'Keep the aspidistra flying' by Orwell for me. Recommended to those who would rather post on FISO than actually do some work in their day job. Fits into the FISO demographic well 'cos its all about a bloke who has to decide between being poor and pursuing his passion or settle down and and the whole wife and kids thing. Like Nick Hornby for the 1930s .

It also makes some great points about wealth, class, advertising etc

Just slightly off topic with this one but I am halfway through a book that was recommended to me by someone on the Forum and I just can't figure it out.

It's called The Road, by Cormac McCarthy and it won the Pullitzer Prize for fiction. It centres around a father and son wandering aimlessly across America. Everything has been destroyed and few people have been left alive, but what caused it ? (I'm assuming it was a Nuclear Holocaust, but I may be wrong). I gave up half way through because I couldn't see the point of their epic journey, so if anyone can enlighten me I would be very grateful.

Yep, the Bible sure is a riveting read...

Other than that though, a few I'd recommend are:

Fiction
Catch 22
1984

Children's
Winnie the Pooh / House at Pooh Corner

Non-fiction
The Selfish Gene

The old ones are usually the best. If you want to read a great story that would bring a grown man to tears then it's A.J. Cronin's Hatters Castle. Truly genius.

I guess the Road is a bit Marmite. If you don't like it at the half way stage then probably worth picking something else up tbh. You're probably not going to find the resolution or story ending that you're looking for. There's no 'point' to the journey, other than the fact that there's no option. Moving onwards towards probable death is preferable to staying and facing certain death. There is at least some hope in what may lie on the coast, if not for the father then perhaps in giving the boy some hope, albeit in a world with no hope. It's a horror story really - a fable, a warning, an allegory. I wouldn't hold out for a happy ending Have you tried No Country for Old Men, by the same author though? One of the best books I've read in the last few years and there is more of a story to it than the Road, although admittedly it's still pretty bleak

I've read it recently and there isn't much point to it. Also very hard to follow the dialogue because McCarthy is being intentionally awkward with his style (or so it seems). Also so many things wrong with it (with life so hard and they are seemingly about to die with every corner turned then how come they survived so many years?? Why is he only know heading south to somewhere warmer??)

You haven't missed anything by not reading to the end as the end is also poor and a bit of a cop out (IMO). Strangely compelling but definitely over-rated.

I think any conversation about personal favourites can go this way, be it films, art, women (!) etc. I didn't list any of my less "high brow" likes as they're hardly genre defining (Da Vinci Code, any of the Pulman trilogy etc.) It's not that I don't rate them or am scared to appear dumb but this thread is more about recommending one, seminal book if you could only choose one.

All the Pretty Horses is good ..................... but you can only have one

It should probably the first one you consider

Something by Jonners .. "It's been a lot of fun" perhaps. If I could have a compendium it would be Dickens .. can't pick a favourite out of those masterpieces.

An unnecessarily defensive post - as Shakespeare would have put it, "Methinks he doth protest too much" . People are choosing the one book that stands out for them, so it follows that that one book is likely to have outstanding qualities that a run-of the-mill book, although it may be highly entertaining, doesn't have. You say you're not a literary snob but in a way you are: you seem prejudiced against what you think are "highbrow" books. refusing to believe that other readers can genuinely like them simply because you don't, and dismissing such readers as pretentious. This is a form of reverse snobbery - turning your nose up at people who aren't into what you're into.

Not really the point I was trying to make. However a well thought out, reasoned post nonetheless. Like I said I've read a lot of these books & either they are not at my level or I'm not at theirs To be honest, I was hoping to see something different, something I'd go out and read. I was also trying to encourage people to post a book that is a personal favourite, whether it is 'typical' of the books you'll find on discussions like this or not. My impression is some people post purely to 'fit in', maybe I'm wrong.

There was also a rather large hint at irony in my final comment, so maybe you're right after all

I specifically chose a book which was accessible for all and could be enjoyed on all sorts of different levels (it's a collection of short (ie 2 pages) stories about what happens when you die.

I suppose it's worth asking how you recommend any book that isn't a typical 'thriller/detective/sci-fi/war/etc.' book without it sounding pretentious?

