PandaMask's picture
PandaMask from Los Angeles is reading More Than Human March 27, 2012 - 9:55pm

Off the top of your head.

1.No Country For Old Men

2. Red Harvest

3. Wild Sheep Chase

4. Slapstick

5. Game of Thrones

6. Breakfast of Champions

7. The Crying of Lot 49

8. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

9. The Sun Also Rises

10. Fharenheit 451

Bradley Sands's picture
Bradley Sands from Boston is reading Greil Marcus's The History of Rock 'N' Roll in Ten Songs March 27, 2012 - 10:17pm

1. It Came from Below the Belt

2. My Heart Said No, But the Camera Crew Said Yes!

3. Sorry I Ruined Your Orgy

4. Rico Slade Will Fucking Kill You

5. Please Do Not Shoot Me in the Face: A Novel

Crap. Can't think of five more.

PandaMask's picture
PandaMask from Los Angeles is reading More Than Human March 27, 2012 - 10:19pm

Hahahaha

I want to read Please Do Not Shoot Me in the Face.

 

.'s picture
. March 27, 2012 - 10:20pm

Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas

American Psycho

Kiss Me Judas

The Great Gatsby

Crash

Invisible Monsters

Trainspotting

The Sun Also Rises

The Contortionist's Handbook

Drive

.'s picture
. March 27, 2012 - 10:20pm

If I could pick 11 I'd pick Sorry I Ruined Your Orgy

Bradley Sands's picture
Bradley Sands from Boston is reading Greil Marcus's The History of Rock 'N' Roll in Ten Songs March 27, 2012 - 10:24pm

Thanks, guys. Sorry. I've been feeling troll-like lately, but in a good-natured way. Red Harvest=AWESOME

Boone Spaulding's picture
Boone Spaulding from Coldwater, Michigan, U.S.A. is reading Solarcide Presents: Nova Parade March 29, 2012 - 5:06am

Nostromo - Joseph Conrad

Heart Of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace

The Killer Inside Me - Jim Thompson

A Hell Of A Woman - Jim Thompson

Wise Blood - Flannery O'Connor

The Violent Bear It Away - Flannery O'Connor

McTeague - Frank Norris

A Confederacy Of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

(all novels, excluded short story collections of which I could choose ten as my top books)

(chosen by how many times I've reread and how they all stick in the memory and influence me)

Renfield's picture
Renfield from Hell is reading 20th Century Ghosts March 27, 2012 - 10:35pm

No Country fer Ole' Me is a great book.

I'll do (including novellas)

1The Long Goodbye

2Car

3Red Harvest

4Lord of the Flies

5Red Dragon

6Faucault's Pendulum

7Eaters of the Dead

8Wonder Boys

9All The Beautiful Sinners

10A Boy and His Dog

Renfield's picture
Renfield from Hell is reading 20th Century Ghosts March 27, 2012 - 10:36pm

What Boone said too.

Bradley Sands's picture
Bradley Sands from Boston is reading Greil Marcus's The History of Rock 'N' Roll in Ten Songs March 27, 2012 - 10:42pm

Is Car about the guy who eats a car?

PandaMask's picture
PandaMask from Los Angeles is reading More Than Human March 27, 2012 - 10:42pm

Nice choices! Yeah Red Harvest is my favorite Hammet novel, but he's one of my favorite authors.

Renfield's picture
Renfield from Hell is reading 20th Century Ghosts March 27, 2012 - 10:56pm

Is Car about the guy who eats a car?

 

Yep.

aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. March 27, 2012 - 11:13pm

Kiss Me, Judas

Lullaby

The Stand

Dark Tower series

Lord of the Flies

Catcher in the Rye

Animal Farm

A Seperate Peace

The Bell Jar

Mall by Eric Bogosian

.'s picture
. March 27, 2012 - 11:14pm

Yeah I liked Catcher In The Rye. I don't care what anybody says!

Renfield's picture
Renfield from Hell is reading 20th Century Ghosts March 27, 2012 - 11:19pm

I think I got to where he was farting in church or whatever and was like fuck this book

PandaMask's picture
PandaMask from Los Angeles is reading More Than Human March 27, 2012 - 11:29pm

Who doesn't like Catcher In The Rye?

aliensoul77's picture
aliensoul77 from a cold distant star is reading the writing on the wall. March 27, 2012 - 11:38pm

Farting in church???

