Who's your favaorite author and what are the coolest/trippiest books you've ever read?

King seems to be a big favourite around here...I read a lot of his when I was a kid, but when I sifted out my fiction to make room for my non-fiction, I only kept the Bachman books, and Different Seasons. I am with Advantage, his novels are too long winded, too much warm-up, but his short stories are brilliance. My favourite is the Long Walk.

Robert Heinlein is amazing, I read all of his back to back, but in no particular order. Kurt Vonnegut. Philip K Dick, of course. John Irving has a particular kind of strangeness, and A Prayer for Owen Meaney had me in floods of tears. Patrick Susskind's Perfume, is very dark and breathtaking. Homer's Odyssey, immediately followed by James Joyce's Ulysses helped me overcome my fear of the latter and rendered it within my comprehension.

Already mentioned, all of Tom Wolfe, except Bonfire of the Vanities, and Ken Kesey's One Flew over the Cuckoo Nest to add artist context.

Obviously, Tolkien, as already mentioned by a few...all of. CS Lewis...all of. T H White's The Once and Future King is one of my all time favourites, and I never grow tired of it, always finding within it a new lesson to be learnt.

I am currently in love with Hermann Hesse's work. The Glass Bead Game completely rocked my world. Which also brings me to the 'trippiest' book that I have ever read...Cosmic Comics by the aforementioned. Totally and utterly incomprehensible...moon milking I ask you?

I'm currently reading Christopher Paolini's Inheritance cycle to my nine year old son, and they're very good. My son loves them. Paolini was 15 when he wrote the first one...which is scary...

I also read to him Monkey by Wu Cheng-en, which was a first for both of us, though I had watched the TV series as a child. The book far surpassed that, and had us both in stitches.

I think everyone should try to make their way through the classics, or at least some of them...it is disappointing that so many would rather read Dean Kootz, which really, given his formulaic approach to writing, well you've read one, you've read them all...

Oooh...and Franz Kafka Metamorphosis...for those of us with a schtzoid PD...a must read for self-understanding.

ETA William Gibson! How could I forget that? And while we're thinking cyber-punk, Bruce Sterling...

Seasonal picks:

Thomas Ligotti

Sheridan LeFanu

And, of course:

Dune.

Frank Herbet. 'Nuff said.

reply to post by Biliverdin

I'm currently reading Christopher Paolini's Inheritance cycle to my nine year old son, and they're very good. My son loves them. Paolini was 15 when he wrote the first one...which is scary

Oh with Saphira and other dragons! I enjoyed these books myself. It's hard to believe the first book was written by a 15 year old!

reply to post by cenpuppie

I have a pullover hoodie which says on the front, above a small cartoon sandworm

I am the Kwisatz Haderach.

Here it is!



from www.goats.com...

store
www.topatoco.com...

that's how muched I like Dune!

reply to post by Eidolon23


Oh, gosh yes! How could I have forgotten Ray Bradberry?!!! The Halloween Tree - one of my all time favorites!

reply to post by Night Star


Yes, and Saphira is a wonderfully well developed character. I haven't seen the filmed version, and doubt that I will...I don't like the look of Saphira...or Eragon for that matter. It is obvious that Paolini has read all the fantasy greats, and I was please that in Eldest he even included the now standard exploration of the ant world. He is quite the precocious talent.

From my previous list of weird and wonderful writers, I omitted Tom Robbins. Another Roadside Attraction, should meet the needs of many ATSer's thought processes.

The novel follows the adventures of John Paul Ziller and his wife Amanda—lovable prophetess and promiscuous earth mother, inarguably the central protagonist—who open "Captain Kendrick's Memorial Hot Dog Wildlife Preserve," a combination hot dog stand and zoo along a highway in Skagit County, Washington. Other characters in this rather oddball novel include Mon Cul the baboon; Marx Marvelous, an educated man from the east coast; and L. Westminster "Plucky" Purcell, a former college football star and sometime dope dealer who accidentally infiltrates a group of Catholic monks working as assassins for the Vatican. In so doing Plucky discovers a secret of monumental proportions dating to the very beginning of Christianity.

en.wikipedia.org...

reply to post by NewAgeMan


Now THAT is a shirt to wear to work. Old Herbet did his homework for those books, literally did his home work. And considering that his work is a template of Homo Sapien i wonder how close he was to the truth.

Those Jesserets, heh. I wonder if "they" truly exist in one or another. The best fiction is based on truth, i wonder if that's why those books are so damn good!

Robert Monroe

Journeys Out of Body
www.amazon.com...

Ultimate Journey
www.amazon.com...

Far Journeys

www.amazon.com...

If you PM me I may be able to send you the books )

reply to post by NewAgeMan


Totally agree the Discworld series is awesome. Have read them all and love them all. Especially love Pyramids and Small Gods and all the Rincewind books.

My favorite of the moment is Watchers - Book One in the Tilly Greenway & the Secrets of the Ancient Keys series. Though written for young adults, adults would love it too. It's very topical. Covers New World order agenda, shadow governments in league with alien entities, and a backdrop of a suppressed alternate history that seems to reference the whole Anunnaki thing.

The great thing about this book is that the fantasy side is set in modern day UK with real places. My reading of it was that though framed as a fantasy it is scarily relevant and you just hope reading it that it isn't actually true because some parts feel way too true e.g. shadow govt has a pact with alien entities to microchip population so that control of the brain can offer them up as a food source. The entities are dimensional and can only be seen on infra red but feed on the chemicals produced by fear and distress. A great read..

amazon.co.u k

(can't get the link to work for amazon.com but it is there too)


Another series just re-released on kindle that I love is the Canopus in Argos series by Doris Lessing. I just love her take on the whole cycle of advanced population experiments and planetary colonizations as undertaken by the Sirians and the Canopians. Really credible and very well written.

There are 5 books and will just link to one the rest should be there amazon.com

Originally posted by Mara5683
reply to post by NewAgeMan

 

Totally agree the Discworld series is awesome. Have read them all and love them all. Especially love Pyramids and Small Gods and all the Rincewind books.

Small Gods was awesome! Right now I'm reading "Mort" which is excellent. In it, a young man named Mortimer (Mort) is taken on as an apprentice, by Death, but he screws up royally you could say when he saves a young princess from assassination throwing the wrench into Discworld causality.

This one was also an outlook changer for me, which is the kind of book I love as much as I like the satirical fantasy of Pratchett

Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig


"The study of the art of motorcycle maintainence is really a study of the art of rationality itself. Working on a motorcycle, working well, caring, is to become part of a process, to achieve an inner peace of mind. The motorcycle is primarily a mental phenomenon." -- Robert M. Pirsig

en.wikipedia.org...

www.amazon.ca...

It's from this book that I was introduced to the idea that mankind lost his place in the nature of things when the study and practice of Virtue as Quality, as taught by Socratese was demoted (carved up under the knife of dialectic aka argument between competing ideas) and replaced by Aristotelean Academia (textbook learning about), which splintered the world into innumerable "things" and separated man from the natural order.

It was a real eye opener for me, which also gave me greater insight into the teachings of Jesus Christ who I am convinced was well aquainted with Greek philosophy through the sister school/library of the Library of Alexandria, which burned down about 50 BC.

reply to post by intrepid

Hello, thank you for your reply and sorry for my slow response.

My friend at work says the same as you, that the DT series has connections to all of his other books. the only other book of SK's i've read is The Stand and i really enjoyed that too, it certainly opened my eyes.

I only really got back into reading at the beginning of last year and when i did start reading the DT series i was absolutely amazed, i wasn't even aware books of this type existed (i'd only ever read crime thrillers before) and these booked really opened up my mind and got me asking questions that i'd never even given two thoughts about, i really wanted to try and understand what the DT books were about as they seemed so out of this world yet strangely familiar to the world we live in, i had no idea of the dark side of the world we live in that i was soon to start to see for real, i've learnt an awful lot in the last year since finishing the DT series, alot of horrible things but also some amazing truths that have managed to set my mind free, well, as free as is possible in this day and age.

As soon as i finish the book i'm currently reading (digital fortress by dan brown) i'm going to get my hands on a few more sk books,

thanks for the advice and take care

reply to post by NewAgeMan


YES! How could I forget this one. Like you Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was one that changed my whole view of everything. It's one I've never reread as don't want to alter the original impact. I think from your Alexandria comment that you might enjoy Watchers (Tilly Greenway series) that I posted above. Not as heavy as Zen, but one of the Guardian in Watchers taught at Alexandria!

Just read Terry Pratchett's Snuff and The Long Earth. Loved both. The Long Earth is a very different read but I enjoyed it. Snuff however I really loved. The goblins were a real sensitive touch and strangely beautiful. Pratchett at his best. You will like it I think.

reply to post by Mara5683

Thanks for your recommendations. Finished Snuff not so long ago and I too liked it. Presently into Sorcerers. I re-read Zen and got as much or more out of it the 2nd time.

Will have to get back and tabulate/summarize the ATS most loved book and author list from this thread, to see what it looks like as one listing.

Originally posted by smyleegrl
All time fave: Margaret George's "Autobiography of King Henry VIII". I've read it at least twenty times.....it's incredible.

Hey, just to let you know, your post did make me go back and give TAoHtVIII another listen to. Enjoyed it very much. It is very well written and now I'll have to check out George's other works.

J.K rowling because she mastered the art of getting the readers hooked through her narrating. She is also the master of show vs tell.

Frank Herbert's Dune series are great too. Worth the read.

I've gone through different favorite authors, as I'm sure you all have. Some of the ones on this list-Koontz, Gaiman, Dick, Murakami-have held that title.

I really like "Replay" by Ken Grimwood. It's a reincarnation/time travel novel that always makes me contemplate the different doors that I have walked through in my life and ask "what if?"

I went through a classic literature phase that almost ruined me-Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy, Cervantes' Don Quixote, Somerset Maugham's Of Human Bondage...I tried to pick up Harry Potter and Larrson's Millennium series after that, and found them just too coarsely written.

I'm happy to say I recently read "John Dies at the End" and "Rx: A Tale of Electronegativity" and enjoyed them immensely, so perhaps there is hope that I can get back to light reading.

Yeah, I'm no fun at parties.

reply to post by Snsoc

I really like "Replay" by Ken Grimwood. It's a reincarnation/time travel novel that always makes me contemplate the different doors that I have walked through in my life and ask "what if?"

Oh yeah! Now that is my type of book. I just googled it and have to get it!

One of my day dream scenerios is to invision being able to go back in time with full recollection of past events and people (especially middle school)


www.amazon.com...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350390142&sr=8-1&keywords=%22Replay%22+by+Ken+Grimwood

Check out all the favorable reviews it received.

Thank you so much for the heads up on that book!

ETA: if you enjoy this type of book, you should check out Stephan King's book "11/22/63: A Novel"

reply to post by itsallmaya


I hadn't read the reviews, thanks. It brings a manly tear to my eye to see that so many people "get it." I read the book for the first time in 2000 and consider it one of the greatest science fiction novels ever published. It's a deceptively light, easy read that philosophically knocked me flat. To this day I imagine what I would do if I found myself in a similar situation, and what the implications of each choice I have made, plus all the alternative outcomes. It kind of reminds me of the movie "Run, Lola Run," where you see all the different choices she could make, and what happens in each of them.