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Thread: Favourite Books.

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    This Space For Hire aleandhearty's Avatar
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    Default Favourite Books.

    Surprised no-one's done this before now. I'm primarily thinking of novels, but if you want to include non-fiction - feel free, I'm not going to be tight-arsed and prescriptive about it. Here are some of my favourites down the years. In no particular order:

    The Orphan Master's Son - Adam Johnson.
    The Narrow Road To The Deep North - Richard Flanagan.
    Bonfire Of The Vanities - Tom Wolfe.
    The Cement Garden - Ian McEwan.
    The White Hotel - D.M.Thomas.
    The Deptford Trilogy - Robertson Davies.
    Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks.
    One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey.
    A Kestrel For A Knave - Barry Hines.
    Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas - Hunter S Thompson.
    The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett.
    The Son - Philipp Meyer.
    The Power & The Glory - Graham Greene.
    A Thousand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini.
    The 2nd Rumpole Omnibus - John Mortimer.
    Saki: The Complete Short Stories - H.H.Munro.


    Over to you.
    Last edited by aleandhearty; 16-04-2020 at 16:48.
    'And where he supped the past lived still. And where he sipped the glass brimmed full' John Barleycorn, Carol Ann Duffy.

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    Quote Originally Posted by aleandhearty View Post
    Surprised no-one's done this before now. I'm primarily thinking of novels, but if you want to include non-fiction - feel free, I'm not going to be tight-arsed and prescriptive about it. Here are some of my favourites down the years. In no particular order:

    A Kestrel For A Knave - Barry Hines.
    You may want to watch this if you've not done so: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod...ooking-for-kes

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    Old & Bitter oldboots's Avatar
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    I don't read a lot of novels these days but a quick look along the bookshelves and a trail through my addled brain threw up this list, nothing very new.

    The Mayor of Casterbridge / Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy (my favourite two, both depressing)
    Ulysses - James Joyce
    all 6 completed novels - Jane Austen
    The Journey to the East - Herman Hesse
    Wyrd Sisters / Reaper Man (although any Discworld novel would do even the very fat ones) - Terry Pratchett
    Virgin Soldiers - Leslie Thomas
    Vintage Stuff - Tom Sharpe
    Puckoon (and his wartime auto-biographies) - Spike Milligan
    Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

    When I was young I read a lot of science fiction, mostly Issac Asimov and Robert Heinlein plus the first few of Frank Herbert's Dune series. I also had a thing for the wartime potboilers of Sven Hassel.

    I agree with A&H, I like John Mortimer (Rumpole and Paradise Postponed etc), Alan Bennett and Hunter S Thompson too. Charles Dickens is a good writer although best known for his costume dramas on TV

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    Pussy Galore No 1 Oggwyn Trench's Avatar
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    Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (a trilogy in four parts) - Douglass Adams
    Corfu Trilogy - Gerald Durrell
    Zorba the Greek - Nikos Kazantzakis
    Feet of Clay - Terry Pratchet , like OB any Discworld
    Dogs of War - Fredrick Forsyth , any Forsyth really but this is my favorite
    The Seventh Sanctuary - Daniel Easterman
    Das Boot - Lothar Gunter Buchheim
    From Russia with Love - Ian Fleming , My favorite Bond although i like them all

    Reading a lot of Scandi Noir recently so Jo Nesbo , Lars Kepler and Samuel Bjork

    When i was younger i used to read a lot of Michael Moorcock so Elric , Corum , Hawkmoon and the like .
    Theres a Man with a Mullet going Mad with a Mallet in Millets !

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    This Space For Hire Wittenden's Avatar
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    No, I don't read a great deal of fiction at the moment;mainly nature writing and poetry, but here are some novels that I return to.

    Dickens- Our Mutual Friend
    Sterne-The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy
    Joyce-Ulysses.Marmite, this.Loved it as a young man, unable to finish it when middle aged.Due a revisit.
    Jane Austen-Mansfield Park
    Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa-The Leopard
    Most Thomas Hardy
    T F Powys-Mr Weston's Good Wine
    Doris Lessing-The Canopus in Argos series, especially The Making of the representative of Planet 8
    John Cowper Powys-Wolf Solent
    Tolkien-The Lord of the Rings
    Cormac McCarthy-The Border Trilogy
    "At that moment I would have given a kingdom, not for champagne or hock and soda, or hot coffee but for a glass of beer" Marquess Curzon of Kedlestone, Viceroy of India.

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    This Space For Hire Pubsignman's Avatar
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    Fiction:
    1984 - George Orwell
    This Thing of Darkness - Harry Thompson
    Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
    Don Quixote - Cervantes
    One Hundred Years of Solitude - Garbriel Garcia Marquez
    The Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver
    A Prayer For Owen Meany - John Irving

    Non Fiction:
    Pillars of Hercules - Paul Theroux
    The Bang Bang Club- Greg Marinovich
    The Dig Tree - Sarah Murgatroyd
    Stasiland - Anna Funder
    Clothes Clothes Clothes, Music Music Music, Boys Boys Boys - Viv Albertine
    Blood River - Tim Butcher
    In Europe - Geert Mak

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    This is not an exit Komakino's Avatar
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    Wondered if this might come up as one of the next subjects of topic; it'll be favourite comedians next no doubt Here are my favourite books:

    Fiction
    American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
    Dubliners - James Joyce
    On The Road - Jack Kerouac

    Non-Fiction
    Rip It Up And Start Again: Post-Punk 1978-1984 - Simon Reynolds
    Tales of a New Jerusalem (series) - David Kynaston
    The London Nobody Knows - Geoffrey Fletcher
    "Breakneck speed we drown ten pints of bitter"

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    Humble Wordsmith ETA's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Oggwyn Trench View Post
    Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy (a trilogy in four parts) - Douglass Adams
    .
    Five parts surely? Hence the reference to "the increasingly inaccurately-named Hitchhikers Trilogy".
    'Beer is for all day, not just for breakfast'.

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    Old & Bitter oldboots's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ETA View Post
    Five parts surely? Hence the reference to "the increasingly inaccurately-named Hitchhikers Trilogy".
    Or the same book five times?

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