10 to read before the apocalypse?

MrPirate

I honestly hope I did not see Twilight mentioned on this thread...


Nineteen Eighty-four.
Jennifer Government.
The Grapes of Wrath.
My war gone by, I miss it so.
Brave New World.
Motorcycle Diaries.

Babbit

Point Counter Point,
Babbit,
Lord of the Rings,
The Road,
Bonfire of the Vanities,
Animal Farm,
Les Miserables,
Misery,
Around the World in 80 days...

A nice mix of high and low brow. Adios!

Spiritoftheseventies

The famished road ben okri
Underground don dellillo
The true history of the kelly gang Peter Carey
Ulysses James Joyce
Dracula Bram Stoker
Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy
Bonfire of the Vanities Tom Wolfe

Pherekydes

Republic Plato
Ethics Aristotle
On the Nature of Things Lucretius
On the Good Life Cicero
Letters From a Stoic Seneca
Meditations Marcus Aurelius
The Consolation of Philosophy Boethius
Relativity Einstein
Principia Mathematica Newton
If This is a Man Primo Levi

greendom

Pherekydes wrote: »

Republic Plato
Ethics Aristotle
On the Nature of Things Lucretius
On the Good Life Cicero
Letters From a Stoic Seneca
Meditations Marcus Aurelius
The Consolation of Philosophy Boethius
Relativity Einstein
Principia Mathematica Newton
If This is a Man Primo Levi

I imagine there's been a fair few apocalypses since most of these were written

Pherekydes

greendom wrote: »

I imagine there's been a fair few apocalypses since most of these were written

Probably true.

I have them all on my bookshelf. :eek::cool:

Crohuir

Wow, that's a lot of books I haven't even heard of! I'm not sure of 10 definates, but this is a start:

Around the World in 80 Days (Jules Verne)
War of the Worlds (H.G Wells)
Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)
Harry Potter! Don't be snobby, they really are must reads!
I've bought Ulysses, but I'm not really a fan of Moderism, so we'll see how it goes!

I suppose a book called "How to survive the apocalypse" might be a good one to look up...

:P

IrelandSpirit

Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas.

At least you'd go out laughing!

IrelandSpirit

And...

The Third Policeman

You'll probably die laughing well-before the Riders of the Apocalypse get a hoof in!

Johnny Volume

The New York Trilogy - Paul Auster

We

postalservice wrote: »

Haha.
I dont read....but i've seen over half of those in movie form.

Animal farm 10+ times:P

Who needs books when you have tv;)

Ah sure.. while your at it, who needs a brain when you have tv?

Spiritoftheseventies

We wrote: »

Ah sure.. while your at it, who needs a brain when you have tv?

maybe a new thread here. Who needs a ---- when you have a ----

IrelandSpirit

We wrote: »

Ah sure.. while your at it, who needs a brain when you have tv?

Priceless! Cheers...

The Dice Man. Only reading the book with a pair of dice and a bottle of absinthe handy

Damian Duffy

10 books you must must read:

The Master and Margarita-Mikhail Bulgakov
Blood Meridian-Cormac McCarthy
Absalom! Absalom!-William Faulkner
The Brothers Karamazov-Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Lolita-Vladamir Nabokov
Breakfast at Tiffanys-Truman Capote
East of Eden-John Steinbeck
Death and the Penguin-Andrey Kurkov
Blindness-Jose Saramago
The Perks of Being a Wallflower-Stephen Chombsky

Honestly, you cannot go wrong even reading one of these.

Spiritoftheseventies

Damian Duffy wrote: »

10 books you must must read:

The Master and Margarita-Mikhail Bulgakov
Blood Meridian-Cormac McCarthy
Absalom! Absalom!-William Faulkner
The Brothers Karamazov-Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Lolita-Vladamir Nabokov
Breakfast at Tiffanys-Truman Capote
East of Eden-John Steinbeck
Death and the Penguin-Andrey Kurkov
Blindness-Jose Saramago
The Perks of Being a Wallflower-Stephen Chombsky

Honestly, you cannot go wrong even reading one of these.

Yeah got into a bit of the Brothers Karamazov- must pick it up again.

sxt

Damian Duffy wrote: »

10 books you must must read:

The Master and Margarita-Mikhail Bulgakov
Blood Meridian-Cormac McCarthy
Absalom! Absalom!-William Faulkner
The Brothers Karamazov-Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Lolita-Vladamir Nabokov
Breakfast at Tiffanys-Truman Capote
East of Eden-John Steinbeck
Death and the Penguin-Andrey Kurkov
Blindness-Jose Saramago
The Perks of Being a Wallflower-Stephen Chombsky

Honestly, you cannot go wrong even reading one of these.

