Books that are must reads before you die ?

This thread was started by me to note books, purportedly 'great' books that I had , despite multiple attempts, never been able to read through from beginning to end. As many threads do, this thread has taken a turn from its original intent. That is fine as members share favorite book suggestions.

So in that spirit I contribute a trilogy written by Thomas Flanagan. The Year of the French, The Tenants Of Time, and The End Of The Hunt. Three novels that are based on fact on the early years of the Irish rebellion. Wonderfully written IMHO.

Another trilogy written by another Irishman, Pulitzer prize winner William Kennedy. Billy Phelan's Greatest Game, Legs and Ironweed. Mr. Kennedy called this his 'Albany trilogy'. I've read and re-read Ironweed again and again. IIRC that is the book he won the Pulitzer for. Anyway ..... great stuff if you're looking for something to read.

I have always enjoyed books about the sea.

Three good ones for me were:

Moby Dick
The Old Man and the Sea
The Bedford incident

I am a bit old fashioned.....sorry.

Jerry
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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

This thread was started by me to note books, purportedly 'great' books that I had , despite multiple attempts, never been able to read through from beginning to end. As many threads do, this thread has taken a turn from its original intent. That is fine as members share favorite book suggestions.

So in that spirit I contribute a trilogy written by Thomas Flanagan. The Year of the French, The Tenants Of Time, and The End Of The Hunt. Three novels that are based on fact on the early years of the Irish rebellion. Wonderfully written IMHO.

Another trilogy written by another Irishman, Pulitzer prize winner William Kennedy. Billy Phelan's Greatest Game, Legs and Ironweed. Mr. Kennedy called this his 'Albany trilogy'. I've read and re-read Ironweed again and again. IIRC that is the book he won the Pulitzer for. Anyway ..... great stuff if you're looking for something to read.

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Hmmmm....well..in light of that...The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. It's one of those books that has a lot of detail and big complicated names and talks a lot about pre middle earth history. I even have it in hardcover. I've just never seemed to have been able to get the hutzpuh up to read it through...it's thick.

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Originally Posted by Nightblade

Hmmmm....well..in light of that...The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien. It's one of those books that has a lot of detail and big complicated names and talks a lot about pre middle earth history. I even have it in hardcover. I've just never seemed to have been able to get the hutzpuh up to read it through...it's thick.

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If you like the mythology of Tolkien's world the I would say the silmarillion is really well worth reading. The unfinished tales are good but very disjointed as well.

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Originally Posted by Castel33

If you like the mythology of Tolkien's world the I would say the silmarillion is really well worth reading. The unfinished tales are good but very disjointed as well.

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I read The Hobbit years ago and I enjoyed it. I had intended to go through The Lord of the Rings trilogy but by the time I was done with The Hobbit I had had enough of the fantasy stuff. I used to like old horror fiction by the likes of H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard. The stuff from Weird Tales pulp magazine that Arkham House reprinted. Short stories by Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, and of course M.R. James ghost stories. Can't forget Ambrose Bierce either. Stuff like Moxson's Master really turned me on.

I must have read Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series 100 times if I've read it once. Agatha Christie and Dorthy Sayers are great recreational reads too. It doesn't always have to be 'literature.' Sometimes recreational reading is a good rest for the mind.

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I read The Hobbit years ago and I enjoyed it. I had intended to go through The Lord of the Rings trilogy but by the time I was done with The Hobbit I had had enough of the fantasy stuff. I used to like old horror fiction by the likes of H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard. The stuff from Weird Tales pulp magazine that Arkham House reprinted. Short stories by Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, and of course M.R. James ghost stories. Can't forget Ambrose Bierce either. Stuff like Moxson's Master really turned me on.

I must have read Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series 100 times if I've read it once. Agatha Christie and Dorthy Sayers are great recreational reads too. It doesn't always have to be 'literature.' Sometimes recreational reading is a good rest for the mind.

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If you want good recreational reads, pick up Edgar Rice Burroughs. Any of his Tarzan books or the John Carter books. I'm also a big fan of any pulp sci-fi books from the 50's and 60's.

The original Conan novels help pass a rainy day.

Laugh if you will,but I used to enjoy the hardy boys mysteries when I was a kid....hard to put'em down once you start.Later in teen years I got into the Gor Sci-Fi fantasy series thanks to my Mom. Kudos again for the thread Jimmy regardles how it morphed. Makes me want to read which is always a good thing . +10 sir !

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Originally Posted by mapleleafalumnus

The original Conan novels help pass a rainy day.

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Used to read these constantly when out bush in the Army on a Surface to Air missile site, that and cowboy comics and porn...

I just finished reading the last book of Gillian Flynn, the "Gone Girl": Attachment 103533
I enjoyed every page.

