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Gary
climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Oct 12, 2005 - 09:49am PT
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Jy, yes "The Iron Heel" is a great book.
And why has nobody mentioned Nelson Algren? "The Man with the Golden Arm" is as gritty as gritty gets.
Thomas Berger is the finest American writer of the 20th Century. Oh, crap... "The Sun Also Rises"... "Steppenwolf", all I read in high school was Hesse. Why didn't I commit suicide then????
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Gary
climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
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Oct 12, 2005 - 10:20am PT
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Somebody get me away from this thread...
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest...I was doing a four way hit of Mr. Natural blotter when I read this. I WAS the Chief! I've never been more disappointed in a movie.
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James
Social climber
My Subconcious
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Oct 12, 2005 - 10:23am PT
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Maculated
I bet it is from living in San Luis Obispo. Steinbeck is able to create very realistic settings and they are easier to relate to if you have lived there. I recommend reading Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey if you are ever in the Moab region.
James
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Buzzardboy
Trad climber
Lancaster, PA
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Oct 12, 2005 - 10:47am PT
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Last:
Life Of Pi
Leading At The Edge(Leadership Lessons From Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition)
Changing Lenses
Best:
World According To Garp
To Kill A Mokingbird
Moby Dick
Climbing:
Camp 4
American Rock (Ed Palen)
A Fine Kind Of Madness (Guy Waterman)
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BASE104
climber
An Oil Field
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Oct 12, 2005 - 11:01am PT
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Last three:
Art of War (for about the tenth time)
My War Gone By, I Miss It So (wicked)
A Season in Hell (A Poem)
Best Three:
Old Man and the Sea
Seven Pillars of Wisdom
On the Road, or maybe, Desolation Angels
Poem: The Hollow Men
Climbing:
The White Spider
Camp 4
Dunno on a third
Other good stuff:
Virginia Wolfe: To the Lighthouse
Hemingway: The Green Hills of Africa (his two nonfiction books are way good. The other is Death in the Afternoon, about bullfighting)
Heller: Catch 22
Heart of Darkness (Conrad)
Arctic Dreams (Barry Lopez)
Annals of the Former World (John McPhee)
Lawrence Durrell is very good.
How to Talk Dirty and Influence People (Lenny Bruce)
Howl (Ginsberg)
We are heavily influenced by English speaking writers. There is a lot of foreign stuff just as good.
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Zander
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Oct 12, 2005 - 11:09am PT
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Last three
Dinner At The Homsick Restaurant- Ann Tyler
The Wreck of The Whaleship Essex- Chase
The Tempest-Shakespeare
Best three-first three that come to mind
Angle of Repose-Stegner
Anna Karenina-Tolstoy
Of Human Bondage- Maughm
Best Climbing
Mountains of My Life-Bonnati
Eiger Dreams-Krackauer
Advanced Rock Climbing- Long & Leubben
As PTPP pointed out I can't spell
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yo
climber
NOT Fresno
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Oct 12, 2005 - 11:09am PT
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Devil Wears Prada...whaaaat? Gary, you should probably stay on ST instead of buying any more books!
Last:
Fast Food Nation, Scholler
Motherless Brookylyn, Jonathan Lethem
Iceland's Bell, Halldor Laxness
Best:
Atonement, Ian McEwan
LaBrava, Elmore Leonard
Bel Canto, Ann Patchett
Climbing:
Solo Faces, Salter (sorry Mac and Danny D. but Salter's better)
Touching the Void, Simpson
No Picnic on Mount Kenya, some Italian dude
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BASE104
climber
An Oil Field
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Oct 12, 2005 - 11:19am PT
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Zander,
Yep Wallace Stegner is very good. I read it all in the bowels of the library in a marathon session.
