The Next Best Book Club discussion
Looking For Recommendations
>
The most EPIC book you've ever read?
LOL! Why's everybody always picking on Little Women? That's one of my all time favorite stories! Anywho! The first book that popped into my head when I saw the thread title was "Lord of the Rings". But here are other Becky Epics because I can't choose just one:
The Stand
The Count of Monte Cristo - UNABRIDGED
Roots
Shogun
Gone With the Wind
I Know This Much Is True
The Gun Seller (Ok, I just really loved this book, so... *shrug*)
The Stand by Stephen KingShogun by James Clavell
The Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas
Agree totally with Becky on these!!
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith. Not a whopper but it is my 100/100 book!
Les MIserables-Victor HugoThe Count Of Monte Christo-Alexander Dumas
War and Peace-Leo Tolstoy
The Source-James Michener
This is a few right from the top of my head.
Mine would be - Hawaii: A Novel by James A. Michener(Or Centennial,Alaska,The Covenant,Space
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (I've heard the best one is the Penguin Classics Unabridged translation)
Shogun by James Clavell
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Becky - Little Women is one of my all time faves, too, LOL.
Wow, 3/5 of you recommended Shogun which does seem pretty epic. It's certainly piquing my interest!As for the other choices: Most of them do sound pretty awesome. A couple I have read, a couple I have been meaning to read, several I have never heard of. The Count of Monte Cristo seems like such a good book to me, but classics always tend to scare me off because they're so much drier than modern works. Never know until you try though, huh?
Thanks for all the suggestions! I'm looking to each and every one of them!
TJ, The Count of Monte Cristo is ANYTHING but dry. I love reading classics. And Dumas is amazing. Definitely get the unabridged Penguin edition if you can, it's wonderful. I read all 1276 pages in 9 days. It was THAT good. I can't say that I agree with Beloved, though. I detested that book. It was an effort in frustration for me to understand what was actually going on. That was probably the point, being magical realism and all, but I think that stories have much more power when people can actually understand them without an interpreter. *shrug* To each their own. :)
Cant say enough about Count of Monte Cristo!!!I also have to suggest:
Verne's Mysterious Island
McCarthy's The Road
Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov
Saramago's Blindness
Imajica by Clive BarkerThe Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia-Marquez (in my whole life, I've never had the ending of a book affect me as much as this one did)
Little, Big by John Crowley (I cannot stress this enough: READ THIS BOOK! Especially if you are a fan of epics that span several generations, are exquisitely written, and delve deeply into the world of fairy tales)
Jill wrote: "Imajica by Clive Barker"Really? I have this one on my shelf, given to me by a friend. I may have to move it up the list.
The thing I hate about these threads is that I always end up adding books to my TBR. I had never heard of Little, Big, but I have now added it. Lori - I REALLY want to read Blindness, I keep putting it at the top of my TBR, but then things happen and I don't get to it.
Like Becky when I saw 'EPIC' I thought Lord of the RingsThe Godfather by Mario Puzo is another big one for me
Also Juliet Marillier's Sevenwaters trilogy starting with Daughter of the Forest though thats perhaps slightly more female orientated
Lori and Lyn - I just borrowed Blindness from the library today!
I just finished the Count of Monte Cristo (unabridged) and it was fantastic! Definately not dry. I would add my vote to that one.
I definitely agree with most of the ones from above (LOTR, GWTW, PotE). I'd add to that The Black Jewels Trilogy: Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadows, Queen of the DarknessOutlander
Atlas Shrugged
House of Leaves
Tj wrote: "Wow, 3/5 of you recommended Shogun which does seem pretty epic. It's certainly piquing my interest!As for the other choices: Most of them do sound pretty awesome. A couple I have read, a couple I ..."
I'm going to echo the fact that: COMC IS NOT DRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hehe and Shogun is epic in more ways then being over 1000 pages long. It is just... epic! Wow I lived that book, it was my air, soul... food everything. I forgot who I was for about 2 weeks and when I finished it I felt such a great loss. Not because of the storyline... but just the loss of being in THAT world with THOSE characters. Even though Clavell has written other books set in Japan.China all door stopper size... they won't be Shogun.
