Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Off Topic to all you readers

This is not a yes-or-no question, so I can't post a poll on it. My question is, what are you favourite books? My three top choices are Jane Eyre, The Sight, and Anne of Green Gables.

I had an arguement with my friend yesterday, about literature and fanfic and how I shouldn't waste time reading it. She says that books like The Three Musketeers and Gone with the Wind are much deeper then the stories I read here. My response was that she never read more than maybe 5 short vignettes on the archive so she can't say that, and that some stories really do have depth to them. Just because the characters are borrowed doesn't mean the story in itself can't be good and deal with important issues. And, well, she isn't the type to be easily convinced, given also that she cannot bear to hear anything about Superman anymore because of my talking about it all the time (hehe <g>), so it didn't go well (And she keeps telling me that someday she'll get someone who knows computers really well to hack into the archive and mess it up :rolleyes: ).

Julie

Err, if it's not a poll, maybe it should go in Off-Topic?

As for your friend threats are not a particularly useful rhetorical tool. And if anything were to happen to the archive, I guess we'd have a prime suspect.

She wants "deep"? There are many such stories. A shortish one is Ad Astra Per Aspera. And I'm sorry, did she call Gone With the Wind deep? I enjoyed it greatly, but it's really NOT "great literature."

And that's really the POINT. Who ever said all literature must be "classic" or deep? Sheesh! How incredibly tedious -- and I say that as someone who LOVES many of the "classics."

I would disregard that threat as serious, but I guess we would have s prime suspect of that were to happen.

As for the rest: THANK YOU!!! Now if only I could get that into HER brain, its would be perfect.

I find most of the stories I read equally as good as the books I mentioned above, and anyway, its a matter of taste.

Julie

Interesting thread, Julie. As it's by way of a discussion though and there's no actual poll, I'm moving it into OT.

LabRat

I confess that I find 'the classics' a huge yawn. Maybe because I was forced to read them in school, but I don't remember ever being assigned a book that I didn't find painful to work through.

Now, for me the Anne of Green Gables series was huge. Found it when I was a kid and have read and reread it for years. In fact, my middle daughter is named Anne- with an "e".

I also love the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series. So fun and so smart.

Ummm...I know you just asked for three, Julie, and I'm giving you series....

The Shell Seekers. Third and final.

I could go on and on...but how boring would that be?

I'd love to hear everyone elses.

CC

Wow, this is a really tough question. While I try to decide on just three favorites, I'll address the whole fanfic-as-non-literature view.

I view fanfic as very much the same as any modern fiction. I don't read it to gain any deep insight, but I find it highly entertaining and a good chance to escape for a time into a world much more exciting than the real world. Kind of like a TV program (or in some instances a movie) in words <g>. And since I already have a vested interest in the characters, the poignancy in a lot of fanfics moves me even more than a story about brand new people I will never hear about again. I care about what happens to these people, so seeing them placed into new situations is very emotional.

The problem is is that there is so much bad fanfic out there. I've read stuff that positively makes me cringe, and I think that it is stuff like that that gives fanfic a bad image. If someone who doesn't know better gets a hold of some really sloppy stuff rife with spelling errors, poor grammar, and just plain bad writing, they may think that all fanfic is like that.

But after finding sites such as this with a whole passel of really great writers, I would challenge any anti-fanfic person to read some of the Kerth winners as well as many other stories and claim that the quality isn't on par with some of the stuff that gets published and is for sale on bookstore shelves across the country. Like any literature - there is good stuff and bad stuff.

The problem for me is that there are so many things out there to read. I often feel like the man in that Twighlight episode who is overjoyed when the entire population of the world is wiped out, leaving him alone to read to his heart's content. Of course, as he's walking down the step of his library with his arms laden with books, his eyeglasses break. So that's a good lesson right there.

OK, back to my three favorites. Since I can't narrow it down to three, I'll pick three from various categories:

Favorite "classic" - Lord of the Rings trilogy

Favorite children's series - Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder tied with Harry Potter books

Favorite Current Fiction - might have to say The Red Tent, but this is constantly changing.

Sorry I've waxed on and on. Get me started and watch out <g>!
Lynn

LOL, I didn't limit you to 3 choices. Just because I listed three doesnt mean that.

And I too sometimes really frown when I come upon and very badly written fanfic. Fortunately most things are pretty enjoyable.

Julie

I read A LOT. Practically everything in sight. Literature, comics, advertisement leaflets...

