Your 7 Favorite Books Ever

[nullnor]

i don't think i've ever read 7 books all the way through. i've partially read some of the books you guys listed. i would think being fans of 1984 and animal farm you guys would list Watership Down since that is basically 1984 and Animal farm sort of. when you can explain the complexities of life in a way that isn't obvious at first the way Richard Adams did. but i mostly read non-fiction. i didn't like Brave New World. it was probably my fault though that i didn't.

1 Watership Down
2 1984
3 Rumble Fish
4 Hamlet
5 The Stand
6 This Present Darkness (Frank E. Peretti, religion)
7 Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women (Susan Faludi, non-fiction feminist)

[Fresno Bob]

Is he a great writer, or a good writer with a great imagination? I liken The Amber Chronicles to the original Star Wars movie trilogy - the writing is kind of basic in the artistic sense, but the universe (Zelazny/Lucas) created is so fantastic, I can get past it. I feel the same way about Tolkien - I always say LOTR is the greatest story ever told, but I wouldn't call it the greatest story ever written. Is there a difference? Maybe I'm splitting hairs.

"Lord of Light" is my favorite Zelazny.....

I try to read 100 books a year, so nailing down my 7 favorites would be really hard. You can follow me on Goodreads and see what I've ranked the last 700 or so books I've read

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/8656190-fresno-bob

If forced to list the top 7 books that have had a impact on me, it would have to be

Dune:Frank Herbert
The Illustrated Man:Ray Bradbury
Alive:The Story of the Andes Survivors
Guns, Germs and Steel: Diamond
The Good War: Studs Terkel
Player of Games: Ian Banks
The Art of Sensual Massage

[Sour Masher]

Is he a great writer, or a good writer with a great imagination? I liken The Amber Chronicles to the original Star Wars movie trilogy - the writing is kind of basic in the artistic sense, but the universe (Zelazny/Lucas) created is so fantastic, I can get past it. I feel the same way about Tolkien - I always say LOTR is the greatest story ever told, but I wouldn't call it the greatest story ever written. Is there a difference? Maybe I'm splitting hairs.

Good point--it depends on how we define "good writer." I agree that what makes him stand out is his ideas, but for me, that is part of good writing. I keep hammering that home with my students with academic and business writing. It doesn't matter how artful or articulate you are if your ideas aren't good. I am a sucker for artful, sleek prose too, and, ideally, you can get both, but good stories, good characters, worlds, those make for great writing for me as well, even if the way such stories are told may be less than perfect. And the Star Wars trilogy is a wonderful example of that, I agree. Lucas was pretty basic (in places, I'd go so far as to say hackish) with his writing, but what a great world, and what a great telling of the heroes journey. Same with Tolkien. Some of his writing is tedious, and I've certainly read better/tighter prose. But man, what an imagination! What a world! It almost reads as real history. He makes such fanciful things seem so real.

Another example of this for me is that I can enjoy fan translations of mangas that don't have easily accessible professional translations in English. Some of these fan-made translations are really rough, with poor scans of the artwork, and pretty bad translations that are hard to follow in places. But they are usually good enough to get the general story points across, so I still get close to the same amount of enjoyment out of them. I lose the nuances that I'd get with a more skilled translation, but I still enjoy some of them.

And I'm glad you are going to check out Mimsy...I may be overselling it, but I just loved the idea behind that story.

[Sour Masher]

Dune:Frank Herbert
The Illustrated Man:Ray Bradbury
Alive:The Story of the Andes Survivors
Guns, Germs and Steel: Diamond
The Good War: Studs Terkel
Player of Games: Ian Banks
The Art of Sensual Massage

Haha, I got a kick out of your 7th choice. I've used Studs Terkel in the classroom before. I'll have to check out The Good War. I love the Illustrated Man too. Hell, I love all of Bradbury's short stories, if we can count those collections in these lists. The October Country, as I think on it now, was probably more impactful on me than The Martian Chronicles. Bradbury seemed a little curmudgeonly in his later years, but really fun to read in my youth.

