Books you can't live without
POSTED BY: BadgersHat
UPDATED: Thursday, May 12, 2005 14:58
VIEWED: 31206
PAGE 5 of 11
Sadly, the above list is a tiny percentage of the books I have - but now I feel this weird compulsion to put them all together on one shelf. (Just in case, you know.)
terry
p.s. I forgot the poetry. Toss at least one major collection in with the rest.
Oh - and the Perl books, can't forget the Camel.
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a prayer for owen meany.
by far my favorite book of all time.
a rather distant second is the fountainhead.
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Quote:
Originally posted by debbiebuk:
And on another angle, what about books you've never finished?
Oddly enough, the one book I never finished (I forced myself to read as far as I did) was....The Fountainhead--Ayn Rand!
Mal-licious
Co-Holder of the Red Bell from Hell
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And on another angle, what about books you've never finished?
The Hobbit by JRR Tolkein I've tried three times to read this book all the way through and I keep getting stuck about a third of the way through and can't get past that point. Oh well.
A couple of military history books (on submarines) I couldn't get through because they were just too dry.
However, one of my all time favorite books is Thunder Below! by Rear Admiral Eugene Fluckey (USN Restired). It's about his tours on a submarine durring WWII. Very good read.
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I love this thread!! 
Let's just say that if there was a fire in the apartment I would have to fight it as best I could because there's no way I could get out all my favorite books in time. But I'll try to give a reduced list (I started to post a few days ago and the list got completely out of control very quickly).
Have survived the “storage purges” that accompany every move
Battle of Midway by Ira Peck
Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne
Lost Horizon by James Hilton
Give a Man a Gun by John Creasey
Dayworld by Philip Jose Farmer
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Out of the Silent Planet by C S Lewis
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Bible the King James version
Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
Will join the above list the next time I move
Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean
Pretty Boy: The Life and Times of Charles Arthur Floyd by Michael Wallis
30-Minute Meals 2 by Rachael Ray
You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train by Howard Zinn
A People’s History of the American Revolution by Ray Raphael
Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She? by Molly Ivins
First editions
California: a Guide to the Golden State by the Federal Writers’ Project of the WPA
New Worlds to Conquer by Richard Halliburton - although if I couldn’t save all of my Halliburton collection that would just be wrong.
Regional type stuff
Jack Smith’s LA by Jack Smith
California Historical Landmarks edited by Linda McDonald and Carol Cullens
Lost Legends of the West by Brad Williams and Choral Pepper
Course assigned books that I fell in love with
Labor and Monopoly Capital by Harry Braverman
Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees by Lawrence Weschler
Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut
The Iliad of Homer translated by Richard Lattimore
The Parables of Jesus by Joachim Jeremias
The Parables Then and Now by Archibald Hunter
Disciplinary stuff
Analysing Design Activity edited by Cross, Christiaans and Dorst
Conceptual Blockbusting by James Adams
Mechanical Engineering Design by Shigley and Mishke
Experiences in Visual Thinking by Bob McKim
Mystery
Folly and O, Jerusalem by Laurie King *(Like LadySilver, I have most of her books)
Blind Descent by Nevada Barr
Home Fires by Margaret Maron
No Colder Place by S J Rozan
Science Fiction/Fantasy
I’m not even going to try and figure this one out 
.
* (I'm with AlienZookeeper on David Drake - With the Lightnings would be in this section along with at least one Hammer's Slammers book).
Peace on Earth. Goodwill to everyone.
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Dune series, Frank Herbert
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
Rubaiyat - a 1960's printing with a beatiful binding, and it's MINE! ALL MINE! 
Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book- My copy is from 1990. Everyone should have it. If for some reason you can't remember how long to boil an egg or how to cook a rump roast, this will tell you and give you recipies.
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Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah -- Richard Bach
Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson
I have many, many, MANY other books I absolutely love (including the entire Baroque Cycle trilogy, again by Stephenson), but these two are the absolute best books I've ever read. And I have read a lot. Trust me on that.
I imagine Cryptonomicon would appeal to most of the crowd here, but cheers to Ruxton for including Bach's oeuvre.
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Thanks, Gojiro. Bach is sometimes overlooked, but ever fascinating.
I'd like to add to my list a book I'm currently reading, for it is fascinating, cuts like a knife, and reminds us to remember history. I suspect it will also sustain my interest with repeated readings over time:
"Unintended Consequences" by John Ross.
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How about:
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Wild Seed by Octavia Butler
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susannah Clarke
Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
and my all-time childhood favorite
Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Wyss
Julia
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anything and everything by Rumi
Lord of the Rings
Hero With a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell
Hamlet's Mill - this is something i was assigned in a class and i'm rereading right now. if you're interested in myth, especially comparative mythology, this is a must read! just be sure to have a couple of basic astronomy books handy if you're like me and know nothing about that sort of thing.
Stories (Layla & Majnun, etc.) by Nizami
The Sacred and Profane by Mircea Eliade
everything else by Joseph Campbell
- emily
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