Books that are must reads before you die ?

I know what you mean about the movie. I think the movie is good as a stand-alone film. Merchant Ivory did a very good job staying true to the story and the events of the novel, but there is so much Ishiguro is discussing in that novel about self-deception, suppressed feelings, denial, wasted time, convictions, that it is nearly impossible to translate all of it to the screen.

For those who haven't read it, the novel is fairly short and very accessible. I can't think of anyone who wouldn't be benefited by reading it.

Some have been said already, but mine are...in no particular order:

The Fountainhead -- Ayn Rand
East of Eden -- John Steinbeck
House of Leaves -- Mark Z. Danielewski
Cloud Atlas -- David Mitchell
Shogun -- James Clavell
A Song of Ice and Fire (Series) -- George R.R. Martin

Probably more on my list....but those are the first that come to mind.

Anything written by Harry Turtledove. The master of alternative history.

Waterlog and Wildwood- A Journey Through Trees, both by Roger Deakin

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer

for light reading..anything by P.G. Woodhouse

I want to read them all.

I absolutely love to read, always have. For me there is no end all be all book that everyone MUST read. But I think there are a few that should be considered. My Picks for Now:
In Cold Blood- T.Capote
The Master and Margarita- Mikhail Bulgakov
Aldous Huxley Short Stories- Mortal Coils,and Brief Candles

I know I already posted a few before, but I am about 75% through reading "The Life of Pi" and I am hooked. I started this book two days ago and simply cannot put it down. I just know this book is going to leave a lasting impression on me. It is already one of my favorites.

Finnegan's Wake is on my list. Attempted then never went back. Maybe a re-read of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead (Ayn Rand)

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Originally Posted by Fbones24

I know I already posted a few before, but I am about 75% through reading "The Life of Pi" and I am hooked. I started this book two days ago and simply cannot put it down. I just know this book is going to leave a lasting impression on me. It is already one of my favorites.

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I keep hearing such good things about this novel from absolutely everyone who has read it, but I've never been inspired to pick it up myself. Here's hoping I do someday.

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Originally Posted by SlowRain

I keep hearing such good things about this novel from absolutely everyone who has read it, but I've never been inspired to pick it up myself. Here's hoping I do someday.

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My fiance has been begging me to read it since we met two years ago. I kept reading about it and the plot line and I just didn't feel inspired either. I think this book will be a classic years from now and probably required reading for students. I finished it last night....it was excellent.

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Originally Posted by holli4pirating

I really like a good fantasy book now and then, and I think The Wizarrd of Earthsea is a classic. I also really enjoyed Wizard's First Rule.

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Dylan, I enjoyed the whole series by Goodkind, and yes - Wizard's First Rule was good. Most like Faith of the Fallen best, though I enjoyed Naked Empire better.

For a pleasant retreat to the comedic, you might enjoy Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. I've gotten to where I don't care at all about the plots - his use of language is hysterical.

i think the book at the top of my list would be "The Count of Monte Cristo" or the three musketeers series, followed by anything else by Alexander Dumas. also im in the middle of "Johnny Got His Gun" by Dalton Trumbo, so far very good in a kind of morbid way. I also enjoyed the Wizard of OZ collection and that will always be one of my favorites.

howwever the best "book" i onw is my Kindle, it is awesome and if you like reading i strongly suggest it i have somewhere around 150 books on mine at the moment so i always have something to read with me and it doesnt take up hardley any room

-dan-

Since folks mentioned Steinbeck and James Jones I thought I would recommend Steinbeck's short read The Pearl. Of all of his books, I love the prose and drama in this one best. As for James Jones, From Here to Eternity is one of my all time favorites. I think he really connects with the male reader. A couple of his others worth noting are The Pistol and The Thin Red Line ... but neither of these measure up to Eternity.

As for books I want to read, I agree on Joyce's Ulysses.

I'll throw out a couple that may distress some, but I really want to read Mein Kampf (Adolf Hitler) and The Communist Manifesto (Karl Marx). As a very patriotic and right of center American (and who is named for an uncle killed in Normandy during WWII), I would like to get some idea as to how so many were led down either of these paths. I need to research for the best translations before chosing an edition.

Maybe also another HUGE read ... The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich.

I think it's important to understand our history to keep from repeating the worst of it.

Good topic!

Read the "Rise and Fall", I have read "Mein Kamp", the guy was absolutely MAD! The Germans should have read it before it became mandatory.

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Originally Posted by nun2sharp

Read the "Rise and Fall", I have read "Mein Kamp", the guy was absolutely MAD! The Germans should have read it before it became mandatory.

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The man with the mustache wrote Mein Kampf complicated, unfriendly and difficult to read. It is said that he must have made it on purpose to prevent people from reading it until the point where they would realize what were the master plans of the author :roflmao

As far as books that can really change the way you think - I would highly recommend Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig.

Yes there is a motorcycle (if that is a requirement) and the story is good - but the discussion is really based on values and methods to reach a conclusion.

I've read it three times so far - and there are many books I never even make it completely through. The only other book I've read more than once is the Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy five book trilogy:). I would also recommend that series - but more for entertainment than strengthening brain cells.

