What's your all time favorite book?

[Going Yard]

I'm always looking for new books to add to my ever growing reading list. Best book I've ever read is To Kill a Mockingbird. Some authors I really enjoy reading are Cormac McCarthy, John Irving, and Dennis Lehane.What do you all recommend?

[OrangeUte]

I'm always looking for new books to add to my ever growing reading list. Best book I've ever read is To Kill a Mockingbird. Some authors I really enjoy reading are Cormac McCarthy, John Irving, and Dennis Lehane.What do you all recommend?

Huckleberry Finn is probably my all time favorite. I've recently enjoyed the Game of Thrones and its successors, fantasy novels that the HBO series is based on. When I was a teenager I enjoyed the Shannara books by Terry Brooks - fantasy novels. I read the Elfstone, Sword, and Wishsong of Shannara, but I understand that there are multiple others now.

I love Steinbeck and anything by Hemingway.

Another book I recently read was The Book Thief - a story of a young German girl during the holocaust. It is a youth fiction, supposedly, but I enjoyed it a lot.

In The Garden of Beasts, the new book by Erik Larsen is excellent. It is the tale of the US ambassador to Germany and his family (including a dangerously flirtatious and casual flirt daughter) as Hitler's Nazi Party is securing power. It culminates in the Night of the Long Knives.

[Going Yard]

I recently read The Book Thief, as well. Excellent book. Another great story set during the Holocaust was ​The Boy In Striped Pajamas.

[Going Yard]

Ha, just noticed there is a separate category for books, movies, music, etc. Oh well, what do you expect from a Junior Member.

[USS Utah]

Run Silent, Run Deep by Edward L. Beach.

[hostile]

Les Misérables - Victor Hugo

[San Diego Ute Fan]

As a kid, the first group of books I remember tearing through were the Black Stallion books. I also really enjoyed the Jack London novels, The Call of the Wild, White Fang, Sea Wolf.

I've always liked military fiction. The early Clancy novels were great reads. The Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising were the best, IMO.

[chrisrenrut]

As a kid, the first group of books I remember tearing through were the Black Stallion books. I also really enjoyed the Jack London novels, The Call of the Wild, White Fang, Sea Wolf.

I've always liked military fiction. The early Clancy novels were great reads. The Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising were the best, IMO.

I'm glad you brought up Clancy, I was starting to feel like my tastes were a little too uncultured for this crowd. My favorite of his is Without Remorse. I haven't been able to get into his newer stuff yet, mostly because I haven't been able to make the time to read. I also enjoy Steinbeck, with East of Eden being my favorite.

[LA Ute]

It's hard to name just one, but David Copperfield was great. So was Bleak House. ( I am a huge Dickens fan.) As a teenage kid To Kill A Mockingbird had a huge impact on my life. It made me want to become Atticus Finch, or at least to be a lawyer like him.

[Going Yard]

Totally agree on Atticus. Glad you mentioned Bleak House. Just picked up the audio book for my daily commute. Looking forward to it.

[Going Yard]

I read all of the Jack Ryan novels. Red October and Cardinal of the Kremlin were my favorites. Without Remorse was also good. Big fan of Jack London, too. I read him a lot as a youngster and nseow I'm sharing those books with my boys.

[LA Ute]

Totally agree on Atticus. Glad you mentioned Bleak House. Just picked up the audio book for my daily commute. Looking forward to it.

If you like Bleak House there is a very good Masterpiece Classic adaptation (well, I loved it, anyway).

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/bleakhouse/

[USS Utah]

I read all of the Jack Ryan novels. Red October and Cardinal of the Kremlin were my favorites. Without Remorse was also good. Big fan of Jack London, too. I read him a lot as a youngster and nseow I'm sharing those books with my boys.

Red October is probably his best. Cardinal is also one of my favorite, along with Debt of Honor, Executive Orders and Red Rabbit.

[Mrs. Funk]

It's hard to name just one, but David Copperfield was great. So was Bleak House. ( I am a huge Dickens fan.) As a teenage kid To Kill A Mockingbird had a huge impact on my life. It made me want to become Atticus Finch, or at least to be a lawyer like him.

