Anybody read a REALLY FUCKIN' GREAT book? Fiction.

[SPKrazy]

not just a good book or a great book

A REALLY FUCKIN' GREAT book that you'd recommend in fiction?

:shrug:

[MedleyMisty]

1. Small Gods

by Terry Pratchett

[jane_pippin]

2. Yep. "The Children's Hospital" by Chris Adrian

Best thing I've read in years.

I realize it's a copycat, but I loved that book so any chance I get to talk about it I'll take.

Now I'm going to bed to read my merely good book. Goodnight. :hi:

[jpgray]

3. The Inheritors by William Golding

It is -extremely- slow but worth the wait, in my view.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

4. "Lord of Light" by the late, great, Roger Zelazny. Full of wit and wisdom. Epic.

http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Light-Roger-Zelazny/dp/0060567236/sr=1-1/qid=1172552577/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-2149986-3720630?ie=UTF8&s=books

[haf216]

5. Yea, another Zelanzny fan.

I have read most of his stuff, but did not know about this one. I will have to look for it.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

6. You need to read it, because it's easily his best. Puts "Amber" and "Creatures of Light and

Darkness" to shame.

[haf216]

10. Creatures of light and Darkness,

that is another one I have never heard of. I pretty much like all of his stuff, I think "Roadmarks" is my favorite (Of what I have read.) I'm not a big fan of shorts stories, but I can read his and really enjoy them.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

12. You need go no further than Lord of Light. "Creatures" is also good, but mainly for

isolated snippets of incredibly beautiful prose or imagery, or humor.

Lord of Light is the real deal.

[Babel_17]

13. Agreed, Epic

Doorways in the Sand had a great charm, just like the author.

Another novel that painted on a huge canvas which I can recommend would be "On My Way to Paradise".

And anything by Iain M. Banks. :)

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

16. The other thing good about "Lord of Light" for most DUers is that the struggle that

winds through the story is essentially a political one (although the politics aren't very deep), as well as a personal one between the characters.

This doesn't detract in any way from the entertainment value of the book, it's full of lighthearted and extremely witty humor.

[El Fuego]

25. I have every book Zelazny ever wrote.

I always remember this from L of L:

"He never claimed to be a god. But then, he never claimed not to be. Circumstances being what they were, neither admission could be of any benefit. Silence though, could.

Therefore, there was mystery about him."

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

43. The characters of Sam, and Yama, are among my favorites from any book.

Kali to a lesser degree, and the lesser deities like Lord Kubera.

[uppityperson]

7. To Kill a Mockingbird.

movie goes along well with it, but the book, the whole story, the writing, my favoritest

[wildhorses]

8. the life of pi~yann martel

Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a masterful story --

I turned around, stepped over the zebra and threw myself overboard.
This sentence, full of surprise and wonder, jumps out of the middle of Life of Pi. It's indicative of the story Yann Martel tells in this novel, a remarkable story where he makes the unbelievable sound credible. When you stumble across sentences like that, you know you're in the hands of a master storyteller. Yann Martel gives us the story of Piscine Molitor Patel, self-christened as Pi. He drives this name home by saying "Three! Point! One! Four!" to his new classmates after suffering the nickname of Pissing at a previous school. Never mind that his name comes from a swimming pool in France. Pi Patel is an earnest young man in Pondicherry, a tiny area in southern India which was once part of French India (one of the many obscure facts that Yann Martel scatters throughout his story). The first part of the novel tells of Pi's childhood as the son of the zookeeper in Pondicherry. Growing up in the zoo, Pi learns a lot about animals. He educates us in the ways of animals, both penned and wild, and in how to keep them content and controlled. He rails against anthropomorphosis, which is ascribing human emotions and traits to animals. Instead he explains that animals are creatures of habit and once all their needs are met, they're content and willing to repeat the same scenario every day. Upset their routine, even in the smallest of ways, and you have an unhappy animal on your hands. Pi even tells the reader how a lion tamer controls his charges by being the alpha male, asserting his dominance and providing for their needs so they stay submissive to him. It turns out to be a good lesson for Pi to learn as a young man.

As he enters his teen years, Pi goes in search of God. His parents weren't pious people, but growing up in India, Pi was initially a Hindu. When he first encounters Christianity, he finds Jesus lacking in comparison to the Hindu gods, who are grand in stature and history. He comes to embrace Christianity's message of love. Then he discovers Islam, "a beautiful religion of brotherhood and devotion." Pi becomes a devout member of all three religions, content in his newfound sense of God. Once the priest, the pandit, and the imam discover his activities with each other's churches, they confront Pi and his parents and tell him he can't belong to all three and must choose one. The fractious arguing among the three religious leaders over which religion he should choose is the funniest part of the novel. Yann Martel makes them all look simplistic and spiteful as they belittle each other's faith. Pi puts them all in their place with the declaration that he was just trying to love God. His older brother, Ravi, provides a different perspective on it all, suggesting he might try to become a Jew too. "At the rate you're going, if you go to temple on Thursday, mosque on Friday, synagogue on Saturday and church on Sunday, you only need to convert to three more religions to be on holiday for the rest of your life."

