Your Top 10 Books

Off Topic
1

Since I haven’t seen a book thread on here anywhere, I figured I’d start one. List your top 10.

  1. Ghost series (aka Paladin of Shadows) - John Ringo
  2. The Protector - David Morrell
  3. Monster Hunter International - Larry Correia
  4. The Count Of Monte Cristo - Alexander Dumas
  5. Dracula - Bram Stoker
  6. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
  7. Winterbirth series - Brian Ruckley
  8. Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
  9. Age Of Misrule - Mark Chadbourn
  10. Monster - A. Lee Martinez

Honorable mentions:

Atomic Dog - TC
The Game - Neil Strauss
Many more John Ringo novels

2

Really? there are about 10,000

3

No particular order:

The Metamorphosis - Franz Kafka
The Old Man and the Sea - Hemingway
The Bible (specifically the 4 gospels)
Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling - Ross King
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe - Laurence Bergreen
Mayflower - Nathaniel Philbrick
In the Heart of the Sea - Nathaniel Philbrick

4

I don’t feel like typing 10 books right now, so I’ll just say that Sirens of Titan is my favorite book. I’m a fan of pretty much all of Vonnegut’s books.

5

A couple that come to mind…

The Big Short by Michael Lewis
Losing my Virginity by Richard Branson
It’s not about the bike by Lance Armstrong
Wild at Heart by John Eldredge

6

No particular order

  1. A Sport and a Pastime - James Salter
  2. Women - Charles Bukowski
  3. Rabbit Run - John Updike
  4. Average American Male - Chad Kultgen
  5. Naked - David Sedaris
  6. IV - Chuck Klosterman
  7. It’s Not about the Bike - Lance Armstrong
  8. Into thin Air - Jon Krakauer
  9. Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
  10. American Pastoral - Philip Roth
7

Hard to pick a top 10. Got the top 4 down. Gets kinda sketchy after that but here’s my WGAF list.

  1. Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa
  2. 3 Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
  3. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream by Hunter S. Thompson
  4. The Gulag Archipeligo by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

Lord of the Barnyard: Killing the Fatted Calf and Arming the Aware in the Cornbelt by Tristan Egolf
Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI by Robert K. Ressler and Thomas Schachtman
The Mocking Program by Alan Dean Foster
One Man’s Paradise by Douglas Corleone
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Hiroshima and Nagasaki: The Physical, Medical, and Social Effects of the Atomic Bombings by Hiroshima-Shi Nagasaki-Shi Gembaku Saigaishi Hensh-U Iinkai translated into English by Eisei Ishikawa and David L. Swain

Honorable mention from my younger days(I loved these books growing up and still enjoy them)
Conan by Robert E. Howard
Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Annapurna by Maurice Herzog
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus By Mary Shelly
Man-Eaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett
Call of the Wild by Jack London
Wild Animals I Have Known by Ernest Thompson Seton
The Man-eaters of Tsavo by John Henry Patterson
Man Is The Prey by James Frederick Clarke
Death in the Long Grass by Peter H. Capstick

8

No particular order:

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
Harlot’s Ghost by Norman Mailer
An American Dream by Norman Mailer
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Citizen Hughes by Michael Drosnin
1984 by George Orwell
Hell’s Angels by Hunter S. Thompson
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Survivor by Chuck Pahlaniuk

Honorable mention:
Death in the Afternoon and The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
The Curse of Lono and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail: '72 by Hunter S. Thompson
On the Trail of the Assassins by Jim Garrison
The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer
Underworld and White Noise by Don DeLillo
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer

9

Holy fucking shit. I forget perhaps my favorite book of all-time: American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.

10

[quote]DBCooper wrote:
No particular order:

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
Harlot’s Ghost by Norman Mailer
An American Dream by Norman Mailer
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Citizen Hughes by Michael Drosnin
1984 by George Orwell
Hell’s Angels by Hunter S. Thompson
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Survivor by Chuck Pahlaniuk

Honorable mention:
Death in the Afternoon and The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
The Curse of Lono and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail: '72 by Hunter S. Thompson
On the Trail of the Assassins by Jim Garrison
The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
The Odyssey of Pat Tillman by Jon Krakauer
Underworld and White Noise by Don DeLillo
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer[/quote]

I’ve seen your descriptions of citizen hughes before. That one is definitely on my list of books to read.

11


Bah. Too hard to name just ten. I’ve read a shit-ton of books in my life… and I’ve read quite a few of the literary and modern classics. Are the following the greatest books ever written? A Few may make some lists, but basically, here’s the books that I most ENJOYED reading (In no particular order):

Winds of War - Herman Wouk
War and Remembrance - Herman Wouk
Also greatly enjoyed his duo The Hope & The Glory

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy - JRR Tolkein
The Hobbit - JRR TOlkein

Hawaii - James Michener
Alaska - James Michener

The King Must Die - Mary Renault
The Bull from the Sea - Mary Renault
These two books hugely impacted my life at a formative time.

Here be Dragons - Sharon Kay Penman (not all of her books are great but this one is)

A Game of Thrones - George RR Martin
A Clash of Kings - George RR Martin
A Storm of Swords - George RR Martin
A Feast for Crows - George RR Martin
Still waiting for the bastard to write the rest of the series…

1984 - George Orwell

Clan of the Cavebear - Jane M. Auel
For me the rest of this series didn’t live up to the first one though I have read them all.

