Just ONE book

1. Seitsemän veljestä (The Seven Brothers)
2. Aleksis Kivi
3. Seven brothers barely survive in wilderness. Get drunk and kill a bunch of animals, finally learn how to read and get laid. An epic. One of the best and most definitive pieces of Finnish literature. Very poorly translated.
Character summary:
Juhani: Oldest brother. Stubborn, aggressive and likes cuddly animals.
Aapo: Wisest of the bunch. Tells stories and eventually becomes a lawyer.
Timo: Retard. Likes squirrels.
Simeoni: Religious nutcase. Binges, hallucinates the devil and never gets laid.
Lauri: Obviously homosexual. Often prances alone in the forest. Curses off his brothers while drunk on top of hiidenkivi, translated to "Hiisirock".
Tuomas: Strong as an ox. Very practical and always keeps his word.
Eero: Youngest of the bunch, a prankster and a pain in the ass because he learns how to read and fuck first.

Darling you forget - all is one.

1. The Wasp Factory
2. Iain Banks
3. The storey of one fucked up boy and his family living on a small island in Scotland.

1. VALIS

2. phillip k. dick

3. insanity, god, the meaning of life and the fact that fish cannot carry guns.



my favorite book ever, impossible to really describe.

The Gunslinger

Stephen King

The introduction to his Dark Tower series. It has spaghetti-western style elements mixed with Arthurian mythology. Read Robert Browning's 'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came' to get a sense of King's inspiration for this series.

This particular novel is an early work for him, so not quite so polished as later books in the series (the drawing of the three; the wastelands; wizard and glass; wolves of the calla) but we do see the beginning of the fracturation of the universes and what kind of person the main protaganist is.

I really loved it, even read it twice, but parts of it made my stomach churn. It was the fate of Elly that did it. She was the best character in the whole book, and look what happened to her. And you forgot the excessive incest. (THis book is not for the faint of heart)

1. Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast
2. Robin McKinley
3. You all know the story, but this version is very rich, unlike the flat disney version. There is a lot of detail and a whole slew of great characters. I have read doezens of books that I would consider my favorites. I chose this one because it is my favorite version of my favorite fairy tale. I first read it in the 7th grade and have gone through two copies of it since, probably reading it twice a year.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Robert Heinlein
Arguably the greatest science fiction novel ever. A standard war for independance story that is anything but standard. As is normal for Heinlein, the story calls into question assumptions about virtually every topic touched on, even briefly, in the book - the nature of war and politics, of morality, of ownership, and freedom, of love and (one of his favorites which he always fucks with) marriage. All told during a war that is not the least bit less exciting because all the important battles take place in people's heads, with the changing of their attitudes and biases.

ohh... you beat me to it!
Totally agree, best book ever.
It's like she invented a whole new language...
( Her political/social essay stuff is amazing too)

One of the best quotes I ever read was Charles Bukowski listing his 3 favorite writers - Charles Bukowski, Charles Bukowski, and Charles Bukowski. You've got to respect that.

The Power of One by Bryce Courtney.

This is the most powerfully moving book I have ever read. Not only do you learn amazing facts about Africa, boxing, botany and spiritual growth, but you'll experience absolutely every emotion possible while reading it.

It is about a white boy born in Africa who is rejected by all because he is neither black, nor the right kind of white. He is passed from home to home, until a German botanist takes him in for good. When the German is sent to prison, the boy (who's name is never known) starts "living" there as well, and learns the dynamic sport of boxing as a means of self-dicovery.

This is a coming-of-age story that doesn't end on the note you would expect. I have read this book a dozen times, and I still sob, laugh out loud, and huck the book across the room out of anger. It affects me in ways nothing else ever has.

deadeye dick-vonnegut

semi innocent kid from a family with crazy dad who was friend with hitler pre-WW2 gets key to family gun room and shoots one bullet into the air...

Cosmicomics-Italo Calvino
Cosmicomics is a phantasmagoria on Creation, an enchantingly ingenious idea which translates theories about the evolution of the Universe into stories and makes "characters" out of mathematical formulas and simple cellular structures. The narrator, Qfwfq, spends his childhood in the soundless, timeless void; among the incandescent colors of stellar explosions, he plays with hydrogen atoms like marbles and, sitting astride a galaxy, chases his friend Pfwfp around the firmament. Or, as an adolescent on the new Earth, he has his first shy love affairs with Ayl, Lll, and Mrs. Vhd Vhd; climbs up to the moon on a ladder as it looms hypnotically bright over him; watches the planet flood with its first color as an atmosphere forms; migrates as an adventurous young vertebrate from sea to land; or wanders the deserted plateaus as the last, lonely dinosaur, desperately wanting to belong. Most dazzling of all. Qfwfq thinks back on his state as a mollusk evolving, eyeless himself, a shell to delight all eyes.
The result of this entrancing union of mathematics and poetic imagination is pure delight. But more than this: the infinities of time and space contract, becoming momentarily acceptable to the finite mind, and the reader glimpses his own infinitesimal significance as part of the complex vastness of the cosmos.

1. Ishmael
2. Daniel Quinne
3. A book that makes you take a step back and relize what civilization is. It didnt concern american or european or african or japanese or russian society or culture, but how it all fed off of its self and grew into something that probably cannot be controlled. It doesnt present a clear cut answer, either, which I liked. It makes you think. Every 5 pages fucked me up in ways my head has never been fucked up before. It also stars a talking gorilla, by the name of Ishmael, which turned some of my friends off to the book. But the gorilla is nessicary, because it allows the teacher to be an outsider, thusly, he has never done any of these things. Its fairly short, and is fucking amazing. You should read it.

1. Yellow Dog.
2. Martin Amis.
3. Main protagonist gets whacked on the head and gets transformed into something else. Also involves a London where Henry IV rules (in modern times), has a mistress, and the Royal Princess is involved in a porno scare. Also involves the protagonist's wife and ex, as well as the insane trappings of a tabloid journalist crew. One of the funniest and most well written books I have read (I think it was one of the finalists for the Booker prize at one point). Enjoy.

1. Rebel Without A Crew

2. Robert Rodriguez

3. Rebel Without A Crew is for anyone interested in film, be it from the perspective of a movie viewer or filmmaker. This book is an in-depth account of Mr. Rodriguez's struggle to get into the film industry, and how he managed to finish a film on a mere 7 thousand dollar budget. Not only serving as a detailed look at the film industry, this book is a good starting point for any aspiring filmmakers, containing a host of useful tips and advice pertaining to being a one man crew.

[Edited on Jun 19, 2004 by rockepidemic]

the Ginger Man
JP Donleavey
The half-true adventures of a charming alcoholic, his stupid girlfriends, and his bitch of a wife. The dialogue is so crude and clever; I wonder why the screenplay bombed. I've read it so many times that I know pages by heart. Awesome book.

Parable of the Sower

Octavia E. Butler

A disturbingly realistic vision of near-future America descending into anarchy and eventual theocracy. The protagonist, Lauren Olamina, is a black teenage girl with a debilitating psychological disorder that causes her to experience the physical pain of anyone she sees.
She is forced from her home under kill-or-be-killed circumstances in a northern migration from LA to Washington, forming alliances and a new religion along the way. Forced into a concentration camp by fundamentalist Christian gangs along with her followers, losing many along the way to torture and rape.
The major theme of most of Butler's works is survival by any means, adaptation to change, holding on to your identity and sanity despite the most horrific circumstances. Most of her work is semi-autobiographical, serving to educate the reader with graphic descriptions of the pain the victim endures which only strengthen their will to survive. Difficult to read for anyone with a conscience, but worth it.

1. The Dice Man
2. Luke Reinhardt
3. *rolls dice...#4* It's a terrible book, don't bother.


[Edited on Jun 19, 2004 by hoisin]

fierce invalids home from hot climates

tom robbins

quirky as ever. "sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll are enormously popular in the c.i.a." a tale of an anarchist who works for the government; a pacifist who carries a gun; a vegetarian who sobs up ham gravy; a cyberwiz who hates computers; a robust bon vivant who can be as squeamish as any fop; a man who, though obsessed with the preservation of innocence, is aching to deflower his teenage stepsister, only to become equally enamored of a nun ten years his senior. the motto: "learn to handle hot things. keep your knives sharp. above all have a good time."

ooo I love Tom Robbins, although I think Still Life with Woodpecker is my favourite.

Anyway:

A Dangerous Vine
Barbara Ewing
Hrmm, a story about breaking away from small minded, racist society in New Zealand in the 50s.

this is my favorite book of all time. it gave me nightmares. didn't sleep for like a month after reading it.

i will add:
1. a heartbreaking work of staggering genius
2. dave eggers
3. memoir style story of a guy whos parents died leaving him to take care of his 7 year old brother. really depressing at times, hilarious at others. includes a diagram of a stapler in the forward.

1 - Johnny Got His Gun

2 - Dalton Trumbo

3 - The Metallica song "One" is based off the story. Pretty much about a man who goes to war, and get horribly injured, and then slowly comes to the realization that he will never be normal again. It is pretty haunting.

Title: Dante's Inferno
Author: Dante Alighieri
Summary: Basically, if you haven't read it...I've got a noose waiting for you.
But, basically it's Dante's theological and philisophical perception of what Hell is like. In it he also makes jabs at several people that lived in or around his time, lots of them being political figures he hated, etc.

It's very interesting, I've read it 54648645231857 times and still can't put it down when I start reading it. It's almost the only book I care to read...I've started a few new ones, but none of them catch my interest as much. I always find my self shelving the "New York Times #1 Best Seller" for the good old Inferno.

1) Faust...Eric
2) Terry Pratchett
3) Guy Summons demon to grant his wishes. Hilarity ensues.

*Bump*
Place of Dead Roads- William S. Burroughs
part of a three part cycle-and one of the most linear pieces he ever wrote....
an example of the prose...as the story is a bit complex to neatly paraphrase
"Kim has never doubted the possibility of an afterlife or the existence of gods. In fact he intends to become a god, to shoot his way to immortality, to invent his way, to write his way. He has a number of patents: the Carsons spring knife, an extension of the spring blackjack principle; a cartridge in which the case becomes the projectile; an air gun in which air is compressed by a small powder charge; a magnetic gun in which propulsion is effected by compressing a reversed magnetic field. "Whenever you use this bow I will be there," the Zen archery master tells his students. And he means there quite literally. He lives in his students and thus achieves a measure of immortality. And the immortality of a writer is to be taken literally. Whenever anyone reads his words the writer is there. He lives in his readers. "