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What is the best book you've ever read?

Yes. I'd suggest reading the two prequels to the Foundation, then the two sequels. If you have enjoyed those then begin the Robot series followed by the Galactic Empire novels. The exception to this is the final book, Foundation and Earth. Assimov ties all the loose ends together in this novel. I had read everything but the two still unwritten prequels, so the answers to all the questions were welcome. Ideally, I would start at the beginning and read the books in chronological order. Google Assimov for proper sequencing. I still have all 14 novels and still intend to reread them chronologically.
 
TownieDeac said:
Started a Pat Conroy audiobook last night (Beach Music). Definitely an excellent writer, writes moving prose at times.
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Only part of Beach Music I don’t like is the lesson that Jack learns in adulthood about conscientious objection, but tbf, it was written by a 50yo southern white male graduate of a military academy, so I wouldn’t expect to agree with Conroy on everything
 
I’ve been really into Le Carre the past couple of years. Read all the Smiley books and a few others, now I’m halfway through A Perfect Spy and it might be the best yet (though The Constant Gardener is great too)

Phantom Tollbooth was probably my favorite as a kid.

Actually, the Calvin and Hobbes collections were my childhood favorite, if that counts. Still have them all. Reread them so many times.
 
ProfessorDeac said:
I’ve been really into Le Carre the past couple of years. Read all the Smiley books and a few others, now I’m halfway through A Perfect Spy and it might be the best yet (though The Constant Gardener is great too)

Phantom Tollbooth was probably my favorite as a kid.

Actually, the Calvin and Hobbes collections were my childhood favorite, if that counts. Still have them all. Reread them so many times.
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A Perfect Spy is le Carre’s masterpiece. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and the Karla trilogy are also classics. Phenomenal writer - I’m not sure I know of another “popular” writer with such command of dialogue and prose.

Really salacious stuff has been published about him recently by a former mistress. Apparently he had many talents.
 
scooterbug said:
A Perfect Spy is le Carre’s masterpiece. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and the Karla trilogy are also classics. Phenomenal writer - I’m not sure I know of another “popular” writer with such command of dialogue and prose.

Really salacious stuff has been published about him recently by a former mistress. Apparently he had many talents.
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I've never read any le Carre, and need to rectify that, but I love a lot of the adaptations. The BBC Tinker, Tailor and Smiley's People with Alec Guinness rules (I also like the movie Tinker, Tailor with Gary Oldman). Spy Who Came In From The Cold with Richard Burton -- awesome. I need to get my reading groove back, my attention span is fucked.
 
re: the Oldman version, I don't think I could have followed that movie if I hadn't read the book first
 
Fiction:

Love in the Time of Cholera, Marquez (#1 and nothing else is really close)
Gilead, Robinson
The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Flanagan
Shadow Country, Matthiessen
Angle of Repose, Stegner
Lincoln in the Bardo, Saunders
Ragtime, Doctorow
The Overstory, Powers
Disgrace, Coetzee

Nonfiction:

Out of Africa, Dinesen (greatest memoir of the 20th cent)
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Dillard
Cosmos, Carl Sagan
In Patagonia, Chatwin
Personal History, Katherine Graham
1066: Year of the Conquest, Howarth
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, Tuchman

And lots of others I'm forgetting.
 
Beach Music was a minor disappointment, though I understand it’s not one of his noted works. I will look for others recommended here.

I thought it was too long, inconsistent, and unfocused. But what strikes me is that he manages sentimentality really well. When he does describe love and loss, it’s really graceful. I appreciate the mention, as I’d never even heard of Pat Conroy.
 
inspectah said:
Fiction:

Love in the Time of Cholera, Marquez (#1 and nothing else is really close)
Gilead, Robinson
The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Flanagan
Shadow Country, Matthiessen
Angle of Repose, Stegner
Lincoln in the Bardo, Saunders
Ragtime, Doctorow
The Overstory, Powers
Disgrace, Coetzee

Nonfiction:

Out of Africa, Dinesen (greatest memoir of the 20th cent)
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Dillard
Cosmos, Carl Sagan
In Patagonia, Chatwin
Personal History, Katherine Graham
1066: Year of the Conquest, Howarth
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, Tuchman

And lots of others I'm forgetting.
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Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is definitely one of the best non-fic things I've ever read. Curious about the Chatwin after seeing a Werner Herzog doc/remembrance about him a couple years ago.
 
Animal Farm
The Scarlet Letter
LotR Trilogy (Favorite is The Two Towers)

Currently reading about anything Brandon Sanderson has written.
 
Also in nonfiction: Chasing the Monsoon: A Modern Pilgrimage Through India, Alex Frater and Travels in Siberia, Ian Frazier. Frater is a bit dated now but still in print. Superb writing and a must read for lovers of travelogues. Frazier's book on Siberia is so good you can open it anywhere and be entertained, and he's a master prose stylist.
 
OldGouldandBlack said:
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is definitely one of the best non-fic things I've ever read. Curious about the Chatwin after seeing a Werner Herzog doc/remembrance about him a couple years ago.
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I forgot about Pilgrim. That is a great book. Prof Ralph Black had us read that, I think in his American Lit class in the fall of 97. Though it may have been for my “Freshman Seminar” class the nature of nature.
 
Demonwolverine said:
Crime and Punishment will always hold a spot in my top 10 because of the professor I read it with for my German/Slavic lit course.
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+1 for Crime and Punishment. I put it as Dostoevsky’s #2 after Brothers K and ahead of Notes from Underground
 
JuiceCrewAllStar said:
I really wanted to like Gilead but I couldn't finish it
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Not for everybody, and it does open a little slowly. It's one of the few epistolary novels I've really liked. Worth it to hang in there though - some fabulously memorable passages in the back half of the book and one of the most moving endings in American fiction.
 
OldGouldandBlack said:
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is definitely one of the best non-fic things I've ever read. Curious about the Chatwin after seeing a Werner Herzog doc/remembrance about him a couple years ago.
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Chatwin was great. His novels aren't bad either but Patagonia is probably his best-known.
 
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