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What is your favorite work of literature?

BadOctopus

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I wouldn't be able to narrow it down to one, but Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, Huxley's Island, and Nesbo's Harry Hole series all are pretty damn good.
Fahrenheit 451! That's another great one. I think I've enjoyed everything I've read by Bradbury.

Also H.G. Welles, Jules Verne, and Robert Louis Stevenson.
 

grey_beard

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You and I are very much a like. I like your avatar by the way. Is it a Roman soldier?

I'm going to get into Gaiman soon, and eventually some other things.

I really do enjoy Malazan, especially in Audible form as the voice acting is excellent and I can listen while working out. Currently I spend more time reading instructional books on writing, math, and business so I don't like to read for pleasure so much as listen if that makes sense.

Kinda-sorta Roman, kinda-sorta comics. Look for Asterix and Obelix.
 

grey_beard

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Fahrenheit 451! That's another great one. I think I've enjoyed everything I've read by Bradbury.

Also H.G. Welles, Jules Verne, and Robert Louis Stevenson.

Loved Martian Chronicles. Any votes for Isaac Asimov?

Oh, and if you like manly adventure (e.g. Hornblower, Stevenson), you might try H. Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines.
 

Mychemicalkilljoy

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On Malazan? I'm still on Memories of Ice - audibooks is the only way to go!

I need to catch up on pretty much my life (HA). I can't stand audiobooks because I can't think about the characters and who they really are and kinda "solve" the story... It sounds weird, but I literally over analyze everything. Wbu?
 

Evee

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Georg Trakl: Dreamsongs
 

Polaris

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The book I most enjoyed reading may have been The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, although I disagree with many of her philosophical views. The writer I most admire for his writing is probably Vladimir Nabokov.
 

five sounds

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I very much like The Picture of Dorian Grey, and Where the Sidewalk Ends has a special place in my heart as well.
 

Blank

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I'll go ahead and nominate Brave New World by Aldous Huxley as my favorite piece of literature. I reread it recently (and I'm currently reading Island, its spiritual successor) and while I'd say it's not very well written, the ideas contained in the book are so provocative, I couldn't help but be fascinated by it.

I was in high school the first time I read it and it was the first book I read that managed to capture the ideal I had of a society made into a utopia by using science and technology. It solved the problems inherent in communism by introducing classism--something I regard as intrinsic to human social structures, and it sought to resolve every other part of man's problems via conditioning. Of course the book isn't perfect, but one thought that strikes me still to this day is exactly how much would one be willing to give up to attain happiness? Is the price of attaining happiness the elimination of struggling and conflict--two things which are at the core of the human experience?

That aside, I absolutely love how for Huxley's dystopian novel entertainment was the opiate of the masses.
 

Qlip

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If I had to pick, it'd be Number of the Beast by Robert A. Heinlein. Not because it's a great book, or even a good book. It was exactly what I needed in a certain part of my life and it influenced a lot of big decisions I made at the time.

Wikipedia:
Sue K. Hurwitz said in her review for the School Library Journal that it is "a catalog of Heinlein's sins as an author; it is sophomoric, sexist, militantly right wing, and excessively verbose", and comments that the book's ending was "a devastating parody of SF conventions—will have genre addicts rolling on the floor. It's garbage, but right from the top of the heap".[2]
 

Passacaglia

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If I had to pick, it'd be Number of the Beast by Robert A. Heinlein. Not because it's a great book, or even a good book. It was exactly what I needed in a certain part of my life and it influenced a lot of big decisions I made at the time.
That's faint praise for a book that changed your life. Not that I'm critical of Heinlein criticism -- never read him -- but I'm curious why you kept reading and what about it you needed at that point in your life?

 
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Qlip

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That's faint praise for a book that changed your life. Not that I'm critical of Heinlein criticism -- never read him -- but I'm curious why you kept reading and what about it you needed at that point in your life?

 

Cygnus

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Unlike a lot of people I know, I seriously enjoyed Catcher in the Rye when I read it.

A lot of people hate Holden Caulfield because he whines about everything. Yet, he offers possible solutions for the things he criticizes and thoroughly analyzes the problems he perceives in the world. He can take any random object and rant into the clouds forever about how much it sucks. I respect that--I've often found myself doing the same.



Asimov books. I read I, Robot and Foundation and Empire, and Foundation was exactly like Star Wars all over again for me. Really high-quality old space books like that can really get you into your zone that way.



The Giver. Anyone who didn't want to seriously kill something halfway through reading this book is a subhuman sociopath and needs a good long restraining order from everyone. If that book didn't move you, you fail the Turing Test of humanity.



Call of the Wild. How the dog just wanted its freedom, despite being just another basic animal with animal needs.



Pride of Carthage. Yes, half the book is bullshit about penises. The other half is an epic. Glad I stumbled upon it.
 

Julius_Van_Der_Beak

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Catch-22. Read this in high school, and I've read many since then, but it would still be my favorite.
 

Blank

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Catch-22. Read this in high school, and I've read many since then, but it would still be my favorite.

One thing that surprised me about Catch-22 was how well it was written. I'd recommend this book to a friend.
 

Qre:us

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I'll go ahead and nominate Brave New World by Aldous Huxley as my favorite piece of literature. I reread it recently (and I'm currently reading Island, its spiritual successor) and while I'd say it's not very well written, the ideas contained in the book are so provocative, I couldn't help but be fascinated by it.

I was in high school the first time I read it and it was the first book I read that managed to capture the ideal I had of a society made into a utopia by using science and technology. It solved the problems inherent in communism by introducing classism--something I regard as intrinsic to human social structures, and it sought to resolve every other part of man's problems via conditioning. Of course the book isn't perfect, but one thought that strikes me still to this day is exactly how much would one be willing to give up to attain happiness? Is the price of attaining happiness the elimination of struggling and conflict--two things which are at the core of the human experience?

That aside, I absolutely love how for Huxley's dystopian novel entertainment was the opiate of the masses.

Ugh, I found it terribly didactic. The characters lacked depth, and it felt like I was being schooled.
 

Nicodemus

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I find it incredibly hard to pick just one book, because different books are important to me in different ways, possessing different strengths and weaknesses. I will omit works of philosophy and poetry that have enriched my thinking in various ways at various stages of my life and just mention the one work of fiction which has most deeply resonated with my literary desires:

The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe.

One thing that surprised me about Catch-22 was how well it was written. I'd recommend this book to a friend.
Being well written is one of the more common aspects among literary classics.
 
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