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Your best five reads of the last three years?

kerb said:
cheers. may just to that ;)
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I get through a lot of books, fiction, non fiction, newly published or older classics, I read everything I can get my hands on, and I spend pretty much all of my free time reading. Some books just take you away to another place, some really move you, some make you look at your own life, like a mirror, some give you visions into other peoples lives. You know what I mean. Some of them do all of that, and more. You just know they are classics from the moment you pick them up. The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is definitely one of those.

There is not one book I would recommend more to anybody.

:)
 
Dillinger4 said:
I get through a lot of books, fiction, non fiction, newly published or older classics, I read everything I can get my hands on, and I spend pretty much all of my free time reading. Some books just take you away to another place, some really move you, some make you look at your own life, like a mirror, some give you visions into other peoples lives. You know what I mean. Some of them do all of that, and more. You just know they are classics from the moment you pick them up. The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is definitely one of those.

There is not one book I would recommend more to anybody.

:)
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I knew there was a reason why I liked you ;)

gis a lend
 
Dillinger4 said:
I get through a lot of books, fiction, non fiction, newly published or older classics, I read everything I can get my hands on, and I spend pretty much all of my free time reading. Some books just take you away to another place, some really move you, some make you look at your own life, like a mirror, some give you visions into other peoples lives. You know what I mean. Some of them do all of that, and more. You just know they are classics from the moment you pick them up. The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is definitely one of those.

There is not one book I would recommend more to anybody.

:)
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best recommendation ive had in ages

and yeah there are some books when you just know. You know that every page is gonna be worth savouring. While im reading one of these books, every now and then ill just close the book and think about what ive just read, and turn it in my hands slowly, looking at it up and down, side to side, every which way. But mostly im just turning it in awe, just stunned at what ive just been reading. It doesnt happen often but thats why its so great.

cheers :)
 
Top 5? Of the last 3 years? Bloody hell. My last 3 years have mainly mostly exclusively been spent reading for my degree. So I don't have a huge pool to draw from.

However, I would say, in no particular order:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Jonathan Safran Foer (perhaps)
Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
A Room of One's Own – Virginia Woolf


Oh god, I can't do it!
 
i would go for Violence by Slavoj Zizek, Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, granny made me an anarchist by stuart christie, The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad, and Ham and Rye by Charles Bukowski. that's the best 5 that spring to mind deom recently.
 
I normally just lurk about or post in my partner's name but since he's already given his books here are mine:

These are the ones Ive read recently which have stuck in my mind and/or changed the way I look at the world/myself to some extent:

Saturday - Ian McEwan
Life of Pi - Yann Martel (I think)
Half of a Yellow Sun - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Human Traces - Sebastian Faulks
Freakonomics - Steven D. Levitt

I'm going to buy that Oscar Wao one asap - sounds like a great read.

PS I'm a real Vonnegut fan but read them all too long ago to qualify for this unfortunately.
 
Paulie Tandoori said:
i would go for Violence by Slavoj Zizek, Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, granny made me an anarchist by stuart christie, The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad, and Ham and Rye by Charles Bukowski. that's the best 5 that spring to mind deom recently.
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That one is brilliant.

:cool:
 
kerb said:
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky
The Road- Cormac Macarthy
One day in the life of Ivan Denisovich -


can think of the fifth :confused:
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Recommend Cancer Ward for you by Solzhenitsyn. Possibly my favourite book.

Can't really choose 5 but these are some I've really liked.

To the Islands- Randolph Stow
Riders in the Chariot- Patrick White
The Tree of Man- Patrick White
Babbitt- Sinclair Lewis
Ragged Trousered Philanphropists-Robert Tressell
Love on the Dole-Walter Greenwood
 
Vintage Paw said:
Top 5? Of the last 3 years? Bloody hell. My last 3 years have mainly mostly exclusively been spent reading for my degree. So I don't have a huge pool to draw from.

However, I would say, in no particular order:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Jonathan Safran Foer (perhaps)
Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
A Room of One's Own – Virginia Woolf


Oh god, I can't do it!
Click to expand...

