BOOKS: Tell me some of your favorites!

[Orendorf]

I love to read; always have. So I'm curious what books the rest of you have really enjoyed most over the years, and why you liked them.

Looking forward to your responses, as well as reading as many of them as I can...

[tt1106]

Where the Red Fern Grows.
The truth War
The Gospel according to Jesus
Don't waste your life.
I don't have enough Faith to be an Atheist
Screwtape letters
Mere Christianity.

I remember reading WTRFG when I was a child. I had a yellow lab named Whiskey (Her parents were named Brandy and High-Ball, it was my dad's idea)
That book made me cry every time I read it. I think I read it 5 times in a year.
The rest of these, I have read since I've been saved. In the two years since S Day, these types of Books have brought me along in the Faith and exposed a God to me, that is beyond my imagination and comprehension.
CS Lewis has done alot to make me think outside of doctrinal parameters and more about the essence of my relationship with God.
I can't really remember a whole lot of other books, even though I have always been a voracious reader.

[Romber]

My all time favorite book ever would have to be The Last Kind: Romes Greatest Enemy. It covers the life of the great Mithridates Euprator VI. I honestly felt like I was in the movie theater while reading it with how dramatic he made everything seem. In fact, my avatar is a bust of Mithridates the sixth. Highly recommend it. Oh, and it is a historical novel by the way.

[Dani H]

Rees Howells, Intercessor.

There are many others but none that have impacted me as deeply, and still continue to bear fruit in my life 13 years later.

Some of my other favs:
Frank Peretti, This Present Darkness
Frank Peretti, Piercing The Darkness
Anything by C.S. Lewis, really.

[Luke34]

George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four: It deserves better than legions of amateur black-helicopter Internet libertarians referencing it every time the government does anything. Its most interesting theme, I thought, was the question of to what degree the past "exists" if everyone remembers something different, and whether the past can even be said to contain anything that objectively exists. Plus it's a great "doomed love" story (I don't know whether the rumor that the Beatles' "I Will" is about Winston and Julia is true, but I want it to be), and is depressing in the best possible way.

Robert Penn Warren, All the King's Men: Famous enough that I shouldn't have to write much about why it's good. I did like the increasing focus on Jack, the narrator, who is not ostensibly the main character.

George Orwell, Animal Farm: Short, and a little obvious, but genuinely horrifying to read.

Nicholson Baker, A Box of Matches: All that actually "happens" is that a guy comes down before breakfast every day, lights a fire, eats an apple sometimes, makes coffee, eventually (SPOILER ALERT!) gets the flu, then gets better. The content of the book consists of what he thinks about, and the detailed, beautifully-written descriptions of everyday minutiae (e.g., the hand contortions required to carry a paper bag and several other items) that are the author's trademark. One of the most comforting, funny, hypnotic, enjoyable books I've ever read.

Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions: I thought the satire at the beginning was kind of on-the-nose and not very funny, but other than that I loved it. The meta-textual explanation of why the book is so filled with random asides actually made me laugh out loud in enjoyment, and the tone (written from the perspective of an objective observer of humans) was both enjoyable and explained the obviousness of the satire.

Glen David Gold, Carter Beats the Devil: A wonderful "dueling magicians" thriller, which includes plot elements involving the beginnings of television and the assassination of some president...Garfield, maybe? . More like an omniscient biography of someone who never really existed, I guess, with some focus on supporting players. Not thematically earth-shattering, but a great story.

Joseph Heller, Catch-22: One of the funniest books I've ever read, that takes an unexpected yet totally convincing turn for the dark (dark-dark, not funny-dark) in the last chapters. I need to read this again, but three friends of mine borrowed it in a row, and I haven't had it in my possession for a year.

Chuck Palahniuk, Choke: An unexpectedly uplifting story about a recovering sex addict, whose famous "pretending to choke" moneymaking strategy is given less weight than expected. Very graphic and very funny, and as I say, had a surprisingly, convincingly sincere and emotional conclusion.

Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club: I liked it better than the film (no complaining!), if only because the satiric elements were more prominent and consistent, meaning fewer people misinterpret it to mean the opposite of what it means (as so many people do, annoyingly, with the movie). Contains the most coherent and narratively significant use of Palahniuk's "chorus" device (i.e. repeated lines throughout the book, like "I know this because Tyler knows this," or Choke's "____ isn't the right word, but it's the first word that comes to mind) in any of his books that I've read. Also the ending is better than the film's.

J.K. Rowling, the Harry Potter series: Of course. Anything I say about these is going to sound clichéd, but they really do create a world that you can't wait to go back to. Wow, that was even worse than I expected. Anyway, not only do most fantasy-ish children's books not have a setting this complete and enjoyable, they also don't have the thematic depth of Rowling's series (I mean, for children's books). The Christian allegory of the last book, though somewhat expected, was a little bit obvious, but subtlety isn't everything, and it was less obvious than e.g. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Chuck Palahniuk, Haunted: Yeah. Not uplifting at all. The kind of thing for which the word "harrowing" was invented, not to mention "graphic" and "disgusting." But the short stories that divide the narrative proper's chapters are inventive and a lot of "fun," kind of like Roald Dahl's adult stories with fifty extra dashes of brutal. And the story about the trapped writers doing awful things to one another is both funny and mountingly horrifying. Not "realistic" in the least, but it's not meant to be.

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness: Tough to get into, but absolutely riveting after that. Has a great deal of destructive power, and is also harrowing, even though I just used that word.

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series: Ties with Catch-22 for the most consistenly funny thing I've ever read, and even more "ha-ha funny" than that novel. Constantly absurd in the best possible way, with wonderful explorations of things that don't make any sense whatsoever (e.g., an Italian restaruant which generates complex mathematics to run a spaceship). And the last two books are genuinely heartfelt; the fifth and final (Mostly Harmless) is particularly elegaic (but in a funny way).

David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest: A thousand pages long, and I won't say you don't feel it, but it never becomes tedious. Mostly because Wallace could write about absolutely anything in the whole wide world (e.g., the long chapter that merely details morning tennis drills) and make it interesting, so stylish and engaging is his writing. Very funny, particularly its imagined future of Canada as a U.S. waste depository and a group of rebellious Québécois in wheelchairs), but also sincere: One of Wallace's recurring themes is the damaging, distancing effect postmodern literary irony has on modern literature and expression in general, making it impossible to speak sincerely and with no detachment or irony without being derided. The endnotes are fascinating as well; the one that was just a long list of the protagonist's father's art films was possibly my favorite. One of my absolute favorite books ever.

Nick Hornby, A Long Way Down: I forgot about this when I said that those other things were the funniest books I'd ever read. This one probably takes it, which is surprising for a story about four people who want to kill themselves. Extremely well-drawn characters, each written in a disctintive style, great dialogue, and a convincing story. Hey, this would make a great movie, I think, if it were done right.

I have to go to bed now, so I'll just list the rest and possibly write more about them tomorrow:

William Shakespeare, Macbeth

Nicholson Baker, The Mezzanine

Brad Barkley, Money, Love

C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

John Knowles, A Separate Peace

Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events

Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

David Foster Wallace, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again

Roald Dahl, The Umbrella Man and Other Stories

[Esperanza32]

I just finished "The Hiding Place" by Corrie Ten Boom. It's about her experiences during WWII, when she and her family were part of the resistance in Holland. I couldn't put it down, it was so riveting, and faith-inspiring.

[Esperanza32]

And a side note--Luke's list looks identical to my list when I was in college. Luke, have you tried any Franz Kafka or Gabriel Garcia Marquez? I also loved The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevski.