The first section of the novel ends with Pi and his family leaving India for Canada. The zoo is closing and the animals are being sent to zoos all around the world. The family and many of the animals board a Japanese cargo ship for their passage to Canada. Pi is 16 and embarking on the trip to a new life. Unfortunately, it wasn't the life he expected. As the first sentence in Part Two of the book says, "The ship sank."

Pi is cast adrift in a lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a huge Bengal tiger named Richard Parker. The first week is a horrific one as the animals battle for survival in the cramped boat and Pi quakes with fear as he tries to avoid being part of the food chain. Eventually, just the tiger and he are left in the boat. The rest of the book is Pi's tale of 227 days at sea. The boat is well stocked for a human, but Pi soon realizes that his only hope for survival is to keep the tiger content and subservient to him. Pi lives in constant terror of Richard Parker, but manages to keep him supplied with fish, turtles, and fresh water so that he doesn't turn on him. Pi spends most of him time in despair, not just emotional, but physical. Yet, at times, he is dazzled by the wonderfulness of God's creation and creatures. He refuses to give up and die and instead lives by his wits and determination. He has to abandon being a vegetarian to survive on anything he can eat, which he finds he attacks with the savagery of a starved animal.

Yann Martel keeps the story of Pi's long voyage moving at an interesting pace. You know from the beginning that Pi will survive, but at times you wonder how he will overcome each challenge he faces. Martel doesn't allow Richard Parker to be anything more than a dangerous Bengal tiger and Pi never to be more than a desperate boy lost at sea. As Pi's long days at sea take a toll on his health and mind, the story begins to strain credulity. Martel then challenges the reader at the end to disbelieve it all. In the end, it becomes a matter of faith.

There are parts of the book that come up short. The book is written as Pi's recollection to the writer researching his story. The first section of the book has short chapters with the writer interacting with the adult Pi. These serve no purpose other than to remind us that this is the adult Pi retelling his story. The writer doesn't surface again until the very end of the book. At times, the teenage Pi sounds like an adult philosopher when lost at sea. If you stretch the point that the novel is Pi retelling the story in his adult voice, you can let it pass. Almost.

These are small nits, though. Reading Life of Pi, you find yourself at the mercy of a great storyteller. Yann Martel will dazzle you with his prose and his mastery of arcane facts, and challenges you to believe his story. You will be left with a better understanding of animals, including man, and much to ponder and question. Life of Pi is a delicious treat to savor.



Life of Pi is the winner of the 2002 Man Booker Prize

[idgiehkt]

9. Mists of Avalon

kicks ass.

Girl in a Swing
kind of weird but fun.

[Katina]

30. LOVED Mists

one of my all time favorites was Trinity

On the Fantasy front, David Eddings Mallorean series was brilliant.

[Arugula Latte]

33. I kept hoping against hope that the goddess would kick christianity's ass...

even though I knew the ending ... :(

[Zorra]

11. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck nt

[Courtesy Flush]

20. I was on a Steinbeck kick several years ago

Cannery Row was another one worth reading.

[BarenakedLady]

14. I'm reading right now

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore.

I love it. It's sort of like the show Dead Like Me. He is hilariously dark funny. Never heard of him before but I'm surely going to look for his other books as soon as I finish this one (from the library).

[displacedtexan]

22. Warning!

"A Dirty Job" is amazing, but "You Suck"... um, SUCKS!

I won't pay retail for any of his other books. They may be just
as amazing as "A Dirty Job," but I've learned my lesson.

[Corgigal]

26. I loved it

I also read You Suck, a love story by Christopher Moore. I like his twisted sense of humor.

[MadAsHellNewYorker]

15. Hunting in Harlem, by Mat Johnson

http://www.amazon.com/Hunting-Harlem-Novel-Mat-Johnson/dp/1582344086

i just reread it, its really. fucking. great. definitely check it out. I highly recommend it.

[Richardo]

17. Richardo's broken record department: 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time"

I'm reading it for the fourth or fifth time now. Best novel in the last five years as far as I'm concerned.

I will never stop pimping this book.

[Courtesy Flush]

18. Prince of Tides was great

The movie was a huge disappointment after reading the book.

[Courtesy Flush]

19. Oh, and Forrest Gump

I saw it on the paperback rack, well before the movie was released. I bought it because it said it was being made into a Tom Hanks movie, and I know he makes great movies, so the book must be good too.

Well, the book was fantastic. It was a very different story than the movie. Both were great. Read this book!

[Rabrrrrrr]

21. The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway

Pretty much anything by Hemingway, really, but that's one that stands out as wonderfully good. Or, more precisely, REALLY FUCKING GREAT!

[idgiehkt]

44. sad

really damn sad. I read that one and Tender is the Night by Fitzgerald right about the same time. I was emo before emo was cool (or even a concept).

:rofl:

[Rabrrrrrr]

45. Lets go cut ourselves together to show he world how deep we are!

We'll prove that we are serious artists by our black hair, our cut scars, and our non-rhythmic poetry.

