Books: FOH's to read/re-read list - give us your "all-time favourites" nominations...

[MoeFOH]

Keats wrote: a thing of beauty is a joy forever... and Oscar Wilde: If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all. I like to meld these two quotes when I think of the books that I love, that really blew my hair back... when it was that I had hair. 

My slightly less eloquent take on the subject: Great books are bloody wonderful things in life! 

This, of course, extends beyond the content and into the format of a book itself. Simple, wonderfully portable and tactile... and doesn't need recharging or putting into flight mode. 

In the process of looking for something new to invigorate me, and largely coming up empty, I've subsequently started going back to re-read some of my all-time favourites. In addition, I thought the good peoples of FOH would have a novel suggestion or two... and in doing so we can create a list for all to reference.  

I'm kicking things off with one of the first books that I really fell in love with. See below. 

If you have the time and inclination, grab one of your all-time faves off the shelf, take a quick photo, maybe add a blurb, post it up! 

[MoeFOH]

Love this book and this series immensely. Was such a revelation as a teenager to find a book that could crack me up like this. Quintessential British humour. Douglas Adams was so great, but sadly lost to us way too early. If you've never read this or any of the series I highly recommend diving in. 

Check the price back in the day! (bottom of back cover image) 😳

[MrBirdman]

Well if you like historical drama then Hillary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy is a masterpiece of the genre. Not saying it takes #1 on my person list (that will probably always be Fitzgerald’s Gatsby) but Mantel’s books may be the 21st century’s best works of English literature. 

Virtually all the Americans here will have read Gatsby in high school. It’s worth a reread. I didn’t appreciate it until adulthood. It’s also in the public domain now since Fitzgerald died before Sonny Bono delivered our completely insane copyright duration. 

[Chas.Alpha]

[chasy]

I’d be nervous to mention this book if it wasn’t understood to be one of the best pieces of fiction (maybe best American fiction of all time) - Lolita. And to consider Nobakov wasn’t originally fluent in English…

[rascalmonkey]

Yes, I am one of these weirdos 

[Li Bai]

5 hours ago, chasy said:

I’d be nervous to mention this book if it wasn’t understood to be one of the best pieces of fiction (maybe best American fiction of all time) - Lolita. And to consider Nobakov wasn’t originally fluent in English…

One should never be nervous sharing a book imo 👍

[gormag38]

The first thing I thought of was the book @Chas.Alpha shared; Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Such a great book and one that helped open my eyes to another way of thinking in my formative years. I bet if I pulled it off my bookshelf, I would get even more out of it now than when I read it in my 20's. Can't recommend enough. 

Another solid piece of non-fiction (albeit slightly controversial for some); The God Delusion. For us science nerds out there, Dawkins is quite good at explaining the complex simply. 

[JohnnyO]

Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar by Fernando Ortiz. Although written in 1940 it has a lot of historical information about cigars and some neat images/drawings. It can be tedious when it discusses sugar but both were money makers back in the day. It's available in paperback in Amazon, a true pre-revolution MRN. John

[Puros Y Vino]

11 minutes ago, JohnnyO said:

Cuban Counterpoint: Tobacco and Sugar by Fernando Ortiz. Although written in 1940 it has a lot of historical information about cigars and some neat images/drawings. It can be tedious when it discusses sugar but both were money makers back in the day. It's available in paperback in Amazon, a true pre-revolution MRN. John

Very interesting. You can preview most of the book from this link on Google Books

 

[VictorEremita]

13 hours ago, rascalmonkey said:

Yes, I am one of these weirdos 

Memories. I got farther in Latin than Koine Greek, but my thing lately has been early English (Old English, Middle English). So much fun! Been working through the EETS back catalogue. https://users.ox.ac.uk/~eets/

[VictorEremita]

What actually got me interested in cigars in the first place was a bildungsroman novel, The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann.

[wjs]

From Here to Eternity - James Jones. The story telling and pacing of the story against the backdrop of the run up to war was brilliant. 

[Capn_Jackson]

My well-worn copy of Jurassic Park. Far better than the movie, which is one of my favorites but does not come close to this novel. Imaginative and adventurous, sure, but the characters are so well-written and far exceed the depth of their movie counterparts. The social commentary and observational scenarios are also brilliant, and barely explored in the film. 

[RDB]

6 hours ago, VictorEremita said:

What actually got me interested in cigars in the first place was a bildungsroman novel, The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann.

I was going to reference this too. Even in the English translation (sadly I can’t read the German original) this is a monumental book. One of the very, very few I have read and then immediately re-read. Plus the cigar content is great, hilarious.

[clickbangdoh]

On 4/30/2024 at 9:19 AM, MoeFOH said:

Love this book and this series immensely. Was such a revelation as a teenager to find a book that could crack me up like this. Quintessential British humour. Douglas Adams was so great, but sadly lost to us way too early. If you've never read this or any of the series I highly recommend diving in. 

Check the price back in the day! (bottom of back cover image) 😳

 

I am surely hoping you are also familiar with Terry Pratchett's work, if not, now's the time to remedy that! Similar humor styles, though I'll admit I found Pratchett to be funnier.

[Li Bai]

Miyamoto Musashi's The Book of Five Rings. I've lost count but it must be between the 5th or tenth time I've read it! 🤔

[VictorEremita]

16 hours ago, RDB said:

I was going to reference this too. Even in the English translation (sadly I can’t read the German original) this is a monumental book. One of the very, very few I have read and then immediately re-read. Plus the cigar content is great, hilarious.

He's one of my all-time faves. Doctor Faustus and the Joseph tetralogy are tops for me.

Have you (or has anybody) read Krzhizhanovsky?

[Glass Half Full]

Well, there's always this... https://www.helios.house/books/el-habano-moderno

 

As for non-cigar content -- you know, NC's  -- just finished James McBride's Heaven & Earth Grocery Store (granted as an audio book while on a series of 20-mile bike rides).  Enjoyed it even more than the first one of his, which I also thought was a great read, Deacon King Kong.   

Are they the amongst the best books of all time?  No.  But I'm hard pressed to identify something at such a lofty level, especially off the cuff.  

That said, IMO, the 2 books speak, in fun and telling vernacular, about a variety of experiences and provide a sense of time and place.  

Some of y'all might enjoy 'em too. 

[Bri Fi]

The count of Montecristo 

I’ll second Musashi 

[RDB]

6 hours ago, VictorEremita said:

He's one of my all-time faves. Doctor Faustus and the Joseph tetralogy are tops for me.

Have you (or has anybody) read Krzhizhanovsky?

No I haven’t! Fascinating, thanks. I will look into him.

[dominattorney]

Antifragile by Nassim Taleb

The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsy

Gravity Rainbow by Pynchon

Fearful Symmetry or Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell by Zee. 

 

Excellent reads, all

[Wookie]

Gore Vidal's Empire Series-- awesome historical novels.  "Burr" in particular.

Steinbeck- Grapes of Wrath....moved me when I was a kid

Caesar's "Conquest of Gaul"

Colleen McCullough-- anything, but her historical novels are page turners-- Antony & Cleopatra etc.

So many others

 

[RDB]

14 minutes ago, Wookie said:

Gore Vidal's Empire Series-- awesome historical novels.  "Burr" in particular.

Yes yes yes. One of the great prose stylists. And a bit loopy.

[Wookie]

Forgot to add a few more I've read at least twice:

William Shirer - Rise and Fall of Third Reich

Robert Graves - I, Claudius

Patrick O'Brian - Aubrey-Maturin series (21 in all I think)...amazing..read them twice so far. Chronicals the Napoleanic ocean wars from an English Naval perspective....historical fiction at its finest.