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What book should everyone read?

V

Violanthe

New Member
Is there a book you enjoyed so much that you feel anyone would enjoy it? How about a book that is relevant and thought-provoking, that gives readers a different and important perspective? Maybe a book that is a great introduction to your favorite genre? A book that would draw people in to reading, or into reading something outside their usual experience?
 
My gut reaction is that Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury should be read by (1) everyone who's ever read (at least) one book, (2) everyone who's never read a book, and (3) everyone else.

Not saying thereby it's The Best Book Ever. I might come back to this thread... :rolleyes:

*mrkgnao*
 
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood is one of my favourites that I'm sure most would enjoy:

From Powells.com:
The narrator of Atwood's riveting novel calls himself Snowman. When the story opens, he is sleeping in a tree, wearing an old bedsheet, mourning the loss of his beloved Oryx and his best friend Crake, and slowly starving to death. He searches for supplies in a wasteland where insects proliferate and pigoons and wolvogs ravage the pleeblands, where ordinary people once lived, and the Compounds that sheltered the extraordinary. As he tries to piece together what has taken place, the narrative shifts to decades earlier. How did everything fall apart so quickly? Why is he left with nothing but his haunting memories? Alone except for the green-eyed Children of Crake, who think of him as a kind of monster, he explores the answers to these questions in the double journey he takes - into his own past, and back to Crake's high-tech bubble-dome, where the Paradice Project unfolded and the world came to grief.
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mrkgnao said:
My gut reaction is that Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury should be read by (1) everyone who's ever read (at least) one book, (2) everyone who's never read a book, and (3) everyone else.
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I gave up on Fahrenheit 451 halfway through, actually, because I just found it so boring. I never could understand the hype over this novel - maybe I should give it another try one day.
 
mrkgnao said:
My gut reaction is that Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury should be read by (1) everyone who's ever read (at least) one book, (2) everyone who's never read a book, and (3) everyone else.

Not saying thereby it's The Best Book Ever. I might come back to this thread... :rolleyes:

*mrkgnao*
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I was going to reccommend that before I even saw your reply. I completely agree, 100%. That book changed my life and made me realize I would give everything else up--my freedom, my car, whatever I find valuable--if I only was able to read.

And besides the philosophical value, it's a really cool book. I just love dystopia, and Bradbury is completely amazing. If I could do what he can with words...well, I wouldn't be sitting here wishing I could, for one thing.
 
The book that really changed my reading experience had to be when I read "East of Eden" a few years back. I don't know what it was about the book, but it made me really appreicate really good books that have a certain sort of complexity to them. But I guess the first book that changed everything would have to be "Alias Grace".
 
I am going to go with The Good Earth because I thought that it was a wonderful story about endurance. I even entertained the idea of not finishing it because I didn't want the story to end. I wasn't sure whether I'd like it or not because literature about China was something I never really indulged in. It was also an odd moment of actually wanting to buy the book before having read it since I normally got material at the library.
 
I have Atwood on my TBR list. I'd only heard of her once or twice before I came here. Each of my friends who read Fahrenheit 451 have come back and told me they adored it.
 
Well, not because it was literary genius or anything, but Alexander Dolgun, An American in the Gulag. It is a true story - autobiographical I believe (with writer assistance). It makes you appreciate your freedom on so many levels and take stock of your own life and whatever you may whine about. It brings the idea of suffering to a whole other level. If I start to feel sorry for myself, all I have to do is even read a bit of it to think - "okay, not so bad. shut up and stop whining already!"

I know there are many other books out there that speak on similar topics and at a similar level, but this is just one I have read and appreciated.

Also, really does a great job of just showing how much of a megalomaniacal paranoid freak Stalin was (I actually did a speech after reading this on how and why Stalin had paranoid personality disorder - actually Hitler, too).

Another one I think everyone should read (and not to be preachy - as you could read it as just plain good fiction and not put the religious significance in it) is Screwtape Letters. They were actually published in major newspapers before being put in a book.
 
Mattyj said:
I just started The Corrections last night. :)
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An absolute scream. The sone who teaches at the college and the tongue chair......:eek: Just wait until........I'll let you read it first.:D
 
SFG75 said:
An absolute scream. The sone who teaches at the college and the tongue chair......:eek: Just wait until........I'll let you read it first.:D
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I can not put this book down!!! I am seriously lacking sleep today because of it. :p
 
Mattyj said:
I can not put this book down!!! I am seriously lacking sleep today because of it. :p
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I read it a few years back, I remember doing so to this day and just loving it. I finished it in two or three days, a very pleasurable read.
 
SFG75 said:
An absolute scream. The sone who teaches at the college and the tongue chair......:eek: Just wait until........I'll let you read it first.:D
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I'm sorry... did you say tongue chair?
 
Lolita!!!!! And Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. That book changed my life.

Also, in non-fiction: Harvest for Hope by Jane Goodall. Yes, the chimpanzee lady. It's AMAZING.
 
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