Reading Dickens save for Tale of Two Cities (and as an undergrad English lit major, I read a lot of him) leaves me sighing heavily and rolling my eyes and squirming as I fight to plough through verbose scenes and extraneous characters. The writing is excellent but it becomes unbearable to me. I ask this sincerely. What about Dickens does it for you? Many very literate and smart people love Dicken's books, so I must be missing something.

[OrangeUte]

Ha, just noticed there is a separate category for books, movies, music, etc. Oh well, what do you expect from a Junior Member.

Shape up of ship out dude.

[LA Ute]

Ha, just noticed there is a separate category for books, movies, music, etc. Oh well, what do you expect from a Junior Member.

This is such a promising thread that we want people to be able to find it. So we moved it to The Entertainment Center. We'll waive the fine for posting in the wrong thread. Any further violations, however, will be referred to OrangeUte for possible disciplinary action. ;)

[IdahoUteTroutHead]

Grapes of Wraith, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Old Man and the Sea, The Hobbit.....to name a few.

[LA Ute]

Reading Dickens save for Tale of Two Cities (and as an undergrad English lit major, I read a lot of him) leaves me sighing heavily and rolling my eyes and squirming as I fight to plough through verbose scenes and extraneous characters. The writing is excellent but it becomes unbearable to me. I ask this sincerely. What about Dickens does it for you? Many very literate and smart people love Dicken's books, so I must be missing something.

A very fair question. We could discuss it at length, but I'll just say this. Dickens is not for everyone. With each passing year his style gets more archaic, IMO. Still, the consensus view among literature types is that he is the greatest novelist in the English language. No one even comes close in the number of works adapted for stage and film, for example. The word "Dickensian" has had a special meaning for over 150 years now. Many historians think (and I agree) that A Christmas Carol alone changed the way the entire English-speaking world celebrated Christmas. I could go on and on.

I'll grant you that his works often are a tough read in the beginning and sometimes require much more investment of energy than I feel like making. That's why I am pacing myself in reaching my goal of reading everything he ever wrote. One novel a year, so far, has been the way to go for me.

In short, I just like his stories and his crazy eccentric characters. I also like the epoch in which he was writing and his influence in it (he was a reformer, and England needed reforming, and I like that).

Here's a piece of his writing that exemplifies how opaque (to modern eyes) his writing can be, and how brilliant it can be at the same time. From Nicholas Nickleby, not one of his better novels, an interesting insight. Here, Dickens is talking about people in England who were very devoted to relieving poverty in far-away colonies, but were blind to the needs of the poor who were right in front of them:


There are many lives of much pain, hardship, and suffering, which, having no stirring interest for any but those who lead them, are disregarded by persons who do not want thought or feeling, but who pamper their compassion and need high stimulants to rouse it.

There are not a few among the disciples of charity who require, in their vocation, scarcely less excitement than the votaries of pleasure in theirs; and hence it is that diseased sympathy and compassion are every day expended on out-of-the-way objects, when only too many demands upon the legitimate exercise of the same virtues in a healthy state, are constantly within the sight and hearing of the most unobservant person alive. In short, charity must have its romance, as the novelist or playwright must have his. A thief in fustian is a vulgar character, scarcely to be thought of by persons of refinement; but dress him in green velvet, with a high-crowned hat, and change the scene of his operations, from a thickly-peopled city, to a mountain road, and you shall find in him the very soul of poetry and adventure. So it is with the one great cardinal virtue, which, properly nourished and exercised, leads to, if it does not necessarily include, all the others. It must have its romance; and the less of real, hard, struggling work-a-day life there is in that romance, the better.

I had to read that several times before it finally sank in, but I liked it when I finally got it. Hope this helps! Maybe you should try reading Bleak House. As a lawyer, you'd see a lot of connections.

[Mrs. Funk]

A very fair question. We could discuss it at length, but I'll just say this. Dickens is not for everyone. With each passing year his style gets more archaic, IMO. Still, the consensus view among literature types is that he is the greatest novelist in the English language. No one even comes close in the number of works adapted for stage and film, for example. The word "Dickensian" has had a special meaning for over 150 years now. Many historians think (and I agree) that A Christmas Carol alone changed the way the entire English-speaking world celebrated Christmas. I could go on and on.

