This list is going to be harder than the movie list. I have been a pretty rabid reader since my mom got me a library card for my 7th or 8th birthday. It was probably the best birthday present I have ever received. Thanks Mom!
My taste in books tends to run more toward sci-fi but I delve a bit into fantasy too. I'm not a total geek and I enjoy a lot of stuff that literary types wouldn't turn their noses up at. Kurt Vonnegut is my favorite writer and I also like J.D. Salinger and C.S. Forester. My tastes in sci-fi run toward David Weber, Robert Heinlein, and Douglas Adams. My favorite fantasy authors are Jim Butcher, Roger Zelazny(the Chronicles of Amber and Lord of Light are GREAT), and R.A. Salvatore. J.R.R. Tolkien goes without saying. I am also a fan of Harry Potter and Steven King.
I might have to make this list a twofer.
Top-5 smart people books:
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. What can I say? Mark Twain was a stud. I would have forgotten that I loved this book if I hadn't looked at my bookcase just now. I might actually have to pull it down and read it again.
4. Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. The movie sucked. The book was a great yarn complete with a fascist future government, giant bug enemies and a kick ass suit of powered armor that made the future foot soldier an unstoppable force armed with lasers, flamers and low-yield tactical nukes. Great stuff.
3. Breakfast of Champions/Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. I couldn't decide between the two. I can't even really describe them to you adequately. Breakfast had all sorts of things going on: mental illness, suicide, mirrors that were "leaks" into other universes, and Vonnegut inserting himself into the story to grant his recurring character, Kilgore Trout, freewill. Slaughterhouse 5 is about the firebombing of Dresden during WWII which Vonnegut witnessed as a POW. It has elements of sci-fi, absurdist comedy and gallows humor. I love them and I miss Kurt Vonnegut.
2. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. The story of a young man born to a Brahmin who goes off to find his own way in the world. He lives every imaginable extreme and at the end finds peace listening to the song of a river. This story makes me think of my Grandpa who has to drive by the Illinois River everyday just to make sure it is there.
1. The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat. The story of the HMS Compass Rose which is a corvette in the Royal Navy during WWII. It follows the ship and crew from its commisioning in the early days of the war until Germany surrenders. Monsarrat was a frigate captain in the Royal Navy and the novel has autobiographical elements to it. This book was suggested to me by my senior English teacher and I make a point to re-read this book every three or four years. Thank you Mr. Beres!
Honorable Mention: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Any of the Horatio Hornblower series by C.S. Forester. Forester also wrote The African Queen which I have not read but have heard is good. Dune by Frank Herbert. All Quiet On the Western Front by Erich Marie Remarque. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. The Illiad by Homer.
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3 comments:
I've read #5, #2, and The Iliad. Of those, Siddhartha is the one that would make any list of my favorite books. I read it in college, and it had a significant impact on me. The same could be said for Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. More recenty, Jared Diamond's Collapse was maybe the most important book I've read in the last five years. Going further back, I read George Sheehan's last book, Going the Distance, three or four times in college, and got a lot from it each time.
Let's see. What else? I'd pay money for any book by Krakauer, I like what I've read of Camus, I loved Candide, and anybody who has lived in Chapel Hill has to read To Hate Like This Is To Be Happy Forever. But really, there are a lot of books that I like a lot, and it gets to the point where I'm just splitting hairs.
I am ashamed to say the only one I recall reading is Huck Finn. The Cruel Sea sounds great and I may have to check it out.
I am slowly, very slowly, making my way through Jarred Diamond's Collapse, thanks Nate, and it is great.
On the fiction side, I absolutely love Tom Robbins' Jitterbug Perfume and Skinny Legs and All. They are not PG13 and are a little irreverent but they are unique and fun.
"Catcher In the Rye" would be in my top-5 if I was writing this in my early 20s. AFter reading it a year or two ago I just realize that the protagonist, Holden Caulfield, is just a huge asshole who needs to grow up.
If you like war books I think you'll like "The Cruel Sea." You may want to read "All Quiet On the Western Front" too. That one is a WWI book. If you want a Vietnam book I recommend "Dispatches" by Michael Herr. He helped write the screenplays to "Full Metal Jacket" and "Apocalypse Now". The book is based on his experiences as a war correspondent.
Another good military sci-fi book is "The Forever War". This book is to Vietnam as "Starship Troopers" was to WWII. Haldeman was a physics major in college and he throws in a bit of science with his fiction.
Another good miltary sci-fi series is by John Scalzi. "Old Man's War", "The Ghost Brigades" and "The Last Colony" all have a pretty neat premise. You genetist types might think it is neat. You may hate it too.
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