I guess it all in how you define "favorite." And how you define "book."
I guess it all in how you define "favorite." And how you define "book."
"It's easier to give up. I'm not a very vocal player. I lead by example. I take the attitude that I've got to go out and do it. Because of who I am, I've got to give everything I've got to come back."
-Ken Griffey Jr.
Yeah, I'm kind of the same way. I don't really do "favorites" too well.
There's two types of people in the world: those who love James Joyce and those who find him to be beyond tedious. I'm decidedly in the latter camp.
I've never been a fan of the beat writers either. IMO, the only thing they connected with was their own egos.Originally Posted by vaticanplum
Amazing book, funny and dripping with humanity, stark realization it leads us to as well -- that modern man is medeivally brutal, but lacking in nobility.Originally Posted by chicoruiz
I'm planning on reading some Flashman books on the beach this summer.
No one does absurdity better than Leyner.Originally Posted by lollipopcurve
Funny is seriously underrated and Adams managed to be funny about the very underpinnings of existence.Originally Posted by Mr. Cinatit
I'm not a system player. I am a system.
"Whatever you choose, however many roads you travel, I hope that you choose not to be a lady. I hope you will find some way to break the rules and make a little trouble out there. And I also hope that you will choose to make some of that trouble on behalf of women." - Nora Ephron
"Whatever you choose, however many roads you travel, I hope that you choose not to be a lady. I hope you will find some way to break the rules and make a little trouble out there. And I also hope that you will choose to make some of that trouble on behalf of women." - Nora Ephron
"Whatever you choose, however many roads you travel, I hope that you choose not to be a lady. I hope you will find some way to break the rules and make a little trouble out there. And I also hope that you will choose to make some of that trouble on behalf of women." - Nora Ephron
If you've read "The Dead" by James Joyce and not been moved to tears, then you've never been in love.
There's a cumbersome exterior to Joyce at times, but a soul like few others.
(Plus, Joyce hates Tennyson [the death of English poetry--my least-favorite poet ever], and that's okay by me).
“And when finally they sense that some position cannot be sustained, they do not re-examine their ideas. Instead, they simply change the subject.” Jamie Galbraith
If you've read anything by Vonnegut and didn't laugh, then you're probably dead.If you've read "The Dead" by James Joyce and not been moved to tears, then you've never been in love.
“And when finally they sense that some position cannot be sustained, they do not re-examine their ideas. Instead, they simply change the subject.” Jamie Galbraith
I hated Joyce until I read "Dubliners"...after that, I went back to "Portrait" and realized that it was a restatement of many of the same emotions except made more evocative by the author's use of language.
I still prefer "Dubliners" but certainly see Joyce in a different light than when I was reading his stuff in HS/College.
I've been in love. I've read "The Dead", multiple times in fact (not my choice). I was not moved to tears, in fact I was bored out of my skull. Like I said, reading through a bunch of tedium waiting for some emotionally constipated character to actually feel something doesn't work me, at any level. Those who love Joyce, love him utterly. I can respect that. Joyce's universe and characters are just too narrow-band for my tastes. It comes across as didactic rather than lived to me.
Oddly, I really like Andre Dubus, who also writes about complicated emotions, but those complications are present in his characters rather than suppressed past recognition.
I'm with you and Joyce on Tennyson, though. He took English poetry into Candyland while the French had the good sense to go stark raving mad. World War I, and Wilfred Owen, dragged it out of its ornamental decline.
I'm not a system player. I am a system.
Big bust.
Don't even get me started on "Four Quartets".
I recognize Joyce as a man and artist of depth, it just doesn't come together for me. I'm not sure Eliot ever gleaned anything about the human condition beyond how to paste images together.
Joyce cares about the reader, that's where he's aiming to connect. I find that admirable. Eliot, far as I can tell, was trying to impress the literary community. He succeeded. Though, to be fair, I hate Milton too on many of the same grounds and future generations will be handed a poetic Mount Rushmore with both he and Eliot chiseled into it.
I'm not a system player. I am a system.
11 favorite novels, in no particular order:
1. "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. One of the few novels that I have read several times. Its relatively short length makes repeated readings easier, but it is such a perfect jewel of a book.
2. "The Winds of War" and "War and Remembrance" by Herman Wouk. Two novels but really one story. Of the two, I preferred "Winds." I can recall first reading the book while I was in law school. I stayed up until about 4 a.m. finishing the book.
3. "The Cruel Sea" by Nicholas Monsarrat. It took me a while to "get into" this classic tale of war on a British corvette in WWII, but it stuck with me.
4. "A Piece of Cake" by Derek Robinson. A memorable novel set during the Battle of Britain. It made me laugh out loud, and it made me think. I've never been nearly as fond of his other novels for some reason.
5. "All Quiet On The Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque. Sad.
6. "1984" by George Orwell. Sadder.
7. "Johnny Tremain" by Esther Forbes. My favorite book as a kid.
8. "Catch 22" by Joseph Heller. I laughed on almost every page, but it too made me think.
9. "Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry. I never wanted this book to end, and I hated it when Gus died.
10. "The Eagle Has Landed" by Jack Higgins. I got bored with his books eventually, as he fell into a formula, but this one was a great page turner.
11. Virtually all of Robert B. Parker's "Spenser" novels; always a fun read, and the dialoge between Spenser and Hawk, Spenser and Susan, really Spenser and anyone, makes me laugh.
"Hey...Dad. Wanna Have A Catch?" Kevin Costner in "Field Of Dreams."
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