Your top 5 books

[CritchSmile]

In my to-read pile.

Saw the opera a year or two ago. Loved it.

In the words of Gabriel Marquez describing reading Kafka growing up - “I didn't know you were allowed to do that”.

I'm glad all his work wasn't destroyed as requested

[Christian Benorchgrevink]

To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee
The Man in the High Castle- Philip K Dick
I Am Legend- Richard Matheson 
The Talisman- Stephen King & Peter Straub 
Neverwhere- Neil Gaiman

Just realised that all bar The Talisman have been adapted for tv/film and only To Kill a Mockingbird did the novel justice. Although to be fair to Neverwhere you need to get the authors preferred text version, the original release was a companion piece to the tv show. Least said about I Am Legend the better

[Big Physical Acey]

Catcher in the Rye is utter shite Whingy little bitch going around calling everything "crumby".

[Nive la France]

Just finished reading "Ask the Dust" by John Fante btw, and I'd recommend it. I'd read it before after one of the quotations on the cover was "Fante was my god - Bukowski", but probably enjoyed it more reading it now a few years later, with a bit more deterioration of my mental health life under my belt.

It's about a young guy who's moved out west to pursue his writing career, but really it goes into issues of imposter syndrome, invasive thoughts and anxiety, and the highs and lows of success and failure. He does this really endearing thing with his characters where he'll do an almost stream of consciousness narrative in which the character starts at one position ("I'm the worst writer ever") to the opposite ("I'm the best writer ever) and back to the first position again all totally believably. The protagonist is mostly an arrogant arsehole, but you end up rooting for him because his thought processes are so bang on

[Mikey]

To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee
The Man in the High Castle- Philip K Dick
I Am Legend- Richard Matheson 
The Talisman- Stephen King & Peter Straub 
Neverwhere- Neil Gaiman

Just realised that all bar The Talisman have been adapted for tv/film and only To Kill a Mockingbird did the novel justice. Although to be fair to Neverwhere you need to get the authors preferred text version, the original release was a companion piece to the tv show. Least said about I Am Legend the better

The Man in the High Castle show was mince.

A Scanner Darkly did the book justice I thought

[Snake Plissken]

We got Sunset Song for Higher.

Nearly put me off reading for life.

Its still on the curriculum.

I know that pain

Re: Catcher in the Rye - it's one of those books you either love or hate.

I fucking hated it.

[Christian Benorchgrevink]

The Man in the High Castle show was mince.

A Scanner Darkly did the book justice I thought  

I don't understand why production companies pay all that money for the rights only to change the fucking story. I Am Legend is decent enough as a Hollywood action movie but shits on the book from a great height

[Christian Benorchgrevink]

I know that pain  

Re: Catcher in the Rye - it's one of those books you either love or hate.

I fucking hated it.  

I think I got 2 chapters in and gave up. I was in my late 20's though, maybe if I'd read it as a teenager it might've struck a chord more

[Pete Seeger]

Survival in the killing fields.

I think it's the only book I've completed since high school

[Floyd]

We did Death of a Salesman in Higher English.

Absolutely fucking hated it.

[pondlife]

Five I can remember reading:
Lord of the Flies
Heart of Darkness
Biggles Flies North
Blood Meridian
The Wasp Factory

Genuinely can't remember the last book I read; think it was maybe that Inverting the Pyramid as I was off on duty travel to one of the communities without internet and that often got weathered in for days on end.  I left it on the plane in the seat pocket on the way there.

[Jeff Resnick]

I know that pain  

Horrible isnt it?

Luckily, the rest of Higher English was doing Trainspotting for my RPR (after a lengthy battle with my teacher) and reading Seamus Heaney.

[2MatoFish]

Hated Catcher in the Rye when I read it as a teen; but I was a little bit Holden Caulfield as a teen and it's a certainty that he'd hate the book. Re-read it as an adult and, other than it ringing true, didn't think much of it. It's a good book, but not for me.

I love death of a salesman. If there's one bit of art that's influenced how I don't want to live my life, it's that. Biff's line about just wanting the time to sit and smoke really opened my eyes. Added to that it's masterfully written; it's the perfect thing to do for english because there's not a wasted line in there whatsoever; but that's not the point. In terms of deconstructing the american dream it's brutal.

[dokratrow]

Few folk catching pozzies in the rye absolutely trolls me silly when you see cunts on Twitter/reddit whatever calling Holden whiny or whatever. Twitter is especially bad for writing books like that off as 'white men telling you what to read' fucking sjws amirite

[2MatoFish]

He is whiny. He's a teenager, he's meant to be whiny.

[dokratrow]

Proust
Crime and punishment

Toiling for recommends after that past basic bitch stuff like Donna tart, 100 years of solitude etc. Reading ducks, Newburyport atm, quite decent.

[Shuto Makino]

Trying to think of five beyond really basic stuff and stuff that's already been mentioned:

Sunjeev Sahota - Year of the Runaways
Arundhati Roy - The God of Small Things
Sabri Louatah - Les Sauvages
Mohsin Hamid - Exit West
Arnundhati Roy- The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Really like the way Roy writes These are the only two novels she's written.

[Nive la France]

Trying to think of five beyond really basic stuff and stuff that's already been mentioned:

Sunjeev Sahota - Year of the Runaways
Arundhati Roy - The God of Small Things
Sabri Louatah - Les Sauvages
Mohsin Hamid - Exit West
Arnundhati Roy- The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Really like the way Roy writes These are the only two novels she's written.

Arundhati Roy pozzy. GOST should've been in my top five - a beautiful piece of work. Have been badgering everyone I know to read it for months

[Currahee!]

I really like John Niven as an author. All his books are good.

Reading Maks list above just reminded me of a book we read at high school. The Runaways by Victor Canning. That was a great story. Think I might go and buy it.

[The Comedian]

I've never been much of a fiction reader but when I do it tends to be science fiction.

1. Dune by Frank Herbert

Fabulous world building and full of detail. I'm looking forward to the upcoming movie adaptation which might finally do justice to the original novel many felt was unfilmable.

2. South by Ernest Shackleton

His account of the 1917 Trans-Antarctic Expedition gone wrong and the journey back to civilization, for many just in time to perish in the First World War. The man is a hero to me.

3. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L Shirer

The best one volume account of the most interesting period in history, written by a journalist who was there in Germany at the time seeing the rallies and meeting the people involved.

4. Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War by Max Hastings

Just read this. A fantastic account of the creation of the Great War and the early actions from it's combatants when 19th century field tactics met 20th century technology. There's something poignant about WW1, more so than an other conflict for me. It's because it was so long ago yet participants were alive in my lifetime, is overshadowed by WW2 and that the carnage that took place in underworld like landscapes was heaped upon simple men who didn't deserve to be sent to their deaths by the upper classes, usually by charging a machine gun for the 48th time or being blown to pieces by a shell. The bravery that took place, usually to salvage the situation after rank incompetence, was unparalleled.

5. Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke

Another fave with grand scale. Later books went absolutely nuts though.