Best writer as far as skill that I have read is hands down Lawrence Durrell
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roslyn
Trad climber
washington
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Oct 12, 2005 - 11:35am PT
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last three read:
shantaram gregory david roberts
the woman who walked through doors roddy doyle
villa incognito tom robbins
best 3 read
geek love
bleak house dickens
jitterbug perfume robbins
climbing books
don't really indulge save for a few john long compilations
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taco bill
Trad climber
boulder, co
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Oct 12, 2005 - 11:40am PT
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Jeez-- No Ed Abbey
Last 3:
Turn of the Screw Henry James
Harrington on Holdem Dan Harrington
House of Leaves (in progress) Mark Danielewski
Best:
Hard to say, ones that struck me at the time were
Catch-22 Joseph Heller
The Fool's Progress: An Honest Novel Edward Abbey
American Pastoral Philip Roth
Climbing:
Camp 4
Take your pick from the Largo library
The Climber's Bible (a totally obscure, out of date book I got in my teens that was my intro to climbing
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JMC
Trad climber
So Cal
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Oct 12, 2005 - 11:50am PT
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Last 3:
Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, Wallace Stegner
Lying Awake, Mark Salzman
Cracking the GRE, Princeton Review
Best 3 (an ever-revolving/evolving list):
Musashi, Eiji Yoshikawa. Go to the library, or abebooks.com and get a copy now.
Papillon, Henri Charriere. Yep, the movie is light. Incredible story. His follow-up, "Banco", is a lesser effort, but shows you more of his true character - the guy was a criminal.
Ordeal By Hunger, George Stewart. Story of the Donner Party - man, they had a horrific journey.
Wait,wait wait! Scratch Papillion, replace with Monkey Wrench Gang.
Best 3 Climbing:
North Wall, Roger Hubank. Cold and sharp.
Kiss or Kill, MarkTwight.
Hmmm, no 3rd jumps to mind. Close ones are:
Touching The Void, Joe Simpson.
Gorilla Monsoon, Large Municyclist.
Camp 4, Roper.
Vertical World of Yosemite, Galen Rowell.
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Dragon with Matches
climber
Bamboo Grove
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Oct 12, 2005 - 12:42pm PT
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Last 3:
A Million Little Pieces, James Frey.
Lost Mountains, Stephen Venables.
London Fields, Martin Amis.
Best 3:
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Catcher in the Rye
Endurance
Anything by John Long
runner up:
Anything by Dingus Milktoast
Best 3 Climbing:
No Picnic on Mt. Kenya (Felize Bernuzzi) Captures the spirit of climbing as well as anything.
Touching the Void
Shishapangma (Doug Scott & Alex MacIntyre)
Enduring Patagonia
White Spider
Always wanted to like Castaneda more.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Oct 12, 2005 - 01:05pm PT
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Rosyln
I think Geek Love needs a category all it's own, Best Morbid Literary, maybe?
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AndyG
climber
San Diego, CA
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Oct 12, 2005 - 01:22pm PT
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Last 3:
Player Piano - Vonnegut
Prodigal Summer - Kingsolver
Until I Find You - Irving
Best 3:
Refiner's Fire - Helprin
A Soldier of the Great War - Helprin
A Widow for One Year - Irving
it's hard to stop at 3
Best 3 climbing:
Stone Crusade - Sherman
Touching the Void - Simpson
Camp 4 - Roper
(edit - both Helprin novels have some great climbing action in them, though I could never quite decide if the climbing in 'A Soldier of the Great War' was slightly anachronistic - were carabiners invented before WWI?)
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James
Social climber
My Subconcious
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Oct 12, 2005 - 02:22pm PT
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Jaybro...
Asimov wrote some amazing fiction. I really enjoyed the foundation series. Much better than the new Star Wars crap that has been coming out. You read Dreams of Electric Sheep?
Notes from the Underground put me to sleep, as did the Brothers Karmazov. I would recommend reading White Christmas and some of Dostovesky's other short stories.
If you are into Slavic writers, The Island of Crimea is good. I can't recall the author off the top of my head but Shaggy had the book.
