Quotations and Literature Forum

yeah, its been a while since i've posted up in here, but i saw this and had to input my two cents...

it really does depend on your interests, but i personally tend to like books that deal with the the relation between the individual and humanity. some of my faves:

cather in the rye (j.d. salinger)
frankenstein (mary shelley)
the hunchback of notre dame (victor hugo)
for the time being (annie dillard)
the sound and the fury (william faulkner)


hope you get to these guys.

Here are a few books I really enjoy:
His Dark Materials Trilogy which includes Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass-Philip Pullman(technically childrens but trust me they're amazing)
A Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man-Joyce
True History of the Kelly Gang-(Peter Carey I think not too certain at the moment)
Beloved-Toni Morrison
Dead School-Patrick McCabe
Mythologies-Roland Barthes (non-fiction; this is a collection of essays about French society in the 50s fascinating stuff and still relevant)
The Sea-John Banville
Strumpet City-James Plunkett

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"I despise vulgar realism in literature. A man who would call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one." -Oscar Wilde

Well I will read anything. I read westerns, sci-fi, political rants, horror, crime... basically anything.

What I have always done is:

1) Go to the library
2) Pick up a few random books

Or go into a bookshop and pick random books.
Or on the internet.

You'll find authors you rather like, so get more on that person. Still, getting random books is always fun.

My personal favourites:

Animal Farm by Orwell
Unto Leviathan by Richard Paul Russo
The Man In The Maze by Robert Silverberg
The Wizard Of Oz by L Frank Baum
Loving Che by Ana Menendez
Crooked House by Agatha Christie

My favourite authors:
Robert Silverberg (sci-fi)
Jack Higgins
Orwell
Agatha Christie
Mike Tucker + Robert Perry (Doctor Who BBC Novels)
Richard Paul Russo (Sci-fi)

But so many more are out there.

you definatly have to read "monument " By Ian Grahmm. gotta be the best book I've ever read.

I would recommend 'The Count of Monte Cristo' by Alexandre Dumas....That is definately a must-read. Also 'Ender's Game' (and its sequals) by Orson Scott Card if you like sci-fi..

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By asking for the impossible obtain the best possible.

I read sooo much.... ok but here is what i come to find.... books that actually deal somewhat with life are useful... Try reading Blood Memory by Greg Isles... I dont go much for the big time authors except for Jane Austen who's book Pride and Prejudice was very good...

what subjects are you interested in? that helps when picking books

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Circle of thorns surround the most precious flower of blood and regret.

i am suggesting to all young hearts to read, especially simon de beauvoir, then susan firestone and kate milllet.

I recomend 'The Shipping News' by Annie Proulx

"A Tale of Two Cities" by Dickens is about heroism, something that seems to be missing in these times.


Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" is about how to live. Anna makes all the too common mistakes and loses everything. Moments before she dies she thinks: "No, it's no use, wherever you are going. For you can't run away from yourselves."

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"I am not afraid... I was born to do this"

"Help yourself. God will help you" ( Aide toi. Dieu t'aidera. )

--- Joan of Arc

I really liked Anna Kerinina as well but read it differentally. More someone torn between her love and her responsibilities, though I have to admit the ending is inevitable from very early on.

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"The Truth may be out there but the lies are in your head"
"I tend to think if God wanted us to believe in him he'd exist."

"More someone torn between her love and her responsibilities, though I have to admit the ending is inevitable from very early on."

inevitable? Yes. Tolstoy presaged her end. The first time we see Anna, she arrives home on a train. Before leaving the station, word gets out that a man was just run over by a train.

Tolstoy's purpose was to illustrate the necessity of living according to morally accepted standards. He used the institution of marriage as an example because it is universal, but his purpose was more general. He might have used some other human behavior to show what happened to those who conformed and those who disobeyed social conventions.

The two main characters are Constantin Levin and Anna ( Vlonsky ) Karenina. In the beginning of the book, Levin seems like a lost soul. He's not sure about himself or anything in the world. After first being rejected by Kitty, he temporarily withdraws from the world to become some kind of hermit, saying those who partake in temporal pleasures doom themselves to disappointment. In the end, he becomes the happy family man with a child.

Anna seems to have everything in the beginning but is not satisfied. She takes a lover, thus cutting herself off from social acceptance and her family. In her final moments, she loses touch with reality, thinking that all people hate each other. And she dies under the train. But Tolstoy doesn't leave her without hope even then. As she dies, he has her think, "God, please forgive me for everything I've done." Tolstoy would probably have said this was the most important sentence in the entire book.

The Vivien Leigh ( Gone with the Wind's Scarlett ) movie version showed Anna dying. Period. Tolstoy would not have approved.

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"I am not afraid... I was born to do this"

"Help yourself. God will help you" ( Aide toi. Dieu t'aidera. )

--- Joan of Arc

A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway [or maybe For Whom the Bell Tolls, some people prefer that]

A good "NEED" to read, in my opinion, would be The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

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Have Fun, Good Luck.

Just like everyone else has said, it depends on what you like to read. but I would say everyone should read at least the first Harry Potter book. J.K. Rowling is a very clever writer. Also I would say that Les Miserables, as well as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis are musts.

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Who do you know who burns scented candles?
http://www.scentedcandlesclub.com