Off the top of my head: Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Lila <&^ by Robert M. Pirsig. Only books I've re-read multiple times & dog-eared the living shit out of. The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien. His whole incredibly rich mythology crammed into one volume. Geek Love - Katherine Dunn From Hell - Alan Moore Cat's Cradle & Deadeye Dick - Kurt Vonnegut A Canticle for Liebowitz - Walter M. Miller The entire Aubrey/Maturin series (20 books) by Patrick O'Brien Anything by H.P. Lovecraft, but my favorite 5 stories would have to be: The Shadow Over Innsmouth The Dunwich Horror The Call of Cthulhu At the Mountains of Madness The Silver Key Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein might make the list 'cause I read it a year ago and it's still eating away at me. More later if any glaring omissions rear up.
There's a fair number of comic books I read again and again. Among them: Watchmen, the Grendel series, the Sandman series, Tank Girl (the first 4 or so b&w ones), and Why I Hate Saturn. For actual books, LOTR and Ender's Game are the only ones I've really read more than once of late. I like just about anything Stephen Ambrose has done, A Bridge Too Far, and The Killer Angels. The novelization of Star Wars is nice in that it is in many ways truer to Lucas' original "vision" than the film or any of the re-edits. Little scenes that didn't make it into the movie, like Luke's friends on Tatooine, C3PO being much more of a con man/used car salesman, hints at the Sith Lords, the Old Republic, and the Clone Wars that are far more engaging than what eventually came.
Yeep, a bit late getting back to this...."Night Chills" was the one about mind control through highly advanced subliminals combined with drugs. Gave me nightmares for weeks <shudder>
A Red File For Callan Catch-22 Bill the Galactic Hero A Stainless Steel Rat is Born/Gets Drafted Dogs of War Kidnapped Neuromancer Day by Day Armegeddon To Hell and Back The Complete Compleat Enchanter
D'oh! "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas"! (And to a lesser degree, "The Curse of Lono".) And I forgot that I've read the complete Sherlock Holmes more than a couple times. OOH! "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series. (Well, up to and including "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish.")
Book Series: J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter Series J.R.R. Tolkien - The Lord Of The Rings Jack McKinney - Robotech Novelizations Isaac Asimov - The Foundation Series Isaac Asimov - The Robots Series Lloyd Alexander - The Prydain Chronicles Timothy Zahn - Star Wars 'Thrawn' Trilogy Individual Books: Arthur C. Clarke - Rendezvous With Rama Bram Stoker - Dracula Frank Baum - The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz Frank Herbert - Dune H.G. Wells - The War Of The Worlds James Clavell - Shogun Michael Crichton - Jurassic Park Steven King - The Stand Victor Hugo - Les Miserables These are most of my personal favorite books, but I don't claim that they are all of high literary quality. Some are just guilty pleasures...
Lolita - V. Nabokov Red Azalea - A. Min The Hunt for Red October - T. Clancey Slaughterhouse Five - K. Vonnegut Crime and Punishment - F. Dostoevsky The Hammer of God - A. Clarke The Guns of the South - H. R. Turtledove Blood Meridian - C. McCarthy
If you like that kinda stuff, you need to read James Clavell's "Shogun" immediately. It's fucking long, but it's the only book that long I've read twice. In fact, I think I have to credit that book for helping me develop who I am as a storyteller. So yeah, Shogun would probably be my all time favorite fiction, with maybe The Killing Joke #1 for comic book stories.
So many favorites... The Deed of Paksenarrion series (brain fart-can't remember who wrote it) Armor by John Steakley Time Enough for Love - Heinlein LOTR Trilogy - especially Fellowship The Recluce novels - L.E. Modesitt The Stand - King Almost all of the Hammer's Slammers books the Dorsai novels the Malazan books of the fallen I've read all the Wheel of Time novels And bunches more that I can re-read almost anytime. I was pleased to see Alas, Babylon on someone else's list, that was one of my favorites for some time.
I thought that the film was also excellent, but the book was pretty devastating, so I can't separate the two. I've read most of what Welsh has published since. The follow-up (Porno) is a step down in quality. And none of the rest of hos work is as good either.
I thought the writing was pretty good, it was just the subject matter I found dull, smack heads in Edinburgh doing smack head things.... yawn.
Dune (first three books) Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and Life, The Universe, and Everything. Foundation (original three books) Incarnations of Immortality (first two) Ender's Game (I read 'em all but I stop right there as far as "favorites" go) Sword of Truth series The War Hound and the World's Pain (Moorcock) The Princess Bride Everything I have ever read by Heinlein (Starship Troopers, Glory Road, Job, Farmham's Freehold, Tunnel in the Sky, the list goes on) Deathbird Stories (Ellison, several short stories with related themes)
Oh, you're cracked! God Emperor is where it finally really got good! It even got made into a Billy & Mandy episode! Now that's a tribute!
I did not mean to imply that I disliked the fourth and subsequent Dune novels. I have only read the first three. And they are amongst my favorite books.
I just finished Keith Richards' autobiography, called Life, and have to say it vaulted in to my top 10. An amazing story, the way he tells it, from his humble post-war beginnings in Dartford to how him and the Rolling Stones change not only the musical scene but the social order of things in the '60s to the drug induced '70s and '80s to him finally cleaning up and exploring other projects and things in life. It's funny as sin, heartfelt and just damn interesting. I canot recommend it enough. Then again, I'm a huge Stones fan so probably a bit biased.
I did. Well, when I read them as a teenager, I loved them all. When I reread them as a thirtysomething I thought they were akin to the Ender series. The first book was wonderful and the subsequent ones got progressively terrible.
OK. Having been on jury duty for the past 2 weeks (there's a lot of waiting around involved). Ive read and nearly finished the Foundation trilogy by Asimov. Ive got to say its absolutely outstandingly good. I want more stuff along these lines. What do you think,... start with Dune?
You could continue on with Foundation's Edge. I enjoyed the book, a more mature Asimov gets to further develop the universe he began as a younger man.