My favorite novels today:
The Portrait of a LadyWomen in LoveWuthering HeightsThe Great GatsbyThe Mayor of Casterbridge
― My name is Kenny! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:19 (fourteen years ago) link
mayor of casterbridge, far from the madding crowdxposts
― velko, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:19 (fourteen years ago) link
i liked wuthering heights more than i thought i would
― harbl, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:20 (fourteen years ago) link
what's the best Hardy? i LOVED the woodlanders but have read nothing else yet
The Woodlanders is one of his very best, yeah. I love the scene in which Winterbourne hides in the trees while his lover calls his name.
― My name is Kenny! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:20 (fourteen years ago) link
OK, yeah The Mayor of Casterbridge would also have made my top ten as would Tender is the Night which I preferred to the Great Gatsby.
― ☺☻☺☻come on ppl now smile on u brother☺☻☺☻ (ENBB), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:20 (fourteen years ago) link
Midnight's Children is one i forgot.
im gonna check out far from the madding crowd since im pretty sure i read mayor of casterbridge in high school....
― ryan, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:20 (fourteen years ago) link
And all of a sudden my top 5 has become a top 9 possibly 10. lol.
― ☺☻☺☻come on ppl now smile on u brother☺☻☺☻ (ENBB), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:21 (fourteen years ago) link
Calvino "The Baron In The Trees"Fante "Ask The Dust"Doctorow "Billy Bathgate"Dick "Martian Time Slip"Cain "The Postman Always Rings Twice"
no order, first five that came to mind as being candidates for "favorite."
― ian, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:21 (fourteen years ago) link
this thread is perfect timing because i just recently decided to pick up my novel reading to counteract dissertation ennui...was gonna make a second go at Against the Day, which I never finished.
― ryan, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:21 (fourteen years ago) link
Calvino "The Baron In The Trees"
Yes! I thought of this one too.
― My name is Kenny! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:22 (fourteen years ago) link
The Maltese Falcon - Hammett
― ☺☻☺☻come on ppl now smile on u brother☺☻☺☻ (ENBB), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:22 (fourteen years ago) link
i can't boil it down to five, but i will always rep for Pierre, or The AmbiguitiesMcTeague
― velko, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:23 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm not sure abt my inclusion of Ask The Dust, because it's definitely sort of... ridiculous, but as far as explorations of juvenile obsessions go...
― ian, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:24 (fourteen years ago) link
1. Pale Fire - Nabokov2. Jude the Obscure - Hardy3. White Noise - DeLillo4. Heart of Darkness - Conrad5. Our Lady of the Flowers - Genet6. The Trial - Kafka7. Gravity's Rainbow - Pynchon8. Mayor of Casterbridge - Hardy9. The Maltese Falcon - Hammett
ok - top 9 not committing to a top 10 . . . yet
― ☺☻☺☻come on ppl now smile on u brother☺☻☺☻ (ENBB), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:24 (fourteen years ago) link
was also thinking of maybe the Collector by John Fowles.
― ian, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:25 (fourteen years ago) link
oh yeah, Under the Volcano is another one
― velko, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:26 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm going to go look at my bookshelf and see if I can't identify at least one fav book by a woman.
― ☺☻☺☻come on ppl now smile on u brother☺☻☺☻ (ENBB), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:26 (fourteen years ago) link
brb
there was another genet i never finished that i thought would be my all time favorite and i can't remember which one it was :-/
― harbl, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:26 (fourteen years ago) link
oh! the miracle of the rose
i don't read women much. i really enjoyed most of the "Portable" Dorothy Parker though.
― ian, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:27 (fourteen years ago) link
i have kind of the same problem, i mostly read books by dudes. i need to work on that. i remember really liking "a tree grows in brooklyn" when i was like 14 or 15 though. that might be an all-time favorite.
― harbl, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:28 (fourteen years ago) link
The WavesThe Man Who Loved ChildrenThe Ghost WriterThe Folded LeafLincoln
― My name is Kenny! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:29 (fourteen years ago) link
back and nope - I got nothing on the female tip - sad
I do however have a #10!
1. Pale Fire - Nabokov2. Jude the Obscure - Hardy3. White Noise - DeLillo4. Heart of Darkness - Conrad5. Our Lady of the Flowers - Genet6. The Trial - Kafka7. Gravity's Rainbow - Pynchon8. Mayor of Casterbridge - Hardy9. The Maltese Falcon - Hammett10. As I Lay Dying - Faulkner
Now that my list is finalized I'm probably going to get a tattoo of all these stacked on top of one another somewhere on my person.
