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What's the greatest single book you've ever read?

post #1 of 54
4/15/02 at 7:33pm
Thread Starter 
One book. The greatest you've ever read. I bet there have been countless threads on this, but I don't remember ones that singled out one book and not a list.

I read a lot of stuff, but surprisingly i'm not too well read. But I have to say, honestly, the greatest book i've ever read is American Psycho. It's a look at our culture that has never been duplicated in anything else i've read. The horror of society and it's materialistic needs and a man who is frustrated with living in it. A cry for help with a fantasy world (?) of violence and lust to hide in. Brilliant, and I (unlike a lot of people) identified with him and even sympathized with him.

Ok, shoot.
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post #2 of 54
4/15/02 at 7:36pm
Catcher In The Rye

The Old Man And The Sea/ A Call To Arms

Catch 22

To Kill A Mocking Bird

And I want to add Kavalier and Clay to that list but I am not done with it.

I have a hard time chosing a single thing, sorry. It's really a tie so, you know.

But if I had to chose one it would be... shit....

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post #3 of 54
4/15/02 at 7:39pm
The Lord of the Rings. Easy. Hands down. Not a contest.

No other book has inspired me to read it again and again and again.

But that's obvious to anyone who knows anything about me. How about the close seconds? Well, there's The World According to Garp, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay, Brightness Falls From the Air, Microserfs, and Watership Down.
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post #4 of 54
4/15/02 at 7:40pm
I can never choose one single greatest anything, whether it be book, film, actor, game, what have you. But right now I guess I'd have to say Slaughterhouse Five.
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post #5 of 54
4/15/02 at 7:56pm
If I had to choose only one... Which is tough...

I'll have to go with

'Foucault's Pendulum' by Umberto Eco

But man... You should've made it top ten. Hell, even that would be tough.
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post #6 of 54
4/15/02 at 8:13pm
Kaviler and Clay. End of Story.
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post #7 of 54
4/15/02 at 8:14pm
Illuminatus Trilogy - Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. This book is just so fucking INSANE! And fun to read. So many goofy jokes tucked into the corners. So many whacked-out ideas.
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post #8 of 54
4/15/02 at 10:09pm
Cadillac Desert

A must-read, IMO.
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post #9 of 54
4/15/02 at 10:23pm
L. A. Confidential.
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post #10 of 54
4/15/02 at 11:46pm
Quote:
tokyo storm warning:
Breakfast of Champions
Fuck, see there is another one I should of added.

I can't chose.
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post #11 of 54
4/15/02 at 11:50pm
Lonesome Dove
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post #12 of 54
4/16/02 at 12:36am
This is way too hard. There are way too many great books to single out one -- I could name ten right off the bat. But I have to say, the book that inspired me the most about the possibilities of writing is:

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by James Joyce.

That's the one that broke through the barrier for me. It was like the proverbial lightbulb went off over my head.
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post #13 of 54
4/16/02 at 12:42am
I'll add my vote for LOTR (good call Proxy). This is the book that got me into fantasy fiction - and kept me there. I love re-reading it, you can find so much with every trip through Middle-earth.

Cheers!
Joram
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post #14 of 54
4/16/02 at 1:03am
Breakfast Of Champions
The Old Man And The Sea
Behold The Man
Hombre
Dark Tower Series
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post #15 of 54
4/16/02 at 1:11am
I think picking a book that has come out in the last 10 years, maybe even the last 20 years, is doing so a little prematurely. Let the book soak into the world, into lit history, before declaring it the best. But that's just my opinion.

The greatest book I've ever read is The Stranger. Catcher comes real close and Farewell to Arms is almost there as well, but it's Camus' imagining of Mersault's world that blows my hair back more than anything. It's just total balls that book. And it features a passage, a line, a warning maybe, that is the truest thing that I've ever read: "And so I learned that familiar paths traced in the dusk of summer evenings may lead as well to prisons, as to innocent, untroubled sleep."
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post #16 of 54
4/16/02 at 1:32am
The Collected Works of William Shakespeare.

Or The Pelican Brief. One of the two...
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post #17 of 54
4/16/02 at 4:38am
Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas or I Am Legend.

Not really classics outside of the counter culture. But they inspire me what can I say...
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post #18 of 54
4/16/02 at 6:51am
On The Road.

Easily the greatest...I re-read it almost every year.

