Yes, the Rama space ship represents this world and people are monitored, and finally divided into good and bad guys; good guys go to heaven and bad guys get sterilized and imprizoned. The aliens who made the Rama spaceship plays the god. Yuk! 
Hmm… what non-classical stuff do I read…
I have to agree that Douglas Adams is brilliant: I love Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (the 5-part trilogy!:lol:), but my favourite by him is probably The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. Gotta love that Electric Monk…
The Chicks in Chainmail series (edited by Esther Friesner) are a good laugh at the fantasy genre - especially the portrayal of women therein.
I used to be a fan of Marion Zimmer Bradley, but now I feel that the feminist tone in her writing is overdone. I still like her perspective on the Arthurian legends in The Mists of Avalon, though.
The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester: Murder, Madness, and the Oxford English Dictionary! (For some reason, in the US it’s published under the title The Professor and the Madman.)
Art, the play by Yasmina Reza… if you can see the show, even better!
Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. I think it’s the only book I ever read in French. 
But this is all stuff I’ve read ages ago… I’m really not much for reading fiction these days, being more enclined towards poetry, essays (I would heartily recommend the anthology entitled The Art of the Personal Essay), and books which are hard to classify except to say vaguely that they are ‘philosophical’ (such as Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter).
:sighs in ecstasy: Books I love and books I hate-my favorite topic!!
One that falls into both categories for me was A Tale of Two Cities. It was gory and cliched and beautiful and fresh and uplifting and depressing. I put off reading it for about ten years, then read it. I suspect I’ll wait another ten years before reading it again, but then I do think I’ll read it again.
Dickens books that I liked include Oliver Twist and David Copperfield; I was neutral about Nicholas Nickleby (a bit boring, actually, I thought) and I disliked Great Expectations, although there were some good parts. It seems as though I’ve read more of his books, but the titles are slipping my mind right now…
I would second the Jane Austen recommendation, with my favorite (s) being Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park and Northanger Abby, not necessarily in that order ( 
).
William Shakespeare, regardless of whom you believe wrote the plays (I recently read Bacon’s Essays Civil and Moral. I do not believe for a moment that Bacon wrote the Shakespeare plays.) Taming of the Shrew and Much Ado About Nothing were my personal favorites, although Twelfth Night was pretty good, and I liked parts of Hamlet and Macbeth. I never could get into King Lear or Midsummer Night’s Dream, and I’m only familiar with part of…either Henry the Fifth or Henry the Fourth; whichever one has the St. Crispin’s Day speech. (I can never keep those two clear.) But I like what I know of it, and I’m reading through the rest of it at the moment.
Gosh. This list could go on for a while…
The Wind in the Willows. It’s supposed to be for children, but I read it about a year ago, at C.S. Lewis’s suggestion, and loved it.
My Friend Flicka. I don’t even really like this book, but I relate to Ken, the main character. I borrow it from the library and read it once a year, and every time I wind up in tears at the end.
A Wrinkle in Time. I have a perverse fascination for books that confuse me, especially when read for the first time at midnight. 
Lewis’s Space Trilogy, already mentioned. (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra [although I disliked that one], That Hideous Strength.) The Chronicles of Narnia. (My first books; I still love them today!) Mere Christianity (nonfiction/apologetics). On Stories and Other Essays on Literature. Miracles. The Screwtape Letters. Anything and everything I’ve ever read by Lewis.
Taliesin and Merlin, by Stephen Lawhead. I didn’t like Arthur or Pendragon much, but I loved the way Celtic myth and the legend of Atlantis were tied together in Taliesin.
The Empyrean Saga (The Search for Fierra and The Siege of Dome), also by Stephen Lawhead. I absolutely loved these for their dry, witty jabs.
Jane Eyre, by one of the Bronte sisters. (Either Charlotte or Emily; I can never keep them apart.) I understand that this book is considered too “moral” for most modern audiences, but I love it dearly nonetheless.
Wuthering Heights, for a book I hated. This one was written by the other Bronte sister (either Charlotte or Emily; I never have any trouble keeping Anne apart because I’ve never read her book.) I thought this one was gruesome and depressing.
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, for two more books I disliked. I’m a fan of nonsense work, as long as it stays within my own vague, indefinable limits. These two not only stepped over the border, they were on another continent!
Cheaper by the Dozen. Lovable, funny, delightful. I really enjoyed this book.