I'll grant you that his works often are a tough read in the beginning and sometimes require much more investment of energy than I feel like making. That's why I am pacing myself in reaching my goal of reading everything he ever wrote. One novel a year, so far, has been the way to go for me.

In short, I just like his stories and his crazy eccentric characters. I also like the epoch in which he was writing and his influence in it (he was a reformer, and England needed reforming, and I like that).

Here's a piece of his writing that exemplifies how opaque (to modern eyes) his writing can be, and how brilliant it can be at the same time. From Nicholas Nickleby, not one of his better novels, an interesting insight. Here, Dickens is talking about people in England who were very devoted to relieving poverty in far-away colonies, but were blind to the needs of the poor who were right in front of them:



I had to read that several times before it finally sank in, but I liked it when I finally got it. Hope this helps! Maybe you should try reading Bleak House. As a lawyer, you'd see a lot of connections.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. And you raise fair points. Dickens' impact on the English language and literature is undeniable. Yet I can acknowledge that he can turn a phrase like none other and paints vivid characters that I still don't find pleasurable to read. I've slogged through my share of thousand pagers to the point that if I don't like reading something, I don't anymore. Time was when I read books because they were famous or important regardless if I actually enjoyed reading them. I'm sorta done with that.

I read Bleak House as an undergrad and didn't care for it but I was also working in Dickensian circumstances at 3 AM and overstretched with my course load. Many books I read in earlier years have improved with a reread and different circumstances. :)

[LA Ute]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. And you raise fair points. Dickens' impact on the English language and literature is undeniable. Yet I can acknowledge that he can turn a phrase like none other and paints vivid characters that I still don't find pleasurable to read. I've slogged through my share of thousand pagers to the point that if I don't like reading something, I don't anymore. Time was when I read books because they were famous or important regardless if I actually enjoyed reading them. I'm sorta done with that.

I read Bleak House as an undergrad and didn't care for it but I was also working in Dickensian circumstances at 3 AM and overstretched with my course load. Many books I read in earlier years have improved with a reread and different circumstances. :)

I understand. My own daughter refuses to read Dickens because she thinks his characters are weird and scary. (We once watched a very gritty version of an Oliver Twist adaptation when she was too young, and Fagin scared her to death. She's never gotten over it.) 190

[tooblue]

Life of Pi is my favourite book. I was pleased with how well it was adapted to film.

[FN Phat]

The Book of Mormon.

[Jarid in Cedar]

The Book of Mormon.

I always took you as an old Testament kind of guy. The real wrath of God kind of stuff.

[Tacoma Ute]

I'll assume this is asking about novels so I will throw out 3. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (no it's not the one about a literal invisible man), 1984 by Orwell and Catcher in the Rye by Salinger.

Here's a couple less serious books that are fun. Lightning by Dean Koontz and A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

If we're including non-fiction it's The Bible hands down.

[FN Phat]

I always took you as an old Testament kind of guy. The real wrath of God kind of stuff.

Nah. I am more into the sheep that are not of this fold. Kinda like a BSU fan in the land of Cougars and Utes!

[OrangeUte]

I read all of the Jack Ryan novels. Red October and Cardinal of the Kremlin were my favorites. Without Remorse was also good. Big fan of Jack London, too. I read him a lot as a youngster and nseow I'm sharing those books with my boys.

Thanks for the reminder of Jack London. I just convinced my oldest son to read The Call of the Wild. That and White Fang were two of my favorites growing up.

[OrangeUte]

Nah. I am more into the sheep that are not of this fold. Kinda like a BSU fan in the land of Cougars and Utes!

Or a Syracuse fan...

[Going Yard]

I promise to be on my best behavior from here on out. The threat of punishment from OrangeUte is more than enough to keep me in line.

[stretchiute]

All the pretty Horses. (Most C.Mac works), Pillars of Men, A Time to Kill, Life of Pi, Devil in White City (Larson's new one, previously mentioned, was also good), River of Doubt, Lincoln Lawyer and Gang Leader for a Day.



Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2

[IdahoUteTroutHead]

C. Mac's stuff is great........

[FN Phat]

Or a Syracuse fan...

:cheers:

[Utebiquitous]

Echo those on Les Mis (gotta be unabridged), To Kill a Mockingbird and LA Ute, I like the Dickens that I've read (only a few). I better add The Count of Monte Cristo, Frankenstein, and the Brothers Karamazov if we're staying with classical literature. I recommend Crime and Punishment with the caveat that one may need some Prozac to get through it.

Love my nonfiction as well but that's perhaps another post. Thanks for the many posts - several books that I've taken note of.

[LA Ute]

I should have mentioned the book that left me thinking for the longest time afterwards, and that still puts me in a reflective mood when it comes to mind: The Brothers Karamazov. Everyone should read it sometime.

[Ute Dawg]

Man this is my kinda thread. I'll break this up for genres. My favorite books to read fall under fantasy and for a long time anything from Robert Jordan's Wheel of time series was my favorite but now I think my favorite book is the Warded man by Peter V Brett and then Brandon Sanderson's Mist born trilogy is fantastic.

More serious novels: I love several of Tom Clancy's books and especially love Rainbow Six.
I could go on for many others but I'll hold off for now.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

[OrangeUte]

I promise to be on my best behavior from here on out. The threat of punishment from OrangeUte is more than enough to keep me in line.

I always was keeping you in line and out of trouble.

[LA Ute]

Watching the Oscars tonight reminded me of Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It's one of the the best history works I've ever read. Lincoln was based on part of that book (about 5 pages, really). It reads like a novel and is a fascinating look into Lincoln's political skills. It's impossible to come away from the book without feeling much closer to the man and understanding his true greatness. After I read this one I gave a bunch of copies as gifts.

[OrangeUte]

Watching the Oscars tonight reminded me of Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It's one of the the best history works I've ever read. Lincoln was based on part of that book (about 5 pages, really). It reads like a novel and is a fascinating look into Lincoln's political skills. It's impossible to come away from the book without feeling much closer to the man and understanding his true greatness. After I read this one I gave a bunch of copies as gifts.

Goodwin is awesome. Team of Rivals is a terrific book. I loved her book one FDR and Eleanor - No Ordinary Time. I read her husband's book Remembering America. It was the inspiration for the movie Quiz Show.

Smart couple. I always like when Doris is on meet the press.

[happyone]

So many books

Let me put a word in for Rudyard Kipling - The Jungle Books and Kim, I loved them as a boy, both from reading them and having them read to me

Some others

Classics - I'll echo Les Miz, unabridged, plus Dickens - I personally liked Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol

Short stories - The Complete O Henry

SF - Heinlein Juveniles - Citizen of the Galaxy, Double Star

History - Doris Goodwin's Team of Rivals or McCullaugh's John Adams

World War II - Ryan's The Longest Day

Have I bored you enough yet :D

[Utebiquitous]

All right - if you're going to get into non-fiction - particularly Lincoln, I have a couple that you Team of Rivals people will love. Pick up William Lee Miller's companion books on Lincoln - Lincoln's Virtues and Duty of a Statesman. Both books are terrific. I think they are must reads for students of Lincoln. I think Miller may have also wrote, Arguing About Slavery - a book that puts John Quincy Adams as a protaganist in the fight/debate over slavery in the U.S. Senate. This is after Adams' one-term presidency. It's a really fine read.

Speaking of Presidents - the trilogy on Teddy Roosevelt by Edmund Morris is outstanding. I really enjoyed the first two. The other two books on Teddy that I see as essential are Mornings on Horseback (I think McCullough wrote it) and River of Doubt (Teddy's adventure in the Amazon). Absolutely terrific history.

Currently, I'm reading a book about the Bataan Death March that has me all stirred up - Tears in the Darkness. I'm not finished yet but it's a terrific account.

[LA Ute]

OK, 'biq, now we're cooking! I've added your books to my list. Thanks. Two more that are short but superb are 1776, by David McCullough, and April 1865, The Month That Saved America, by Jay Winik. Both books do a great job of detailing some of the little twists and turns of history -- seemingly insignificant at the time -- that ended up making all the difference in the long run. Very much worth reading, great vacation books because you can polish them off on a couple of long plane rides or in a few days at the beach.

