lol the title is called literature and people are mentinoing lotr and shit =\

literature to me is like not novels or fantasy and crap like that i dono :O

but when i think literature i think like shakespeare orwell steinbeck thomas hardy etc..
but since we are going that route @_@

yes i like crichtcon (spelling? ^^) books
1984 (turned me on during sex scenes wtf) too, night was kind of dark and scary =_=

mvnL

Poland394 Posts

November 27 2003 10:34 GMT

#42

--- Nuked ---

pyogenes

Brazil1401 Posts

November 27 2003 10:42 GMT

#43

On November 27 2003 19:34 mvnL wrote:

Show nested quote +

What..

there is a big diff between something written by someone like dickens and somethign written by someone like michael cricthcon or someone like that

Manifesto7

Osaka27174 Posts

November 27 2003 11:08 GMT

#44

As to the above comment, LoTR virtually created a whole new genre of literature, and it IS indeed literature.

I was a fantasy junkie for a long time, so I still have very fond memories of some fantasy:
- Wheel of Time, although it has gone on so long it is now virtually unreadable
- George R R Martins series ( I cant remember the title, Song of Ice and Fire I think) really took over from Jordan for me
- Guy Gavriel Kay, the Fionavar Tapestry
- The Dark Tower Series may be the best fantasy ever written, especially when one reads Kings other, non tower, books from the last 10 years that give you tons of hints about the dark tower world.

Now that I have been in school for so long, I mostly read my assaigned reading, but they are also very good.

-All Quiet on the Western Front + The Road Back by Erich Maria Remarque should be mandatory reading for all student I think. It illustrates a kind of history that is usually overlooked in favour of statistics and battle names in the history of the first world war.
-Another good book is Darkness at Noon, which deals with the Purges in Russia in Stalins time, very interesting if you know anything about that period.

Meta

United States6228 Posts

November 27 2003 11:42 GMT

#45

On November 27 2003 13:17 Moth wrote:
Last winter i consumed the wheel of times. Best fantasy i ever read, inluding lotr and others

yes that is a very good series

suffeli

Finland772 Posts

November 27 2003 11:44 GMT

#46

Hehe. I've heard that some people say they have read Orwell's1984 just because it automaticly makes them intelligent. The thruth is that they've never a page of that book and they dislike it.

Anyway...

I dislike scifi/fantasy books. Especially dragonlance and wheel of time series are total rubbish and they have no innovative ideas whatsoever, characters are shallow and the story is like from teenage roleplay-board game. (no offence to anyone). Anyway "pocketbook or teenage" fantasy doesn't appeal to me. There are few exceptions though.

My altime favourites:

H.P. Lovecraft + (Edgar Allan Poe)
--------------------
Very groundbraking books, though some of them lack colour. Still they are the best horror ever written.
-Try Haunting in the Dark, Colour of space.

Hermann Hesse
----------------------
Very "confusing" some might say, books with Freudian and Jungian elements, but nonetheless excellent literature about life/youth/death.
-Try Siddharta, Steppenwolf + all the younger Hesse.

Soren Kierkegaard
--------------------------
The danish extentialist before extentialism. Philosophical books about piety and religion. His poetry is the best.

That is all.
++Suffeli

.....

BroOd

Austin10833 Posts

November 27 2003 11:45 GMT

#47

The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown is a good modern thriller.

Jamers

Israel1327 Posts

November 27 2003 11:51 GMT

#48

Wuthering Heights
100 Years of Solitude
Anything by Neal Stephenson

Manifesto7

Osaka27174 Posts

November 27 2003 11:53 GMT

#49

On November 27 2003 20:44 suffeli wrote:
Hehe. I've heard that some people say they have read Orwell's1984 just because it automaticly makes them intelligent. The thruth is that they've never a page of that book and they dislike it.

Actually, I, along with I am sure many others here, read 1984 for the first time in high school.

An interesting side note, I was reminded of 1984 when I saw a news report about how the US government, and more recently the Canadian government, is looking to put up small blimps with high resolution cameras to monitor parks highways and cities.

These blimps are fairly cheap, and could be put up in large numbers. The cameras on these things are powerful enough to pick up license plate #'s or facial descriptions.

