I can’t choose one, but one of my favorites is The Egyptian by Waltari. I’m sure others will pop up in my mind as the thread progresses.
Currently reading the Story of Art, Scholars and Murderers, Merchants of nations (roughly translated title) and trying to tackle a couple of Go books.
I’ve always been unable to only read one book each time.
I have different book recommendations, depending on whether it’s wrongful or not.
Couldn’t pay back some debts (credit card and hospital). I’m always up for some good reads, be it fiction, non-fiction, educational, whimsical, whatever.
I wish you the best. Banks S U C K.
Well, you might actually enjoy the Egyptian, I kinda suggest it to everyone. It isn’t a happy story, but I find it cathartic and I’ve read it countless times.
I won’t suggest any of the classics, but books I’ve enjoyed for different reasons are:
I also like reading cookbooks, and this is one of my favorites, although I can’t find a foreign edition https://www.amazon.com/saspens-karamele-σασπένς-καραμελέ-Martinetti/dp/9606627322/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=Anne+Martinetti&qid=1582563784&s=books&sr=1-5
I recently finished China: A history, which is a really, really long book that keeps great company, written, unlike most history books, with style.
And if you’ve never read Asterix, you must.
I’m not good at choosing favorites, but if I had to choose something maybe the Nightrunner series or the Tamir Triad by Lynn Flewelling.
I’m currently reading Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive and am enjoying it greatly. Interestingly enough, I found it due to Dwyrin recommending the first book in the series during one of his videos
My favourite book is Thr3e by Ted Dekker.
I’ve not really had the time or emotional energy or physical energy to read anything new recently…
I used to be a huge Ted Dekker fan. I love Thr3e, Blink, and the Circle series
A variation of this topic was discussed last year, What non-Go book are you reading right now?
As mentioned there, I can speak on books endlessly. They are more important to me than anything except my daughter. My favorite novel is The Count of Monte Cristo. Other favorites include Les Miserables, Bel Ami, Dead Souls, Lord Jim, Martin Eden, Moby Dick, Pride and Prejudice, Our Mutual Friend, Lavengro, The Baron in the Trees, The Crock of Gold, and many others…yes, all “favorites”!
I am also a huge science fiction fan. See the thread cited above for my favorites in that category.
I actually like short stories even better than novels, but don;t have time to talk about that now.
Currently reading The Leopard, a famous Italian historical novel by Lampedusa, and have started Lewis’s It Can;t Happen Here for my SF book club.
My all-time favourite book is »Siddhartha« by Hermann Hesse.
I read it again every few years.
I like SF&F very much, but I’m not reading anything like that at the moment. I’m a fan of weird stuff like the Thursday Next series. 
Instead, I have here next to me “Kinderjahre”, about children’s development, by the physician Remo H. Largo, as well as “Little People - Big Lives” by Carole Lander (portraits of short statured people), and “Ich bin Özlem” by Dilek Güngör about a young German woman with Turkish roots, who realizes she is still not fully accepted by German society despite she was born and raised in Germany.
And then I also have to read at least one of Grimm’s fairy tales every evening.
So, has anyone read The Egg by Andy Weir (which I also linked to above)?
I highly recommend it. It’s a very short read and available in a large number of languages.
What did you think of it?
I don’t think I’ve read any long story completely in the last few years. I like old historical books, eg. Romantic Essex, Highways and Byways of East Anglia, and A History of the Italian Republics. I enjoy travelogues (those first two are actually travelogues, but written a long time ago). Also short story collections like Greyhound for Breakfast which is set in Edinburgh. I was reading a collection about the Sri Lankan civil war recently. Add to that nonfiction about natural history… Finally I read ancient classics now and again, especially biographies (The Age of Caesar is a nice mini-collection from Plutarch’s Lives).
I haven’t read The Egg yet, but I’ll bookmark your post and read it tonight. I really enjoyed The Martian, and Artemis is on my list of novels to read at some point.
I too am fond of travelogues. When I was young, I read extensively in the exploration literature. My favorite book in my 2019 reading was the last of George Borrow’s 5 great works, Wild Wales, about his walking tour in 1854. His encounters with fascinating people, descriptions of the landscape, folklore, history and archaeology make it an infectious, jolly book. At 600 pages, however, the book requires a leisurely attitude from the reader. I enhanced the fun by following his travels with Street View.
As you know from a previous exchange, I am also very fond of ancient literature. I have tried to read one a year since my early teens (though I haven’t always succeeded in that). Last year I read a collection of Cicero’s letters, this years I am leaning toward Appian’s The Civil Wars. Ah, and Plutarch’s Lives, yes, my all time favorite book of any kind. That is my desert island book, or the one I would try to save in an apocalypse.
Hah! Lives is less of a book, more of a library! Good job remembering that conversation from way back in the memes thread.
Guess I lied, I have read that before. Very interesting
I’m a big William Faulkner fan. His stream of consciousness style can make for strenuous reading, but I’ve always found it ultimately rewarding. I also greatly admire the novels of J.M. Coetzee, the Nobel laureate from South Africa. His work covers the apartheid and post apartheid eras and revolves around the question of moral authority. Who has it? Who can presume to speak to the sufferings of others? I strongly recommend those books.
Have any of you read Flatland by Edwin Abbott? It’s an underappreciated gem from the nineteenth century. The story is set in a two-dimensional world and narrated by a square whose complacent existence is shaken by a bizarre encounter with a sphere. It’s a thoroughly imaginative work that’s bound to strike a chord with anyone who values the questioning of assumptions.
I don’t read the classics much, but I have enjoyed The Odyssey, The Aeneid, and Juvenal’s Satires.
I love the style of Thomas Mann, »Der Zauberberg« or »Joseph and his brothers«.
However, these works are unlikely to be adequately translated into other languages, his style is too special, e. g. the endless sentences.
Faulkner was ruined for me for decades due to a forced reading in high school of "The Bear,: which seemed dull and hard to understand. However, 10 or 15 years ago, I was intrigued by the description of As I Lay Dying, so I read it and liked it very much. Subsequenty, I have read and liked Go Down, Moses (especially the great story “Pantaloon in Black”), The Unvanquished, The Reivers (those “mud farmers!”), and Intruder in the Dust (what a wonderful mystery gimmick). I was most surprised by the strain of humor that runs through his work. He was also a co-writer on 3 movies that I like a lot: Gunga Din, To Have and Have Not, and The Big Sleep.
I reread The Odyssey a couple years ago to help my daughter with her homework, and I got a lot more out of it than when I was young. The Aeneid, however, is the greatest gap in my classical reading. One of these days…
