5 Books Everybody Should Read

[QUOTE=JKabol]^^^Barnes & Nobel, right? Picked up the same book. Have TSpotting, too. Haven't read either. Yet. Will read them one weekend. That specific weekend just hasn't come yet. Sorry, can't help you with an answer. Can only say that I am pretty much in the same position[/QUOTE]

they are both quick reads, only tough part about them is getting aquintated with the *Whoah Likesay, gaunnae hav tae stoap ye thair.* speech. But after a few pages there isn't a pause whenever you run the words in you head when you read.

The easiest way to get into it is to start out reading aloud. Everything's spelled phoentically, so it's actually a lot easier to figure out what the hell he's saying when you can hear it.

[QUOTE=Rents]The easiest way to get into it is to start out reading aloud. Everything's spelled phoentically, so it's actually a lot easier to figure out what the hell he's saying when you can hear it.[/QUOTE]

I had so many people ask me what the hell I was reading when they heard me reading this aloud at work.

[QUOTE=JKabol]^^^Barnes & Nobel, right? Picked up the same book. Have TSpotting, too. Haven't read either. Yet. Will read them one weekend. That specific weekend just hasn't come yet. Sorry, can't help you with an answer. Can only say that I am pretty much in the same position[/QUOTE]
Yeah, Barnes & Noble is correct. They also had a hard cover copy of On Writing by Stephen King for 4.95. If I didn't already own it, I for sure would have scooped it up. Sort of disappointing when you see that though. I spent 13 or 14 on my paperback.

i need a new book, rules of attraction was good but it left me with nothing other than i called an all girls college over here camden a bunch of times in convorsation.

for christmas im getting
a couple books, i cant remember what i put on my list other than house of leaves

so please people suggest something wild crazy and off the wall (other than V)

im really leaning twards finding running with sissors(cant remmeber who wrote it but i remember it was some twisted sick true story)

Think I know what you are asking for

my recommendation: [url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0452281296/officchuckpalaha?dev-t=D3FHEEBA8BTJZL%26camp=2025%26link_code=sp1]In The Cut[/url] by Susanna Moore

a slim novel like one-eighty pages, but a wonderful field trip nonetheless

plus ellis is a fan of hers

[QUOTE=JKabol]Think I know what you are asking for

my recommendation: [url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0452281296/officchuckpalaha?dev-t=D3FHEEBA8BTJZL%26camp=2025%26link_code=sp1]In The Cut[/url] by Susanna Moore

a slim novel like one-eighty pages, but a wonderful field trip nonetheless

plus ellis is a fan of hers[/QUOTE]

that sounds really fucking cool actually. i think ill order that one along with

Running with Scissors: A Memoir
by Augusten Burroughs

[QUOTE=Ballerina]You actually get used to the the way it's written after a while. To anyone looking over your shoulder it will look like you're reading absoute gibberish, but you'll know exactly what it says. It was a weird sense of accomplishment for me. Now, I haven't read Trainspotting, but I [I]have[/I] seen the movie. I couldn't remember the movie very well, so I was kind of inbetween knowing what happened in Trainspotting and having no idea. And I'll say the book made enough sense. It's my new favourite book for now. So I say buy it.[/QUOTE]

Your favourite book...

that you havent read....

what the fuck

[QUOTE=MockyMockins]Your favourite book...

that you havent read....

what the fuck[/QUOTE]
What book haven't I read?

[QUOTE=Ballerina]What book haven't I read?[/QUOTE]

hes reffering to in your post before you said you havent read trainspotting yet, and you barely remember the movie, but near the end you call it your new favorite book

haha no worrys i say stupid shit 10x more

I'm thinking......
Steppenwolf, Hesse
Beautiful Losers, Cohen
Tropic of Cancer, Miller
Mother night, Vonnegut
(or really all big daddy KV)
and maybe 'Neon Venacular' by Yusef Komunyakaa
/rumi

Haven't read any of chuck's books yet though :

[QUOTE=phlegmatics]hes reffering to in your post before you said you havent read trainspotting yet, and you barely remember the movie, but near the end you call it your new favorite book

haha no worrys i say stupid shit 10x more[/QUOTE]
Maybe I didn't phrase my post very clearly. The question I was answering was whether, having not read [I]Trainspotting[/I], [I]Porno[/I] would be hard to understand. And by hard to understand I mean plot-wise, not language-wise. What I said was that [I]I[/I] read [I]Porno[/I] but [B]hadn't[/B] read [I]Trainspotting[/I], and understood [I]Porno[/I] just fine.