― ☺☻☺☻come on ppl now smile on u brother☺☻☺☻ (ENBB), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:29 (fourteen years ago) link
Wise BloodThe Optimist's DaughterPersuasion
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is great. I do like some stuff by women writers but just not enough for it to make the top 10.
― ☺☻☺☻come on ppl now smile on u brother☺☻☺☻ (ENBB), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:30 (fourteen years ago) link
What's wrong with you people?! What about George Eliot? If Middlemarch and Daniel Deronda were the only two novels in existence, literature would still thrive.
― My name is Kenny! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:30 (fourteen years ago) link
ha "women writers"
oh yeah i don't think it's top 5. i have a hard time ranking things though.
― harbl, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:31 (fourteen years ago) link
Me too! I've actually been thinking about this for days.
― ☺☻☺☻come on ppl now smile on u brother☺☻☺☻ (ENBB), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:31 (fourteen years ago) link
george eliot is a girl?!?!?!?
lol jk
as I lay dying and wise blood are both awesome.
harry crews "car"
― ian, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:32 (fourteen years ago) link
Alfred I know this is a challop but my entire senior seminar was on George Elliot and I was not the biggest of fans. I would like to re-read now though because I expect that my opinion of her may well have changed.
― ☺☻☺☻come on ppl now smile on u brother☺☻☺☻ (ENBB), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:33 (fourteen years ago) link
Lucky JimAtonementAusterlitz
― My name is Kenny! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:33 (fourteen years ago) link
Cool! I'd love to read it. I reread Middlemarch a few years ago and was sooooo impressed by the...architecture of the thing: these discordant elements in perfect harmony, along with its considerable visceral pluses (her delight in character, the depiction of small town England, etc).
― My name is Kenny! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:34 (fourteen years ago) link
My bookshelf is several thousand miles away but off the top of my head I am sure Daniel Deronda would make the list. Also, Great Expectations; maybe Murphy.
I've always wanted to read Far From the Madding Crowd because the title is so great; have only read Jude the Obscure, which I wasn't too high on.
― The 400 LOLs (dyao), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:37 (fourteen years ago) link
i think blood meridian might have to be on there, despite the slog that is its first hundred pages.
― ian, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:37 (fourteen years ago) link
i will try to report back with a full ten after a few beers.
― ian, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:38 (fourteen years ago) link
the ones that occur to me off the top of my head (and after scanning the thread):
the brothers karamazov -- dostoyevskythe plague -- camussong of solomon -- morrisonwuthering heights -- brontebrideshead revisited -- waughheart of darkness -- conradpride and prejudice -- austenthe dead father -- barthelmeif on a winter's night a traveler -- calvinowaiting for the barbarians -- coetzee100 years of solitude -- ggm
(mostly conventional stuff, i know. karamazov and the plague stand above the rest for me, as books that i think really directly influenced my moral view of the world.)
xpost: oh yeah, blood meridian too, for sure. i don't remember any slog. i was pretty taken in by about page 20.
― us_odd_bunny_lady (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:39 (fourteen years ago) link
if on a winter's night a traveler -- calvino
Is def up there for me.
― ☺☻☺☻come on ppl now smile on u brother☺☻☺☻ (ENBB), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:40 (fourteen years ago) link
i need to re-read Blood Meridian, but my copy got destroyed when I lent it to a friend and he took it to the beach :(
― ian, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:40 (fourteen years ago) link
i really don't go for much literature pre-20th century, and i don't quite know why that is.
― ian, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:41 (fourteen years ago) link
Not sure I would say these are my five favorites ever, but this is what popped in my head:
Invisible Cities - CalvinoGravity's Rainbow - PynchonAs I Lay Dying - FaulknerIn The Castle Of My Skin - George LammingThe Lost Scrapbook - Evan Dara
― EZ Snappin, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:43 (fourteen years ago) link
Steinbeck - Sweet ThursdayJoyce - UlyssesKluge - Biggest ElvisVidal - LincolnStephenson - Snowcrash
― Jaq, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:44 (fourteen years ago) link
Oh god I forgot about how great Invisible Cities is. #11
― ☺☻☺☻come on ppl now smile on u brother☺☻☺☻ (ENBB), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:45 (fourteen years ago) link
Yay, Jaq! I always recommend Lincoln and Burr to people who think of Gore Vidal just as a wit and essayist.
― My name is Kenny! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:45 (fourteen years ago) link
oh hell, lolita should definitely be on mine too. pale fire would go on the runner-up list.
― us_odd_bunny_lady (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:46 (fourteen years ago) link
invisible cities is probably third fave calvino, with winter's night after that. second is the wildly underrated "Marcovaldo."