[happyone]

... The other two books on Teddy that I see as essential are Mornings on Horseback (I think McCullough wrote it) and River of Doubt (Teddy's adventure in the Amazon). Absolutely terrific history.

Currently, I'm reading a book about the Bataan Death March that has me all stirred up - Tears in the Darkness. I'm not finished yet but it's a terrific account.

Based on above, I have a couple I can recommend if you haven't read them yet

http://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Republic-Madness-Medicine-President/dp/0767929713/ref=la_B001ILFMH6_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361774361&sr=1-1 by the same author as River of Doubt is excellent


I just finished this one on Bataan that I thought was pretty good

http://www.amazon.com/Undefeated-Americas-Heroic-Bataan-Corregidor/dp/B00ANYNDZ2/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361774569&sr=1-1&keywords=undefeated%3A+america

[stretchiute]

Based on above, I have a couple I can recommend if you haven't read them yet

http://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Republic-Madness-Medicine-President/dp/0767929713/ref=la_B001ILFMH6_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361774361&sr=1-1 by the same author as River of Doubt is excellent


Sweet. Added this to my list:

Other good NF reads:P

John Adams, as previously mentioned. I still need to watch the DVDs
The Monster of Florence, Italian serial killer book, reads like Fiction much like Erik Larsen, but with a different style.

Best book on Marriage/Relationships: Covenant Hearts by Bruce Hafen.

Favorite church books: Christ and the New Covenant by Holland, Increase in Learning by Bednar and The Infinite Atonement by Callister.

[IdahoUteTroutHead]

Just finished "Gun Machine" Warren Ellis...interesting fiction read considering the gun issues bouncing around in the US right now.

[Utebiquitous]

LA and Happyone - thanks for the suggestions. I've read 1776 - excellent - but not the Winik book. I'll do so. I'll definitely look into the Bataan reference and additional books by the River of Doubt author. Much appreciated.

[wuapinmon]

The best book I've ever read, twice, is Don Quixote de la Mancha. The one I go back to most often for personal pleasure is Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon.

I teach Alejo Carpentier's The Kingdom of This World every other semester.

[LA Ute]

The best book I've ever read, twice, is Don Quixote de la Mancha.

A great suggestion. Do you recommend reading it in the original Spanish? I'd like to.

[Applejack]

I struggled mightily with Quixote. I had no idea that was your favorite book.

Here are some of my favorites:
- Go Down Moses, Faulkner
- Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
- The Storyteller, Mario Vargas Llosa
- Hamlet

[LA Ute]

Since AJ mentioned Hamlet, I'll ask what everyone's favorite Shakespearean tragedy is. I've always loved Macbeth most. Maybe that's because of my Scottish ancestry. Hamlet is a close second.

[UTE FANatic]

The best book I have read was The Travelers Gift by Andy Andrews. Great story and very inspiring. I also enjoy anything by Og Mandino

[old_gregg]

infinite jest.

[SoCalPat]

A sports message board and not a single book about sports is listed in this thread? You people need to diversify your interests.

[480ute]

A sports message board and not a single book about sports is listed in this thread? You people need to diversify your interests.
I've only read one sports book, but I can't remember the name. Something about things Ute fans should know.

Seriously though, your book and Bo's are the only sports related books I can remember reading in my lifetime. Yours was very good of course (the OJ chapter was very eye opening), and I loved Bo's, but I was a wee little shit when I read that one.

http://i.imgur.com/4uNbmF8.jpg

[SeattleUte]

A sports message board and not a single book about sports is listed in this thread? You people need to diversify your interests.

Not long ago I read this to my kids and loved it:

http://www.amazon.com/Curveball-Remarkable-Professional-Baseball-League/dp/1556527969

I have enjoyed reading this one (it's actually quite good).

http://www.amazon.com/Things-Utes-Should-Before-Things-Fans/dp/1600785972

Except for that, the sports books I have read I read as a kid. I read some great ones that were formative in many ways. Here are some that stand out.

