, I'm going to go with another favorite of mine.

Jane Eyre

It's an amazing story that everyone should read at least once.

Racheal

thechair · 05-13-2008, 08:30 AM

I personally didn't like American Psycho or Wind-up Bird Chronicle. I think everyone should have some exposure to Nabokov; Lolita and Pale Fire are my favorites by him. Also any of T.C. Boyle's short story collections. Also Slaughter House V and Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.

Brenda Keesal · 05-13-2008, 10:38 AM

For those of you thinking about death.. read EVERYMAN by Philip Roth. It's a deceptively simple book, written by a master.

blackthorn · 05-13-2008, 10:46 AM

My favorite book is The Car by Gary Paulsen. I think everyone should read that. It's a REALLY good book!

Sam Winchester · 05-13-2008, 10:50 AM

Hmm, that's a hard one. I think everyone should read Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy at least once in their lifetime. I think it's his magnum opus. I've read it no fewer than ten times.

buyjupiter03 · 05-13-2008, 11:11 AM

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, Odyssey by Homer, and The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan.

karax268 · 05-13-2008, 11:38 AM

The Lord of the Rings.
Greatest book ever writen.

Sam Winchester · 05-13-2008, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by karax268

The Lord of the Rings.
Greatest book ever writen.

Says you. I don't think it's all its cracked up to be.

Sam.

TJ Cruse · 05-13-2008, 01:05 PM

I agree with Sam that Clear and Present Danger is probably Clancy's best (although my personal favorite is Red Storm Rising).

But, how do you say a book is a must read? It depends on why you're reading I guess.

If we're talking about the classics, I'd say include The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. It was a very prophetic book for its time with regard to the influence and consequences of humanism in Europe and in Russia particularly (this was pre-USSR).

Tolkien's LOTR was a great good vs evil story (sorry Sam).

I also agree that McMurtry's Lonesome Dove was great. He's awesome if you've never read him.

The Stand by Stephen King
A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway

Sitting here thinking about it, there are plenty of others but I'll stop here.

TJ

buyjupiter03 · 05-13-2008, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TJ Cruse

Tolkien's LOTR was a great good vs evil story (sorry Sam).

I also agree that McMurtry's Lonesome Dove was great. He's awesome if you've never read him.

I don't cry when a book ends very often, but with those two I absolutely bawled. I didn't want the books to end. I'd invested a lot of time into those characters and kinda felt like they were friends. Oh, I hate to be predictable and push a book everyone and their mother knows about, but Tuesdays With Morrie is incredible. I bawled at the end of that one too, even though I knew what was coming. Sheesh, it sounds like I cry a lot, but I don't really.

(I read a lot of fantasy/sf, and since I know quite a few people on here don't care for it I had a hard time coming up with "must reads".)

Sam Winchester · 05-13-2008, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TJ Cruse

I agree with Sam that Clear and Present Danger is probably Clancy's best (although my personal favorite is Red Storm Rising).

But, how do you say a book is a must read? It depends on why you're reading I guess.

If we're talking about the classics, I'd say include The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky. It was a very prophetic book for its time with regard to the influence and consequences of humanism in Europe and in Russia particularly (this was pre-USSR).

Tolkien's LOTR was a great good vs evil story (sorry Sam).

I also agree that McMurtry's Lonesome Dove was great. He's awesome if you've never read him.

The Stand by Stephen King
A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway

Sitting here thinking about it, there are plenty of others but I'll stop here.

TJ

No need to apologise, TJ. Your opinion is your opinion. Mine is mine. Everyone doesn't like the same thing. For example: you say King's The Stand is a must read. I say it's about a thousand pages too long. I got eight-hundred pages into it and lost the will to live. The opening five-hundred pages are brilliant, but the middle dies a horrible death - and I don't even know what the ending is.

Red Storm Rising wouldn't be one of my favourite Clancy books, but it's still regarded as one of his best. I think everyone should read at least one of the series of books about Jack Ryan. I think it's safe to say they are revolutionary.

Sam.

Tiamat10 · 05-13-2008, 02:33 PM

I would say LOTR is a must-read, even though I hate reading it. I love the story, but I hate the writing. But hey, that's what movies are for.

I would say Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury is a must-read. I've read it something like seven times, and I still adore it.

Also, The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. I've only read it twice (but the first time was only about a year ago). I think it's actually on that list of 1001 one books you need to read before you die.

I've seen the movie American Psycho but was so uninterested in it that I never bothered about the book. I'll assume the book is better, but, meh.

If I had to list one more, I would say If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things by Jon McGregor.

Katastrof · 05-13-2008, 04:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TJ Cruse

I agree with Sam that Clear and Present Danger is probably Clancy's best (although my personal favorite is Red Storm Rising).

Ha, someone agrees with me! I loved Red Storm Rising too, but I wouldn't suggest it either. Defiantly, an acquired taste.

I'm going to suggest anything by Kurt Vonnegut (master of satire) and one that I don't think anybody has read: The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson

Now I'm going to explain this one because I can't even understand it myself. It's a series of three books (about 700 pages each) set in the late 1600s. Now the first book Quicksilver is hard to get into (because the Mr. Stephenson thought it would be smart to get smart at the start of the book by centering most of the narrative on scientific principles) but even when it does dabble into Issac Newton it is still good.

Why? Because at the end of the series it feels like you have known all the characters for most of your life and they evolve from characters into real people; I can't say that for any other book I've ever read.