I'm terrible at choosing (anything, not just favorite books) so I have a hard time choosing my favorite books. I'll just go with what comes in mind:

- Jules Verne's books.

- Enid Blyton's books.

- 'Jane Eyre'.

- Some books by various Greek writers.

- 'Terminale! Tout le monde descende' by Susie and Aliyah Morgenstern.

- 'Harry Potter'.

And another I LOVE is written by a French writer named Georges One or something like that, and its title must be something like 'The Chief Blacksmith'.

Not to mention, all of the above read in Greek (except for 'Jane Eyre'... in English, three years ago! I was really surprised when I finished it and saw I had actually realized what was going on without even having to use a dictionary).

Interesting question!
See ya,
AnnaBtG.

P.S.: Fanfic rules.

I read quite a bit too, but being a literature major, I suppose that's expected. I'd have to say my favorite book of all time is Matilda by Roald Dahl. I'm also a fan of the Avalon series by Marion Zimmer Bradley.

And, you know, occasionally I come across something extremely enjoyable in one of my lit classes (most of them are boring and the papers have to be written catering to the prof's own opinion). This semester in my Gender & Literature class we read Kindred by Octavia Butler. I would recomend that novel to you semi-historical sci-fi fans out there. (It's the only book for that class I've read all the way through. Good stuff.) Anyway, that's my three cents.

Samik (who really needs to get back to reading for Shakespeare, but is not motivated)

I have to do Macbeth this year. Twice! In Drama and in English. The only difference is that for Drama I actually had to MEMORIZE part of it.

I read LOTS AND LOTS of stuff by Israeli writers, and I read lots of literatrure like Oliver Twist, Tom Sawyer, Les Miserables, Jane Eyre, and Anne of Green Gables in Hebrew. I only really started reading in English after I came to Canada (which was May 2001).

My favourite book out of the ones I actually read in English is The Sight (By David Clement-Davies, IIRC), and I really recommend it to everyone. It leaves a great impact on you- especially those of you who love animals (like me). Sorry for raving

Julie

I'm a Read-a-Holic, so it is hard to choose my all-time favorite book. Here's a small sampling:

*A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
*Cat's Cradle; Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
*The Kitchen God's Wife - Amy Tan
*The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran
*The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster
*Harry Potter series - J.K. Rowling
*"Irene Kelly" mysteries - Jan Burke
*Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
*Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur S. Golden
*Biographies in general, but especially those about Marilyn Monroe
*1984; Animal Farm - George Orwell

I also like to read plays, short story collections, and poetry. AND, of course, L&C FANFIC!!!
-Wanda "Reading is fun! " Detroit

Hmm let's see. I love to read, but these days I constantly have my head buried in school books, so it's like, "What I have to pick up one more book?!" :p That being said, I would say that my 3 favorite books of all-time are: The Hobbit by Tolkien, The Client by Grisham, and...um...oh I'll pick the 1 classic I actually enjoyed, To Kil A Mockingbird.

JD

Add that to the list of literature I read in my native language.

Julie (has been lurking on this thread for too long now and needs to go sleepy sleepy)

Oh dear. I have the same problem with school books.
Lately all I have been reading is FanFic and do I love it so!
My favourite books are...I think:
The Island
Books done by or had help by the Froud family
Magician (writer's preferred edition)
Robert Jordan's Eye of the World
Couple Dragon Lance books
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
(sorry if my sp. is X; it has been a while)
A Brave New World
The Odyssey
A book on Cree tales
The Bluest Eye
The story of Anne Frank
Books by David Suzuki
Too many, Sorree! I love books/novels that deal with weather, astronomy, history, waffy stuff, paranormal, human issues and fantasy.

Well, if I had to spend time on a desert island and could only bring three books with me (sorry, couldn't narrow it down to one ), I'd take:

- La Princesse de Cleve, by Madame de Lafayette. French classic, but one that changed my view of literature when the 10th grade literature teacher asked us to read it. I remember reading it in secret, under the quilt, with a flashlight, after my mother had claimed it was waaaay past my bedtime. Ansgty introspection at its best.

- Racing the Moon, by Terry Prone. Hilarious, insightful and poignant in turns. It was impossible to put it down. Mundane things like lunch were completely forgotten while reading it.

- The Secret Pearl, by Mary Balogh: the most heartwrenching romance novel I've ever read; I cried buckets over it, and started reading it again as soon as I reached the last page.

Kaethel