Favorites?

“That lord of the rings thread has me thinking. How many of you guys would consider yourselves avid readers? What is your favorite poem, fiction book, and non-fiction book?”

“I was a Donald Westlake fan for a number of years.”

“Non fiction has got to be Blackhawk Down.”

“It has taken me a long time to admit this, but reading is actually a hobby of mine. There is nothing better in the world than reading a good book. (Besides backpacking) (But on a cold, rainy day I would rather read) Anyway books are like movies you cant have a favorite, you have a top 5. Right now The Giver by Lois Lawry leads them all though.”

“check out the "summer reading" thread.”

“ooh! ooh! me, me!

favorite fiction: *Demian* by Hermann Hesse.
favorite non-fiction: anything by Carl Jung.
favorite poet: John Donne

anyone ever read Anais Nin's (unabridged!) diaries?? toooo much! she's gloriously brilliant/insane.

i'm a total book addict...if i don't have at least 2 worlds to live in all the time, i feel lost!”

“I'm an avid reader. My problem is finding enough time. I want to read so many things, and as my mood changes I pick up different things, so I am usually reading 4-5 books at a time.
Right now on my nightstand:
Great Expectations
The PCT thru hiker's Handbook
History of the Ojibway People
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Foundation”

“oh, keep trying to get *Zen & the Art* at the library, but it's never there, even though the computer says it is! that and *Fear & Loathing.* damn library trolls.”

“I read a lot.

Favorite Poem: The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel by Nikos Kazantzakis

Favorite Fiction: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Favorite Non-Fiction: Report to Greco by Nikos Kazantzakis”

“hey BobK!! i'm reading *Zorba the Greek* right now! kewl.”

“I read as often as possible.

Favorites:

Poem: "The Road Not Taken" -Robert Frost

Non-Fiction: "Profiles in Courage" JFK (and probably some help from Ted Sorenson)

Fiction: "A Painted House" - John Grisham (this is an extremely well written story)”

“Lyra, we really have similar tastes. My second favorite non-fiction is Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C.G., and I also like volume something or another of his collected works dealing with Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious.

I've read Zorba about five times. Good stuff. You should definitely check out The Odyssey. An 1100 page epic poem that will rock your world!”

“Lesseeee... I love to read. I wish I had more time to read for fun.

Favorite Fiction... I change my mind constantly: probably Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra, but maybe Dune by Frank Herbert, Illuminatus by Robert Anton Wilson or even Naked Lunch by Bill Burroughs.

Poetry, lately I've been loving Elizabeth Bishop and Shakespeare. Galway Kinnel's "Book of Nightmares" still amazes me after many re-readings.

Non Fiction: everything I've read by Kenneth Burke. Martha Nussbaum's "The Fragility of Goodness" is amazing... there is incredible poetry to it.

BTW Lyra: I was once in love with everything by Hesse, I think Stepenwolf (it got me started on Nietzsche) was my favorite. Carl Jung once fascinated me, now I get impatient with him. Anais Nin is fun! Did you see "Henry and June?"

OH and the Fear and Loathing books (Vegas, and the Campaign trail)are hysterical!”

“wow, BobK! awesome :-) i'll definitely check out The Odyssey. have you ever read *Demian*? by far Hesse's best. the story goes he wrote it after reading Jung's writings on the individuation process.”

“"We had two bags of grass, 75 pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half-full of cocaine and a whole galaxy of multicolored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers. Also, a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls."”

“yeah, PedXing, after you've read about 10 of Jung's books, they sorta start to repeat, and you can sorta guess what he's going to say.
and Elizabeth Bishop ROCKS! how about *The Fish.* if you're into Jung, you and i probably have similar interpretations of that one.
never seen Henry & June...i should though!”

“hard to stop once you get started, huh, Le Subtil, LOL! that part in the movie where Del Toro opens up the salt shaker in the convertible is just painful!”

“I love reading. It's very difficult to pick favorites, but here are three I like very much-

Poem: The road not taken. Robert Frost

Non-fiction: Between Silence and Light. Louis Kahn

Fiction: The Foundation Triology. Isaac Asimov”

“I got hooked on both Jung and Hesse at about the same time while I was in college, and have read just about everything Hesse wrote. You can see a lot of Jungian influence there in general, I think.

PedXing, I am more than a little impressed that you can wade your way through Zarathustra. Whenever I try to read it, all I want to do is shave my head and drool!”

“hmm...lotsa "Road Not Taken" fans here, i see! me too. the irony was totally lost on me until the best poetry class ever in college...”

“I can not pick! Help! Why did I ask such a hard question? Okay, okay, I need to take a deep breathe and try to choose . . .

Poem: anyone lived in a pretty how town - e.e. cummings

Non-Fiction: Walden - Henry David Thoreau

Fiction: Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov, The Catcher In The Rye - J.D. Salinger, Lord of the Rings Trilogy - J.R.R. Tolkien, A Wrinkle In Time - Madeleine L'Engle, The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables, The Blithedale Romance - Nathaniel Hawthorne, Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte, Return of the Native - Thomas Hardy, Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson, etc. I can't possibly choose. I love to read, always have. I am a book fantic!”

“Avid? more like Rabid.
I don't get to read as much as I like these days though.

Poem:
Quincy Troop-Slaughterhouse Blues

Fiction Book:
Frank Herbert-Dune Messiah (at least right now)

Non-Fiction Book:
Robert Hughes-Shock of the New”

“Slaughter House 5
Farenheit 451
Lord of the Flies
Fatal Vision”

“Poem: The Cremation of Sam McGee; Robert Service

Fiction: A Canticle for Leibowitz; Walter Miller

Non-fiction: Trail Talk”

“I could never pick ONE favorite.

I have Frost's The Road Not Taken hanging by my desk in my office at work.
I love anything by Kurt Vonnegut. He is amazing. Words cannot describe his talent.
Really enjoyed Ayn Rand's Fountainhead and Anthem.
Gotta love the classic: Little Women.
Virgin Woolf is great, too.

Le Subtil - I am just like you in that I am always reading more than one book at a time. Here is what I'm reading now:

Dogs Never Lie About Love (Jeffrey Moussaieff Mason)
Mother Night (Vonnegut)
An Adirondack Passage (Christine Jermoe)
The most recent issue of Log Home Living

Oh, and by the way, I coudn't stand Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. And, I thought the movie was even worse. Sorry guys.

Finally, a recommendation: If you like Virgina Woolf and you've read Mrs. Dalloway - read The Hours by Michael Cunningham. Loved it.”

“"Slaughterhouse 5" was excellant.

Chilli, I really enjoyed "A painted house "too. Surprised me how well written and what a great story it was.

If I have to choose a favorite in each catagory I'm going to have to think on it for awhile.”

“Kinda spooky that the lunch lady likes Slaughterhouse 5.”

“Would be even more spookier if Slaughterhouse Five had anything to do w/ lunch.”

“Sorry for the double superlative, folks.

I'll try again:

"Would be even spookier..."”

“it would be even more spookier if 'soylent green' was her favorite movie.”

“Those kids were helpless against me. I was their worst nightmare.

Alright, I've narrowed my favorite non-fiction down to "Chickenhawk" by Robert C Mason”

“Fiction: "Cold Mountain" by Frazier, "Catch 22" by Heller, pretty much anything by R Pilchner. She just writes historical fiction...escape books. No there are no pictures of Fabio on the covers of her books! It's not "she-porn".

Poetry, anything by Bill BigFoot. (did that make your day BigFoot?) :o)”

“Favorite writer: Tom Clancy

Favorite Book: The Abyss

Favorite Non-Fiction: I don't read it, I have euough real stuff to consider already.”

“BobK: I think the key to reading some books (like Zarathustra) is not to read it with the kind of "respect" we get taught to use in school, but just to get in there and mix it up.
There are some books I never got through, because I treated them with too much "respect." One day, I am gonna go back and get past p. 72 of Ulysses (for example)... (there is an incomplete on my college transcript 'cause I never did manage to read that book and write the paper).”

“i'm quite a disrespectful young lady, no problems with "mixing it up"...but i could never read it either!
i've heard some really cool interpretations, and think it SOUNDS great, but...”

“My literary pursuits are not as highbrow as some of you...I am too tired most of the time to focus on anything substantial.