Mother Night is a close 2nd.
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post #19 of 54
4/16/02 at 10:41am
Quote:
Cap'n Katanga:
On The Road.
You beat me to it, Cap'n. This book has inspired me in more ways than one and probably will for the rest of my life.
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post #20 of 54
4/16/02 at 10:47am
Quote:
Jacob Singer:
I can never choose one single greatest anything, whether it be book, film, actor, game, what have you. But right now I guess I'd have to say Slaughterhouse Five.
Excellent, wonderful, awesome choice. My love for this book knows no bounds.
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post #21 of 54
4/16/02 at 10:49am
Quote:
Django X:
Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas or I Am Legend.

Not really classics outside of the counter culture. But they inspire me what can I say...
Weird. Those books (and also Clive Barker's The Thief of Always) are the ones that I have read more than ANY other book. I'm willing to bet that I can recite at least 3/4 of Fear and Loathing from memory. It still stands as the most accurate novel to movie adaptation I've ever seen.

I wish I could say the same about I Am Legend...
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post #22 of 54
4/16/02 at 11:55am
Cold in July by Joe R. Lansdale
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post #23 of 54
4/16/02 at 3:20pm
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.
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post #24 of 54
4/17/02 at 3:48pm
The monster of a book that is named Shogun I can read again and again. Has some of the best emotion getting scenes that I love.

For a series I do have a fond leaning torwards The Wheel of Time. I want to see this baby end even with the amount of cheese and copying it posseses. Has some of the most awesome characters I have ever read.

Yes I have read LOTR but couldn't get into as much. I realize many characters are "revisionings" or even some being steals but love the way it all comes together.

Sue me!
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post #25 of 54
4/17/02 at 5:49pm
Wow, I don't even know where to begin...

I'll second the previously mentioned the Strager and Ender's Game and toss in Cryptonomicon and maybe Chronicles.
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post #26 of 54
4/18/02 at 12:20am
Farewell, My Lovely by R.Chandler. Just an amazing wander through those mean streets. Analogies fly and cool cats and bad chicks populate the landscape.

The Bible. (Put those rocks away.) You'd be amazed how many jokes and references you'd miss by not being glancingly familiar with this.

Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins. Just about the most romantic book I ever read.

Sorry. There can not be one single book.

Peace.
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post #27 of 54
4/19/02 at 8:59pm
I'd have to say The Catcher in the Rye. I've had a ton of favorites over the years, but I always come back to this one. I couldn't even begin to count how many times I've read this.

The first time I read it, I just grabbed the plain white book off the shelf and started reading the first page. I was thirteen. Nothing has ever grabbed my attention that way again. I can honestly say this book affected me like few things ever could.
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post #28 of 54
4/19/02 at 9:06pm
I've already chimed in with Shakespeare, and I'll stand by that choice. (And in case you didn't know, my Pelican Brief selection was an example of sarcasm...)

But two classics that moved, and continue moving, me: Wuthering Heights, and The Great Gatsby.
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post #29 of 54
4/19/02 at 9:54pm
Crime and Punishment.

Still one of my faves.
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post #30 of 54
4/19/02 at 10:09pm
I may pass off as ignorant saying this but it would have to be IT given that I've read it more than any other book. The way in which King is able to convey the genuine feel of what it is to be a child, grow up, have friends and see those friends again again coupled with truly intense horror that stayed with me for a long time made me come back to this book often.
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post #31 of 54
4/19/02 at 11:12pm
Blunt, please try Robert R. McCammons Boy's Life and Dan Simmons' Summer of Night if you haven't.
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post #32 of 54
4/19/02 at 11:14pm
Will do but just a question: what makes you recommend them Blo?
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post #33 of 54
4/19/02 at 11:26pm
what makes you recommend them Blo?

The disembodied voice of Ludwig's detached cock. And I have to agree with Blofeld on The Pelican Brief. One of the finest examples of sarcasm ever written.

I've always been partial to Lord of the Flies.
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post #34 of 54
4/20/02 at 12:28am
Lonesome Dove
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post #35 of 54
4/20/02 at 2:20am
I was hoping to see High Fidelity as someone's favorite book. Cause it's an awesome book and you'd be cool if that was your favorite.
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post #36 of 54
4/20/02 at 3:37am
Quote:
Tindalos:
I'll have to go with
'Foucault's Pendulum' by Umberto Eco
Damned good pick, Tindalos! Some people got totally daunted by just the first chapter, but I armed myself with a dictionary and a desktop encyclopoedia while reading it and learned more than any one given YEAR of high school...

