Flaminia Ferina's picture
Flaminia Ferina from Umbria is reading stuff March 29, 2012 - 9:28am

it's a good day for LitRs-related new words. Fylh --> DanielSoul77 --> Utahnize.

Keep them comin!

Sorry, got no top ten yet.

taralara's picture
taralara from Minneapolis is reading We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo March 29, 2012 - 10:56am

1. The Sound and the Fury - Faulkner

2. Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? - Carver

3. Their Eyes Were Watching God - Hurston

4. Sirens of Titan - Vonnegut

5. The Awakening - Chopin

6. Invisible Monsters - Palahniuk

7. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - Albee

8. The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Kundera

9. The Bell Jar - Plath

10. Franny and Zooey - Salinger

avery of the dead's picture
avery of the dead from Kentucky is reading Cipher Sisters March 29, 2012 - 10:59am

"Franny and Zooey - Salinger"

Internet high five!! 

Typewriter Demigod's picture
Typewriter Demigod from London is reading "White Noise" by DeLilo, "Moby-Dick" by Hermann Mellivile and "Uylsses" by Joyce March 29, 2012 - 12:04pm

cloud atlas, a clockwork orange, fight club, what i was, the white crow, the naked lunch, battle royale, elfen leid (a manga, I know), beserk, (also a manga), the Brief and Wonderous life of oscar wao and the rules of attraction. no particular order/

Limbless K9's picture
Limbless K9 from Oregon is reading Wraeththu March 29, 2012 - 12:16pm

Oh I MUST add The Phantom Tollbooth. That is probably one of my favorite books of all time. It's just magical. 

Typewriter Demigod's picture
Typewriter Demigod from London is reading "White Noise" by DeLilo, "Moby-Dick" by Hermann Mellivile and "Uylsses" by Joyce March 29, 2012 - 12:25pm

omg I love that book, but not as much as the secret of platform 13

Chester Pane's picture
Chester Pane from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz March 29, 2012 - 12:27pm

@Bill: China rocks. Genrebuster.

Limbless K9's picture
Limbless K9 from Oregon is reading Wraeththu March 29, 2012 - 12:35pm

I've never read The Secret of Platform 13. Phantom is definitely the book that made my imagination what it is today. 

Arturo Bandini's picture
Arturo Bandini from Denver, CO is reading Beautiful Ruins March 29, 2012 - 12:54pm

Revolutionary Road

Requiem For A Dream

White Noise

Where I'm Calling From

High Fidelity

Fight Club

Blood Meridian

A Confederacy Of Dunces

Lunar Park

The Great Gatsby

 

 

....I think. No real order other than the first one.

EDITED to add #11 (so what) - Ask The Dust

XyZy's picture
XyZy from New York City is reading Seveneves and Animal Money March 29, 2012 - 12:53pm

Yeah, I could never just pick ten books as better than all of the others either... So here's the top ten books of the ones I had to crawl over to get out of bed today... in order of appearance:

Infinite Jest - DFW

American Gods - Gaiman

And Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris

How Fiction Works - James Wood

The Princess Bride - William Goldman

Baudolino - Eco

A Tale of Two Cities - Dickens

Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men - Rousseau

Special Topics in Calamity Physics - Marisha Pessl

Tonal Harmony: With An Introduction To Twentieth-Century Music - Kostka/Payne

 

Americantypo's picture
Americantypo from Philadelphia is reading The Bone Clocks March 29, 2012 - 1:55pm

@chester. China makes me want to give up writing and take up goat farming.

Chester Pane's picture
Chester Pane from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz March 29, 2012 - 2:15pm

@Bill: Ha! No shit. Imagine trying to guess his War submissions.

@Arturo: Word on the Cubby. I also have that Hornby sitting on the shelf waiting to be cracked.

@Clint: I have been wanting to read Infinite Jest forever.

I wish I was a faster reader.

PandaMask's picture
PandaMask from Los Angeles is reading More Than Human March 29, 2012 - 2:17pm

@Chester

I wish I was a fast reader too.

aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. March 29, 2012 - 2:33pm

I hate when books take 50 pages or more to get to the point.

