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hagoth7

By hagoth7
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hagoth7 Mentor

hagoth7

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Two quick questions for the social hall about books:

 

1) What are your all-time favorite books?

My favorite books in the following categories are:

  • LDS (other than scripture): Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith
  • Secular non-fiction: Scyld & Scef by Alexander Bruce
  • Secular fiction: The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour

 

2) What books are you currently reading?

Edited by hagoth7
bluebell Grand Master

bluebell

Posted
Posted (edited)

My all-time favorite fiction books are-

 

-Gone With The Wind

-The Lord of the Rings

-Watership Down

-Memoirs of a Geisha

-Where the Red Fern Grows

-The Neverending Story

-Harry Potter

-Charlotte's Web

-James and the Giant Peach

-The Indian in the Cupboard

-Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh

 

I don't really have any favorite Non-fiction other than the scriptures.  I read a lot of non-fiction but I typically like them all about the same since i only read topics i already find interesting.  

 

I just finished a nonfiction called Dark Summit about the disastrous 2006 season on the North side of Mt. Everest.  This is a different story than what happened in 1996 on the South side that Krakaur was a part of.  Before that I read a nonfiction called Misconception about a two families that had a bad experience with IVF in 2009-one families embryos (the last they had) was accidentally placed into a different woman and she became pregnant with their child before the lab realized the mistake.  

 

The last fiction i read was called Zone One, which is billed as a zombie book for adults.  Stir clear.  It was horrible.  The most boring book i've ever read.  I am not at all exaggerating when i say that during one zombie attack the protagonist stopped and reveled in past memories for FOUR PAGES while a zombie was actively trying to bite him. By the time he got back around to the attack i couldn't remember what had actually been going on.  And the author used every big word he had ever heard of whenever he could.  It was like trying to read a story written by a thesaurus.  

Edited by bluebell
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hagoth7 Mentor

hagoth7

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I agree on Lord of the Rings, but I haven't read any of the others, except perhaps Charlotte's Web when I was young. (I don't read much fiction).

 

To follow up on question #2, what is currently on your reading stack, if you don't mind me asking?

Edited by hagoth7
bluebell Grand Master

bluebell

Posted
Posted

I agree on Lord of the Rings, but I haven't read any of the others, except perhaps Charlotte's Web when I was young. (I don't read much fiction).

 

To follow up on question #2, what is currently on your reading stack, if you don't mind me asking?

 

I'm heading to the library today so i'll have to let you know!

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Duncan Grand Master

Duncan

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I don't like reading fiction, I can't even remember the last one I read! University ruined that for me! hahhhahahhha! I only read non fiction books. I am currently reading about about revelation by Elder Gerald N. Lund

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ksfisher Grand Master

ksfisher

Posted
Posted

 what is currently on your reading stack

 

Into the Jaws of Death by Mike Snook.  About the late 19th century British army.

Traditions of the Fathers by Brant Gardner.

The Keillor Reader by Garrison Keillor

ERayR Grand Master

ERayR

Posted
Posted

Two quick questions for the social hall about books:

 

1) What are your all-time favorite books?

My favorite books in the following categories are:

  • LDS (other than scripture): Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith
  • Secular non-fiction: Scyld & Scef by Alexander Bruce
  • Secular fiction: The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour

 

2) What books are you currently reading?

 

I have about 100 LDS (other than scripture) books on my shelves some going back over 50 years.  It is hard to pick a favorite because they all have had meaning to me at the time I read them and in a lot of cases their meaning was enhanced from the earlier books.

 

I am currently reading Mormons Codex

In the Secular non-fiction category I would have to put a book called "Things" written by Ivan T. Sanderson.  I read it maybe 40 or 50 years ago and it opened my eyes and curiosity to the things that are anomalous to conventional interpretations and often ignored or discarded because if it.

 

Secular fiction:  Walking Drums is a good one.  I also would nominate the whole Dune series by Frank Herbert.  I am fond of most anything Frank Herbert wrote.

hagoth7 Mentor

hagoth7

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Posted

I don't like reading fiction, I can't even remember the last one I read! University ruined that for me! hahhhahahhha! I only read non fiction books. I am currently reading about about revelation by Elder Gerald N. Lund

This one perhaps? http://www.amazon.com/Hearing-Voice-Lord-Gerald-Lund/dp/1590388933/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1444258851&sr=8-1&keywords=gerald+lund+revelation

 

I haven't read it. What do you think of it so far?

