z10

this author is incredible at narrative writing, perhaps even peerless

Tomorrow 9pm kerrang channel 'guitar gods'

jane austen what a cliche that would be

i've never quite understood why they were such a phenomenon rowling produced nothing new for the fantasy genre

not a penny more, not a penny less read this book a few years back, competent story and very fluently written

one book that i forgot to mention: the fountainhead - ayn rand

i dread reading the trial again such was the affect it had upon me

oh, kafka certainly deserves a lot of time to ponder part of his skill is what he says by not saying it

Any fans?

an eagle

this is a very loose definition but for me classical is anything pre - 1900 that takes my fancy not really a fan of jane austen, to be fair examples would be madame bovary, dangerous liaisons, russian novelists like dostoevsky, tolstoy etc mainly the germans, nietzsche and schopenhauer

I also prefer books with a distinct and continuous style kafka, for example, can only write like kafka and that's part of the appeal of his books

apart from the philosophy volumes i have to consume i take a keen interest in classical and early modern literature

i lost interest in jackie collins once i had passed puberty

i do ofcourse the book is there for my entertainment and i take whichever character i like as the hero

no, it makes sense, there's no need to revise it i always find that to me a hero can be anyone that excels against the odds in a given situation, the overbearing conditions of the situation are not as important as the choice of the 'hero' but then, we are all welcome to our own tastes of course

as a general rule they are kept everywhere

well, that's the purpose of this thread, to see what tastes we have here i find your 'pre-gunpowder' comment interesting, and although it's a bit of a tangent i'd like to know why you think gunpowder killed off heroes

on the road by jack kerouac it changed me before it changed my life though

There are, to a certain degree, some de facto elements such as a competent style, an original story and an attempt at entertainment throughout. However, what really makes you sit up and think 'this was a good read' after a book? for me, a good read is one that totally captures my attention both during and after the book for a considerable time. I must still be imitating the characters that i have fallen in love with in the book atleast a fortnight after i've finished it to consider it a good read.

like some of you, i think it's impossible to name one book above others even to name a collection would be difficult as it changes with the more books i read for now, some of my favorites:- the brothers karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky dangerous liaisons - Choderlos De Laclos on the road - Jack Kerouac the fountainhead - Ayn Rand

just signed up and glad to be here (etc etc) i'm a philosophy student in england and i read and write out of habit looking forward to browsing the forums and interacting with you all, it's looking impressive so far cheers