Most Memorable Books

Discussion in 'Reading & Writing' started by Thomas Windom, May 17, 2023.

  1. Thomas Windom

    Thomas Windom Very Well-Known Member
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    I really like science fiction. I don’t read as much of it lately because everyone wants to stretch out a novel into a multi-book saga. Despite that there are two that have just stuck in my mind very vividly.

    The first one is “Sea of Glass” by Barry Longyear. It’s not at all what you would expect from him. The first part is tough to read, in fact a few folks I know couldn’t do it. The first quarter of the book is extremely violent, having to do with a concentration camp like environment for kids and teens. This sets the stage though for the rest of the book’s plot because of the way these kids grew up. It is the only book I have read and then immediately started over and read it again. There are things revealed that, once the protagonist matures and you know them, you want to go back and reread to understand differently.

    The second book that just rattles still in my mind is “Hyperion” by Dan Simmons. It is just a strange book and very vivid in terms of the characters and the environment in which they find themselves. Any others here happen to read them and, if yes, what are your thoughts.
     
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    Last edited: May 17, 2023
  2. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I used to read a TON of Sci Fi, mostly the dystopian future stuff. I once bought a case of 200 sci fi books at a second hand shop, which let me sample a ton of different authors. I've not read anything by Longyear or Simmons that I recall right now.

    I liked Brunner, Zelazny, Heinlein, Crichton, Dick, Pohl, and so many more. But it's been a long time.
     
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  3. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    I'd have a hard time coming up even with a short list of the most memorable books. I have been a voracious reader since I was a child. I forget now which grade it was in, but my mom had one of my report cards on which an elementary school teacher had written, "Reads too much." I don't know if she meant overall or if she was referring to my reading a novel while I was supposed to be doing math. Throughout elementary and high school, I read pretty much every book on the reading lists, rather than simply picking the minimum required number of them, as well as a whole bunch of those that weren't on lists. Our church, which was never locked, had a library that included, besides the anticipated Bibles, Bible dictionaries, encyclopedias, and commentaries, biographies of Christian leaders, and quite a few family-friendly fiction books, and I would sneak up there at night, since the church was just up the hill from our house, and read.
     
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  4. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    I've never been much of a reader, but two books I like a whole lot: Catch Me If You Can and Moby Dick
     
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  5. Faye Fox

    Faye Fox Veteran Member
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    My all time favorite book is The Nez Perce Indians And The Opening Of The Northwest

    It is factual American history and an interesting read, at least for me that has traveled and lives in the Northwest. Ever American should read this book. You will be shocked at all the history that has been covered up or altered by politicians and churches. The author writes unbiased sticking to documented facts. Over the years as the facts come out from other sources, I now see justifying instead of the once outright denial of the actions of churches and the government.

    https://www.amazon.com/Indians-Opening-Northwest-American-Heritage/dp/0395850118
     
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  6. Ed Wilson

    Ed Wilson Veteran Member
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    I read the biography of George Catlin who traveled the American west to paint portraits of the the American Indians before the old west and it's inhabitants were lost to white settlement. He was born just south of here. Can't remember the name of the book.

    Another was the actual journal of Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
     
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  7. Beth Gallagher

    Beth Gallagher Supreme Member
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    I'm like @Ken Anderson ; I have always been a voracious reader. Many books have been memorable and for different reasons. To Kill a Mockingbird made quite an impression on me as a young person. More recently a couple of books written by former White House butlers and housekeepers were really eye-opening, so I enjoyed those a lot. Many of Stephen King's early works remain in my favorites since I love a good scary read.

    One book that really affected me is "Still Alice," the story of a college professor who develops early onset Alzheimers. It was emotionally difficult to read since the story is so real and so well written. The movie made from that novel could not compare with the book.
     