[QUOTE=Ballerina]Maybe I didn't phrase my post very clearly. The question I was answering was whether, having not read [I]Trainspotting[/I], [I]Porno[/I] would be hard to understand. And by hard to understand I mean plot-wise, not language-wise. What I said was that [I]I[/I] read [I]Porno[/I] but [B]hadn't[/B] read [I]Trainspotting[/I], and understood [I]Porno[/I] just fine.[/QUOTE]

Now it makes sense.

thanks

[QUOTE=MockyMockins]Now it makes sense.

thanks[/QUOTE]
No problem.

I'm trying to post something over there---->
and it keeps ending up over here <------
shit
God, I hate math!

[right]There ?[/right]
[center]Here ?[/center]
Or here ?

I dont understand your math

but you seem confused so welcome to the cult we all confused here mostly

Well,

I finally reordered -reordered- reordered [I]Ice at the Bottom of the World[/I], and [I]the Contortionist's Handbook[/I]. If it doesn't come this time it was never meant to be. Plus, it better be freaking worth it.

I'm almost done [I]Memoirs of Geisha,[/I]
I know Ballerina was reading it. I'd like to know what you think. Just don't post the ending--yet

I don't know, I thought it stated great, but last hundred pages are starting to be a let down.

Wait, What is this post? Oh, books to read.

you can ignore my nonsense.

[QUOTE=the audacity!]Dear Jill,

Prometheus Unbound was written by Percy Bysshe Shelley, not Mary Shelley.

Equal Opportunity bashing.[/QUOTE]

:eek: You are Correct Sir!

Mary's was "Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus"

That means I must have in fact added a (non-epic-style) poem as "a must read" to my list! My apologies everyone. In my efforts to slice and dice my 'must reads' I made (oh my god) a mistake.

Thank you for correcting me.

Ok here goes
no order

- [B]Slapstick [/B] Vonnegut (how can you go wrong with Incestuous Neanderthal twins)

- [B]Apology [/B] plato (or really any Socrates other than the Republic)

- [B]Sirens of titan[/B] vonnegut

- [B]Catcher in the Rye [/B] (I know, not real original, but I read it right after I quite my band and the world was against me, or so it seemed. Perfect fit - makes the list)

- [B]Survivor [/B] Chuck

Give me another decade and I'll give you a new list

You list two Vonneguts and no PKD? Pynchon? Bradbury?

Of course as my prior post indicates, I think the five is a bullshit number.

If you're going for 'island picks' where five books have to last you the rest of your life with no other input, the list changes if you're remotely realistic. In that scenario the Russian classics become short reads. The list gets weighted down with Dickens, maybe Pynchon, Wolfe, Homer and the Bible. Or Joyce.

A recent addition to my list would be 'To Kill A Mockingbird' and 'Middlesex.'

The Doors of Perception - Aldous Huxley
The Curse of Lono - Hunter Thompson
Hashish - Henry de Monfreid
Stone Junction - Jim Dodge
Fugitives and Refugees - Chuck (I just moved to Portland)

[QUOTE=monfreid]The Doors of Perception - Aldous Huxley[/QUOTE]
How could i forget that one? i've read it five times. Good catch.

[QUOTE=monfreid]The Doors of Perception - Aldous Huxley
[/QUOTE]
I'm with you and Jekyll on this one too. I've read it three times. After the first reading, entirely new worlds soon became available to me -- I just followed Huxley's path. And for that I shall be eternally grateful. Sometimes, as Blake once wrote, every thing will appear to me as it is, infinite.

Has anyone read Albert Hofmann's "My Problem Child"? It's a good pairing up with "The Doors of Perception." You can find the complete text on the Internet.

1) On The Road ~ Kerouac
2) Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas ~ HST
3) Choke ~ CP
4) Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genious ~ Eggers
5) Catch-22 ~ Heller

For all you book lovers out there:

1) "American Psycho" by Bret Easton Ellis
2) "White Oleander" by Janet Fitch
3) "Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk
4) "Requiem for a Dream" by Hubert Selby, Jr.
5) "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath

ON THE ROAD -- Jack Kerouac
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT -- Fyodor Dostoyevsky
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE -- J.D. Salinger
FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS -- Hunter Thompson
THE GREAT GATSBY -- F. Scott Fitzgerald

(on another day, in another time, I'd pick five totally different books...)