Funny thing about that book, it somehow made the conspiracy-driven X-Files seem totally ridiculous from the get-go and the fan-push behind it laughable, kind of like the incident at the pendulum...

Also, multi-level nested flashbacks in literature is a rare treat.
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post #37 of 54
4/20/02 at 3:47am
Quote:
Bluntmatt:
what makes you recommend them Blo?
The fact that they are, both, better examples of the ability of a book to convey the:

Quote:
genuine feel of what it is to be a child, grow up, have friends and see those friends again again coupled with truly intense horror
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post #38 of 54
4/20/02 at 12:38pm
Duly noted Blo. I'll check them out as soon as I can.
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post #39 of 54
4/24/02 at 12:49pm
The Fountainhead!
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post #40 of 54
4/27/02 at 6:50pm
I just noticed a huge mistake on my list.

What the hell is A Call To Arms? I meant Farewell of course.

Shit, took me a while to notice that.
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post #41 of 54
4/27/02 at 7:41pm
Quote:
Bluntmatt:
I may pass off as ignorant saying this but it would have to be IT given that I've read it more than any other book. The way in which King is able to convey the genuine feel of what it is to be a child, grow up, have friends and see those friends again again coupled with truly intense horror that stayed with me for a long time made me come back to this book often.
"Be true, be brave, stand. All the rest is darkness." IT is the fucking BOMB! I am totally with you on your comments, I've read this book nine times.

During the establishing montage at the beginning of Donnie Darko, the camera pauses for a moment on Donnie's mom, engrossed in this book. Very appropriate for the movie, and brought a huge, knowing smile to my face.
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post #42 of 54
4/27/02 at 7:53pm
Quote:
Kirby Drummond:
I was hoping to see High Fidelity as someone's favorite book. Cause it's an awesome book and you'd be cool if that was your favorite.
How about top 5 or so? When the movie came out I fought tooth and nail with my former fellow MovieFanOnline.com staffers for the review, I loved the book so much. (Here is it, if interested: <a href="http://www.moviefanonline.com/theatrical_reviews/high_fidelity/high_fidelity.htm" target="_blank">http://www.moviefanonline.com/theatrical_reviews/high_fidelity/high_fidelity.htm</a> ). It's heavy on references and comparisons to the book. Looking forward to the About A Boy adaptation, too.
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post #43 of 54
4/27/02 at 7:55pm
If I was marooned on a desert island with just one book, and it that one book can't be "How to Survive if Marooned on a Desert Island", I'd want that one book to be Fool on the Hill, by Matt Ruff.
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post #44 of 54
5/3/02 at 12:48am
Woohoo!!! Ayn Rand makes the list!
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post #45 of 54
5/6/02 at 8:51pm
My personal favorite novel is THE CEREMONIES by T.E.D. KLEIN which is closely followed by King's SALEM'S LOT & DARK HOLLOW by John Connelly.

-Jim
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post #46 of 54
5/7/02 at 1:00am
Samhain, are you serious? I dug that book too and hung out with Klein a little bit a million years ago. Did you read Dark Gods?
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post #47 of 54
5/7/02 at 1:09am
The Stand
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post #48 of 54
5/7/02 at 1:37am
Kirby, I have read L'etranger both in English and it's native French, and I loved it. Fuck you for mentioning it first!

I can't pick just one:

Naked Lunch - Burroughs
The Last Temptation - Nikos Kazantzakis (I know I am spelling the last name wrong)
Choke - Chuck Phalaniuk
Requiem for a Dream - Herbert Selby (if you think the movie is simply a story about drugs, re-read the title, then read the damn book)

Books that inspire, and have aged enough to be considered semi-classic (for me):

Lord of the Rings
The Cronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever
Neuromancer (hell, pretty much anything Gibson)
I Am Legend (fuck you Sean for mentioning it first!)

Edited because I fucking hate Don Wiskerdoo for pointing out the insanity of my tired post last night!

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post #49 of 54
5/7/02 at 2:40am
That Ludwig is a gay ballet dancer who collects cabbage patch kids, I believe.
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post #50 of 54
5/7/02 at 2:53am
Well, that's easy. That's in his bio.
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