Novels

[Bllasae]

What is your favorite novel? What novel are you reading right now? This is the (Un)official Novel Thread!
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[Captain Blood]

Favorite novel:
The Lord of the Rings

Currently reading:
Homers Oddessy
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[Bllasae]

[Privateer]

I liked the Earthsea Quartet and am currently trying to read a collection of some of Asimov's Robot stories; some of the best sci-fi around
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[Captain Blood]

Billasae,
Confusing.
A lot of ancient Greek legend woven into the story in such a way that I have to stop and read up on that particular legend in order to understand what I just read.
It's a learning experience.
Fortunately, a lot of it the same legend was included in the Illiad, which I just finished reading, so I'm not as often face first in a reference book trying to figure things out as I was for that story.

I think once I get done tackling the Oddesy I'm going to lay off Homer for a while and go back to Horatio Hornblower.
It's enjoyable, but I think in future I'll take my Homer in smaller doses.
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[Bllasae]

[Captain Blood]

Not really like old English, it's actually all Greek to me...
But I digress.
Actually the problem is you'll be going along, reading the story (which aint easy, things like every time Homer mentions Telemachus, son of Oddyseus, he is called "discreet Telemachus", adding all those pronouns sort of slows you down) and you'll run into a mention of a poem/story other than the one you are reading. The reference is usually pretty integral to the story line and you are expected to know what the story they reference means.
Well, I usually don't. So I have to look it up. That slows me down even more.
It's a learning experience, but the stories of Oddyseus and in the Iliad are rich and colorful so I think it's been worth it.
Still, it's been a lot of work for me to fully appreciate them.
I'll take a break, then come back and re-read them in a few months. The next time I'll be able to just relax and enjoy the stories for what they are instead of delving into history lessons from ancient Greece. That should make them more enjoyable.
I hope.
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[Bllasae]

Wow, I could barely read what you wrote, let alone the book, if I wanted to read it
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[Nefarious]

[Bllasae]

Wow, thanks for the information and "teaser" from the book. It seems really interesting.
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[Tom Pullings]

Aye, Nefarious, Mockingbird is my nomination for the "great American novel". It is such a humane book, and says so much about the country, and life, in such an unassuming way. There is a recent biography of Harper Lee, called simply "Mockingbird", by Charles Shields, that is pretty interesting for those that wonder about how this masterpiece came out of the blue. I don't know that it will be the final word in style or substance, but the author makes a sympathetic effort to gather a lot of scraps of information about a very private person (completely unhelpful to would be biographers, evidently), many of which are facsinating.

For a less profound but also amazing, enlightening and entertaining read, I would recommend the Aubrey-Maturin series to anyone. As historical fiction, it has no peer, IMO, and it is so much fun as well.

I just finished The Republic of Pirates by Colin Woodard, which is kind of general history of the Carribean pirates of Blackbeard's era, but it mentions Dampier more than once as a major figure in describing the world from which that setting emerged. Your description makes me want to the Prestons' book.

[Red Rabbit]

Currently looking through interesting classics which haven't yet read. So I bought "The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas from the local secondhand bookstore. Also I'm currently in the middle of "The Etruscan" by Mika Waltari.
Latest book I finished was the biography of "Alexander the Great", and "Catiline's War/The Jugurthine War" by Roman historian Sallust.
Not sure what's my all-time favourite novel. Maybe "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" trilogy (of five books ) because that is the only novel/s what I've read twice beside some biographies. But the most influential novel is definitely Philip K. Dick's "The World Jones Made". Read it when I was early teen and it blew my mind, and also introduced me to the sci-fi genre.

PS. Please, no spoilers here!

[Salty Dog]

I think the last novel I read was Robinson Crusoe a while back. My Father in Law had it in his library and I took it to read on the plane.

I've heard the Tom Clancy books are great. Should I be reading them?

[Wolfwood]

I just finished reading through Alexandre Dumas' d'Artagnan Romances.

Not sure I can even hope to pick my favourite novel. There are so many factors affecting that choice. I love Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels for their characterisation, and Dumas' The Three Musketeers is also up there in the higher echelons because of the pure fun of it... Ah, I cannot pick one!
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[Mad Jack 'o the Red]

Anne Perry, still active British author has a series of novels set in 1880's London featuring married couple, Thomas Pitt and his wife Charlotte who solve murders. He is a police inspector; she is just plain smart. And then there is Charlotte's great- Great Aunt Vespasia! She might be in her 80's but she would be a fantastic companion for dinner, enough said. Good, fun reads.