Topic: Five Books... that's all you've got.

[Henry Chinaski]

Fiction:
"Atomised" - Michel Houllebecq
"The Satanic Verses" - Salman Rushdie
"Portnoy's Complaint" - Philip Roth
"Ham on Rye" - Charles Bukowski

Non-fiction:
"The God Delusion" - Richard Dawkins

[Andy @ Allerton!]

I just bought my summer reading:

1984 ~ George Orwell
For whom the bell tolls ~ Ernest Hemmingway
The Portrait of Dorian Gray ~ Oscar Wilde
Of Mice and Men ~ John Steinbeck
The old man and the Sea ~ Ernest Hemmingway

You know you can get those legally and for free off the internet?

[Skuzzlebutt]

You know you can get those legally and for free off the internet?

Yeah mate, I tried the IBook reader on my IPhone, but I prefer a book to be honest.  Also some of these books you can get for £2 off Amazon and even less sometimes.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

Yeah mate, I tried the IBook reader on my IPhone, but I prefer a book to be honest.  Also some of these books you can get for £2 off Amazon and even less sometimes.

I must admit I wouldn't want to read anything off an iPhone either.

It's probably time to invests in something like a Sony PRS/Kindle - the reading quality is excellent with eInk.

[bellinter]

I must admit I wouldn't want to read anything off an iPhone either.

It's probably time to invests in something like a Sony PRS/Kindle - the reading quality is excellent with eInk.

got a kindle myself about 2 months ago. Have been reading like never before since, I love it, so would really recommend.

reading Zeitoun on it at the moment, excellent so far.

As for the five books, at the moment its probably;

The Road - Cormac McCarthy
The Stand - Stephen King
Case Histories - Kate Atkinson
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
Of Mice And Men - John Steinbeck

[Skuzzlebutt]

I must admit I wouldn't want to read anything off an iPhone either.

It's probably time to invests in something like a Sony PRS/Kindle - the reading quality is excellent with eInk.

I've been looking at the iPad2.  I may well take the leap in couple of weeks and give it a go, especially with iCloud coming out.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

I've been looking at the iPad2.  I may well take the leap in couple of weeks and give it a go, especially with iCloud coming out.

Has the iPad got Eink?

[Veinticinco de Mayo]

Folks there are Kindle and iPad threads. This is a thread about books.

[deadlybuzz]

Want to get that World War Z - but I have about 100 books at the moment (In paper form) that I keep threatening to read and another 10,000 (Ebook) that I haven't got round to yet.

Took me awhile to get into it but then after the first 2 or 3 chapters it gets going. But it will be well worth the wait on your list.

[Crimson_Tank]

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
The Godfather - Mario Puzo
(as other Hemingway novels have been mentioned) A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Toole

and just to make you think

The History of the Peloponnesian War - Thucydides

[Chakan]

If I take hitchhikers guide to the galaxy does that count as 1 book?

[Crimson_Tank]

If I take hitchhikers guide to the galaxy does that count as 1 book?

It does if you pick the unabridged one that looks like a bible.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

If I take hitchhikers guide to the galaxy does that count as 1 book?

Yeah. Cos it is.

The sequels are Restaurant at the End of the Universe and Life the Universe and everything to complete the Triology.

The Triology is also completed (SO it's a Triology in four parts with So Long and Thanks for all the Fish).

But the Triology is really in five parts as 'Mostly Harmless' completes it

Apart from And Another thing..

So it's probably a triology in six parts if we're being honest. Ish.

[Chakan]

It does if you pick the unabridged one that looks like a bible.

Fair enough I choose that 1.

Then it will be.

Animals - for season reason i can read this book over and over again.
The Complete works of Edgar Allen Poe
Dune

Will have to think of the 5th one - probably Penthouse or soemthing

[Chakan]

But all that encompasses the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Series. There is 1 book though of all 6 stories which I have.

[Crimson_Tank]

Yeah. Cos it is.

The sequels are Restaurant at the End of the Universe and Life the Universe and everything to complete the Triology.

The Triology is also completed (SO it's a Triology in four parts with So Long and Thanks for all the Fish).

But the Triology is really in five parts as 'Mostly Harmless' completes it

Apart from And Another thing..

So it's probably a triology in six parts if we're being honest. Ish.

If it comes all together under one binding then it is in fact one book....

The bible is many books in one. yet we still think of it as one book.

[Andy @ Allerton!]

But all that encompasses the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Series. There is 1 book though of all 6 stories which I have.

