I figured that since we have such good taste in music, this must translate into literature as well!

Anyhow, these are the books I can't live w/o (roughly in order, religious books and apologetics omitted for good reason) -

The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Lord of the Rings Trilogy - J.R.R. Tolkien
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Iliad - Homer
The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien
Le Morte D'Arthur - Sir Thomas Malory
Sherlock Holmes (complete) - Sir Conan Doyle
The Great Pianists - Harold C. Schonberg

That makes 10! Yep, I'm a fantasy nerd, as well as a hard-core Dostoyevskian! But then, who doesn't like the LOTR trilogy?

I just finished The Idiot this semester. It's my favorite of his! The characters are so real - it is certainly Dostoevsky's most down-to-earth. If you want a change from the psychological hell of Crime and Punishment and Notes from Underground or the perhaps overly-religious "God-view" of The Brothers Karamazov, this is the book to try. It's like Tolstoy, except faster.

OK, I'll bite because I love reading.

(omitting religious/apologetics type of thing for the same reason)

LOTR Trilogy — Tolkien
The Hobbit — Tolkien
The Unfinished Tales — Tolkien; I believe Christopher Tolkien as well
All of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries — Dorothy L. Sayers
N or M? — Agatha Christie
Partners in Crime — Agatha Christie
All of the Poirot short stories — Agatha Christie
Iliad & Odyssey of Homer
Robin Hood — translated by Louis Rhead (I think)
In Freedom's Cause: A Story of Wallace and Bruce — G.A. Henty
The Cat of Bubastes — Henty
The Pianist's Guide to Pedaling — Joseph Banowetz
My Life With the Great Pianists — Franz Mohr with Edith Schaeffer

I could go on literally forever...but in a nutshell I like good detective fiction, spy thrillers (such as N or M? which deals with the Nazi Fifth Column in Britain during WW II or Partners in Crime which deals with Soviet agents operating in Britain between the wars), as well as historical fiction (In Freedom's Cause, Bubastes), and many other genres.

I can`t really put together a list of 10 books or something cause there are not many books that would stick out from others.
But I love to read - though it is hard to find the time for that.

I am mostly into mystery stuff and thrillers. Over the years I read through tons of books by Stephen Kind and Dean Koontz.
Right now I am reading a book about the psychological hospital where a killer starts going around. It is hard to tell what book it would be for you as with the German translation also the title of the book is changed most of the time.

Did you mean Stephen King?

I find his books abominable, but to each his own.

thepianist wrote:

Did you mean Stephen King?

I find his books abominable, but to each his own.

Ummm yes I meant him - another one of my funny typos haha.....
Well, I found some of his books to be a little over the top in terms of fantasy and reality, but apart from that I found most of his books to be a good read. I read pet cemetary when I was like 12.

Hehehe, I do the same thing sometimes.

Yeah, some have been made into decent movies. He's a good writer, but I just don't care for the horror/supernatural thriller genre.

Truman Capote-The grass harp
Tostoi-The death of Ivan Ilytch
Tolstoi-War and Peace
Guy de Maupassant-Une vie
Honoré de Balzac-Les illusions perdues
Benito Perez Galdos-Fortunata y Jacinta
J.D.Salinger-The catcher in the rye
John Steinbeck-The grapes of wrath
Romain Gary-LA vie devant soi
Melville-Bartleby the scrivener

I'm getting ready to engross myself in Aristotle's Ethics.

And now I'm reading the Confessions if St. Augustine.