PandaMask's picture
PandaMask from Los Angeles is reading More Than Human March 29, 2012 - 2:37pm

That too.

Bradley Sands's picture
Bradley Sands from Boston is reading Greil Marcus's The History of Rock 'N' Roll in Ten Songs March 29, 2012 - 9:24pm

Harry Crews died.

Covewriter's picture
Covewriter from Nashville, Tennessee is reading & Sons March 29, 2012 - 9:40pm

I love these kind of lists. I surprised I'm so late responding to this one. Here you go in no certain order:

 

1. Grapes of Wrath

2. Anything else by Steinbeck

3. Great Santini

4. Anyting else by Pat Conroy

5. Them

6. Almost anything else by Joyce Carol Oates, there are a few that wouldn't make the list.

7. Let The Great World Spin ( this is a recent addition.)

8. Forty Acres and A Goat (Will Campbell, try it!)

9. The Stand

10. All the Rabbit Books by John Updike

Wow my list could go on and on. I forgot The Giver, by Lois Lowrey, one of the best YA books ever.

Covewriter's picture
Covewriter from Nashville, Tennessee is reading & Sons March 29, 2012 - 9:40pm

I love these kind of lists. I surprised I'm so late responding to this one. Here you go in no certain order:

 

1. Grapes of Wrath

2. Anything else by Steinbeck

3. Great Santini

4. Anyting else by Pat Conroy

5. Them

6. Almost anything else by Joyce Carol Oates, there are a few that wouldn't make the list.

7. Let The Great World Spin ( this is a recent addition.)

8. Forty Acres and A Goat (Will Campbell, try it!)

9. The Stand

10. All the Rabbit Books by John Updike

Wow my list could go on and on. I forgot The Giver, by Lois Lowrey, one of the best YA books ever.

PandaMask's picture
PandaMask from Los Angeles is reading More Than Human March 29, 2012 - 10:02pm

Great list Cove.

I'll check some of those out. The Stand is def. one on my list.

Bradley Sands's picture
Bradley Sands from Boston is reading Greil Marcus's The History of Rock 'N' Roll in Ten Songs March 29, 2012 - 10:20pm

1. Inland Empire

2. Once Upon a Time in America

3. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

4. Brick

5. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

Crap. It happened again.

 

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest March 29, 2012 - 10:26pm

No particular order...

1. Rules of Attraction: Bret Easton Ellis

2. Fight Club: Chuck

3. Get Shorty: Elmore Leonard

4. Carrie: Stephen King

5. A Long Way Down: Nick Hornby

6. The Exorcist: William Peter Blatty

7. Money Shot: Christa Faust

8. Fifty-to-Once: Charles Ardai

9. This Side of Paradise: F. Scott Fitzgerald

10. The Brooklyn Follies: Paul Auster

11. Forever: Pete Hamill

Okay, like Spinal Tap, I had to crank it to 11.

Covewriter's picture
Covewriter from Nashville, Tennessee is reading & Sons March 29, 2012 - 10:52pm

Ohh i forgot The Exorcist. My Mom wouldn't let me read it, but she did. I snuck her copy, which  made it all the better. Also how about Marjorie Morningstar, and Atlas Shrugged! Too many to put in top 10.

R.Moon's picture
R.Moon from The City of Champions is reading The Last Thing He Wanted by Joan Didion; Story Structure Architect by Victoria Lynn Schimdt PH.D; Creating Characters by the editors of Writer's Digest March 30, 2012 - 3:15am

Catch 22

The Game

The Shining

I could go on as well.

avery of the dead's picture
avery of the dead from Kentucky is reading Cipher Sisters March 30, 2012 - 4:50am

@Cove - Pat Conroy, solid choice.  I love his writing.  Beautifully Southern. 

jyh's picture
jyh from VA is reading whatever he feels like April 3, 2012 - 8:35am

Limited to novels, in no order.  As I don't reread very often a few are books I haven't read in 10+ years.  These all made a great impression --

The Sybil by Par Lagerkvist

The Fall by Albert Camus

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

Maggie, Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane

The Leopard by Giuseppe di Lampedusa

Independent People by Halldor Laxness

Dracula by Bram Stoker

The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr

 

EDIT - I originally wrote "Giovanni" instead of "Giuseppe."  I have hired a midget to kick me in the shins later this week.

