Member Avatar for Ezzaral

Have you heard of The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova?.

Haven't heard of that one either. I'll have to see if I can find a copy in the local used book store.

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Haven't heard of that one either. I'll have to see if I can find a copy in the local used book store.

May be local library?. That's the only way I can afford to read many books.

Member Avatar for Ezzaral

I like to keep books usually, so the used book store works out well.

Member Avatar for Aia

I like to keep books usually, so the used book store works out well.

That works. You never know when you want to read it a second time or more.
Have you heard of The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks?.
I am still waiting with anticipation for the second book that the author
promised.

Member Avatar for Ezzaral

That works. You never know when you want to read it a second time or more.
Have you heard of The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks?.
I am still waiting with anticipation for the second book that the author
promised.

Sounds like an interesting book. Thanks :)

Member Avatar for maravich12

What about Abarat.They are by clive barker....and they are based on the paintings he did.I was watching the Fangoria Blood Drive and it had an interview with him, and it showed him explaining Abarat, and his inspirations for writing it.Read it.

Member Avatar for EnderX

I like C.S. Lewis.

I wouldn't know...I haven't met the man yet. I do enjoy his written works, though.

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It does seem like you read many books about christianity, billweh.. Perhaps you should broaden your horizons a bit..

Member Avatar for jasimp

I read way to much, it attributed to me becoming near-sighted. Here are some of my favorite books that I have read.
Bartemiaus Trilogy-Jonathan Stroud
Fatal Instinct- Robert W. Walker
Lord of the Rings trilogy- Tolkien
Lincoln Ryme series- Jeffery Deaver
The Blue Nowhere- Jeffery Deaver
The Dark Tower series- Stephen King, these are my absloute favorite
Hannibal Lecter series- Thomas Harris
Congo, Jurrasic park, Prey, Timeline- Michael Crighton
Deception Point, Angles and Demons- Dan Brown
The Assassins Gallery- David L. Robbins
all 12 Alex Cross books- James Patterson
By the Light of the Moon, Mr.Murder- Dean Koontz
The Day After Tommorrow- Allan Folsom (has nothing to do with the movie)
A Briefer History of Time- Stephen Hawking
Harry Potter series- J.K. Rowling

Member Avatar for billweh

It does seem like you read many books about christianity, billweh.. Perhaps you should broaden your horizons a bit..

While true - the thread topic is "Great Books". :) I read a lot of different books, everything from faith, sci-fi, fantasy, business, politics - I was listing books that I found to rise to the top of my list, and that I have read more than once.

Member Avatar for mayo_tech11

I read way to much, it attributed to me becoming near-sighted. Here are some of my favorite books that I have read.
Bartemiaus Trilogy-Jonathan Stroud
Fatal Instinct- Robert W. Walker
Lord of the Rings trilogy- Tolkien
Lincoln Ryme series- Jeffery Deaver
The Blue Nowhere- Jeffery Deaver
The Dark Tower series- Stephen King, these are my absloute favorite
Hannibal Lecter series- Thomas Harris
Congo, Jurrasic park, Prey, Timeline- Michael Crighton
Deception Point, Angles and Demons- Dan Brown
The Assassins Gallery- David L. Robbins
all 12 Alex Cross books- James Patterson
By the Light of the Moon, Mr.Murder- Dean Koontz
The Day After Tommorrow- Allan Folsom (has nothing to do with the movie)
A Briefer History of Time- Stephen Hawking
Harry Potter series- J.K. Rowling

wow!!!! you really read a lot.. i loved LOTR series, hannibal series and of course the ever so popular HARRY POTTER series also:)

Member Avatar for mayo_tech11

What about Abarat.They are by clive barker....and they are based on the paintings he did.I was watching the Fangoria Blood Drive and it had an interview with him, and it showed him explaining Abarat, and his inspirations for writing it.Read it.

i read one clive barker book.. the title is the sacrament.. its good read..

Member Avatar for christina>you

I love anything from Nicholas Sparks... I think I've already said that. But I don't think I listed the books...

"The Rescue"
"A Walk to Remember"
"A Bend in the Road"
"Message in a Bottle"
"Dear John"
"The Notebook"
"The Wedding"
"Nights in Rodanthe"

I want to read
"True Believer," "At First Sight," and "The Guardian."

His new book "The Choice" comes out September 25 of this year. I can't wait!

