Book Lovers

[dbcurious]

This is more guided towards non-erotic literature. Out of curiosity let's hear some of everyone's favorite books. I will start off with the novel that I most recently read and highly reccomend if you are a fan of comedy in the true sense of the word and subtle intellectual introspection through fictional caricatures that inately define one's strengths as well as weaknesses then I would reccomend:

The Egoist
Authored by:
George Meredith

First published in 1879 this is a classic must read for lovers of comedy.

 

[manchesterred]

books

catch 22

 

[doubledelicious]

ooh i have lots..to many to list.. but here are a couple
1- Snowfall by K.M.Peyton
2- The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (the film doesnt do it justice)
3- Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden (again the film doesnt do it justice)
4- The undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella

i reccommend u read all of them the last is soooooo funny!!!!

 

[poppy1963]

The Book of Flying - Keith Miller: Poetry in prose...just wonderful...lyrical.

Persepolis - Marjane Satrapi: Autobiography in graphic novel style, quite an unexpected favorite.

On Bullshit by Frankfurt: Hilarious and mind-boggling! You know people who talk like this.

 

[trysail]

A gathering of wisdom from a lifetime of reading



Thermopylae

Honor to those who in their lives are committed and guard their Thermopylae.
Never stirring from duty; just and upright in all their deeds, but with compassion too;
generous when they are rich, and when they are poor, again a little generous,
again helping as much as they are able; always speaking the truth,
but without rancor for those who lie.
And they merit greater honor when they foresee (and may do foresee)
That Ephialtes will finally appear, and in the end the Medes will go through.

-C.P. Cavafy (translated by Rae Dalven)

___________________________________________________________

“So he had grown rich at last, and thought to transmit to his only son all the cut-and-dried experience which he himself had purchased at the price of his lost illusions; a noble last illusion of age.”

-Honoré de Balzac

_____________________________________________

“Why should we faint, and fear to live alone, since all alone, so Heaven has will’d, we die?”

-Thomas Hardy
“Jude The Obscure”

_______________________________________________

“Teach me to live, that I may dread the grave as little as my bed. Teach me to die.”

-Thomas Hardy
“Jude The Obscure”

______________________________________________________

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear- not absence of fear. Except a creature be part coward it is not a compliment to say it is brave; it is merely a loose misapplication of the word.”

-Mark Twain
“Pudd’nhead Wilson”

____________________________________________________


“We fight, get beat, rise, and fight again.”

-Nathaniel Greene

______________________________________________________

“She was listening, smiling, approving, and yet not finally agreeing. This was due to a lack of power on his part, a lack of that majesty of passion that sweeps the mind from its seat, fuses and melts all arguments and theories into a tangled mass, and destroys for the time being the reasoning power. This majesty of passion is possessed by nearly every man once in his life, but it is usually an attribute of youth and conduces to the first successful mating.”

Theodore Drieser
“Sister Carrie”

_________________________________________________________

“However, a good laugh is a mighty good thing, and rather too scarce a thing; the more’s the pity. So, if any one man, in his own proper person, afford stuff for a good joke to anybody, let him not be backward, but let him cheerfully allow himself to spend and be spent in that way. And the man that has anything bountifully laughable about him, be sure there is more in that man than you perhaps think for.”

Herman Melville
“Moby Dick”

__________________________________________________________

“In this world, shipmates, sin that pays its way can travel freely, and without a passport; whereas virtue, if a pauper, is stopped at all frontiers.”

Herman Melville
“Moby Dick”

____________________________________________________
“Know ye, now, Bulkington. Glimpses do ye seem to see of that mortally intolerable truth; that all deep, earnest thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the open independence of her sea; while the wildest winds of heaven and earth conspire to cast her on the treacherous, slavish shore.”

Herman Melville
“Moby Dick”

_____________________________________________________________
“No. People didn’t tell each other things much in those days, did they? But he admired you enormously for what you did. And if you assume- as I suppose you do- that he’s now in a world of completer enlightenment, why not take it for granted that he’ll admire you still more for you’re going to do? Presumably……, people realize in heaven that it’s a devilish sight harder, on earth, to do a brave thing at forty-five than at twenty-five.”

Edith Wharton
“Old New York”

_______________________________________________________
“But how should we reach our long-promised homes without encountering Cape Horn? By what possibility avoid it? And though some ships have weathered it without these perils, yet by far the greater part must encounter them. Lucky it is that it comes about midway in the homeward-bound passage, so that sailors have time to prepare for it, and time to recover from it after it is astern.