You're cheating though. Mind you, so am I - I said "Lord of the Rings" which has always been three books.

[Chakan]

You're cheating though. Mind you, so am I - I said "Lord of the Rings" which has always been three books.

I suppose the provision should be if you can find it published in 1 paper book then you can bring it.

[deadlybuzz]

And Anything by ; William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Raymond E. Feist, Steven King, Stephen Donaldson, Steven Baxter, Bill Bryson, Douglas Adams, HG Wells, Philip K. Dick, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Thomas Hardy, Jane Austin, Emily Bronte, Daniel Defoe, William Gibson

Anything by Emily Bronte - her one and only Wuthering Heights then Andy? Or do you mean the Bronte sisters altogether?

[Andy @ Allerton!]

Anything by Emily Bronte - her one and only Wuthering Heights then Andy? Or do you mean the Bronte sisters altogether?

Yeah and her sisters..

The Professor, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Shirley, Villette, The Green Dwarf(!), Agnes Grey

[the 92A]

Thanks for the suggestions so far, I know I'm pushing it a bit,    but would be even more useful if you could say why you rate the books you're suggesting.

[Veinticinco de Mayo]

Last 30 Years...

Yankee Classics:
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
White Noise - Don DeLillo
The Plot Against America - Philip Roth
Generation X - Douglas Coupland
Beloved - Toni Morrison

Best of British:
Any Human Heart - William Boyd
Atonement - Ian McEwan
Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh
Last Orders - Graham Swift
Awaydays - Kevin Sampson (Liverpool bias coming through)

International Velvet:
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
Atomised - Houllebecq
Kafka on the Shore - Haruki Marukami
Disgrace - JM Coetzee
Love in the time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Essential Non-Fiction:
A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking
The Selfish Gene - Richard Dawkins
No Logo - Naomi Klein
The Age of Consent - George Monbiot
The Emperors New Mind - Sir Roger Penrose

I think I have rather abused the format but what the hell, get thee to the library before the c*nts close it down

Because they are all either a damned good read, or though provoking, or both!

[eitzel]

The Road is essential and everyone knows it.

Some stand outs ive read since I left school. Like most people, children, work, marriage, deep introspection and self pity have kept me away from reading as much as I should.

Not really got in to much for 10/12 years now.

Last 30 odd years

Charles Bukowski - Women.
Hilarious account of once starving alcoholic poet, inexplicably succeeding after turning 50. Then trying to fuck as many women as he can lay his hands on.

Peter Hoeg - Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow.
Pretty gripping and complex thriller set in a Danish town where its dark most of the time. Beautifully written.

Richard Ford - Independence Day
Forensic prose about the endlessly, deep inner psychological ruminations of this American Real Estate agent who was once a sports journalist. Brilliant writer.

Raymond Carver - What We Talk About When We Talk About Love
Beautifully economic writing. Usually about people down on their luck. Probably my favourite writer.

Ian McEwan - The Cement Garden
If you haven't read McEwan's earlier stuff, it may come as a shock how disturbing they are. Its a similar vein to his earlier book of short stories First Love, Last Rites. Don't want to spoil it but he deals with taboo subjects. Its all kind of detached, makes you feel uneasy. Really prefer his older stuff.

[the 92A]

Think that The Road will be my first read, I've been wanting to see whether the fuss about McCarthy is based on substance and as so many of you rate it, seems like a good place to start. btw eitzel, I've read a few short stories by Carver and been impressed by how he manages to write about what seems like a random moment yet the stories reveal so much about wider things in life.

[MichaelA]

Reposted with explanations:

Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains Of The Day - an elegantly written, effortlessly readable piece of high brow literature that captures mood, place and emotion perfectly. I've been moved by many books on many occasions, but the key relationship in this book still brings me up in goosebumps when I think about it.

Iain Banks - The Wasp Factory - I read this when I was seventeen. I had been reading avidly and widely, but it redefined what fiction could be for me. It was a life changing book that showed me the outsider's perspective for the first time, it's still a striking a solitary piece of fiction.

Douglas Adams - The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy - either the first book or the whole epic trilogy in 4/5/6 parts. The most inventive and flawed author that I have ever read. Again, I read them in my teens, but reread them all a year or two back when Colfer completed the story on behalf of the Adams estate. I can safely say that this book made me the lightweight faux intellectual that I am today.

Ian McEwan - Atonement - in a similar vein to 'Remains Of The Day', McEwan depicts era, place and emotion in an epic fashion. He is a supremely talented writer who has written many excellent novels all of which are worth reading.
 