Your back yard BBQ's, hikes in the woods and travel patterns could soon be all relevant information to the federal government. Some people said earlier in the thread that the world of 1984 could never happen. Maybe not, but this is just another step foreward.

karate

Norway120 Posts

November 27 2003 11:54 GMT

#50

On November 27 2003 19:22 Hot_Bid wrote:
Timothy Zahn and his 5 Star Wars books (the only ones that are good in the 23894739857 series)

James Clavell: Shogun, Tai-Pan

Orson Scott Card: Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, etc.

question: Are the other books in the "Ender" series at the same level as Ender's Game?

tiffany

3664 Posts

November 27 2003 11:58 GMT

#51

no one has mentioned lord of the flies why ?

Jamers

Israel1327 Posts

November 27 2003 12:01 GMT

#52

On November 27 2003 20:54 karate wrote:

Show nested quote +

question: Are the other books in the "Ender" series at the same level as Ender's Game?

The sequel is pretty good. The third book - Xenocide, is rather boring, but it was still very interesting to me since I was a big Ender's game fan. The fourth book is rather horrible, but it is short, and if you already bothered to read xenocide (1000 pages?), then you should definitely read the last one just to finish the series.

Ender's Shadow OWNS
Shadow of the Hegemon OWNS

kk

x[ReaPeR]x

United States3447 Posts

November 27 2003 12:02 GMT

#53

On November 27 2003 20:58 tiffany wrote:
no one has mentioned lord of the flies why ?

The Lord of the Flies is highly highly overrated.

AttackZerg

United States7579 Posts

November 27 2003 12:30 GMT

#54

Shakspeare is literature? It was written down so as the actors could memorize there parts...

Any books by
Richard Russo
Mary clark Higgins
Stienbeck
Janet Fitch
Micheal cunningham
and john irving

Favorite plays I've read
Street car named desire
Cat on a hot tin roof
Macbeth
The twin manechami [I can't spell it, this isn't even close]

and that's all I can think of right now

reaper I agree that book is overrated, and imo way way to drastic and uncharacteristic of human behavior, the entire philosphy of hte book goes against how I view humans.

NickDapaulo

United States867 Posts

November 27 2003 12:31 GMT

#55

The last piece of literature I've read on my own is Harry Potter, Order of the Pheonix. It was kind of dissapointing though. Most of the book could have been cut out with no real change in the story.

iGgs

Russian Federation772 Posts

November 27 2003 12:52 GMT

#56

On November 27 2003 19:27 VaNille wrote:
Grapes of Wrath was totally unreadable. I struggled until the page 100 or so when I said to hell with it and gave it up.

It wasn't that it wasn't a great novel, in fact I think it captured the atmosphere of the era very very well. I, however, disliked having to read the dialects and try to decipher what the hell the characters are saying. Steinbeck was amazing in how realistic he portrayed the situations and characters but the dialogue put me to sleep.

I like his other book though: East of Eden. That's a beautiful book. I remember when I read the first 10 pages I could not put it down. I was reading it during work and I must have finished half the book in the first place alone.

The first great book I remember reading was Catcher in the Rye. That book made me cry. Salinger embodied the angst, cynicism of all teans in Holden so well that the book has rightfully earned it's place in the annals of great literature.

I read some Rohinton Mistry, Family Matters and A Fine Balance, several months ago. SOOOOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD! Balance was 800 pages but I don't think it was long enough. It should have been longer. Same with Family Matters. Man I can't wait for his next novel to come out.

catcher in the rye is god
also has anyone tried to read the sound and the fury by faulkner? wtfwtfasasdf that book is difficult to read

AttackZerg

United States7579 Posts

November 27 2003 12:55 GMT

#57

no but I fully intend to

VaNille

Canada204 Posts

November 27 2003 12:57 GMT

#58

You want difficult?

Pick up Focault's Pendulum.

I swear to go, I was in self-denial the whole time reading it. I kept telling myself "Yeah, I understand this. I'm smart! I know exactly what he's talking about".

I gave up after the second chapter.

AttackZerg

United States7579 Posts

November 27 2003 13:07 GMT

#59

heh!

tiffany

3664 Posts

November 27 2003 13:27 GMT

#60

ulysses is one of the most difficult reads, and is considered the best piece of literature of this century.

i also enjoy murakami's postmodernism and vonnegut is awesome.