But, sailor or landsmen, there is some sort of a Cape Horn for all. Boys! Beware of it; prepare for it in time. Grey-beards! Thank God it is passed. And ye lucky livers, to whom, by some rare fatality, your Cape Horns are placid as Lake Lemans, flatter not yourselves that good luck is judgment and discretion; for all the yolk in your eggs, you might have foundered and gone down, had the Spirit of the Cape said the word.”

Herman Melville
“White Jacket”

_______________________________________________________

“The few people who thought they knew something were more in error than those who knew nothing.”

Henry Adams
“The Education of Henry Adams”

_______________________________________________________

“Young men want to be faithful and are not; old men want to be faithless and cannot.”

Oscar Wilde
“The Portrait of Dorian Gray”

_____________________________________________________

“The only place you’ll find free cheese is in a mousetrap.”

Russian proverb

______________________________________________________

“An artist is a bloke who can hold two fundamentally opposing views and still function.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald

____________________________________________________________

“I rather like Karla’s description of committees, don’t you? Is it Chinese? A committee is an animal with four back legs.”

John Le Carré
“Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”

______________________________________________________________

“Girls had it better from the beginning, don’t kid yourself. They were allowed to play in the house, where the books were and the adults, and boys were sent outdoors like livestock. Boys were noisy and rough, and girls were nice, so they got to stay and we had to go. Boys ran around in the yard with toy guns going kksshh-kksshh, fighting wars for made-up reasons and arguing about who was dead, while girls stayed inside and played with dolls, creating complex family groups and learning to solve problems through negotiation and role-playing. Which gender is better equipped, on the whole, to live an adult life, would you guess? (APPLAUSE, SHOUTS) Is there any doubt about this? Is it even close?”

Garrison Keillor
“The Book of Guys”

___________________________________________________________

“Burr was talking about justice. ‘When I get to run the world,’ he said comfortably to the steaming lake, ‘I’m going to hold the Nuremberg Trials Part Two. I’m going to get all the arms dealers and shit scientists, and all the smooth salesmen who push the crazies one step further than they thought of going, because it’s good for business, and all the politicians and the lawyers and accountants and bankers, and I’m going to put them in the dock for their lives. And you know what they’ll say? ‘If we hadn’t done it someone else would have.’ And you know what I’ll say, ‘Oh, I see. And if you hadn’t raped the girl some other fellow would have raped her. And that’s your justification for rape. Noted.’ Then I’d napalm the lot of them. Fizz.”

John Le Carré
“The Night Manager”

_____________________________________________________________

“There are millions of wildebeest on the African plains. None of them will die of old age.”

-Unknown author

__________________________________________________________

“If you wish to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”

-John Chancellor

___________________________________________________________

“Praise makes me humble. But when I am abused I know I have touched the stars.”

-Oscar Wilde

____________________________________________________________

“Any fool can carry on but only the wise man knows how to shorten sail in time.”

-Joseph Conrad

______________________________________________________________

“You’re from a free society. You’ve got no choice.”

-John Le Carré
“The Russia House”

_____________________________________________________________

“But if you had asked him now or at any time in the last thirty years what his definition of a hero was, he would have replied without a second’s thought that a hero was the first man out of the back door when they started asking for volunteers.”

-John Le Carré
“The Russia House”

___________________________________________________________

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

-George Bernard Shaw

___________________________________________________________

“I never did like dirty tales, true or false; if they’re any good, they just make you wistful; if not there’s nothing more boresome in the world, I reckon.”

-Thomas Berger
“Little Big Man”

______________________________________________________________

“I am fond of independence…. It is that feeling that prompts me to come up strictly to the requirements of law and regulations. I wish neither to seek nor receive indulgence from anyone. I wish to feel under obligation to no one.”

-Robert E. Lee
From a letter written to his son, Custis, dated June 22, 1851.

_____________________________________________________________

“The great majority of us are required to live a life of constant, systematic duplicity. Your health is bound to be affected if, day after day, you say the opposite of what you feel; if you grovel before what you dislike and rejoice at what brings you nothing but misfortune.”

-Boris Pasternak
“Doctor Zhivago”

______________________________________________________________

“Frederick the Great, asked why he gave commissions in the Prussian army only to Junker, replied simply, ‘Because they will not lie and cannot be bought.”

-H.L. Mencken
“On Getting A Living”

______________________________________________________________


“Well, then, says I, what’s the use you learning to do right, when it’s troublesome to do right and ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same.”

-Mark Twain
“Huckleberry Finn”

____________________________________________________________

“Sex is something I really don’t understand too hot. You never know where the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away. Last year I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it, though, the same week I made it- the same night, as a matter of fact. I spent the whole night necking with a terrible phony named Anne Louise Sherman. Sex is something I just don’t understand. I swear to God I don’t.”

-J.D. Salinger
Holden Caulfield
“The Catcher In The Rye”

______________________________________________________________

“Goddamn money. It always ends up making you blue as hell.”