Classics:
[I]The Grapes of Wrath[/I] - John Steinbeck
[I]The Catcher in the Rye[/I] - J.D. Salinger
[I]1984[/I] - George Orwell
[I]Brave New World[/I] - Aldous Huxley
[I]Catch-22[/I] - Joseph Heller

Some personal favorites (Fiction):
[I]Mother Night[/I] - Kurt Vonnegut
[I]The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay[/I] - Michael Chabon
[I]The Rum Diary[/I] - Hunter S. Thompson
[I]As She Climbed Across the Table[/I] - Jonathan Lethem
[I]Requiem for a Dream[/I] - Hubert Selby Jr.

Non-Fiction:
[I]Miles[/I] - Miles Davis
[I]Autobiography of Malcolm X[/I] - Malcolm X
[I]In Cold Blood[/I] - Truman Capote
[I]A People's History of the United States[/I] - Howard Zinn
[I]Blow[/I] - Bruce Porter
[I]Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life[/I] - John Lee Anderson

[QUOTE=DrFunk97]Classics:
[I]The Grapes of Wrath[/I] - John Steinbeck
[I]The Catcher in the Rye[/I] - J.D. Salinger
[I]1984[/I] - George Orwell
[I]Brave New World[/I] - Aldous Huxley
[I]Catch-22[/I] - Joseph Heller

Some personal favorites (Fiction):
[I]Mother Night[/I] - Kurt Vonnegut
[I]The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay[/I] - Michael Chabon
[I]The Rum Diary[/I] - Hunter S. Thompson
[I]As She Climbed Across the Table[/I] - Jonathan Lethem
[I]Requiem for a Dream[/I] - Hubert Selby Jr.

Non-Fiction:
[I]Miles[/I] - Miles Davis
[I]Autobiography of Malcolm X[/I] - Malcolm X
[I]In Cold Blood[/I] - Truman Capote
[I]A People's History of the United States[/I] - Howard Zinn
[I]Blow[/I] - Bruce Porter
[I]Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life[/I] - John Lee Anderson[/QUOTE]
Dharma Bums/ kerouak
Post Office/ Bukowski
The Fountainhead/ Rand
Painted Bird/ Kosinski
Faranheit 451/ Bradbury

Best C.P. book Choke

I can only think of 4 out-standing books!

In no order:

Fight Club
The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides
Hunger - Knut Hamsun
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

If you check out 'Hunger' or 'Mysteries' by Hamsun, i swear they will make your lists too

In order

1.Any book by CP (far above any other books ive read)
2.the talisman
3.Generation X
4.The Stranger
5.A cather in the rye

[QUOTE=snuffy]I see a lot of people list jack Keruac books. It's funny, because i know it's worth reading, I've just met so many detestable people who love "On the Road," so i avoid it. I know you can't blame the work for it's fans, but why is it that so many yuppies, social hippies, pseudo-philosopers, and other pieces of human waste love this book so much?[/QUOTE]

I love Kerouac for the honesty in his writing. I think his descriptions of his experiences in "On the Road" and "Dharma Bums" particularly are moving and I'd say both these books are must reads. I enjoy a lot of Kerouac's other books as well, however since they're practically autobiographies his later works like "Big Sur" get somewhat depressing as alcoholism controls his life and he constantly sways between his love of personal freedom and self destruction. Being one of the major writers in the Beat movement, I can see how there's several people who enjoy his work that you can't stand but I wouldn't let this sway you from giving one of his books a try. If anything they're short and read quickly.

No order.

Catcher in the Rye - Salinger
Kiss Me Judas - Baer
The Rum Diary - Thompson
Eye Scream - Rollins
Lullaby - Palahniuk

keruoac was a shit. when they tried to build a memorial for him in lowell, there were protests because he was such a bastard.

his books are all the same - a couple of drug-infused clods go wenching.

[QUOTE=vidalia]keruoac was a shit. when they tried to build a memorial for him in lowell, there were protests because he was such a bastard.

his books are all the same - a couple of drug-infused clods go wenching.[/QUOTE]

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

I found a guest looking at this thread and it looked interesting. So now you have to see what my five books are that everyone should read:
Ishmael, Fight Club, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Diary and Survivor.