Treve, White Ruff, The Faith of a Collie, The Further Adventures of Lad. These are all some of my early favorites, and they’re especially good if you like dogs. (Collies in particular.)
Thomasina. Now there was an interesting book…I was probably too young to understand it fully when I first read it (seven? eight?), which lent it the air of mystery that it had back then, but even now that the mystery is gone, I still love the story.
Where the Red Fern Grows. This is one of those books where I would say, unconditionally and in the same breath, that it’s an excellent book and I hated it.
In This House of Brede. Wow. That’s a book that made me wish I was Catholic…I couldn’t say whether I loved the ending or hated it.
Five Children and It. One of C.S. Lewis’s favorites, and now one of mine, too. It’s a children’s book, but I read it and loved it.
And, I think this post is long enough for now. There are more, and plenty of them, but that would take the rest of the day to list.
Still, this is a start. Happy Reading!
Arrrgh, how could I have forgotten Alice?!?!
(Sorry Keesa, but I liked them )
If you read them closely, they’re actually quite sinister. Like that whole thing in Through the Looking Glass about Alice being in the dream of someone other than herself, and worrying what would happen to her if she were to wake the dreamer - quite a scary thought!
Some even argue that Alice’s ‘visits’ to Wonderland are schizophrenic hallucinations on her part. The video game designer American McGee played on this idea in his game Alice, where you play Alice several years later, returning to Wonderland following a traumatic event - but it’s a twisted version of Wonderland where just about everything is out to get her. (Lovely surrealism - girl in frilly frock wielding big bloody knife. For more info: http://www.alice.ea.com)
Yes, the full title in North America is The Professor and the Madman: a tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the Oxford English Dictionary. I loved that one too but it’s not fiction! 
Reading Keesa’s I remembered the book that I hate - The Scarlet Letter. I had to read it in college and couldn’t stand the writing style and thought the story was stupid. A friend said that the style is similar to Jane Austen, so I have avoided Austen ever since!
ack - I knew that! 
I haven’t read it, but my father totally adores Hawthorne and is always trying to get me to read more of his stuff. Some of his short stories have interesting thoughts behind them, but for the most part, he’s far from my favourite writer.
I didn’t know anyone else had even heard of Robertson Davies! One of my favourites! Actually, one of my least favourite books is Wilkie Collins “The Moonstone”, a most boring, boring book. It could have been gripping but he drivels on and on. There is a great deal of very trashy romance and “thriller” stuff which is ghastly, but I don’t usually get past the first page in the library or book shop before I discard those.
Another favourite is a book called “The Pope’s Rhinocerous” except that at 8 in the morning I can’t think of the author’s name - it will come to me after the first cup of coffee. But his other books are not so good.
Umberto Eco was the same - “Name of the Rose” was great but later novels didn’t really grab me.
I’ve never read The Scarlett Letter, but I did like the Tanglewood Tales…
I struggled through The Scarlet Letter but I think Hawthorne must be up there with Thomas Hardy as classic authors I just don’t get.
I cannot see the resemblance between The Scarlet Letter and Jane Austen at all. So, you’re quite safe, Klewlis. Run, do not walk, to your nearest bookshop or library and start reading. I suggest either Pride and Prejudice or Emma to start with.
lol. well I’m on non-fiction at the moment… rereading Chesterton’s “Orthodoxy” (is there anyone cooler than Chesterton???). After that I’m rereading Hardy’s “Mayor of Casterbridge”. How can you not “get” Hardy? Well, I just love the tragedy and his use of the language.
We had to read some Hardy at school. All I really remember is endless descriptions of the countryside, with me muttering under my breath, “Oh do get on with it.”
well, maybe it’s time to give him another chance! My tastes changed quite a bit as I grew up… I hated Hemingway in highschool and now I love him, because I understand stuff better now.
And maybe because now you don’t have to write reports on his works?
Some texts are completely ruined in the classroom!
Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Saint-Exupery’s Le Petit Prince come to mind… no wonder George Bernard Shaw called down his curse on those who would make schoolbooks of his plays -
My plays were not designed as instruments of torture.
Havig said that, some books can become all the more enjoyable when you study them and come to understand them in more detail… I don’t think I’d have enjoyed Sense and Sensibility otherwise.
Only C.S. Lewis!
