Book Nominations!

[dethwing]

Best Song: Paint it Black
Best Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
Best Book: Who knows?

As usual the start of all of these tournaments is (in my opinion) the best part. Here's where you make the most impact, deciding the field we will be using. I can't guarantee how many total books will get in, (Most likely some multiple of 2), but it will be completely based on which get the most nominations.

A word on Series: Don't worry about it. That is, I'm not doing any lumping. In my mind, we all know the books seperately, so it would probably confuse the issue to combine them.

So what am I asking for? Come up with a list of what you consider the 25 best books ever. Your favorite 25. Well, you don't have to do exactly 25. You can list 1 if you want. I don't care. But no more than 25. Each book you list gets one nomination. No more and no less.

What's a book you say? For our purposes, DP suggested anything avaiable as a book on www.amazon.com. I concured. If it's not there, and you think it should count, let me know.

Also, (and I swear this is almost the end), I'm not going to be a jerk about this, but try to make your list before you look at other people's nominations. I just would like to avoid other people influencing your picks.

Nominations will stay open about a week or so, or untill people stop nominating books.

Ready? Go for it!

[Samadhi]

Green eggs and ham Dr. Seuss
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[Jedo the Jedi]

~cracks knuckles~

Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix- J. K. Rowlings
Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire- J. K. Rowlings
1984- George Orwell
Catch 22- Joseph Heller
Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass- Stephen King
Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla- Stephen King
The Indispensible Calvin and Hobbes*- Bill Watterson
Star Wars: The Last Command-Timothy Zahn
Star Wars: Specter of the Past- Timothy Zahn
Star Wars: Vision of the Future- Timothy Zahn
The Odyssey-Homer
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy- Douglas Adams
Angels and Demons-Dan Brown
The Da Vinci Code-Dan Brown
The Count of Monte Cristo-Alexander Dumas
Ender's Game- ?
The Silmarillion- J. R. R. Tolkien
Redwall- Brian Jacques
Mossflower- Brian Jacques
(19/25)
I'll finish it later. I need to go look at my list in Top 10 Books.

*The Complete Collection comes out in three hardback books on June 1, 2005! ~waits anxiously~

[Internet Stranger]

Dark Knight Returns - Frank Miller
Watchmen - Alan Moore
Sin City - Frank Miller
Batman:Year One - Frank Miller
Batman: Long Halloween - Jeph Loeb
Batman: Dark Victory - Jeph Loeb
Green Lantern: Emeral twilight - Ron Marz
Catch 22- Joseph Heller
Neuromancer- William Gibson
_________________
"I didn't know she was your sister I swear!"
www.InternetStranger.com

[mathgrant]

In my opinion, THIS is the only book worth nominating.
Yes, I'm nominating it.
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My logic puzzle blog

[Agamemnon]

My Manor: An Autobiography - Charlie Richardson
World Atlas - Rand McNally
The Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme - John Keegan
Have a Nice Day - Mick Foley
Oliver Cromwell (Profiles in Power) - Barry Coward
A Few Bloody Noses: The American War of Independence - Robert Harvey
On the Cobbles: The Life of a Bare-knuckled Gypsy Warrior - Jimmy Stockin
Gregorian Chant - Willi Apel
The Oxford English Dictionary

I know my choices will not even make a tiny dent in the nominations, but I'm nominating anyway.

[NeocortX]

[nponp]heeey! I just so happen to have THAT book too.[/nponp]

[Agamemnon]

Kama Sutra

[Dread Pirate Westley]

The Princess Bride

[JDTAY]

I got some of these ideas from chat, is that all right?
I also haven't read quite a few of these books, is that all right?
And also, I looked at some the other nominations before deciding on my 25th nomination, but I didn't get any ideas from them, I swear, is that okay?
In fact, I really don't think I'm going to make my 25th nomination right now, you'll have to wait on it. Is that okay?

The Merriam Webster Dictionary
The Kama Sutra
The Necronomicon
The Bible
The Yellow Pages
Sideways Stories From Wayside School (Louis Sachar)
Wayside School Is Falling Down (Louis Sachar)
Wayside School Gets A Little Stranger (Louis Sachar)
Sideways Arithmetic From Wayside School (Louis Sachar)
Holes (Louis Sachar)
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (Douglas Adams)
The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe (Douglas Adams)
Life, The Universe And Everything (Douglas Adams)
Catch-22 (Joseph Heller)
Brain Droppings (George Carlin)
Napalm & Silly Putty (George Carlin)
When Will Jesus Bring The Porkchops? (George Carlin)
A Confederacy of Dunces (John Kennedy Toole)
The Dark Half (Stephen King)
Pet Semetary (Stephen King)
Jurassic Park (Michael Crichton)
The Andromeda Strain (Michael Crichton)
The Hobbit (JRR Tolkien)
The Shining (Stephen King)

edit: Okay wait, I've got the 25th now: Guinness Book Of World Records. Whew, that was tough.

