2000 AD Online Forum

General Chat => Books & Comics => Topic started by: The Legendary Shark on 25 January, 2021, 01:03:12 PM

Title: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: The Legendary Shark on 25 January, 2021, 01:03:12 PM
We've got a thread for films, how about one for books and such?


The Brentford Trilogy - Robert Rankin
Odyssey/Iliad - Homer
Diary of a Nobody - George & Weedon Grossmith
Parallel Lives - Plutarch
The Bible (bits of it, anyway) - God
Conan - R.E. Howard
Discworld - Terry Pratchett
The Most Dangerous Superstition - Larken Rose
Fables of Aesop
The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Jeeves and Wooster - P. G. Wodehouse
Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkein
Anything by me! :D







Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: broodblik on 25 January, 2021, 01:13:47 PM
The Riftwar Saga - Raymond E. Feist
The Lost Fleet - Jack Campbell
Koban -  Stephen W. Bennett
Deathstalker - Simon R. Green
Dune - Frank Herbert
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: Bolt-01 on 25 January, 2021, 01:48:05 PM
The Dark Tower - Stephen King
Wild Cards - Various but George RR Martin does some editing.
Watchmen by Moore & Gibbons
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: von Boom on 25 January, 2021, 02:04:20 PM
The Dune Chronicles - Frank Herbert
Ringworld & Ringworld Engineers - Larry Niven
The Conan Chronicles - Robert E. Howard
The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien
Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Any P. G. Wodehouse
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Dirk Gently - Douglas Adams
Foundation trilogy - Isaac Asimov
The Stainless Steel Rat - Harry Harrison
Retief and Bolo - Keith Laumer
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: Colin YNWA on 25 January, 2021, 02:12:56 PM
All most all works by Kurt Vonnegutt - I've started to read 'Slaughter House 5' to the girl child (she's 11) - that might be ambitious but I'm enjoying it!
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: Barrington Boots on 25 January, 2021, 02:17:48 PM
Definitely P. G. Wodehouse, you can read those so many times.
Stuff that I turn to again and again:

Conan
The Princess Bride
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
assorted Terry Pratchett (his mid period is best imo)
assorted Lovecraft
Dune
The Alien Spotters Handbook (this is a kids book, references Tharg and 2000ad though!)
Neverwhere
anything by Sven Hassel
The Sword of Shannara trilogy (Scions series is alright too, nothing after that)
1066 and All That
bulk of the Flashman series
The Way of the Tiger choose your own adventure books.
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: Pyroxian on 25 January, 2021, 02:34:59 PM
The Belgariad by David Eddings - definitely my 'comfort food' of books.
Anne McCaffrey's Pern series.

I quite like just grabbing an old Sci-fi novel from my shelves - anything by Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov etc that's only a couple of hundred pages long and can be devoured in a few hours
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: TordelBack on 25 January, 2021, 11:00:18 PM
I'm tragically basic when it comes to the books and comics I really love to re-read:

All of Tolkien.
All of Banks.
All of LeGuin.
All of A. Moore (itching to re-read Jerusalem at the moment, maybe soon).

Something new every time with those four. 

Patrick O'Brian's Master and CommanderPost Captain and HMS Surprise. I'll happily re-read any of the 21 Aubrey novels,  but those first three are special.

Some others I never seem to tire of, in that I don't know how often I've read them:

Melville Moby Dick.
Dickens Bleak House.
Marquez 100 Years of Solitude.
Toni Morrison Jazz.
Gould Wonderful Life
CW Ceram Gods,  Graves and Scholars
Graves I Claudius/The God.
King Different Seasons (his best work)
Eco The Name of the Rose

Non-2000ad comicswise I re-read all of Bryan Talbot, Eddie Campbell and Dave Sim a lot. Gaiman and Delano less so,  but still many times.
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: O Lucky Stevie! on 26 January, 2021, 08:29:58 AM
Quote from: von Boom on 25 January, 2021, 02:04:20 PM

Ringworld, Protector & Ringworld Engineers - Larry Niven


Fixed that for you, von Boom.

Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: SmallBlueThing(Reborn) on 26 January, 2021, 09:58:42 AM
I read a lot- as I'd imagine we all do here- and am always hungry devouring stuff *I've not read before*, so "rereading" is a luxury I usually dont have.

That said, I do find myself, at times between new stuff, returning to the works of Robert E Howard, and Arthur C Clarke just for the sheer pleasure of it.

In comics- too many! The Alan Moore and Jamie Delano Captain Britains, early Spidey, Scalped (which I try to make time for every couple of years), the first 100 issues of Walking Dead (currently enjoying them all over again in the ongoing Deluxe series), and of course any number of 2000AD strips from over the years- currently Strontium Dog, of which I'm on volume 3 of the Agency files after having mainlined everything from the start of the redo from the original prog 2000 to The Son, then Agency Files vols 1 and 2 late last year.

