Red Mosquito

The Gang that Wouldn't Write Straight

I never mentioned it, but I'm almost 3/4 of the way through Denis Johnson's Tree Of Smoke. It was a slower burner--I almost put it down just 1/5 of the way through or so, but I stuck with it and it's become much more intriguing. Sometimes I think I don't have time for long novels, but this one I've torn through after the slow start.

A Casual Vacancy - JK Rowling.

Been thinking a lot lately about my all time favorite books. Books that have challenged me and changed my life (as dorky and awful and overused as that sounds). Thinking about a top 10 list... Might look something like:

1. Beloved - Toni Morrison
2. Blindness - Jose Saramago
3. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
4. The Tenth of December - George Saunders
5. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
6. House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski
7. The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
8. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
9. The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver
10. Peter Pan - JM Barrie

Maybe?

What are some that I'm missing? And I know I'm missing a ton. What do you guys love, heart and soul? What are some books you wish you could place inside your chest and carry forever?

durdencommatyler wrote:Been thinking a lot lately about my all time favorite books. Books that have challenged me and changed my life (as dorky and awful and overused as that sounds). Thinking about a top 10 list... Might look something like:

1. Beloved - Toni Morrison
2. Blindness - Jose Saramago
3. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
4. The Tenth of December - George Saunders
5. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
6. House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski
7. The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
8. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
9. The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver
10. Peter Pan - JM Barrie

Maybe?

What are some that I'm missing? And I know I'm missing a ton. What do you guys love, heart and soul? What are some books you wish you could place inside your chest and carry forever?

Do you mean the short story The Tenth of December or the entire collection of short stories under that name?

House Of Leaves is ridiculous!

Dscans wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:Been thinking a lot lately about my all time favorite books. Books that have challenged me and changed my life (as dorky and awful and overused as that sounds). Thinking about a top 10 list... Might look something like:

1. Beloved - Toni Morrison
2. Blindness - Jose Saramago
3. The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
4. The Tenth of December - George Saunders
5. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
6. House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski
7. The Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
8. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
9. The Lacuna - Barbara Kingsolver
10. Peter Pan - JM Barrie

Maybe?

What are some that I'm missing? And I know I'm missing a ton. What do you guys love, heart and soul? What are some books you wish you could place inside your chest and carry forever?

Do you mean the short story The Tenth of December or the entire collection of short stories under that name?

The entire collection.

Iholdthepain wrote:House Of Leaves is ridiculous!

Aw huh

If we're including non fiction I'd say the following in some order:
Walden by Thoreau
The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt
Born to Run by Christopher McDougall
American Bloomsbury by Susan Cheever

Catch 22 by Heller
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Prisig
Infinite Jest by Wallace
White Noise by Delillo
The Fountainhead by Rand
Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut
The First Four Books of Sampson Starkweather

Short Stories
Anything Helps and We Live in Water by Jess Walter
Dance in America by Lorri Moore
Last Evenings on Earth by Bolano
Why Don't You Dance? by Carver

I remember really liking Gladwell's Blink and The Story of B by Daniel Quinn when I first read them years ago but I don't know if they would hold up. I also really liked The Things They Carried in my college years after several readings and imagine it would hold up but, then again, maybe not.

Thanks, D. That gives me a ton to look into. You're awesome.

Not sure I expected Fountainhead, though. Would you recommend it? Or is it one of those books that for you into books but you've since outgrown?

durdencommatyler wrote:Not sure I expected Fountainhead, though. Would you recommend it? Or is it one of those books that for you into books but you've since outgrown?

I wanted to understand Rand. I heard that even though Atlas Shrugged was more popular, The Fountainhead was the better book. I read it a few years back and loved it and still think about it. Keep in mind, I still disagree with 90% of her philosophy, which is basically oversimplified Nietzsche. But I love the ideas she writes at of how we "live for others." And she expresses this idea through architecture.

In a way, it's similar to one of my Dad's favorite lines in the Van Morrison song Wild Nights. "All the girls walk by/ dressed up for each other."

And the prose is just beautiful. If you can think Lynyrd Skynyrd are a bunch of racist rednecks but still sing along to Free Bird, you can appreciate this book.

Dscans wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:Not sure I expected Fountainhead, though. Would you recommend it? Or is it one of those books that for you into books but you've since outgrown?

I wanted to understand Rand. I heard that even though Atlas Shrugged was more popular, The Fountainhead was the better book. I read it a few years back and loved it and still think about it. Keep in mind, I still disagree with 90% of her philosophy, which is basically oversimplified Nietzsche. But I love the ideas she writes at of how we "live for others." And she expresses this idea through architecture.

In a way, it's similar to one of my Dad's favorite lines in the Van Morrison song Wild Nights. "All the girls walk by/ dressed up for each other."

And the prose is just beautiful. If you can think Lynyrd Skynyrd are a bunch of racist rednecks but still sing along to Free Bird, you can appreciate this book.

I'll check it out, man. Thanks. And my mother thanks you too.

durdencommatyler wrote:

Dscans wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:Not sure I expected Fountainhead, though. Would you recommend it? Or is it one of those books that for you into books but you've since outgrown?

I wanted to understand Rand. I heard that even though Atlas Shrugged was more popular, The Fountainhead was the better book. I read it a few years back and loved it and still think about it. Keep in mind, I still disagree with 90% of her philosophy, which is basically oversimplified Nietzsche. But I love the ideas she writes at of how we "live for others." And she expresses this idea through architecture.

