What are you reading currently?

[inudesu]

That's an awesome list. I might replace a couple with stuff like "Tess of the D'ubervilles" by Thomas Hardy and "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Heinlein, but I have read and enjoyed most on your list except Brodkey... and your Dostoevsky stuff (I did try The Idiot and grew bored). I might put Billy Budd in the place of Moby Dick as well.

i must confess i have never read hardy or heinlein (except maybe a couple of hardy's short stories). i'll have to add them both to my list.

I read The Mayor of Casterbridge in high school and while there is something to say about its value, it's not really my jam. Coincidentally, a high school classmate starred in a fairly loose adaptation.

The trailer oversells the movie in my opinion.



I've also read Stranger in a Strange Land, and while it's also worth reading I didn't love it either.

The Idiot is really boring. It's not in the same class as Crime and Punishment or The Brothers Karamazov.

[inudesu]

my 10 every man should read -- 1st draft for consideration/discussion among the committee (in no particular order):
1) mere christianity (even if you're not a christian)
2) huckleberry finn (or just about any mark twain)
3) lord of the rings (a single novel in 6 books, three volumes)
4) hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy (a trilogy in 5 novels)
5) moby dick
6) crime and punishment (or the brothers karamazov)
7) asimov's foundation novels (or any sufficiently long collection of his short stories)
8) animal farm (or 1984, but you really don't have to torture yourself by finishing it -- all the meat is in the first 1/3)
9) brodkey and hershey's transport phenomena: a unified approach (only mostly kidding)
9 for real) alice in wonderland and through the looking glass (can't read one and not the other)
10) c.s. lewis's fiction -- all of it (i know i'm cheating here, but lewis is just so good)

okay, this is really hard to get down to just 10, but i'll leave it here for now (i'll probably come up with 10 more for consideration...)

the next few:
1) lord of the flies
2) harry potter series (you can probably buy it all in a single volume)
3) sherlock holmes -- entire collection (the one i read was in a single volume electronically)
4) tale of two cities
5) three musketeers
6) ender's game

I would have lost my bet that Ray Bradbury would appear on this list somewhere in the top 15.

[inudesu]

You'll think he was watching your family get ready for church

I'm not sure I'd want to read someone's take on watching my family get ready for church.

I read the original Fletch in 2020. Some of it was good, but the relationship with the underage drug addict (while it does somewhat drive the story) was a little too much to make him very sympathetic.

[TechDawgMc]

I'm not sure I'd want to read someone's take on watching my family get ready for church.

I read the original Fletch in 2020. Some of it was good, but the relationship with the underage drug addict (while it does somewhat drive the story) was a little too much to make him very sympathetic.

Fletch, especially, is not always a great person. Flynn is actually a bit of a saint. They come together in the book Confess Fletch (which is probably my favorite Fletch book) -- which is actually where he introduced Flynn before he started writing separate books.

[inudesu]

Fletch, especially, is not always a great person. Flynn is actually a bit of a saint. They come together in the book Confess Fletch (which is probably my favorite Fletch book) -- which is actually where he introduced Flynn before he started writing separate books.

It was pretty funny in parts. Maybe I'll give him another chance with a Flynn book.

[arkansasbob]

the next few:
1) lord of the flies
2) harry potter series (you can probably buy it all in a single volume)
3) sherlock holmes -- entire collection (the one i read was in a single volume electronically)
4) tale of two cities
5) three musketeers
6) ender's game

7) farenheit 451 (there you go, austin)
8) slaughterhouse five

(these are still in no particular order, by the way)

i started to add the godfather, but then i decided no book should be on this list if the movie is better. as inudesu already pointed out, the movies are works of art (the first two, anyway).

[HogDawg]

Our 10th grade English lit teacher had us read Hardy's "Return of the Native". The lead female character, Eustacia, was the firs time I found a girl in a novel (without any corresponding comic or movie) indescribably hot.

A few years later Catherine Zeta played her in a hallmark special -- which I found totally fitting.

....you watch the Hallmark channel?

[Champ967]

....you watch the Hallmark channel?

There wasnt Hallmark channel back then. (Long ago ... in the 1990s)

I remember we had the movie on a home VCR tape with a handwritten label. Which means mom probably recorded it off TV.

I dont know what channel(s) Hallmark movies used to air on. Maybe some our "too many bowl games" crowd would remember.

[HogDawg]

There wasnt Hallmark channel back then. (Long ago ... in the 1990s)

I remember we had the movie on a home VCR tape with a handwritten label. Which means mom probably recorded it off TV.

I dont know what channel(s) Hallmark movies used to air on. Maybe some our "too many bowl games" crowd would remember.

I just asked because D80 and I were chatting not long ago about how cheesy the Hallmark movies are. Especially the Christmas movies. Our wives seem to love 'em, but they are very, very predictable.

Of course, I'm happy to watch Catherine Zeta Jones in just about anything.

[JuBru]

I haven't read Dune or the Stig Larrson

Should add them to your reading list.

[techman05]

We never read 1984 or Animal Farm in high school. Those are next for me.

As to a list, I don’t have many because most of what I have read is by Dan Brown, John Grisham, and David Baldacci. Great authors for sure, but I am trying to branch out.

What I have read that I really enjoyed...

To Kill a Mockingbird
Fahrenheit 451
Louis L’Amour Sackett Series
Leather Stocking Series from James Fenimore Cooper
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
The Call of the Wild
White Fang

[arkansasbob]

We never read 1984 or Animal Farm in high school. Those are next for me.

As to a list, I don’t have many because most of what I have read is by Dan Brown, John Grisham, and David Baldacci. Great authors for sure, but I am trying to branch out.

What I have read that I really enjoyed...

To Kill a Mockingbird
Fahrenheit 451
Louis L’Amour Sackett Series
Leather Stocking Series from James Fenimore Cooper
Bran Stoker’s Dracula
The Call of the Wild
White Fang

jack london can really tell a story. i got physically cold reading to build a fire.

[Champ967]

jack london can really tell a story. i got physically cold reading to build a fire.

This. I remember craving a rare hamburger after the first couple chapters of White Fang.

[inudesu]

jack london can really tell a story. i got physically cold reading to build a fire.

Same.

You gotta save that one for like July when you need it.

[inudesu]

We never read 1984 or Animal Farm in high school. Those are next for me.

As to a list, I don’t have many because most of what I have read is by Dan Brown, John Grisham, and David Baldacci. Great authors for sure, but I am trying to branch out.

What I have read that I really enjoyed...

To Kill a Mockingbird
Fahrenheit 451
Louis L’Amour Sackett Series
Leather Stocking Series from James Fenimore Cooper
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
The Call of the Wild
White Fang

I like most of those (and love some) but with Cooper I only ever made it through Last of the Mohicans. Whew. One of the very few times I'd say the movie is better than the book. Not my favorite.


1984 and Animal Farm are very much worth reading.