[Jedo the Jedi]

The Wayside Stories books were awesome! I'm not going to add them to my list, but if they make it, I will probably vote for them.

[Quagmire]

THe only book worth nominating is On the Road by Jack Kerouac.

So I'm kinda copying mathgrant, too.

[dethwing]

I got some of these ideas from chat, is that all right?
Yes.

I also haven't read quite a few of these books, is that all right?
Yes.

And also, I looked at some the other nominations before deciding on my 25th nomination, but I didn't get any ideas from them, I swear, is that okay?
Yes.

In fact, I really don't think I'm going to make my 25th nomination right now, you'll have to wait on it. Is that okay?
Yes.

[Courk]

1. And Then There Were None (A.K.A. Ten Little Indians) by Agatha Christie
2. Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
3. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
4. The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy
5. Watership Down by Richard Adams
6. Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
7. The Once and Future King by T. H. White
8. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
9. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling
10. On This Day (no clue on editor and stuff - I can't even find it on Amazon. Good book, though.)
11. ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
12. The Princess Bride by William Goldman (I almost didn't read it because it was abridged - I wanted to read the whole thing. )
13. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
14. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
15. Macbeth by William Shakespeare
16. And since we're allowed to nominate books we haven't read: A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
17. Redwall by Brian Jacques

[zorT Kitty]

Thanks, Ellen.

I'm not going to give 25 now, since I know tomorrow I'll remember several more. For now, I'll give my top 15:

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Brave New World by Alduous Huxley
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban By J.K. Rowling
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Memoirs of A Geisha by Arthur Golden
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats By T.S. Eliot
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Make Way For Duckings By Robert McCloskey
The Oxford English Dictionary (Yes, I clicked Mathgrant's link before nominating this... but as much as I love M-W, The OED is far superior)



And I think the LotR series should be counted as one, because when it was originally written, it was one continuous novel. If all three count seperately, I'll have to think about which one/ones I'd like to nominate.

[edited to include:]
Dune by Frank Herbert
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
The Ledge by Lawrence Sargent Hall
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

[Mackay]

Deleted, zK.

I won't post all of mine for now, I'll just remember at random and add more.

No particular order to these, except that the first three are my decided favourites.

Catch-22, Joseph Heller
Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
The Catcher In The Rye, J.D. Salinger
LotR trilogy, if it counts as one, if not - The Two Towers, Tolkien
The Green Mile, Stephen King
Not much hope for this one, it's Aussie. Cloudstreet, Tim Winton
*indulges girly side* Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Franny and Zooey, J.D. Salinger (this one's for cp, I really preferred "Catcher". But this one was very good too.)
King Lear, William Shakespeare
*dons flameproof gear* Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling
To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee

I am deliberately not including the Bible, religious texts seem to be of a different kind of category. *shrug*

That gives me 14 nominations to play with.

Actually, can I sacrifice a nomination to give an anti-nomination? A book that is apparently considered a classic - "The Great Gatsby" - I found so... completely... uncompelling? Uninteresting? It was the biggest letdown I have ever experienced in reading anything. I haven't seen if anyone else has nominated it, but I'd like to give it negative points if I can. =)

[Mackay]

*looks up the thread*

Oh gosh, how could I forget HHGTTG? Add that for me as well. *nominates*

[Mackay]

*triple post*

*nominates All Quiet on The Western Front on behalf of JD*

[Liliputian Hitcher]

The Bible (Old Testament)
Lord of the Rings
The Silmarillion

[dethwing]

The Bible -- Various Authors
The Stand -- Steven King
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Scott Adams
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe -- Scott Adams
Life the Universe and Everything -- Scott Adams
Heir to the Empire -- Timothy Zhan
The Hiding Place --Corrie Ten Boom
Contemporary Abstract Algebra -- Joseph Gallian [What? I'm a geek!]
The Hobbit -- Tolkein
The Fellowship of the Rings -- Tolkein

Animal Farm -- George Orwell
1984 -- George Orwell
12 Little Indians -- Agatha Christie
Murer on the Orient -- Agatha Christie
Death on the Nile -- Agatha Christie
Lord of the Flies -- Don't remember
About a Boy -- Don't remember
The Gunslinger -- Steven King
The Tommyknockers -- Steven King
Salem's Lot -- Steven King

The Shining -- Steven King
Farenheit 451 -- Ray Bradbury
Where the Red Fern Grows -- Don't remember
Call of the Wild -- Jack London
The Dead Zone -- Steven King

Phew. That was tougher than I thought it would be.

[Persona]

My first half:

The Divine Comedy by Dante
Middlemarch by George Elliot
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder
Summa Theologiœ, by Thomas Aquinas
The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, by Hiroyuki Murakami.