I enjoyed Extremely Loud much more than Illuminated...held my attention more and there was something about that kid that made me root for him to find the answer.
 
Fledgling said:
Recommend Cancer Ward for you by Solzhenitsyn. Possibly my favourite book.

Can't really choose 5 but these are some I've really liked.

To the Islands- Randolph Stow
Riders in the Chariot- Patrick White
The Tree of Man- Patrick White
Babbitt- Sinclair Lewis
Ragged Trousered Philanphropists-Robert Tressell
Love on the Dole-Walter Greenwood
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Hey cheers man... just rechecking the book dillinger recommended and never saw yours. Only read the one by Solzhenitsyn but if that was anything to go by, ill follow it up with Cancer ward. Found it amazing how much he packed into one short book. Was truely impressive... and brutal at the same time.
 
The Last Ditch: Britain's Resistance Plans Against the Nazis by David Lampe
Flashman Papers Volume 12. Flashman on the March by George MacDonald Fraser
The Big Lie by John Baker White
Skorzeny: "The Most Dangerous Man in Europe" by Charles Whiting
Hitler's Games, the 1936 Olympics by Duff Hart-Davis
 
Hmmm...

A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson (should be a textbook in every school)
Watchmen - Alan Moore (brilliant in so many ways)
Down and Dirty Pictures - Peter Biskind (Miramax and Indie Cinema laid bare, great anecdotes too)
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold (read in one sitting, whilst waiting for a plane, the very definition of page-turning)
Crazy Horse & Custer - Stephen Ambrose (great depiction of how 'the West' changed and how the two men's lives were in many ways similar)
 
Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymous Bosch- Henry Miller
Bound for Glory- Woody Guthrie
Number 9 Dream- David Mitchell
The Devils- Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Panda's Thumb- Steven Jay Gould

Oh, and 'Leaving the 20th century'; a collection of various fun stuff by the situationist international :cool:
 
kerb said:
Hey cheers man... just rechecking the book dillinger recommended and never saw yours. Only read the one by Solzhenitsyn but if that was anything to go by, ill follow it up with Cancer ward. Found it amazing how much he packed into one short book. Was truely impressive... and brutal at the same time.
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I read Denisovich years ago, actually it was the cover which caught my eye: I judged and was proven right! I liked Cancer Ward because it had more time to develop its characters and some of the dialogue between the two protagonists fired me up. Solzhenitsyn's been subject to a bit of criticism by people (some of it justifiable) but I have enjoyed what I read, the two long novels of his I've read held my attention because there's so much in them. Humour, character development, political analogies, comments on life, Soviet history and ideas that taught me something. First Circle was the other long one I read, harder to follow because of the large # of characters. Will have to read it again soon.
 
ChrisC said:
Tough question that! It can include a series. Mine are:

The Time Ships by Stephen Baxter.
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Ha! I did some work for him, he gave me a bottle of wine and one of his signed books as a tip. Quite a nice bloke.

Kafka on the Shore - Huruki Murakami
Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (first read it about ten years ago and read it again the other week, mighty fine.)

Errr.... I'll have to think about my 5th as it is a tie.
 
Fledgling said:
I read Denisovich years ago, actually it was the cover which caught my eye: I judged and was proven right! I liked Cancer Ward because it had more time to develop its characters and some of the dialogue between the two protagonists fired me up. QUOTE]

what i liked about Ivan Densiovich was the opposite. You were just dropped into this unknown world and little over a 100 pages later it was over but there was so much depth. That is a skill to stretch out just one day into a book. But i havent heard about his others till now so ill give that a go. Sounds like it'll be well worth the effort. incidentally which cover did you have?
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firky said:
Ha! I did some work for him, he gave me a bottle of wine and one of his signed books as a tip. Quite a nice bloke.

Kafka on the Shore - Huruki Murakami
Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (first read it about ten years ago and read it again the other week, mighty fine.)

Errr.... I'll have to think about my 5th as it is a tie.
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These are both fine, fine bits of genre fiction. But best you read in the last five years? dude read Alistair Reynolds Redemption Ark to see Morgans superior contempory and China Mieville's 'Perdido Street Station' to see Gaiman's superior
 
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