What do I read? Whatever I can grab on my way to the "reading room." ;-)

Also I listen to lots of tapes in the car, where I spend far too many hours. Most but not all of the following, I have enjoyed on tape. Some I have read...

Sue Grafton
Patricia Cornwell
Sandra Brown
A Painted House, Grisham
Harry Potter (I read almost all of every book out loud to my 8-year-old sons)

I do like The Road Less Travelled, and I am in the process of memorizing it.

I also read books about hiking trails, and have been browsing books about our state and national parks. Oh, and backpacking and winter camping...just skimming those....

That is all that is coming to mind right now.

P.S. ChuckD, TT isn't non-fiction. ;-)”

“That's funny, ped. I think I'm up to page 120. I've got a beautiful, leather bound, edition of Ulysses just collecting dust.

Same with Tom Jones a foundling by Henry Fielding. That's not light reading. Neither are a lot of others, but I agree with your philosophy of not treating them as stuffy old tomes. I read Beowulf (in the old english) for fun, when I was 13. Great monster story.”

“When I am convinced that everyone else is really stupid, I pick up my copy of "Strange Tactics of Extremism." After five pages or so, I put it back down and am contented to know that I'm as stupid as the next guy.”

“Whuh? Who? This next guy?

Sorry, it's Friday and I'm in a particularly stupid mood.”

“"Walk Across America" by Peter Jenkins was my favorite book.”

“Poem: The Waste Land (T.S. Eliot)
Fiction: Gravity's Rainbow (Thomas Pynchon)
Non-Fiction: City of Quartz (Mike Davis)”

“I highly recommend, "This House Of Sky" by Ivan Doig to all, but especially to the Montana crowd. Luxurious reading IMO.
Among my current top poets is Rainier Maria Rilke. After my friend and I get back from a 6-7 day trip, we like to collaborate on a poem about our experiences.
I am a big fan of Heinlein's "Stranger In A Strange Land". I love Hesse, and think his best is "Magister Ludi and The Glass Bead Game". I love how he lets you define what the ritual is and its significance.
I thought the previews for the Lord of the Rings looked promising. My brother told me that they changed the story for one of the actresses and he will not see it. Considers himself a purist.”

“Non-Fiction:
I do not read much non-fiction but favs would be the Civil War novels by Michael and Jeff Shaara.

Fiction:
Favorite book is probably The Stand by Stephen King.
Favorite authors are Jeff Deaver and Dean Koontz. I've read all their books and it's tough to pick favs but The Bone Collector (Deaver), Dark Rivers of the Heart, and Ticktock (Koontz) are right up there.

I also enjoy and have read most of the books by James Patterson, Tom Clancy, Grisham, Patricia Cornwell, Robin Cook and Sue Grafton. Geez, I read a lot!

But for pure unabashed entertaining reading, I always head to TT. ;-)”

“Poem: Any Dr Seuss

Non-fiction: Out Of America by Keith Richtburg, Drawing life or 1939 The lost World of the Fair By David Gelerntner

Fiction: My side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, Cold Mountain by Charles Fraiser,Indian Country by Phillip Caputto”

“The Odyssey is great for epics. I'm reading Anna Karenina by Tolstoy right now. Very good, maybe I'll give War and Peace a chance. LOL! That was a hilarious pun.”

“still reading

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (man is this book hard to get through-but good)
3-4 Textbooks in my field
Harry Potter IV

I am always reading. Can't get enough.”

“I love to read just about anything. Even cereal boxes. Been reading Hemmingway and Steinbeck of late. Love anything by Mcmurtry. Fav poet is Emily Dickison-I could not stop for death,so he kindly stopped for me.”

“Try Japanese Death Poems. A compilation of poems written by Zen masters on their death beds. Unbelievable.
Love history, especially Kansas Civil War history, (where the Civil War began.)
Advise everyone to read the biographies of Eleanor Roosevelt by Blair Weisen Cook.”

“I'm a book junkie, I've even read encyclopedia volumes. My favorite story is Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, favorite poet is Robert Service, and anything by Steven King, Clive Cussler, Tom Clancy, Louis Lamour if fair game. Right now I'm reading
John Muir
Nature's Visionary by Gretel Ehrlich. I always bring field guide of birds on the trail too, sometimes I get to see species I never see at home.”

“Atlas Shrugged is a great pick!”