Great list , have "east of eden" and "blood meridian" in my locker for last two years so i need to read them one day hopefully.:)

"The Master and Margarita" is such a brilliant book in my opinion ,every man woman and child should give it a try if they get a chance

RandomName2

Definately 'The Road' - (a nice preperation for the apocalypse as well)

Spiritoftheseventies

RandomName2 wrote: »

Definately 'The Road' - (a nice preperation for the apocalypse as well)

Who wrote the Road. On same subject. The Stand by Stephen King.

redapple

Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Douglas Coupland - a mixture of his stuff...(Like different parts from different ones)
Charlotte Gray -Sebastian Faulks
The Beach - Alex Garland
Planet of the Apes - Pierre Boule
Jayne Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
1984 - George Orwell
The Unbearable Lightness of Being -Milan Kundera
Steppenwolf - Herman Hesse

Spiritoftheseventies

notice a pattern emerging here. A lot of books listed here adapted for the big screen

redapple

bayviewclose wrote: »

notice a pattern emerging here. A lot of books listed here adapted for the big screen

In regard to my list I read each one of these before I saw any adaptation of them. Charlotte Gray & The Beach I read before they were even made into films, and I have only see the Marky Mark version of Planet of the Apes and it was woeful!And nothing like the book, its probably put people off reading it which is a shame.

Spiritoftheseventies

redapple wrote: »

In regard to my list I read each one of these before I saw any adaptation of them. Charlotte Gray & The Beach I read before they were even made into films, and I have only see the Marky Mark version of Planet of the Apes and it was woeful!And nothing like the book, its probably put people off reading it which is a shame.

more often than not film versions never live up to book adaptations. Btw wonder when that film version of Shantaram is coming out. Anyone read it. About that Aussie who set up slum in Bombay and appeared in a bollywood movie and all that. Found the ending a bit disappointing i have to say. but could have the makings of a great film if they get it right.

redapple

I read Revolutionary Road recently as I knew I would like it and wanted to see it before the film as I also think I will like that. I thought I would just picture the actors in my head while I read, as they are on the cover! But I felt the writing and characters were so rich that I saw them as their own people.

It is hard then when you see the film as it doesnt seem as layered as the book, but then having read the book you get all these little nuances that you might not have gotten otherwise. Unless they butcher it and then it will just annoy you!

Damian Duffy

Im not too sure if the above comment was meant as a snide remark or not ( was your point that people tend to read books that there is a film adaptation of or not? and thats the only way they hear of said book?) but in my opinion film has become increasingly dependent on books for ideas so it increasingly likely that peoples favourite books and 'must reads' also have a film adaptation. I for one get really irritated when i recommend a book to someone only to have them respond with "ah, i saw the film and it was ****e so i couldn't be bothered".

For example, "All The Pretty Horses" by Cormac McCarthy is a book i love but the film is crap, that shouldn't put people of the book but it does. In general, i don't see film adaptations of books i havn't read and want to. Until recently, "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" was a perfect example of this. Although that was the rarest of things, a book and a film adaptation that went hand in hand in quality.

fisgon

anyone realize that this thread is now five years old..? shows how the topic never loses its flavour...

my list, for what it's worth..is...

Midnight's Children - Rushdie
The Rabbit Triliogy - Updike
Tales of the Bad Girl - Mario Vargas Llosa
Love in the time of Cholera - Garcia Marquez
Cloud atlas - David Mitchell
White teeth - Zadie Smith
Fiesta - Hemmingway
The Dying Animal - P.Roth
The Third Policeman - Flann O'Brien
Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Oh yeah, and even if you have 10 lifetimes, never, ever read anything by Paulo Coelho.....

Spiritoftheseventies

Damian Duffy wrote: »

Im not too sure if the above comment was meant as a snide remark or not ( was your point that people tend to read books that there is a film adaptation of or not? and thats the only way they hear of said book?) but in my opinion film has become increasingly dependent on books for ideas so it increasingly likely that peoples favourite books and 'must reads' also have a film adaptation. I for one get really irritated when i recommend a book to someone only to have them respond with "ah, i saw the film and it was ****e so i couldn't be bothered".

For example, "All The Pretty Horses" by Cormac McCarthy is a book i love but the film is crap, that shouldn't put people of the book but it does. In general, i don't see film adaptations of books i havn't read and want to. Until recently, "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" was a perfect example of this. Although that was the rarest of things, a book and a film adaptation that went hand in hand in quality.

Not really. People browsing in bookshops are always likely to go for a book with tag now a major film. Its called marketing.

turgon

bayviewclose wrote: »

Not really. People browsing in bookshops are always likely to go for a book with tag now a major film. Its called marketing.