[QUOTE=ally]I found a guest looking at this thread and it looked interesting. So now you have to see what my five books are that everyone should read:
Ishmael, Fight Club, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Diary and Survivor.[/QUOTE]
3 chuck books ? chucks great and all but not [i]that[/i] great

I knew someone was going to comment on that. I couldn't think of any really great books that everyone should read, so I just listed some good books. In my revised version, I would cut my list down to just one book. I thought Ishmael was awesome. The other books are good, but Ishmael is definitely my favorite.

if you stick around this site for a year or so im sure the rest of us will have you knee deep in great books for you to list

in no particular order:

1) catcher in the rye - J.D. Salinger
2) less than zero - Bret Ellis
3) Factotum - Bukowski
4) 1984 - Orwell
5) Choke - CP

These should be taught in schools.

Well two already are but the rest should be as well.

[QUOTE=britrocker]in no particular order:

1) catcher in the rye - J.D. Salinger
2) less than zero - Bret Ellis
3) Factotum - Bukowski
4) 1984 - Orwell
5) Choke - CP

These should be taught in schools.

Well two already are but the rest should be as well.[/QUOTE]
I don't think the content in the other three is quite school appropriate. At least not high school. Bukowski was awkward enough to discuss in a college classroom I can't imagine parents, school boards, or most anyone else approving going into detail about his writing for high school students.

I'd have to go look at my book collection to figure out my five.

Slaughterhouse Five - Vonnegut
Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers
All My Friends are Going to be Strangers - Larry McMurtry
Survivor - Palahniuk
The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald

[QUOTE=ally]I found a guest looking at this thread and it looked interesting. So now you have to see what my five books are that everyone should read:
Ishmael, Fight Club, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Diary and Survivor.[/QUOTE]

You've already been jumped for this, but I think you're over-representing Chuck even for a Cult thread.

Of Chuck's books, the one that sticks with me as a dessert island pick is 'Survivor.' Instead of a sophomore slump, his second book is his best so far IMHO.

Of course any list of five gets silly, but given that no pre-20th Century European literature is not based in biblical material, the Bible would be the default #1, and this from a non-Xtian.

I think a realistic fiver would also have to include something from the Big Three, which is not Palahniuk, WCB and Clevenger, it's Faulkner, Hemingway and Steinbeck. Probably a book from each of them would be in order but that leaves you with only one slot, so if you call it as 'Flags in the Dust' or 'Grapes of Wrath' and moved on you'd be safe.

'Survivor' is starting to look like small beer at this point, it might have to give up a slot for 'The Sun Also Rises' or 'A Farewell to Arms.'

Some short story compilations would belong on a top five, but again there's more than five. Raymond Carver, John Cheever, James Thurber, Amy Hempel, T.C. Boyle, there's five authors with short story collections worthy of consideration. Six with Thom Jones, seven with Mark Richard.

Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, etc., all have books that belong on a top-five but if you want to stick to the Modern, what about Terry Southern's 'Magic Christian' and HST's 'Hell's Angels?' Toni Morrison's 'The Bluest Eye' or 'Beloved?' Phillip Roth, John Irving, Tom Wolfe, Barry Hannah, Lionel Shriver, Pynchon, DeLillo, Max Barry, Cormac McCarthy, Elmore Leonard, Vonnegut, Lethem, Chabon, Paul Auster, Bradbury, PKD, Burgess...

Oh God, why do I even try to write? I can't even list the authors who deserve a slot in the top five, my hand cramp up and my brain starts to misfire. Who in the hell do I think I am trying to add to the pile?

top five in no order:
The moon and sixpence--W. Somerset Maugham
Tropic of Cancer--Henry Miller
The Count of Monte Cristo--Alexandre Dumas
Dubliners--James Joyce
The Brothers Karamazov--Dostoyevsky (but i'd probably want his complete work)

Someone already said something about my list having too many Chuck Palahniuk books. And, like I said, I just couldn't think of any books that everyone should read. I doubt that the bible would be on my list because if I was to do that, I might as well add the Bhagavad Gita or the Ramayana. And I have read Steinbeck, Dickens and Hemingway, but I didn't think that they were really books that everyone should read. Also, personally, I thought Beloved sucked. But Dermaphoria might be a good one to add to my list. I don't know. Its hard to remember every single book that I have read over the years, and pick only five.

id say you shouldnt have to even think about which books had the most affect on you they oughta just jump out and bite ya on the ass

[QUOTE=ally]Someone already said something about my list having too many Chuck Palahniuk books. And, like I said, I just couldn't think of any books that everyone should read. I doubt that the bible would be on my list because if I was to do that, I might as well add the Bhagavad Gita or the Ramayana. And I have read Steinbeck, Dickens and Hemingway, but I didn't think that they were really books that everyone should read. Also, personally, I thought Beloved sucked. But Dermaphoria might be a good one to add to my list. I don't know. Its hard to remember every single book that I have read over the years, and pick only five.[/QUOTE]

Heh, you trying to pick a fight? I love 'Contortionist's Handbook,' but 'Dermaphoria was lucky to see a laser printer let alone a best-five list.

