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I have just spent the last 90 mins trying to choose a book to read!
I don’t often read books but I think I should rather than browsing on my phone until midnight which is ironically what I’m doing right now.
I don’t mind the genre. Just needs to be interesting.
If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only take 3 books (that you have already read) - what would they be?
something I hadn't read i would take
Fave books are:
the Algebraist - Iain M Banks
Ringworld - larry Niven
The Forsaken army Heinrich Gerlach
Manyt more than 3 but thats a modern SF book, A golden Era SF book and a unusual war story
Dunno. Can't think but one of them would be
Iain banks - The wasp factory.
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Think that covers all eventualities
Gormenghast - Mervin Peake
Iain M Banks...but I can't choose!
Watchmen - Alan Moore (or maybe From Hell)
Hmmm. Could be a different 3 tomorrow but right now let's go with
Ken Macleod: The Star Fraction
Jeff Noon: Vurt
Ehhhh maybe The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress by Heinlein.
Bugger, too late to get this into my edit for listening to whilst reading the above
The Black Dog : Conspiracy Tapes RMX
They were very prescient.
The Deptford Trilogy by Roberson Davies.
The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy.
Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry.
Bit cheeky putting in 2 trilogies but they are available in 1 volume!
Like others above I'd probably choose something different if asked again tomorrow.
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman.
The Foundation Series - Isaac Asimov.
Great North Road - Peter Hamilton.
Dunno. Can’t think but one of them would be
Iain banks – The wasp factory
There are good books that I wouldn't want to be stranded on a desert island with. I think the Wasp Factory falls into that category!
A brave new world: Aldous Huxley
Weaveworld: Clive Barker
Of mice and men: John Steinbeck
Brave New World
1984
Hyperion
I truth, those are the first three I could think of from my favourites. There are many, many more excellent books out there (t.ex Fahrenheit 451, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, most Pratchett) and life is generally too short to read them all.
I should read more. I miss reading.
Impossible task (not to recommend books, but to choose only three)
My best shot:
The Tao Te Ching
by Lao Tzu (Translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English)
The Reality Bubble by Ziya Tong*
Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes (Translated by Edith Grossman)
*Received as a surprise Xmas present, so far entirely fascinating and I want to finish it!
The Wire. If you're not familiar, the series was based on the book. The book was an account from a journalist who spent several years following around Baltimore homicide. It's is deeply grim, sometimes hilarious and occasionally very moving.
Birdsong. Utterly harrowing, but brilliant.
The Shining.
Raft-making for dummies.
101 things to do on a desert island.
How to make friends and influence people with boats.
and Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
A Scots Quair
Not sure - Lord of the Rings would keep me going!
The land lay still by James Robertson;
Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy;
A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James - haven't read it yet, something needs to be a surprise!
Three for the countryside:
English Pastoral
The Book of Trespass
Hidden Histories
Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delaney
Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds
Mine will change on a fairly regular basis but...
Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari - a history of humankind, fascinating and jam-packed with interesting anecdotes.
Walking In Circles, by Todd Wassel - Westerner walks a 750 Japanese pilgrim trail, much insight into Japanese culture and lots of funny incidents.
The Dambusters, by Paul Brickhill - the best war story ever told.
For a desert island I'd choose stuff that could stand a re-read!
#1 Something massive, deep, and complicated. A book you need to read twice just to have an outline understanding of what is going on, and many times over to really feel like you have it pieced together. Few books are in this class but Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun is one.
#2 Poetry. Profound meditations but from the simpler direction of verse, poems are usually short but contain a lifetime of re-reading and re-interpretation as you get older. Whatever you like - very personal choice (I'd pick a collection from Yeats probably).
#3 Roger's profanisaurus. Needs no introduction - foundation text for any serious library. Even one with just three books in it.
Nigella's naked Coconut cookbook
Kylie's naked SAS survival guide.
Charlize Theron's guide to naked canoe construction
Ready Player One - Ernest Kline
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
King Rat - China Mieville
This list will change on a regular basis as the mood takes me.
Blimey, that's hard.
Chuck Palahniuk (Something/anything by him)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey
Marathon Man - William Golding (I haven't read it for decades, but always considered it a fave)
Will take a while to narrow it down to 3, but first on my list would be a complete Hitchhikers Guide, all 5 books in the trilogy of 4
Espidair Street -- Ian Banks
A Prayer for Owen Meany -- John Irving
The Sea,the Sea -- Iris Murdoch
Will take a while to narrow it down to 3, but first on my list would be a complete Hitchhikers Guide, all 5 books in the trilogy of 4
Technically (and debatably), six.
H2G2 was my first thought also.
