Top 5 books you have read

[King Emlyn]

Was abviously

[Paco]

I remember being on a bus reading fear and loathing and laughing out loud at a bit when he is walking through an airport.

 

Id have that in a top 5 with trainspotting, star of the sea, the goalkeepers revenge from when I was a kid and looking at a list of 100 books to read before you die I've read 3 of them - the catcher in the rye, great expectations and waiting for godot. I'd go for the first

one as it was short.

 

I prefer autobiographies and biographies.

[KMD7]

Has anybody read Ulysses?  I couldn't even make it through the introduction to it never mind read the book when I tried it years ago.  Is it worth another stab at it? 

[Jose Jones]

Has anybody read Ulysses? I couldn't even make it through the introduction to it never mind read the book when I tried it years ago. Is it worth another stab at it?

Yeah. You have to be in the mood for it and even then it's a bit of a slog.

Bit too literary without enough readability for me.

[Em City]

Has anybody read Ulysses? I couldn't even make it through the introduction to it never mind read the book when I tried it years ago. Is it worth another stab at it?

I've read it twice and probably understand about 10% of it.

[Em City]

In no particular order:

 

Animal Farm - George Orwell

Homicide - David Simon

Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh

Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk

To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee

[KMD7]

Yeah. You have to be in the mood for it and even then it's a bit of a slog.

Bit too literary without enough readability for me.

I've read it twice and probably understand about 10% of it.

Cheers fellas. Will probably swerve so

[Rotpeter]

I've read it twice and probably understand about 10% of it.

 

Wow! That much.  You must be a literature major.

[VladimirIlyich]

I remember being on a bus reading fear and loathing and laughing out loud at a bit when he is walking through an airport.

 

Id have that in a top 5 with trainspotting, star of the sea, the goalkeepers revenge from when I was a kid and looking at a list of 100 books to read before you die I've read 3 of them - the catcher in the rye, great expectations and waiting for godot. I'd go for the first

one as it was short.

 

I prefer autobiographies and biographies.

A Goalkeepers Revenge by Brian Glanville? I loved that book,it was superb.

[Red74]

Yo hipsters, Keep your GCSE / A level English lit pretentious shite to yourselves and feast on these bad boys

 

5) green river rising

4) the eagle has landed

3) the day of the jackal

2) the godfather

1) American Tabloid

 

Special mention for the goalkeepers revenge. I wouldn't want to belittle a timeless classic like that with a rating as it should stand in a seperate class. More important than both testaments & the Koran

[Pidge]

Is it pretentious to like a book you've read?

[Total Longo]

American Tabloid is brilliant, and I should have had that in my top 5. I could not get past thirty pages of The Cold Six Thousand though, just impossible to read because of Ellroy's staccato style. It is just ridiculous in that book.

 

There is only so much you can take of dialogue like "The man walked in. He shut the door. He unravelled the paper. He did a shit."

 

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[Red74]

Is it pretentious to like a book you've read?

Not if it's one of my recommendations

[Pidge]

Fair enough, downloading the goalkeeper's revenge now.

[Red74]

Fair enough, downloading the goalkeeper's revenge now.

It really is worth it. Think I've still got it in hardback in my loft that I wouldn't give back to the school. Must have had it for over 35 years now

 

If you get a chance try and read American Tabloid. I'd love Netflix to do a 10 part series on it with the follow ups too

[Red74]

American Tabloid is brilliant, and I should have had that in my top 5. I could not get past thirty pages of The Cold Six Thousand though, just impossible to read because of Ellroy's staccato style. It is just ridiculous in that book.

There is only so much you can take of dialogue like "The man walked in. He shut the door. He unravelled the paper. He did a shit."

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Absolutely spot on mate. Hard read the follow up but as I've posted above, I'd like to see it done via Netflix. I used to love the early Elroy stuff but after Tabloid, I found him a hard read

[mattyq]

American Gods - Gaiman

War & Peace - Tolstoy

A Prayer for Owen Meany - Irving

The Rise of Endymion- Simmons

I am Pilgrim - Hayes

 

An impossible choice but these are 5 that stay with me 

[Carvalho Diablo]

Is it pretentious to like a book you've read?

 

Yes.  No.

 

. 

[Paul]

These lists are always very hard for me, whether Music, film, books or whatever. I tend to have broad categories in my head: great, good, risible and everything else. However, for this I thought about the impact these books have had on me. So, Northern Lights fired my imagination more than any other book in adulthood; Danny, TCOTW ditto in childhood; La Peste helped me understand my views on God/life/a purpose; OMAM is the best I've ever taught and I've never met a kid yet who didn't love it. I've forgotten my other choice, which probably tells its own story.

[Paul]

Just checked: Triffids. To be fair it's probably representative of my love of SF and could've been one of about ten choices.

[Kidder Bukowski]

That Boys from the Mersey book wasn't so bad for its time but knowing a few of the fella's quoted in it, revisionist history was at play there. Some proper Tom Peppers there regards to fashion and that though I can vouch for a few of those tales.

 

Mention of that goalkeeper book reminded me of a weird Wodehouse short story. the Goalkeeper and the Plutocrat which is memorable to me for a few reasons. Firstly a team called Manchester United reached the cup final before the actual club had been formed and secondly where he says 'the fame of whatever had reached all parts of the civilised world and even parts of Liverpool.' Cunts were at it even back then!

[Kidder Bukowski]

Just checked: Triffids. To be fair it's probably representative of my love of SF and could've been one of about ten choices.

John Wyndham is by far my favourite Sci-fi writer!

[Kidder Bukowski]

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2015/06/philip-larkin

 

Difficult to believe this fella is your hero lad!

[mars]

Been thinking about my list - I missed Roger Zelazny's Lord of Light. I missed Chandler's The Big Sleep, Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (OMAM is good but I prefer this), Graves' I, Claudius, Abbott's Flatland. It's interesting that there are so few female authors on the lists - Austen's Pride and Prejudice?  

 

I need to read more.

[King Emlyn]

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2015/06/philip-larkin

 

Difficult to believe this fella is your hero lad!

"Lad" I'm 53 years of age. You might want to drop the professional scouser act, it's buttock clenchingly embarrassing