Happy 50th anniversary to America's greatest novel.

[maddafinga]

one of my favorite books is "The Count of Monti Cristo" 

I just finished reading that a few weeks ago.  Hadn't read it since high school.  Great book.

[RTHolmes]

the world would be a better place if everyone had read and understood to kill a mockingbird

I like all the "great american novels" ive read, esp moby dick and grapes of wrath. the only exception is catcher in the rye, just a boring, boring book with nothing at all to commend it. I really dont understand why people like it.

greatest Book/Books/short stories to come out of America, was written by A guy born and raised in Texas, in 1932 and was in fact a short story

without hitting google thats completely got me stumped

[Nwbie]

Pass the Daaaam Ham!

"Hey Boo"

[maddafinga]

the world would be a better place if everyone had read and understood to kill a mockingbird

I like all the "great american novels" ive read, esp moby dick and grapes of wrath. the only exception is catcher in the rye, just a boring, boring book with nothing at all to commend it. I really dont understand why people like it.


without hitting google thats completely got me stumped

Yeah, Grapes of Wrath was fantastic, Steinbeck was wonderful.  I'm about halfway through Moby Dick right now.  It is great, but tough to work my way through.  I'm reading other stuff while I get through it too. 

Anyone ever read Flowers for Algernon?

[bozon]

Catch-22 is the single greatest piece of literature ever bound into a book.
If you believe things like patriotism, god or capitalism - beware.

[shiv]

Never read Grapes of Wrath, I'll pick it up though.  Moby Dick is great - I had to skim a lot of the chapters on the technical side of whaling though:)    Catch 22 is great for sure.  I'd have to add Gravity's Rainbow to the other nominations and also a dark horse candidate: The World According to Garp.

[maddafinga]

Never read Grapes of Wrath, I'll pick it up though.  Moby Dick is great - I had to skim a lot of the chapters on the technical side of whaling though:)    Catch 22 is great for sure.  I'd have to add Gravity's Rainbow to the other nominations and also a dark horse candidate: The World According to Garp.

Read Garp last year and it was good, but a bit manipulative I thought.  Still an excellent book.  I'll have to get Gravity's Rainbow, haven't heard of that one.  And I did absolutely totally love Catch 22.  

I still have to put in more votes for Cormac McCarthy.  No Country for Old Men is absolutely fantastic, I finished reading it and turned right back around and read it again.  It's a much deeper novel philosophically than the excellent Cohen Brother's movie was.  Blood Meridian is just brilliant, it's a story with so much underneath just begging to be interpreted and mulled over at great length, much like Moby Dick in fact.  All the Pretty Horses is just a wonderful and fantastic story in its own right, without all the tremendous philosophical undertones.  He's one of the all time greatest living writers in my opinion, and many other people's to boot.  

Also, how about Shogun!!!  One of the best I've ever read, along with Lonesome Dove.  Long but great!

[shiv]

Read Garp last year and it was good, but a bit manipulative I thought.  Still an excellent book.  I'll have to get Gravity's Rainbow, haven't heard of that one.  And I did absolutely totally love Catch 22.  

I still have to put in more votes for Cormac McCarthy.  No Country for Old Men is absolutely fantastic, I finished reading it and turned right back around and read it again.  It's a much deeper novel philosophically than the excellent Cohen Brother's movie was.  Blood Meridian is just brilliant, it's a story with so much underneath just begging to be interpreted and mulled over at great length, much like Moby Dick in fact.  All the Pretty Horses is just a wonderful and fantastic story in its own right, without all the tremendous philosophical undertones.  He's one of the all time greatest living writers in my opinion, and many other people's to boot.  

Also, how about Shogun!!!  One of the best I've ever read, along with Lonesome Dove.  Long but great!

But what novels aren't manipulative?

Like McCarthy a lot, Blood Meridian is my favorite, just phenomenal.  Also liked Suttree and All the Pretty Horses.   I'll have to try No Country For Old Men, thanks for that.  Lonesome Dove is great too, a bit too many sequels and prequels though maybe.  Never tried Shogun but I did read King Rat last year and quite enjoyed it.  

