It seems like my shelf is pointlessly cramped with a variety of dust-collecting volumes, although recently I made a good choice with "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". What are some of your favorite literature?
The Devil is Dead
___________________R A LaffertyGo ahead, punish yourself, and not read it.
Books that I have enjoyed but which you may not:
1. Flann O'Brien. 1939/40 [1967]. The Third Policeman.
2. Aldous Huxley. 1944. Time Must Have a Stop.
3. Anthony Burgess. 1960. The Doctor Is Sick.
4. Gabriel García Márquez. 1967. Cien años de soledad; published in English as One Hundred Years of Solitude.
5. Lawrence Durrell. 1968/70. The Revolt of Aphrodite: Tunc and Nunquam.
6. Heinrich Böll. 1971. Gruppenbild mit Dame; published in English as Group Portrait with Lady.
7. Thomas Pynchon. 1973. Gravity's Rainbow.
Laverne says Nakoa's Woman by Gayle Rogers
A fierce Indian warrior, a beautiful white captive--an enthralling love story
"The Adventures of Hiram Holiday" by Paul Gallico.
"The Chest with a Secret" or anything else translated into English by Yvonne de Bremond d"Ars. I have even started reading her works in French and using a dictionary 16 times per page certaily prolongs the pleasure (grrrr).
1. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson.
2. Code of the Lifemaker, by James Hogan.
3. The Complete Bolo, by Keith Laumer.
John Crowley:
Engine Summer
Little, Big
AEgypt/Love and Sleep/Daemonomania
Italo Calvino:
The Baron in the Trees (trans. by Archibald Colquhoun)
Invisible Cities (trans. by Wiliam Weaver)
Salman Rushdie:
Midnight's Children
and yes, Cryptonomicon by Stephenson
I also liked:
1. Neal Stephenson. 1984. The Big U.
2. Neal Stephenson. 1992. Snow Crash.
3. Italo Calvino. 1979. Se una notte d'inverno un viaggiatore, (published in English as If on a Winter's Night a Traveler.
4. Don DeLillo. 1976. Ratner's Star.
Favorite Father Brown Stories by G.K. Chesterton (Dover)
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway
Puck of Pook's Hill by Kipling - actually, almost anything by Kipling.
Skinny Legs and All and Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
The Mummies of Urumchiand Women's Work by Elizabeth Wayland Barber
The Mummies of Urumchi
and Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years
by Elizabeth Wayland Barber I second that. Also,
Dr Barber's
Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with special reference to the Aegean is a great read, too. I heard her lecture a few times at UCLA IE Linguistics and Archeology conferences, and she is an elegant speaker. Her husband, Paul Barber, is no slouch either. He has written a great book called
Vampires, Burial, and Death.
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
LOTR by J.R.R. Tolkien
Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov
Quote:
The Mummies of Urumchi and Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years by Elizabeth Wayland Barber
I second that. Also, Dr Barber's Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with special reference to the Aegean is a great read, too. I heard her lecture a few times at UCLA IE Linguistics and Archeology conferences, and she is an elegant speaker. Her husband, Paul Barber, is no slouch either. He has written a great book called Vampires, Burial, and Death.
Where do those two find time to sleep? I received for Christmas their book "When They Severed Earth From Sky - How the Human Mind Creates Myth"
Ha! Favorite books, eh? Don't be silly, books can't be "favorite"; girlfriends and automobiles are favorites, they can be used over and over again until their familiarity blends into the backdrop of everyday existence and you become accustomed to their...uh...face.
Books are different. You read them and you learn...or you don't learn. The learning, you see, is all that books contain.
So the question, better put, is...What books have brought new information into your life that otherwise would have left you dull?
Today I am not dull because I have read...
The Open and Closed Mind.
The Pleasure and Pain Principal.
The King James Bible.
The Song of Zarathustra.
And most of the works of Plato, John Lee Hooker, and John Sturart Mills, and Kant and Zen.
And Wittgenstein.
And today, I am widely known as an alpha man because of it.
Where do those two find time to sleep?
They're academics; it's in their job description to read and write books.
zm: My reaction too
However, I have to admit that I read only during the commercials
Back when I was in high-school, I used to skip school in the rainy wintertimes just to sit huddled inside of a small children slide-house so I could read Lord of the Rings... good times. I can't get myself to read another epic-medieval-fantasy though.
themilum, it sounds to me that all you read is philosophy... no wonder that's your take on books.
I'll read almost anything. Even the fine print...
Books, like people can be favorites. Sometimes I read to learn; sometimes I just enjoy spending time with the author or characters. Reading on computer will never replace books because it lacks the tactile pleasure of the physical object especially of books 70 or more years old with thick silk-like pages and linen or leather covers.