The more I hear about Shogun, the more I think I'd like it, most definitely. The Count is also making a dash for the lead. I have always wanted to read it (especially after watching the anime Gankutsuou!) so this may be a good time. Also may be able to find it for free on the Kindle, being an older classic and all.Tanya: I have read The Daughter of the Forest and the Son of Shadows, but have never been able to find the third. I agree those books are pretty amazing. When I was in high school I couldn't get enough of them. (Even though I am a guy. It's a guilty pleasure...)
Bridgit: When I typed the word EPIC House of Leaves definitely popped into my mind. Read it last year after reading the first 100 or so pages three years ago and loved it to death.
I would like to point out that it's not just COMC that isn't dry, there are a ton of classics that are amazing stories that make me forget myself in them. Oh, I would also recommend the Complete Hitchhiker's Guide series. Douglas Adams is hilarious and brilliant. :)
Tj, the only trouble with maybe finding a free download of COMC is the translation. I find it pays to buy a better version and you get a good translation. I know it's probably hard to judge: a good translation vs a bad translation unless you of course speak the original language (in which case you would not need a translation!)However, in my experience: the cheaper copies I have had of foreign classics do not have such good flow as the more expensive version I end up getting. Does it matter? I think so. Sometimes, just a small difference has a big difference if you know what I mean.
I loved the Sevenwater trilogy when I was a teenager too... though the third one is not so good unfortunately. Apparently though there is a 4th Sevenwater book I have not read. Part of me wants to but part of me would rather not bother and leave it where it is - happily in my memory.
Becky: Definitely read that one several times. I love those books so much, and they seem to change every time I read them! Fiona: I noticed that with my Dante's Inferno. It was... difficult to follow, to say the least. I have read several other classics, mostly in 'bought for a dime from the library because they were about to throw them out' condition, but I'm not sure how 'modern' you could call them. (The library could have bought them at publishing date, they keep books so long!)
TJ - I totally second what Becky said about many classics not being dry. Also, as Fiona said, the translation can make all the difference. I have read two different translations of a couple of classics, and sometimes a bad translation can make it dry, confusing, boring, etc. I have heard that the Penguin translation of CoMC is the best, and just got a copy to read myself. Becky - you read it in 9 days - I am impressed. I'm hoping that it will do the same for me. The last time I read it, years ago, it took me quite a while, but I was a different reader then.
I have the first book of The Sevenwater Trilogy on my TBR. Hope to get to it soon.
TJ - hope you like Shogun. It is phenominal!
The Brothers K by David James Duncan. Don't let anyone tell you it's "about" baseball. Baseball is just the context for a great story about the growing pains of boys, families, and nations.
Becky - That's the one I just bought. In fact, I am sitting here typing with it sitting right next to me. I can't wait to start it. I have heard such great things about it, and I enjoyed the one that I read years ago (not sure which translation that was)
Dan wrote: "The Brothers K by David James Duncan. Don't let anyone tell you it's "about" baseball. Baseball is just the context for a great story about the growing pains of boys, ..."I agree Dan. Great story and one of my favorite books of all time. I'd also like to suggest John Barth's "The Sot Weed Factor" which I consider a work of sheer genius.
Don Quixote is another great epic that I would recommend, and hope its "classic" status (and size - it's a whopper!) wouldn't turn you off from ever reading it. :)I have not read Shogun myself, though strangely enough I almost picked it up immediately after finishing Don Quixote. I decided at the time that two very similarly sized novels back-to-back was not the best idea, and sadly I've not gone back to the idea of reading the Clavell. Maybe one day soon. This thread is inspiring me to consider it again anyway.
TJ wrote: "Fiona: I noticed that with my Dante's Inferno. It was... difficult to follow, to say the least.TJ, do you remember which translation you read of the Inferno? I'm a huge Dante fan, but do agree translations make a big difference with his work - the first time I read Dante it was the The Inferno (John Ciardi translation), and I think by far it's the best and probably the most accessible. That's the version we read in my World Classics class in high school and it seems most of the students appreciated it. I mention that because speaking "epic", The Divine Comedy certainly fits the bill - Ciardi's done translations for all three books so at some point I suggest checking that out. :)
El - I have wanted to read Don Quixote for a while. Do you know which translation of it is supposed to be the best?