Electric Brae by Andrew Greig - the absolute best novel you may never heard of. He's a Scottish poet with a lovely feel for language. His modern take on The 39 Steps - The Return of John McNab - is my go to, feel-good light read for dark days. His two mountaineering books are also ace.
The Hotel New Hampshire - John Irving.
All sort of Iain Banks stuff, maybe Complicity rather than the Wasp Factory.
Plus a shedload of mountaineering books
Electric Brae by Andrew Greig – the absolute best novel you may never heard of.
I love Andrew Greig but EB is my least favourite of his books. It just never quite rang true, perhaps because I know the world he was writing about quite well, perhaps because it was his first and he was just getting into his stride. Fair Helen and When They Lay Bare I really like but I think his non-fiction is actually his best work. At the Loch of the Green Corrie is really good, I even went and visited it in the summer.
Different answer in 10 minutes no doubt but 1st thought ...
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
Breakfast of Champions
Sprout Mask Replica
those 3 are the 1st books I read by their respective authors and led me to read pretty much everything they wrote.
Probably
One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich by Solzhenitsyn.
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Combined works of John Buchan ( cheating with this)
Cryptonomicon
Snow Crash
And either Soul Music or Pyramids by Pratchett.
The Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck
Weaveworld - Clive Barker
If This Is A Man - Primo Levi
Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.
The Deptford Trilogy by Roberson Davies.
I Claudias - Robert Graves
And if I was going to have a non fiction book then Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything
American Tabloid by James Ellroy
The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
Having said that there are many more books that I hold in high esteem and could replace these three depending on mood. I've just read Dune for the first time and I reckon that deserves another read already...
Can I have a fourth book? Please.
Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
Tough choices, but based on the books I've probably re-read the most...
The Stand - Stephen King
The Crow Road - Iain Banks (but maybe Complicity...)
French Revolutions - Tim Moore
But really, I couldn't narrow it to just three!
#3 Roger’s profanisaurus. Needs no introduction – foundation text for any serious library. Even one with just three books in it.
This +1
Watership Down. Been reading it at regular intervals since the 70s, and always get something new from it. The adventure story starring rabbits I read as a kid has grown into biting social and environmental commentary as I've aged.
The Chrysalids, John Wyndham. Again, reread many times since a kid, and it made me realise the unquestioning narrative you absorb from your elders as a kid may not be the right one. Simple, powerful prose.
Wild Swans, Jung Chang. The terrible history of modern China seen through the eyes of one family. Even if it's not entirely true, as some critics have suggested, there is a deeper truth in it.
Echoing an above book, I really enjoyed 1984
Pretty impossible to narrow down to three. Today it would be:
James Lee Burke - One of the Robicheaux books, not sure which.
James Clavel - Shogun
Joseph Conrad - Heart of Darkness
Translation of Homers Iliad and Odyssey
Something by Jasper Ffordw or Joe Abercrombie
The Deptford Trilogy by Roberson Davies.
Ooh, someone else choosing this, he's not much read in this country I don't think. It was a toss up between this and the Cornish Trilogy. I think the middle book of the Cornish is his best work but Deptford is better overall. Some really well developed characters in both.
3 of my current favourite ones
The book thief. - Germany second world war about a young girl sent to live with a foster family.
Birds with wings. - Turk/Greek collapse of ottoman empire, about a small village and the impact of the war.
Acid for the children - flea from RHCP memoirs. Good fun to read.
Conrad - heart of Darkness is good.
Also:
Down and out in London and Paris by George Orwell is just sublime
The Spy who came in from the Cold by John Le Carre is great to read more than once.
Anything Jeffrey Archer is good if you don't like reading
A Clockwork Orange. Anthony Burgess.
The Complete Sherlock Holmes. Conan Doyle.
The Complete Short Stories. Hemingway.
As you can get them in one book now The LA Quartet by James Ellroy. If that's not allowed I'd go with American Tabloid by him instead.
The Cartel Trilogy by Don Winslow. Again, if not allowed as it's a trilogy I'd go with the first one The Power of the Dog
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky if I have to pick a single book as all my other favourites are series and I've not read the others in this series yet and enjoyed it just on its own.
Ooh, someone else choosing this, he’s not much read in this country I don’t think. It was a toss up between this and the Cornish Trilogy. I think the middle book of the Cornish is his best work but Deptford is better overall. Some really well developed characters in both.
Sometime in 1989 I walked into W H Smiths in Southend looking for a new book to read. I saw What's Bred in The Bone and liked the cover so bought it. I suddenly found myself interested in things I'd never for a minute have thought I was interested in. Such a brilliant writer and I love the close of his final work, I read it and realised he must have known these would be his last published words.
<h1>This is the Great Theatre of Life. Admission is free, but the taxation is mortal. You come when you can, and leave when you must. The show is continuous. Goodnight.”</h1>
The Deptford Trilogy by Roberson Davies.
