Favorite Non-dance (*gasp*) Books?

:tossing in two cents:

I'm a Sue Grafton and Patricia Cornwell fan (even though I fear Cornwell may be a little off her rocker lately). I also read James Patterson and even though he irritates me sometimes with his plots and characters, I still go read the next thing he publishes. A little more on the guilty pleasures side, I also like Mary Higgins Clark :roll:

I sometimes enjoy reading books that were made into movies, Hannibal was my favorite of that type.

My favorite book of all time is To Kill A Mockingbird.

That was more like five or six cents wasn't it?
Christina :D
 
Hey Christina75.

I love Sue Grafton. Did I mention I have an autographed copy of P is for Peril? Sorry. Had to rub it in. LOL.

I also like the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, motivational books by Zig Ziglar, Anthony Robbins, and Wayne Dyer. I've also read virtually every relationship/pop psychology/ self help book known to man. Plus I unwind by reading trashy romantic novels. And I read a lot of (boring to many) technical and trade journals, plus lots of fitness magazines (just to discourage myself. Nothing like tons of airbrushed thighs to discourage a normal female. LOL)

Oh yeah, and I let out my fave children's books: anything by Dr. Seuss or Beverly Cleary. And favorite poetry: Edna Saint Vincent Millay and Nikki Giovanni.
 
Presently I'm working through two books of short stories by Truman Capote. Both have an enjoyable edge somewhat reminescent of Flannery O'Connor (one of my fav's).

My favorite books are all classics...little written after 1950 is worth reading. Not quite challenging enough...Let's see...

Peyton Place--Grace Metalious
The Hobbit and LOTR Trilogy--Tolkein
Gone with the Wind--Margaret Mitchell
The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Hamlet, and Julius Caesar--Shakespeare (actually, most all Shakespeare except for the Henry VII, etc.)
Canterbury Tales--Chaucer (so funny)
Short Stories by Ray Bradbury, Hawthorne and Flannery O'Connor (mentioned above)
All Sherlock Homes--Sir Arther Conan Doyle
Actually, most all Hawthorne (everyone always gets what they deserve)
Dr. Faustus--Christopher Marlowe
Anything by Edgar Allan Poe
A Modest Proposal--Jonathan Swift

There are more...but half of you are asleep on your PC's.
 
TemptressToo said:
Presently I'm working through two books of short stories by Truman Capote. Both have an enjoyable edge somewhat reminescent of Flannery O'Connor (one of my fav's).

My favorite books are all classics...little written after 1950 is worth reading. Not quite challenging enough...Let's see...

Peyton Place--Grace Metalious
The Hobbit and LOTR Trilogy--Tolkein
Gone with the Wind--Margaret Mitchell
The Merchant of Venice, Othello, Hamlet, and Julius Caesar--Shakespeare (actually, most all Shakespeare except for the Henry VII, etc.)
Canterbury Tales--Chaucer (so funny)
Short Stories by Ray Bradbury, Hawthorne and Flannery O'Connor (mentioned above)
All Sherlock Homes--Sir Arther Conan Doyle
Actually, most all Hawthorne (everyone always gets what they deserve)
Dr. Faustus--Christopher Marlowe
Anything by Edgar Allan Poe
A Modest Proposal--Jonathan Swift

There are more...but half of you are asleep on your PC's.
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You have excellent taste, Temptress! Your list sounds like one of my own syllabi.

But after 1950....

Try Raymond Carver, John Gardner, Vonnegut, and if you like detective fiction, check out Jonathan Lethem, "Motherless Brooklyn" and his more recent detective yarn about the future world with advanced intelligent animals (I forget the title)--well worth the price of admission. Very much in the tradition of Hawthorne, Poe, and Swift.
 
Oh, I forgot two...

Oedipus Rex--Sophocles (I think...could be wrong)
Mythology--Edith Hamilton

I had to read both in AP English class in high school. I so love Greek mythology.
 
Mythology--Edith Hamilton
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That's a great book Temptress...I read it in high school for English and again for Greek Mythology in Junior College...I knew that book inside and out! Who's your favorite character? Mine is Hippolytus. :)

Cantebury Tales...that's another of my favorites! I remember my HS teacher telling us when he handed the book out "not to read The Miller" which of course we all did as soon as class was over! :D

Have you ever read The Decameron? Very similiar to CT, but a much longer book and also quite "saucy", but that's why I enjoyed it. ;)

SG
 
My favorite character in Mythology would have been "Zeus." I love reading how he liked to play games with the mortals (and immortals).