:rofl:

[idgiehkt]

47. "non-rhythmic poetry"

hmmm...I wonder if that is that slash poetry everyone is talking about lately?

:shrug:

I am too old to be emo. I guess that is one thing worse than being emo...being an emo poseur.

:rofl:

I really did like "The Sun Also Rises" though...I liked all of Hemingway and Fitzgerald both.

[Z_I_Peevey]

23. Fire in Beulah,

by Rilla Askew. Best fiction I've read in the last five years. Beautiful writing, important story, universal theme.

[RedStateShame]

24. "Haunted" by Chuck Pahlaniuk

A send-up of the Canterbury Tales that looks at how vile, cruel, and self-centered people can be. And, really visceral and disgusting narrative.

[SteppingRazor]

27. Here's a few:

100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (so good it's worth taking language classes to read it in the original Spanish)

Portnoy's Complaint and/or American Pastoral by Philip Roth (these are my favorites, but everything Roth does is amazing)

The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer

Slaughterhouse-five by Kurt Vonnegut

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe

That's off the top of my head. I'm sure I can think of a bunch more. But all of those above are absolutely stellar, in my very humble opinion. :hi:

[noonwitch]

28. The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

I could not put it down when I read it the first time. Don't read any of the sequels, they suck, but the first is an awesome read.

When I was done reading it, I wanted my own personal spirit to do my bidding for me.

[GumboYaYa]

29. Confederacy of Dunces.....

the greatest comedic book ever written.

[Jonathan50]

31. If you have a taste for cyberpunk, _The Diamond Age_

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diamond_Age

The Diamond Age or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is postcyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson. It is a bildungsroman focused on a young girl and set in a world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. Its primary themes include education, social class, cultural tribalism, and the nature of artificial intelligence. The Diamond Age was first published in 1995 by Bantam Books, as a Bantam Spectra hardcover edition. In 1996, it won the Hugo Award for Best Novel and was shortlisted for the Nebula Award. A six-hour miniseries scripted by Stephenson and produced by George Clooney is being developed for Sci Fi.



If your taste runs to a slightly less outre' SF then _The Iron Dream_

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iron_Dream

The Iron Dream is a metafictional 1972 alternate history novel by Norman Spinrad.

In his nested narrative (i.e. a Story within a story), Spinrad tells a fairly standard action story. However this story, Lords of the Swastika, takes the form of a pro-fascist narrative written by an alternate history version of Adolf Hitler, who in this timeline emigrated to America and became a science fiction writer. Spinrad seems intent on demonstrating just how close Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces — and much science fiction and fantasy literature — can be to the racist fantasies of Nazi Germany. The nested narrative is followed by a faux scholarly analysis by a fictional Homer Whipple of New York University.

[BreweryYardRat]

32. George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series.

Start with "A Game of Thrones" and go from there.

[malta blue]

34. here are a couple

The Eight
Life of Pi
The Kite Runner
Saving Fish from Drowning

[Phillycat]

35. The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen.

Also anything by Richard Russo.

[Ariana Celeste]

36. Crime and Punishment

by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_and_punishment

[Conan_The_Barbarian]

38. I still need to finish that

was 400 pages in and this the trimester started.

[Ariana Celeste]

39. It's great.

I've been meaning to buy some more Dostoevsky, but I haven't been book shopping in awhile. I couldn't tear myself away from C & P :)

[Midlodemocrat]

37. I Know This Much is True, by Wally Lamb.

Absolutely fantastic book. Couldn't put it down.

[Zavulon]

40. No, I honestly never have.

However, I'm writing down all of the titles in this thread. I'm glad you started it.

[GalleryGod]

41. Don't Respond to F-Bombers

Even when lame-o attempt to be funny:shrug: :rofl: :spray: :rofl:

[riverdeep]

42. This one sounds silly..

"Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus" by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

For years I had never bothered reading this because I thought I already knew the story, so what's the point? Boy, was I wrong. It was phenomenal, I was absolutely drained when I finished the book. The book is, as the cliche goes, much better than the movie. The scene where the monster comes to life, for example, doesn't take place in an imposing country castle, but in the upper floor of a rented cottage. Much more realistic.

What really struck me was how young she was when wrote this, 19 years of age. The level of sophistication at understanding human foibles is breathtaking to consider. Not to mention the incredible prescience of foreshadowing some the most pressing issues in society in the last 200 or so years, i.e. is there some knowledge to terrible to know, and who do we entrust with the capability of using it, etc.

[El Fuego]

46. "Catch-22"

A truly astounding book.

[Beaverhausen]

48. "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer

Poisonwood Bible- Barbara Kingsolver
Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
World's Fair- E.L. Doctorow

[Redstone]

49. "Okla Hannali" by RA Lafferty. One of the two or three best books ever written. And certainly

the best book about Indians ever written by a white guy.

Redstone

[DeepBlueC]

50. Everything Is Illuminated

by Jonathan Safran Foer. Made into a very good film by Liv Schreiber.

I also loved his second book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

[DeepBlueC]

51. The Mosquito Coast

by Paul Theroux