Maus and for those who want a book with a little less words, Where's Wally is always a fun read.

Missed that post to be honest, but I'll look out for it (the book you suggested).

Not really sure where I was going with my post earlier, suppose I was looking for something new & seeing the same old, same old. I wander what is out now/last 10 years which will be considered 'Classic Literature' for future generations ?

I would have to choose The Lord Of The Rings if only because I wish that I could once again read it for the first time.

Wonderful experience the first time around although the chances these days of not knowing what the plot is is remote.

As the Grand Prix season starts this weekend I'll be wanting you all to read and appreciate the greatest work of non-fiction ever. The biography of Gilles Villeneuve which really captures his passion and flair. He was my hero as a kid, a true driver from the last great years of F1 before the dull automatons took over.

(Donaldson's autobiography of James Hunt, another hero, is almost as good)



http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gilles-Villeneu ... 728&sr=8-3

That's what I said! You just made it sound better.

After a little thought I'm going to suggest:

As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee.

I read it as a teenager and it was the catalyst for the wanderlust I felt after leaving school. It's a fairly simple account of a young man leaving England to walk around Spain in the years before the Spanish Civil war.

Loved that book

yeah, that is a good one, inspired lots of people I think.

Are you saying Senna was an automaton Murf

Looks good, that's going on my long list.

I almost put a Senna caveat in there! Don't forget that Senna's non-automatonness was amplified by contrast to those around him People thought Mansell was interesting FFS!

Seconded. If you want a gentler introduction to various F1 drivers over the years, try to get hold of Nigel Roebuck's excellent "Grand Prix Greats". Now about twenty years old but great insights into mavericks like Villeneuve and Peterson, eccentrics like Depailler and Jena Behra, the perennially unlucky Chris Amon, 50's legends Ascari and Fangio plus pre-war drivers like Bernd Rosemeyer and Achille Varzi.

The James Hunt book is a total eye opener . Believe me, there really are some stories in that. Also well worth buying.

For those of a certain age and into Star Trek, not just one book but all of William Shatner's made enjoyable reading and tied a lot of loose end stories together. Watched a great DVD last night, Whoopie Goldberg interviewing Shatner, Nimoy, Stewart and Frakes, great laugh, should have been longer.

Sports books are a bit tricky as they are often of little interest to anyone that doesn't follow the sport. I doubt I'd find the F1 books that interesting as I don't find the sport interesting. Equally, whilst I would love to think that people could understand cycling a little better by reading something like 'The Death of Marco Pantani' or 'The Rider' (which is IMO by far the greatest fictional sports book ever written) I'm not sure that they would appeal to many.

One 'sport' book that I think transcends that issue is 'Touching the Void' by Joe Simpson. I don't think that you need any particular interest in climbing to be gripped by what is essentially a great adventure story. If it was fiction you'd probably criticise it for being too far fetched.

So - fiction - All quiet on the western front
non-fiction - Touching the void

Fair enough, pax!

So which is my one book? I'll avoid the obvious - John Irving, Scott Fitzgerald, JP Salinger, George Orwell, Cormac McCarthy, Ian McEwan - because I'm sure you know about them already and if you haven't read them yet, you probably never will. But I'm tempted to throw in Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn, because although everyone's heard of it, hardly anyone's read it, and it's a minor masterpiece. And if there's anyone out there who hasn't yet read The Magus, an epic of sex, war and magic by John Fowles, or Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow, the Arctic thriller by Peter Høeg (which makes Stieg "Dragon Tattoo" Larsson look like a schoolboy on a writing course) then you really must.

But for my one book I'm going to choose Holes, by Louis Sachar. This is partly because it's unlike any other book I've read, both in its plot and style of writing. It's a short novel and very easy to read, while nevertheless giving the reader plenty to think about. And if you like it, you can go on to read There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom, by the same author. As you might guess, it's ostensibly a children's book, about a boy who's bullied at a new school, but it's so beautifully written, and contains such depths of wisdom and compassion, that it moved me more than any other book I've ever read.