Again - you will get more out of these if you read them sooner in life - than later..:medvl:

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Originally Posted by hgrail

Again - you will get more out of these if you read them sooner in life - than later.

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Isn't that the truth.

I have a book of short stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, "Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories." I'm only about half way but I really like it so far.

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Originally Posted by hgrail

As far as books that can really change the way you think - I would highly recommend Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig.

Yes there is a motorcycle (if that is a requirement) and the story is good - but the discussion is really based on values and methods to reach a conclusion.

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I have to second hgrail's recommendation of Pirsig's book. I've probably read it 5-6 times. Just a beautiful exploration of many things: one man's journey into himself, the last 2000 years of intellectual thought-specifically the split between classical and romantic, western and eastern, technological and aesthetic, and so much more....It's a mental and emotional workout, but well worth it.

Others on my list of must reads: Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath; Wolfe's Look Homeward, Angel; Ellison's Invisible Man; Heller's Catch-22; and the best book I've read in 15 years, Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible.

I love reading, and if I should pick ten of the best I`ve read over the last 30 years I think it should be something like this:

Knut Hamsun: Hunger. (Sult in Norwegian) This book is just outstanding, I have read about people who learned to speak Norwegian just to read Knut Hamsun in his own language. Hamsun has written many truly fantastic books, and "Pan", "Growth of the Soil" and "Mysteries" are just a few of those.

F. M. Dostojevskij: Raskolnikov (Crime and Punishment)

Leo Tolstoj: Anna Karenina

Michail Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita

John Steinbeck: Tortilla Flat

Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita

Antony Beevor: Stalingrad

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: The complete Sherlock Holmes

Alexander Solzhenitsyn: One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich

William Shirer: The rise and fall of the Third Reich

If I should be condemned to only read one book again before I died it would be Pan by Hamsun. The most beautiful love story and description of nature I have read. It would be easier to leave this place with the wonderful words of that book in my mind.

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Originally Posted by MichaelP

Dan Simmons - Cantos series (Hyperion, The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion, The Rise of Endymion)

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I would also like to add the two books (one story) by Dan Simmons, Illium and Olympos. The sheer amount of ideas in this book is just phenomenal, and, like any good book, it takes you on a journey. From the start to the end, you would never be able to imagine where you'll end up. It's amazing.

His book Phases Of Gravity is another favorite of mine, it's sort of a quiet comfort and you will either love it or hate it.

My favorite authors thus far are:

Vince Flynn
Clive Cussler
Dan Brown

I am looking for another similar author, what is your suggestions?

Paul Theroux- My secet life...

what a great book!!

Currently reading the Edward Seidensticker translation of Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji. All thousand or pages of it have been giving me the eye from the bookcase for about five years and I jumped into it recently. So far, around halfway, it's a joy, was thoroughly confused about one chapter but on checking online it seems it's been placed where it is as no one is really sure where it should be - always nice to know it's to just me.

I've started Gravity's Rainbow twice and never made it past a hundred pages, after reading over this thread I suppose I better go for third time lucky.

I think I've mentioned it in one of the other book threads, but "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius should be required reading for all men. So many great words to live by in it.

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Originally Posted by Theseus

I think I've mentioned it in one of the other book threads, but "Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius should be required reading for all men. So many great words to live by in it.

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Good book. Concise and too the point.

The Real series. About George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin. Great books.

Thought I'd add a link to this thread. While not a book, a must read none the less.:)

http://straightrazorpalace.com/finer.../78896-if.html

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I have had a number of copies of these books over the past forty some years and repeatedly tried and failed to complete them. When I turned 60 the realization that I had a lot more life behind me than ahead of me kicked in. I made a resolution to read the Lawrence, Cervantes and Melville books.

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In my opinion if I have to force myself to read a book and/or read it more than once to understand it the author did not do his job. The older I get the less time I have to waste on them even if they are "classics".

I'm glad I ran across this thread!! I gotta add a bunch of these books to my list now!

Two authors that I don't believe have been mentioned (forgive me if I'm wrong), but who I greatly enjoy are Gabriel Garcia-Marquez and Hesse. I haven't read all of Garcia Marquez's works yet, but the few I have are great. One Hundred Years of Solitude is excellent. His writing style is at times a bit difficult, but I love it, it's bizarre. And of course, Hesse is just awesome. I love all his works, especially Glass Bead Game and Journey to the East.

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Originally Posted by toadq5

I'm glad I ran across this thread!! I gotta add a bunch of these books to my list now!

One Hundred Years of Solitude is excellent. His writing style is at times a bit difficult, but I love it, it's bizarre.

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This is one that I have forced myself to read and regret the time spent.

[QUOTE=ControlFreak1;517005]

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Originally Posted by Quick Orange

The Bible is an easy one to get through as long as you don't have the original King James. There are certainly boring parts, but you can fly through those to the juicy parts. If you're serious about getting through it, pick up one of those Bible in a year book. It breaks it up into easy chunks that don't kill you with geneology. I've been through the Bible both ways, and the Bible in a year is easiest.
QUOTE]

Ah, there are entire books written on this topic. According to the Flesch-Kincaid formula 94% of the King James Bible is at or below the 7th grade reading level, lower than USA Today or People Magazine, and in comparisons with the NIV, NASB, TEV, and NKJB was rated at a lower reading level.