Run to Daylight
Foul!
The Breaks of the Game
Wilt
Instant Replay

[SeattleUte]

Here's a great sports novel I read as a kid:

http://www.amazon.com/Contender-Robert-Lipsyte/dp/0064470393/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361828616&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Contender

[LA Ute]

A sports message board and not a single book about sports is listed in this thread? You people need to diversify your interests.

OK, I'll bite. Have you read Game Six, by Mark Frost? I loved that one.

http://www.amazon.com/Game-Six-Cincinnati-Triumph-Americas/dp/B003YDXDS6

Also, The Echoing Green by Joshua Prager. A fascinating account of the 1951 Giants-Dodger pennant race, culminating in Bobby Thomson's epic homer. It's all about baseball, but also the elaborate way the Giants stole signs during that entire season. When Thomson hit his home run he knew exactly what pitch was coming. IIRC, both Ralph Branca and Thomson knew for years what had really happened but never spoke up about it until this book was written. It's a wonderful book.

Review here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/books/review/Thorn.t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[SeattleUte]

I can't list identify a favorite book. Here are some that stand out in that I have loved them and they have been influential since I was a kid.

The Call of the Wild
Carcajou
Rifles for Watie
Burr (Vidal)
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Three Musketeers
Moby Dick
Walden
Uncle Tom's Children
Guns Germs and Steel
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
The Bible
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (I haven't read all of it)
War and Peace
The Brothers Karamozov
Short Works of Leo Tolstoy
Madame Bovary
The Iliad
The Odyssey
The Aeneid
The Case of Comrade Tulayev
Battle Cry of Freedom
The Rising Sun
Anna Karenina
LA Confidential
The AntiChrist
Truman (McCullough)
Lincoln (Herbert Donald)
American Caesar
The Border Trilogy
Blood Meridian
History of the World (J.M. Roberts)
Cloud Atlas
On the Nature of the Universe
Europe Central

[IdahoUteTroutHead]

Moneyball, Friday Night Lights, Sandy Koufax and Mickey Mantle's biographies, Men at Work, Fantasyland.......

[SoCalPat]

Not long ago I read this to my kids and loved it:

http://www.amazon.com/Curveball-Remarkable-Professional-Baseball-League/dp/1556527969

I have enjoyed reading this one (it's actually quite good).

http://www.amazon.com/Things-Utes-Should-Before-Things-Fans/dp/1600785972

Except for that, the sports books I have read I read as a kid. I read some great ones that were formative in many ways. Here are some that stand out.

Run to Daylight
Foul!
The Breaks of the Game
Wilt
Instant Replay

David Halberstam is the greatest non-sportswriter sportswriter ever (I would put George Will a fast-charging second). He was actually en route to interview Y.A. Tittle when the car he was a passenger in, driven by some dipshit Berkeley grad student, made a left turn into oncoming traffic and was killed.

[SoCalPat]

The greatest sports book ever written:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/jim-boutons-ball-four,26774/

[LA Ute]

Did anyone else read the Bronc Burnett sports books as a kid?

201

[SoCalPat]

Did anyone else read the Bronc Burnett sports books as a kid?

If there's a book by Matt Christopher I haven't read, I'd like to know about it.

[happyone]

Did anyone else read the Bronc Burnett sports books as a kid?

201

We are old - yes

[happyone]

Since AJ mentioned Hamlet, I'll ask what everyone's favorite Shakespearean tragedy is. I've always loved Macbeth most. Maybe that's because of my Scottish ancestry. Hamlet is a close second.

I like the Scottish Play also (nodding to the superstition - you NEVER mention the plays name)

Comedies

I think my favorite is Merry Wives ( I've seen it twice now at USF ) although Much Ado is a close second

Histories

Henry V hands down, for the St. Crispin's Day speech alone

[USS Utah]

I remember reading two novels about little league baseball as a kid. I can't remember the author(s) or the titles. One was about a kid who preferred fishing to playing baseball, and the other had a boy who was upset at having a girl on the team, especially when she might have been a better pitcher than he was.

