Favourite books of all time

steveJ

Just to carry on from the favourite films discussion. I like to read a good book when I get a chance !(Studying from home = No time for other hobbies) Just wondering what everyones reading at mo' ? I've just started George Orwells 1984. Now that bloke had foresight !!
Anyways,just wondering, any books that had impact on you ?

*Hoping that everyone knows that there are other books apart from study text* lol.

columbia

I read a lot of crime novels, my favourite authors being John Grisham, Harlan Coben, and James Patterson.

However my hubby insisted that I read Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, which I did enjoy, then he bought the prequel Angels and Demons. The edition was a huge hardback copy full of photographs of the places and artefacts being described and it really did help to set the scene and it is my favourite book.

I was really looking forward to the film, however I was disappointed as the story had been changed too much. Thats Hollywood for you!

As for books just read, I have just finished Harlan Coben Long Lost, and that did get me thinking, especially the end. Go read it!

PAMDILL

columbia wrote: »

I read a lot of crime novels, my favourite authors being John Grisham, Harlan Coben, and James Patterson.

However my hubby insisted that I read Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, which I did enjoy, then he bought the prequel Angels and Demons. The edition was a huge hardback copy full of photographs of the places and artefacts being described and it really did help to set the scene and it is my favourite book.

I was really looking forward to the film, however I was disappointed as the story had been changed too much. Thats Hollywood for you!

As for books just read, I have just finished Harlan Coben Long Lost, and that did get me thinking, especially the end. Go read it!

I loved Harlan Coben's Long Lost it was the first one of his books I read.

I have a pretty ecletic taste in books from crime novels by Patricia Cromwell, Kathy Riechs, Tom Clancy, Johnathon Kellerman to horror by Stephen King, Dean Koontz, fantasy - Dragonriders of Pern series and saga Danielle Steel.

I have a heard job keeping my head out of books but it makes it easy for my family at Christmas and birthdays.

steveJ

Yeah I read Da vinci code and Angels and Demons a while ago now and loved both books.

I haven't seen angels and demons on film yet, but I don't think Tom Hanks really lives up to the character of Robert Langdon in Da Vinci Code.

Also if you did like the Da Vinci Code go and grab "The Rule Of Four!"

Hopefully this discussion can give us a few ideas on expanding our reading list.

columbia

Who's the Rule of Four by???

steveJ

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d.html/ref=mp_s_a_1/279-4883022-0820007?qid=1243243548&a=0099451956&sr=8-1

Try that link. I'm writing on my blackberry so don't know how that will come out.

But the authors name is Ian Caldwell. Its selling for 1p now on Amazon. Bargain.

columbia

Thanks Steve

It sounds really good! Just been reading up on it.

fatandforty

I love reading and will read pretty much anything. I recently read 1984 - brilliant book, then went on to read Lord of the Flies - quite barbaric! Am just finishing a girlie book by Katie Fford then have got Marley and Me next. Am getting the tissues ready!:crying:

taskey

i loved all of the dan brown books, i also like to read martina cole.

Tracy

steveJ

fatandforty wrote: »

I love reading and will read pretty much anything. I recently read 1984 - brilliant book, then went on to read Lord of the Flies - quite barbaric! Am just finishing a girlie book by Katie Fford then have got Marley and Me next. Am getting the tissues ready!:crying:

Yeah I've heard about that lord of the flies. Wouldn't mind reading that next. I go through phases of reading classics such as 1984, Catcher in the Rye, to kill a mockingbird. Then I read more modern books such as trainspotting, Clockwork Orange, silence of the lambs.
I really wanna read the shining so might get that soon.

PAMDILL

I read the shining years ago it is really good.

Bluewednesday

I loved the Dan Brown books but was really disappointed by the 'Rule of 4'.

I read Harlan Coben (my favourite), Janet Evanovich (hilarious) Penny Vincenzi - all sorts of different authors.

At the moment I am reading 'Auschwitz' which is compelling but taking a while to read. I always stopped reading novels when i was studying and then read constantly until the next round started. Still catching up and I finished exams 2 sittings ago!!! I guess it would help if I didn't keep buying new ones!

blobbyh

I read Hold Tight by Harlan Coben a month or so ago and loved the style of writing though found the story neither here nor there. I've read all the Dan Brown books so far - only four of them - and to be honest, I think he's pretty rubbish! Angels & Demons was probably the best of the lot but that's not saying much. The Rule of Four was only two quid in my local Asda at the weekend.

I'm searching for a new crime author at the moment as my usual poison - Jeffrey Deaver - has seriously gone off the boil with his last three or four novels. Just finished Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham which I thought was very, very good...

Oh, and The Shining is very creepy and quite different to the Kubrick movie...

Bluewednesday

Blobby, you should try Stephen Booth, not in the same vein as Mark Billingham but seriously good!

I thought Angels and Demons was the best too, went to see it at the pictures at the weekend and thought the film was much better than da Vinci code.

mark130273

my favourate books of all time...........thats a toughy.............


got to be performance, value and control by osborn ! cracking read.......

how sad it that !

steveJ

Has anyone read "How to read a book" by Mortimer Adler ?

Its a great book that explains how to get the most out of a book whether its philosophy, Novels,history,plays,poems etc.

This helps because i'm reading bits and pieces of Michel De Montaigne - The Complete Essays. Wrote in the late 1500s. Michel retired to his estate and wrote his essays about himself and life around him.

Both great books. Check 'em out on Amazon.

