Hello all. I am new in this forum. I have to admit that i have read very few books in my life. I just can't read so much text without pics. I was always the kind that reads comics and manga.
Nevertheless I started to feel the magic of the books. It may not work with me but i think I should give a try on start reading and broaden my horizons.
What I would like from you is to suggest me books. I am interested in:
1) Any 'famous' book that you think that every person should read and that will like.
2)I am kinda the romantic type so i would really be interested in reading a book about a love story, romance, relationships, teens falling in love and stuff. I am also like fiction. I am sure there will be fairy tales for big kids like me. :)
PS1 I have heard talking about da vingi code and steven king. They seem like chinese to me now... :/ Enlighten me plz
PS2 I have tried reading Lord of the Rings 1 but i got bored probably because i had watched the movie first??
PS3 I don't know if there is a similar thread about this matter, I am sorry if I am repetitive
Recommend some classics?; Some books that the casual reader can enjoy?
http://4-ch.net/book/kareha.pl/1165318157/
I need a good book.... whats your favourite?
http://4-ch.net/book/kareha.pl/1166787289/
"The Da Vinci Code", by Dan Brown:
Stephen King (Author): most famous for his horror fiction work, and frequent movie adaptations. There is a large variation in the quality of his work.
My personal favourite novel was "The Dark Half"; most hated was "Needful Things".
Don't bother finishing Lord of the Rings unless you want to know what was left out of the movies.
>>2 Thank you very much for the information. I am already looking at those threads.
Anyone can answer my No 2?
Reading what "everyone says you have to read" is bullshit.
Just read what interests you. If you like high tech futures, read scifis. If you like history, read historical fiction. And so on. There are great authors in any genre, but I'm personally of the opinion that very few books are going to appeal to everyone. I love Frank Herbert, Isaac Ivanov, and Ray Bradbury. They'd never appeal to my grandmother, who reads mystery stories.
Figure out what you like, then read that. You'll be happier, and you'll finish those books. If you start reading "classics" you'll give up on reading. Read the classics because you like them, not because you think they'll make you look smart.
> i would really be interested in reading a book about a love story, romance, relationships, teens falling in love and stuff.
Hm, in terms of this kind of story, I really liked Anna Karenina (it has a very sweet love story contrasted with a story about passionate adultery), and Lolita (best romance novel I've read, no matter what you've heard about it.) If you want something easier to read, I also recommend The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler. It's a love story/murder mystery/postmodern parody.
"and Lolita (best romance novel I've read, no matter what you've heard about it.)" >>6
I've heard many people refer to Lolita as a beautiful romance novel, garnering praise from well-known sources such as Maxim magazine who extol it as 'The only true love story of our time' or other such nonsense. It's all bullshit-- anyone who claims such has never read/finished the novel.
Lolita is not a love story and anyone who has even the slightest inclination towards younger girls would do well to condemn this novel outright, rather than rally behind it. Although the novel starts off describing the main character, Humbert Humbert, as a engaging romantic intellectual, we gradually come to understand his duplicitous side-- one that's willing to immediately take advantage of any situation that turns in his favor and one that's willing to use violence to achieve his unrealistic dreams.
About halfway through the book, Dolores (Lolita)'s mother dies in a tragic automobile collision. Humbert Humbert, seeing an opportunity, feigns remorse and gains custody of the young girl. Afterwards, he takes her on a road trip across the country, raping her in every hotel in which they stay. I use "rape" here in the literal sense, using violence or threat of violence to force someone to have intercourse, and not the ill-conceived "statutory rape" that has percolated through mass media and into the public consciousness. Somehow, Dolores (who Humbert insists on calling Lolita) manages to escape this nightmare and runs away, only to fall into the hands of another monster who forces her to have sex with other boys in his barn while he videotapes it. All in all, Humbert Humbert systematically destroys the life of this poor young girl and somehow feels no remorse, having satisfied his own desires and justifying it with the arrogant eloquence of a learned man.
The point of Lolita is not to paint a romanticized picture of a man so engrossed in his deviant romantic fantasies; that would be a grave oversimplification of this great novel and contrary to who Humbert Humbert actually is. Humbert Humbert is despicable in every sense of the word-- by the end of the novel he has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Rather, the point of Lolita is to show how insidious and deceiving well-wrought intellectual characters can be; the irony being that the most romantic person can sometimes be the most delusional and monstrous.
In conclusion, read Lolita, but don't think of it as a romance novel.
>>7 failed to garner the irony inherent in my statement.
Lolita's appeal was meant to be purely aesthetic. The author himself said that he hated allegories and would never write one.
American Psycho is SUPERIOR IN SO MANY WAYS to the movie.
Get that, the only thing your really missing is the awesome "hip to be square" part, but you can grab that on youtube.
And if your gonna grab it, I warn you, its really violent, like even the movie couldn't handle it, and your gonna have to do some thinking at the end.
I cannot say what you will like, but if you like psychological thrillers where you have to think about most of the stuff thats being done, American Psycho is easily one of the best on that side.