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  8. Thomas Stillhere

    Thomas Stillhere Very Well-Known Member
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    When I was young I loved reading Tom Sawyer and the Huckleberry Finn books. I could read very well when I was 6. Math was something that lived on the other side of the moon. I also loved history and geography which I did well while in school. I started reading again in the early 80s because I had no TV and wasn't really interested in TV any longer until I saw the Benny Hill show for the first time. It was the Korean War books and the WWII that I would take from the library and read. I learned a lot from reading those books. Then I slowly became too busy to read any longer and never checked another book. I read technical manuals for automatic transmission repair and other specialties in the automotive field. The only way to repair one properly was to keep up with all the factory fixes and changes and believe me there were a bunch from GM. For a long time I was a walking repair manual until I got too old and the cars all were scrapped for the metal. Today I don't read anything other than online stuff and I can enlarge that so I can see it. It spoils you a bit if it makes seeing better :D
     
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  9. Sam Calabria

    Sam Calabria Well-Known Member
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    Time Magazine's All-Time 100 Novels

    https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/2681.Time_Magazine_s_All_Time_100_Novels

    seems like a source for a decent list...

    seems a bit too slanted towards more recent authors.

    My grandmother would certainly add "Magic Mountain" by Thomas Mann.

    She read it in the original German. But I heard the English version is also sehr gut.

    +++

    I found this list:

    Best Books Since 1900...

    https://thegreatestbooks.org/the-greatest-fiction-since/1900

    Ah, Grandma's choice comes in at #22...

    She also made incredible brownies and once met Basil Rathbone in the hallway of the McCarter Theater in Princeton, NJ. Both were homesick for Europe and commiserated for a few minutes...
     
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  10. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    Being a history buff, this was the best book and longest [500 pages] I ever read about the time era and true life of George.
    [​IMG]
     
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  11. Jo Askerne

    Jo Askerne Active Member
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    [​IMG] Set in 1500's Florence. A nun dies and they notice a huge tattoo of a snake on her body. Mystery ensues.

    [​IMG] I Learned so much about the American Revolution. It's amazing we even survived.
     
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  12. Jo Askerne

    Jo Askerne Active Member
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    I'll have to add this to my list. Did he write the book on US Grant too?
     
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  13. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    "1776" was a long book, but well-worth the time.
     
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  14. Kate Ellery

    Kate Ellery Supreme Member
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    I prefer to read woman’s magazines compaired to a book , …….however while volunteering for the national trust for 5 years I learned allot about this woman who was the ONLY WOMAN … hung in South Aust

    This woman …..lived almost next door to my G.G. grandparents who came here ( where I live ) from Cornwall


    I borrowed this book from the NT and sat and read the whole book in one day

    She had a tragic life of being deserted by her mother and constantly raped by her drunken father she then went on to marry a widower with a child, he was brutal man .

    She was accused of poisoning him resulting in his death

    I copied this*****
    Since first publishing Elizabeth Woolcock's tragic story - No Monument of Stone - extensive additional research by the author has uncovered much more evidence than was available at the time of his initial writing.

    This later book - Dead Woman Walking - now contains that information. Information that perhaps one day may instigate an official investigation into the case and consequently lead to a posthumous pardon being granted for Elizabeth, for being denied access to fair and impartial justice at her trial in 1873, and thereby being unjustly convicted and executed for a murder she did not commit.

    So was an innocent woman hung ……( I think so after reading the book ) she was hung in the Adelaide Jail …..she lies in a unmarked grave in the old Adelaide jail that’s right in the city of Adelaide
    IMG_5827.jpeg
     
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    Last edited: Dec 30, 2023
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  15. Jan Ahlmann

    Jan Ahlmann Well-Known Member
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    I'll start with The Bible. I've read the entire New Testament and parts of the Old,

    Next would be Gone With the Wind as it's the only book I can remember ever reading more than once, three or four times, actually. The first time was in 7th or 8th grade.

    I also remember Your Heart Belongs to Me by Dean Koontz because it was the first of his I ever read and then I was hooked. His Frankenstein series is one I'll never forget.
     
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