Pretentious awfulness, Author and main character seems awfully "pleased with self"
Conrad – heart of Darkness is good.
Just; no.
Nam - Mark Baker, surprisingly good
Fear and loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S Thompson, just funny
The Tour de France - Geoffrey Nicholson, one of the first cycling books I ever read and a very well written book.
Don't really read much but I would say my top 3 are
Fatherland - Robert Harris
Book about a world where Hitler never died.
The dead do not improve - Jay Caspian Kang
Set in the Bay area the book centres around gentrification and a murder
World War Z - Max Brooks
Historical account of a zombie apocalypse
The Brothers Karamazov - Dostoevsky
The Forest Unseen - David George Haskell
A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells - AW Wainwright (assuming I can sneak in the box set of all seven books)
Best 3 ever - impossible, surely. I'll throw in three I've read a few times, avoiding many already mentioned above.
The Son by Philip Meyer - flits between three generations of Texans (Cormac McCarthy fans will probably approve)
Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels
Little Green Man by Simon Armitage
And for your low brow entertainment
Chicken hawk
I am pilgrim
Vulcan 607
Chicken Hawk was ok but I am pilgrim is just absolutely terrible.
If not now, when? Primo Levi- powerful and very moving about resistance at its finest, dealing in the most of horrific of circumstances by Jewish partisans in Eastern Europe. An author whom spoke so many truths.
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist by Robert Tressell- brilliant portrayal of working class life in Edwardian England. A left wing classic. The conversations in this novel haven’t changed much, although the fashion has.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte- Love and passion can be very dark. Just brilliant.
Agreed about I Am Pilgrim, it’s atrocious.
Good shout above on James Elliot, forgot about his books.
The Cartel Trilogy by Don Winslow. Again, if not allowed as it’s a trilogy I’d go with the first one The Power of the Dog
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky if I have to pick a single book as all my other favourites are series and I’ve not read the others in this series yet and enjoyed it just on its own.
Now I’m changing my three to reflect these. Children of Ruin too! The Cartel trilogy is fantastic
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist by Robert Tressell- brilliant portrayal of working class life in Edwardian England. A left wing classic. The conversations in this novel haven’t changed much, although the fashion has.
I couldn't finish it. I got the point and I agreed with the sentiments but it's pretty heavy handed as a book. An important book but not very well written IMO.
Agree with If Not Now When? It's a cracker.
Lipstick Traces by Greil Marcus - not to every taste but I keep reading it
The Fight by Norman Mailer - journalistic writing at it's best
The Old Ways by Robert McFarlane - a lovely poetic read
Three very different books and all brilliant in their own ways
You know what's really sad, I'm 44 and I'm not actually sure I've ever read 3 books all the way through!!
I read some while travelling back in the late 90's but none memorable enough that I'm sure I actually finished them.
Only one I know I've finished is Mr Nice, by Howard Marks. As I read it in three days while on holiday in Menorca...
Actually I've read quite a few books to my kids, so I've definitely read 3, but 'room on the broom' doesn't really count!
Donna Tartt's three standalone novels
The Secret History
The Goldfinch
The Little Friend
are well worth reading.
It's an impossible question really, but I guess I would go with:
- Middlemarch (George Eliot), which to me is probably the greatest novel written in the English language (certainly that I have read). I have a particular dislike for books that are pointlessly long (see below) but Middlemarch completely earns its 800/900 pages.
- Love In The Time Of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez). I completely accept that 100 Years Of Solitude is Marquez's masterpiece, but I find it more difficult to love as a whole. LitToC (as no-one calls it) has a wonderful sweeping romantic vision that had a big impact on me.
- For a third, I guess I'd go with a "Great American Novel". Many American authors seem to have been obsessed with trying to write the Great American Novel for more than a century, and unfortunately, to me at least, too many have confused something that is long with something that is good (yes, I'm looking at you Donna Tartt), which given that The Great Gatsby clocks in at just over 200 pages...... So I'd either go with The Great Gatsby or something from some of the authors mentioned above, for example:
- John Irving, whose books are long but never feel stretched
- Norman Mailer, probably Naked And The Dead
- James Ellroy who proves you can write thrillers that are also great literature
Yes, it's impossible really.
the three books I've reread the most times are all by Stanislaw Lem
1)Tales of Pirx the pilot
2)More tales of pirx the pilot
3) Eden
Intelligent science fiction more about humanity than aliens or robots. Never get tired of rereading them.
Totally impossible, but have we really got into page two with no mention of Dickens or have I not been paying attention?
I’ll throw in A Tale of Two Cities. If nothing else you don’t get many novels that both start and end with a quotable quote.
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich is short, powerful and left a lasting impression.