What is the Robert E. Howard story anyway?  I have one collection of the Conan stories, pretty good stuff.

[WMLute]

I agree Shogun was excellent.

(as are pretty much every book i've seen brought up.  read durn near all of 'em)

Might I also suggest...
Anna Karenina and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
The Stories of Anton Chekhov (trust me here)
Ulysses by James Joyce
The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner

[ink]

 

What is the Robert E. Howard story anyway?  I have one collection of the Conan stories, pretty good stuff.

 "The Phoenix on the sword"  I think was his first Conan release

REH is by far my favorite writer and Conan is just awesome, ive got maybe 50 of them, Ive got the year 66 edition of the series with Frank Frazetta  doing the covers, thats what hooked me on Conan when I was 12.like 1982....damn old age creepin up

 

oh ya Shogun was awesome

anybody read "Wolf and Iron" or "Swansong"  Battlefield Earth?

[kilo2]

Ernest Hemingway's The old man and the sea

OR

Herman Melvilles Moby Dick

I never liked To kill a Mockingbird. Maybe it was because I had to read it in highschool, it just was not my thing.

Lately I have been on a Russian literature kick. Tolstoy IMO one of the greatest writers of all time.

[RTHolmes]

Ernest Hemingway's The old man and the sea

also great

Anna Karenina and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Ulysses by James Joyce

all on my list but tbh ive been putting them off for years cus theyre all really looooong.

just started The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana, not sure about it yet though, Eco is happier in the middle ages I reckon.

[maddafinga]

"The Phoenix on the sword"  I think was his first Conan release

REH is by far my favorite writer and Conan is just awesome, ive got maybe 50 of them, Ive got the year 66 edition of the series with Frank Frazetta  doing the covers, thats what hooked me on Conan when I was 12.like 1982....damn old age creepin up

 

oh ya Shogun was awesome

anybody read "Wolf and Iron" or "Swansong"  Battlefield Earth?

I tried reading some Hubbard years ago, but it was so bad I just couldn't stand it and gave him up entirely.  That was before I knew anything about his scientology type of stuff.  I can't bring myself to give him another shot, that stuff was so bad it was like a parody, but without the irony and humor. 

I do love some scifi though, Larry Niven is one of my all time favorite writers, and Orson Scott Card, Arthur C. Clarke, Neal Stevenson is a recent fav, but I really love him.  Phillip K Dick is probably in my top two or three all time favorite authors. 

I have the Tolstoy but haven't cracked into it just yet.  I want to finish Moby Dick first, and the Sherlock Holmes and The Three Musketeers that I'm reading right now before I get into anything that massive. 

Pretty much all of the Hemmingway I've read is fantastic, I love him dearly.  I also really really love some Jack London, not just his Alaskan stuff, but his other more serious lit is really really good as well, and the short stories.  John Barleycorn is a great book, but my favorite of his is Martin Eden, just fantastic. 

Shiv gets bonus points for having read Blood Meridian!   What do you think the Judge stood for in that?

Excellent thread here, I've added a few books to my kindle because of it now!

[Soulyss]

Yeah, Grapes of Wrath was fantastic, Steinbeck was wonderful.  I'm about halfway through Moby Dick right now.  It is great, but tough to work my way through.  I'm reading other stuff while I get through it too. 

Anyone ever read Flowers for Algernon?

I had to read Grapes of Wrath in high school and I remember just hating it, the only chapter I enjoyed was I believe the 2nd one with the turtle crossing the road (the one everyone makes fun of ).  One of these days I should probably give it another try.  I read Mockingbird in highschool as well and enjoyed it much more.  Since then I've read a couple others that have been mentioned, Catch-22 being one of my all time favorites.   

Another favorite is called The Things the Carried by Tim O'Brien, it's relatively short and can be read in a day or two but I loved it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Things_They_Carried

[gyrene81]

The Old Man and the Sea...greatest novel of the 20th Century.