Garden Girl Grand Master

Garden Girl

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I haven't read a lot of non-fiction, like cover to cover, although I've read on numerous topics of historical and cultural interest...

 

I suppose one of my favorite books by Anne Morrow Lindbergh... Gift from the Sea... could be considered non-fiction... a very wise book just as relevant today as when she published it in t he 50's.

 

For fiction...

Jane Eyre

Rebecca

Captain from Castile

The Fur Person

To Kill A Mockingbird

Pride and Prejudice

The Source

Grapes of Wrath

Tom Sawyer

Gone With the Wind

Lord of the Flies

The Scarlet Letter

Last of the Mohicans

Peyton Place

 

among others...

 

Then of course there are the scriptures, and numerous books by LDS authors and authorities...

 

 

hagoth7 Mentor

hagoth7

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  • Author
Posted (edited)

...I am currently reading Mormons Codex

In the Secular non-fiction category I would have to put a book called "Things" written by Ivan T. Sanderson.  I read it maybe 40 or 50 years ago and it opened my eyes and curiosity to the things that are anomalous to conventional interpretations and often ignored or discarded because if it.

 

Secular fiction:  Walking Drums is a good one.  I also would nominate the whole Dune series by Frank Herbert.  I am fond of most anything Frank Herbert wrote.

I thoroughly enjoyed Dune. :acute:   I liked the rest of the series OK, but not near as much as I enjoyed the first book in the series. 

Tolkien's series and Herbert's series are the only nonfiction series I've read in full. My wife and I read a few of Jordan's Wheel of Time series many years back, but I got weary of the story dragging on, and stopped reading it. 

Edited by hagoth7
hagoth7 Mentor

hagoth7

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I haven't read a lot of non-fiction, like cover to cover, although I've read on numerous topics of historical and cultural interest...

 

I suppose one of my favorite books by Anne Morrow Lindbergh... Gift from the Sea... could be considered non-fiction... a very wise book just as relevant today as when she published it in t he 50's.

 

For fiction...

Jane Eyre

Rebecca

Captain from Castile

The Fur Person

To Kill A Mockingbird

Pride and Prejudice

The Source

Grapes of Wrath

Tom Sawyer

Gone With the Wind

Lord of the Flies

The Scarlet Letter

Last of the Mohicans

Peyton Place

 

among others...

 

Then of course there are the scriptures, and numerous books by LDS authors and authorities...

The only fiction one I've read there was The Source. Good book. But I did see four others in your list in movie form, if that counts.

 

What is your favorite LDS book, if you don't mind me asking?

ERayR Grand Master

ERayR

Posted
Posted

I thoroughly enjoyed Dune. :acute:   I liked the rest of the series OK, but not near as much as I enjoyed the first book in the series. 

Tolkien's series and Herbert's series are the only nonfiction series I've read in full. My wife and I read a few of Jordan's Wheel of Time series many years back, but I got weary of the story dragging on, and stopped reading it. 

 

I also have read Terry Goodkind's "Sword of Truth"  series.  They were also quite good.

 

I think Mark Twains description of the BoM describes Tolkein's books .  You know, chloroform in print. 

Garden Girl Grand Master

Garden Girl

Posted
Posted

The only fiction one I've read there was The Source. Good book. But I did see four others in your list in movie form, if that counts.

 

What is your favorite LDS book, if you don't mind me asking?

 

My favorite LDS book?  Well, that's hard to say because I have a pretty good library on various topics by LDS authorities and authors... I think my favorite all-around book is:  "Principles and Practices of the Restored Gospel" by Victor L. Ludlow... and, "The Mormon Faith" by Millet...then I have "Temple and Cosmos" by Nibley, which I love... and numerous other books on the temple by several authors: Packer, Wilcox, Madsen...

Then I have books that cover certain topics by several contributing authors... I like Cheiko Okasaki's books, and those by Sheri Dew...

Neal Maxwell is a favorite author...

So I guess I'm all over the spectrum when it comes to LDS books... but ALL are by faithful writers...