Edit: Revo, thanks for starting this thread. I'm getting lots of good reading options here.

[rhd]

Difficult task but here are 7 that come to mind:

1 - The Covenant, James Michener - I think this is the 1st Michener book I read. I think this was the book that made me love the historical novel. It's about the history of South Africa. In addition to the historical narrative, it portrayed South Africa as a country of great beauty. I've wanted to go there ever since but havent made it yet.
2 - The Aztec, Gary Jennings - Another historical novel. I bought this on my first trip to Mexico City. It's about the Aztec Empire up to the time of the Spanish conquest. Jennings is good at weaving memorable love stories into his narrative. It's one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read.
3 - A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens - This, of course, is a classic but I read it because I was captivated by the movie, which is another theme in my bookreading choices. The incredible act of heroism and sacrifice at the end make this one of the most powerful stories I've ever heard of. You could almost call this a historical novel, too.
4 - Sophie's Choice, William Styron - Another book I was inspired to read after seeing the movie. A rare case where the movie was great but the book was even better. In addition to the incredibly powerful story, I was impressed by the level of historical detail in the book.
5 - Shogun, James Clavell - Still another book I read after seeing the video production. It's a historical novel about an English ship captain's voyage to Japan in the feudal era and is based on a true story. The book goes into so much more detail about what's happening than portrayed in the TV production.
6 - Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte - Yes, this was inspired by my seeing the movie, also. This is a strange tale in so many ways, which is part of why it appeals to me. The love story itself is very strange (boy loves girl, girl loves boy but rejects boy to marry someone else, boy still loves girl but marries girl's sister-in-law, girl decides to kill herself, boy and girl finally get together after death). Also strange is that this was written in the Victorian era and the author was a teenager and never really had a romantic relationship herself. Less than half of the story is portrayed in the 1939 movie version.
7 - Pimp: The Story of My Life, Robert Beck (Iceberg Slim) - Can you guess which one of these is not like the others? I found this to be a very fascinating tale of a side of life that I would otherwise know nothing about. This is an autobiographical story about a black man's career as a pimp in the midwest in the '30s and '40s. Beck is apparently completely self-taught as a writer but he sure knows how to deliver a story. He says he has a 170 IQ and I can believe it.

[Mithrandir]

Difficult task but here are 7 that come to mind:

1 - The Covenant, James Michener - I think this is the 1st Michener book I read. I think this was the book that made me love the historical novel. It's about the history of South Africa. In addition to the historical narrative, it portrayed South Africa as a country of great beauty. I've wanted to go there ever since but havent made it yet
2 - The Aztec, Gary Jennings - Another historical novel. I bought this on my first trip to Mexico City. It's about the Aztec Empire up to the time of the Spanish conquest. Jennings is good at weaving memorable love stories into his narrative. It's one of the most enjoyable books I've ever read.
3 - A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens - This, of course, is a classic but I read it because I was captivated by the movie, which is another theme in my bookreading choices. The incredible act of heroism and sacrifice at the end make this one of the most powerful stories I've ever heard of. You could almost call this a historical novel, too.
4 - Sophie's Choice, William Styron - Another book I was inspired to read after seeing the movie. A rare case where the movie was great but the book was even better. In addition to the incredibly powerful story, was impressed by the level of historical detail in the book.
5 - Shogun, James Clavell - Still another book I read after seeing the video production. It's a bistorical novel about an English ship captain's voyage to Japan in the feudal era and based on a true story. The book goes into so much more detail about what's happening than portrayed in the TV production.
6 - Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte - Yes, this was inspired by my seeing the movie, also. This is a steange tale in so many ways, which is part of why it appeals to me. The love story itself is very strange (boy loves girl, girl loves boy but rejects boy to marry someone else, boy still loves girl but marries girl's sister-in-law, girl decides to kill herself, boy and girl finally get together after death). Also strange is that this was written in the Victorian era and the author was a teenager and never really had a romantic relationship herself. Less than half of the story is portrayed in the 1939 movie version.
7 - Pimp: The Story of My Life, Robert Beck (Iceberg Slim) - Can you guess which one of these is not like the others? I found this to be a very fascinating tale of a side life that I would otherwise know nothing about. This is an autobiographical story about a black man's career as a pimp in the midwest in the '30s and '40s. Beck is apparently completely self-taught as a writer but he sure knows how to deliver a story. He says he has a 170 IQ and I can believe it.