[nebula_omega]

The Metamorphosis by Kafka: Once you get over the weirdness (a guy turns into a giant bug) it's a good read.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Solsenichen (probably mangled the names): It's about a man's life in a Stalinist work camp in Siberia. It's fiction, but seems to be pretty accurate historically.

The Sword of Truth books by Terry Goodkind: A must if you like fantasy. This is the best series I've ever read. It's pretty long... I think about ten books. But the characters are wonderfully human and Goodkind provides some pretty deep social commentary too.

I have to second Animal Farm. I read it in two hours. Wonderful book.

The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning: This book probably changed my life more than any other (except the Bible of course). You have to really pay attention to what he's saying, but this is a phenomenal book.

[BrckBrln]

I haven't read a lot of books as I'm fairly new to book reading but here's two of my favorites from Christian and fiction.

Cornelius Van Til's An Introduction To Systematic Theology

I haven't read all of it, and I haven't fully understood the parts I have read, but the book is really amazing.

John MacArthur's The Gospel According To The Apostles

This is the book that introduced me to several key doctrines like Justification and Sanctification.

Fyodor Dostoevsky's Notes From The Underground

This is one seriously messed up book.

Vladimir Nabokov's Despair

This is one seriously entertaining book. Should be made into a movie.

[Ixthus]

Well, I'd have to say the Good Book

[Cloudwalker]

I will only mention 2, though I love to read and have quite a few I could mention. The first would have to be Tolkien s The Lord of the Rings. The other is one you may not have heard of. It is The Shepherd of the Hills by Harold Bell Wright. It is set in the Ozark mountains (around Branson, Mo.) before the railroad arrives. It is about a man who comes to the hills from the city and stays and becomes a shepherd, both in reality and a shepherd to all the people in the area. The story includes great drama, romance, mystery, action and a very good moral story. I highly recommend it.

[Gregg]

The Knowledge of the Holy - A.W. Tozer

[In Dust and Ashes]

Joseph Heller, Catch-22: One of the funniest books I've ever read, that takes an unexpected yet totally convincing turn for the dark (dark-dark, not funny-dark) in the last chapters. I need to read this again, but three friends of mine borrowed it in a row, and I haven't had it in my possession for a year.

I am so psyched to read that book. I have it on my shelf and I keep looking at it thinking, "As soon as I finish the books I'm reading now....."

Unfortunately I'm very haphazard with my book reading....

On a separate note, have you read Chuck Pala..face Invisible Monsters. It's the only book of his I've read, so I can't compare it to his other works, but it's pretty screwed up (as I imagine his other works are).

..................
My favorite books are:
Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller (I reference it frequently in my every day life)

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak - An incredibly original take on WWII with a fantastic twist of bringing Death in the narrator and an intereacting character. One of my favorite quotes from it is, "A Definition Not Found in the Dictionary: Not Leaving-an act of trust and love, often deciphered by children."

Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer-another interesting story built around WWII. Foer is marvelous at weaving stories and in this book he has at least 3 stories going at once with several different narrators. It makes the whole thing very multi-demensional and the character development is pretty profound. It's one of those books that I really, really, want to read again, but I'm afraid to because I know that eventually I'll end up at the end again and I don't want to get there. my favorite quote: "I used to think that humor was the only way to appreciate how wonderful and terrible the world is, to celebrate how big life is. ...But now I think it's the opposite. Humor is a way of shrinking from that wonderful and terrible world."

[Yukerboy]

For those into Science Fiction....Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is the best I have ever read.

The rest of the series is good too, but the 1st book is by far the best.

[Luke34]

And a side note--Luke's list looks identical to my list when I was in college. Luke, have you tried any Franz Kafka or Gabriel Garcia Marquez? I also loved The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevski.

I read The Metamorphosis, which was good, but I don't think it was all that great a translation. I haven't read any Marquez, although Dostoyevsky is on my imaginary reading list (aren't his books really long, though? Since reading Infinite Jest I haven't felt ready for another marathon-length book...maybe soon, however).