After that I’m rereading Hardy’s “Mayor of Casterbridge”. How can you not “get” Hardy? Well, I just love the tragedy and his use of the language. >
There’s no “how” to it; either you get it, or you don’t. I don’t, with the exception of one of his poems…Neutral Shades? Neutral Colors? Just Neutral? Something like that, anyway…he’s got a line in there (it’s been years since I read it; our library doesn’t have the book of his poems I found it in), something about “Your smile, the deadest thing alive enough to have the strength to die…”, which just gives me goosebumps.
Oh, another book I hated; the Stonewycke Trilogy, by Michael Phillips and Judith Patella. Usually I like Michael Phillips, but I didn’t like this one. Icky books…
George MacDonald is a good author, if you don’t mind fiction with a decided religious slant. (Actually, I could say that about several of my choices.) My favorites were The Landlady’s Master (The Elect Lady) and The Maiden’s Bequest (Alec Forbes of Howglen). (His books have been reedited and republished under different names; the ones in parenthesis are the original. The others are the ones I have.) I also liked The Peasant Girl’s Dream (Heather and Snow) and A Daughter’s Devotion (Mary Marston). Additionally, I liked the first book of his Quiet Neighborhood series, “A Quiet Neighborhood”, and Lillith, neither of which (I believe) were reedited, and both of which retain their original names. The others of his (that I have) are good, but not super.
well, Lewis considered Chesterton his mentor. I like Lewis–he has some really great ideas–but he doesn’t have nearly the style or originality of Chesterton. Of course, it’s all personal opinion.
I agree with previous posters who said that the Lord of the Rings wasn’t a cliche when it came out; it’s only through (invariably self conscious) imitation that it has become so. It was wonderful when it was new and it still is. It shouldn’t be damned by the cliched company in which it now finds itself.
Several posters have mentioned Douglas Adams’ books, so could I make this suggestion: Terry Pratchett’ s Discworld series of novels? He also writes children’s stories, but his Discworld books are brilliant - they’re sort of a cross between Shakespeare and Tolkein meets Douglas Adams miscegenationiseated with Monty Python in a torrid affair with Stephen Hawking looking fetchingly over the shoulder towards HG Wells on the rebound from Frank Herbert with Spike Milligan’s father (mother?) chasing ferociously with a shotgun.
Like many of these writers, he too, has created an imaginary world. It’s a bit like the earth only it’s flat and disk shaped, and he takes that to various illogical conclusions, invariably on the back of something vaguely suggestive of a Shakespearean plot or a currently fashionable bit of popular culture. And they’re funny. Although I find other humorous books funny, they rarely make me laugh out aloud (even though I may be chortling away inside), but Pratchett’s books cannot be read in public places, especially on aeroplanes, or in bed with your wife (now there’s a sentence that required a bit more thought before being committed to electrons), because of the disturbing effect that such vigorous and uncontrolled laughing out aloud has on the world around you.
On top of that, and increasingly so as the series has progressed, he manages to reach in and give the old grey matter a healthy tweak too.
But mainly I like him because he’s just plain bloody silly.
AC Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories and almost anyone’s whodunnit, but especially Ian Rankin’s Edinburgh cop Rebus, are always good reading, Janet Evanovich is someone else who can provoke out aloud laughing, the Earth’s Children series by Jean M Auel (although they’ve recently been getting a bit along the lines of it’s the same story only told in a slightly different way in a new location-ish) and for an interesting and invariably insightful view of the world, the various collections of essays by the sadly late Stephen Jay Gould, and along the same breadth of compass lines, John Ralston Saul’s writings.
There’s probably a bunch of other people who should be mentioned here, but these are who I can think of at the moment.
I’ve never heard of Robertson Davies, I will have to check him out. Which is your favorite? Would you recommend the Deptford Trilogy, the Cornish Trilogy or the Salterton Trilogy first?
I haven’t read Lord of the Rings Yet (can you believe?), but have it on 9 CDs which I am planning to listen to one of these days.
I read Ender’s Game when a coworker recommended it, it’s quite an amusing quick/easy read. I haven’t touched any of the sequels, are they worth checking out?
If you want something humorous, check out Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash. It’s one of my faves. I also have it in French, but some of those scifi neologisms translate funny.
A non-scifi book which has wonderful olfactory descriptions is Patrick Suskind’s Perfume. It’s about a murderer who has no olfactory senses. Read it in the original German!
Not in my opinion.
Have you read Diamond Age? I think it is better than Snow Crash (although Stephenson still hasn’t learned how to end a novel).