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Fitzgerald Fortune
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Ten favourite novels of the Twentieth/Twenty-First Centuries
As per the thread in the cinema section, list your ten favourite novels (at the current moment, at least) from the Twentieth/Twenty-First Centuries.
I'd have to go for:
George V. Higgins, 1970: THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE
Jim Thompson, 1952: THE KILLER INSIDE ME
B. Traven, 1927: THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE
Raymond Chandler, 1940: FAREWELL, MY LOVELY
Mickey Spillane, 1947: I, THE JURY
Dashiell Hammett, 1929: RED HARVEST
Elmore Leonard, 1972: FORTY LASHES LESS ONE
J. G. Ballard, 1974: CONCRETE ISLAND
Jean Ray, 1943: MALPERTUIS
James Ellroy, 1986: SILENT TERROR
--- 'Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy'.
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8/12/2007, 9:48 pm
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Edge44
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Re: Ten favourite novels of the Twentieth/Twenty-First Centuries
Okay, here goes, and in no particular order:
AMERICAN PSYCHO – Bret Easton Ellis, 1991.
DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP – Philip K. ****, 1968.
SLAUGHTERHOUSE 5 – Kurt Vonnegut, 1969 (so it goes...).
WAR OF THE WORLDS – H. G. Wells, 1898 (nineteenth century, I know, but hey, death-ray me  )
THE LION THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE – C. S. Lewis, 1950 (this had to be in because I fell in love with this novel when I was nine… oorrrr).
CATCH-22 – Joseph Heller, 1961.
OF MICE AND MEN – John Steinbeck, 1937.
IT – Stephen King, 1986 (if only because of how I related to it when I was a teen).
WATCHMEN - Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, 1986.
THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE – George V. Higgins, 1970 (got to agree with Fitz on this one. Read it as part of my MA reading list, and it is superb).
I don't have a favourite, although I found AMERICAN PSYCHO extremely affecting, and it had nothing to do with the violence. However, If I had to recommend one book from my list it would be SLAUGHTERHOUSE 5. Go read it.
Last edited by Edge44, 8/15/2007, 1:09 pm
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8/14/2007, 3:53 pm
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algy
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Re: Ten favourite novels of the Twentieth/Twenty-First Centuries
It's funny how when someone asks questions like this I can't even think of ten books. Here's a stab.
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
The Discworld series - Terry Pratchet (hard to narrow it down to one as there all much of a muchness but I like 'em)
1984 - George Orwell
Waterland - Graham Swift
The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
I give up, I can't remember. My favourite book(s) is usually - as long as they're nothing too dodgy - the last one(s) I read.
Memorable books for me would be Littlenose which is probabaly my ealrist memory of reading alone; The Famous Five as this was the first series of books that I read; then things like Lord of the Rings, Stephen King and the Necroscope series by Brian Lumley. It's only been in the last few years that I've dragged myself away from the fantasy and horror genres - and I must say that I'm glad I did. Amongst recent reads that I enjoyed are Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep?, Mr Philips, All Quiet on the Orient Express, The Time Traveller's Wife, The Blind Assassin, Galapagos, Timbuktu... All good stuff. Sorry, this is a waste of a post as I haven't stuck my neck out. I'll get me coat.
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8/15/2007, 12:43 am
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Edge44
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Re: Ten favourite novels of the Twentieth/Twenty-First Centuries
quote:
algy wrote:
It's only been in the last few years that I've dragged myself away from the fantasy and horror genres - and I must say that I'm glad I did.
Same with me. When I look back I can't believe how narrow my reading was. Now it's a race to catch up and read everything that's deemed great. It's a hard task 
quote:
algy wrote:
Memorable books for me would be Littlenose which is probabaly my ealrist memory of reading alone; The Famous Five as this was the first series of books that I read.
The first series of books that I read - at school, I hasten to add - were the Moomins... I think that's my earliest memory of reading. It was all downhill after that...
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8/15/2007, 7:47 am
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algy
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Re: Ten favourite novels of the Twentieth/Twenty-First Centuries
I don't remember reading at school. I do remember being considered odd by my peers because I read.
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8/15/2007, 11:36 am
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Edge44
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Re: Ten favourite novels of the Twentieth/Twenty-First Centuries
You'd have been considered even odder if you'd read comics at age 15/16, like me...
Last edited by Edge44, 8/15/2007, 11:53 am
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8/15/2007, 11:53 am
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Fitzgerald Fortune
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Re: Ten favourite novels of the Twentieth/Twenty-First Centuries
quote:
algy wrote:
I don't remember reading at school. I do remember being considered odd by my peers because I read.
I remember reading Aldous Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD at lunchbreak when I was at secondary school, and one of the dinner ladies referred to it as 'that filthy book'  (To be honest, some of Huxley's stuff is a little filthy.)
quote:
algy wrote:
It's only been in the last few years that I've dragged myself away from the fantasy and horror genres - and I must say that I'm glad I did.
There are few novels within the science-fiction/fantasy/horror genres that interest me: Philip K. ****, J. G. Ballard (although Ballard's stuff is too hard to pigeonhole, he began by writing mostly science-fiction), William Gibson, Richard Matheson and Alfred Bester are the only ones that spring immediately to mind.
I enjoyed the books Stephen King wrote under the Richard Bachman name, as they seemed to be more geared towards social criticism than the books he's published under his own name. But despite reading a fair bit of science-fiction as a teenager, I find that aside from the work of the authors I mentioned above the bulk of the SF/horror literature published during the Twentieth Century doesn't do anything for me at all. (However, I love Nineteenth Century SF, from Wells to Conan Doyle.)
--- 'Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy'.
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8/15/2007, 3:11 pm
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Edge44
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Re: Ten favourite novels of the Twentieth/Twenty-First Centuries
Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD is on my list to read, but I haven't got to it yet. Is it recommended?
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8/15/2007, 3:24 pm
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Fitzgerald Fortune
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Re: Ten favourite novels of the Twentieth/Twenty-First Centuries
quote:
Edge44 wrote:
Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD is on my list to read, but I haven't got to it yet. Is it recommended?
It is indeed, along with Huxley's THE DEVILS OF LOUDON: they're his two best books 
--- 'Don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy'.
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8/15/2007, 4:35 pm
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Edge44
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Re: Ten favourite novels of the Twentieth/Twenty-First Centuries
Thanks, Fitz...
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8/15/2007, 4:40 pm
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