Martin Amis - Money - Amis can be hit and miss. I've not read anything he has written since 'Time's Arrow', but his early works are a tremendously good read, and make great/vicious fun at the expense of the characters. 'Money' nails London and a British way of life that I recognised and partly lived through in the early Nineties.

If I was doing my list again I'd ditch Amis and replace with Atomised by Michel Houellebecq, because it is an utterly epic and mesmerising read that left me flattened after I had read it. All of his books have had a similar impact on me for one reason or another.

[the 92A]

Reposted with explanations:

Appreciated Michael.

[El Diablos]

Think that The Road will be my first read, I've been wanting to see whether the fuss about McCarthy is based on substance and as so many of you rate it, seems like a good place to start. btw eitzel, I've read a few short stories by Carver and been impressed by how he manages to write about what seems like a random moment yet the stories reveal so much about wider things in life.

Its a top choice to start with. McCarthy has a very distinct voice, a pithy and taut style with some arresting yet elegant prose. The Road is profound and philosophical without that getting in the way of the storytelling which is both exciting and moving and at times, shocking. I'm a slow reader, but i can see why some say you can read it in a sitting, because its so compelling. But spare some time to enjoy his prose.

Have you thought about what other recommendations you'll go with?

[MichaelA]

I know I'm pissing against the wind with this, but I really thought that 'The Road' read like an extended Sixth Form English Language A Level essay from the mid eighties. Nuclear winter, whooo.

[the 92A]

Its a top choice to start with. McCarthy has a very distinct voice, a pithy and taut style with some arresting yet elegant prose. The Road is profound and philosophical without that getting in the way of the storytelling which is both exciting and moving and at times, shocking. I'm a slow reader, but i can see why some say you can read it in a sitting, because its so compelling. But spare some time to enjoy his prose.

Have you thought about what other recommendations you'll go with?

I'll  probably finish The Road then decide, that way, it'll give me something to look forward to.

[Cassiel]

Much as I enjoyed All the Pretty Horses, I find Cormac McCarthy horribly, horribly overrated.

The sun came and with it hope and he rose and walked out to the road and squatted and studied the country to the south. Godless and blasted. A madman’s timeshare. The trees dead, the grass dead, the shrubs dead also. The rivers dead. And the streams and reeds, the mosses and voles. Dead as well. Dead as hell. Hellish dead. He murked the farsnacker and gamoofed into the glooring rugrat etc and so on ...

[the 92A]

I know I'm pissing against the wind with this, but I really thought that 'The Road' read like an extended Sixth Form English Language A Level essay from the mid eighties. Nuclear winter, whooo.

Hopefuly, next week i'll have an opinion on this.

[eitzel]

Much as I enjoyed All the Pretty Horses, I find Cormac McCarthy horribly, horribly overrated.

The sun came and with it hope and he rose and walked out to the road and squatted and studied the country to the south. Godless and blasted. A madman’s timeshare. The trees dead, the grass dead, the shrubs dead also. The rivers dead. And the streams and reeds, the mosses and voles. Dead as well. Dead as hell. Hellish dead. He murked the farsnacker and gamoofed into the glooring rugrat etc and so on ...

Not sure he was until The Road.

Im no expert but I thought it was a magnificent achievement. Its a hackneyed, unwieldy subject dealt with poetic grace. Massive heart to it.

[MichaelA]

Much as I enjoyed All the Pretty Horses, I find Cormac McCarthy horribly, horribly overrated.

The sun came and with it hope and he rose and walked out to the road and squatted and studied the country to the south. Godless and blasted. A madman’s timeshare. The trees dead, the grass dead, the shrubs dead also. The rivers dead. And the streams and reeds, the mosses and voles. Dead as well. Dead as hell. Hellish dead. He murked the farsnacker and gamoofed into the glooring rugrat etc and so on ...

[Veinticinco de Mayo]

Albie,

I will appropriate Mike's explanations for the fairly large overlap in our selections, with the exception of The Road, about which he is just plain wrong

A word for some of the others.  Roth's intertwining of history and whatiffery in the Plot Against America is brilliant while at the time brilliantly evoking memories of his own Jewish upbringing in New Joisey.  Coupland is funny and knowing but he can also be deeply enlightening and in Gen X he nails my generation quite brilliantly.  William Boyd is a masterful story teller and he has an uncanny knack of getting you to care deeply for his deeply flawed characters. Midnight's Children is Rushdie's best work and in it he writes prose that just begs to be read and reread.

