What Are Your Favorite Books? (Any Genre)

[dave]

These 3 are books I try to reread once a year. Fun and inspiring...

Absolute Beginners, by Colin Macinnes- Spoilers! (Mod, Jazz) Late 50s modern-jazz fan (predecessor of the Mods) struggles to keep his optimism and love of London during the Notting Hill race riots. The movie is fun cheeze, but not as good.

Slam, by Lewis Shiner- Dave get out of prison (tax evasion), starts hanging out w/ punks, ufo nuts, treasure hunters, and half the city of Surfside, all trying to get the house he lives in. Really funny!Read it online!

Doorways in the Sand, by Roger Zelazny- Fred Cassady is an undergrad, and has been for the past 12 years. As long as he stays in college he receives a stipend. But certain people want him to graduate. And there are aliens and thugs looking for his connection to the mysterious star-stone... Technically sci-fi, but it reads mainly like fiction/comedy. Read it online!

Years later, it hit me: the main thread throughout these books is that you should live your life as you want to, not as the world would have you live.

[Pikini Death Ray]

I love Bukowski's books, I think his misogyny is often tongue in cheek and the person he hates the most is always himself. I didn't get on with Miller though I found Tropic of Cancer incredibly hard to read and just plain boring.

Glenn Armstrong said:

 

South of No North is the best collection of Bukowski short stories! I have a Black Sparrow Press edition. Black Sparrrow also used to publish authors such as John Fante and so on. I may attempt to read Henry Miller again but found him a bit misogynistic. Kerouac leans in this direction slightly sometimes but I give him a pass because the whole mother complex thing that he had probably tempers it a bit. Don't think Bukowski was a misogynist despite what some of his critics said. He was more of an equal-opportunity apartment court Casanova in my estimation.  Any opinions on this thematic riff? 
Allerleirauh said:

South of No North - Charles Bukowski

Under the Roofs of Paris- Henry Miller

In Watermelon Sugar- Richard Brautigan

Push -Sapphire

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

Are what come to mind first.  Not including children's books and comics.

[Glenn Armstrong]

Thanks for the reply. I don't mean to malign anyone's favorite book/author. I just enjoy finding perceived patterns then writing about them. I don't get a lot of time to write these days so this is a nice outlet. I'll see if I can find another book to crow about in a while and post the results.

[Pikini Death Ray]

Here's a good one...Hunger by Knut Hamsen (one of Bukowski's favourite authors). Well I though it was good anyway. Cheers.

[Allerleirauh]

It's cool.  Under the Roofs of Paris is the only book by Henry Miller I like.  I agree with Pikini Death Ray and feel that way about every other book he wrote.  Under the Roofs of Paris is really fun. I can understand why he is read as a misogynist, but I loved it.

If I could describe Bukowski's writings with one word I'd pick raw.  From everything of his that I've read, he truly loves women.  He wrote truthfully about life and relationships- which isn't always pretty.

Dinosauria We is the only poem I really like.

Glenn Armstrong said:

Thanks for the reply. I don't mean to malign anyone's favorite book/author. I just enjoy finding perceived patterns then writing about them. I don't get a lot of time to write these days so this is a nice outlet. I'll see if I can find another book to crow about in a while and post the results.

[Glenn Armstrong]

"Dinosauria We" is a good poem. It is apocalyptic like the Bukowski short story Animal Crackers in My Soup from Tales of Ordinary Madness. My fave Bukowski poem is "The Strongest of the Strange." It is an ode to cultural agoraphobia. Bukowski says the greatest works of art are created by the strongest of the strange. Like the bagboy with a college degree in "Dinosauria We": there's a certain motion/of the hands/of a bag-boy or a bag-/girl/while packing/supermarket groceries. And Bukowski goes on to say that some people are their own works of art. That and 90 cents will get you a pack of gum in Peoria but I thought it was fun to compare and contrast. 

 Allerleirauh said:

It's cool.  Under the Roofs of Paris is the only book by Henry Miller I like.  I agree with Pikini Death Ray and feel that way about every other book he wrote.  Under the Roofs of Paris is really fun. I can understand why he is read as a misogynist, but I loved it.

If I could describe Bukowski's writings with one word I'd pick raw.  From everything of his that I've read, he truly loves women.  He wrote truthfully about life and relationships- which isn't always pretty.

Dinosauria We is the only poem I really like.

Glenn Armstrong said:

Thanks for the reply. I don't mean to malign anyone's favorite book/author. I just enjoy finding perceived patterns then writing about them. I don't get a lot of time to write these days so this is a nice outlet. I'll see if I can find another book to crow about in a while and post the results.

[sleazy]

[Glenn Armstrong]

Just got this title on amazon for I think $5.38 as an e-book. Reviews were good. Got through the first 2 stories so far. Kelly Link reminds me a lot of Mark Leyner in a lot of ways. Gotta read more current fiction. Thanks for the suggestion! 
 
sleazy said:

[sleazy]

[dave]

PKD is essential, but I have to be in the right mood to enjoy it. When I was 21 I read my 1st Dick book, Bladrunner, and it bummed me out so much that I stayed away from his stuff for 3 years! Potent writing...

If you have not read his later books Divine Invasion/Valis/(1 other, haha, can't bring up the title, it's a sort of trilogy) and the collection of his letters, I can't recommend it highly enough.

[sleazy]

Sadly.....very sadly......we lost one of the last visionary authors...RIP to Ray Bradbury:(:(....how can we not remember masterpieces like: The illustrated Man (my absolute fave by Ray:)), I sing the body electric, Something wicked this way comes, The Halloween Tree, etc.?!!!!!

[sleazy]

[Campbell McInnes]

im a bukowski tragic... hell i once owned a bookshop called FACTOTUM !  but all the usual suspects as well in my favorites

Hunter S Thompson - Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas AND On The Campaign Trail

Kem Nunn - Tapping The Source

Kerouac - On The Road

Jo Ann Beard - Boys Of My Youth

Harry Crews  - The Hawk Is Dying

JP Donleavy - Ginger Man

Henry Miller - both tropics

Michael Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius series

Spike Milligan's War memoirs

Hemingway, Steinbeck, Hamsun, Tim Gautreaux, 

hell i read a lot! what can i say? :D