[Mano]

A few of my favorites:

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

pretty much anything by Kurt Vonnegut, but my favorites are:
The Sirens of Titan
Slaughterhouse Five

The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein

[happyone]

Being a Packer fan, I really like Maraniss' http://www.amazon.com/When-Pride-Still-Mattered-Lombardi/dp/1451611455/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361878350&sr=1-1&keywords=when+pride+still+mattered+a+life+of+vince +lombardi

[LA Ute]

I like the Scottish Play also (nodding to the superstition - you NEVER mention the plays name)


Ruh-roh.

[SeattleUte]

A few of my favorites:

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

pretty much anything by Kurt Vonnegut, but my favorites are:
The Sirens of Titan
Slaughterhouse Five

The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein

Ah yes, Catch 22.

100 Years of Solitude

[Big Kahuna]

As a kid, the first group of books I remember tearing through were the Black Stallion books. I also really enjoyed the Jack London novels, The Call of the Wild, White Fang, Sea Wolf.

I've always liked military fiction. The early Clancy novels were great reads. The Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising were the best, IMO.

Agree on early Clancy novels especially the two you listed. Hemingway Old Man and the Sea is also at the top of my list. There is a lot to choose from.

[LA Ute]

Agree on early Clancy novels especially the two you listed. Hemingway Old Man and the Sea is also at the top of my list. There is a lot to choose from.

Welcome, Kahuna! We need as many SoCal Utes as we can get around here.

[Big Kahuna]

I've got your back. Had some technical difficulties getting on. Took awhile. I am sure some of it was due to a senior moment on my part. Work has also been crazy busy. Hopefully it stays that way.

[San Diego Ute Fan]

Good to see you here, BK. Bout time.

[SoCalPat]

Being a Packer fan, I really like Maraniss' http://www.amazon.com/When-Pride-Still-Mattered-Lombardi/dp/1451611455/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361878350&sr=1-1&keywords=when+pride+still+mattered+a+life+of+vince +lombardi

Another great non-sportswriter sportswriter. Almost put him ahead of George Will.

[RC Vikings]

The greatest sports book ever written:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/jim-boutons-ball-four,26774/

"Ball Four" is my favorite sports book and "Catch 22" is my favorite non-sports book.

[NorthwestUteFan]

I like the Scottish Play also (nodding to the superstition - you NEVER mention the plays name)




You mean MacBeth?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h--HR7PWfp0

[LA Ute]

You mean MacBeth?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h--HR7PWfp0

:rofl: :clap:

[wuapinmon]

A great suggestion. Do you recommend reading it in the original Spanish? I'd like to.

Not unless your Spanish is near-natively fluent. The book is written in 17th Century Spanish and the language has changed greatly in the interim. If you do tackle it in Spanish, I suggest the Pegasus Press edition (ISBN:1889818119). The footnotes really help with the archaic words, and it has an extensive glossary. In English, go with the Norton Critical Edition. This isn't a book you read on the fly. It takes time, thought, and google.


I struggled mightily with Quixote. I had no idea that was your favorite book.

Here are some of my favorites:
- Go Down Moses, Faulkner
- Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
- The Storyteller, Mario Vargas Llosa
- Hamlet

Interesting that you have Vargas Llosa on there. I find him amazingly talented, but oh so pedantic. His non-fiction makes me want to punch him.

[LA Ute]

Not unless your Spanish is near-natively fluent. The book is written in 17th Century Spanish and the language has changed greatly in the interim. If you do tackle it in Spanish, I suggest the Pegasus Press edition (ISBN:1889818119). The footnotes really help with the archaic words, and it has an extensive glossary. In English, go with the Norton Critical Edition. This isn't a book you read on the fly. It takes time, thought, and google.

Thanks. There was a time when my Spanish was at that level but no longer.... I guess I would be like a Spanish speaker who has learned modern English, trying to read Shakespeare or the King James Version. I may give it a shot anyway.

[wuapinmon]

Thanks. There was a time when my Spanish was at that level but no longer.... I guess I would be like a Spanish speaker who has learned modern English, trying to read Shakespeare or the King James Version. I may give it a shot anyway.

It would be exactly like that. Shakespeare and Cervantes were contemporaries, so much so that they died on the same day.