Some people! I just go for the spines that are clearly Penguin or Vintage classics!

sebman

As for world view changing books, God's Illusion by Richard Dawkins does the job well, too.

YT

Hi all,
I've been lurking about this forum for a while and really liked this thread. I decided to pick a few books from various people's top tens.
The first one is Dubliners by James Joyce. I've never read any of his books.
I'm only half way through it, and I think I like it. The writing style is really strange to me!

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for the thread, I was getting sick of chick lit and crime fiction

Spiritoftheseventies

YT wrote: »

Hi all,
I've been lurking about this forum for a while and really liked this thread. I decided to pick a few books from various people's top tens.
The first one is Dubliners by James Joyce. I've never read any of his books.
I'm only half way through it, and I think I like it. The writing style is really strange to me!

Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for the thread, I was getting sick of chick lit and crime fiction

good book to start on. You will love the Dead in the same collection. Acknowledged by most as one of the greatest short stories of all time.

Damian Duffy

bayviewclose wrote: »

Not really. People browsing in bookshops are always likely to go for a book with tag now a major film. Its called marketing.

Nah, the vast majority i believe would just go see the film. People don't read enough any more. Maybe i'm just being negative.

Damian Duffy

It's really strange seeing so many people having Ulysses in their top tens, i only know one person who has read it the whole way through.

PADRAGON

Love the idea.
I'll throw these into the pot.

• The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - Stephen Donaldson
• Last of the breed - Louis Lamour
• The coral island - R M Ballantyne
• The hobbit/Lotr - J R R Tolkien
• Without feathers - Woody Allen
• The firestarter - Stephen King
• Enders game - Alan Dean Foster
• The gap series - Stephen Donaldson
• Rendrevous with rama - Arthur C Clark
• The ninja - Eric Van Lustbader

Theres a couple of sets in there,hope thats not cheating.

Spiritoftheseventies

Damian Duffy wrote: »

It's really strange seeing so many people having Ulysses in their top tens, i only know one person who has read it the whole way through.

get out more. plenty of people have read it.

Roisinbunny

whatever19 wrote: »

cannot believe some of these havent been mentioned!
--wuthering heights (Bronte)

Can't understand this one, so please feel free to correct me - it was apparently voted Number 1 in the most romantic novels of all time. I just finished it last weekend after years of promising myself I would read it.

If you want a lesson in how children are mad miserable by bad parenting by selfish adults and how to bring misery and pain to the world generally then ya work away and read it. Is it just me that thinks this?

Cathy was a whiny, miserable, vindictive, mind-game playing woman and Heathcliff showed the same qualities (some thanks after he was adopted into the family!!)

Rant over - please someone feel free to enlighten me!!

PS: I did enjoy it and shed tears in some places because it was just so tragic for everyone else - except Cathy and Heathcliff!!!!

Procasinator

bayviewclose wrote: »

get out more. plenty of people have read it.

It is these people that need to get out more. Okay, okay, maybe I should read it before I taunt. But for the limited exposure I've had to it, I wouldn't say a person who hasn't read it would be classified as socially inept.

turgon

As regards Ulysess, it would seem a lot of people read it to say theyve read it, and thus might put it in their top 10 just to say its in their top 10, if you get me. Ive read Portrait of an Artist myself. Wont embark on Ulysess for a few years. A lot of smaller miles to be tread on the journey first.

Spiritoftheseventies

turgon wrote: »

As regards Ulysess, it would seem a lot of people read it to say theyve read it, and thus might put it in their top 10 just to say its in their top 10, if you get me. Ive read Portrait of an Artist myself. Wont embark on Ulysess for a few years. A lot of smaller miles to be tread on the journey first.

yes its a tough book to get into. But get into the first chapter and you will get the rest. For those who dont know character Buck Mulligan was based on Oliver St John Gogarty an associate of Joyce and who also performed autopsy on Michael Collins.

getz

Roisinbunny wrote: »

Can't understand this one, so please feel free to correct me - it was apparently voted Number 1 in the most romantic novels of all time. I just finished it last weekend after years of promising myself I would read it.

If you want a lesson in how children are mad miserable by bad parenting by selfish adults and how to bring misery and pain to the world generally then ya work away and read it. Is it just me that thinks this?

Cathy was a whiny, miserable, vindictive, mind-game playing woman and Heathcliff showed the same qualities (some thanks after he was adopted into the family!!)

Rant over - please someone feel free to enlighten me!!

PS: I did enjoy it and shed tears in some places because it was just so tragic for everyone else - except Cathy and Heathcliff!!!!

one of the great books of all time,films,songs and a west end stage show has been made from emily brontes wuthering heights,[she was also good at poetry] if you loved the book ,you must visit haworth and the parsonage[her and her sisters home.it now a museum] i often go there

Cassiopeia1

Here are a few of my favs from different categories....you need a bit of variety!

