Old Books, New Readers discussion

What are the top five (or ten, if you can't just pick five) best books you have EVER read? Any book, in any series, ever.

8. Peter Pan

7. Enders Game

6. The Icarus Hunt by Timothy Zahn

5. Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Possibly the funnies book in the world!

3. Pride and Prejudice By Jane Austen. Love it forever!

2. The Shining Company SO good, hard not to be number one.
AND !!!!!!




ONE! The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. The best book in the world in my opinion.

These books should be on all book shelves.

How about top seven? :D

7. Child of the Mist (and others in series)
6. Divergent
5. Graceling (and sequels)
4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (again, love the others too, just this one the most)
3. City of Bones (anything by CC)
2. Delirium
1. Ender's Game <- not even a contest there

1 hush hush series
2 mortal instruments series
3 perfect chemistry series
4 Lux series
5 Percy Jackson & the Olympians series
6 Infernal Devices series
......more stuff ....

In no particular order:

1. The Mortal Instruments Series
2. The Infernal Devices
3. Vampire Academy
4 Harry Potter series
5. The Belgaeiad/The Mallorean/The Rivan Codex/Belgarath The Sorceror/Polgara The Sorceress
6. Hush Hush Series
7. Emperor Series
8. Mageborn Series
9. Legacy Trilogy
10.Ranger's Aprentice Series

can't mention them, can't count by myself.. :))
but I'm sure it's all classic.

Ranger's Apprentice
Everything by Rick Riordan
Iron Fey
Tiger Saga
Paranormalcy and Supernaturally
Everything by Brandon Mull
Infernal Devices
Scorpio Races
Anne of Green Gables
LOTR and Narnia
There, I limited myself to ten lines....but there's many more that I just LOVE!!!!!!

5. Old Yeller
4. LOTR
3. Narnia
2. The Island Stallion
1. The Black Stallion

I know there's more, but those are the ones that came to my head. ;)

I'm adding some to my list! (I don't quite know where I'd put them...)

Haha Haley your funny. You can;t even narrow it down to ten :D

What? That makes it exactly ten, thank you! I stayed within my limit :D (if you ignore the 'and series' on the end of a few of those...)

Lol, I had to like, half cut my arm off to stop myself from continueing writing my list lol. Its really hard to choose!!

Haley wrote: "What? That makes it exactly ten, thank you! I stayed within my limit :D (if you ignore the 'and series' on the end of a few of those...)"

Oh sorry, I guess I lost count. I didn't have trouble picking the top ten but the top five is hard and three?! Excruciating!

The Gormenghast Trilogy ( I read it in one book form so counting it as one ;D)
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Three Musketeers
Dracula
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Mister God, This Is Anna (This is a MUST!)

Wow, nice list. I love the Three Musketeers. The movie and the book. Have you read the second one "Twenty Years Later"?

Eh, I like the story, but D'Artagnan ruins it for me with his bad decisions. I like the three actual musketeers way better.
I didn't know there was one after that...hmmm, guess I'll have to read that. ;)

I like to Kill a Mockingbird as well. When I was younger I read the back and was like, "yuck!".
But after I read it a few years ago, I liked it. Really shows the lines that were drawn between races after the Civil war and the crud that happened because of that.

1.the hunger games
2. The eragon series
3. Twilight saga
4. Romeo and Juliet
5.vampire diaries series

Kortni, have you read the last Eragon book? Inheritance? Is it good? I have it but I haven't gotten to it yet because I kind of need to reread the others first and I haven't had time.

I know the question is not addressed to me but I have to answer. Inheritance was really good! The best book in the series. I got it for Christmas and had it finished before new years.

Nice! I just found it at Half-Price books the other day (I'm super pumped about it) so I want to read it, I just have to decide where to fit it in my list of to-read books. Probably this summer. But that's good to know, now it's a little higher on the list!

Hmmm, I probably will seem the odd one out here for my selection...

No particular order...

1) The Catcher in the Rye
2) The Hunchback of Notre Dame
3) Paradise Lost
4) Inferno
5) Harry Potter (series)

...that's what comes to mind, and I'm SURE my opinion will change tomorrow.

I love Harry Potter and enjoyed the Inferno and the parts of Paradise Lost I've read. What did you like about Catcher in the Rye? As best I can tell it's one of those books people either love or hate, and unfortunately I didn't like it. But I'm always curious why other people do, and how the way they read it is different from how I did.

Oh I have never read "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" but I want to very badly. I guess you liked it since it is in your top five. What did you like about it?

Haley - Oh? Have you read Purgatory and Paradise? They aren't AS good as Inferno, but also worth reading. That being said, Paradise is pretty lame until the last few cantos, where Dante meets God. That's kinda awesome, but it's fairly lame before that. The horrible punishments are replaced with people being happy, and happy people just aren't fun...

Thing about Catcher in the Rye, IMO, is that it speaks to a lot of people. For me, it was the frankness of it. This is what I wish Ulysses was like. I love how there's so much to Catcher in the Rye that you really start to notice, how nuanced and kinda pathetic Holden is, and how he just seems to be wrestling with the urge to mature and the fear of growing up. It gets better with each reading. It also helps it's the first book I ever read...sorta. (My mom read it to me when I was a baby...you think she'd think Goodnight Moon was more up to my level...)

Christa - Hunchback is SO AWESOME!!! I LOVE IT! Thing is, the title is fairly misleading, since the main character really isn't Quasimodo. He barely appears in the whole thing. I guess the main character is really Esmeralda, but Frollo's pretty important too. I love really how it is, at its core, a brutally dark love story, which takes apart and twists love until it's something that causes pain and suffering. I mean, a lot of books talk about how love hurts, but not quite to THIS level, where everyone's obsession and passion for each other drives everyone into self-destruction. Really tragic...but also beautifully written. I have to admit, though, Frollo is probably one of the best literary villains I've ever read. What a complex, nuanced character...

