Favourite Book Ever (1 Viewer)

[P. Littbarski]

i found this quite unsatisfying, mainly because of the characters. clarke is good at the sci, and not so good at characterisation. it's no surprise that his most famous character was a computer.

the first book is a bit more old school sci-fi (it was written early 70's) and i tend to look at all 4 installments of the rama series as one long book (which is cheatin talk really)
i love his sci-fi, and the rama 'world' just keeps getting bigger and bigger in each book...blew my mind. If you havent read the second rama book which is cleverly titled Rama II i'd give it a chane...it's not at all like Rama insofar it takes the sci and hugely expands on it

there is a rama film in production at the moment with david fincher and morgan freeman apparently involved...here's hoping they don't make a mess of it.

talking about sci-fi, i think iain banks should get a mention. I've only started reading his sci-fi stuff recently and it's pretty impressive (I started with The Algebraist which was a good starter)

The only Peter Carey book I've read is the Kelly Gang one which was cool...reminded me a bit of and the ass saw the angel by nick cave insofar it was written colloquially...two good books right there.

 

[sarah]

Just re-reading this, what a shame he killed himself before he could write some more... amazingly funny book!

 

[BC]

That book freaked the living shite out of me! I just couldn't handle the murder scenes/his general apathy towards what he was doing. Which was the point of the book, I suppose.

i thought "american psycho" was hilarious, the whole thing struck me as a comedy revolving around the desolation and vacuousness of gratuitiousness. the fact that the works of genesis and whitney hueston were discussed in as much gruesome and sadistic detail as the sexual violence i found both revealing and amusing, though i must confess i did find the extreme violence and sadism very funny.

 

[BC]

Just re-reading this, what a shame he killed himself before he could write some more... amazingly funny book!

absolutely, a totally perfect, wonderful work. incredible stuff...

 

[Catwoman]

Only read this recently but I think it's going to be one of my all-time faves

 

[theoootini]

talking about sci-fi, i think iain banks should get a mention. I've only started reading his sci-fi stuff recently and it's pretty impressive (I started with The Algebraist which was a good starter)

the wasp factory is also excellent
i think he puts an m in his name to signify his sci fi works as in : ian m. banks, and leaves out the m for his standard fiction (or vica versa)

 

[sugar_referee]

Same for me . A monster of a book, ridiculously vicious and with the best manipulation of the Irish way of speaking English I've ever read or heard.

Incidentally, there's an adaptation of it in the pipeline. What a project to take on. This is tenuous 'insider' information, so I'll say little else, because it will all be bullshit.

 

[billygannon]

the wasp factory is also excellent

That was a good book. Although the scene with the baby and the maggots is possibily the sickest thing I've read. Well, one of the sickest things I have read.

 

[Mitchum]

Same for me . A monster of a book, ridiculously vicious and with the best manipulation of the Irish way of speaking English I've ever read or heard.

Incidentally, there's an adaptation of it in the pipeline. What a project to take on. This is tenuous 'insider' information, so I'll say little else, because it will all be bullshit.

There's already been a German movie adaptation of At Swim Two-Birds.

 

[nEiLo]

Same for me . A monster of a book, ridiculously vicious and with the best manipulation of the Irish way of speaking English I've ever read or heard.

Incidentally, there's an adaptation of it in the pipeline. What a project to take on. This is tenuous 'insider' information, so I'll say little else, because it will all be bullshit.

it's an amzing book all right. as i stated earlier, I prefer the Third Policeman. However, the best Flann/Myles book is The Best Of Myles. Hilarious stuff. I didn't include it because it's a collection of newspaper articles. A genius.

 

[krystal]

Microserfs

 

[theoootini]

it's an amzing book all right. as i stated earlier, I prefer the Third Policeman. However, the best Flann/Myles book is The Best Of Myles. Hilarious stuff. I didn't include it because it's a collection of newspaper articles. A genius.

yup. gas. d'brother is a huge fan as well.

 

[coraline]

Great book, great book- Ive never met anyone else who's read it.
Shades of the guy from Catch me if you Can to the original hippy/crusty anarchist, guest appearances from the grateful dead, abbie hoffman,peter coyote, the IRA...

I recently gave up on Ringolevio, and pretty near the end too...
I thought it was like two completely different books stuck together - really well paced, exciting, page turning until he goes to San Francisco, then it turns into the biggest snoozefest of all time. I couldnt stand the boring chronological details and the "we did this, then we did this, then we did this other thing, then i said *insert self aggrandising rant for 6 pages* " style. I loved the first part and was so disappointed by the rest...

 

[sugar_referee]

There's already been a German movie adaptation of At Swim Two-Birds.

I saw about half of it when I was grappling with the book for the first time, which I was far too young for. It looked insane. This one is an Irish one like, so I reckon there'll be a lot more emphasis on the language . There had better be

 

[sweetoblivion]

i thought "american psycho" was hilarious, the whole thing struck me as a comedy revolving around the desolation and vacuousness of gratuitiousness. the fact that the works of genesis and whitney hueston were discussed in as much gruesome and sadistic detail as the sexual violence i found both revealing and amusing, though i must confess i did find the extreme violence and sadism very funny.

I find anything violent (in film, books etc) quite hard to watch/read so I suppose that had a lot to do with it. It definitely was about the gratuitousness of their lives, how absolutely devoid their lives were of soul, emotion, anything human. Instead their lives revolved around money, power, designer labels (I do love the way he would refer to clothing labels etc all the time, that was funny), and Bateman's life in turn revolved around violence, and sex. But for him, sex was not about emotion, as with his work life it was about power and manipulation and degradation. It was like watching someone devoid of spirit and humanity go about their days. He is obviously an 'american psycho', but he really was so similar to his friends, he just took that barbaric step forward and actually toyed with people and tried to control their lives by ending them for his own pleasure. You ask yourself how much it would have taken before his work mates would have done the same thing.

 

[coast to coast]

By the way has anyone becoming a reading retard recently? I read more than I ever have in my life last year, like reading fucking Pale Fire in a few days type-thing, but since I got home (from travelling) I've been reading Henry and June for literally 3 months. Can't start anything til I finish it either!

 

[nlgbbbblth]

Just re-reading this, what a shame he killed himself before he could write some more... amazingly funny book!

another one of my favourites. Amazing yes.

 

[nlgbbbblth]

Catcher In The Rye - is it filmable?

 

[shitepipe]

Catcher In The Rye - is it filmable?

think harry enfield already did

 

[Juno]

That was my favourite book for a good while. It's still up there though I don't remember it very well anymore. It's hard to pick a single favourite book but top few would be:
'The Empire of the Sun' JG Ballard
'The Passion' Jeanette Winterson
'Wuthering Heights' Emily Bronte
'Catch 22' Joseph Heller
and cos I loved it as a kid 'The Three Musketeers' Andre Dumas