CJC

Here's a bunch of favourite crime books:

David Peace - Red Riding Quartet (1974, 1977, 1980, 1983)
Loved these for a long time complex, intense, gothic, poetic, brutal. The recent TV adaptation didn't really do them justice.

James Ellroy - LA Quartet (The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential, White Jazz)
A clear influence on Peace with a similar scope and tone - though possibly a bit more straightforward. As noir as it gets.

Then there's the classics of Raymond Chandler and the pulpmeister Jim Thompson

I recently read Steig Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which I liked a lot. Intelligent and well written with strong lead characters, a nice knotty plot and a nasty killer.

PAMDILL

I read LA COnfidential a long time ago, have not got around to the rest of the Quartet.

Blobby you should definitely give the rest of Mark Billingham's books a go, I read sleepyhead first then started working my way through the rest of the series.

I know you said Jeffrey Deaver has gone off the boil but have you read the new one, the Bodies Left Behind. I found it totally different from his Lincoln Rymes and Angela Dancer series. Very good and very tense right up to the end.

blobbyh

Have you ever read any Cornell Woolrich, Chris, a noir author from the thirties? Best known for being the author of Rear Window, he also wrote some dark short stories. I read an amazing collection years ago but the only one I can remember was a man who'd won the lottery only a few days after murdering his wife and the ticket was buried with her.

Just read Sleepyhead, Pam, and now about to start on Scaredy Cat. I wouldn't normally read British crime but I liked his style of writing so looking forward to it.

Haven't read Bodies Left Behind yet but I find Lincoln Rhyme now just about exhausted as a character going forward and Katherine Dance wasn't interesting enough in The Sleeping Doll. Too much filler to get the page count up. My dad normally gets the Deaver books and passes them to me so I'll watch out for BLB in his collection and nick it.

I've also got 'Five Chimneys' to start - an Auschwitz testimony - but need to steel myself up for that one.

Bluewednesday

Let me know how five chimney's is!

this auschwitz one is factual but very readable, it was the book related to the recent tv programme on BBC.

If you've ever seen 'Boy in the Striped pyjamas' that's an amazing book and film which seems quite accurate from what I've read so far.

columbia

My 10 year old daughter was bought the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas for christmas.

I haven't let her read it yet - (it made me cry). Not sure if I want her to know all the horrors of the world just yet. I would like her to hold on to her childlike innocence for a bit longer. Part of me thinks she should read it now, another part of me thinks perhaps in a couple of more years.

On a separate note, My hubby says that the Jeff Lindsay "Dexter" books are very good, I've watched the tv show. He says the black humour is great and the books get into his dark mind more.

Anyone read any happy books????.....

blobbyh

Have you ever read 'The Holocaust' by the historian Martin Gilbert? It's absolutely horrifying; once read, it's never forgotten and will stay with you for life. I found it too upsetting to read in long spells and it's the only book that's ever haunted me in my dreams.

Bluewednesday

I've got the Martin Gilbert book but haven't summonsed up the courage to read it yet.

I let me 12 year old read the boy in the striped pyjamas but I wouldn't let her watch the film, the film is much more gobsmacking in my humble opinion. My daughter really liked the book as she knows enough to work out what Bruno was describing.

columbia

Thanks, she's quite mature for her age so maybe I'll let her read it afterall.

steveJ

Hey as anyone read Viktor Frankl - search for meaning ??
True story of life in Auschwitz. How he survived in his mind ...
I've got it on audio book and its well worth a read or listen.

CathG

My favourite lately was 'No time for Goodbye' by Linwood Barclay, but I'm also a Harlan Coban fan - The Woods was excellent.

fatandforty

I have read No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay and thought it was very good. I like Harlan Coben a lot too and have read Gone for Good, Deal Breaker, Drop Shot, Fade Away, Just One Look and Darkest Fear and have Hold Tight to read after Marley and Me. Mandasue Heller is pretty good too. But then as I have said earlier I will read anything! I even read Oliver Twist earlier this year, and have managed War and Peace when I was a little younger.

Pigpen

Bluewednesday wrote: »

I've got the Martin Gilbert book but haven't summonsed up the courage to read it yet.

I let me 12 year old read the boy in the striped pyjamas but I wouldn't let her watch the film, the film is much more gobsmacking in my humble opinion. My daughter really liked the book as she knows enough to work out what Bruno was describing.

I read the Book and then watched the DVD - The book is written brilliantly and I almost read it all in one sitting cos you can't put it down - The film I thought was not so good but isn't that often the way?

I loved the Kite Runner & A thousand splendid suns - Khaled Hosseini? Very thought provoking too!

If you like detective / crime novels give Robert Crais a try - There are a few of his books around and they kind of run in a series but they are great - The books are about a private detective who has a sidekick, Joe Pike, a man of few words but a bit scary/intimidating - Also PJ Tracy - Want to play? etc - very good in my opinion.

columbia

I read PJ Tracy - Want to Play and thought it was excellent, however I was really with the follow up books, seems they peaked with their first novel.

katsutlieff

I would recommend BirdSong by Sebastian Faulks. Amazing book, moving insight to war fought from the trenches.

Not my usually read at all, I'm more Midnights Children (Salman Rushdie) Ond hundred years of solitude (Gabriel Garcia Marquez), more magical adult fairy tale books.

nakeyj

I would recommend Birdsong too, it really encapsulates the romance and heartache of war. Another one to pull at the heartstrings is Wuthering Heights