What is your favorite book(s) in the world? The kind of book you would take to a desert island and not read anything else.
My favorite book is either 1984, Siddartha, or Steppenwolf.
EDIT: I also love Cat's Cradle and Slaughter-House Five.
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Favorite Book?
Last posted
Dec 13, 2009 at 04:54PM EST.
Added
Dec 12, 2009 at 01:01PM EST
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My absolute favorite? Fahrenheit 451. If I was trapped on a desert island? A really good survival guide.
I've wanted to read Fahrenheit 451 for a while now. I read the first like 80 pages and then just never returned to it. Right now, I just finished Brave New World and I am deciding whether to read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens or a collection of a few short stories by Tolstoy.
Everything written by Terry Pratchett.
You should finish it.
I've been meaning to read 1984 and Animal Farm. I've just been really busy lately, so I haven't gotten around to it.
Favorite book by his?
@Shadowfury You have to read 1984 and Animal Farm ASAP. George Orwell is like the Kurisowa of dystopian sci-fi, but with a touch of realism. I would recommend reading Animal Farm first to get used to George Orwells' style, because 1984 is a huge shocker to the person uneducated in the Orwellian arts. Brave New World is like that too, but focuses a lot more on personal issues than the society itself. The society, while it is extremely important to understand to get the book at all, is more of a backdrop than it is in 1984.
Oh, I've have been waiting for this thread.
My #1 favourite book.
Honourable mentions
HackerOnHacker
Deactivated
"Death: A Life" by George Pendle. Excellently humorous, though I would have preferred it if it didn't have an actual plot and was just more of Death's musings on mythology and world history. I wanted me some more World War II, dammit.
"World War Z" is also fun, but I didn't get as much long-term satisfaction out of it like I did the survival guide.
On another note, I've been trying to get my hands on "The Turner Diaries", just because I have a feeling it'll be unintentionally hilarious with all the obvious, unapologetic racism and glorification of terrorism. I'd play a game based on it, if we were in a universe where neo-Nazis didn't completely suck at game design.
I forgot:
Everything written by Pierre Desproges as well.
@Joeflims:
Alright, I'll have to make time for it. Thanks for the recommendations.
@Shadowfury No prob.
@Blubber I want to read that book so badly! I have a long list of books that I want to read, and that's definetlely one of them. Everybody loves the Big Easy and Ignatius J. Reilly!
Horseeater
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My top two:
Nice.
Maximum Ride. All the way.
@Horseeater
I love you. Will you marry me? Stick to Drawing Comics is the greatest book of all time. Of all time! bangs fists on table.
right now i'm reading 'under the dome' It's REALLY good! but lemme finnish it and ill te;; u mah fave book
HackerOnHacker
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Okay, so thanks to Google, I now have a PDF of The Turner Diaries. Not as good as a hard copy, but I would probably be placed on several FBI watch lists if I owned one. I just finished Chapter Three, and while I have trouble maintaining my suspension of disbelief at times, it's actually pretty interesting.
*runs
HackerOnHacker
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lol you posted the movie instead of the book
wut a dum dum
Lord Of The Rings
Horseeater
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@Lolrus:
Stick to Drawing Comics is the greatest book of all time. Of all time!
BOCTAOE.
@HackerOnHacker I'm scared of you know.
HackerOnHacker
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My favorite part of the book so far is the little note where it mentions to the reader that at the time Turner was writing, America was still using imperial units of measurement. Nice to know that all it takes for us to switch to metric is a full-scale revolution and the slaughter of every non-white.
Are you reading this ironically or like you believe in it?
HackerOnHacker
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I wouldn't say "ironically." I just want to see what I can learn from it. If a simple book can lead to actual terrorism, there has to be something of interest. I like how Pierce goes into detail about exactly how The Organization carries out their plans, down to how they obtain electrical power and cache their weapons. Seems almost like a how-to at times. If that was Pierce's intention, he was certainly very clever.
Oh. Well, many evil and crazy people are very intelligent too.
The Westing Game.
HackerOnHacker
Deactivated
That is very true. Pierce was definitely not without his share of problems. His racism, I understand. But his misogyny just seems to come the fuck out of nowhere. Which is also funny, because he was divorced at least four times.