I probably pick up a copy of the Lord of the Rings and read some part three times a week. I am a huge Tolkien Nerd. On the Tolkien nerd scale I am probably a 7. I have friends that are 8-10 that can read and write elvish. Not kidding. NERDORAMMA. One guy can reproduce just about any map from middle earth in 15 minutes. I am not that bad. Although, if I wasn't married and I had a little less of a life I could probably get that bad. Sometimes I am reading Tolkien and the writing is so incredible I have to read it outloud. This is from "The Return of the King." It is when King Theoden arrives at Gondor and starts kicking some serious Orc behind. You should put your nerd hat on with me here and read this outloud to get the full effect. Come on. You know you want to...
"Suddenly the king cried to Snowmane and the horse sprang away. Behind him his banner blew in the wind, white horse upon a field of green, but he outpaced it. After him thundered the knights of his house, but he was ever before them. Eomer rode there, the white horsetail on his helm floating in his speed, and the front of the first eored roared like a breaker foaming on the shore, but Theoden could not be overtaken. Fey he seemed, or the battle-fury of his fathers ran like new fire in his veins, and he was borne up on Snowmane like a god of old, even as Orome the Great in the battle of the Valar when the world was young. His golden shield was uncovered, and lo! it shone like an image of the Sun, and the grass flamed into green about the white feet of his steed. For morning came, morning and a wind from the sea; and darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them. And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and they sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the City."
Top 5 favorite books.
1. Huckelberry Finn
2. Lord of the Rings
3. A Confederacy of Dunces
4. City of God (Augustine)
5. Old Man and The Sea
Whats yours? (feel free to leave your fav. quote.)
"We need more Authors that are Christian than Christian Authors." -C.S. Lewis.
14 comments:
i'm an english major, and i love books in general. There really isn't a top 5 list. But i can say that afew favorites of mine are:
- The Count of Monte Cristo
- Wicked (currently reading and absolutely amazing)
- 100 years of Solitude
- Anthem
- Memoirs of a Geisha
this quote is acutally from a literary reading from last night that i went to. This is actually something Dorathy Allison states about writers--"we all can fall in love with our worst tendancies."
These aren't really in any particular order, but here goes:
Gone With the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Angela's Ashes
by Frank McCourt
Delores Claiborne
by Stephen King
Cold Sassy Tree
by Olive Ann Burns
Short novels:
Of Mice and Men
by John Steinbeck
True Grit
by Charles Portis
There are too many! I love reading so much. Here are my top 5 (in no particular order, and not including the Bible, of course!):
1) To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee) - I can't believe I grew up in Alabama and my schools never had me read this book.
2) Cold Mountain (Charles Frazier)- Possibly the best book I've ever read...I'm still waiting for this guy to write another novel!
3) Gone With the Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
4) Timeline (Michael Crichton)- I wish they'd made a better movie from this one. It's awesome.
5) The Hiding Place (Corrie ten Boom) - This book makes you want to be a better person/Christian. What a testimony.
ten Boom quote: "Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength."
You know, I have never got around to reading Gone With the Wind. I guess it is time...
It is a great book, right, Lexie?! It's also interesting to see the differences between the book and the movie. The book is closer to reality. The movie was pretty glamorous, and that time in history was definitely not glamorous. I do love the movie though. :)
I see some books on your lists that I'd like to read someday. I remembered "Angela's Ashes" when I saw it on Lexie's list. I'd like to read that one for sure. Keep the lists coming!
P.S. - I was pleased to find that the movie "Cold Mountain" was really close to the book. You don't see that too often
I have also wanted to get around to Count of Monte Cristo and Delores Claiborne. So what do most consider Stephen's Greates book?
I have read several but stopped with IT. IT scared the bejeebies out of me. I never recovered.
I LOVED Cold Mountain right up till the end. I am not totally a sucker for happy endings but I thought that after ALL of that they put us through, the waiting, bondage, torture... they could have kept Jude alive.
My favorite Stephen King book was The Shining. That would probably be my #6 favorite book and also one of my favorite movies (since it actually followed the book). Pet Semetary was great too, but the movie stunk.
Yes, you must read GWTW. Amazing. Scarlett is one of those heroines you love and hate at the same time.
Cold Mountain also was amazing. I almost put it down on my list.
Yes, Susanne, you must read Angela's Ashes! It's one of those rare books that will have you laughing on one page and crying the next. Wonderful! But they say the movie was too sad for words. The book manages to bring some humor into a dark subject.
My favorite Stephen King novels:
Delores
The Green Mile
The Dead Zone
I'm not much on scary books, so I haven't read anything scarier than Misery, which I loved.
The ONLY problem I ever had with S. King books was the...exuse the Church Man here... vulgarity. For instance, I was reading "The Body" a great book. (made into the movie "Stand By Me") Right smack-dab in the middle of this story about these kids he goes into this explicit sex scene. Just weird. Is the Green Mile or Delores like that?
I don't remember the Green Mile being like that. The crime that the main character is accused of will make you feel kind of creepy.
As for Delores, it involves a mother trying to protect her daughter after she finds out her husband is molesting her. There is also some really gross stuff about the old lady Delores is taking care of. Pretty graphic on that count. His stuff is just very real, sometimes almost uncomfortably so. I read The Body, but I don't remember a sex scene. The scene must not have made that big an impression on me. Did you read "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption?"
If you want to read something from Stephen King that won't hit your discomfort button, try The Dead Zone. It is actually quite literary and the only thing I recall about sex scenes is Stephen King's kind of clumsy attempt to write a love scene. It's one of the few things he's not real good at! Other than that though, the book is a great story.
He is an amazing writer and I love his books. I have read a ton of them. (the horror ones) Carrie, Night Shift, Dead Zone, IT (half of it) Misery, Kujo... The Body.
I do want to read Shawshank and Delores. I saw the Delores movie and liked it.
I'll have to read those other S. King books you mentioned, Lexie.
Seth, I do remember his books being pretty graphic (Pet Semetary was pretty gross in parts) and some of them were vulgar, but it's been so long since I've read them that I don't remember much about it. I don't think The Shining was too bad...just really scary! I do know that I was (unfortunately) more blind to that stuff when I was in high school/college. I don't know if it's motherhood or old age, but it would bother me more now.
I'll have to read those other S. King books you mentioned, Lexie.
Seth, I do remember his books being pretty graphic (Pet Semetary was pretty gross in parts) and some of them were vulgar, but it's been so long since I've read them that I don't remember much about it. I don't think The Shining was too bad...just really scary! I do know that I was (unfortunately) more blind to that stuff when I was in high school/college. I don't know if it's motherhood or old age, but it would bother me more now.
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