You have me convinced. It will be next thing to get at the library.

Just mind you that Hugo is famous for taking long pauses in the book to describe the scenery and other stuff. You won't miss much by glossing over that, but it is really beautiful description in and of itself.

I love long descriptions and am prone to that myself when I write. However I do usually skip them the first time I read a book and the second time I pay more attention. Thanks for the warning.

Also, if you like Hunchback, I also recommend reading Les Miserables! WHAT AN AWESOME BOOK! Another epic...and it has a 100 page aside all about Napoleon.

First I would like to say that you should never be sarcastic about Goodnight Moon, because, let's face it, that's a work of literary genius :D but I guess I can understand that. i think I was so continually annoyed by Holden that the rest of the book was annoying too. maybe I'll reread it someday (though... probably not).

And I've read bits of Purgatory but again, not the whole thing. I really to; Inferno was so intriguing. I just need more time than I have

To be fair, I agree with you on Goodnight Moon. It is a really clever piece of literature. As for Holden, yeah, if you don't like Holden, you won't like Catcher in the Rye, since he really is the book. Still, you can tell Catcher in the Rye is a great piece of literature because so many people have strong reactions to it. A book that gets this much of a reaction out of people has to be good.

Purgatory is good, especially the ending with Beatrice. It's...kinda a really funny scene where Dante gets chewed out.

Just to make a point, I'd like to say that people have strong reactions to Twilight too, and that doesn't make it a great piece of literature. But yeah, if the main character gets under your skin, there's no hope for the book.

And I'm glad someone sets Dante straight! I want to meet Beatrice, that's half my motivation to read the book

...you put up a good point there... O_o

lol! Beatrice is probably the one reason the first part of Paradise is worth reading. The introduction scene with Beatrice is...fairly spectacular, especially if you're familiar with your religious imagery, since there's a lot of semi-obscure allusions that makes the scene even more awesome.

I try.

I'm curious, too, to see how Dante describes Heaven. Even if you haven't read Inferno, most people at least understand references to the nine circles of Hell. But I have no idea what his Heaven is supposed to look like, and I want to.

Trust me: it's...kinda boring how Heaven looks. It's basically focusing on the Heavenly spheres, and everywhere's pretty much the same...which is why the book suffers. It's...kinda anti-climactic.

Well that's disappointing. I guess I'll just have to get around to reading it someday and see :P

Top Five Books of All Time (for me personally)

1. Gone with the Wind
2. To Kill a Mockingbird
3. Confederacy of Dunces
4. Portuguese Irregular Verbs (and the 2 that follow, The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs and At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances
5. Crum

and I will throw this gems in just because I can't stop at 5

6. Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen: Reflections on Sixty and Beyond
7. Emma
8. Jane, Wishing (might be out of print now)
9. She's Come Undone
10. The Diaries of Adam and Eve (by Mark Twain)

Haley wrote: "What are the top five (or ten, if you can't just pick five) best books you have EVER read? Any book, in any series, ever."

1. Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
2. A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens)
3. Treasure Island (Robert Louise Stevenson)
4. The Bridges of Madison County (Robert James Waller)
5. Cider House Rules (John Irvin)

booknut - Still have to read Gone with the Wind, along with most of those books. I'm...surprised I haven't read most of them. The Diaries of Adam and Eve sounds really god. ^_^

Linda - Okay, read some of those. Cider House Rules has been on my shelf for awhile. I kinda met the author once. Kinda. I feel bad I haven't read more of John Irving's stuff...

Anthony wrote: "Also, if you like Hunchback, I also recommend reading Les Miserables! WHAT AN AWESOME BOOK! Another epic...and it has a 100 page aside all about Napoleon."

I know, right!!! I read it one Sunday, after flipping through a book about the musical. I kinda skimmed the history parts just to get back to the story...but I LOVE that book as well!!!!
I still have to read Hunchback...that's sitting on my to-read shelf. ;)

I like Goodnight Moon, too. My parents read it to me when I was very young as well. ;)

Oh, yeah, the book is wonderful. I still have it.

Tabi (Ron Paul 2012) wrote: "Anthony wrote: "Also, if you like Hunchback, I also recommend reading Les Miserables! WHAT AN AWESOME BOOK! Another epic...and it has a 100 page aside all about Napoleon."

I know, right!!! I read ..."

Les Mis is so epic! I mean, just so much, so complex...I need to reread it again, maybe over the summer, since I'm getting fuzzy on some of the smaller details in retrospect. I'm kinda excited about the movie based on the musical coming out later this year. Hunchback is great! I really recommend you read it.

Goodnight Moon is SO cute. My little sister, now that she can read, just sits and reads it over and over. :)

This is in no particular order for the most part. The Host is my number one. Also liked the Gemma Doyle trilogy, Into the Wild, Harry Potter, the Book of Lost Things, the Count of Monte Cristo, Water for Elephants, The Hunger Games.

Is Water for Elephants the same as the movie that came out last year? (With the book being first of course.)

Yeah, it is. The book is quite good, and I thought the movie was too

Yeah the only complaint I have with the movie is they left out one of the major characters. But they did it in a way that didn't take away from the plot.

Water for Elephants. Yeah, that was the one book I forgot to read awhile back. I take it I should read it? ^_^

I don't think I loved it quite as much as some people did, but yeah, it's worth reading.