Obligatory Favorite Book Question

Hi, all! So what's the one (or two) book(s) that you most relate to? Or a book that you would absolutely need on whatever bookcase you own throughout the years? Or that special book that begs for your attention? :)

You know this question was bound to show up on a discussion board!

Hope everyone's having a great Thursday,
Chelsea :)

While I love big books (those around me are sick of Moby Dick, Brothers Karamazov and Remembrance of Things Past references), it's the unique little books that end up as my cherished: A Dissertation upon Roast Pig by Charles Lamb, The Transposed Heads by Thomas Mann, and Fables of Fontaine illustrated by Marc Chagall are probably my top three.

T. C. Boyle's Water Music and Joseph Mitchell's Up in the Old Hotel are two that immediately come to mind.

Right now, I think I'd choose The Enchanted April, because it's about life renewed, finding something growing where you thought all was dead, and that's a theme that's never tiresome (when done well). And the prose is witty, intelligent, and exuberant.

Oh, I never posted mine!

My fave would have to be Gone with the Wind. It's a popular one and not an obscure novel that no one knows about... but it's an amazing literary work depicting the perseverance through the most terrifying times. Sure, it's laced with romance (what woman wouldn't find Mr. Rhett Butler slightly attractive even though he's arrogant as all crazy and downright bothersome at times! He deserves Scarlett. :P) and all that fun stuff, but it has solid core themes that resonate through time: The difficulties of reconstruction after a life-shattering event, the prejudices that will always affect us, and the renewed tight bond with communities in time of need.

In terms of the Civil War, it doesn't make an enemy out of the South or the North. It shows both cases and how both sides were changed by this. How they both had to rearrange their lives in order to adjust to circumstances. It shows no matter what they are, they could always be worse...

Scarlett, admittedly, annoyed me a bit since at first I had nothing to relate to her, but then I realized no matter her flightiness and immaturity most of the novel/movie, her strength really shone through.

Sooo, my Bostonian message boarders, yay for novels of strength and well-written dialogue.

Chelsea :)

Chelsea,

So then, have you read Dr. Zhivago? It is similar in many ways.

OK, that spelling got the wrong Doctor Zhivago - by Pasternak.

I have never read or heard of that one before! I checked it up on Amazon.com for reviews and it looks pretty interesting. I may have to give it a read. Did you like the book yourself?

Thanks for the recommendation!
Chelsea :)

Well, I enjoyed Doctor Zhivago, both the book and the movie (it is a classic old film, though perhaps not quite as old or quite as classic as Gone with the Wind), but have to admit that when I read it a long (long) time ago, Gone with the Wind didn't quite do it for me. But I think you'll find the two stories have a lot of parallels.

Yes, I suppose this was bound to become a post, but I just hate being asked this question! I can never decide.

As far as classics go, I'm definitely a fan of Wuthering Heights, Pride and Prejudice, Frankenstein, and both Rennaisance (Spenser's Faerie Queen, John Donne) and Romantic Period poetry.

As for more "current" favorites though, I think I'd have to go with some of the following: At Swim Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill, The Master by Colm Toibin, A Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison, Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich, and Philip Pullman's Golden Compass series (aka Dark Materials Trilogy).

(Hey - What do you want? I'm a Libra. We're supposed to be indecisive.) :)

I think that's what I always like about these motley groups... you find people have completely different book tastes, and so you hear about books you've never even known existed. haha It's wonderful!

Doctor Zhivago is on my list to read and watch now. (Love black and white films! They could actually act without special effects back then!).

Chelsea :)

I LOVE "Animal Farm"... I read it the first time when I was in about the second or third grade (I was a special child). I remember telling my teacher "It's a pretty story about talking animals" --I think this led to a parent-teacher conference, and then I started reading things like “1984” “Brave New World” and “Kalki”,,, and anything with a good Russian/Communist conspiracy... I still love Animal Farm the best though.

Unfortunately my copy is missing in action (I think it got lost in my move out here), so I'm going to have to find a new copy of it sometime soon.

-Kindli

“I can only pick one?” (husband moaned when I asked him), he likes “The world for the world is Forest” Ursula Leguin and “Profession” by Asimov.

-Gavin

Well, the books I have taken with me to college, Japan, grad school and beyond have been Madeleine L'Engle's Walking on Water (my first copy is now probably in Singapore), The Hobbit, Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave, the Psalams and the Tao Te Ching.

Also, May Sarton's Diary of a Solitude amd Rocjard Bach's Illusions.

The first book I ever claimed was my "favorite" was Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser. Now I can't be sure I still have a favorite.

A book that I've sold to many, many people (I miss selling books) is Chip Kidd's The Cheese Monkeys.

Really wonderful books I've read in the past year or so include Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex, and Kate Christensen's The Epicure's Lament.

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, is absolutely amazing, and would definitely accompany me, as would the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman, and Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber and Nights at the Circus.

I'll second House of Leaves. I've never seen anyone who could integrate the formating of the book with the story in such an important way.

Stephen King's Dark Tower series is the most amazing series I've ever read, and while there were times when I was reading it that I actually said "I hate where he's going with this, it's horrible," he redeemed himself, and the ending was absolutely perfect.

Two Moons in August is probably the book I've read the most number of times... I should look into getting another copy before mine dies completely.

I would also agree with House of Leaves, adding that it is one of the few books I've read that can really engage a reader at any level of interpretation they want. You can just read it for the ripping plot. You can do some overt code-breaking. And I found that you can interpret it at the word and detail level, the way you would approach a work like Lolita, which is an interpretive level that I think (from reading message boards and such) that a lot of readers miss their first time and a level that, I think, will ensure its longevity.

He has a new book out called Only Revolutions and I saw him read from it last week. Again, he experiments with form and this novel has, at least, two concurrent narrators on the same page (one is upside down to the other) designed to be read at the same time so that as you use the provided two bookmarks, the closeness of the bookmarks as you read mirrors the closeness of the narrators in terms of their connections to each other. Amazing stuff. If he keeps this up, he'll be the first great American author of the 21st century.

I'm reading Only Revolutions right now. It reads more like a narrative poem in free verse than a novel. I'm about halfway through, and enjoying it quite a bit. The characters have a nice innocence and naive self-assurance.

Did you go to the reading at the Booksmith? I was sad that I had to miss it. He has some bizarre and hilarious answers to interview questions.

This might be cheating, but I'd choose the Complete Works of Shakespeare, edited by David Bevington. The annotations and introductions are very helpful in more fully understanding "the Bard" and the times in which he lived. I do have to confess that I chopped it up a bit to make it more transportable - it is huge - and I was wondering if there is anyone else out there who would admit to defiling a book in such a manner. It's not exactly on par with slicing up a Bible, but it did make me feel a bit dirty :)

David

Hmmm, this changes all of the time, but in terms of recent favorites (e.g. favorites from the past year or so), I'd say Haruki Murakami's Windup Bird Chronicle, Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy, Colm Toiben's The Master, and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go.

Oh, how to choose! The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon most definitely. And Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Slaughterhouse-Five goes without saying. And I recently read through the whole Transmetropolitan comic book series. It was phenomenal, and it really has me primed for Crooked Little Vein, the writer Warren Ellis's first prose novel. The street date is Tuesday, but I've been stopping by various bookstores everyday to check if anyone's put it out early.