PandaMask's picture
PandaMask from Los Angeles is reading More Than Human March 27, 2012 - 11:40pm

He read the Turkish translation.

bryanhowie's picture
bryanhowie from FW, ID is reading East of Eden. Steinbeck is FUCKING AMAZING. March 27, 2012 - 11:52pm

Do you think everyone makes top ten lists because that's how many fingers we have?

PandaMask's picture
PandaMask from Los Angeles is reading More Than Human March 28, 2012 - 12:03am

No books Howie?

Cassandra L.'s picture
Cassandra L. from Melbourne is reading A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole March 28, 2012 - 1:44am

I think we need a challenge to write those five books in @Bradley Sands post. Or short stories at least.

PandaMask's picture
PandaMask from Los Angeles is reading More Than Human March 28, 2012 - 2:01am

Haha those are all the novels he wrote.

Limbless K9's picture
Limbless K9 from Oregon is reading Wraeththu March 28, 2012 - 2:09am

1. The Name of the Wind

2. The Hobbit

3. The Graveyard Book

4. A Song of Ice and Fire Series

5. Neverwhere

Just a few off of the top of my head. 

Cassandra L.'s picture
Cassandra L. from Melbourne is reading A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole March 28, 2012 - 2:14am

Panda - Serious? Damn, and my new year's resolution was to stop making an idiot of myself and everything.

Um, I'll just crawl away quietly and be a noob somewhere else . . . 

 

(Apologies, Bradley!)

PandaMask's picture
PandaMask from Los Angeles is reading More Than Human March 28, 2012 - 2:15am

Haha no don't worry about it!

I just know because I want to buy some of his books.

@Limbless

Nice list!

bryanhowie's picture
bryanhowie from FW, ID is reading East of Eden. Steinbeck is FUCKING AMAZING. March 28, 2012 - 9:09am

Reasons to Live, by Amy Hempel

Survivor, by Chuck Palahniuk

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

American Gods, by Neil Gaiman

Sandman, by Neil Gaiman (if taken as a whole)

Lone Wolf and Cub, by Kazuo Koike (writer) and artist Goseki Kojima (artist)

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson

Concious Dreaming, by Robert Moss

Contortionist's Handbook, by Craig Clevenger

Batman: Year One, by Frank Miller

The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien

Off the top of my head without thinking about it.  I'm sure i'm missing some (already I could name 3 more that just popped into my head.)  Also, counting is for old women*.

 

*I think that's a quote from the movie Cobb, but I can't remember if that's where it's from.  It happens after the character is asked how many beers/drinks he's had.  Might be a different movie, but I hear it in Tommy Lee Jones' voice.

avery of the dead's picture
avery of the dead from Kentucky is reading Cipher Sisters March 28, 2012 - 9:20am

I haven't read ten books!  Oh wait... 

In no certain order:

1. Franny and Zooey

2. To Kill a Mockingbird

3. Revolutionary Road

4. The Things They Carried

5. The Great Gatsby

6. Hearts in Atlantis

7. For Whom the Bell Tolls

8. Memoirs of a Geisha

9. As I Lay Dying

10. A Theory of Relativity

 

That was harder than I thought it would be.  I could probably swap a lot of those out with others.  I tried to think of ones that I have read more than once. 

wickedvoodoo's picture
wickedvoodoo from Mansfield, England is reading stuff. March 28, 2012 - 9:26am

@ Cassandra

http://www.amazon.com/Bradley-Sands/e/B002BMA294/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1332951597&sr=8-1

You should order Rico Slade, find out just what you've been missing.

 

 

My list. Not ordered in any particular way.

 

The Rules Of Attraction - Bret E Ellis

Marabou Stork Nightmares - Irvine Welsh

Rant - Chuck Palahniuk

The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldrich - Philip K Dick

Dune - Frank Herbert

Lisey's Story - Stephen King

The City And The Stars - Arthur C Clarke

Pixel Juice - Jeff Noon

The Silence Of The Lambs - Thomas Harris

The Complete Robot - Isaac Asimov

 

That could all change next week though. Ten is not enough.

