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Flip-A-Thread: Best book you've ever read?

Started by CountDeMoney, July 07, 2011, 08:40:56 PM

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Drakken

#45
July 08, 2011, 06:49:58 PM Last Edit: July 08, 2011, 06:54:49 PM by Drakken
Quote from: Admiral Yi on July 08, 2011, 06:22:30 PM
What's a Mary Sue character?

A character that stands for what the author would like to see of him or herself if he were there, or a fantasy characterization for either the author or the reader. Usually has the best personality and a vast array of skills to the point of being one-dimensional, always the solution to all problems MacGyver-style, and always there to save the hero.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue

Since those two often have homoerotic, bromance connotations in the series, I vote to label Maturin a "Marti Stu".

Admiral Yi

#46
July 08, 2011, 06:59:05 PM
Well that's not very fair then.  A physically ugly character with opium addiction and a savage temper can hardly be described as overly perfect.

Josephus

#47
July 08, 2011, 07:00:03 PM
I am learning so much on this forum today.
Civis Romanus Sum<br /><br />"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world." Jack Layton 1950-2011

Drakken

#48
July 08, 2011, 07:05:08 PM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on July 08, 2011, 06:59:05 PM
Well that's not very fair then.  A physically ugly character with opium addiction and a savage temper can hardly be described as overly perfect.

Paul Bethany was rather hot.

Barrister

#49
July 08, 2011, 10:54:26 PM
Quote from: Admiral Yi on July 08, 2011, 06:59:05 PM
Well that's not very fair then.  A physically ugly character with opium addiction and a savage temper can hardly be described as overly perfect.

He isn't described as being perfect for some of the exact reasons you mention.

Yet over the course of the series he evolves from a simple Irish ship's surgeon to being descended from Spanish nobility, an important British secret agent, fluent in a dozen languages, a world renowned naturalist.  At one point he has enough money to buy HMS Surprise and give it to Aubrey.

Reading the books I did feel like O'Brien identified with Maturin and became very  found of the character (he was also fond of Aubrey, but didn't see himself in that character).  He has definite Mary Sue qualities.

But I'm not trying to criticize the books - I devoured the whole 20 book series, and quite thoroughly enjoyed them. 
Posts here are my own private opinions.  I do not speak for my employer.

katmai

#50
July 08, 2011, 10:55:52 PM
I feel compelled to beat Beeb for using that damn infernal term.
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son

The Brain

#51
July 09, 2011, 01:36:27 AM
One of my ancestors was a world renowned naturist.
Women want me. Men want to be with me.

Sophie Scholl

#52
July 09, 2011, 01:43:42 AM Last Edit: July 09, 2011, 02:09:15 AM by Benedict Arnold
Quote from: katmai on July 08, 2011, 10:55:52 PM
I feel compelled to beat Beeb for using that damn infernal term.
Try playing WoW on a straight RP server.  Insanity.  As for myself, I'll always have a special place in my heart for The Legend of Huma by Richard A. Knaak from the Dragonlance series.  Great literature?  No.  However, I read it for the first time in... 4th grade?  and have read it many, many times since.  It's a whole bunch of nostalgia and happy memories all wrapped up in one book for me.  I'm also rather partial to Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk, LoTR, and a few others.
"Everything that brought you here -- all the things that made you a prisoner of past sins -- they are gone. Forever and for good. So let the past go... and live."

"Somebody, after all, had to make a start. What we wrote and said is also believed by many others. They just don't dare express themselves as we did."

katmai

#53
July 09, 2011, 01:53:00 AM
Some of my favorite books
The Long Goodbye-Raymond Chandler
Ham on Rye-Charles Bukowski
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son

Norgy

#54
July 09, 2011, 12:05:00 PM
Quote from: katmai on July 09, 2011, 01:53:00 AM
Some of my favorite books
The Long Goodbye-Raymond Chandler
Ham on Rye-Charles Bukowski

Good choices.
I had a serious Bukowski period. I even read some of his books.

Pedrito

#55
July 09, 2011, 12:27:47 PM
another great book that I fondly re-read every some years is The Great Gatsby.

L.
b / h = h / b+h


27 Zoupa Points, redeemable at the nearest liquor store! :woot:

Habbaku

#56
July 09, 2011, 12:35:34 PM
Quote from: Pedrito on July 09, 2011, 12:27:47 PM
another great book that I fondly re-read every some years is The Great Gatsby.

L.

:bleeding:
The medievals were only too right in taking nolo episcopari as the best reason a man could give to others for making him a bishop. Give me a king whose chief interest in life is stamps, railways, or race-horses; and who has the power to sack his Vizier (or whatever you care to call him) if he does not like the cut of his trousers.

Government is an abstract noun meaning the art and process of governing and it should be an offence to write it with a capital G or so as to refer to people.
-J. R. R. Tolkien

Admiral Yi

#57
July 09, 2011, 01:24:24 PM
Quote from: Norgy on July 09, 2011, 12:05:00 PM
Good choices.
I had a serious Bukowski period. I even read some of his books.

:P

Iormlund

#58
July 09, 2011, 01:33:49 PM
Quote from: mongers on July 08, 2011, 02:41:38 PM
If we're restricting this to works of fiction, then I'd have to go with my CV.  :)
:lol:

As for the original question, I don't know. Maybe Hyperion. I read my copy so many times it fell apart.

11B4V

#59
July 09, 2011, 01:35:52 PM Last Edit: July 09, 2011, 01:37:56 PM by 11B4V
Hard to narrow down. Some off the top of my head;

True Grit by Portis

The Bachman Books

Dune

The Man Who Would Be King

Musashi
"there's a long tradition of insulting people we disagree with here, and I'll be damned if I listen to your entreaties otherwise."-OVB

"Obviously not a Berkut-commanded armored column.  They're not all brewing."- CdM

"We've reached one of our phase lines after the firefight and it smells bad—meaning it's a little bit suspicious... Could be an amb—".
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