Books.

[Fen]

Gabriel García Marquez too... I mean, he's THE master of LA literature, in my opinion.

it's people like you why i was SO dissapointed by Love in the time of cholera. Had i read it before having expectations, i would've said it was...Ok. At most. But after being so entushiastic about it? Like surprise bukkake in my lesbo porn:(.

The Stranger is, I think, my all time favourite. it's hard to name even a top 10 since (almost) every book impresses me ins ome way. The only thing I'm certain of is that Fowles and Russians are not for me. Just finished Dead souls by Gogol and...
erm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Souls this is what I'm supposed to get(?), but all I got was a general idea of a nice concept, withotu anything being deeper than some guy wanting to get rich. Too shallow for Russian Lit? So be it!

Also, I'm currently in a Murakami love-love phase. Finished Kafka on the Shore a few weeks ago, and loved it.

I saw "All Quiet on the Western Front" this year in British and American History, and totally loved the film (although I was deeply moved through most of it). I want to read the book, and I'm going to try to get it. Must check at one of the few libraries which have only books in English.

YES! All Quiet on the Western Front is a must-read! So is Remarque in general, actually.
Why read it in English, though? The original is in German. So it's a translation anyway.

[Don Alexander]

Like surprise bukkake in my lesbo porn .

You and Zii would get along just fine, methinks. :lol:

YES! All Quiet on the Western Front is a must-read! So is Remarque in general, actually.
Why read it in English, though? The original is in German. So it's a translation anyway.

I can't speak for Teacher2B, but our SA ladies have commented that some Spanish translations are not so good. Possibly the English one is better. Or she just didn't realize it was German?

[Don Alexander]

Well, DA, I don't know a thing about German, but I can identify when something is written in it

'Twasn't meant to be any kind of criticism. The thing is, Erich Maria Remarque is a pen name, and a decently French-sounding one at that (actual name is Erich Paul Remark), and until I looked it up before writing my post, I was not sure if the novel's original language was German!!

[Don Alexander]

Sorry if I sounded rude (I've just woken up and coffee has not made effect yet ). Yes, you're right about the French sounding name. But I said that about identifying German because when I read your post yesterday I saw the German title first.

No, not rude, the " " made that clear. Poor girl, it's still in the middle of the night where you are... I hate mornings. I fully empathize.

Have a nice day! *hug* (phpBB clearly needs hug smilies!)

[stephaielikes]

It's the anniversary of the Bodleian Library today, in fact. This library has a copy of every book and magazine published- including pornography, although I believe it's kept wrapped up out of sight!
To celebrate, I'd love to hear your answer to a question I was mulling over last night;
Which one work of literature has influenced you the most?
It doesn't have to be a work you consider 'good', or a piece of fine literature. Only something which has affected your life strongly in some way.
If you don't want to spam/hi-jack the thread, you can PM me, but I love hearing about people's stories with books.

[Don Alexander]

Which one work of literature has influenced you the most?

Hey there, Steph!! Nice to know you are still amongst the living bookworms.

So... Piece of literature that influenced me most...

Hmmm...

I think I can give two angles.

In the first case, I can't point to a single piece of work. Or give authors' names or somesuch. But my mom, when I was little, bought some books about rockets and spaceflight for me. And when we were in Washington D.C., I went to the Air & Space Museum. And now? Here I sit in an observatory, working on an astrophysics PhD. Direct connection. Those books kindled my fascination with the universe.

When it comes to a single piece of literature which has deeply influenced me, had meaning, connected... Well, I have, being brutally rational, never been much into philosophy. But I do "have a philosopher". Robert Anson Heinlein. He became quite the "dirty old man" before his death, and his final novel, "To Sail Beyond The Sunset", is a total feast of life-affirming hedonism beyond any encrusted moral boundaries. The protagonist, Maureen Johnson (Smith Long), is something like the dream girl for me, and many of her attitudes, especially toward sex, confirmed, reaffirmed and inspired my own.

Furthermore, it prominently features the beginning of Tennyson's "Ulysses":

… Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. [...]
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars [...].

These words resonate deeply within me, in the chambers of my utopian longing to reach out and travel the universes. :mrgreen:

[Retiarius]

For myself, I’ve read so much I can’t pick one book that has affected me specifically. My father read science fiction, and the first book I remembered reading (although not comprehending at all well, being only six at the time) was Heinlein’s Rocket Ship Galileo. Dad has hardcovers all the Heinlein juvenile fictions, early Asimov, an autographed copy of Smith’s Lensman series (with one missing that he made the mistake of loaning), L. Sprague deCamp, mostly bought at library sales that predate my birth, as well as boxes of paperbacks.

My mother preferred mysteries—Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, Earl Stanley Gardener, Ngaio Marsh, etc.—but never reread them (which makes more sense for a mystery) and usually forgot she read them. These, I didn’t read until much later, although in my younger years (four or five, perhaps) I vandalized a few by drawing with pen in them—an act I would gladly now go back in time to smack myself for doing. Before I was a teenager, I memorized the titles of pretty much every book my mother owned, and whenever she came back from the book store, I’d go through the bag looking for mystery books she bought but already had: “You already have this one—and this one—you have two of this one—you have this one under a different title…” She hated that.

To cases:

I liked To Sail Beyond the Sunset and the two previous books of that series, Number of the Beast and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls. Very few authors could have put forth the “World as Myth” concept then had the gall to include most or all of his own books and gotten away with it, but he is that good. Still, of his later works, I would have to nominate Job: A Comedy of Justice as his best, if only for the line that Lucifer, speaking of himself and his brother god, Yahweh, gives to Chairman Koshchei, their superior:

Mr. Chairman, almost everything about a human creature is ridiculous, except its ability to suffer bravely and die gallantly for whatever it loves and believes in. The validity of that belief, the appropriateness of that love, is irrelevant; it is the bravery and the gallantry that count. These are uniquely human qualities, independent of mankind’s creator, who has none of them himself—as I know, since he is my brother…and I lack them too.

[Don Alexander]

@Retiarius. Your mom reminds me of my mom. And that's not a "your mom" joke. She's also a big fan of muder mysteries, and she gets duplicates quite often...

My first Heinlein book was The Number Of The Beast. I was quite a bit older than six. But fair to say, I did not understand it better than you understood RSG (which is, after all, one of Heinlein's juvenile books)... TCWWTW is also extremely good, especially because of Pixel, of course. The concept of a little kitten that can walk through walls simply because it is too young to understand that it actually shouldn't be able to walk through walls... :lol: Pixel == Ninja Kitteh Minion Extraordinaire!

Job is a rather recent read for me. Very fun, too. The whole concept is brilliant. And, of course, it contains one of those Heinlein women who are godesses to every geek.

[midgetshrimp]

It's the anniversary of the Bodleian Library today, in fact. This library has a copy of every book and magazine published- including pornography, although I believe it's kept wrapped up out of sight!
To celebrate, I'd love to hear your answer to a question I was mulling over last night;
Which one work of literature has influenced you the most?
It doesn't have to be a work you consider 'good', or a piece of fine literature. Only something which has affected your life strongly in some way.
If you don't want to spam/hi-jack the thread, you can PM me, but I love hearing about people's stories with books.

R.A. Salvatore's Sea of Swords. It was the first Fantasy novel I really read, and one quote really hits me: "We need to be reminded sometimes that a sunset lasts but a few moments. Yet its beauty will burn in our hearts eternally."

[Tenjen]

i read most of Ann Rices stuff.

Till she went fanatical.

Recently i havent had the oppurtunity to read much. I always hunger for a good read. earlier this autumn/summer end i read The Lovely Bones.

As compared to before when reading a novel was something i did daily for years. : \ ive read everything in the house [my sister had hundreds of novels]. most of which just flew out of my mind as they didnt appeal.

Though i must wonder about this one certain VERY STEAMY novel...when i found it, it was very well worn and used.. [stares at sister]

anyone read any good steamy novels? any such novels you'd recomend?

[Don Alexander]

anyone read any good steamy novels? any such novels you'd recomend?

Depends on what you're looking for... Nicholson Baker's "Vox" is a pretty short extravaganza that deals almost exclusively with sex.

Clive Barker writes very luscious sex scenes. There are some in "Coldheart Canyon" that are diiiiiirty!

But I don't read books for the sex scenes. But am happy if a goodly one comes along. ;)

[Tenjen]

i personally love seeing literary works bring out intimacy, sex and sexuality with great skill and flare. Often i like being pleasantly surprised in the novels i read.

anyone can write some dirty smut. But it takes skill to make the reader have heat strokes from sheer penmenship

iam familiar with Clive Barker [ a comment by Stephen King got me to check out his work]. He's a fantastic novelist, and i dont mean the sex events he contructs.

[Retiarius]

I read an old copy of Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire in a used book store that closed long ago, back before she was a big name. I found it…well, OK. An interesting take on vampires.

The sequel I borrowed from someone else and decided of the protagonist, “Fine. You hate being a vampire. Life for you, as it were, sucks. So kill yourself. Just stop your frickin’ whining in print!”

Needless to say, I avoided further sequels. Blood junkies are bad enough, but emo blood junkies makes me reach for my Grossen Suspension of Disbelief Cannon Mark IV. That’s why the only one of the White Wolf Games I ever played extensively (and that only for one campaign) was Project Twilight. I didn’t play in subsequent Project Twilight campaigns because after awhile it was too much like work. (Arrive at crime scene, tag and bag everything, interview everyone thought to be involved—in short, actual police work that led up to finding the nasties. X-Files with cooler toys, but only because I made them.) :ugeek:

[aishabe]

Bleh, I've missed so much.
Favorite books, eh?
Let's see...

Macbeth, even though it's a play.
Best Foot Forward, by Joan Bauer.
Jemima J, by Jane Green.
Bridget Jones' Diary, by Helen Fielding.
Enna Burning, by Shannon Hale.
The Invisible Circus, by Jennifer Egan.
Uglies, and the rest of the series, by Scott Westerfeld.
Gingerbread, by Rachel Cohn.
The Supernaturalist, by Eoin Colfer.
*ANYTHING* by Dave Barry. He cracks me up to no end.
Each and every Oz book, not limited to L. Frank Baum.
Son of a Witch, by Gregory Maguire. NOT Wicked.
The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll.
City of Ember, Jeanne Duprau.
Harry Potter, of course. Except Book 7.
Elsewhere, Gabrielle Zevin (AMAZING BOOK. READ IT.)
Stormbreaker, Anthony Horowitz.
The Lightening Thief, Rick Riordan.
Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne. (SHUT UP.)
The Princess Bride, S. Morgenstern/William Goldman.

Mangas:
Fushigi Yugi
Marmalade Boy
MARs
Azumanga Daioh
Wish
Kare Kano
Peach Girl
Beauty Is the Beast
ANYYYTHING CLAMP, basically.
Sailor Moon (Duh.)
Ranma 1/2


Also, anything to do with Akiko and the Planet Smoo. Not sure if that counts as a book or a manga, so.
That's all I can think of for now.

[Arantor]

The Princess Bride, S. Morgenstern/William Goldman.

Too true, too true.

Except that S. Morgenstern doesn't actually exist... it's one of the many jokes with it.

Although now there's a computer game too...