PandaMask's picture
PandaMask from Los Angeles is reading More Than Human March 28, 2012 - 12:03pm

@Wicked

Nice list. I want to read Asimov.

@Avery

I have For Whom the Bell Tolls and recently got Memoirs of a Geisha. Looking forward to them.

 

Jose F. Diaz's picture
Jose F. Diaz from Boston is reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel March 28, 2012 - 12:04pm

A Long Way Down - Nick Hornby

The Brother Grimm

The Wheel of Time series - Robert Jordan/ the other guy....B. Sanderson

The Dark Elf trilogy - R.A. Salvatore

The Black Company series - Glen Cook

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

Lamb - Christopher Moore

On Writing - Stephen King

The Days are Just Packed - Bill Watterson

The Things They Carried - Tim O'brien

 

This is not all inclusive. Some are great to me because of the people who referred them and others because they can affect my daily mood.

.'s picture
. March 28, 2012 - 2:48pm

Nice list Martin!

Renfield's picture
Renfield from Hell is reading 20th Century Ghosts March 28, 2012 - 3:39pm

None of these lists are surprising when looking at each of your own writing styles. Especially Bradley's.

PandaMask's picture
PandaMask from Los Angeles is reading More Than Human March 28, 2012 - 3:55pm

Clever

Chester Pane's picture
Chester Pane from Portland, Oregon is reading The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz March 28, 2012 - 5:31pm

There is no way in hell that I could ever construct a hierarchical booklist model. And these are just some books in no particular order, and not a best of or anything. I love so many of the books above (Lullaby, L.O.T.F, etc.), so I will not repeat, just throw out some from my 'others' list.

  • Lean on Pete by Willy Vlautin
  • Habibi by Craig Thompson
  • A Common Pornography by Kevin Sampsell
  • Feed by M.T. Anderson
  • The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • The Fault in our Stars by John Green
  • The Shack by Wm. Paul Young
  • Rock And Roll Will Save Your Life by Steve Almond
  • Wicked by Gregory Maguire
  • The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

 

avery of the dead's picture
avery of the dead from Kentucky is reading Cipher Sisters March 28, 2012 - 5:32pm

"The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett"

Good one. 

Limbless K9's picture
Limbless K9 from Oregon is reading Wraeththu March 28, 2012 - 5:41pm

Thanks Panda. I'm enjoying everybody's lists here and taking them down as recommendations. 

bryanhowie's picture
bryanhowie from FW, ID is reading East of Eden. Steinbeck is FUCKING AMAZING. March 28, 2012 - 5:47pm

I can't believe I forgot To Kill a Mockingbird.  But, I guess that's why it's a 'top of your head' list.  If I tried to actually figure out my top ten, I'd never be able to accomplish it.  

American Gods- I own the original hardback, a paperback (for lending), the audio book, and the new 10th anniversary audiobook edition (author's prefered text).  So, that one would probably stay in the top ten.

bryanhowie's picture
bryanhowie from FW, ID is reading East of Eden. Steinbeck is FUCKING AMAZING. March 28, 2012 - 5:51pm

Just looked at Neil's blog and found this tidbit:

Currently I'm mostly writing the HBO American Gods first episode. I'm really enjoying it, partly because a lot of what I've written isn't in the book. It's implied in the book, or talked about generally, or referred to obliquely, but it's scenes I hadn't written. So I feel that I'm doing new work, even if it's not new. If you see what I mean.

 

And, strangely, it seems to be feeding in to the next American Gods book, which is what I'm sort of working on right now. (Actually, I'm writing a short story that comes after Monarch of the Glen and before The Next Book. But it feels organically needed.)

PandaMask's picture
PandaMask from Los Angeles is reading More Than Human March 28, 2012 - 5:53pm

@Chestie

Nice list. I actually want to read Pillars of Earth.

@Limbless

I was actually about to message you to apologize if I sounded rude. Don't worry some of these books I have and haven't heard of. That's why I made this thread.

Limbless K9's picture
Limbless K9 from Oregon is reading Wraeththu March 28, 2012 - 5:59pm

Rude?! Not at all! No apologies needed at all! 