― ian, Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:47 (fourteen years ago) link
Speaking of Vidal, his Calvino essay is marvelous.
― My name is Kenny! (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:48 (fourteen years ago) link
I probably should have put Absalom, Absalom! on my original list too. Man, this is tough.
Other thread could be favorite quotes from novels but again . . . tough!
― ☺☻☺☻come on ppl now smile on u brother☺☻☺☻ (ENBB), Wednesday, 24 June 2009 01:52 (fourteen years ago) link
Oscar and LucindaMidnight’s ChildrenGlamoramaVanity FairKindredand my forever favouriteLolita
― scampless, rattled and puce (gyac), Thursday, 11 February 2021 16:55 (three years ago) link
i do love a good Dickens too but i think of him as having his 18th century roots showing, especially early on, especially Fielding
19th century stuff that could've should've made my list would include
Bleak HouseWuthering HeightsMary Barton maybe?À rebours
― Mommas, don't let your scampoes grow up to be bacon fries (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:05 (three years ago) link
love Glamorama and yeah Lolita of course
― Mommas, don't let your scampoes grow up to be bacon fries (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:06 (three years ago) link
surprised The Trial seems the universal Kafka pick, I've always rated The Castle higher (however unfinished)
anyway this is impossible...Moby Dick and The Quixote are my two "favorite" books but almost seems like they shouldn't count, they're looming up there like a couple of stone tablets
ten (almost) pre-war:
Mary Shelley, FrankensteinJ.K. Huysmans, À reboursF.R. Wolf, Hadrian VIIFranz Kafka, The CastleVirginia Woolf, Mrs. DallowayHenry Green, Party GoingFlann O’Brien, At Swim-Two-BirdsWilla Cather, My AntoniaWitold Gombrowicz, FerdydurkeAlbert Camus, The Stranger
― John Wesley Glasscock (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:13 (three years ago) link
xps to NV we need to talk Glamorama sometime, maybe tomorrow?
― scampless, rattled and puce (gyac), Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:14 (three years ago) link
NV <3 Against Nature is sublime, I don't know how many times I've read that book or just picked it up and read thirty pp in the middle
― John Wesley Glasscock (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:15 (three years ago) link
xp yeah!
not xp also yeah! i think about monochrome feasts a lot
― Mommas, don't let your scampoes grow up to be bacon fries (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:16 (three years ago) link
erm that's Rolfe (Baron Corvo), above
ten post-war
Max Frisch, I'm Not StillerStanislaw Lem, SolarisNabokov, LolitaFrederick Exley, A Fan's NotesThomas Bernhard, The Lime WorksRobert Coover, Universal Baseball Association...Harry Mathews, Sinking of the Odradek StadiumMarguerite Dumas, The LoverPeter Handke, Goalie's Anxiety at The Penalty KickDon Delillo, The Names
― John Wesley Glasscock (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:20 (three years ago) link
A Fan's Notes is a good pick, tho i've only read it once partly because it touches too close to home and i'm thinking i might've lost my copy
― Mommas, don't let your scampoes grow up to be bacon fries (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:21 (three years ago) link
Masters of Atlantis - Charles PortisWarlock - Oakley HallCogan's Trade - George V. Higgins Jesus' Son; Train Dreams - Denis JohnsonFat City - Leonard Gardner Housekeeping; Gilead - Marilynne RobinsonThe Third Policeman - Flann O'Brien As I Lay Dying - FaulknerMoby-Dick - Melville The Long Goodbye - Chandler
― Chris L, Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:22 (three years ago) link
yeah xp that can be dicey if you aren't in a good place
― John Wesley Glasscock (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:24 (three years ago) link
Exley evokes that state of mind and the bar-life state of mind so well
― Mommas, don't let your scampoes grow up to be bacon fries (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:25 (three years ago) link
oh i found it phew
― Mommas, don't let your scampoes grow up to be bacon fries (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:29 (three years ago) link
a real flash of brilliance and then a real booze induced fall-off...the one after this made me kinda sad
― John Wesley Glasscock (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:35 (three years ago) link
ten faves form the past twenty+ years
Orhan Pamuk, My Name Is RedTom McCarthy, RemainderDonald Antrim, The Hundred BrothersVladimir Makanin, The Baize Covered Table With DecanterW.G. Sebald, The Rings Of SaturnGrace Krilanovich, The Orange Eat CreepsJose Saramago, BlindnessJim Crace, Being DeadRoberto Bolaño, Distant StarEnrique Vila-Matas, Bartleby & Co.
