I'm struggling to think past Louis de Bernierre's 'Birds Without Wings', and I read it about 5 years ago.
Chat Forum
[closed]
What's the best book you've ever read
-
Posted 1 year ago #
-
Perhaps Demian by Herman Hesse, but only by dint of my tender years at the time of reading and my malleable, callow character.
Failing that it would be Brendon Chase by BB, for roughly the same reasons.
Removing sentimentality from the equation, Graham Greene's A Burnt out Case led me to the rest of his writing and brought me as close to the brink as I ever want to be, so it must have been good.
Posted 1 year ago # -
OK. Why is it the best book you've read? I maybe should have added that to the thread title.
Birds Without Wings drew me in like nothing I've ever read before. I was there throughout the history of that Turkish village, and felt every single joy and heartache that the inhabitants did. It's truly remarkable. Maybe even moreso, given my Armenian roots.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Just been off looking at Audible (audiobook website) to try and find Birds Without Wings but they haven't got it. Might just have to buy the book
Why. All three books shaped me - I know there's been discussion on here before regarding the theory that books don't change you, they just fit into your life nicely at a particular moment in time, but I firmly believe that the books mentioned had a part in making me who I am, for better or for worse. That's why.
Posted 1 year ago # -
It's not just Birds Without Wings, but everything that Louis de Bernierre has ever written seems to be absolutely, 100% in tune with me. His trio of books, The War Of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, Senor Vivo And The Coca Lords, and The Troublesome Offspring Of Cardinal Guzman are peerless in the field of English language South American Fiction. The man just somehow writes in a way that my brain thinks.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Fiction, I have no idea.
Non fiction, only one option, To Reach The Clouds by Phillippe Petit. A book so good, I found Man On Wire strangely disappointing. Just astonishing.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Super Cannes - Ballard
Posted 1 year ago # -
If there is such a thing.. Cormac McCarthy's Suttree. Intensely sad and strangely uplifting, all at once.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell.
Recently I read Daughters of Shame by Jasvinder Sangheera which was a fantastic eye opening book.
Posted 1 year ago # -
The Outsider - Albert Camus.
.....would just love to be that detached.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Replay
Posted 1 year ago # -
"Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy.
Why? Well, not sure I can adequately describe what it is about it. It's a relentlessly violent book about the Indian Wars of the 1840s but it's also deeply allegorical and could be a parable about the warring nature of man at any time in history. The prose is stunning (though difficult at first due to a lack of punctuation) and his descriptions of Comanche attacks and harsh, unforgiving landscapes are incredibly vivid.
Many of the characters were real people in the Old West like John Joel Glanton, the leader of the scalp-hunting gang. Then there is The Judge...
Utterly compelling. One of very few books I've read more than twice.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Fun with Dick and Jane by William Gray. Why? It got me into reading.
I'm obviously not as well read as you lot, but the book I return to the most is Alistair MacLean's HMS Ulysses. I've read it countless times and don't think I've ever put it down without a lump in my throat. It's not big, and you won't look clever reading it, but it's still a superbly told tale.
B.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Cannery Row by Steinbeck is probably my favourite.. I'm another Louis de Bernieres fan.. the South American novels are just so so good.. anything by Irvine Welsh gets devoured very quickly too..
Posted 1 year ago # -
The Tent the Bucket and Me - Emma Alexander. If you are between 30 & 50 it'll bring back all sorts of memories but generally hillarious for anyone! A nice light read.
Posted 1 year ago # -
American Tabloid James Ellroy
Posted 1 year ago # -
Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliffe, because of the effect it had on me when I was little. I still re-read every couple of years and it's still fresh.
Posted 1 year ago # -
+1 for James Ellroy, but I would plum for LA Confidential.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Crow Road by Iain Banks. It's the only book I've ever wanted to re-read.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Difficult, very difficult.
Stalingrad, by Anthony Beevor, possibly.
Why - it's both chilling and compelling at the same time. Breathtaking in so many ways - from the scope of Hitler's territorial ambition, matched only by his incompetence and intransigence when meddling with field commanders freedom of operation; the brutality, indifference and connivance of Stalin's regime, through to the human capacity for outright animal brutality, suffering, survival and humanity.
A true, epic, Russian tragedy set in a relatively modern European context. Makes you realise either how far we've come, or how close we could be if we slipped back...
Posted 1 year ago # -
To Kill a Mockingbird has got to be up there.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliffe, because of the effect it had on me when I was little
Snap. Probably responsible for me becoming an archaeologist (for a while).
Posted 1 year ago # -
Roger Red Hat.
Oh, and the various biographies of Reagan, Thatcher, Bob Diamond, Marie Antoinette etc.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Gulag Archipelego, Solzhenitsyn. Monumental book. At the time I read it the Soviet Union was still around and trying to tell us they were wonderful and would ultimately triumph. And at the time I read it, lots of people in this country even believed this.
EDIT: +1 on Eagle of the Ninth. For exactly the same reason. Fantastic book.
Posted 1 year ago # -
And at the time I read it, lots of people in this country even believed this.
Some still do
Posted 1 year ago # -
Roger Red Hat was a dull impotenet follow up to Billy Blue Hat IMO.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Non-fiction: The Koran
Fiction: The BiblePosted 1 year ago # -
ooops, thats done it
Posted 1 year ago # -
You're clearly mistaken. Roger Red Hat came before Billy Blue Hat. Billy's nothing but a two bit copycat.
Posted 1 year ago # -
"How late it was, how late" by James Kelman.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Dunno - I enjoyed 'Life of Pi' recently
Posted 1 year ago # -
the magician by raymond e feist. i just love it
Posted 1 year ago # -
A few good suggestions. Love Camus, Kelman and McCarthy.
Off the top of my head I'll chuck-in John Updike's Rabbit trilogy and Saul Bellow's Herzog.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Generally I would say Brideshead Revisited by Waugh, which I read (literally) half a lifetime ago. The command of language, the laconic yet biting style, the fact its subject matter is so sweeping and yet so pointed and rooted in an era. Beautiful from a very unbeautiful man.
More recently I have enjoyed The Legend of the Holy Drinker by Joseph Roth. Disarmingly simple, with a quality of writing that is almost haiku-like in its ability to capture enormous human depth and emotion in so few words.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Difficult as the book I enjoyed reading most at the time I probably wouldn't enjoy at all now - Swiss Family Robinson, when I was about 12.
But then again I remember struggling through LOTR when I was a kid and taking weeks to read it, then reading it again and enjoying it much more when the film came out.
But in terms of sheer pleasure (not great literature) I would have to go for the Spenser novels (Boston private detective) of Robert B Parker. There's about 40 of them, they take about a day or two to read and they are brilliant. Just re-reading one of them at the moment.
Posted 1 year ago #
Topic Closed
This topic has been closed to new replies.
