Reading Books

Lord O The Sock... I am very interested in hearing your reasons for hating RJ with a passion. Please don't elaborate on this issue using examples of hackage pertaining to:
a) Star Wars
b) Frankie's Dune
c) Any mythology (not leaving you with much room there. . .)

*In defense of RJ's hack issues with mythology, he was jes making a flowing timeline which manages to blend the world as we know it with some cunningly fictitious pre-historical AND futuristic groundings (hence the wheel). Sadly, his WoT series seems to drag the more novels he dishes out. For shame...

I would rather die a martyr than kill with injustice.

1 The Lord Of The Rings
2 Dragon lance (the fist 6 books ONLY)
3 George RR Martin series..this guys real good...im on the 2nd one now
4 R.A salvatores Drizit series
5 the mists of avalon
6 all H.P lovecraft novels
7 The Stand
8 Kushiels Dart
9 Kushiels chosen
10 Black house 2nd book to the tailsman

This post was edited by Empress_Rune on Feb 11, 2003.

I think Congo was the worst novel adaption I've ever seen.

Are you forgetting The Island of Dr. Moreau?

The whole movie was complete crap, save the scene where Val Kilmer did his Marlon Brando impression.

At least Congo had some decent lines, and Amy was kinda cool if you ignored the absurdity of her Nintendo Power Glove that talked for her when she did sign language. Ignoring certain things is part of enjoying a movie. ;)

"What you don't understand you can make mean anything." - Misty Wilmot

Ok, here I go.
1. Lord of the Rings - J.R.R Tolkien (Of course)
2. The Hobbit - J.R.R Tolkien
3. The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (The whole series) - Douglas Adams.
4. Anvil of the Stars - Greg Bear
5. The Green Mile - Stephen King
6. Black Holes and Baby Universes - Stephen Hawking
7. The Time Machine - H.G. Wells
8. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
9. Lord of the Flies - William Golding

I'm sorry, but I can't really think of a tenth. I've read a bunch of non-mainstream books, but I don't remember much of the names right now, and I don't have access to my library. Putting these in an order doesn't do them much justice either, as I enjoyed most of them equally.

!sdrawkcab si erutangis yM

So, you are the curious kind? :) As it seems, most (make it all) of your favorites do point to one interest - finding the mysteries of the universe or of the un-explained phenomenons!

Welcome to the club! I myself tend to be the curious kind, it's just that I can never read a book, so I tend to get all my knowledge via the internet, somehow I feel that this way I keep close to reality instead of fiction!

Love is blind, but marriage is a real eye opener.

...somehow I feel that this way I keep close to reality instead of fiction!

I agree with you on that, but I think some books can give you a alternative view at the reality. Books like 1984, "The Hitchicker's Guide to The Galaxy" or "The Dilbert Principle" can make you think around the corner.
To give you a little example of what I'm exactly talking about, here's a short passage of Scott Adams' "The Dilbert Future", where he talks about gaining better perception instead of better vision:

GRAVITY EXISTS

Visually, it would seem that the huge ball had more "gravitational pull" than you do, because you seem to be attracted to it and not the other way around. This corresponds to our classic view of gravity - that huge objects have more of it.

I'm aware this won't have much impact on your 'real life' (neither on mine) - it can't even be proved nor disproved - but this kind of stuff gives you an idea how things could differ of what you take for real (and maybe even how you could handle things differently).

Well, enough said. Back to reality... :)

BTW: I'd be glad to send you the book, if you find the time to read it... (It's only about 250 pages long)

That makes me a sa-a-a-a-a-ad Panda...

Well too many good books around... here’s the list of some of my favourites. All these books have somewhere touched a cord within me...

Illusions - Richard Bach
Catcher in The Rye - J D Salinger
All those who sleep tonight - Vikram Seth
The Romantics - Pankaj Mishra
One Hundred Years Of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Alchemist - Paulo Coleho
A Matter Of Time - Shashi Deshpande
The Unbearable Lightness Of Being - Milan Kundera
Jaya Ganga - Vijay Singh
Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri

No matter where you go, there you are!

(Oo I? I've only heard of four of those. Hmm. Very good, very good: carry on.)

Right, my literary character compressed into ten single servings. Here we are:

1. 'It Happened in Boston'- Russell H. Greenan (nobody has ever heard of this but me. I believe I have the only copy).

2. 'Watership Down'- Richard Adams (alas, it 's true)
3.(I know it 's dodgy, but I'm going to plonk in 'Hamlet')
4.'We Can Build You'- Philip Dick
5.'Fahrenheit 451'- Ray Bradbury (a fine choice)
6.'The Outsider'- Albert Camus
7.'The Phantom of the Opera'- Gaston Leroux
8.'Moby Dick'- Hermon Melville (must re-read it sometime- but it is heavy)
9.'For Whom the Bell Tolls'- Hemmingway (YES! No bones about it.)
10.'The Comedians'- Graham Greene

I'm currently reading the still controversial Jane Austen, and find it rather good. I was put off it at school but it is better than was impressed on me by my schooling.

If anyone knows anything about Russell H. Greenan, please speak up. I bought the book in a secluded second-hand book shop in Ireland and have had no luck anywhere else.

One of these days I shall have to make a list of books to read for 'moral education.'

This post was edited by Labond_Gozey on Nov 16, 2002.

Hi there, I know that book. I first read it about 1970/1 in Glasgow, Scotland where I live, borrowed from a friend. In 1975 in London I caused the local library to get two copies, then promptly stole one of them, the only way I knew of getting hold of a copy. I'm not proud of that now, but it was passed on eventually to someone else. The only other thing I've ever seen published by Greenan was a two part short story in, of all things, Penthouse magazine, in the late seventies I think, called "The Bric-a Brac Man". I only remember the story vaguely now, but you could tell it was by the same author.

I'm currently enthralled with Paul Auster, but have also enjoyed William Kotzwinkle very much in the past. But, as for naming my top ten, no fear. You're braver than I am. All the best in your quest for more info about him. I did a quick google and found odds and ends. good luck, Neil.

I've already sent through a posting but not specifically to you. Russell Greenan's book "IHIB?" is being reprinted as part of the Modern Library's Rediscovery Series, and will be coming out here (USA) in Sept., 03. We're hoping it will be available in the UK as well. There will be an introduction by Jonathan Lethem, a young New Yorker ("Motherless Brooklyn"), and an afterward by Russ, which tells about how IHIB? got written. He was especially pleased that you counted IHIB? as a favorite. If you have any questions, let me know. My daughter's mother-in-law stumbled onto this website and my daughter joyfully passed it on to me. Flora