Pete's picture
Pete from Detroit is reading Red Dragon March 30, 2012 - 11:09am

You like The Fall over The Stranger by Camus?

Fylh's picture
Fylh from from from is reading is from is reading is reading is reading reading is reading March 30, 2012 - 11:10am

I do, too. I found it a much better book.

Utah's picture
Moderator
Utah from Fort Worth, TX is reading Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry March 30, 2012 - 1:02pm

No particular order:

One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon

The Last Good Kiss, James Crumley

The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck

The first five books Stephen King wrote, plus the Dark Tower series minus the final 20 pages

Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card

Hyperion, Dan Simmons

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey

L.A. Confidential, James Ellroy

jyh's picture
jyh from VA is reading whatever he feels like March 30, 2012 - 2:24pm

Yay, lists.  Again, in no order --

Non-ficiton
1.  The Imagination of an Insurrection: Dublin, Easter 1916 by William Irwin Thopson
2.  The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly P. Hall
3.  Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti by Maya Deren
4.  The Flight of the Wild Gander by Joseph Campbell
5.  The Future as Nightmare: H.G. Wells and the Anti-Utopians by Mark R. Hillegas


Stories
1.  Dubliners by James Joyce
2.  Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges
3.  The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane by Robert E. Howard
4.  The Mabinogion
5.  Selected Stories by H.G. Wells

Covewriter's picture
Covewriter from Nashville, Tennessee is reading & Sons March 30, 2012 - 3:52pm

Oh guys, Nathan Englander's What We Talk About WhenWe Talk About Ann Frank is awesome.

aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. March 30, 2012 - 3:59pm

The Stranger is very overrated.  Existential despair.  Blah.

Pete's picture
Pete from Detroit is reading Red Dragon March 30, 2012 - 4:00pm

Honestly, it's been so long since I read both of those Camus books...  I can't remember why I liked The Stranger more than The Fall.

Still haven't read The Plague though.

jyh's picture
jyh from VA is reading whatever he feels like March 30, 2012 - 4:27pm

RE: your earlier question, Pete -- I've read The Fall, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, Resistance Rebellion and Death, Caligula and other Plays, A Happy Death but I never actually read The Stranger.  I can only speculate why.  I guess I figured I'd get around to it but didn't.

wickedvoodoo's picture
wickedvoodoo from Mansfield, England is reading stuff. March 30, 2012 - 6:19pm

I keep meaning to read more Camus. I have a translation titled The Outsider rather than The Stranger.

I thought most versions were titled Outsider? Was surprised to see you guys calling it The Stranger. (estranger doesn't actually directly translate as stranger does it? I thought it was closer to foreigner, hence the Outsider title? Maybe I'm wrong)  It was a pretty good read, can see how he influenced a lot of the authors I like. People keep recommending The Plague, I must rememeber to pick it up at some point.

Bradley Sands's picture
Bradley Sands from Boston is reading Greil Marcus's The History of Rock 'N' Roll in Ten Songs March 31, 2012 - 11:43am

Throughout the years:

1: Jeff Noon's Vurt

2: Simon Black's The Book of Frank

3: Tom Robbin's Another Roadside Attraction

4: The Illuminatus! Trilogy (Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea)

5: Philip K. Dick's Valis

6: Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions

7: Mark Leyner's The Tetherballs of Bougainville

8: Raymond Chandler's The Long Goodbye

9: Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners

9. Thomas Ligotti's The Nightmare Factory

10: Russell Edson's The Tunnel

 

 

 

Alex Kane's picture
Alex Kane from west-central Illinois is reading Dark Orbit April 2, 2012 - 7:00pm
  1. Horns by Joe Hill
  2. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
  3. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
  4. Ragamuffin by Tobias S. Buckell
  5. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
  6. The Stand by Stephen King
  7. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
  8. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
  9. Neuromancer by William Gibson
  10. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Covewriter's picture
Covewriter from Nashville, Tennessee is reading & Sons April 2, 2012 - 8:03pm

@taralara said Bell Jar. One of the best books ever. Loved it. Seriously, it made a big impression on me.

