Top ten favourite novels

[Big Lin]

Here's my list:

The Brothers Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoievski)

The House of the Dead (Fyodor Dostoievski)

Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)

A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)

The Charterhouse of Parma (Stendhal)

The Betrothed (Alessandro Manzoni)

David Copperfield (Charles Dickens)

The Rainbow ( D H Lawrence)

The Adventures of Sylvia Scarlett (Compton Mackenzie)

The Tower and the Rising Tide (Caroline Glyn)

[beth]

Nice list, Lyn. I think it's difficult to come up with just a few but these are the ones that immediately come to mind for me.

In no particular order -


Julian, Gore Vidal
An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser
The Gold Coast, Nelson DeMille
Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Snowfall (not the trilogy, just the first book), Mitchell Smith
Beach Music, Pat Conroy
Time and Again, Jack Finney
Burr, Gore Vidal
The Egyptian, Mike Waltari
The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver

VERY Honerable Mention

The Songs of Distant Earth, Arthur C. Clarke
Good Omens, Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
The Hellfire Club, Peter Straub
The Church of Dead Girls, Stephen Dobyns
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides

No matter how good the story, if a novel isn't well written, I can't read it without critiquing it which ruins it for me. (the consequences of being a virgo, I'm sure)

[Alpha Hooligan]

There is no way I could list just 10 novels. Hell, I'd be pushed to list my top ten favorite series...


AH

[fretslider]

Mmmm

The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov

Narziss und Goldmund - Hermann Hesse

The Glass bead game- Hermann Hesse

The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

The Euffe Inheritance - Gabriel Chevalier

The Lord of the Rings - Tolkien

The Basketball Diaries - Jim Carroll

For whom the bell tolls - Ernest Hemingway

1984 - George Orwell

Goodbye to Berlin - Christopher Isherwood

[june]

I'm much like Alpha, so a mix of authors from me:
Terry Pratchett
Robert Rankin
Ian Rankin
Trudy Cannovan
Agatha Christie
Dorothy L Sayers
Glorious Gladys Mitchell
Giovannino Guareschi

I like reading plays and scripts:
Spring and port wine is a favourite play to read
Father Ted scripts
and I do enjoy reading Wilde and Shakespeare


I really enjoyed English literature at school because I do love reading anything and everything but it is an example of my contrary nature that I rail against 'the classics'

I cannot abide reading Dickens - the serialised format drags it on too long - and for the same reason I could not enjoy Defoe.

I find the Victorian female writers far too twee and my natural feminist leanings set me against the characters from the start.

To kill a mocking bird was just tedious and F Scott can F off as far as I am concerned.

Stephen King is possibly the worst writer I have ever read. Why say it in a page when 35 will do, seems to be his mantra!

I am plebeian I suppose....

[fretslider]

Feb 24, 2010 21:41:29 GMT @june said:

I am plebeian I suppose....

Maybe a bit of my class will rub off, who knows.....

[june]

Feb 24, 2010 21:43:28 GMT fretslider said:

Feb 24, 2010 21:41:29 GMT @june said:

I am plebeian I suppose....

Maybe a bit of my class will rub off, who knows.....

Talking of double meanings.....


Actually I am very happy as I am

I've read the classics and flatter myself to think I have a reasonable education but I know that I do not read to 'educate' or 'improve', I read to relax and get lost in another place. I am much the same with films - not a sensible grown up film among them - it's all superheros and cowboys for me

[fretslider]

Feb 24, 2010 21:50:04 GMT @june said:

Feb 24, 2010 21:43:28 GMT fretslider said:

Maybe a bit of my class will rub off, who knows.....

Talking of double meanings.....


Actually I am very happy as I am

I've read the classics and flatter myself to think I have a reasonable education but I know that I do not read to 'educate' or 'improve', I read to relax and get lost in another place. I am much the same with films - not a sensible grown up film among them - it's all superheros and cowboys for me

Then allow me to recommend V for Vendetta - if you haven't seen it

[june]

Feb 24, 2010 21:52:16 GMT fretslider said:

Feb 24, 2010 21:50:04 GMT @june said:

Talking of double meanings.....


Actually I am very happy as I am

I've read the classics and flatter myself to think I have a reasonable education but I know that I do not read to 'educate' or 'improve', I read to relax and get lost in another place. I am much the same with films - not a sensible grown up film among them - it's all superheros and cowboys for me

Then allow me to recommend V for Vendetta - if you haven't seen it

It's in my collection

just don't ask me how many times I have watched iron man....

[fretslider]

Feb 24, 2010 21:54:18 GMT @june said:

Feb 24, 2010 21:52:16 GMT fretslider said:

Then allow me to recommend V for Vendetta - if you haven't seen it

It's in my collection

just don't ask me how many times I have watched iron man....

Mmm, sounds stiff to me - will I get banned for that

[beth]

Quote:
Actually I am very happy as I am

I've read the classics and flatter myself to think I have a reasonable education but I know that I do not read to 'educate' or 'improve', I read to relax and get lost in another place. I am much the same with films - not a sensible grown up film among them - it's all superheros and cowboys for me


I can relate, June. Put me down for superheros and fantasy (LOTR, Princess Bride, Labyrinth etc.), as favorites.

I also know what you mean about Stephen King's tendency to overkill - and on and on and on - and, yet, when it comes to the end of the book, it's as if he looked at his watch and saw the deadline looming . . . and wrapped it up in 4 or 5 pages. Always makes me feel cheated.

He isn't the worst writer though. I reserve that title for those who used to do pretty well - then turned into lazy sell-outs like Robin Cook, James Patterson, Patricia Cornwell, etc., AND the hideous romance writers - Nora Roberts, et al. (shudder)

Most entertaining books on my list - Good Omens, Time and Again and all Bill Bryson's travel books. Oh, and also the Prey series by John Sandford - guklty pleasure.