In a way, it's similar to one of my Dad's favorite lines in the Van Morrison song Wild Nights. "All the girls walk by/ dressed up for each other."

And the prose is just beautiful. If you can think Lynyrd Skynyrd are a bunch of racist rednecks but still sing along to Free Bird, you can appreciate this book.

I'll check it out, man. Thanks. And my mother thanks you too.

I have so many questions. Does you mom like Ayn Rand? Does she hate her. Does she like Van Morrison. Does she think Lynyrd Skynyrd are a bunch of racist rednecks? Does she really like Free Bird? Does she like Leonard? Does she like Jeopardy? Does she like people with pragmatic views of controversial philosophies as expressed through literature?

Dscans wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:

Dscans wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:Not sure I expected Fountainhead, though. Would you recommend it? Or is it one of those books that for you into books but you've since outgrown?

I wanted to understand Rand. I heard that even though Atlas Shrugged was more popular, The Fountainhead was the better book. I read it a few years back and loved it and still think about it. Keep in mind, I still disagree with 90% of her philosophy, which is basically oversimplified Nietzsche. But I love the ideas she writes at of how we "live for others." And she expresses this idea through architecture.

In a way, it's similar to one of my Dad's favorite lines in the Van Morrison song Wild Nights. "All the girls walk by/ dressed up for each other."

And the prose is just beautiful. If you can think Lynyrd Skynyrd are a bunch of racist rednecks but still sing along to Free Bird, you can appreciate this book.

I'll check it out, man. Thanks. And my mother thanks you too.

I have so many questions. Does you mom like Ayn Rand? Does she hate her. Does she like Van Morrison. Does she think Lynyrd Skynyrd are a bunch of racist rednecks? Does she really like Free Bird? Does she like Leonard? Does she like Jeopardy? Does she like people with pragmatic views of controversial philosophies as expressed through literature?

Ohmygodyes.
Sure.
Oh heavens no.
Yes.
Yes.
Lukewarm.
Yes YES YES!

I couldn't make a list of books like that, but there's certainly authors I could list.

William Gibson
Kurt Vonnegut
Hunter Thompson
Elizabeth Hand
Ursula Le Guin
Ray Bradbury
JRR Tolkien
Neal Stephenson
Jim Carroll even...

on first glance they may not seem as illustrious as some of the authors you guys list, but they are/were all quite gifted and more importantly, relevant in what they had to say. to me, way more worth an investment of my time, energy, and emotional-cum-intellectual attention as I was growing up than the traditionally recognized authors such as some of the people already mentioned.
(also, I have always had a bad habit of staying away from what everyone else seems interested in. mary mary quite contrary etc)

malice wrote:I couldn't make a list of books like that, but there's certainly authors I could list.

William Gibson
Kurt Vonnegut
Hunter Thompson
Elizabeth Hand
Ursula Le Guin
Ray Bradbury
JRR Tolkien
Neal Stephenson
Jim Carroll even...

on first glance they may not seem as illustrious as some of the authors you guys list, but they are/were all quite gifted and more importantly, relevant in what they had to say. to me, way more worth an investment of my time, energy, and emotional-cum-intellectual attention as I was growing up than the traditionally recognized authors such as some of the people already mentioned.
(also, I have always had a bad habit of staying away from what everyone else seems interested in. mary mary quite contrary etc)

What do you recommend most from Elizabeth Hand and Urula Le Guin?

durdencommatyler wrote:

malice wrote:I couldn't make a list of books like that, but there's certainly authors I could list.

William Gibson
Kurt Vonnegut
Hunter Thompson
Elizabeth Hand
Ursula Le Guin
Ray Bradbury
JRR Tolkien
Neal Stephenson
Jim Carroll even...

on first glance they may not seem as illustrious as some of the authors you guys list, but they are/were all quite gifted and more importantly, relevant in what they had to say. to me, way more worth an investment of my time, energy, and emotional-cum-intellectual attention as I was growing up than the traditionally recognized authors such as some of the people already mentioned.
(also, I have always had a bad habit of staying away from what everyone else seems interested in. mary mary quite contrary etc)

What do you recommend most from Elizabeth Hand and Ursula Le Guin?

Elizabeth Hand wrote a trilogy that i found stunning

Winterlong - her debut novel, and one of my favorites
Aestival Tide
and Icarus Descending

and good number of others that all fall into that same darkly written style which i also adore including
Waking the Moon
Black Light
The Glimmering (a vaguely indicated precursor to the Winterlong trilogy, although written afterwards)
Last Summer at Mars Hill (short stories)
Generation Loss

She's also the author of the book 12 Monkeys (which I found somewhat lacking, and yet they made a movie from it, which was also somewhat lacking)

As Far as Ursula Le Guin - I love everything she's written, but haven't read all of it yet - i think her most interesting short novel is one they made a movie out of many years ago - no idea when, but i've seen the movie, it's probably from the 70s - the book is The Lathe of Heaven

but she's written so many books, i couldn't begin to list the best among them.
Look into her stuff though, she's worth it.
Her best known ones are The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed
all of her work is science fiction, but it's really just an somewhat interesting background for her to use as a foundation for the kind of issues humans grapple with - which i think that's what science fiction is ideally suited for, just not always used to that extent...

I also felt Buffalo Gals was excellent, if a bit unorthodox as a book (it's a split between a continuing story and a number of short vignettes/poetry throughout)

Thank you, mary!

I'm gonna look into these ladies ASAP.

i now have a hankering to listen to pete seeger sing buffalo gals