Your favourite Books

[Greenie]

I read quite a few books but I only finish about 20% as a long as pretty crap. The following books are some of my favourites:

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest- Ken Kescy
Angela's Ashes-Frank McCourt
A Prayer for Owen Meany-John Irving
The World According to Garp-John Irving
Lord of the Rings
Filth-Irving Welsh
To Kill a Mockingbird-Harper Lee
Remains of the Day-Kazeo Ishigro

I also enjoy political and business biographies-Alan Clark, John Simpson, John Sargent, James Dyson & Boris Johnson's are very good.

I would recommend these books to anyone.

Which books are your favourites?

>>> Edited by Greenie on Thursday 24th February 22:00

[groucho]

I don't think I've ever read a book, read(present) magazines and threads on PH, that's you lot.

[jmorgan]

Many on my list but one does stand out, Guy Gibson, "Enemy coast ahead"

[AllTorque]

1984 - George Orwell. So relevant 60 years later it's ridiculous

The Outsider - Albert Camus. Bit of a simple story on the outside, but questions the whole meaning of existence. I loved it.

Lord of the Rings - agree!

Filth - Irvine Welsh - never laughed so much at a book. Beats Trainspotting in my opinion.

Casino Royale - Ian Fleming. The first Bond book and easily the best.

The Fourth Protocol - Freddie Forsythe - great thriller

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams. Fan--tastic

Edited to add The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks - amazing!

>> Edited by AllTorque on Thursday 24th February 22:24

[JulianHJ]

In no particular order:

Bad Wisdom - Bill Drummond and Mark Manning
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S Thompson
American Psycho - Brett Easton Ellis
Discworld Series - Terry Pratchett
Mr Nice - Howard Marks
Microserfs - Douglas Coupland
Neuromancer - William Gibson (well, all of his stuff really)
Cryptonomicon - Neil Stephenson (again, most of his stuff)
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman

[MrsMiggins]

Really like Christopher Brookmyre's stuff, especially "one fine day in the middle of the night" and "a big boy did it and ran away".

I've read 'fine day' at least 3 times www.brookmyre.co.uk/book4.htm

Gavin is creating a unique 'holiday experience', every facility any tourist who hates abroad will ever want, will all be available on a converted North Sea oil rig. To test the facilities he's hosting a reunion for his old school (none of his ex-classmates can remember him, but what the heck, it's free). He is so busy showing off that he doesn't notice that another group have invited themselves along -- a collection of terrorist mercenaries who are occasionally of more danger to themselves than to the public. And they in turn are unaware that Inspector MacGregor has got wind of their activities. Within twenty-four hours Gavin's dream has blown to the four winds, along with a lot of other things. Fast, rabidly funny, and seriously over the top.

Dress Casual. Bring your own bullets.

[rich 36]

Evelyn waugh (it was a man trust me)
the sword of honour trilogy
(remember Brideshead revisited on Granada in the 80's)

[v8thunder]

Greenie said:

Remains of the Day-Zazoo Ishigro

I assume you mean Kazuo Ishiguro, my Dad's favourite author (has all his novels) - my favourite of his is When We Were Orphans.

I'm a big fan of Tom Sharpe's novels - brilliant to see how a South African novelist can deliver such witty perceptions of the British life, and lampoon them to outlandish proportions. Brilliant.

Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time was brilliantly empathic, also Film by Sean Condon is another one I can thoroughly recommend.

I often find I have very little time to read books at the moment, unfortunately. I got Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs for Christmas and haven't turned a page of it.

I value my books as I value my music - which is why I've got tonnes of them as well - an experience whenever you fancy it.

[pug406]

Jonathon Livingstone Seagull
Men are from Mars Women From Venus
Why Men Dont listen and Women Cant Read Maps

[sccbishop]

I enjoyed Birdsong by Sebsatian Faulks a lot.
Also anything by Wilbur Smith!

[mxdi]

I'm big into history, so anything english and medieval but I'm a easy reader, so dont do complex ones.

[poptosis]

Just getting into my second Will Self book after reading Great Apes

If i was sent to a desert island i would definatly take Catch 22 and the Sherlock Holmes stories.

[selmer]

Apart from classics by the usual suspects like Kafka and Baldwin, I quite like my stories short. Ian McEwan turns in twisted effort now and again that really makes you think. I also enjoy Thom Jones' The Pugilist At Rest' & 'Cold Snap'.

[DuncanM]

Loads of books on my list but particular favourites are:

Lord of the Rings

The Hobbit

Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey and Maturin Series (Master and Commander etc)

Flashman Chronicles

Wilbur Smith's Rivergod

Harry Harrison's Deathworld series

Catch 22

Robert Heinlein's Time enough for love

Birdsong

Robert Graves Goodbye to all that

Numerous Robert Ludlum's in particular the Jason Bourne books and the Parsifal mosaic

Reading a cracking book at the moment called the Reality dysfunction by Peter F Hamilton.

Missed out loads here, nothing like a good book imo .

Duncan

>> Edited by DuncanM on Thursday 24th February 21:44

[BMGM3]

jmorgan said:

Many on my list but one does stand out, Guy Gibson, "Enemy coast ahead"

Was going to say the exact same book. I must have read it 5-6 times now, and I'm always struck by just how amazing a life such a young person lead.

[Trackside]

My Mum recently introduced me to Ken Follett's books. Have read 'Jackdaws' and 'Hornet Flight', both very good WW2 stories based loosely on fact. Just finished 'Night Over Water' by the same author which was a good character-based book.

On a motoring theme, can thoroughly recommend Perry McCarthy's 'Flat Out, Flat Broke' and David Gordon's biography of Derek Bennett, the guy who started the Chevron racing car manufacturer. Fascinating read IMO.

[mystery machine]

Kazuo Ishiguro one of my favourites.
Also anything by Magnus Mills.

Enyoyed the following:-

Joseph O'Connor-Star of the Sea
Paul Coelho-The Alchemist
Asne Seierstad-The Bookseller of Kabul
Philip Pullman-His Dark Materials
Arundhati Roy-The God of Small Things

[FunkyNige]

The Dune and Ender's Game series' stand out for me (though I haven't got to the end of either series yet ).

Enigma is a goode nerdy maths/history book about breaking the Enigma code in WW2.

[jmorgan]

BMGM3 said:

jmorgan said: Many on my list but one does stand out, Guy Gibson, "Enemy coast ahead" Was going to say the exact same book. I must have read it 5-6 times now, and I'm always struck by just how amazing a life such a young person lead.

Same here. Well thumbed as well as Paul Brickhill.(?)

He was 23 ish? Squadron leader and me at 23, wondering where my next pint was comming from.

[DuncanM]

FunkyNige said:

The Dune and Ender's Game series' stand out for me (though I haven't got to the end of either series yet ). Enigma is a goode nerdy maths/history book about breaking the Enigma code in WW2.

Great books .

Ender's Game is really touching and Dune/Dune messiah are classics.