Favorite Novel

[Strike For The South]

Answer For me I would say Of Mice and Men I know it may not be that deep or that much of an adventure but still great book

[Reverend Joe]

I probably haven't read my favorite novel yet, since I have not yet gotten around to Black Spring (a sort-of novel; it's about Henry Miller's actual life, but it is usually sold with other novels.) As it stands, my favorite is Heart of Darkness .

[Kraxis]

Hmmm... Seldomly do I read standalone books. They are often too short for me.

But I do have a favourite author: Timothy Zahn

[Kaiser of Arabia]

All Quiet on the Western Front is a very good book, as is The Godfather, The Sicilian, any of Cornwell's books, and Kiss Me, Kill Me (good murder stories, melikes the murder stories. In Cold Blood get's an honorable mention as well.

But for the best? I don't know, it changes quite often. Right now, I'd say AQotWF

[Ianofsmeg16]

For Anybody who knows me well this will come as a very obvious statement....

jurassic Park-Michael Crichton

But my favorite author is Defiantly Bernerd Cornwell, for his awesome sharpe novels and Stunning Arthurian legends

[Taffy_is_a_Taff]

"Sheepshagger" by Nial Griffiths.

[Zharakov]

I like Tom Clancy books...

[Proletariat]

Answer For me I would say Of Mice and Men I know it may not be that deep or that much of an adventure but still great book

Steinbeck is the fellow who got me into reading novels as a young girl. His beautifully ineloquent style can come across as depthless, but only to the unwashed Philistines.



Anyhow, my favorite all time novel is Anna Karenina. Completely changed the way I look at all fiction and character development.

[The_Doctor]

The Sharpe series is excellent and so is the Hitchhiker's giude to the Galaxy series.

At the moment I am reading 1984.

[Reverend Joe]

That is, by far, the funniest smilie I have ever seen.

Steinbeck is good, but I found him to be depressing, and anticathartic. It is the catharsis that really makes All Quiet on the Western Front and Heart of Darkness; at least, in my opinion. Also, Heart of Darkness is just amazing.

[Soulforged]

"O alquimista" by Paulo Coelho ("The alchemist")

[RabidGibbon]

The most meaningful novel I've ever read is "Animal Farm" by Orwell - Its Anti Communist by the way - 1984 was great too - however I greatly enjoyed Bernard Cornwells "The Winter King" Series (Bernard Cornwell wrote the Sharpe books, and trust me the Winter King ones are better).

For fight scenes and sheer drama & plot twists George RR Martins a Song of Ice and Fire beats anything however.

Jane Austen deserves a mention too - I loved all her books and I've read them all.

I also Loved the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman - but they were comics not Novels, but if anyone here has ever read them I'm sure they'll agree with me they are fantastic.

Iain Banks deserves a mention too - In fact I think my favourite ever novel is Excession written by Iain M Banks - I reccomend it to all of you - I also recommend anything by Ian Banks or Neil Gaiman - they are the best English Authors writing today.

[Zalmoxis]

Alexander Solzhenitsyn's "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich".

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Hmmm....most of the fiction I read is trash/just for fun. Battletech, King's Blades, Cussler.

Stand Alones are tough. Here goes.


The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- Twain/Clemens

The Number of the Beast -- Heinlein

Starship Troopers -- Heinlein

Steppenwolf -- Hesse

Don Quixote -- Cervantes


Seamus

[Ice]

I like Animal Farm, To Kill a Mocking Bird (I really love this book), and A farewell to Arms.

I want to read "All Quiet on the Western Front" so bad. I wanted to do my Author' Paper Senior Project on it.. but it had to be an American Author

[Azi Tohak]

Yeah Seamus! Another Battletech fan!

...moving on to real literature...

I have always had trouble reading fiction. Why read something like that when history can be even more interesting?

But for novels, I really like "Shadow of Ararat", "Vortex", "Exodus", most of the Redwall series are delightful (yes I know, childrens fantasy, but still, I have loved them for 14 years), both "Texas" and "Carribean" by Michener... I suppose I could go on, but my favorite recent one that I have read has to be "Carribean". No, I did not finish it (school), but still, I think it is superb.

Azi

[Reverend Joe]

Steppenwolf -- Hesse

Steppenwolf? I thought they were a band.

You know, "The Pusher", "Born to be Wild"...

[Big_John]

Steppenwolf? I thought they were a band.

You know, "The Pusher", "Born to be Wild"...

the novel is about the band..

[Big_John]

mm.. too hard to pick just one. two of the most common, and therefor jejune, choices are mine also: the great gatsby and the catcher in the rye. in the same class as those, i would put the plague, the winter of our discontent, and franny and zooey.

also, it's been like 100 years since i've read either, but something tells me that i should mention to kill a mockingbird and the sheltering sky.

[King Henry V]

the catcher in the rye.

I read that book a couple of years ago for school. I hated it with all my might. Badly written, poor vocabulary, rubbish plot. Bum-achingly boring. The only book worse than that is Cry, the Beloved Country.

[Big_John]

I read that book a couple of years ago for school. I hated it with all my might. Badly written, poor vocabulary, rubbish plot. Bum-achingly boring.

hmm, maybe it takes a certain sensibility.





saligner.. badly written? ....

[King Henry V]

hmm, maybe it takes a certain sensibility.





saligner.. badly written? ....

Maybe not exactly bad writing, but the style wasn't good IMO. It didn't flow, definitely was not a page turner.

[Taffy_is_a_Taff]

Isn't Iain Banks Scottish?

I liked the Crow Road and the Wasp Factory.

[Reverend Joe]

I read that book a couple of years ago for school. I hated it with all my might. Badly written, poor vocabulary, rubbish plot. Bum-achingly boring. The only book worse than that is Cry, the Beloved Country.

Trust me- The Scarlet Letter is worse. Hawthorne spent an entire page and a half describing the way animals in a forest react to the frolicking of a little girl. A potentially good plot, muddied and lost in the meanderings of bad writing.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

He's a witch! Burn him!

A witch of bad taste, that is.

Well, apparently I'm joining that coven because I agree. I didn't think Salinger's writing was bad, but I had zero feeling for Holden. Kept thinking he needed a good slap in the head followed by a 3-year hitch.

At least one person here has taken a shot a Hawthorne. Good show! Decent plot drowned in its own meanderings. Lethargy in printed form.

Speaking of which, my personal peeve -- Dickens. I loathe his novels. Makes Hawthorne look crisply written. The anti-thesis of a page turner. He was, apparently, the rage of the British Empire, but since that was during the era of the opium wars I'm willing to forgive them -- it was not their finest hour. Maybe if they hadn't paid the bustard by the word he might have described a brick wall in less than a page and a half of space and I wouldn't have had to when forced to read his dreck. Gah!!!!

Seamus

[Taffy_is_a_Taff]

Charles Dickes: I like Great Expectation (even with the happy non-original ending) but he does go on and on and on.

George Orwell wrote a fun essay on why Dickens can be as annoying as taking a crap when you have no toilet paper (my simile not Orwell's).

[Geoffrey S]

My favourite novels include 1984, Memoirs of Hadrian, The Last of the Wine, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and Setting Free The Bears. Though there are a lot more, I read quite a lot.