For something lighter English Passengers by Matthew Kneale is a good read.
But it would change again tomorrow and to be honest I’d struggle with a top 20 let alone a top three.
Nothing wrong with Room on the Broom by the way 😀
I have never been a big reader, probably peaked with Lord of the Rings when I was a teenager. Got about 10 pages into crime and punishment before I got bored. Enjoyed Steinbeck and once read die Blechtrommel by Gunter Grass in German! BUt if I had to be stuck with just 3 books, they would need to be ones that I really enjoyed and have re-read many times. For me that would include something by Tom Robbins, probably "Jitterbug Perfume" as it was the first I read and had me hooked from page 1. Then I would include "Shibumi" by Trevanian, a simple adventure novel that I never tire of. And finally I would include some real-life daring-do WW2 story, probably "The Colditz Story" which I must have read 5 times (and been to the castle and done the tour just after the Iron Curtain fell).
Its a different day so a different 3
Fear and loathing in Las Vegas
All quiet on the Western Front
A day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch
The Boardman Tasker omnibus: Hours of adventuring brilliance.
Consider Phlebas: cos it’s the best.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: because I’ve read it countless times and STILL can’t work out how Smiley works out who is who. There’s a couple of chapters 2/3rds of the way through where I get lost every time...maybe some hours on a beach would help me finally get it clear on my head!
Down and Out in Paris and London
The Wasp Factory
Trainspotting
Brothers Karamazov - Dostoyevsky
The Kindly Ones - Littell
The Trial - Kafka
And in spite of what someone said a few posts ago about Davies being pretentious, I want to express my thanks to those who listed him among their favourites. I love Davies, and can’t understand why he isn’t more appreciated here!
This is a tough one! But I'm surprised we're this far in and Margaret Atwood hasn't been mentioned. The Oryx and Crake trilogy is brilliant.
For three fiction books not in a trilogy:
Imajica, Clive Barker. Totally immersive (at least for me) fantasy.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K Dick. Way better than the film, which I quite enjoyed, but the point of the book is lost in translation.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Ken Kesey. Just a tremendous read.
The Shipping News by Annie Prouxl
A Secret History by Donna Tart
The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck
Oooo! Just read the previous post. One flew over the cuckoos nest is indeed a great story.
And in spite of what someone said a few posts ago about Davies being pretentious,
I can understand why people would think that. He is a bit in places however, there's so much else that is wonderful about his work that I can forgive him that.
If we’re allowed trilogies I’ll go for the ten book ‘Brentford Triangle’ trilogy by Robert Rankin.
‘Good Omens’ by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.
‘The Magic Faraway Tree’ by Enid Blyton.
One flew over the cuckoos nest is indeed a great story.
Anyone else read 'Sometimes a Great Notion'? A bit long and rambling but also pretty good.
The Shipping News by Annie Prouxl
If you liked that as much for the Newfoundland thing as Prouxl's writing then Wayne Johnston is worth checking out. Wouldn't put it in my top 3 but Baltimore's Mansion is very good. I also enjoyed 'Colony of Unrequited Dreams' but the 'Divine Ryans' which is probably his best known I didn't like nearly so much.
We did a month bike touring in Newfoundland in 2010. Had a fantastic time but couldn't honestly recommend it!
okay skimmed the thread and it's clear that 98% of the books read by blokes are written by blokes. Bar George Elliot (not long after meeting a then recent eng. lit. graduate I told her I'd not read any of his books. My now wife, thanks George) and Donna Tartt (Essex pornstar and best writer around). (Okay and Ursula K and Atwood. And now Prouxl ^^^ I see. All exceptions proving the not at all shaky looking rule...)
Anyway. Desert island books are ones you can reread, surely? By which token ones on my list to be reread include probably,
The Goldfinch (Donna), the Bone Clocks probably (David Mitchell - I could make a case that as all his books are part of the same story I'd take 'em all in one binder?) and I dunno, Lucky Jim, K Amis to see if it's still funny. Part of my er hinterland I guess.
James Clavel – Shogun
I read all of Clavell's stuff when I was a teenager. Early last year I saw Shogun in a 2nd hand bookshop for 99p and sat down to re-read it, for the first time in 35 years probably. God, it was terrible. Proper supermarket best-seller, trashy, shallow, brainless rubbish with cardboard characters, Robin Hood action sequences and far too many pages. Shame - I remember his books with affection.
okay skimmed the thread and it’s clear that 98% of the books read by blokes are written by blokes
Skimming through any of the book threads would also lead you to believe that most people buy books while shopping in Tesco, and that lots of people who post on MTB forums read far too much science fiction in their youth. (Like me! 😀 ) And it's no secret that men tend to buy books written by men, and women are less likely to buy books with SAS 'heroes' on the front. ;D