Your Five Favourite Books - And Why?

[PeterRS]

I know this "five favourite" theme could get boring. Before it does, can I suggest a five favourite books along with a one sentence (please just one) as to exactly why you like it. Not as easy as movies, I think, if only because whilst we tend to watch favourite movies more than once or twice, reading books more than twice is relatively rare. Not necessarily gay subject matter - any is acceptable. In no particular order. Anyway, here is my selection.

Paul Scott: The Raj Quartet

I know this is a bit of a cheat because this is a four-book novel, but as a gigantic scenario seen from British and Indian eyes as the British Empire is dying it is utterly riveting.

Caroline Alexander: The Endurance - Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition

Surely this tale of a ship in 1914 taking almost a year to sink after getting stuck in the Antarctic ice and the two ensuing incredibly long voyages made in open boats in the world's stormiest seas has to be the 20th century's greatest example of leadership and courage, the World Wars included, the more so when every man who set out on that voyage returned alive - and the book has incredible photographs of the actual journey.

Vikram Seth: A Suitable Boy

I like getting into long books and at nearly 1,500 pages this one is long, but as a portrait of a more modern India with stunning characterisations and a wholly intriguing subject, I loved it.

John Conrnwell: A Thief In The Night - Life And Death In The Vatican

Following the sudden death of the 'smiling' John Paul 1 after only 33 days as Pope and the Vatican eventually opening its archives to Catholic scholar John Cornwell to try and dispel all the rumours of skullduggery at the Vatican including murder, his conclusion is far less surprising than the blame he heaps on a multitude of Vatican officials who may well have wanted the Pope dead.

Sebastian Faulks: Birdsong - A Novel of Love and War

Again far better than the film, very few books have made me weep but this one about an intense love affair, lust and the effect on it of World War 1 for generations had the tears flowing.

[TMax]

I'm very much into military history so although I have read many books over the years I have concentrated on military history for the last 20 odd years, in part as I was army and on both my parents sides there is military going way back to the Peninsula Wars (way back in the early 1800's).

Stealth Raiders by Lucas Jordan: The sheer courage of the Aussie Diggers in 1918, raiding the enemy lines at night in small numbers and creating a sense of terror amongst the enemy troops.

Batavia by Peter Fitzsimons: Set way back in 1629 when the ship Batavia, the pride of the Dutch East India company ran aground off the coast of Western Australia, about mutiny, survival, heroism and retribution, although I had been taught about this in school I didn't realise just how hard and brutal it was for the survivors.

One Crowded Hour by Tim Bowden: Covers the story of Australian combat cameraman Neil Davis and his work throughout the Vietnam war and alas his coverage of the 1985 coup attempt in Bangkok where he and Bill Latch (his American soundman) were killed.

On Desperate Ground by Hampton Sides: Covers the US Marines on their battles from Incheon harbour through to the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, was a very interesting read as to how the operation was set up and carried out and the many acts of bravery by the marines.

Gallipoli by Peter Fitzsimons: As an Aussie this WW1 campaign has always been of interest and more so that my mothers father was there from the start to the finish and luckily survived, even of more luck he was repatriated to Australia after evacuation from Gallipoli as he contracted pneumonia and was later deemed unfit for service. After Gallipoli his unit was split up and they were sent to the western front, the division that his unit was assigned to was involved in some of the biggest battles fought by our troops. Sorry more than one sentence on that one. 

[forrestreid]

An interesting assignment.

I find the idea of "favourite" books hard to compute when one is thinking of both fiction and non-fiction books. There are so different it is hard to quantify them together. I decided in the end that I would have two fiction and three non-fiction books, and make my choices then.

It was hard to narrow it down to 5, and hard to say just a sentence about each and be meaningful. (I cheated a bit and added a bit more in brackets after each sentence, just like this!)

TMax made a quite sensible choice to restrict his picks to just one theme.

Fictional Choices

Dubliners by James Joyce.
In common with many others, I find the idea of reading one of his longer books is a bit too much, but I genuinely enjoyed this book of short stories by James Joyce -he was a master of the short story form, and his use of the idea of an epiphany as a theme is really well done (however, you would probably need to have an interest in the thoughts and life-ideas of somebody in an Edwardian European society to be really able to enjoy them. Joyce's world is very historically and culturally situated)

The Quincunx by Charles Palliser.
This is a big rambling intricate historical novel, in a sort of pastiche of a Dickensian style (even though it was written in the late 1980s) that succeeds in creating this sort of world that a classic 19^th century novel created, albeit more R-rated in style. (If you are a fan of Dickensian novels such as Great Expectations. you would likely enjoy it, although it is about 700 pages it is quite the page turner)

 

Some non-fiction choices:

Roumeli   By Patrick Leigh Fermor. My big fascination, apart from Southeast Asia, is Greece, and this book is an interesting meditation on northern Greece, blending historical insight and descriptions of 1950s travel (especially worth reading if you are thinking of heading to Meteora for the first time).

Mad about the Mekong by John Keay is a page-turning historical account that retraces the 19th-century French expedition up the Mekong River, blending adventure, colonial intrigue, and modern reflections on the region. (A particularly good primer for anybody heading to Laos for the first time)

Very Thai, by Philip Cornwall Smith. A good book for somebody who was fascinated by the physical reality of Thailand, like amulets, blue pipes and concrete seats, and wanted to read a bit about what they meant culturally.

(I think I recommended this before, but worth recommending again, and unlike the above two books, I might recommend getting this after your first journey to the LOS rather than before)

[PeterRS]

5 hours ago, forrestreid said:

I find the idea of "favourite" books hard to compute when one is thinking of both fiction and non-fiction books. There are so different it is hard to quantify them together.

A very good point and I am sorry I did not think of this when starting the thread. My list has 3 fiction and 2 non-fiction.