-J.D. Salinger
Holden Caulfield
“The Catcher In The Rye”

______________________________________________________________

“Anyone who cannot cope with mathematics is not fully human. At best, he is a tolerable sub-human who has learned to wear shoes, bathe, and not make messes in the house.”

-Robert A. Heinlein
“Stranger In A Strange Land”

_____________________________________________________________

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

-Robert A. Heinlein
“Stranger In A Strange Land”

_____________________________________________________________

“The race may not always go to the swift, nor the battle to the strong— but, that’s the way to bet.”

-Damon Runyon

 

[ShyGuy68]

I love reading as well, and I'm always reading some kind of fiction. Right now I'm rereading all the books by Diana Gabaldon, and have just started "The Fiery Cross".

I'm also a fan of Harry Potter, and can't wait for the last book in the series, which I hope will come out next year.

 

[poppy1963]

I love reading as well, and I'm always reading some kind of fiction. Right now I'm rereading all the books by Diana Gabaldon, and have just started "The Fiery Cross".

I'm also a fan of Harry Potter, and can't wait for the last book in the series, which I hope will come out next year.

Yes, I love Harry, too. Haven't read Diana Gabaldon.

I also am a fan of Anne Rice, Ann Rule (true crime series) and loved alot of the old scifi/fantasy stuff when I was younger: Tolkien, Bradbury, Ursula LeGuin, Stephen King, Peter Straub, Clive Barker (Weaveworld was FANTASTIC), Stephen R. Donaldson (1st series), Dune

 

[trysail]

A little more



....................., and two more,

________________________________________________________

If a lie is necessary, why not speak it? We are all after the same thing, whether we lie or speak the truth: our own advantage. Men lie when they think to profit by deception, and tell the truth for the same reason— to get something they want, and to be better trusted for their honesty. It is only two different roads to the same goal. Were there no question of advantage, the honest man would be as likely to lie as the liar is, and the liar would tell the truth as readily as the honest man.

Herodotus
The Histories
Book Three – The Seven Conspirators
Translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt
Revised by A. R. Burn
London, 1988

_____________________________________________________


Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.

William Shakespeare
Measure for Measure
Act II, Scene i, 38
_________________________________________________

 

[poppy1963]

....................., and two more,

________________________________________________________

If a lie is necessary, why not speak it? We are all after the same thing, whether we lie or speak the truth: our own advantage. Men lie when they think to profit by deception, and tell the truth for the same reason— to get something they want, and to be better trusted for their honesty. It is only two different roads to the same goal. Were there no question of advantage, the honest man would be as likely to lie as the liar is, and the liar would tell the truth as readily as the honest man.

Herodotus
The Histories
Book Three – The Seven Conspirators
Translated by Aubrey de Sélincourt
Revised by A. R. Burn
London, 1988

_____________________________________________________


Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.

William Shakespeare
Measure for Measure
Act II, Scene i, 38
_________________________________________________

Pretty impressive, trysail...some I've read...most not. Thanks for your knowledge and recommendations and quotes!

 

[ShyGuy68]

Yes, I love Harry, too. Haven't read Diana Gabaldon.

I also am a fan of Anne Rice, Ann Rule (true crime series) and loved alot of the old scifi/fantasy stuff when I was younger: Tolkien, Bradbury, Ursula LeGuin, Stephen King, Peter Straub, Clive Barker (Weaveworld was FANTASTIC), Stephen R. Donaldson (1st series), Dune

I've read and enjoyed quite a bit of Anne Rice too! A few more I like are Tami Hoag, Kathy Reichs, Tom Clancy, William Diehl and Dan Brown as well. I also like a Swedish authoe names Liza Marklund (some of her books are out in English I think)

 

[dbcurious]

indeed

I love reading as well, and I'm always reading some kind of fiction. Right now I'm rereading all the books by Diana Gabaldon, and have just started "The Fiery Cross".

I'm also a fan of Harry Potter, and can't wait for the last book in the series, which I hope will come out next year.

I used to laugh at the Harry Potter books until I read them. They are quite enjoyable reads. I also cannot wait for the next one.

I just fininshed another book well for the sixth time that I would reccomend:

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

 

[wally2450]

Military fiction with some great truths...

W.E.B. Griffin/ author of a set that can be found in most used bookstores: The Lt's, The Captains, The Majors, The Generals, and a few others. Great reading from a war vet!

 

[jenn_jason]

I love reading as well, and I'm always reading some kind of fiction. Right now I'm rereading all the books by Diana Gabaldon, and have just started "The Fiery Cross".

I'm also a fan of Harry Potter, and can't wait for the last book in the series, which I hope will come out next year.