The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

Kushiel’s Dart - Jacqueline Carey
Kushiel’s Chosen - Jacqueline Carey
Kushiel’s Avatar - Jacqueline Carey
(there are three more in this series equally awesome)
I also enjoyed her Banewreaker & Godslayer duo of books
or Check out Santa Olivia for something totally different

Foxfire: confessions of a Girlgang - Joyce Carol Oates
Because it is Bitter an Because it is my Heart - Joyce carol Oates

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

The Call of the Wild - Jack London

Enders Game - Orson Scott Card

I tend towards Historical Fiction & I’m always reading so I tend towards series.
O and I’ve probably forgotten some of my major ones so I’m sure I’ll be back posting more LOL

12

This is the hardest question ever…but no mention of “The Fountainhead” yet…otherwise i am just copy/pasting everyone’s books onto a “To buy list”…i will think about my 10 and get back to you… seriously though it is like choosing the 10 best ways to watch fat people fall…impossible…

13

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

These are the only books I need… They’re just so amazing!!!

edit:This is sarcasm… seeing it again today I have a feeling it wouldn’t be taken that way.

14

The Harry Potter Series (J.K. Rowling)
The Atticus Kodiak Series (Greg Rucka)
A Wrinkle In Time (Madeleine L’Engle)
The Pendergast Series (Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child)
By The Light Of The Moon (Dean Koontz)
Anita Blake Series (Laurell K. Hamilton)
The Sex Chronicles (Zane)
Milk In My Coffee (Eric Jerome Dickey)
To Kill A Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
Lord Of The Flies (don’t remember the author and too lazy to look it up)
The John Rain Series (Barry Eisler)

15

I’m reading lots of scientific papers, so, in my spare time, I can’t be bothered with science crap. (I know, I know: cheap copout. But still.)

Here goes Fatty’s top ten of manly lectural pursuits:

Takeshi Kocavs series (Richard K. Morgan; actually anything written by this guy)
A Song of Ice and Fire (George R. R. Martin)
Black Man (UK) / Thirteen (US) (Richard K. Morgan)
Daemon (Daniel Suarez)
Snow Crash (Neal Stephenson)
Neuromancer (William Gibson)
Black Company series (Glen Cook)
Garrett, P.I. series (Glen Cook)
The Prince of Nothing series (R. Scott Bakker)
Halting State (entirely written in 2nd person, cool stuff; Charles Stross; has an interesting vita, look it up)

I’m surprised I’m mentioning this, but “Wizard’s First Rule” by Terry Goodkind is a good book in its own right. The ensuing series goes to show, though, that a series can indeed worsen as it goes on.

Apart from that, anything written by Joe Abercrombie. And ‘Name of the Wind’ by Patrick Rothfuss.

And how could I forget Dune? Dune by Frank Herbert!

And…

16

Bump. i just wanna see more people’s books…

17

Science and Practice of Strength Training
Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Rich Dad’s Cash Flow Quadrant
Why We Want You To Be Rich

18

This is more difficult than I thought it would be

The Old Man and The Sea- Ernest Hemingway
The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole (series)- Sue Townsend
A Hundred Years of Solitude- Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas- Hunter S Thompson
The Remains of the Day- Kazuo Ishiguro
War and Peace- Loe Tolstoy
The Odessa File- Frederick Forsyth
The Pearl- John Steinbeck
A Farewell to Arms- Ernest Hemingway
Any of Steven Kings novels set in Maine, love the atmosphere in them

Blood Meridian- Cormac McCarthy- Might be joining the list, need to let it sink a bit longer.
Rogue Male- Geoffrey Household, Could be a future contender too

19

[quote]dnlcdstn wrote:
Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Rich Dad’s Cash Flow Quadrant
Why We Want You To Be Rich[/quote]

Ah man, I could have saved you 30 dollars by summarizing all of Robert Kiyosaki’s books…“acquire passive assets, and sign up for my seminar”.

Don’t mean to be a dick, and if you enjoy them…great, but Kiyosaki is a scheister of the lowest order. You could spend hours on google reading about some of his barely legal scams. A couple examples…his lackies teach a Rich Dad basic class for 500 dollars (an ex-girlfriend went to one), in which they prattle on for half a day about “acquiring passive assets” without any concrete suggestions (just like his flimsy, poorly-written books), after which you spend the afternoon playing his board game (?!). At the end they compare the day’s lessons to “pre-school” and say you need to sign up for Rich Dad college, which costs 10-15,000 dollars. They get very aggressive at this point and basically say “get serious or get out”. They then conduct an exercise in which you are to call your credit card company and ask for a limit raise, coincidentally in the amount of 10-15,000$!! I wish I were making this up, but I’m not. Kiyosaki is a scumbag who acquired the overwhelming majority of his wealth through writing books about how to get wealthy.

There are FAR better money management and wealth-building books out there. “Think and Grow Rich” by Napolean Hill is a good start.

20

Forgot one:

Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follet (no watching the mini series doesn’t even come close)