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the Universe by Hiroyuki Murakami
The Golden Compass/Northern Lights (different names in different countries) by Phillip Pullman
The Master of Go by Yasunari Kawabata
The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse
Maus by Art Spiegelman

3:16, Bible Texts Illuminted by Donald Knuth
Robert's Rules of Order by, um, Robert?
1st edit April 8:
Hoyle's Rules of Games, Hoyle?
Masterpiece Crosswords, Edited by Stanley Newman
1,911 Best Things Anybody Ever Said, by Robert Byrne
Your Move: Logic, Math and Word Puzzles for Enthusiasts, by David Spiegelman
The Eudaemonic Pie by Thomas Bass

The C Programming Language by K&R

[Courk]

Deth, it's 10 Little Indians.

[austinap]

I nominate:

Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
The Plague - Camus
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
Catcher in the Rye - J. D. Salinger
A Moveable Feast - Hemmingway

[*casinopete]

It is unsettling to break up some series, because despite being published seperately, there is clearly only the one storyline, and character development in later volumes rests on knowledge of the earlier works. The oft-mentioned Lord of the Rings is one such series. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is another I was considering nominating.

By breaking them up, you cripple their chances, because no part is as good alone as it is with the backing/information/understanding from the other parts.

[mudbuck]

Luck in the Shadows -- Lynn Flewelling
Stalking Darkness -- Lynn Flewelling
Traitor's Moon -- Lynn Flewelling
The Bone Doll's Twin -- Lynn Flewelling
Hidden Warrior -- Lynn Flewelling

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams

And this one, too.
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1000oclock.com

[jadesmar.]

World Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand McNally

[dethwing]

This is awful. I was going to start counting nominations, but I can't read anything on this page. Can someone fix this page for me? This hacker-stuff is terrible.

[Courk]

It'll be fine in a few hours.

18. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

[Antrax]

Learning from past experience, I'll avoid nominating little-known (or, God forbid, Hebrew) books:

1. "Ender's Game", Orson Scott Card - because I've never sympathised with a protagonist more (I was 12 or so).
   
2. "Catch-22", Joseph Heller - because anyone who's been in the army has to read it. So does everyone else.
   
3. "When Nietzsche Wept", Irvin Yalom - because it expresses some of my more difficult ideas in a very clear way.
   
4. "Choke", Chuck Palahniuk - an incredibly strong book.
   
5. "Slaughterhouse 5", Kurt Vonnegut - because I have to have a Vonnegut in there, and this is his most well-known AFAIK.
   
6. "Strange Wine", Harlan Ellison - because Harlan Ellison is the best author I've ever read, and this book is amazingly good.
   
7. "Wizard and Glass", Stephen King - because King has his moments, and many of them are in this book.
   
8. "Interesting Times", Terry Pratchett - my favourite Pratchett, by far.
   
9. "Shogun", by James Clavell - IMO his best work.
   
10. "The Picture of Dorian Gray", Oscar Wilder - because he's more cynical than I'll ever be, despite having lived over 100 years ago.
    
11. "1984", George Orwell - it's just a must.
    
12. "Chance Music", Paul Auster - my favourite Auster, plus it deals with poker.
    
13. "Neutron Star", Larry Niven - incredibly creative and rich.
    
14. "Solar Lottery", Phillip K. Dick - I thought it was very clever, and a lot less confusing than the average novel by him.
    
15. "The Count of Monte Cristo", Alexandre Dumas - best revenge story ever.
    

I'll come up with the other 10 later.
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[dethwing]

This reminds me of something. You can add, change at will. But PLEASE do not simply edit an old post. Post the changes in a new post so I can make the change just by looking at new posts.

Thanks.

[firemeboy]

I'm sure it's just an oversight that my book hasn't been nominated... Surely it fits up there with Atlas Shrugged and the Bible...

[MatthewV]

Atlas Shrugged, Princess Bride, Milagro Beanfield War, and Are You My Mother are my nominations

[Courk]

We don't know what your book's titled yet.

[Leptonn]

1. A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
2. The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene
3. Contact, Carl Sagan
4. The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
5. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C.S. Lewis
6. The World According to Garp, John Irving
7. The Holy Bible (Old Testement), Aliens and Magicians
8. Tao Te Ching, Lao Tsu
9. Godel, Escher, Bach, Douglas Hofstadler

[jadesmar]

Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson

[firemeboy]

I started the elegant universe, then had to take it back to the library. I plan on buying it.

They decided on my title. Chickens in tihe Headlights.

[Courk]

[Duke Gnome]

Magician by Raymond E Feist
The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins
Goedel Escher Bach by Hofstedter
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R Tolkein

[mikegoo]

"Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman"
"Hard Wired"
"The Tipping Point"
"Cat's Paw"
"Ender's Game"
"The Elfstones of Shanara"
"Zodiac"
"Snow Crash"
"Bad Voltage"
"Neuromancer"
"The Bachman books" (really for "the long walk")
"The Bourne Identity"
"Catcher in the Rye"
"Dune"

[Antrax]

goo, I've seen each of the four stories in "The Bachman Books" sold separately as a book by Bachman, if you only want to nominate The Long Walk.
_________________
After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!