Lyn M - not sure which is considered the "best", but I read the Signet Classic paperback version: Don Quixote. It worked well enough for me, but again I'm not sure if there's an even better translation. I worked at a used bookstore at the time, and we were able to borrow the merchandise. Since I had a lengthy bus ride to and from work each day, and the paperback came into the store, it was perfect for the bus commute. Other coworkers thought it was outrageous I would read such a long book (1,000+ pages) in paperback, but that's how I roll sometimes.
El: My copy of Inferno (as well as my recent acquisition of CoMC) came from Gutenburg, so it's their official translation. The first page says 'Translated by Henry Francis Cary,' if that's any indication.As for CoMC, I'll have to look into the Penguin Unabridged edition. I can probably find an excerpt to compare to what I already have. If it's better than mine , I may just buy it.
Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings definitely comes to mind for me =) But I also thought the following books were also pretty epic in scope:- Tolstoy's War and Peace
- Folett's The Pillars of the Earth
- Clavell's Shogun
- Rutherfurd's Russka: The Novel of Russia
- Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude
TJ: The Henry Francis Cary translation is from the early 1800s according to Wikipedia, so it might be a little dry. I've not read his translation myself, so I can't say with 100% certainty, but that's my theory. The Ciardi is from 1954, so it's more geared towards modern readers. Sorry, I push Ciardi any chance I can get. Anyone else here interested in reading Dante should look into this translation as well. :) I hate for Dante to go unread.While I'm at it, I agree with everyone else about Count of the Monte Cristo. It's full of action, so I don't remember much of the story dragging.
Tj - I'm really glad you enjoyed Daughter of the Forest/Son of the Shadows! Even though I said it was possibly more female orientated I don't think it has to be at all. I just wasn't sure of your tastes (probably should check out your shelves as suggested!) An amazing story is an amazing story after all :)Fiona - There is a fourth sevenwaters novel (or the first in a new sevenwaters trilogy) called Heir to Sevenwaters. When I read it I was instantly back in that world. It had the same feel as the original trilogy even though she had written so many other series in between. Personally I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to the others. There is also a sevenwaters short story being published later in the year in the anthology 'Australian Legends of Fantasy' called 'Twixt Firelight and Water'. The story apparently covers everything that happened in the trilogy and more which I can't quite imagine!
I would like everyone to know that I have officially purchased BOTH Shogun AND The Count of Monte Cristo at my 'local' B&N. (Along with And Another Thing... which has been on my To-Read list for quite some time)You should all be glad you have broken me, for the better. My bank account may not thank you, but my voracious bookshelves will!
Nobody ever said we were good influences. I think the term is "enabler". OR is it just "addict" for all of us! Enjoy the books.
When I saw epic I first thought LotR, the entire Harry Potter series and The Chronicles of Narnia. For me a definite 100/100 book is Matilda. Although it is disturbing in some ways as a child it mostly made me laugh.
Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. Poems count, in my mind, and that's the epitome of epic for me.
Agree with a lot of these. Paradise Lost is pretty epic the angels of heaven and the rebels in Hell do throw mountains at each other. I haven't got to Paradise Regained yet have heard it's just not as good without Satan around :)
You heard right, lol, but it's still pretty awesome. Makes me wish I could write like that! And inspires me to be a better writer, too.
Tj wrote: "I would like everyone to know that I have officially purchased BOTH Shogun AND The Count of Monte Cristo at my 'local' B&N. (Along with And Another Thing......"Oh blow your bank account!!! Woohoo books! You have some beauties there! I haven't read Eoin Colfer in ages, but he is a great young person's author so I hope you will enjoy And Another Thing....
The Next Best Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Gone with the Wind (other topics)Shōgun (other topics)
The Count of Monte Cristo (other topics)
The Gun Seller (other topics)
Roots: The Saga of an American Family (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
James A. Michener (other topics)James Clavell (other topics)
Alexandre Dumas (other topics)
Ken Follett (other topics)
David James Duncan (other topics)
More...
What is the most EPIC book you've ever read? What book would you give a 100/100, 5 stars, 10 cheering schoolchildren out of 10? Try to make it a whopper, something that really stuck with you long after you turned the final page.
While my own choice will be based on my personal preferences (for that you can check my read and to-read shelves to see what kind of things I'm in to) I still want to see what you guys think. Is it the 7th Harry Potter novel? Possibly Lord of the Rings? The Hitchhiker's Guide? Little Women (though I can't fathom why...)? Or possibly something I've never heard of. I'd love to find out!