 

GG

hagoth7 Mentor

hagoth7

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...I think Mark Twains description of the BoM describes Tolkein's books .  You know, chloroform in print. 

I guess I'll have to respectfully disagree with both Twain on the BoM, and with you on Tolkien.

3DOP Grand Master

3DOP

Posted
Posted (edited)

I want to make a disclaimer. I do not propose that my favorite books should be anybody else's favorites. What was once a favorite is no longer so for me. We all grow and change. But some linger. Some books that were once favorite still seem...great.

 

One at a time:

 

War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy

 

I am a junkie for Russian literature. I could name other authors, even other Russians, with whom I am in much greater philosophical agreement who only walk in the footsteps of Tolstoy's epic story. I don't agree with the message that Tolstoy was preaching in his writing of the book. He was way too much of a fatalist for me. I read a new biography of Napoleon (Andrew Roberts) immediately after finishing War and Peace again this summer. Tolstoy is just wrong in my view. Individuals make history. Napoleon moved the French (and their allies) to Moscow when no one else could have so done. But I suspect I will be reading War and Peace every so often the rest of my life. It is not his "fact", but his fiction which seems more true to me.

 

I have a theory about his fictional characters; about what he was trying to say with each of them. I see Tolstoy, at the time he wrote War and Peace, as a modern day Solomon in Ecclesiastes, looking for meaning in this world through characters that beginning with great enthusiasm, are always disappointed. I have never heard anybody else make that comparison. I would be very willing to discuss this with anybody familiar with his work. Everybody gets disappointed after an initial enthusiasm. Tolstoy was thrashing around to find meaning in life, and hadn't written chapter 12 (of Ecclesiastes) yet.

 

I have a favorite historical work:

 

Natasha's Dance, by Orlando Figes

 

This work is larger than the title might suggest. Natasha Rostov was the main female character in War and Peace. A beautiful and vivacious teenager born in to privilege, but who upon being accidentally thrust in to a situation where there were traditional Russian folk dances, without any prior experience, performed them flawlessly, because of her inherent "Russianness". How could she have done this? This is a less than major theme introduced by Tolstoy, but taken up at times by "Slavophiles" like Dostoevsky, and still taken seriously by modern historians such as Figes. Figes leaves the question unanswered as far as I can tell, as to whether one can absorb "Russia" from the air that Russians breathe, or whether it is taught. Maybe it isn't even important. The history does not dwell at length on Tolstoy's fictional character, but to me seems rather to focus upon the profound effect that Russian belief in such "Russianness" has affected modern Russian history, and as a result, ours, from the days of the Czars and through the Revolution. It is almost as though belief in "Russianness" creates "Russianness" and the distinct character of that people which continues to perplex Russia's western neighbors unto this day.   

Edited by 3DOP
bluebell Grand Master

bluebell

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I read Ready Player One a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it. I'm excited to see the movie.

Edited by bluebell
Ron Beron Mentor

Ron Beron

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Posted

So many books so little time...

My favorite fiction, which are few...

The Source by Michner

East of Eden...Steinbeck

Robinson Jeffers poetry

Grapes of Wrath...Steinbeck

To a "God Unknown...Steinbeck.

Oh heck...anything by Steinbeck.

more later...

NON FICTION

The Lessons of HIstory

The Great Books

Will Durrants books on civilization

Scriptures

more later...

saemo Mentor

saemo

Posted
Posted (edited)

Two quick questions for the social hall about books:

1) What are your all-time favorite books?

My favorite books in the following categories are:

  • LDS (other than scripture): Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith
  • Secular non-fiction: Scyld & Scef by Alexander Bruce
  • Secular fiction: The Walking Drum by Louis L'Amour
2) What books are you currently reading?
Fiction:

"One Hundred Years of Solitude", by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

"Shipping News", by E. Annie Proulx

"Last of the Mohicans", by James Fenimore Cooper

Non fiction, I'm partial to biographies and autobiographies:

"The Story of My Experiments With Truth", by Mohandas K. Gandhi

"The Autobiography of Malcolm X", by Alex Haley and Malcolm X

"Broken Music: A Memoir", by Sting

Edited by saemo
Stargazer Grand Master

Stargazer

Posted
Posted

1) What are your all-time favorite books?

 

2) What books are you currently reading?

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