@Utah said Kavalier and Clay. Yea, one of the best also. What a great story.

@Alex said Neuromancer, totally NOT my genre but i read it to find out about the genre and really liked it.

We are lucky to have literature in our lives. What would we do without it?

Boone Spaulding's picture
Boone Spaulding from Coldwater, Michigan, U.S.A. is reading Solarcide Presents: Nova Parade April 3, 2012 - 5:22am

We are lucky to have literature in our lives. What would we do without it?"

Fight, f*ck, tell lies, die young.

Norbit's picture
Norbit April 3, 2012 - 7:12am

That Annie Proust book of short stories which included Brokeback Mountain.

 

bryanhowie's picture
bryanhowie from FW, ID is reading East of Eden. Steinbeck is FUCKING AMAZING. April 3, 2012 - 8:05am

Boone, can I just tell lies about fighting, fucking, and dying?  Because that might be easier.

avery of the dead's picture
avery of the dead from Kentucky is reading Cipher Sisters April 3, 2012 - 8:07am

"can I just tell lies about fighting, fucking, and dying?"

Isn't that what writing is?  Or I've been doing it wrong. 

bryanhowie's picture
bryanhowie from FW, ID is reading East of Eden. Steinbeck is FUCKING AMAZING. April 3, 2012 - 8:16am

Someone famous said every story is about love or loss or both.  (I'd put it 'fucking or dying' but I'm crass).  I think we need more fucking.

avery of the dead's picture
avery of the dead from Kentucky is reading Cipher Sisters April 3, 2012 - 9:12am

^ Exactly.

bryanhowie's picture
bryanhowie from FW, ID is reading East of Eden. Steinbeck is FUCKING AMAZING. April 3, 2012 - 9:30am

^ Exactly.

Limbless K9's picture
Limbless K9 from Oregon is reading Wraeththu April 3, 2012 - 1:25pm

^Exactly.

aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. April 3, 2012 - 3:07pm

Brokeback Mountain was hot.

David Shepherd's picture
David Shepherd from shepherdsville, KY is reading Idoru by William Gibbson April 3, 2012 - 3:18pm

1. The watchmen

2. Misery

3. Treasure island

4. The hobbit

5. Trainspotting

6. Never trust a naked car salesman

7. Lord brocktree

8. Dreamcatcher

9. The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy

10. Sin city

Boone Spaulding's picture
Boone Spaulding from Coldwater, Michigan, U.S.A. is reading Solarcide Presents: Nova Parade April 3, 2012 - 6:55pm

Neill D. Hicks (screenwriter) said that all good writing has either "sex and violence" or "passion and tension." Stuck with me...where is the passion? Where is the tension? In other words, why do I care about this thing I'm reading? 

Chris Davis's picture
Chris Davis from Indiana is reading A Feast of Snakes by Harry Crews April 5, 2012 - 8:53am

1. Transmetropolitan – Warren Ellis
2. Breakfast of Champions – Kurt Vonnegut
3. Lullaby – Chuck Palahniuk
4. American Psycho – Bret Easton Ellis
5. Mere Christianity – C.S. Lewis
6. Florida Frenzy – Harry Crews
7. The Great Shark Hunt – Hunter S. Thompson
8. Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter – Seth Grahame-Smith
9. Grimm Fairy Tales – The Brothers Grimm
10. Crooked Little Vein – Warren Ellis
 

Bracchos's picture
Bracchos from Albuquerque is reading Translated Woman April 5, 2012 - 3:16pm

1. Blood Meridian

2. Name of the Wind

3. Ceremony

4. Let the Right One In

5. The Hobbit

6. Silver Chair

7. A Game of Thrones

8. At the Mountains of Madness

9. Eye of the World

10. Don Quixote