Help Me Add The Greatest Books Ever To My List!!!!

The Third Policeman- Flann O'Brien

 

Some truly classic book already mentioned,so pardon me for downgrading the tone of the list with books i've read that impressed me albeit sensationalist semi-pulp fiction!:

'Lolita' - Vladimir Nabakobov.
'The Ginger Man' - J.P.Donleavy.
'Love For Lydia' - H.E.Bates.
'The Catcher In The Rye'-J.D.Salinger.
'From Russia With Love'-Ian Fleming.
-My favourite because the book is incredibly dark & sinister,far more than the film;'Donovan 'Red' Grant' is a psychopath that grew up in a circus in Ireland & has to 'kill something' when there is a full moon. :leaving:

 

Awesome list, a lot of those I either have read or want to read.

The Green Mile-Stephen King (my favorite book ever)
The Divine Comedy-Dante Aligheri (reading now, very interesting)
Dune Series-Frank Herbert
Fahrenheit 451-Ray Bradbury (good author, but I think he's a bit over-rated)
The Dialogues of Plato-Plato

 

Quick question, how many books is the Dune series...
House Atreides
House Harkonnen
House Corrino i think...what else?

 

Thank you all for your suggestions so far! I will edit my list and repost soon!!!

 

greatest books ever ...

strainger in a strainge land, robert a. hienline

the prophet, kalil gebran

1001 tips formulae and data, the old popular mecnanics press, whoever owns it now (mostly waay out of date of course, predates personal computers by a decade, but some useful stuff in it none the less, insight on industrial chemical tecnology of the day, that you could do at home, but might not want to. like how to make lead based paint!)

living on the earth, alecia bay laural

the survival, evasion, reconisance and escape (sere) manual (though some portions of it are undoubtedly out of date.

the chemical rubber manual (i think hienline or somebody acutally recomended that one as one of his six to be stranded on a desert island with or something)

the thomas catalogue

many, if not most, engineering, tecnology and art textbooks and lab manuals

how to live on nothing

walker's translation of the wah who chang (not the real spelling, i forget how it is as it isn't sitting here in front of me)

the hidden words, of baha'u'llah

the rubiat of omar kiam

walden, henry david therouw (i cant seem to remember how to spell anything)

travels with charley, stienbeck (a guy, his pickup camper, and his dog, 'discouver' 'america', sometime in the 50s or 60s i think)

pryde of chynur, carrol j. cherreh, and the rest of the chynur and related series by her. nothing deep phylosophical i would endorse there, or very little, but a damd good bit of story telling.

courtship rite, donald kingsberry.

wolfling (novella that predated and foreshadowed both star wars and babilon five, appeared as a two parter in analog sometime in the very early 70s), gordy dickenson.
also his ring world series.

and speaking of ringworlds/dyson spheres, titan, by john varley i think.

the telzey toy, a.e.shmittz. (i know i'm starting to get into lighter reading then 'great books, but these are still 'great', also witches of keris by the same author, and everything related to his telzey amberdon's universe)

fred pohl, what can i say, just about anything by him.
(science fiction as political satyre in some cases)

berry longyear's been writing some pretty good stuff lately,

and of course any of the crazyness of raffiel alloysius lafferty, though his shorter works and collections of them are generally considered superior to his longer writing. strainge doings and nine hundred grandmothers are my two favorite of those anthologies.

and speaking of anthologies, there's the dangerous visions anthologies that harlan ellison edited.

and the hugo winners, for every year there's been a hugo award. along with the campell award winners and the runners up for both.
(campell award, best new sciffy writer, hugo, fan voted award best sciffy in several catigories, of the year)

of course the dao di gi of lau tsu (i think i got the lau tsu part right)

if i had to pick just two to guide me through life
i think the combination of the prophet, and strainger in a strainge land
might do the trick, although i can't say as i don't have some reservations about some aspects of the latter.

=^^=
.../\...

 

The Chronicles of Narnia, (7 books) by C. S. Lewis

oh shoot! I'll put it anyway ...

America's Secret Establishment, An Introduction to the Order of Skull & Bones, by Antony C. Sutton

 

No one wants to list the bible?

 

As a reference the Bible is nice to have in your library, but to read...its a bit slow at the beginning, middle and end.

themnax,
I think the Chinese texts are sold as The I Ching (The book of Changes) and The Tao De Ching by Lao Tzu.

 

There are six books in the series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duniverse

 

I'm not sure if someone's mentioned them, but I'd say:

The Hitchhiker's Guide Trilogy (of 5 books)
and
Dale Carnegie's "How To Win Friends and Influence People"

Both are great

 

the crying of let 49 - Thomas Pynchon

 

I've just noticed that you've got Brave New World. madlizard recommended The Doors of Perception, which I second and add his final novel, Island, which I've just re-read and still found seriously thought provoking...

enjoy.

 

I'd recommend:


Chekhov
Isaac Babel
Guy de Maupassant
Brecht --- short stories, poems, as well as plays

Camus

and Saul Bellow's "Him With His Foot in His Mouth"

"Clockers" is not bad. But a little too literary.

For poetry, Frost, William Blake.

 

Man's Search for Meaning - Viktor e Frankl.

 

a lot of books on the list i have read this year! I'm like another poster on this thread....Im going back and reading all the books i believe i should read.

some of my suggestions if they are already mentioned here, sorry!)
Electric Kool Aid Acid Test - Ken Keasey
Children of Men - PD James
The Shining-Stephen King
Hearts In Atlantis -Stephen King (really good book!)
Junky- W.S.Burroughs
On The Road, Dharma Bums, Big Sur - all by JAck Kerouac (and I suggest in this order, as well)
I'm on a Vonnegut kick right now

 

I noticed one by Albert Camus, I'd heartily recommend La Peste - The Plague. if you can, read it in the original French, no translation I've come across does it justice.

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying - Sogyal Rinpoche
Pretty much anything by HH the Dalai Lama
Stephen Biko - i write what I like (all about apartheid in South Africa, if you like To Kill a Mockingbird you'll like this, even though it's non-fiction)
Stephen King - The Shawshank Redemption, The Running Man, The Long Walk.

 

Shawshank Redenmption is one of four short stories in "Different Seasons" - the other three stories are really good as well : Apt Pupil, The Body(which is the movie Stand By Me) and the Breathing Method.