Favorite Book (or Books) of all time

[boogielicious]

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

[RJH999]

The Great Gatsby -F. Scott Fitzgerald A Farewell To Arms -Ernest Hemingway Invisible Man -Ralph Ellison The Catcher in the Rye -J.D Salinger Nineteen Eighty-Four -George Orwell One Hundred Years of Solitude -Gabriel García Marquez Things Fall Apart -Chinua Achebe On The Road -Jack Kerouac

[tefunk]

East of Eden Where the Red Fern Grows

[JetFan1983]

On 9/3/2015 at 6:44 PM, colin007 said:

The Road is quick and devastating. Very different from his other stuff in that it is sparse. Everything is bare bones. If you like westerns then either of the other two I liked. Blood Meridian is like a blood soaked dreamscape littered with scalps and psychotic nightmares. Pretty Horses is part romance, part coming of age, part hardscrabble adventure.

I finished Blood Meridian today. Yea, I'm comfortable anointing it my favorite novel of all time. What a read. I sherpa'd it with this website which annotates some things, but I also had google at the ready for all the new words and random references I didn't get. What an achievement. Unbelievable. From the Comanche attack to the banquet at Ciudad de Chihuahua to the Judge conjuring gunpowder from brimstone and ash...astounding stuff. After a while, when the Judge spoke or even just appeared, I would get anxious or my heart would beat a little faster. And it was pretty mind blowing knowing how historically on point this story is. 

As someone who is studying American history as a hobby these days, adding Blood Meridian to the equation has provided a lot more context for the time period. I'm glad I didn't live back then. 

But what a read though. I bet you at night when everyone's asleep that this book crawls off the shelf and feeds on insects, lizards, rodents, and small birds before crawling back to its place in the morning, no one the wiser. I'm looking forward to reading it again one day. Perhaps it is fitting that it is you @colin007 who also loves this story. You got good taste there. 

 

 

[Piz]

The Old Man and the Boy - Robert Ruark.  John Mortimer's Rumpole stories. The Growth of the Soil - Knut Hamsun.  And anything by P.G. Wodehouse; the Jeeves stories in particular.

[Zeph]

Stephen King - The Dark Tower (series)

[colin007]

12 hours ago, JetFan1983 said:

I finished Blood Meridian today. Yea, I'm comfortable anointing it my favorite novel of all time. What a read. I sherpa'd it with this website which annotates some things, but I also had google at the ready for all the new words and random references I didn't get. What an achievement. Unbelievable. From the Comanche attack to the banquet at Ciudad de Chihuahua to the Judge conjuring gunpowder from brimstone and ash...astounding stuff. After a while, when the Judge spoke or even just appeared, I would get anxious or my heart would beat a little faster. And it was pretty mind blowing knowing how historically on point this story is. 

As someone who is studying American history as a hobby these days, adding Blood Meridian to the equation has provided a lot more context for the time period. I'm glad I didn't live back then. 

But what a read though. I bet you at night when everyone's asleep that this book crawls off the shelf and feeds on insects, lizards, rodents, and small birds before crawling back to its place in the morning, no one the wiser. I'm looking forward to reading it again one day. Perhaps it is fitting that it is you @colin007 who also loves this story. You got good taste there. 

Oh man, @JetFan1983 I am so glad you enjoyed that...McCarthy and Stevie King are my two favorite authors, and couldn't be more different. I love your description of your reading experience.

I imagine McCarthy sitting at his desk, and laughing to himself as he writes, understanding that he is supremely gifted as a writer, and essentially laughing at all other writers who struggle to turn a phrase that would effortlessly rumble from his fingertips...

One of my favorite passages from  Pretty Horses- "They heard somewhere in that tenantless night a bell that tolled and ceased where no bell was and they rode out on the round dais of the earth which alone was dark and no light to it and which carried their figures and bore them up into the swarming stars so that they rode not under but among them and they rode at once jaunty and circumspect, like thieves newly loosed in that dark electric, like young thieves in a glowing orchard, loosely jacketed against the cold and ten thousand worlds for the choosing."

[iacas]

21 minutes ago, colin007 said:

I imagine McCarthy sitting at his desk, and laughing to himself as he writes, understanding that he is supremely gifted as a writer, and essentially laughing at all other writers who struggle to turn a phrase that would effortlessly rumble from his fingertips...

I don't think any writer ever has really thought that.

Ever.

[JetFan1983]

17 minutes ago, iacas said:

I don't think any writer ever has really thought that.

Ever.

Apparently, my friend who is a high school English teacher told me last night that Cormac McCarthy goes camping in the woods and desert to write stories like Blood Meridian, which is partly why his descriptions are so well done. He's not writing from a Starbucks for example haha. 

I did read part of an article last night though that McCarthy doesn't like some writers who don't appreciate life and death as the preeminent theme of their fiction, so maybe he thumbs his nose at those guys. 

Whatever this dude thinks when he writes though, I cannot say. I do however believe him to be a twisted genius within the realm of fiction writing. 

McCarthy has definitely earned my reading of more of his work though @colin007. I think the Road makes sense to go to next, yes? 

[colin007]

4 hours ago, iacas said:

I don't think any writer ever has really thought that.

Ever.

Lol that's just my warped imagination

3 hours ago, JetFan1983 said:

McCarthy has definitely earned my reading of more of his work though @colin007. I think the Road makes sense to go to next, yes? 

Hmm.....The Road is very, VERY different. Like if you just picked up the book and turned to a random page, you'd see immediately how different. 

That being said, that book left me with a feeling a dread like no other has. I actually had palpable feelings of anxiety when I went to read it before going to sleep. It has the single most harrowing scene that I have ever read in a book, and another that's a close second.

I loved it, but it's not at all like Blood Meridian

Edited March 19, 2018 by colin007
Spelling

[JetFan1983]

3 hours ago, colin007 said:

Lol that's just my warped imagination

No wonder you like McCarthy. 

3 hours ago, colin007 said:

Hmm.....The Road is very, VERY different. Like if you just picked up the book and turned to a random page, you'd see immediately how different. 

That being said, that book left me with a feeling a dread like no other has. I actually had palpable feelings of anxiety when I went to read it before going to sleep. It has the single most harrowing scene that I have ever read in a book, and another that's a close second.

I loved it, but it's not at all like Blood Meridian

Gotcha. I bought it today along with Outer Dark, which I know zero about, but I figure this guy's earned himself a few points with me. It'll probably take me a few months to get around to them, but I'm looking forward to it whenever it happens. 

 

 

[colin007]

9 minutes ago, JetFan1983 said:

No wonder you like McCarthy. 

Gotcha. I bought it today along with Outer Dark, which I know zero about, but I figure this guy's earned himself a few points with me. It'll probably take me a few months to get around to them, but I'm looking forward to it whenever it happens. 

The Road will go quickly, take your time and savor it. 

Please tag me when you finish and let me know what you thought