I found Wuthering Heights to be the most depressing and despairing novel that I have ever read.

[Hi.I'm.Mandy]

I found Wuthering Heights to be the most depressing and despairing novel that I have ever read.

Clearly you aren't exposed to many books

[Fresno Bob]

I found Wuthering Heights to be the most depressing and despairing novel that I have ever read.

then read "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy, as that would have been my 8th book

[DMT]

Shogun and Sophie's Choice are both good calls.

[onejayhawk]

It would be hard to name my 7 favorite books now, as my tastes have changed a lot over the years. However, like Mith, I'm going to interpret this question as being about which books were the most enjoyable when you read them. For me, my greatest reading experiences happened in my formative years (which, being a slower former, took me through my teens right into my late 20s). I loved all of these books when I first read them (the final two are fix ups, so some may not consider them proper novels, but since I love short stories as much as novels anyway, I had to include them).

1. Captain Blood by Rafael Sabatini (absolute best ending scene in any story, ever, or at least, I felt at the time)
2. Enders Game Orson Scott Card (the movie didn't do it justice; combined with Ender's Shadow, just great read)
3. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester (really overlooked 1950s sci-fi novel; writing is so wonderfully tight)
4. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (I'd love to see this on film, but it would take a trilogy, and it would be an epic bomb)
5. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (always thought Huxley's dystopian novel was better than Orwell's)
6. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson (another book I read in college that spoke to me at the time)
7. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (Bradbury made me envious of a childhood I never had in many of his stories; but this collection was just great sci-fi/fantasy)

Really, these days, I read so few novels, because I fear the time commitment of finishing them. I prefer a light snack of reading before bed, so I'm a sucker for short story anthologies. One of my all time favorite, for some devilish fun, is https://www.amazon.com/Devils-Demons.../dp/0385185634. It is the best collection of demon and devil stories I've ever seen, and they run the gambit for funny to disturbing. I used to love buying anthologies of genre fiction back when book stores were a thing--they'd often be in the bargain bin, and provided great bang for my poor buck.

I've read all of these except Captain Blood. I presume it's the source for the movie of the same name. J. Michael Straczynski is evidently also a fan of The Stars my Destination. He named his epic villain Alfred Bester.

I read epics. 1000 pages is short an 100,000 is possible (Wheel of Time). That said, there are some single books.

Dune
The Hunt for Red October
The Curse of Chalion
The Left Hand of Darkness
Incredible Victory
The Killer Angels
Les Miserables

Series:
Lord of the Rings
The Vorkosigan Saga
The Honorverse
Belesarius Saga
Ring of Fire
Jack Ryan Saga
A Song of Ice and Fire

Juvenile:
Earthsea
Time Quintet (A Wrinkle in Time, etc.)
His Dark Materials (Golden Compass)
Harry Potter

J

[Teenwolf]

Just going to browse my bookshelf...

1) John Steinbeck - Loved the series that follows some bums around (Cannery Row and Tortilla Flat, mainly). Possibly The Winter Of Our Discontent is my favourite, as one of his final and most bitter novels.

2) The Lester Bangs Reader - Blew my mind around the age of 20. I loved seeing how his opinions changed over time, and how he analyzed genres of music to pair with different drugs, or the sexiness of Anne Murray. Hilarious and frantic writing style.

3) Charles Willeford - Cockfighter

This book is wild and disgusting (some of the cockfighting details are gruesome). It's about an obsessive cockfighter (human) who is voluntarily mute, until he wins the big cockfighting prize. It's a real interesting journey to root for the scoundrel. Close 2nd... Willeford's autobiography I Was Looking For A Street. Tells stories of him riding railcars as a child orphan through the depression. Bleak but fascinating. He has many pulpy crime novels that are also good, but these 2 are excellent.