― John Wesley Glasscock (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, 11 February 2021 17:36 (three years ago) link
Oh man! I'll just go with ones that I think have not been mentioned (but I'm not going to search on the titles to make sure, because I want to mention them anyway:I was forced to read 1984 in Ninth Grade, but immediately and all through there was a lot more vs. Cold War Adult World than Communism Does Not Pay---also in high school, Nabokov's The Defense, about dorky chess prodigy, v. relatable to to non-chess prodigy me, who also dug The Crying of Lot 49, with paranoid pleasures x the fab Mrs. Maas, which spoke to the 60s for sure, ditto though set a little earlier, V., incl. things I hoped to get up to, yo-yo-ing etc., plus more scary funky Mid-Century wreckage and piecework palaces in the twilight.in 70s-early 80s: Bramner's The Gay Place, Stone's Hall of Mirrors and Dog Soldiers (esp. struck by way women have to make their ways through these male preoccupations and stumblefests).More recently:The Way We Live NowThe Idiot2666 (was mentioned)Swann's WayMy Brilliant FriendTwo more in the Gilead sequence:Home and Lila
― dow, Thursday, 11 February 2021 18:36 (three years ago) link
And The Professor's House!
― dow, Thursday, 11 February 2021 18:40 (three years ago) link
great weird book w/ that left turn into the desert
― John Wesley Glasscock (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, 11 February 2021 18:43 (three years ago) link
Cather rules.
― meticulously crafted, socially responsible, morally upsta (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 11 February 2021 18:43 (three years ago) link
that is my favorite Cather, and yes, she is great. she was sort of terrible? but her writing is beautiful.
― horseshoe, Thursday, 11 February 2021 18:44 (three years ago) link
Hard to resist A Lost Lady too.
― meticulously crafted, socially responsible, morally upsta (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 11 February 2021 18:45 (three years ago) link
*Brammer's* The Gay Place)(three stories, interlocking around a gas giant, unseen, always felt, who has been auto-compared to LBJ but I go w those who say he seems more like Earl Long, the hardest workin' playin' man in tightrope political show biz)
― dow, Thursday, 11 February 2021 18:46 (three years ago) link
Member of the Wedding and The Moviegoer too.
― dow, Thursday, 11 February 2021 18:53 (three years ago) link
xps yes Cather for me is one who has several that could make a list...same for me w/ Bernhard and Nabokov, on a given day any one of four or five novels from either might be a favorite
― John Wesley Glasscock (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, 11 February 2021 18:55 (three years ago) link
Native Son, Their Eyes Were Watching God both blew me away, in diff directions.
― dow, Thursday, 11 February 2021 18:56 (three years ago) link
at a certain point mine would have been
richard powers, the gold bug variationsbruce duffy, the world as i found itmark helprin, a soldier of the great war
but the latter i read before i knew helprin was a fascist : /
― mookieproof, Friday, 12 February 2021 04:27 (three years ago) link
For sure faves:
To The LighthouseMoby-DickFrankensteinCrime & PunishmentRagtimeBlack Swan Green
Stuff I would have repped for once upon a time but not sure now/would have to revisit:
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-TimeThe Wind-Up Bird ChronicleCat's Cradle
― american primitive stylophone (zchyrs), Friday, 12 February 2021 13:22 (three years ago) link
Five favourites that haven't been mentioned:
Samuel Beckett, MolloyPaul Bowles, The Sheltering SkyWilliam Burroughs, Naked Lunch (or Queer, or Cities of the Red Night)Thomas McGuane, The Bushwhacked PianoHubert Selby, The Room
― Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 14 February 2021 01:52 (three years ago) link
I think The Room is the only Selby novel I've never read. I love The Demon.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Sunday, 14 February 2021 02:35 (three years ago) link
The Demon starts off great, at a lower pitch of intensity than most of his work, but when the Pope comes into it it goes overboard for me. Selby doesn't have the wider range, but his focus is very sharp. There's more to him than just Last Exit to Brooklyn.
― Halfway there but for you, Sunday, 14 February 2021 16:52 (three years ago) link
I see I already listed mine way upthread. Since then I've only added one for sure, and that's Against the Day.
But, to put another spin on it, here are the 10 books I've probably reread the most:
The Book of Laughter and ForgettingCat’s EyeLord of the RingsBreaking and Entering (Williams)Northanger AbbeyNine Tailors (Sayers)A Wild Sheep ChaseThe Comedians (Greene)Rubicon BeachThe Last Gentleman
― Cherish, Monday, 15 February 2021 15:21 (three years ago) link