CT--to some people was boring. But obviously, they just dreaded reading the long thing...it was very interesting reading into his descriptives.

I haven't read that other book.

What did you think of Paradise Lost? I found it interesting but too long (as many books of that time were). Also, you can't forget Pilgrim's Progress...a staple of any lit class.
 
Yup. One thing I found in my honors literature courses was that the classics generally are so for very good reasons. Early on (meaning eighth and ninth grade LOL), I used to be turned off by the stereotypical pretention that came along with certain works of literature. By college honors lit, I was just going with the flow, and letting myself love the books -- almost always a good read, not just good for expanding the mind. :wink:
 
Im a huge fan of Virginia Andrews/V.C Andrews. I have most of her collections.
I love a good family saga!! Heaven was my favorite set of books, I still read over them from time to time :D

Im also into Sidney Sheldon and John Grisham.

Autobographies are great too..... usually all the sad stories are the ones I go after...Darren Milane's (Aussie footballer) book made me cry a few times... and I cant wait to read through Jason McCartneys (Another aussie footballer who was badly burnt in the Bali bombings and survived) book.

I dont read many of the old books though....although I do love A Patch of Blue, beautiful, inspirational book!
 
I read one VC Andrews novel -- can't remember the title -- back in high school, I think. Creeepy! Never again. I try not to read stuff that's going to haunt my nightmares. LOL. That's why I don't read Stephen King, either. *shudder* I'm a wimp. :oops: :lol:
 
btw, Does anyone like to read Dave Barry, the humor columnist/author? Totally stupid, off the wall humor. Gets me cracking up every time.
 
Was that written before 1950?

You simply cannot beat the classics. Their use of vernacular...the hidden twists (especially during times of crisis)...the whole sentence structure. Not to mention...consider what the writers had to go through to even be published. This was pre-technology...so I find it amazing. I understand how many of them never became famous until they were dead (for instance, Emily Dickinson). ;) And then there were the rare surprises like Anne Bradstreet.
 
Actually, I'm pretty sure Dave Barry was BORN around 1950. He has a nationally syndicated humor column that runs in my local paper. A real crack-up.

Do you have any contemporary authors that you like? There are actually some contemporary classics out there that are worth a read, don't you think? :wink:

I can relate, though. I have a real bias toward movies pre-1950. But there were some true classics made long since then. Hmm.
 
pygmalion said:
I guess there's no point in mentioning trashy dime store novels in this illustrious conversation. Hmm. :lol: :lol:

Actually, my favorite book of all time is Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh. Haven't reread that in a while. I guess it's time.
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Pygmalion...it's okay..there's nothing wrong with trashy dime store novels as long as you enjoy them. Replying to this topic made me think about my past as a bookseller and all the novels I've read and how I use to get into heated discussions with co-workers and customers about which books you were suppose to read. Book people can become very snobbish! I will admit to that! Ha! Ha!

The one thing that amazed me was how well romance novels sold. Women would come into the bookstore and buy three or four romance novels at a time. Danielle Steel, Jackie Collins, Judith Deveraux..and the list goes on and on!

Most of my reading now is Business Books(Millionaire Next Door etc...) and Christian books. I'm reading a book titled Sacred Romance-Drawing Closer to the Heart of God by Brent Curtis & John Eldredge. It's an excellent about how God wants to capture our hearts and not the other way around.

Anyway...I could write about books all day long. Great topic!
 
pygmalion said:
Oh yeah, and I let out my fave children's books: anything by Dr. Seuss or Beverly Cleary. And favorite poetry: Edna Saint Vincent Millay and Nikki Giovanni.
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"Runaway Ralph" and "Bartholomew and the Ooblek" were my favorites growing up. Favorite living poet--W.S. Merwin. Here's a selection from one of his poems, where the speaker imagines himself in the role of Orpheus calling his beloved from the underworld with his fabulous poem of creation:

...Why should I notice the waters
Sundering from the waters, or suddenly
The first tree waving ancient fronds, or how
From novel shadows the new beasts come, the savage
Modulations of holiness, in love's name
Where other names are profanation?

For it is you that are the world thereof,
You whom, possessing, I have still desired,
And, touching, have still dreamed of; you the sense,
The echo there waiting upon this word,
The circle making all within it real,
The sole order; for I have painfully
Wrought you from vacancy to this full air
And sung you to the tender instrument
Of my ten fingers till you have become
The poem in whose arbor we may kiss,
The summer into which we can ascend.

(From "The Dancing Bears," 1954)

Cheers,

Genesius
 
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