Hawking and Dawkins share a genius for making complex modern science both interesting and more importantly understandable to the layman.  Both books are on that thrilling area where science butts up against theology and philosophy too, so it's all good.

Klein's book is an essential primer to the modern world though it is rather dry and whiney.  Monbiot's take on globalisation and how people need to react to it should be a set text in every school. 

[AJ4Seven]

White teeth was one of the handful I have read and I agree thought it was weak, very disappointed, thanks for your recommendations

I loved White Teeth, but maybe it has more resonance for 2nd/3rd generation immigrants ( &/or Londoners)
Anyway My recommendations:

1. Infinite Jest - D.F. Wallace : My favourite book, it's very long, takes a few hundred pages before I worked out what the hell was going on ( & having read it I'm still not entirely sure) but it has passages that are awe-inspiring & if you have ever had an addiction to anything pretty much a must read.

2. Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson: Split over two time periods  the modern day & WWII, it deals with code -breaking through the years & how data has become on of the most valuable commodities of our day. It is fairly geeky, but he explains things well & the WWII sections provide sufficient action to things moving.

3. Homicide/ The Corner - David Simon: Two different books (both non-fiction), but similar enough to group together. Written by one of the writers of The Wire, the books tell some of the real tales behind the Wire. Heart-breaking & depressing they may be (The Corner more so), but still show the strength in the face of adversity that people are capable of.

4.  The Power of the Dog - Don Winslow: Thriller that deals with the drug trade between America & Mexico from both sides of the conflict, the writer spent years doing research for the book so it feels realistic & Winslow started out writing detective stories(or maybe soft porn books, I've never actually bought one of those, I assume its a different Don WInslow) so it has a good pace to it.

5. Number9Dream - David Mitchell: Coming of age tale about a boy from rural Japan going to Tokyo to find his father. Starts off fairly normally, but then the line between reality & dreams rapidly becomes blurred.

[the 92A]

Cheers Kev, thanks for taking the time with the explanations, it really does help me build up a picture of what I need to read to get back into reading, although my choices will be effected by my own personal perspective hopefully the discussion will help others as well pick up a few decent books. As someone who loves reading non fiction, I walk you walk into Waterstones look at the novels and think where the fuck do I start, the choice is overwhelming.
 
Dawkins and Hawkins are on my 'to do when I've time' list for the reasons you stated but I'm generally alright on non fiction, it's the novels that I've neglected. I've actually read Trainspotting and Awaydays on Holidays. I really enjoyed both, although I think they were the high-points for both their authors. I notice you've plummed for 'Love in the time of Cholera' rather than 'One hundred years of Solitude' which a few people have recommended, do you think it's a better book? The other thing I was going to ask is about Salman Rushdie, I've read a few extracts of his work (can't remember which) and thought they sounded worthy but a bit impenetrable, I was struggling with some of his references, is Midnights Children, a good starting point with Rushdie and is Rushdie as good as his reputation?

[Stussy]

I couldn't name 5 novels because I can't reduce it down like that, but one book I evangelise to everyone is 'A House for Mr Biswas' by VS Naipaul, about the struggles of a man to find his place in the world in mid twentieth century Trinidad. Its one of the best comic novels I've ever read, and like the greatest comedy, its funniest when its most sad and poignant.

[Veinticinco de Mayo]

I think 100 years is the better book but it broke the 30 year rule so I plumped for Cholera.

Your welcome to borrow any of the ones I've got if you want mate.

[furtive book swapping club at the back of the Kop, we'll never live it down ]

[the 92A]

I couldn't name 5 novels because I can't reduce it down like that, but one book I evangelise to everyone is 'A House for Mr Biswas' by VS Naipaul, about the struggles of a man to find his place in the world in mid twentieth century Trinidad. Its one of the best comic novels I've ever read, and like the greatest comedy, its funniest when its most sad and poignant.

 
Stussy, the idea of five was so it didn't overwhelm me but was broader than just one but any recommendations are useful

[TepidT2O]

Because they are all either a damned good read, or though provoking, or both!

Last orders....why?

For me it was the single most annoying book I ever read, I hated the characters and the way their speech and thoughts were phrased...I ended up destroying it I found it so awful... Why did you like it?

I prefer the ancestors tail by Dawkins, it is utterly fascinating do a version of reverse evolution, I never knew colour blindness in gibbons could be interesting or tell us anything about the way we evolved.