I'm not sure if you're into Faulkner but "Barn Burning" is good. I wouldn't recommend Sound and the Fury. It is hard to understand stream of conciousness. For it to be completely decipherable it needs to be edited edited edited.
Dumas and James Feminore Cooper and The Windup Bird Chronoicles...those are all very good.
James
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TIM SHEA
Trad climber
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA
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Oct 12, 2005 - 02:59pm PT
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Pillars of the Earth
On Edge (Henry Barber story)
Spirit Of The Age (Royal Robbins story)
Crow Killer (real story of Jack Johnson)
Canoing with the Cree
Lord of the Rings
Camp 4
into thin air
John Long (many short stories are my favorites)
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Mike Dahlquist
Trad climber
Berkeley, CA
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Oct 12, 2005 - 03:17pm PT
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Last 3:
In Retrospect-Robert McNamara
Book of Lies-Aid/Alan Burgess
For Whom the Bell Tolls-Hemingway
Best 3:
East of Eden-Steinbeck
Catch 22-Heller
World According to Garp-John Irving
Climbing 3:
Camp 4
Mtns. of My Life-Bonatti
Starlight and Storm-Rebuffat
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Oct 12, 2005 - 03:20pm PT
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James Yeah, I went through an extreme Phillip K Dick phase. Ever notice how many 'successful' sci fi movies are based on PKD Novels?
I think the first paragraph of "Notes," is some of the best writing ever, in the original Russian. Right up there with- "After a night of Unsettling Dreams Gregor Samsa found himself to be turned into a large Vermin" now that one works in Translation!
I've read all of Dostoyevsky, White nights (why in this age of electronic communication aren't there more epistlary novels?)and Krokodil are among my favorites of the short works.
The Russians; Tolstoi, Chekov, Mayakovsky, Blok,Turgenev, Solzhenitsyn etd geniuses all. Haven't read Island of Crimea.
I run hot and Cold on Faulkner, (kinda like you and Fyoder?)sometimes he says if all though.
Dumas - sure
JFCooper see Faulkner
The Wind up Bird Chronicles? have to look in to that.
Oh yeah what about Faulkner, in Screenwriter Mode? "The Big Sleep, "To have any have not- "What are you trying to do, guess her weight?" one of my favorite movie lines of all time.
Trivia- Who first said "Just one thing bothers me about this case," ala Columbo?
How come John Gardner hasn't made it onto any of these lists?
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Mike Dahlquist
Trad climber
Berkeley, CA
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Oct 12, 2005 - 03:20pm PT
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More:
Power of One-Courtenay
Long Walk to Freedom-Mandela
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James
Social climber
My Subconcious
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Oct 12, 2005 - 03:36pm PT
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Jaybro
PKD-yeah that's why I read Electric Sheep, I watched Blade Runner in highschool and then read the book because my brother recommended it to me sometime last year.
The Windup Bird Chronicles is part of the Hipster Generation of writing. There is an excellent reading list in the back of "The Hipster Handbook." It includes Raymond Carver- a New Yorker published writer and modern Bukowski.
Wind-Up Bird Chronicles becomes a twisted and surreal in the end, a Japanese version of 100 Hundred of Solitude.
I'm afraid my Russian is reglagated to Ann Rand's distorted views of communism and the Chinese concepts of how rad Mao Zedong is. So good old Fyodor will have to save his depression for the Russians. I did like Kafka's Metamorphism for a good dose of depression though. Is he Slavic though?
I just recalled that John Irving has been a running theme lately. I read The World According to Garp recently. I met Irving briefly when he came to my high school english class. I like his characters. They are extremely lively and intricate. I feel as though his longer works-Garp- are too pulpy while his shorter stuff Cedar House Rules is good. A Prayer for Owen Meaney was good too although a "little farfetched" at the end. He has a tendency to create a really good and intricate story and then make it go just a smidge too far for my taste still bravo to Irving.
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