Member Avatar for mayo_tech11

hi christina.. have you read any Paolo Coelho books? his books are great also...

Member Avatar for mayo_tech11

hi christina.. have you read any Paulo Coelho books? his books are great also

Member Avatar for christina>you

hi christina.. have you read any Paulo Coelho books? his books are great also

Hmm... nope, I've never heard of him.

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watchers, intensity-Dean koontz

Member Avatar for twomers

>> 1984
I was disappointed by that.

>> Da Vinci code
Eh ... I think Dan Brown's a very bad author.

I love classics (somtimes), and I have a great 150 year old collection of Dickens' works. It s great for reading during storms with a large cup of tea.

I have read a lot ... Probably well over my weight in books. Yet now that I'm thinking about what books would be my favourite I'm stomped ... There are tonnes I've enjoyed ... many I haven't ... but loved ... great books ...

Anyone remember "the big read"? I've read all the top 50 and enjoyed most of them.

Member Avatar for jbennet

I liked 1984

Member Avatar for twomers

I didn't say I didn't enjoy it (I did), but I thought it would be a lot better. I heard a lot of people talking about it before I read it.

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i generally don;t like the classics and I think Dan brown is a very good author. The DaVinci Code was his worst book though.

Member Avatar for jbennet

i prefered angels and demons much more

Member Avatar for jasimp

me to, Deception Point was second to angels and demons.

Member Avatar for jbennet

yes i liked that one too

Member Avatar for jasimp

The new Alex Cross book is coming out soon, it is called Double Cross

Member Avatar for DimaYasny

mind if I barge in? alright.

LOTR is nice, but Nick Perumov wrote a sequel, which kicks the professor's ass VERY hard. It also manages to reverse the perspective on everything starting with the Sylmarillion and all the way to LOTR.

Rowling is alright, I've already read everything, but look into the classics, try Jonathan Strawd's Bartimeus series, it's an anti-Potter book, written long before Rowling.


Who else is there to write about, who is really worth it... well, Weiss and hickman, dragon lance, huh? the first four are okay, after those is starts looking like an extended santa-barbara with swords. Deathgate series was so much better and more inventive.
Henry Lion Oldy - nw that one is a marvel, someone to read anything you find from, and look for your bottom jaw somewhere on the floor long after you're done with him.
Vonnegutt is great as well, a classic really.

Just to mention two more of the authors I'd read anything from - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Just the names, elaborating might take tomes.

Member Avatar for GrimJack

Prequel doesn't automatically imply backstory. I can see where you're coming from; my point was simply that The Hobbit served to lay out vast amounts of information about the world where the series took place, moreso than a normal book would. I apologize if I did not make this clear enough.

As to Tolkien's original intention: J.R.R. Tolkien was a devout Roman Catholic, and he intentionally 'bled' some of that through to the world he was creating.

The Hobbit was written first but not published until later; after he wrote the Rings trilogy, he had to go back and make changes to The Hobbit so it would fit (can you imagine keeping all that detail in mind writing 5000 pages!?). He was a scholar of Germanic myths; if you look around a little, most of the major character names in the Rings are from those myths.

Back to topic - I am reading the "Children of Chaos" trilogy - pretty cool (and has some pretty deep roots in mythologies also). The 3rd book in the trilogy just recently came out in HB

I also like Joseph Campbell's "The Hero With a Thousand Faces" which is a really interesting (here is the Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces).

All of Cordwainer Smiths stories and books - sci-fi stories about the million year history of human civilization and the Lords of the Instrumentality of Man who controlled destiny.

Another foray into mythology would be the recent translation of Beowolf by the poet Seamus Heaney - it has the original 'Old English' on one page and the translation on the facing page. and then there is Grendel by John Gardner which is the same story from Grendel's (the monster) point of view.

Sorry, I could go on and on (and maybe will later)

Member Avatar for GrimJack

It was written in the 50's and I am fairly certain that literacy rates were much lower.

.

Google is your friend (or whatever your flavor is):
the 'illiteracy' rate ranged from a high of 3.6% in 1950 to .6% in 1979. Keeping in mind that literacy is the inverse of illiteracy, the literacy rate in 1950 was 96.4%; if you are certain that the current literacy rate is higher, show us any data since 2001.
the click on the appropriate link:
(http://nces.ed.gov/naal/lit_history.asp#illiteracy)

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