The Dreaded Marco
Footballguy
A few of my favorite contemporary novels:
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums
This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!
What novels should everybody read? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter KarmaPolice
- Start date
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier
The Dreaded Marco
Footballguy
.
Last edited by a moderator:
Vanilla Guerrilla
Footballguy
Absalom Absalom was probably the 2nd hardest 150 page book I ever read. His writing style is brutal. I have As I lay Dying, but just haven't had the willpower to start it.
rockaction
Footballguy
El Floppo
Footballguy
that one and sometimes a great notion took me a bunch of stop/starts before finally gaining traction with both. I've been trying to re-read Absalom ( I read both in my young 20s a couple couple few years ago) and keep running into the same issue... even though I know the reward once I can muscle through.
whiskey7
Footballguy
Not sure if its normal but exactly same here. I read many of the "classics" in school because it was required but I don't recall much about many of them :(
FWIW, some of the ones I recall liking the best:
The Last of the Mohicans
Moby ****
A Tale of Two Cities
Frankenstein
The Lord of the Rings
El Floppo
Footballguy
it's the tippy top of my list by a fair margin. love this book. re-read it in the last couple of years for the first time since... dunno- college or high school. held up incredibly well.
I reread siddhartha every ten years and get a totally different read from it each time as I progress through different stages in life (not uncoincidentally like the protagonist). also holds up each reread.
Don Quixote
Footballguy
If I had to limit myself to 10...
Don Quixote - Cervantes (obvs)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - Joyce (easier intro to his work than Ulysses)
The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald
The Tale of Two Cities - Dickens
Slaughterhouse Five - Vonnegut
All the King's Men - Warren
War and Peace - Tolstoy
To Kill a Mockingbird - Lee
For a couple from the 21st century to round it out...
The Goldfinch - Tartt
Lincoln in the Bardo - Saunders (mentioned this one earlier)
Don Quixote - Cervantes (obvs)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - Joyce (easier intro to his work than Ulysses)
The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald
The Tale of Two Cities - Dickens
Slaughterhouse Five - Vonnegut
All the King's Men - Warren
War and Peace - Tolstoy
To Kill a Mockingbird - Lee
For a couple from the 21st century to round it out...
The Goldfinch - Tartt
Lincoln in the Bardo - Saunders (mentioned this one earlier)
Vanilla Guerrilla
Footballguy
Quietly Flows the Don - Sholokov
The Idiot - Dostoevsky
Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
Les Miserables - Hugo
Tale of Two Cities - Dickens
A Farewell to Arms - Hemingway
The Idiot - Dostoevsky
Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
Les Miserables - Hugo
Tale of Two Cities - Dickens
A Farewell to Arms - Hemingway
The General
Footballguy
matuski
Footballguy
I have heard a few people rave about this book, so I assume per usual I am in the minority.... but I just couldn't.
Seems like the primary effort of the book was to be different and original - and it tried too hard at it. I gave this book 2 efforts and gave up about half way through both times. Entire sections where I'm lost, not about the story or plot (there doesn't really seem to be one)... just lost as to what the hell is even trying to happen, lost on the format and annoying punctuation. All kinds of annoying things about it.. I believe tops on the list were ghosts bleeping out cuss words.
I tried the audio book and it was worse.
whoknew
Footballguy
I have tried like 4 different times to get into this book and I just can't do it. I'm about halfway through and haven't picked it up in probably 6 months. I guess I need to finish - everyone else who ever read it says its brilliant.
Don Quixote
Footballguy
I think it's one of those "love or hate, with little in-between" kind of books. I liked the originality of the style. It was a unique reading experience, unlike any other type I've read previously; sometimes I'm in the mindset for something like that, and sometimes not, but it worked for me this time around. I'm also pretty deep into Presidential and Civil War history, so the intersection of that appealed to me as well. I can understand not for everyone though.
timschochet
Footballguy
timschochet
Footballguy
These are the novels I would recommend If you want to understand the modern world:
A Passage to India by EM Forster
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Animal Farm by George Orwell
All The King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
Hawaii by James Michener
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Armageddon by Leon Uris
The Man by Irving Wallace
The Chosen/The Promise by Chaim Potok
The Immigrants/Second Generation/The Eatablishment by Howard Fast
The Winds of War/War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
The Power of One/Tandia by Bryce Courtenay
She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
Exile by Richard North Patterson
Sing You Home by Richard North Patterson
A Passage to India by EM Forster
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Animal Farm by George Orwell
All The King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
Hawaii by James Michener
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Armageddon by Leon Uris
The Man by Irving Wallace
The Chosen/The Promise by Chaim Potok
The Immigrants/Second Generation/The Eatablishment by Howard Fast
The Winds of War/War and Remembrance by Herman Wouk
The Dead Zone by Stephen King
The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
The Power of One/Tandia by Bryce Courtenay
She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb
Exile by Richard North Patterson
Sing You Home by Richard North Patterson
KarmaPolice
Footballguy
Got a handful of short ones, so hopefully I can get through one or two.