Limbless K9's picture
Limbless K9 from Oregon is reading Wraeththu March 28, 2012 - 6:35pm

Gaiman is the man. 

Dave's picture
Dave from a city near you is reading constantly March 29, 2012 - 12:15am

Hmm...top ten books...what  That influenced me? That I can read over and over? That I would take with me in the apocalypse?  I know, I'm being difficult. On with the list...

1. Fight Club

2. Bringing out the Dead

3. Choirboys

4. Lord of The Rings

5. Day By Day Armageddon

6. The Road

7. Jarhead

8. Blackhawk Down

9. Choke

10.  The Great Gatsby

Fylh's picture
Fylh from from from is reading is from is reading is reading is reading reading is reading March 29, 2012 - 12:46am

THE TOP TEN!

Lanark by Alasdair Gray

Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

The Recognitions by William Gaddis

Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

The Brothers Karamazov by Professor Dostoevsky

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano

The Implacable Order of Things by Jose Luis Peixoto

The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea

American Pastoral by Philip Roth

 

BONUS! SOME MORE GRAND BOOKS!

Foam of the Daze by Boris Vian

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Naomi by Junichiro Tanizaki

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Jose Saramago

The Counterlife by Philip Roth

V by Thomas Pynchon

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen

Contempt by Alberto Moravia

The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. by George Steiner

Nightwood by Djuna Barnes

Black Spring by Henry Miller

Cosmos by Witold Gombrowicz

Pete's picture
Pete from Detroit is reading Red Dragon March 29, 2012 - 5:57am

You've been recommending Lanark for years Phil, and I've been meaning to read it since the first time you recommended it.  Still haven't...

Fylh's picture
Fylh from from from is reading is from is reading is reading is reading reading is reading March 29, 2012 - 6:21am

Yeah man, I've been raving about it since 2006 when I was a year-old Cultie.

It's fantastic, but not for everyone — VERY postmodern.

 

AnyDaveWillDo's picture
AnyDaveWillDo from England is reading Lots of books March 29, 2012 - 6:50am

In no particular order:

  • A Clockwork Orange
  • Cosmopolis
  • Rant
  • Less Than Zero
  • The Great Gatsby
  • White Noise
  • Nineteen Eighty-Four
  • Vermillion Sands (Although any collection of Ballard's short stories will do)
  • Glamorama
  • Invisible Monsters

 

Americantypo's picture
Americantypo from Philadelphia is reading The Bone Clocks March 29, 2012 - 8:29am

In no particular order:

1. All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

2. Nightwood by Djuana Barnes

3. It by Stephen King

4. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

5. The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K Dick

6. American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis

7. The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

8. 1984 by George Orwell

9. Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker

10. Bangkok 8 by John Burdett

Couple others that almost made it- Horns by Joe Hill, The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. Fight Club, and Contortionists Handbook are also close.

wickedvoodoo's picture
wickedvoodoo from Mansfield, England is reading stuff. March 29, 2012 - 8:42am

@ Bill.

Yay, another Palmer Eldritch fan. Such a crazy book. Did you ever read his short story The Days Of Perky Pat? That story had a lot of elements that made it into Three Stigmata. I almost put his collected short works on my list but seeing as it's four volumes long I thought it might be cheating.

Americantypo's picture
Americantypo from Philadelphia is reading The Bone Clocks March 29, 2012 - 8:45am

Palmer Eldritch is the closest thing to acid in a book. It made me feel crazy to read it. I probably have read The Days Of Perky Pat, but its been so long since I've read all those short story collections that I can't remember what any of them were about exactly.

wickedvoodoo's picture
wickedvoodoo from Mansfield, England is reading stuff. March 29, 2012 - 8:50am

Three Stigmata is very trippy. Hard to deal with a story changing setting mid-sentence. Odd stuff. Really, really good though. Dick was the paranoid master.

Perky Pat is like a condensed version of the stuff about taking the drug and becoming submerged in the lives of the dolls. If you read the collected stories then you'll almost certainly have seen it. Basically it's an embryonic Three Stigmata,

Fylh's picture
Fylh from from from is reading is from is reading is reading is reading reading is reading March 29, 2012 - 9:22am

@DanielSoul77

Man, I love A Separate Peace. It was a big reading moment for me in high school.