I don't read books in which I don't like the characters, or the author's style: why voluntarily spend that much time with people I don't like? If I want to learn about dark underbellies and gritty realities I'll come to work.
Quote:
...I don't read books in which I don't like the characters...
Don't bother with [A?] Catcher in the Rye by Salinger then. It is unnerving to read a story that creates the hope that the protagonist will be killed.
Well, I didn't hope he'd be killed, but I sure didn't like that book: if I want to be depressed I'll watch the news.
Based on the rx. above, I checked Cryptonomicon out of the library. I am on page 103 out of, I think, 916. I am having to force myself to keep going back to it. Maybe eventually something will happen; or maybe at least the story lines will converge somehow...
My Mom has vision problems so when I visit I often listen to books on tape with her. They are also great for long car rides or ironing. The odd thing is there are some authors that I like on tape but don't read in print though that is often dependant on the skill of the reader.
Quote:
Books are different. You read them and you learn...or you don't learn. The learning, you see, is all that books contain.
I disagree. Literature is an art form with many facets, one of which is the simple pleasure of receiving a tale well-told. It need not justify itself with some practical or moral lesson, any more than Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" need impart some didactic lesson.
Quote:
I don't read books in which I don't like the characters,
Hear hear... about fifteen years ago I had to stop myself from flinging Madame Bovary at the wall... I know you're thinking "Heresy!", but at that time I felt I could not put up with her whining and self-centredness any longer.
I have had the opportunity to read it again since and enjoyed it moderately with no flinging.
Quote:
Quote:
Books are different. You read them and you learn...or you don't learn. The learning, you see, is all that books contain.
I disagree. Literature is an art form with many facets, one of which is the simple pleasure of receiving a tale well-told. It need not justify itself with some practical or moral lesson, any more than Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" need impart some didactic lesson.
How superbly you spread the conventional wisdom, Alex Williams. Even I wish your nice romantic sentiment to be bounded by hard fact. But alas, Alex, you lose. Two minutes and sixteen seconds from now you will experience a beautiful moment of "Ah HA!". You can't help it; you are intellecually honest. My own joy, which is even greater, is in the teaching of a fundamental truth to a young grasshopper (so to speak) by a "koan" of my own invention which I call "concept grouping". Ready?
Look at the children playing, how they laugh and giggle. They are having fun. Like in all animals, play is serious business. Evolution has insured that children play in imitation of the tasks they will proform later by making learning pleasurable.
Living vicariously is learning. Each romantic novel is different from its ten thousand brothers.
If your eyes are open if your ears are working if your nose smells if your touch touches...you are learning.
Now say "Ah Ha!"
See, I told you that learning was fun.
It's the tasks they will proform later that got me.
Aha! indeed.
Quote:
It's the tasks they will proform later that got me.
Aha! indeed.
Don't look Ethyl!
Faldage in his dotage is not a pretty sight
The man who once could plot great topos of human psychos now spots typos to get his petty "ah ha's".
Quote:
How superbly you spread the conventional wisdom, Alex Williams. Even I wish your nice romantic sentiment to be bounded by hard fact. But alas, Alex, you lose. Two minutes and sixteen seconds from now you will experience a beautiful moment of "Ah HA!". You can't help it; you are intellecually honest.
...Living vicariously is learning. Each romantic novel is different from its ten thousand brothers.
How nice of you to indulge my quaint, conventional thinking so patiently.
You have presented an argument that learning is one component of literature, even in the broader form of living vicariously through a novel's characters. You support your argument by making a comparison to children at play. However you do not successfully show that learning is all that a book contains.
I'm not saying that learning has no place in the appeal of books, and in fact I agree wholeheartedly that one learns a lot by living vicariously through fictional characters, but I don't think that is the only source of pleasure or quality in a book. There are elements of style (to borrow a phrase) that are particular to the art itself that may not convey any bit of information. A writer who has mastered the technical aspects of writing so they can write with a strong, clear voice is superior to one who has not. A piece of writing may convey the same information as another, but it is typically much more of a pleasure to read one written by Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain or Jane Austen than one written by Tom Clancy, Jeff Foxworthy or Jessica Trapp.
Quote:
Faldage in his dotage
But "proform"" is such an interesting word. I'm still grappling with its meaning.
Quote:
How nice of you to indulge my quaint, conventional thinking so patiently.
You have presented an argument that learning is one component of literature, even in the broader form of living vicariously through a novel's characters. You support your argument by making a comparison to children at play. However you do not successfully show that learning is all that a book contains.
I'm not saying that learning has no place in the appeal of books, and in fact I agree wholeheartedly that one learns a lot by living vicariously through fictional characters, but I don't think that is the only source of pleasure or quality in a book. There are elements of style (to borrow a phrase) that are particular to the art itself that may not convey any bit of information. A writer who has mastered the technical aspects of writing so they can write with a strong, clear voice is superior to one who has not. A piece of writing may convey the same information as another, but it is typically much more of a pleasure to read one written by Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain or Jane Austen than one written by Tom Clancy, Jeff Foxworthy or Jessica Trapp.