Frankenstein, Lord of the Flies, Beloved, 2 Vonnegut books (can't remember titles now), Great Gatsby, and I have The Painted Bird coming in on order.
Frankenstein, Lord of the Flies, Beloved, 2 Vonnegut books (can't remember titles now), Great Gatsby, and I have The Painted Bird coming in on order.
Don Quixote
Footballguy
Love Lord of the Flies, Gatsby, and Vonnegut.KarmaPolice said:
Hated Beloved with a fiery passion.
Buckychudd
Footballguy
I really hated that book. I know it won awards but I found just about every character unlikeable.
DocHolliday
Footballguy
KarmaPolice
Footballguy
That's what I was planning on starting with. The Vonneguts that I got were the one wikkid had listed and Player Piano. The 2nd one I saw on a site suggesting an order to read his books, and the plot sounded like something up my alley.
sports_fan
Footballguy
East of Eden - Steinbeck
The Name of the Wind - Rothfuss
Sherlock Holmes (any collection) - Doyle
Harry Potter - Rowling
Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
Flowers for Algernon - Keyes
Enders Game - Card
Dune - Herbert
The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky
The Stand - King
The Name of the Wind - Rothfuss
Sherlock Holmes (any collection) - Doyle
Harry Potter - Rowling
Lord of the Rings - Tolkien
Flowers for Algernon - Keyes
Enders Game - Card
Dune - Herbert
The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky
The Stand - King
Ilov80s
Footballguy
My nomination for recent books would easily be “All the Light We Can Not See.” An exceptional WW2 book that still manages to come off as unique amongst a topic that is obviously oversaturated with books and movies. It’s a bit more complicated than this but it’s basically the story of how a young blind girl in France copes with the German invasion. It’s so good.
As for other 10, I’ll just throw out 10 favorites that jump out to me and what they are about.
The Sun Also Rises: young aimless drunks in post WW1 Europe
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter: a better To Kill a Mockingbird
Catch 22: the funniest and most serious anti-war war book
All Quiet on the Western Front: The German version of Catch 22.
Age of Innocence: Epic sort of love story but really just a skewering of societal convention
The Big Sleep: Every sort of vice and crime wrapped up in the smoothest pulp prose ever written.
The Master and Margarita: Very predictable straight forward Russian novel about the devil, a talking cat with a gun and Pontius Pilate.
In Cold Blood: The first ever true murder podcast.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being: casual European sex and the best of their brand of pretentious philosophy
The Picture of Dorian Gray: If Edgar Allen Poe had a wicked sharp sense of humor and a playwright’s skill for dialogue.
Last edited by a moderator:
shuke
Black Ice Skeptic
KarmaPolice
Footballguy
wikkidpissah
Footballguy
i would skip Player Piano til you find a rhythm with Vonnegut. Since it was his first novel, he was still formula-bound and it makes PP a little grindy
KarmaPolice
Footballguy
Sun Also Rises is also in my pile, and Catch-22 I ordered, but thankfully has a long wait (so I can try to catch up on a couple others).
Based on the description of the bolded, I bumped that up the list.
rockaction
Footballguy
We're throwing a lot at you, but I can second Wilde's genius for both morality and humor.
El Floppo
Footballguy
Was going to include Master and Margarita...I remember enjoying reading that one quite a bit. Thought-provoking without being thought breaking.
In cold blood is a great rec too- and great summation. People who like those true crime stories will really enjoy it. Capote style.
I just couldn't get into kundera after trying a couple, including unbearable (ex was a big fan). Pretentious...yeah.
Ilov80s
Footballguy
Great novel, except for that 1 weird chapter that is just descriptions of textiles and furniture or something. That was bizarre and totally pointless. For a book I loved so much, I don't think there has ever been a worse chapter.
Kundera is so pretentious but it just makes me want to listen to Brahms, smoke a cigarrette and lay nude in my bed with a woman while we complain about Communism. I just dig it.
