Best Books Ever

[Gemby!]

Originally posted by gregster007@15 September 2003 - 16:35
The Godfather by Mario Puzo

one of my friends has been telling me this is a real good book so i guess i should read it

mine is daniele steel leap of faith

[RohSun]

Hmmm...Pillars of the Eath is a great read....so is A fine Balance by Mistry..Chaos ,Glass Bead Game,A corner of a foreign field and the Genesis code...

[LeeMarvin]

Well somebody else joins may view (Einstein), it's been a long a time since I don't post and nobody mentions Thomas Pynchon, I presume the majority of you are from the States and you don't know him?; it's perhaps one of your greatest writers ever. I also notice that you didn't mention Borges, I'm an argie like him and I think he is great and among the greatest and more influentian writers from th 20th century (from Bradbury, Foucalt, García Marquez, Rushdie, Pynchon, Grant Morrison, Umberto Eco or Martin Amis, and people from other areas of art, always mention him as one of their biggest influences), perhaps he is becoming the writer for writers. I think he is great but many times I enjoy a lot more Cortazar or Bioy Casares, they are more "terrenal", less methaphisical.

[einstein1905]

To those that criticized my disparaging of superficial, brain candy, such as stephen king and John Grisham, my point is this; you cannot say that "so and so" is the best book ever until you've read "the greats", the consensus great works of literature.
To simplify, if a person were only to ever have seen or driven a geo metro, and not have experienced the pleasure of driving a mercedes or BMW, they're in no position to claim the geo as the greatest car ever. You need a point of reference. Greatest is all relative (haha..see my username....I'm so clever).
I've read Stphen King and Grisham books too, but can easily distinguish a real work of literature from them. The reason these more superficial, spoon-feeding variety of books do so well is because we no longer encourage the reading of the classics...no one cares to expand their minds, and no upping your THC levels in your blood doesn't exempt you from having to expand your mind with literature. Notice that most of the classics deal with very real characters and situations, whereas most of these more superficial works are far removed from reality....make sense? This is the real world you live in....deal with it, understand it, and make it a better place. Distract yourself, if you must, by reading about killer clowns (not Gacey), but quickly come back to the real world and make a difference here.

[asmithz]

I dont like to read so there isnt a best book ever.

[LeeMarvin]

I'm not sure Einstein, but if you were thinking that I was criticizing you, well you are wrong, I was supporting you. On the other hand I don't agree with that "real world" you are mentioning, in fact I think that perhaps the greatest writers are and were, those that deal with the absurd of life, such as Kafka, Poe, Borges and many others, in the way they like, sometimes using fantasy, sometimes more "real" stuff. Those "real" life writers you are mentioning (and please name one of them)or the next movie "based on real eventes" are mostly bullshit, real life is absurd and not rational. If your aim was to attack science fiction writers I remind you that there are writers like H.G. Wells, Bradbury, Ballard, P.Dick or Lovecraft (for not mention Homer (if he ever exist, and as you may know, his work is the translation of oral stories)) that with that kind of statement, you have to place them as minor writers, I don't think you agree with that. Finally that Tolkien, or Stephen King or others are more succesfull than Joyce, don't make and entire genre bullshit, perhaps there success is link to the fact that they are easier to transpose to a movie, till now with perhaps the exception of "Crash" by Cronemberg and "Blade runner" (that is ok, not much more), great science fiction writers where destroy in movies.

[alpk91]

I think "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" is the best one.....

[alpha]

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
The Idiot by Dostoyevsky
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (or was it someone else?)
Love in the time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

[alpha]

Originally posted by einstein1905@20 September 2003 - 01:42
To those that criticized my disparaging of superficial, brain candy, such as stephen king and John Grisham, my point is this; you cannot say that "so and so" is the best book ever until you've read "the greats", the consensus great works of literature.
      To simplify, if a person were only to ever have seen or driven a geo metro, and not have experienced the pleasure of driving a mercedes or BMW, they're in no position to claim the geo as the greatest car ever. You need a point of reference. Greatest is all relative (haha..see my username....I'm so clever).
      I've read Stphen King and Grisham books too, but can easily distinguish a real work of literature from them. The reason these more superficial, spoon-feeding variety of books do so well is because we no longer encourage the reading of the classics...no one cares to expand their minds, and no upping your THC levels in your blood doesn't exempt you from having to expand your mind with literature. Notice that most of the classics deal with very real characters and situations, whereas most of these more superficial works are far removed from reality....make sense? This is the real world you live in....deal with it, understand it, and make it a better place. Distract yourself, if you must, by reading about killer clowns (not Gacey), but quickly come back to the real world and make a difference here.

Ever heard the saying: "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" ?
----'what is the best book ever?'---- This is a subjective question. It is highly unlikely that anyone has read every book ever written and thus it is possible that all of us have yet to experience " the pleasure of driving a mercedes or BMW"

[alpha]

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (funny, wierd)
Metamorphosis & Other Stories by Franz Kafka (crazy, wierd)
The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce ------"Pedestrian, n. The variable (and audible) part of the roadway for an automobile."
" Air, n. A nutritious substance supplied by a bountiful Providence for the fattening of the poor."
The Hitchhikers Guide.....the series and also some of that Dirk Gently stuff by Douglas Adams. (funny, funny)
Bill the galactic hero and....... by Harry Harrison ----- I've read a few and assume the rest will be as amusing.