The Shipping News -Annie E. Proulix
The Road - Cormac McCarthy .....nailbiting and appropriate!
Lord of the Rings -Tolkien
The Dirt (Motley Crew)...for sheer entertainment!
The Secret Scripture - Sebastian Barry...most beautifully written book.
The Longest Day- Cornelius Ryan
Wild Swans - Jung Chang

'The Road' is a fantastic read. It is one book that every student should read as a prime example of how to build suspense. Not the usual genre I would turn to, but once I picked it up, I could not put it down.

Spiritoftheseventies

Anyone ever read Raymond Carvers short stories. terrific reading.

Roisinbunny

getz wrote: »

one of the great books of all time,films,songs and a west end stage show has been made from emily brontes wuthering heights,[she was also good at poetry] if you loved the book ,you must visit haworth and the parsonage[her and her sisters home.it now a museum] i often go there

I appreciate that it has this massive appeal - I just can't get why it is considered a romance - I think it's very much in the style of Thomas Hardy's sombre stories - but at least at the end of the Mayor of Casterbridge I actually cared a lot for Henchards fate - a real tragic hero!! Heathcliff was a twisted, heartless bully. I could find no redeeming feature in Cathy - how she seriously messed up the lives of both men!

Hmmm, maybe it deserves to be on the "10 to read" list - I can't stop thinking about it!

Spiritoftheseventies

Yes tried twice to finish Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Hardy but could never finish it. Jude the Obscure my favourite book by Hardy. Didn't think much of the adaptation though.

RandomName2

bayviewclose wrote: »

Yes tried twice to finish Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Hardy but could never finish it. Jude the Obscure my favourite book by Hardy. Didn't think much of the adaptation though.

Jude is brilliant. But I can totally understand why people hate it

RandomName2

Cassiopeia1 wrote: »

'The Road' is a fantastic read. It is one book that every student should read as a prime example of how to build suspense. Not the usual genre I would turn to, but once I picked it up, I could not put it down.

Not for the faint-hearted!

I heard they're making a film... which is probably not a good idea...

Spiritoftheseventies

RandomName2 wrote: »

Not for the faint-hearted!

I heard they're making a film... which is probably not a good idea...

could be another coen brothers collaboration.

henryporter

Yes Carver's short stories are a joy to read - and perfectly twisted to encounter before the end of the world.

Ulysses would probably be too positive to read just before the asteroid hits.

Anything by Georges Perec would help to go out with a bang, especially 'A Void'.

One book I loved the first time around and then couldn't stand the second time was Hesse's 'Glass Bead Game' - must have been a phase I was going through.

Paddy Samurai

Amended list since i last posted with some new choices.

1.Eagle in the snow by Wallace Breem (No1 Roman historic novel)

2.Swan song by Robert mcgammon (its about life after the apocalypse)

3.Legend by david Gemmell (the number one fantasy classic)

4.Shogun by James clavell (historic linked fiction)

5.Necroscope by Brian Lumley (unique vampire horror series)

6.Dune by Frank Herbert (sci fi epic novel)

7.On stranger Tides by Tim Powers (blackbeard and zombies )

8.The Religion by Tim Willocks (muslims vs christians @ siege of Malta)

9.Troy Trilogy by David Gemmel (Fantastic version of the Trojan war)

1. Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow (2005)
2. Troy: Shield of Thunder (2006)
3. Troy: Fall of Kings (2007)

10. The Ninja by Eric van lustbader (great thriller)

Damian Duffy

bayviewclose wrote: »

get out more. plenty of people have read it.

What does me having not read Ulysses have to do with my social life?

I get out plenty thanks. I also read plenty as do alot of my friends. My point was that i suspect alot of people put Ulysses in their top tens just for the sake of it as was pointed out by a someone above. It was a harmless observation. I suspect 1984, Catch 22 etc to be in top tens cause they're accessible, enjoyable books but Ulysses is alot more difficult. I was just suprised that so many people had read it, as from experience not very many people have.

No need to be a dickhead.

Spiritoftheseventies

Damian Duffy wrote: »

What does me having not read Ulysses have to do with my social life?

I get out plenty thanks. I also read plenty as do alot of my friends. My point was that i suspect alot of people put Ulysses in their top tens just for the sake of it as was pointed out by a someone above. It was a harmless observation. I suspect 1984, Catch 22 etc to be in top tens cause they're accessible, enjoyable books but Ulysses is alot more difficult. I was just suprised that so many people had read it, as from experience not very many people have.

No need to be a dickhead.

Why would people put a book in their top ten for sake of it. Would assume they read the book before recommending it. Yes it is a difficult read but very rewarding if you persist with it.