Attachment 103532

Some great picks in this thread. I would like to reinforce a few and add a few more ...

I VOTE +1 ON:
Moby Dick: it's really weird. Embrace it.
Infinite Jest: words fail.
Douglas Adams's Hithchiker Books: an unprecedented fusion of life-affirming, magnificent, pure nihilism.
Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita: lush, bizarre, gorgeous surrealist narrative.
Tocqueville's Democracy in America: a brilliant writer with such an innocent eye for detail.
Gibson's Neuromancer, for reasons cited above.
Pirsig's Zen/Motorcycles, Ibid.

WOULD LIKE TO ADD:
The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie. Ignore the fatwa and the hot ex-wife. He's an amazing storyteller.
White Noise, by Don de Lillo. Truly postmodern, yet so real and relatable.
Lunar Park, by Bret Easton Ellis. Don't expect to like it until 4 months after you're done. A falsely-autobiographical classic horror story, for today's broken upper-class America.
Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke. A fun read with some mind-blowing concepts.
The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick. WWII fiction; upside-down.

Would like to read Sir Winston Churchill's World War II series, if I can find them. I have Gibbon's Fall of Rome on the Kindle but it's gonna be hard work to get through that one. What I would love to own is Will & Ariel Durant's Story of Civilization, so I could work through it over a period of years.

... So little time!!

@Sailor - lots of Mika Waltari books were translated - most of his historical novels. I loved them when I started reading them as a teenager.."The Egyptian" was made into a movie..

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Originally Posted by davemillard

@Sailor - lots of Mika Waltari books were translated - most of his historical novels. I loved them when I started reading them as a teenager.."The Egyptian" was made into a movie..

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The Egyptian is/was probably most famous of them. The movie from 1954 was somewhat ok and entertaining but it had no much to do with the original book. That is what happens too often.
If you are still interested on Waltari, i would suggest the Adventurer (Mikael Karvajalka). That was and is always my favorite, an interesting story of the medieval Europe, starting from my home town at 1400 or so.

Well during my vacation i read 'a People's history of United States' by Howard Zinn. I found it most interesting. Had to read it in English as it isn't translated into my language.
And recently finished 'A Viagem do Elefante' (The Elephant's Journey) by José de Sousa Saramago. I found it great.

Saramago was really one of the great ones. I guess there will be no such a master of the language and master of a great stories for a long time. Too sad he died recently. However, i think that Saramago isn't for average holiday reader. It takes a lot of concentration before getting used to his unique style.

Another great modern author (imho) is Peter Høeg of Denmark. 'Frøken Smillas fornemmelse for sne' (sense of snow ???) was such a great story. Been reading it at least 3 or 4 times, always finding some new aspects. Just like his whole production.

Everyone should read "Oh the Places You'll Go" by Dr Seuss before they die.

James.

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Originally Posted by Jimbo

Everyone should read "Oh the Places You'll Go" by Dr Seuss before they die.

James.

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Couldn't agree more.:)

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Originally Posted by Jimbo

Everyone should read "Oh the Places You'll Go" by Dr Seuss before they die.

James.

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Or better yet, have it read to them :)

James.

Reflections of Space and Time: Dr. Scott R. Forrest: Amazon.com: Kindle Store

The Iliad by Homer
The Sorrows of Young Werther, by Goethe

The Diary of Anne Frank.

Candide by Voltaire

Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut

Cats Cradle by Vonnegut


I have a thing for satire, you have to laugh at the world destroying itself.

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Originally Posted by Jimbo

Everyone should read "Oh the Places You'll Go" by Dr Seuss before they die.

James.

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Any Suess is Good Suess IMHO.

For kids books...Babbar the Elephent,Robinson Caruso and Treasure Island,The Original Grimms Fairy Tales(Uncut,un PC),Peter and the wolf although that should be heard to get the full musical appreciation of it and Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe.

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Originally Posted by Sirshavesalot

The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer ( In the original Middle english "Wan that April, in the droucht of March") no other classic made me realize the amazing interplay of vocabulary, colloquialisms, and politics can play in literature.

David

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I had a college English Comp teacher back in the early '70s who had a PhD in English and a real passion for the language. He could read the Canterbury Tales aloud, as it was pronounced when it was written. Amazing stuff. I learned more about English in a semester with him than in the previous 12 years of grade, middle, and high schools.

May I humbly submit: Shogun, by James Clavell, and Captain from Castile, by Samuel Shellabarger. Both are historical fiction, but are well-researched and based on actual events. Captain may be hard to find, since the last printing I know of was in 2004, and it was originally published in the 1930s, but it's worth the search.

Please add Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. Dark but very touching and very funny at times.

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Originally Posted by Tuxedo7

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!