I'm nearly always rereading one of Gabaldon's books...and believe that the latest one that was released in hardcover (A Breath of Snow and Ashes comes out in paperback next week or so (and although I've already read it, I can't wait to have my hands on my own copy!)....have you read The Outlandish Companion that goes with the series?

 

[L_homme]

The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon

 

[BellaBloodAngel]

I'm hooked on Dean Koontz right now. I read ANYTHING i can get my hands on though. My own personal hell would be a life without books.

 

[poppy1963]

W.E.B. Griffin/ author of a set that can be found in most used bookstores: The Lt's, The Captains, The Majors, The Generals, and a few others. Great reading from a war vet!

Did you read "My War" by Colby Buzzel? A kid seeking adventure and prosperity through war.....oh god...

 

[rydia57]

Hmmm.... write now I'm reading "Neuromancer" by William Gibson , "Counter-clock World" by Philip K.Dick. This is my first experience with his work, but gad, it looks really good. Reminds me of Ray Bradbury which I'm also reading "Martian Chronicles". I love Harry Potter too, and they can kill Hagrid if they need too.

 

[dbcurious]

I'm hooked on Dean Koontz right now. I read ANYTHING i can get my hands on though. My own personal hell would be a life without books.

Dean Koontz is very good at weaving suspense and intrigue together for an overall well packaged product. I enjoy his books as well. I have only read about 7 so far I believe. Any particular ones of his you would recommend?

 

[ShyGuy68]

I'm nearly always rereading one of Gabaldon's books...and believe that the latest one that was released in hardcover (A Breath of Snow and Ashes comes out in paperback next week or so (and although I've already read it, I can't wait to have my hands on my own copy!)....have you read The Outlandish Companion that goes with the series?

Once I got aware of her writing (a friend of mine gave me the first book in the series as a gift) I didn't hesitate buying the rest in the series (the first 4 were out at that point), and I finished them a short while before "The Fiery Cross" came out. I had also preodered the latest book before it was released, so I got it shortly after it was released! And yes the Outlandish Companion is in my collection as well. I will have to go through it again soon.

 

[BellaBloodAngel]

Dean Koontz is very good at weaving suspense and intrigue together for an overall well packaged product. I enjoy his books as well. I have only read about 7 so far I believe. Any particular ones of his you would recommend?

You know one of the things I love about Koontz is.....his style varies so much from book to book. With Stephen King or Anne Rice ( I adore their works as well ) they have a style so that within 10 pages in you know you're reading a book written by one or the other. Koontz is brilliant AND very different in each book.

Not knowing which seven you've read....I would highly suggest "The Taking", "Odd Thomas" and "Forever Odd". "Twilight Eyes" is another fantastic one. I've not been disappointed by Koontz yet.

 

[Hocky9377]

Big fan of Harry Potter. I have read every book in the series at least 3 times so far. Once I start them, I cant put them down. Its like an addiction. Also love sci-fi books. Have about 20 or so "Star Wars" books, a few classics like "Oliver Twist", and "War and Peace". I have a friend who has a book out, "Beasts" by C. Lee Finkle. Not a bad read either.

 

[Tastytooter]

I have to say my all time favorite book is Johnny Cash's autobiography Cash by Johnny Cash.

 

[dbcurious]

You know one of the things I love about Koontz is.....his style varies so much from book to book. With Stephen King or Anne Rice ( I adore their works as well ) they have a style so that within 10 pages in you know you're reading a book written by one or the other. Koontz is brilliant AND very different in each book.

Not knowing which seven you've read....I would highly suggest "The Taking", "Odd Thomas" and "Forever Odd". "Twilight Eyes" is another fantastic one. I've not been disappointed by Koontz yet.

Yes I agree with you fully from what I have read of Koontz. Excellent author brilliant innovative styles within every book. I am not a big King fan though I have started recently reading his Dark Tower series which I must say is a bit better than the rest.

One of my favorites I must reccomend as well is The Republic by Plato

 

[past_perfect]

One of my favourites would be "The Magus" by John Fowles. There are two versions, I prefer the original. Another good one is "A maggot" by the same author.

 

[nameless0]

I have for the past year and maybe a half read, reread, and rererereread

Mark Z Danielewski, "House of Leaves"

This book has driven me to learn the latin language along with french, spanish; read multiple books on cryptology(the study of codes); spend countless hours in debates with scholars, architechs, historians, librarians and many other titled knowers of things to be known.

I have read Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Wes Craven, and many many other horror and thriller authors but no book has ever left me with an authentic and horribly real feeling of absolute terror as this book has.

Mark Z Danielewski is my greatest hero and rolemodel in the world of noveling.

This book has changed my life forever.....it is highly debatable if that is a good thing.
anyways,
-nameless