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All Time Top 10 Favourite Books


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The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner

The Same River Twice - Chris Offutt

A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving

The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

Down by the River Where the Dead Men Go - George Pellecanos

Junky - William S. Burroughs

The Autobiography of Malcolm X - Malcom X/Alex Haley

Blood Meridian - Cormac McCarthy

A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway

Ham on Rye - Charles Bukowski

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Dang, you're the first person I've heard say anything positive about Go Set a Watchman. I gave up after about 20 pages. 

 

 

I didn't love it but I didn't hate it. It was interesting to see Scout as an adult as well as a different side of the Finch family but not strong enough to recommend. 

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He is deceptively easy and yet really difficult if you squeeze out all of his symbolism. For books, I would start with Old Man and the Sea. One of my favorite works by him is actually the short story, "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place". I've read an reread that many times.

 

I love Hemingway but I hate Old Man and the Sea. I've tried to like it but I find that I just don't give a damn about the old man.

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in no particular order:

 

frankenstein - mary shelley

the bell jar - sylvia plath

i am legend - richard matheson

cash - johnny cash

just kids - patti smith

into the wild - jon krakauer

the great gatsby - f scott fitzgerald

animal farm - george orwell

carrie - stephen king

jurassic park - michael crichton

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in no particular order:

 

frankenstein - mary shelley

the bell jar - sylvia plath

i am legend - richard matheson

cash - johnny cash

just kids - patti smith

into the wild - jon krakauer

the great gatsby - f scott fitzgerald

animal farm - george orwell

carrie - stephen king

jurassic park - michael crichton

 

Not a bad list by any means. I was considering putting Jurassic Park, but then remembered that it was one of the few times where I loved the movie more, if only because seeing the dinosaurs come to life was complete magic. And Grant, Hammond, and the rest were far more likable.

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The entire gosh dang Redwall series by Brian Jacques. Love me some animals with swords.

 

While on that kick I may as well say I was all about the Narnia books. Disregarding series as single entries, I'm at 29 books technically and most everything else I own is art, anatomy and design reference haha. I need to get back into reading more often. Les Mis and A Game Of Thrones have been sitting on my shelf for way too long.

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The entire gosh dang Redwall series by Brian Jacques. Love me some animals with swords.

 

While on that kick I may as well say I was all about the Narnia books. Disregarding series as single entries, I'm at 29 books technically and most everything else I own is art, anatomy and design reference haha. I need to get back into reading more often. Les Mis and A Game Of Thrones have been sitting on my shelf for way too long.

 

Duuuude. Grew up devouring Redwall novels.

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Not a bad list by any means. I was considering putting Jurassic Park, but then remembered that it was one of the few times where I loved the movie more, if only because seeing the dinosaurs come to life was complete magic. And Grant, Hammond, and the rest were far more likable.

 

ah i understand, i feel the same way about the silence of the lambs although i absolutely love the book. jurassic park is what reading is all about for me, just great story telling, and the same reason movies like JP and the goonies are my favourites. i agree movie hammond is much better, book hammond is a bastard.

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ah i understand, i feel the same way about the silence of the lambs although i absolutely love the book. jurassic park is what reading is all about for me, just great story telling, and the same reason movies like JP and the goonies are my favourites. i agree movie hammond is much better, book hammond is a bastard.

 

Definitely get how you feel about the Silence of the Lambs, as well. Now that I think of it, Hammond got the book death that Dieter got in the movies. Definitely deserved it in the books.

 

Out of curiosity, why did you choose Into the Wild? McCandless was an interesting character, albeit naive to a fault, but for whatever reason didn't find the book all that compelling.

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Definitely get how you feel about the Silence of the Lambs, as well. Now that I think of it, Hammond got the book death that Dieter got in the movies. Definitely deserved it in the books.

 

Out of curiosity, why did you choose Into the Wild? McCandless was an interesting character, albeit naive to a fault, but for whatever reason didn't find the book all that compelling.

 

good question! i chose into the wild because when i was 17 i was obsessed with the story of chris mccandless and consumed everything to do with him. it also kick started my love of jon krakauer, i actually prefer his other books into thin air and under the banner of heaven, but into the wild holds a lot of sentimental value for me hence its entry on my list. ive grown up a bit now so i dont see him in quite the same way. 

 

if youre interested in mccandless its worth checking out "the wild truth" by his sister, carine mccandless, as it gives another perspective on what happened and kind of illuminates why he did what he did. not an amazing book but provides some interesting insight. 

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Duuuude. Grew up devouring Redwall novels.

 

Right on haha. I've read (chronologically) up through Triss 3-5 times each, just now jumping into the last two books, The Sable Quean and The Rogue Crew. After he died I just kinda didn't think about it for a while, then two years ago grabbed those and let them sit on my shelf until now. Decided last week to finally finish the job when I have free time. 25 years old and zero shame about my hype.

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Right on haha. I've read (chronologically) up through Triss 3-5 times each, just now jumping into the last two books, The Sable Quean and The Rogue Crew. After he died I just kinda didn't think about it for a while, then two years ago grabbed those and let them sit on my shelf until now. Decided last week to finally finish the job when I have free time. 25 years old and zero shame about my hype.

Jacques was the best.

 

I believe I read up to Loamhedge before I moved on to other things.  Taggerung was always my favorite.  I read his Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series (the first 2 - seems it was 2003 that I moved on from Jacques) as well and remember them being pretty good but way different than the Redwall series.

 

I still have all of them in my childhood bedroom up through Tagg. I should go back and re-read them sometime ;)

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Jacques was the best.

 

I believe I read up to Loamhedge before I moved on to other things.  Taggerung was always my favorite.  I read his Castaways of the Flying Dutchman series (the first 2 - seems it was 2003 that I moved on from Jacques) as well and remember them being pretty good but way different than the Redwall series.

 

I still have all of them in my childhood bedroom up through Tagg. I should go back and re-read them sometime ;)

 

Tagg was SUPER good, definitely one of my favorites!

 

Loved Redwall in elementary/middle school! Have to go update my list for that. Also should try to find where I can start those over again. It's been so long I don't have a one that stands out as my favorite...

 

Mossflower, The Bellmaker, Pearls Of Lutra, Taggerung, Triss and Loamhedge have always stood out to me as extra good. If you wanna go off the deep end into the series, the chronological order of the stories is listed on the wikipedia page starting with Lord Brocktree.  ;)

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Right on haha. I've read (chronologically) up through Triss 3-5 times each, just now jumping into the last two books, The Sable Quean and The Rogue Crew. After he died I just kinda didn't think about it for a while, then two years ago grabbed those and let them sit on my shelf until now. Decided last week to finally finish the job when I have free time. 25 years old and zero shame about my hype.

No shame! I read the first 4 or 5 for the first time as an adult and really enjoyed them.
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