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William L. Shirer wrote The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. He also wrote The Nightmare Years, about what it was like as an outsider in Hitler's Germany before US involvement in WWII. Scary stuff.

The book(s) I have read the most times and still read rather often is Kipling's "The Jungle Book". Such remarkable language and life lessons.

Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Another good one, that I just finished reading again, is Lysistrata by Aristophanes. A quick easy read and one of the finest examples of Greek comedy. It's about a group of women who decide to force their men back from war by holding a sex strike.:)

After participating in this thread I went to my bookshelf to pick out a classic that I haven't read, and there are many!

I ran across this one and though it may not be a "classic" it has proved a fun read.

The Engineer In War With Special Reference To The Training Of The Engineer To Meet The Military Obligations Of Citizenship, By P. S. Bond. Copyright 1916.

I can't remember where it came from but I thought it was interesting at one time and picked it up. I haven't been in the military and it gave me a different point

of view. If you happen to have it in your library I recommend it!:rofl2:

I know that this thread has wandered from it's original intent but it is fun!

Tim

Does that mean if I don't read any of these I will live forever?

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Originally Posted by Wintchase

Does that mean if I don't read any of these I will live forever?

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Yes, but what would be the point? Living forever and never reading Dr. Seuss????

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Originally Posted by Wintchase

Does that mean if I don't read any of these I will live forever?

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No, that just means that you don't understand the meaning of "The Finer Things In Life".

Okay. I have to say it.

The Bible.

Boom.

Pow.

(glam metal scream) Yeaaahhhhh!

SRP Library.

Forgot to mention that for me motorcycle, car and various engine repair manuals & blueprints have been 'must' reading. It's not that i wanted. I just had to.

While waiting for the next Vince Flynn book which may come out this fall, I have read a couple of the Jack Reacher stories, written by Lee Child, "One Shot," and "Killing Floor." It's good reading.

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Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

Now I am starting out on Moby Dick and I will finish it. Next up is Marcel Proust Remembrance Of Things Past. Another one I tried and failed to read 25 or 30 years ago. Keeps life interesting. Anyone else have books that are must reads before they die ?

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I know this is replying to an old post but it should have given you enough time. Have you finished reading Moby Dick? :D

That is one of the books/authors that this thread has lead me to try. It took me about a week. One of the things that I liked about it is the chapters are so short and a lot of time are disjointed from each other so you can read for a few minutes and set it down not being in the middle of anything in particular. The biggest negative I can think about at the moment is the story could have been told in less than 1/4 of the length. There is a lot of filler. It reminds me of having an assignment of 10 pages in school and only having 2 pages of material. What can I put in the middle to make it long enough?

Another author that I hadn't tried was Franz Kafka. I also got his complete stories. Some of the BS that got added to that collection was also filler of notes that he asked to be destroyed upon his death. I can see why. Unfinished junk. I did prefer, In the Penal Colony, over from what I gather is his most famous story, The Metamorphosis. I would recommend these as a read. Maybe not for everyone but the stories are short enough you won't feel like you have wasted your time if you don't like them.

Then added to the list is The Complete Novels of James Joyce. I made about 50 pages into Ulysses before I could go no further. I will have to work at these stories! He strikes me as a literary snob. Many of the books and stories that are considered classics are written by these literary snobs for other snobs. They think that if you don't understand you are not as smart as they are. I had a Seventh grade English teacher that is the type of person that I am thinking of. They have a little group that plays games with each other and hold themselves above the rest of us. I will leave this one lay out for a while and pick it up when I am bored but I can't see me spending much time with Mr. Joyce.

Tim

P.S. I did pick up a Noodlers Ahab pen today! I thought that was an omen even if Ahab didn't believe in them!

As far as Proust goes, "Remembrance of Things Past" is a great read. Yes there are times where it gets a little boring and monotonous. But there are also parts that are so damn captivating that you read 400 pages in a single night.:)

Books originally written in English that I have read and impressed me, are:

The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

Down The River, Or Practical Lessons Under The Code Duello by George W. Hooper. This thing has it all, intrigue, mystery, and boat trips down the Chattahootchie River. It also gives us a glimpse into 19th century genteel mentality as well as a look at the ritual and ceremony that goes along with intentionally plotting to kill another human being in the name of honor. A two-page description of how a person bows is definately pushing the envelope, but the end result is humorous and surprisingly educational.

Kafka's The Metamorphosis is, for some odd reason, a page turner. It's about a guy who wakes up in the morning only to discover he has turned into a large cockroach. Really weird but a great read nonetheless.

Some favorite authors and books that I've read repeatedly in my life and probably will continue to read:
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Anything by Carlos Castineda
Charles Bukowski
Richard Brautigan
Ernest Hemmingway (of course)
Mark Twain (probably the greatest American writer ever)

"Fox in Socks" by Dr. Seuss