what is the best book you have read for entertaining?

Sandra · Post by **Sandra** » Mon Jun 02, 2003 12:38 am

I would like to know that about you LC fans...
thanks for your answer
(mine is The little Prince)

lizzytysh · Post by **lizzytysh** » Mon Jun 02, 2003 4:35 am

I'm thinking, Sandra....sure that others are, too

.

Sandra · Post by **Sandra** » Mon Jun 02, 2003 8:04 pm

I see Liz, I have several favorite writers and it is interesting to know other points of view

jurica · Post by **jurica** » Mon Jun 02, 2003 9:33 pm

it's very difficult to name one, so i'll go with the one that crosses my mind first:

Sabbath's Theatre by Phillip Roth.

but i might have given you completely different ansver if i ansvered tomorrow...

Kush · Post by **Kush** » Mon Jun 02, 2003 10:28 pm

Well, I havent read that much in recent years but here are 3 books that made a great impression on me in recent times: most recent first.

1. Shadows of our Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for who We Are
by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan.

2. Diary of Anne Frank: Critical Edition

3. Cosmos by Carl Sagan .

p.s. Can't remember when I read my last fictional novel. Must've been a James Michener or Agatha Christie maybe 6-7 years ago.

Linda · Post by **Linda** » Mon Jun 02, 2003 11:37 pm

The Pearl by John Steinbeck It left the longest impression on me.
Also The Story of my Life by Helen Keller

John the Shorts · Post by **John the Shorts** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 12:06 am

At the moment my faves include (but are not limited to):

The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan
The Thomas Covenant series by Stephen Donaldson
Dune (et seq) by Frank Herbert
The Clan of the Cave Bear (et seq) by Jean M Auel (apologies if misspelled)
Daffodil Days by Grahame Lloyd
PS I LOve You by Michael Sellers
Mythology of the British Isles by Geoffrey Ashe

It is, I accept, top heavy with fiction, but that represents my escape from a day job that doesn't really stretch my mind

JTS (I forgot to mention Spike Milligan's War Memoirs)

Partisan · Post by **Partisan** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 12:17 am

Interesting selection JTS, not what i would have expected from someone on this forum. Have you tried Raymond E Feist?

p.

margaret · Post by **margaret** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 1:12 am

Over the last couple of years I've read several books each by Paulo Coelho, Vikram Seth, V S Naipaul, J M Coetze, Sebastian Faulks, Louis de Bernieres and others. A few favourites are "The Moors last sigh" by Salman Rushdie, "100 years of solitude" and "Love in the time of cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt, "The war of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts" by Louis de Bernieres.

linmag · Post by **linmag** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:06 am

Don't apologise for reading fiction, JTS, as if it were somehow less 'worthy' than other forms of writing. Imagination is a defining human characteristic, and works of fiction show it off in all it's glory.

I have just finished the fifth volume of Jean M Auel's Earth's Children series, and am once again awed by the amount of research she must have put into creating her neolithic world. For sheer imaginative flair, I like the dragons series by Anne McCaffrey (or indeed anything by her), but I keep coming back to Jane Austen, particularly Pride and Prejudice for its wealth of beautifully drawn characters.

I have also just read The Princess Trilogy by Jean Sasson, which is based on the diaries and notes of a member of the Saudi royal family, and gives a horrifying account of the treatment of women in that country. Not recommended for anyone with a weak stomach. Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children made a big impression on me when I first read it, and I also enjoyed Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy. I can't decide whether I like Paulo Coelho or not, but he is certainly interesting, and I'm trying to acquire a taste for Ernest Hemingway on the grounds that it would probably be good for me, but am not doing too well so far

tom.d.stiller · Post by **tom.d.stiller** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 4:11 am

The line between reading for professional reasons and reading for entertainment is not easily drawn. Even reading J. M. Keynes's "General Theory" was an entertaining experience at one time of my life, and so were Plato's "State", Rousseaus "Emile", Saint-Exupéry's "Petit Prince", Tolkien's "Lord of the Ring" and many other books at their respective times.

To name a favourite - more impossible a task never has been asked for. Therefore I'll just give a few more names. As I tend to read a whole bunch of books by the same author in rapid succession, and then don't look back on her/him for several years, I'll list some names that come to my mind, restricting myself to prose read over the last five years: Stephen King, Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe, Frederick Forsyth, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Mann, Graham Greene, Minette Walters, Tom Wolfe, Dorothy Sayers...

Tom

Kush · Post by **Kush** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 4:45 am

Linda....John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath was once a great favorite of mine. I think I read it 2-3 times. Have you heard Bruce Springsteen's song on it ?
JTS....I used to devour fiction at one time but between work-related reading, racquetball, listening to music, watching movies....something had to go. The above-mentioned 3 books is probably 40-50 % of the total books I've read in the last 4-5 years.

Paula · Post by **Paula** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 1:09 pm

I am afraid I tend to read things like

Dennis Nielsen - Killing for Company

The needle and the damage done

Mass murderers stuff really.

It is not that I am morbid and I can't stand the sight of blood but those are the type of books I enjoy.

I can't stand things like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. I did read the Little Prince it was OK. What was it the snake had eaten?

Byron · Post by **Byron** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:25 pm

Doris Lessing; Jane Austen; The Bronte Girls; Angela Carter; Theodore Dreisser; George Eliot; Thomas Hardy; E.M.Forster; Jeanette Winterson; Muriel Spark; Margaret Atwood; Shakespeare; Dickens; Rushdie; Seamus Heaney; Spike Milligan; Jean M Auel (All of hers'); Vikram Seth; G.G.Marquez; P.Coelho; and anything to do with history and poetry. I tend to have several books on the go and dip into each one for a chapter or two. I have read several books more than once or twice. I find you can come back to a piece of writing and discover more than you had originally digested. Also, the passage of time gives you a slightly different perspective on what you are reading again. It looks like a long list but if you each go to your bookshelves you'll be surprised at how many books you have read.
I cannot claim to have a favourite. Each book has its own merit and it would be like comparing oranges and apples.

witty_owl · Post by **witty_owl** » Tue Jun 03, 2003 7:16 pm

I really like Tom Robbins and his sense of humour.- 'Jitterbug Perfume', 'Even Cowgirls Get The Blues', 'Half Asleep in Frog Pyjamas'. etc.
Sherri S. Tepper. All her books particularly 'Grass'.
Charles De Lint. All books, I started with Moonheart.
Arthur C. Clarke ------
Heinlen. Stranger in a Strange Land.
Doris Lessing, Briefing for a Descent into Hell and the Shikasta series.
Ursula Le Guin, Left Hand of Darkness. - This would make for great cinema.
Greg Bear the Eon series.
Tolkein and Donaldson
C. J Cherryh has written some interesting tales- 'Rider at the Gate'.
Carlos Castaneda,- all his books!

I also like to read on art and music history, anthropology and cosmology.
I am writing a novel which requires much research reading and despair that I will ever finish the damn thing.

Currently reading- James Joyce, 'Ulysses' and struggling with it.

This is a small portion of my reading interest.
Regards,

what is the best book you have read for entertaining?

what is the best book you have read for entertaining?

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