4) Aldous Huxley - Island

Always preferred this to Brave New World.

5) Miranda July - No one belongs here more than you.

Collection of short stories that plays out like her typical strange arthouse films. I'm a big fan.

6) Bob Dylan - Chronicles is a great read. Very interesting style of writing, conversational or confessional. I'm only a so-so Dylan guy, and Lester Bangs had some highly critical shots at him, but his portrayal is nonetheless fascinating.

7) Chuck Klosterman - Killing Yourself To Live

Roadtrip centered on rock star deaths from an author clearly enduring a midlife crisis.

Ender's Game was also big for me. Never waded further into that series, as I hear it gets progressively worse by leaps and bounds, but the original story and concept are perfect.

[Sour Masher]

I've read all of these except Captain Blood. I presume it's the source for the movie of the same name. J. Michael Straczynski is evidently also a fan of The Stars my Destination. He named his epic villain Alfred Bester.

I read epics. 1000 pages is short an 100,000 is possible (Wheel of Time). That said, there are some single books.

J

I highly recommend Captain Blood, if you like adventure tales. Such a fun read. It is the source material for the old movie, but while I enjoyed the movie, it wasn't close to how great the book was (I know that is a cliche, but in this case, I think it is also true). Someone with your voracious appetite for reading could probably finish it in a day or two. Scaramouche is another very good Sabatini novel that was also the basis of an old movie that failed to do it justice.

Also, I admire your ability to devote yourself to epic tales. I used to love them as well, but find these days that I fear such commitments and prefer little snacks of short stories.

Edit: I wouldn't have pegged you as an Ursula Le Guin fan. Good to see her work on your list, getting some love in this thread. She sometimes gets overlooked in the sci-fi pantheon.

[Sour Masher]

4) Aldous Huxley - Island

Always preferred this to Brave New World.

Ender's Game was also big for me. Never waded further into that series, as I hear it gets progressively worse by leaps and bounds, but the original story and concept are perfect.

You reminded me that Island was, long ago, a book I intended on reading, and never did. I just bought it.

Also, I too for a long time avoided any other Ender series books, and after reading a few more, I think you are on safe ground ignoring most of them. However, Ender's Shadow is a must read for anyone who liked Ender's Game. It may even be the better book, but only if you've also read Ender's Game. Card did an amazing job of basically telling by and large the same story, but through Bean's perspective, and making you care just as much. It is really amazing to revisit that same world, at the same time, and see it from another perspective. And the bits that are totally new--Bean's background and future, are great reads.

[onejayhawk]

I wouldn't have pegged you as an Ursula Le Guin fan. Good to see her work on your list, getting some love in this thread. She sometimes gets overlooked in the sci-fi pantheon.

SF is about exploring possibilities. LHoD is about a world without sexual distinctions. This is because everyone can be both male and female, father, mother, or both with frozen sperm. Any of us would be considered deformed, perverted. Ursula le Guin also writes the finest prose in the SF pantheon and it is not close. Lit profs would swoon if they saw it from a student.

I am forced to add another author, though choosing a single book is difficult. Louis McMaster Bujold is simply brilliant. She has the most wonderfully damaged heroes. See edit above.

[Mithrandir]

I highly recommend Captain Blood, if you like adventure tales. Such a fun read. It is the source material for the old movie, but while I enjoyed the movie, it wasn't close to how great the book was (I know that is a cliche, but in this case, I think it is also true). Someone with your voracious appetite for reading could probably finish it in a day or two. Scaramouche is another very good Sabatini novel that was also the basis of an old movie that failed to do it justice.

Also, I admire your ability to devote yourself to epic tales. I used to love them as well, but find these days that I fear such commitments and prefer little snacks of short stories.

Edit: I wouldn't have pegged you as an Ursula Le Guin fan. Good to see her work on your list, getting some love in this thread. She sometimes gets overlooked in the sci-fi pantheon.

But the movie had Errol Flynn!!!