So what are the greatest books you've ever read?

[The Abdominal Snoman]

How to MC a pro bikini contest and pretend you like chicks---by Lonnie Teper

[indie-lad]

Deluded f'n socialist with his America-hating, bullshit revisionism. This prick and Chomsky would blame the U.S. for dinosaur extinction if they could piece together a theory.

Wow.

Just wow.

[funk51]

these

[mphgrove]

That one didn't pull me in, but I'll try again, eventually. Have you read Blood Meridian?

Sure pulled me in.  But Blood Meridian is even stronger medicine I agree.

[mphgrove]

I think Bukowski's one of those that's cool to like, so everyone does, but no one really does.

Like Eraserhead and the Ramones.

I actually kind of like him.  When I'm in LA, I always pick up one of his books.  Kind of captures the old days.  But he sure is infatuated with his own pussy magnet aura, for being such an ugly son of a bitch.  Gets a little old after a while.

[The Ugly]

I actually kind of like him.  When I'm in LA, I always pick up one of his books.  Kind of captures the old days.  But he sure is infatuated with his own pussy magnet aura, for being such an ugly son of a bitch.  Gets a little old after a while.

Interesting guy for sure. I own one of his anthologies, read plenty of his stuff. Not really sure how it qualifies as poetry is all. Then again, I'm not too goofy over poetry, anyway.

[The Ugly]

Sure pulled me in.  But Blood Meridian is even stronger medicine I agree.

Might have just been lazy at the time, I'll try again.

[240 is Back]

Bob Paris, Beyond Built.

[mphgrove]

Interesting guy for sure. I own one of his anthologies, read plenty of his stuff. Not really sure how it qualifies as poetry is all. Then again, I'm not too goofy over poetry, anyway.

I like his novels best, e.g., Ham on Rye  -  plenty of poetry inside the novels

[indie-lad]

Heard about the greatness of Kurt's Slaughter House Five but never read it. What's it about?

[ritch]

I once read the dictioanary, good read!

[dr.chimps]

^^Agree. Drags a bit when you reach L, tho. Author should have been more concise.

[Van_Bilderass]

I actually kind of like him.  When I'm in LA, I always pick up one of his books.  Kind of captures the old days.  But he sure is infatuated with his own pussy magnet aura, for being such an ugly son of a bitch.  Gets a little old after a while.

What do you mean pussy magnet? He pretty much only fucked disgusting, mentally ill alcoholics, pill poppers and prostitutes. He always emphasized his ugliness and his long stretches of not getting any pussy at all. He always talked about his sadness over not getting love or losing love. There is always pain involved when he talked about women.

Bukowski was a master with the word. But it wasn't overpolished flowery prose or poetry and that's part of why he was so great imo.

[forillagorilla]

Good book to help writers, I'll read it.

1/ Crime and Punishement - Dostoievski
2/ The brave new world - Huxley
3/ The stranger - Camus
4/ The trial - Kafka
5/ Dirty Hands - Sartre
6/ Civilization and Its Discontents - Freud
7/ Father and sons- Tourgueniev
8/ Dead souls - Gogol
9/ 1983 - Orwell
10/ Naked lunch- Burroughs

Definitely could add Bukowski to the list. I had alot of fun reading him and it's the easiest writer to read. You'd have a great laugh, guy was a getbigger.
Would like to add Karl Marx and Engels up there.

I think you meant 1984

[cephissus]

the gay science
twilight of the idols
beyond good and evil
the ego and its own
south of the border, west of the sun
100 years of solitude
alice's adventures in wonderland and through the looking glass

[greeneyes]

What do you mean pussy magnet? He pretty much only fucked disgusting, mentally ill alcoholics, pill poppers and prostitutes. He always emphasized his ugliness and his long stretches of not getting any pussy at all. He always talked about his sadness over not getting love or losing love. There is always pain involved when he talked about women.

Bukowski was a master with the word. But it wasn't overpolished flowery prose or poetry and that's part of why he was so great imo.