SBT
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: Smith on 21 March, 2021, 06:21:09 AM
-Chronicles of Black Company
-Witcher saga
-Elric

In comics- Mirage TMNT,Peter Davids Hulk,Thunderbolts,mostly anything by Kurt Busiek...
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: paddykafka on 21 March, 2021, 07:23:24 PM
Novels etc

A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole

American Tabloid – James Ellroy

Book of the New Sun – Gene Wolfe

The Bone People – Keri Hulme

Coming Through Slaughter – Michael Ondaatje

Conan Chronicles – Robert E. Howard

The Dead Zone – Stephen King

Down and Out in Paris and London – George Orwell

Dune – Frank Herbert

Dying Inside – Robert Silverberg

The Earthsea Trilogy – Ursula K. Le Guin

The Elric Series – Michael Moorcock

Flashman Series – George MacDonald Fraser

The Gormenghast Trilogy – Mervyn Peake

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

How late it was, how late – James Kelman

Molloy, Malone Dies & The Unnameable – Samuel Beckett

Post Office – Charles Bukowski

Solomon Kane – Robert E. Howard

The Shining – Stephen King

Thieves' World Anthology – Edited by Robert Asprin & Lynn Abbey

The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks

Comics & Graphic Novels

Batman – The Dark Knight Returns
Charley's War – Pat Mills
Electra – Frank Miller
Preacher – Garth Ennis
Sandman – Neil Gaiman
V for Vendetta – Alan Moore

Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: von Boom on 21 March, 2021, 07:31:47 PM
James Herriot's vet novels.
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: Funt Solo on 21 March, 2021, 08:18:59 PM
The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth - every time I finish it, I've forgotten all the tricks and get to hear about them again.
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: paddykafka on 21 March, 2021, 09:18:04 PM
Forgot to include the names of the artists on these. Will give myself a good flogging later on for the omission.

Comics & Graphic Novels

Batman : The Dark Knight Returns - Frank Miller
Charley's War – Pat Mills & Joe Colquhoun
Electra – Frank Miller & Bill Sienkiewicz
Preacher – Garth Ennis & Steve Dillon & John McCrea
Sandman – Neil Gaiman & Various Artists
V for Vendetta – Alan Moore & David Lloyd
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: zombemybabynow on 21 March, 2021, 09:25:55 PM
Every Iain M Banks with a blue cover 🚀
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: von Boom on 21 March, 2021, 11:48:54 PM
Quote from: zombemybabynow on 21 March, 2021, 09:25:55 PM
Every Iain M Banks with a blue cover 🚀
FTFY.
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: Hawkmumbler on 22 March, 2021, 11:13:51 AM
Oooohhh choices choices.....

La-Bas by J.K. Huysmans
The Red Laugh by Leonid Andreyev
The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen
The Golem by Gustav Meyrink
The King in Yellow by Robert Chambers
Human Chair and Caterpillar by Rampo Edogawa
The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz
Songs of a Dead Dreamer by Thomas Ligotti
The King in the Golden Mask by Marcel Schwob
The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
The Aeniad by Virgil
Les Fleurs Du Mal by Charles Baudelaire
The Twenty Days of Turin by Giorgio De Maria
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: The Mind of Wolfie Smith on 22 March, 2021, 11:15:02 PM
don quixote
ariel by sylvia plath
love and rockets
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: Daveycandlish on 23 March, 2021, 05:15:30 PM
I've been re-reading the Button Man series and I think it's the first time I've dipped back into Book Four since it was collected. Loved the first three stories but I think I was just on a downer with the the fourth because it wasn't drawn by Arthur Ransom. It's still a damned fine tale and Fraser Irving does a good job with it but even after all these years I still miss A R's work. I do wish Rebellion had continued publishing the series in hardback though - the first book is a thing of beauty.
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: zombemybabynow on 24 March, 2021, 01:37:49 PM
shades of grey - jasper fforde
hitchhiker's... [5 books]
the city and the city -  China Miéville
Iain M Banks - hydrogen sonata
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: BPP on 24 March, 2021, 10:27:32 PM
Quote from: Daveycandlish on 23 March, 2021, 05:15:30 PM
I've been re-reading the Button Man series and I think it's the first time I've dipped back into Book Four since it was collected. Loved the first three stories but I think I was just on a downer with the the fourth because it wasn't drawn by Arthur Ransom. It's still a damned fine tale and Fraser Irving does a good job with it but even after all these years I still miss A R's work. I do wish Rebellion had continued publishing the series in hardback though - the first book is a thing of beauty.

Always baffled by the negativity to book 4. Irving's work is astounding, for me the best he produced for 2000ad. The fusion of his style with a more grounded realism really worked. It always seemed a knee-jerk reaction from fandom not getting more Ransom.
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 24 March, 2021, 10:50:41 PM
Quote from: BPP on 24 March, 2021, 10:27:32 PM
Always baffled by the negativity to book 4. Irving's work is astounding, for me the best he produced for 2000ad. The fusion of his style with a more grounded realism really worked. It always seemed a knee-jerk reaction from fandom not getting more Ransom.

Yeah, I liked Frazer's work on that, too. I keep saying that they should do Bk5 with Pete Doherty on the art — firstly because Pete doesn't do enough strip work, but secondly because he'd be perfect, with his talent for very naturalistic body language and expressive use of deep shadow.
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: BPP on 24 March, 2021, 11:08:50 PM
Oh yeah, seconded.

Doherty can do beautifully grubby ordinary realism so well. Sublime artist and colourist. He did a 2 part John Smith Meg Dredd in 2009 - old wounds - and it's another of those neglected art joys. See also the Morrison / Taylor Great Executions from megs in 2012.
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: Bolt-01 on 25 March, 2021, 10:00:53 AM
Another vote for Pete Doherty here. I adore his work.
Title: Re: Endlessly Re-Readable
Post by: AlexF on 31 March, 2021, 09:16:40 AM
Inspired by Funt Solo's mention of 'Elements of Eloquence' - a book I'd never heard of but can already tell I'm going to love - here are two comics I can never seem to get enough out of:

99 Ways to tell a Story by Matt Madden
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud