We've had music and films, but I don't remember books. Here's a few of my favourites:
Richard Flanagan "Gould's Book of Fish (A Novel in Twelve Fish)", but it has to be the hardcover version. Beautiful, and very creative.
David Foster "The Glade Within The Grove". Another Australian one. It's big and rambling, and fascinating from start to end. Foster is fond of playing games with the medium, and does it brilliantly in this one. The first time I read it I was very disappointed - the book ended just as the story was about to get REALLY interesting. Then I started thinking. How did I know it was going to get interesting? Because I already knew what was going to happen. Because he'd snuck in the entire story without me noticing.
Jim Dodge "Fup". It isn't just because I love ducks. This is a very short book, but it has more depth and emotion than just about anything else I've read. And it has the best opening line ever.
Umberto Eco "Foucault's Pendulum". But we've dealt with this one already. I'm still not sure what happens.
Primo Levi "The Wrench". He was a survivor of Auschwitz, and his books dealing with that are enough to make me ashamed of being human. This one is different - a celebration of Man the Maker.
Well, sorry to bring it down a level or two, but my fave book I've read recently is Tony Hawks' "Round Ireland with a Fridge".
He goes round Ireland. With a fridge.
:!:
You didn't mention SHEEP!!!
Fiction:
John O'Farrell - 'The best a man can get' - it made me laugh out loud on numerous times.
Patrick Suskind - Perfume - the best modern exponent of the written word even if he is French. The language just holds the mind and flows like a river in surge.
Webster - The Duchess of Malfi - in the grandest Jacobean tradition ALL the cast end up dead on the stage at the very end. Intrigue and adultery galore.
Non-fiction and addendums tomorrow. Electric blanket overheating!!
I'm with you davidd03, excellent!
My other favorite is a bit of a girlie cliche perhaps, but I make no appologies for it: Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell's only book of course.
Rachel
Books eh ?
Robert Nye's 1980 retelling of the Faust legend, in which a 16th Century German scholar sells his soul to the Devil in return for knowledge, wisdom and the pleasures of the flesh.
Anything and, indeed, everything by Jeff Noon - cyberpunk for those that hate things cyber, hippy for those fixed in the digital age and usage of language to make even the most devout wordsmith hum with happiness. Vurt, Nymphomation and the recent Cobralingus (remixing and digital filtering of the written word, no less) are all great starting points.
I was a robot, Wolfgang Flurs story of the history of his time with Kraftwerk from their garage band days to their reshaping of electronics in music.
I'm going through an odd phase in the written word at the moment, as you can tell !
Carpathian
Damn it, Jags beat me to it with "Perfume"! A fantastic book. In no particular order, some other faves:
PGWodehouse - "Piccadilly Jim"
Flann O'Bryan - "The Third Policeman"
Evelyn Waugh - "Decline and Fall"
Kazuo Ishiguro - "An Artist of the Floating World"
Willans & Searle - "Down with Skool" - the gratest boke ever, as any fule kno
Grief - here I am bleary eyed absorbing all the great books of the western world - I need to add some to my truncated list but it will be later.
All I can say is 'WOW'...
x x xx
I think my tastes may be considered a bit odd, but in late victorian times, these were what everyone wanted to read. I still do, but I'm not quite that long in the tooth to remember that far back!
My fav author at the moment is Silas Hocking . I've just finished reading The Lost Lode.
I can recommend all his books, but you will need a hanky (to weep into).
Anything by Guy Bellamy but in particular The Nudists very funny but also moving with a bit of sex thrown in as well
Top favourite books, in no particular order.
Felidae - Akif Pirincci, a murder mystery set in the cat world.
Great Apes - Will Self, they say that every one has at least one book in them. After reading Great Apes I came to the opinion that I don't, the man is simply a genius.
The Wimbledon Poisoner - Nigel Williams, a very funny book about a man trying to murder his wife. Not a premise that lends itself to humour but Williams does it.
Vintage Stuff - Tom Sharpe, every character was a perfect. Provided a definition of a climbing crampon that I have never forgotten.
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame - Victor Hugo - No justification necessary.
The Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux. Skip the musical and films, just read the book, as is usually the case the book is far better.
The Yes Minister Diaries - Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay, a must for anyone interested in British politics.
I have to say that your post was a lot shorter than I think we all envisaged - a round of applause for the soul searching you have obviously had to go through to step a foot in the camps of both brevity and completeness.
Out of interest, how many would you have chosen, given a choice ?
Oh, and yes, I realise that sentence of mine was awful.
Carpathian, obviously not leaving a literary work to be remembered by judging by his English....
P.S. The Jane Austen book "Persuasion" just won the mock Booker prize for 1818 on BBC4
about time someone threw in The Idiot by a little known Russian author - Dostoyevsky
If you are going to read 'Round Ireland with a Fridge', I would recomend you also read, 'Playing the Moldovians at Tennis', also by Tony Hawks and equally good.
Oh gawd ... just found this thread. (Must be calm, must NOT spend rest of day adding title after title .....)
LOTR, obviously - "One Book To Rule Them All ....."
Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S Thompson
Towards the End of the Morning, by Michael Frayne
Trainspotting, by Irvine Welsh
Crime and Punishment, by Dostoyevsky
The Queen's Gambit, by Walter Tevis
The Player of Games, by Iain T. Banks
Mission, by Patrick Tilley
Pop. 1280, or anything else by Jim Thompson.
As for non-fiction ..... Jesus, what have you people DONE to me??? I'm off to work (sobbing piteously).
Does no-one like Harry Crews?His "childhood,autobiography of a place" is fantastic.I,m surprised bukowski is'nt on here either.
I just started reading Bukowski (Tales of Ordinary Madness) yesterday. It's very different from the books I usually read, but I like it.
I'm glad this thread has been resurected.
Wot no Joseph Heller - Catch-22 - Yosarian lives !
Jan Martell - Life of Pi
I see Catcher in the Rye and some Homer - good 2 see !
Good to see Iain M Banks
Any Pratchett
Yosarian
:roll: 
).
again) has already mentioned Webster - though my favourite of his has to be The White Devil.
I have just seen the time!!
.
to everyone for the recommendation of Patrick Susskind's Perfume - I'm really enjoying it. As soon as I bought it I went for a hot chocolate in my favourite coffee shop - and was nearly late for the school run.
:rotflmao: :rotflmao: :rotflmao: 