My reason for including the Bible had no religious basis, strictly literary, and no Eastern text is even in second place. Before Herman Hesse, no one west of Tehran even knew about any of that stuff, which you can hold against Melville, Dickens, Tolstoy, etc., all you want, but it doesn't make it any more culturally relevant. Even among the uber-modern, 99% woudn't know Sidhartha from a Pottery Barn catalogue.

To say you've read Steinbeck, Dickens and Hemingway and don't consider their books ones everyone should read strikes me as disingenuous. If youv'e read them, surely you've thought at least one or two were stand-outs. If you think, as I do, that 'Grapes of Wrath' gets to preachy and heavy handed, what about 'Tortilla Flats' or 'Cannery Row?' If you think 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' is too literally Spanish and too sympathetic to Communists, what about 'Farewell to Arms?' If you think 'Oliver Twist' is over the top, what about 'Tale of Two Cities?'

Etc.

You say you thought 'Beloved' sucked, and that's fine. Not everyone digs Toni Morrison, and I don't always. I thought 'Love' was turgid and pretentious, but I was comparing it to 'Bluest Eye,' 'Sula' and 'Beloved' when I read it. If it had been a debut novel by someone else I might have been blown away, but Toni has raised my expectations beyond 'Love.'

I'm not trying to shit on you for loving Chuck. I love Chuck or I wouldn't be here. But being a bookish sort, I can't see giving him the weight you have, considering the other material on the scale.

[QUOTE=Chixulub]Heh, you trying to pick a fight? I love 'Contortionist's Handbook,' but 'Dermaphoria was lucky to see a laser printer let alone a best-five list.

My reason for including the Bible had no religious basis, strictly literary, and no Eastern text is even in second place. Before Herman Hesse, no one west of Tehran even knew about any of that stuff, which you can hold against Melville, Dickens, Tolstoy, etc., all you want, but it doesn't make it any more culturally relevant. Even among the uber-modern, 99% woudn't know Sidhartha from a Pottery Barn catalogue.

To say you've read Steinbeck, Dickens and Hemingway and don't consider their books ones everyone should read strikes me as disingenuous. If youv'e read them, surely you've thought at least one or two were stand-outs. If you think, as I do, that 'Grapes of Wrath' gets to preachy and heavy handed, what about 'Tortilla Flats' or 'Cannery Row?' If you think 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' is too literally Spanish and too sympathetic to Communists, what about 'Farewell to Arms?' If you think 'Oliver Twist' is over the top, what about 'Tale of Two Cities?'

Etc.

You say you thought 'Beloved' sucked, and that's fine. Not everyone digs Toni Morrison, and I don't always. I thought 'Love' was turgid and pretentious, but I was comparing it to 'Bluest Eye,' 'Sula' and 'Beloved' when I read it. If it had been a debut novel by someone else I might have been blown away, but Toni has raised my expectations beyond 'Love.'

I'm not trying to shit on you for loving Chuck. I love Chuck or I wouldn't be here. But being a bookish sort, I can't see giving him the weight you have, considering the other material on the scale.[/QUOTE]
Everyone reads for a different purpose. I read for enjoyment and so I just wrote books that I personally found enjoyable. True, they might not be books that you think everyone should nor really do I, but they are books that I like. I really haven't found any books that I have read that I think everyone should read. The only book that comes close would be Ishmael. After reading that, I was in awe. I had never looked at things the way they were described in the book. And I think you should be glad that I over represented Chuck Palahniuk, who is a good writer, and not some writer like J K Rowlings or Dan Brown, whose books I think are not so great.

[QUOTE=Agonymouse]

If you check out 'Hunger' or 'Mysteries' by Hamsun, i swear they will make your lists too[/QUOTE]
i got these two ordered, can't wait to dive into em

[QUOTE=Chixulub]dessert island[/QUOTE]

Please tell me this place exists.

Yes. There are chocolate waterfalls and ice cream volcanos.