Brunell4MVP
Footballguy
Some of my favorites:
Hemingway - Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls
McCarthy - No Country for Old Men, All the Pretty Horses, Blood Meridian (his style in this one is hard to read though)
Follett - Pillars of the Earth, Eye of the Needle, World Without End
Conrad - Heart of Darkness
Hosseini - Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Sums
Clancy - Clear and Present Danger
Chaucer - Canterbury Tales (it's a good book when you aren't reading it for an 8th grade English class)
Tolkien - LOTR Trilogy (excellent reading)
Dumas - Count of Monte Cristo
London - Call of the Wild, White Fang
Sinclair - The Jungle (everyone knows the meat packing stuff, but it's an pro-communist book that is interesting to look back on the follies of the movement)
Kipling - Kim
J.S. Card - Ender's Game (an excellent book, but the movie was awful)
Hemingway - Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls
McCarthy - No Country for Old Men, All the Pretty Horses, Blood Meridian (his style in this one is hard to read though)
Follett - Pillars of the Earth, Eye of the Needle, World Without End
Conrad - Heart of Darkness
Hosseini - Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Sums
Clancy - Clear and Present Danger
Chaucer - Canterbury Tales (it's a good book when you aren't reading it for an 8th grade English class)
Tolkien - LOTR Trilogy (excellent reading)
Dumas - Count of Monte Cristo
London - Call of the Wild, White Fang
Sinclair - The Jungle (everyone knows the meat packing stuff, but it's an pro-communist book that is interesting to look back on the follies of the movement)
Kipling - Kim
J.S. Card - Ender's Game (an excellent book, but the movie was awful)
Mr. Ected
Footballguy
I remember reading the original Tom Clancy novels when they were coming out. The Hunt for Red October was a great book, and a big deal at the time.
The Harry Potter Books are spectacular. We have gotten into listening to books in the car on long drives as it helps keep drivers awake.
Ender's Game is one of my favorites ever. I have read and reread it countless times. I haven't seen the movie, I am too scared that they just couldn't do the book justice.
Chaka
Footballguy
Wouldn't know where to begin with an all time top 10 list. Instead I'm going to recommend the most interesting book I read last year.
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
I've been working through the list of dual Hugo and Nebula award winning books and a lot of them are truly amazing (no kidding) but many are somewhat inaccessible and high minded, particularly the Ursula La Guin stuff.
But the one I keep going back to in my mind is The Windup Girl. It's dark, dystopic, and downright ugly at times. It's also really intelligent, thought provoking and Bacigalupi is a great story teller.
I can see how it wouldn't be for everyone, or seem to be, but it really struck a cord with me.
Highly recommend.
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
I've been working through the list of dual Hugo and Nebula award winning books and a lot of them are truly amazing (no kidding) but many are somewhat inaccessible and high minded, particularly the Ursula La Guin stuff.
But the one I keep going back to in my mind is The Windup Girl. It's dark, dystopic, and downright ugly at times. It's also really intelligent, thought provoking and Bacigalupi is a great story teller.
I can see how it wouldn't be for everyone, or seem to be, but it really struck a cord with me.
Highly recommend.
Chaka
Footballguy
A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore is probably my favorite book of all time (someone mentioned The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove above, also a Moore book).
First off (how are you?) Moore is freaking hilarious and he's in top form in A Dirty Job. But underneath the hilarity, which is almost non-stop, is quite a bit of thought provoking ideas about the nature of self and the Soul.
Highly recommend. It's also a very easy read. One you burn through.
First off (how are you?) Moore is freaking hilarious and he's in top form in A Dirty Job. But underneath the hilarity, which is almost non-stop, is quite a bit of thought provoking ideas about the nature of self and the Soul.
Highly recommend. It's also a very easy read. One you burn through.
Couple thoughts: I’m thrilled with the Vonnegut love. Sirens of Titan would be my pick from him. I also love Godel, Escher, Bach (I’m a math guy) but it is not a novel. I’d posit also that very few people have actually read it cover to cover. Same can be said for Infinite Jest which I’m surprised has not made an appearance yet. I’d put it right up there. Last, my personal choice is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I reread it every few years—can’t recommend it enough.
Ketamine Dreams
Footballguy
Great list so far. I’d add:
The Third Chimpanzee - Diamond (Guns, Germs and Steel is excellent too)
Hiroshima - Hersey
On Killing - The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society - Grossman
The Third Chimpanzee - Diamond (Guns, Germs and Steel is excellent too)
Hiroshima - Hersey
On Killing - The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society - Grossman
rockaction
Footballguy
Read it three times cover to cover and still don't remember all of it nor get it. Just a great work of art. Would have put it there, but if someone is just getting into novels, there's no Gravity's Rainbow, Ulysses, or Infinite Jest to recommend. I can't even make it through Gravity's Rainbow.
You need the foundation before you kick out the legs, you know?
Buckychudd
Footballguy
Ursula La Guin is one of my favorite authors, The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossesed are particularly good.
Chaka
Footballguy
I read both.
She's a legend, without question. You can't tell the history of science fiction without speaking about her at length. She would probably be on the Mount Rushmore of the genre.
I personally find her meandering and inaccessible.
