best book you've read

[richardh]

Six Against the Rock by Clark Howard. About the Alcatraz breakout attempt. Read it twice over a few years and it's stayed with me. Out of print now.

[John G]

Fiction: The Great Gatsby; Pot Luck (Zola); Our Mutual Friend, The Goldfinch; Our Man In Havana; On Beulah Height

Non-Fiction: Jack the Ripper: The Facts; The Fall of Berlin (Beevor); Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery; Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-45;Stalingrad (Beevor); Jack the Ripper, CSI: Whitechapel

As a true crime book, I can strongly recommend Lost Girls, by Robert Kolker. Not only a brilliant analysis of the Long Island serial killer but an excellent social commentary for the internet age. As the New York Times opined: "Riveting and heartbreaking."

[pinkmoon]

Stalingrad is an excellent book.

[John G]

Stalingrad is an excellent book.

Yes, I agree. Although I would say that Beevor's Berlin: The Downfall 1945, is equally as good.

[pinkmoon]

I still think cornellius Ryan's "a bridge to far " is the best ww 2 book by far.

[jmenges]

Here are some of my favorites:

Fiction
Brothers Karamazov- Dostoyevsky
The Idiot- Dostoyevsky
Lolita- Nabokov
Frankenstein- Shelley
Dead Souls- Gogol
Pale Fire- Nabokov
The Air Conditioned Nightmare- Miller
The Rosy Crucifixion- Miller
Nausea- Sartre
Petersburg- Bely
The Place of Dead Roads- Burroughs
Anna Karenina- Tolstoy

Non-Fiction

The War Within: America's Battle over Vietnam- Wells
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 72- Thompson
Waiting for the Sun: A Rock and Roll History of Los Angeles- Hoskyns
The Family- Sanders
A Writers Diary- Dostoyevsky
A People's Tragedy- Figes
Gulag- Applebaum

Those are just a few. My interests generally lean towards Russian history and literature from Pushkin to roughly 1940, British and French poetry of the early through mid-19th century, and 20th century American counterculture.

JM

[Cogidubnus]

I'm not a cultured person but I do enjoy Shakespeare's limericks.

I just read this and for some reason or another it really tickled me...I giggled uncontrollably for several minutes...one of these days Jason you're going to see me off!

All the best

Dave

[pinkmoon]

Thank you Dave I once offerd to lend Shakespeare's limericks to a girl at work she was very upset when I kept forgetting to bring it in.

[pinkmoon]

Let's not forget "tiger in the bed" by Claude balls .

[PaulB]

Er, anyone mentioned Biggles, william, Billy Bunter...

[pinkmoon]

Er, anyone mentioned Biggles, william, Billy Bunter...

I purchased some biggles books a couple of years ago and they are brillant not a sign of sex in them though but plenty of mindless violence aimed at the dastardly Huns very good fun.

[Archaic]

I'm not a cultured person but I do enjoy Shakespeare's limericks.

Let me guess; the smutty ones?

Actually, Shakespeare is chock-full of smut. Most of it's "disguised" in 1600's sexual slang, but it sure wasn't disguised for his original audience! They must have been a raucous bunch, especially down in the pit.

Some of Shakespeare is so smutty it would turn your ears pink, moon.

That's one of the things I love most about Shakespeare: his works contain layer after layer of meaning, and no matter how many layers you explore there's always more just waiting to be discovered.

Cheers,
Archaic

PS: I find it interesting that so many of us love Dostoevsky.

[Cogidubnus]

I find it interesting that so many of us love Dostoevsky.

It's especially good with boiled new potatoes and salad

All the best

Dave

[MrBarnett]

Has Three Men in a Boat had a mention?

[Mayerling]

Been considering my original list a little. And noting some titles mentioned I did not mention

Any book by Alexander McGee. Ever since I read his account of the loss of the Royal Charter in the 1859 storm in "The Golden Wreck" I have enjoyed his books on the sea.

Prebble's "The High Girders" (thanks for reminding me Cogidubnus). The fall of the Tay Bridge and what the enquiry discovered. A steel bridge whose safety was checked by a man whose specialty was brick walls! The use of a concoction called "Beaumont's Egg" to fill in all those nasty little holes in the improperly made girders. The cocky nitwit who ran the construction forge and (on his own) decided if the girders should be larger or smaller. I'm surprised Bouch's bridge survived for a year.

But Prebble's other books on Scottish history (especially about the Highlanders, and the 1745 revolt are wonderful. In particular his book on "The Highland Clearances" about how the Lairds betrayed their duty to their clans to rebuild their fortunes in the 19th Century.

Any book (essay or total account) by Rupert "the Star-Gazer" Gould. In that television movie with Michael Gambon as John Harrison, who figured out how to measure longitude, Jeremy Irons portrayed Commander Gould, who spent years saving Harrison's valuable instruments. I first came across his work at Drew University when I was lucky enough to find "Enigmas" and "Oddities". Loved the world of the arcane unknown or forgotten that he brought forward. Since then I was lucky enough to get his book on Sea Serpents. He did invite the reader to pause and wonder. I wonder if any of his radio broadcasts for the BBC survive.

Among humorists, naturally Twain and Bierce lead the list. But James Thurber's sallies are welcomed as are Stephen Leacock's small masterpieces (read his comic essay about "The Great Detective" and try to think of Sherlock Holmes with a straight face again). Beware of "Blue Edwards".

Jeff