Reading suggestions, opinions?

J. Valjean

J. Valjean

BANALITY
What are the best books you've ever read? What are the worst?

I'm reading One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich. I have lots of respect for Solzhenitsyn and his other non-fiction stuff, but this book is one of the dullest books I've ever read. There's no character building, no emotion, no psychology, static sentences, and bleakness all around. I know it's about the gulags, but its sad to read a book picking up where you left off every night and not remembering much of what you read, only to find out it doesn't matter anyway.

The best book though IMO, would probably be a tie between Crime & Punishment and The Plague.
 
Best: Mockingjay (part 3 of the Hunger Games) I've got mad respect for Suzanne Collins for all her books, but Mockingjay takes the sweet, blood covered cake.

Worst EVER: The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm. Oh god my 5th grade teacher made us read this and I still remember how much I hate it. So much hate.

Edit: Wow how did I get Catching Fire and Mockinhjay mixed up?
 
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J. Valjean said:
What are the best books you've ever read? What are the worst?

I'm reading One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich. I have lots of respect for Solzhenitsyn and his other non-fiction stuff, but this book is one of the dullest books I've ever read. There's no character building, no emotion, no psychology, static sentences, and bleakness all around. I know it's about the gulags, but its sad to read a book picking up where you left off every night and not remembering much of what you read, only to find out it doesn't matter anyway.

The best book though IMO, would probably be a tie between Crime & Punishment and The Plague.
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ive read One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich and i felt the same until the end. then i liked it.

inheritance series (Eragon, Eldest Brisinger), The Lord of the rings and The Hobbit, To Kill A Mockingbird, To Live (amazing book)
 
Raiden2011 said:
ive read One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich and i felt the same until the end. then i liked it.

inheritance series (Eragon, Eldest Brisinger), The Lord of the rings and The Hobbit, To Kill A Mockingbird, To Live (amazing book)
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Love the lord of the rings, but I can't say I feel the same way about Inheritance.
 
Dan Cowan said:
Best: Catching Fire (part 3 of the Hunger Games) I've got mad respect for Suzanne Collins for all her books, but Catching Fire takes the sweet, blood covered cake.
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Haha, yeah I have the first part of The Hunger Games. Bought it at the airport and still haven't gotten round to reading it. I hear a lot of good things about it though.


Raiden2011 said:
ive read One Day In the Life of Ivan Denisovich and i felt the same until the end. then i liked it.
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This I've heard a lot. It builds up to the end. So far I'm on page 68. Brick-laying, stove-sitting and all that jazz. I really hope it picks up.
 
I believe I read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich when I took that Russian history class 9 years ago. Don't remember it too much. It certainly wasn't the worst thing I ever read in school though. That would be Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy. Ugh.

Your username means I must ask... have you read Les Miserables? I mean, the ENTIRE original version? I have. Epic.
 
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I'm not a big book reader, but Guts (Chuck Palahniuk) is a fantastic short story.

For anyone with the attention and interest for long, Lord of the Rings type stuff, David Eddings is fantastic. The Mallorean is insanely good.
 
Crime and Punishment was great, I even enjoyed Notes from the Underground too. Kind of boring but gave you great insight into the self conscious.

Also Love Cowboy I enjoyed the musical Les Miz, never read it. But some of the tunes were catchy and great story.

Favorite novels would be....The Great Gatsby, Cat's Cradle, Brave New World, Ender's Game, Lord of the Flies.
 
You guys need to go out, buy, and then read A Cruel Wind.

No seriously, I need someone to explain to me what it's about. In the prologue, this dude destroys an entire city by himself SOLELY by raising his arm above his head, and then it just gets all sorts of confusing....
 
Love Cowboy said:
I believe I read One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich when I took that Russian history class 9 years ago. Don't remember it too much. It certainly wasn't the worst thing I ever read in school though. That would be Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy. Ugh.

Your username means I must ask... have you read Les Miserables? I mean, the ENTIRE original version? I have. Epic.
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Nietzche, oh man. Every one of his words seethes with misplaced hatred for ordinary people. His writing style and immature outlook is on par with Hitler's. I've read the abridged (800 page) Les Mis. I really want to get a copy of the 1400 page one. The one I have picks up on the Book of Marius with his father being found after the Battle of Waterloo. I heard Hugo actually goes in depth with Waterloo in the original and it was one of the best parts of the book. The play's amazing too.

Demetrius said:
No seriously, I need someone to explain to me what it's about. In the prologue, this dude destroys an entire city by himself SOLELY by raising his arm above his head, and then it just gets all sorts of confusing....
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Hey, I think I read that in the Bible somewhere!

Eks said:
I'm not a big book reader, but Guts (Chuck Palahniuk) is a fantastic short story.
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Palahniuk is the man. His novels are quick, exciting reads too.
 
J. Valjean said:
Hey, I think I read that in the Bible somewhere!
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No, see, (It's been a while since I read the beginning), but I beleive his mom gets raped and then dies in childbirth with him, and then his step parents get tortured to death, he becomes a mute, runs away from the Capitol City he is at, and returns thirteen years later and just destroys it without thinking.
 
i would suggest this book.
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i found it to be a very good book imo, i've read it about 4 times.
 
I loved the first two books in the hunger games series. Third one was okay IMO, but it seemed to rush through everything. Often, main characters would just kind of, randomly die. The best book I've ever read is "The Good Soldiers." It's about the Iraq war, almost every scene is entirely genuine, and it was written by a journalist who spent almost a year in combat, with the soldiers it follows. At the very end, it even shows the pictures of the men who died in the story. Probably one of the most impactful, emotional books I have ever read.

Also @ Dan Cowan, Catching Fire was the second book.
 
J. Valjean said:
Nietzche, oh man. Every one of his words seethes with misplaced hatred for ordinary people. His writing style and immature outlook is on par with Hitler's. I've read the abridged (800 page) Les Mis. I really want to get a copy of the 1400 page one. The one I have picks up on the Book of Marius with his father being found after the Battle of Waterloo. I heard Hugo actually goes in depth with Waterloo in the original and it was one of the best parts of the book. The play's amazing too.
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Hugo goes into depth with EVERYTHING in that book. At one point near the beginning he even gives a breakdown of the bishop's finances. Unlike with most things, I actually WOULDN'T recommend anyone read the full version before seeing the musical or perhaps the 1998 non-musical film adaptation starring Liam Neeson. It would just be too hard to get into if you don't already like the story.
 
Most of my reading involves a Dark Elf Ranger, a Human Assassin or comics LOL preferably DC. =D Not to say i'm not capable of higher reading, I just got burned out after a few too many. Recently went through Dante's again since I got a red leather bound copy for my last birthday.
 
I'm really not that into books, but the best books I've read are The Harry Potter trilogy ofcrouse, Narnia, The Lord of the Rings, Percy Jackson, The Road, Thinner, It..
 
THE JOHNNY ROOK said:
Crime and Punishment was great, I even enjoyed Notes from the Underground too. Kind of boring but gave you great insight into the self conscious.

Also Love Cowboy I enjoyed the musical Les Miz, never read it. But some of the tunes were catchy and great story.

Favorite novels would be....The Great Gatsby, Cat's Cradle, Brave New World, Ender's Game, Lord of the Flies.
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Ender's Game is fantastic. Everyone should read it. My other favorites would be The Bartameus Trilogy, Narnia, and anything by Terry Pratchett. Terry Pratchett is probably the only author to be able to make Death into a humorous character. Read Hogfather, it's his best book.
 
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