Sorry :OT

AHAAAAA!!! AAARRGGHHH!!! :HJ

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When I was in fifth grade, I got sick with viral hepatitis and had to spend almost two months in bed. I read the Bible, the whole thing. Some spanish version, my english wouldn't at that time be up to the level of King James version. I skipped through the genealogy parts, though.

Hmmmm, books one must read...
I've consciously not looked at the other posts, my suggestions are, not in any order:

Watership Down
The Sword in the Stone (as a child)
The House at Pooh Corner (as an adult)
Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass (as a child and as an adult)
In Virconium
Every thing ever written by Franz Kafka
Chrome Yellow
The Shadow of the Wind
Three men in a Boat
Heart of Darkness
Youth (Joseph Conrad)
The Secret Sharer (Joseph Conrad)
The Legend of St Julian the Hospitaller (Gustave Flaubert)
Leaves of Grass (poems, Walt Whitman)
The Wasteland, T. S. Eliot (not a book, a poem, but a must read)
The Imitation of Christ, Thomas a Kempis in the 'old' English
Leaf, by Niggle (Tolkein)
The Lord of the Rings
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever
I and thou, by Martin Buber (this is astonishing, really a must read philosophy book)
Plato's Republic

Thanks to my friend in Russia I have gotten into the short stories of Tolstoy,Checkov and the poetry of Yesenin very good.I'm fond of Tolstoys short stories. Also Grimms fairy tales(uncut) and Jules Vernes 20,000 leagues under the sea are excellent . The Bible is certainly worth it(I have the Orthodox version). Thoreau's Walden Pond is always good.There's Just so many good reads out there. Oh yes......Tolkiens Hobbit and Lord of the rings Ya just gotta read that before you die. A favorite book which probably very few would know, Forbidden Voice Reflections of a Mohawk Indian by Alma Greene lots of good tribal lore and history,superstitions etc. of the Iriquois confederacy . And as a personal opinion...you can never read enough Ghost stories . :) Good thread Jimmy !

My entire family is big on reading. For the last several years I've read only technical books. I was a big fan of spy/thriller novels from authors like Robert Ludlum and Forsyth but life and work took my time for free reading.
I had read the Ludlum trilogy before the movies were produced. Last month they started to advertise the new Ludlum movie. I wanted to read the book so I bought a Kindle (4th one in my house) and ordered the book. I read the book in about 2 weeks and I have to say I learned how much I missed reading.
I am now reading the next book in the Ludlum series and have promised myself I will continue reading for enjoyment. On occasion, I also read leadership books by Maxwell and a few others. Two of my favorites are "Lincoln on Leadership" by Phillips and "Leadership Secret of Attila the Hun" by Roberts. i keep on my toes at work by reading these two periodically. They are not long but really have some great advice.

Hope that makes sense, I was up all night feeling sick and I am dead tired.

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Originally Posted by Nightblade

...ofTolstoy,Checkov ...I'm fond of Tolstoys short stories...

... Thoreau's Walden Pond is always good...

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I love Tolstoy's 'What Men Live By'; have you read that one? I found Walden Pond a bit tedious...

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Originally Posted by carlmaloschneider

I love Tolstoy's 'What Men Live By'; have you read that one? I found Walden Pond a bit tedious...

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I have a book called Master and Man and other Parables and Tales which is a collection of Tolstoys short stories. What Men Live By is included in the collection. Walden can be tedious true but so can Jules Vernes 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea which I also like. Verne really likes to show off his scientific knowledge and will devote 2 pages just to describe the sealife encountered (kinda funny really). But I guess Anna Karena can drag on so I've been told. The price for good Literature maybe?? When I got into Checkovs short stories I was thrilled till I got to the last story "In The Ravine" which went on and on...I got bored heh heh ! But Ward Six" is really good .

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Originally Posted by Nightblade

...Verne really likes to show off his scientific knowledge and will devote 2 pages just to describe the sealife encountered (kinda funny really)...

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I always liked Asimov's attention to detail with the science. I generally listen to books these days rather than read them, and I listen to my favourites over and over again. I've listened to a selection of James Conrad, Leo Tolstoy, Aldous Huxley, etc for years. I think I know Chrome Yellow pretty much inside out now. Same with Heart of Darkness...

Listening instead of reading would certainly take out some of the tediousness for sure .:D

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Originally Posted by Nightblade

Listening instead of reading would certainly take out some of the tediousness for sure .:D

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Very relaxing, it's my going to sleep ritual. Tonight it shall be The Legend of St Julian the Hospitaller, by Gustave Flaubert.

Just finished one of the best books I have ever read,Freedoms Forge by arthur Herman.
Is about how the great industrialists in the late 1930s geared up industry to build the tanks, ships, planes, guns for WW2
A must read.