Hear hear!
elements of style
[strunk]applause 
[/white]
Quote:
There are elements of style (to borrow a phrase) that are particular to the art itself that may not convey any bit of information. A writer who has mastered the technical aspects of writing so they can write with a strong, clear voice is superior to one who has not. A piece of writing may convey the same information as another, but it is typically much more of a pleasure to read one written by Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain or Jane Austen than one written by Tom Clancy, Jeff Foxworthy or Jessica Trapp.
It takes one to know one, Sir Williams, you yourself write stuff with a clear voice that I admire. I probably could too if I wasn't afraid I'd sugar coat what I was trying to say by being readable. Especially fundamental concepts about physical nature which are not clear but shaggy and are best expressed in a vague and shaggy way...as follows:
What Is Learning?
That's easy. Learning is what life does to help it continue through time.
Well then, what is "life"? Well, life is what inert matter does when a billion billion varied interactions of temperatures and atomic combinations react through a billion billion billion episodes through time.
In other words, mud, given time, can walk and talk like you and me -- especially if we insist on defining life as mud-like-ourselves.
In other words any definition of "life" must require self-replication and adaptation to external conditions, and that condition is the result of inaminate matter continuing towards its own definition -- a self-fulfilling prophecy.
"The hell you say" You might say.
And you would be wrong. The only game in town is "determinism" and that in which we perceive as pleasure is merely a survival function of we, the walking mud.
Note: Only "bad mud" would understand these comments as anti-religious. Indeed these comments should underscore the majesty of God, he who created something out of nothing, and some of that something became us. 
milum we may be having more of semantic debate than a literary one. FWIW I would separate the experiential from the informational, although there is some overlap in that every experience conveys some information ("oh, so that's what a backrub is like! how interesting!"), and the reception of data (reading, for example) is an experience itself. you may conflate them but I see them as separate. some of my favorite books have taught me a great deal, but there are other aspects that go beyond the joy of learning. take pride and prejudice for example. of course it is a joy to learn about life in the 18th century, and to learn by living vicariously through the characters, but there is for me a joy of connecting to another person's mind (Austen's in this case) that is more spiritual and seems to be poorly summed up as just learning. getting carried off by a great writer's narration is about as close as we can ever get to being inside someone else's head. it may be educational to experience, but it is also a sort of conjugation for the soul completely unrelated to eros (usually) if you know what i mean. to me that goes beyond mere "learning." i'd write more but it's already way too late and i'm going to be hating life when the alarm goes off tomorrow morning.
I'm with Alex. Sometimes reading is the mental equivalent of a brisk walk that shakes your mind awake and receptive, sometimes a gym workout that imparts deep learning and sometimes the chance to mentally lie on the grass and soak up the sun. Each one is important in the right time and proportion.
Favorite books can change with the seasons.But right now:
. The Adventures of Alice, In Wonderland and Throught the Looking Glass by Lewis Carrol.
. The travel books by Redmond O'Hanlon. Most recent : Trawler(fun!)
. A Song of Ice and Fire by GRRM Martin. Last release: A Feast for crows
It's no use , it's as hard to choose a favorite book as it is to choose a favorite colour. My whole life collection in my book case.Too many favorites. I remember my first favorite book ever though : The Little White Horse by Elisabeth Goudge. And it still is one of them.
A couple of other favorite books: The Dangerous Summer by Ernest Hemingway, Falling Angel by William Hjortsberg, and The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Le Guin.
Although I love The Left Hand of Darkness, I think my favorite by Le Guin is Always Coming Home.
The Left Hand of Darkness--sounds sinister.
One of my favorite American writers is Carson McCullers. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter evoqued an atmosphere revealing something of the mysteries of America before I had even been there. So did Kafka's America. When I first came to New York it was in Hoboken that I saw streets that seemed straight out of Kafka's book. (I know he has never been there) So books and writers are miracles.
Most cherished homeland book : The Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus.
Jane Austen for romantics
J.J.Rousseau for romantics + idealistics
Thomas Hardy for melancholy
Diderot for fun. (Jaques the Fatalist and his master)
Dostojevski for deep human suffering
Shakespeare for beauty
Marcel Proust for a two year's comfort- and- sweet- dream's contract
Gogolj for madness
Sorry , this post is rolling off the rail.
Quote:
Quote:
Faldage in his dotage
But "proform"" is such an interesting word. I'm still grappling with its meaning.
Yes, an interesting word.
I think I saw this word on a shop window of a six-toes shoe shop.
A foot reform institution. Children and people perform better wearing the right shoes.