Did you ever read Fante? Bukowski mention him quite often in his book but I never had the chance to read him.

[Primemuscle]

Did you ever read Fante? Bukowski mention him quite often in his book but I never had the chance to read him.

I tried reading Bukowski once. I didn't like his style.

[James28]

Very generic, nothing as fancy as the billionaires here reading Plato or Freud.

1. David Gemmell's Troy series. Even as a skeptical and jaded 30 something guy, that books made me want to be a hero, grab a sword and roar into battle. The fucking guy rewrote The Iliad! Nobody can ever write Odysseus like Gemmell. Ever. That is THE benchmark of that specific story and era. Even when I watch Troy (the Brad Pitt movie) can I find those characters believable as Gemmell rendered them so masterfully.
2. Conn Iggulden's Emperor series. Think it's 5 books but I done them all in 2 weeks.
3. Imperium and Lustrum by Robert Harris. Part of the same 'Cicero' books. A series based on the life of Marcus Tullius Cicero, the great Roman speaker. The last book in the series 'Dictator' comes out this year.
4. Millennium series by Stieg Larsson. It is pretty good, but haven't read it since nor do I want to.
5. Long walk to Freedom - Nelson Mandela
6. A Short History Of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
7. Shantaram - Greg Roberts. Very generic but gave me hope for my own life :p
8. The Hunderd Year Old Man Who Climbed Out Of The Window And Disappeared. Truly LOL stuff
9. All John Grisham's books.
10. The Road Home - Rose Tremain. The imagery in that book. The way she describes London in these times. Every paragraph is just perfect. The words are just a guide to rendering the own story in your head. It gently nudges you to create your own images.

[James28]

please dont ruin this thread by posting a list of actual books you've read you boring bookworms

These threads always turns out like this. Pretentious unemployed drug addicts running to Amazon to post the most obscure book they can find 

[D.O.A.]

Cocaine Came First. Then the Whores’: Kevin Sessums
Best read in a while

[Van_Bilderass]

Did you ever read Fante? Bukowski mention him quite often in his book but I never had the chance to read him.

Yeah I read all of his books. Very good stuff.

[mphgrove]

What do you mean pussy magnet? He pretty much only fucked disgusting, mentally ill alcoholics, pill poppers and prostitutes. He always emphasized his ugliness and his long stretches of not getting any pussy at all. He always talked about his sadness over not getting love or losing love. There is always pain involved when he talked about women.

Bukowski was a master with the word. But it wasn't overpolished flowery prose or poetry and that's part of why he was so great imo.

Not entirely true.  Yes, there were stretches of no pussy but then he'd get hot chicks who were infatuated with him as a celebrity/cool poet type.  The sex goes on and on and on, but I agree with you that it totally involves a sense of pain, and is ultimately empty.  That's what makes the work powerful.  On another poster's comment, no I never read Fante but now I want to do so.

[Van_Bilderass]

Not entirely true.  Yes, there were stretches of no pussy but then he'd get hot chicks who were infatuated with him as a celebrity/cool poet type.  The sex goes on and on and on, but I agree with you that it totally involves a sense of pain, and is ultimately empty.  That's what makes the work powerful.  On another poster's comment, no I never read Fante but now I want to do so.

Bukowski reads a "dirty" poem and gets all soft  

Here's a poem about lifting weights:

[indie-lad]

the gay science
twilight of the idols
beyond good and evil
the ego and its own
south of the border, west of the sun
100 years of solitude
alice's adventures in wonderland and through the looking glass

Beyond Good and Evil is great.

[The Ugly]

Heard about the greatness of Kurt's Slaughter House Five but never read it. What's it about?

It's fantastic. Semi-autobiographical narrative about the horrors of WWII Dresden with a sci-twist. POWs, time travel, and an alien zoo, can't go wrong.

Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions is probably even better. Cynical take on pop-culture, consumerism, and politics, far as I can recall, with the most unique narrator/protagonist wtf scene I've ever read.