What are your six favourite fiction books (or authors) ?

[knight66]

Bruce, I had forgotten about; John Kennedy Toole: A Confederacy of Dunces. An excellent read. I have not read anything else by him.

Sarge, I used to treat books like holy relics. If I lent them out I expected them back in the same condition. Suddenly I realised some books never reappeared. Now I never lend anything that I am not prepared to wave goodbye to. If they go....they go.

Here is another list.

Brideshead Revisited, Waugh
Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Foundation Trilogy, Asimov
The Talented Mr Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
The Vivisector, Patrick White

Bonus ball....

"It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday, and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me."

Who can resist the classic, attention grabbing, opening line to Earthly Powers by Anthony Burgess.

Mike

[lukeottevanger]

Absolutely, Mike! One of my favourites too - as I said in my post, I'd happily swap that one for practically any of the six I did choose. Burgess is just wonderful, isn't he? And a composer too - a composer first, in fact. What more could you want!

[Kullervo]

And, dammit, I need to read Mann already!

Yes, you do. Just avoid the H.T. Lowe-Porter translations if you can (unfortunately for some of his lesser-known novels, hers are the only version available). 

[Danny]

Yes, you do. Just avoid the H.T. Lowe-Porter translations if you can (unfortunately for some of his lesser-known novels, hers are the only version available). 

Thank you, my friend.  Will make a note of that.

[bhodges]

There are so many great books appearing in this thread!  The depressing thing is how many of them I still have to read, and with so little time to do so... 

Speaking of Burgess, A Clockwork Orange was on my "consider for the six" list, as well as Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain.  Read the Burgess shortly after seeing the film (probably a good idea, actually, given the language inventions).  And speaking of Patrick White, a friend gave me a copy of The Twyborn Affair, still sitting in my "to read" pile.  Haven't read anything by him. 

--Bruce

[knight66]

Luke, Yes he was protean really. Never a dull sentence. He also stretched my vocabulary somewhat. I think this thread may prompt me to reread a few items.

There are quite a few by the writers I have already mentioned that I would need to add to my favourite list. Also, there are masses I have forgotten altogether for the moment. I look forward to people hitting on them and reminding me of them.

Possibly thought to be passe now, but I consumed the whole 13 or so volumes of The Forsyte Saga.

Mike

[knight66]

Bruce, Patrick White is another marvelous writer, A Fringe of Leaves is also wonderful, cool and precice use of language and very unsentimental in the despatch of his characters.

Gunter Grass, The Tin Drum was quite a read, an entire society brought to life.

Mike

[jwinter]

I was an English major, so this is darned hard to do.  I'll set aside Shakespeare, Hemingway & the like, and go with 3 mystery & 3 sci-fi that never fail to please:

Arthur Conan Doyle - Sherlock Holmes stories
Rex Stout - Nero Wolfe stories
Robert B. Parker - Spenser novels

JRR Tolkien - LOTR
Clifford D Simak - City
Edgar Rice Burroughs - John Carter of Mars books

[Bogey]

Arthur Conan Doyle - Sherlock Holmes stories


JRR Tolkien - LOTR

Both on my list JW.

Edgar Rice Burroughs - John Carter of Mars books

I might go with the first Tarzan novel here JW, but great call nonetheless.

[Drasko]

Jorge Luis Borges - Ficciones
Borislav Pekić - The New Jerusalem
Gabriel Garcia Marquez - The Autumn of the Patriarch
Danilo Kiš - A Tomb for Boris Davidovich
Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita
Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose

[MN Dave]

Edgar Rice Burroughs - John Carter of Mars books

woohoo!

[Danny]

Mikhail Bulgakov - The Master and Margarita

Another one I need to read, man!

[Lethevich]

(Henk, there are a few Dutchmen here: Christo, Que, Harry, myself and a few others I forget; and pjme is Flemish)

Can I be counted Dutch in Training? I've been picking up occasional words from my guild's chat channel in a computer game I play - the circle of friends I've met so far almost all hail from the Netherlands I've been making a word list in the vain hope that I may learn it via immersion.

(BTW, what is the difference between dank je and bedankt?)

[Bogey]

And please add to my list of six anything penned by Jane Austen.  0:)

[gomro]

The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester
The City and the Stars - Arthur C. Clarke
The Reproductive System (aka Mechasm) - John T. Sladek
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward - H.P. Lovecraft
Something Wicked This Way Comes - Ray Bradbury

Somehow I neglected #6, which would be
The Thurber Carnival - James Thurber

[Bogey]

 Keemun and Dave, FWIW the Stanley Hotel is only an hour or so up the road from my house.  Our book club is considering reading The Shining and then meeting there to discuss it.  Here is a special tour that may interest both of you should you head out my way. 

http://www.stanleyhotel.com/tours.html

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Can I be counted Dutch in Training? I've been picking up occasional words from my guild's chat channel in a computer game I play - the circle of friends I've met so far almost all hail from the Netherlands I've been making a word list in the vain hope that I may learn it via immersion.

(BTW, what is the difference between dank je and bedankt?)

Welkom in Nederland, Lethe!

There is no real difference in meaning between 'dank je' en 'bedankt' - the first is short for 'ik dank je' and the second for 'wees bedankt' (I think). But when you say 'dank je', it sounds more personal (because of the 'je'). 'Bedankt' is slightly more business-like and formal. Perhaps it's the same difference between 'thank you' and 'thanks'.

Btw - don't say 'Je wordt bedankt', as it is ironic, like in 'Thank you for nothing'...

[Lethevich]

Ahh, thanks, that context is really helpful I asked a friend, but they said they couldn't think of a difference between the two.

[Brian]

Bruce, I had forgotten about; John Kennedy Toole: A Confederacy of Dunces. An excellent read. I have not read anything else by him.

Unfortunately, there's not much else by him at all. I think there is another novel (I want to say 'Neon Bible'...?) which he wrote when he was a teenager, and perhaps some unpublished stories, but that's it. Confederacy of Dunces was printed only after his death when his mom started calling English professors telling them her son at written a classic novel, and would they please help her publish it. Eventually Walker Percy said he'd read it and let her know what he thought, fell in love, and spread the word. It's a sad story all in all - a great talent who died too young and never got to see anything like success. But, as classical music fans, we're familiar with that tune...

[vandermolen]

Thanks again for all the replies (this has been a much more popular thread than my usual ones on obscure composers..can't think why )

On the partial basis of others' suggestions, here is my list No 2

Herman Hesse: Narziss and Goldmund
Tolkein: LOTR
Orwell: 1984
Conan Doyle: Collected Sherlock Holmes (I live down the road from the town Crowborough where Conan Doyle lived for many years)
Dickens: Great  Expectations (or A Tale of Two Cities)
Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre