Hass wrote back:

some of these have already been mentioned here before, but here are some good books i’ve read:

huckleberry finn
jitterbug perfume
captain correlli’s mandolin (don’t watch the movie!!)
hitchhiker’s guide
ender’s game
surely you’re joking mr feynman!
modoc
the spirit catches you and you fall down
it’s not about the bike
the count of monte cristo

-hass

Rhetick wrote back:

Since I try to only read “classic” literature, I am not a very good
person for fun books. Let’s see, though:

All five Hitchhiker’s Guide books
All Harry Potter books

Okay, I started this email two days ago and thought that I’d go home and
look in my book case for more help. Sadly, almost everything in it is
serious. I came up with a few more, though:

Cats Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut (I think that that’s the one with ice-9 in
it)
Tortilla Flat - John Steinbeck - kind of Steinbeck depressing, but with
some good humor
Catch 22

Robin convinced me that popular literature can be good, too:
Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follet - pretty good if you’re into middle
ages and you learn a lot about how to build a church, which comes in
handy all the time
Patricia Cromwell books - pretty fun murder mysteries. Kind of like
Quincy, but it’s a woman and she’s not on TV.

Ali wrote back:

You know most of my favorite books but in case you don’t:

Mama Day (can’t remember who wrote it righth now)
A Prayer for Owen Meany (but you’ve read that)

The rest are on your list.

-ali

Wolfe wrote back:

* = I probably have a copy I could loan

Sci-Fi:
_Ender’s Game_: *
One of the classicly great books. Read it.

_Midworld_: *
Somehow enthralling look at generational survival and
adaptation on an alien world. Easy read.

_Orion_:
Easy read about time travel and one tool-of-a-man’s fight
against evil

Fantasy:
Song of fire & ice series (_storm of swords_, _clash of kings_ ,etc):*
Dark, addictive, epic world of politics, war, perversions, alliances,
and amazing characters. It gets better as the series progresses.

Black Company series: *
A series of stories about a band of nearly amoral cutthroat
mercenaries. The first book is great; the first three are
darn fine. Then it slides a bit.

The Blue Adept series: *
A very guilty pleasure. Magic, sci-fi, unicorns, and
bodacious willing babes abound. The mental equivalent of
cotton candy. That said, it’s an interesting setting
and fun reading.

Graphic novels:
The Sandman series: *
Ten darkly and fantasticly wrought graphic novels centered
around the king of dreams. Unquestionably the greatest
graphic novel series ever created. Alternately grotesque,
thought provoking, amazing, humorous, and, overall, just neat
story telling.

_The Dark Knight Returns_ *
Batman at 55. Dark, involving, and fun.

Short stories:
Selected Robert Sheckley *
My father used to read these to me as bedtime stories. The
man has a knack for a great twisted ending.

_A Song for Lya_ *
A selection of Zelazny stories. He has many great
collections, but this has to be my favorite.

Humor:
Any Patrick McManus, esp. _Real Ponies Don’t Go Oink_: *
The best outdoor comedy writer ever. A great selection of
short stories. I haven’t read a book of his I didn’t like.

Then later he wrote:

Add “Surely you’re joking Mr. Feynman!” to my list. Best
autobiography.

–Wolfe

Krista Wrote back:

I’m not sure if all of these are “fun” books, in the sense that they’re not necessarily uplifting. But they’re definitely very, very well-written and thought-provoking.

I’ll be curious to see your list. I’ve gone through a dry spell, too. Never before have I picked up so many books, read 50 or 100 pages, and put them down unfinished as I did last year. I don’t know what’s going on.

The Bone People - Keri Hulme
Disgrace - J. M. Coetzee (also The Life and Times of Michael K.)
Fugitive Pieces - Anne Michaels
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
Animal Dreams - Barbara Kingsolver
For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemmingway
Sassafrass, Cypress, & Indigo - Ntozake Shange
1984 - George Orwell
Steps - Jerzy Kosinski

Then the movie books (I haven’t seen these movies, but the books are fantastic)
Cold Mountain - Charles Frazier
All the Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy (steer clear of Blood Meridian)
The Hours - Michael Cunningham (but you should read Mrs. Dalloway by V. Woolf and a short story called “Room 19″ by ? first)

Krista

Britta wrote back:

Here is my list of 10 books to read for entertainment’s sake. I had an amazing reaction to each one of these books. These are not the all time best books, but each was a great experience in its genre.

Damn Amazing Writing:
Poisonwood Bible - Barbara Kingsolver

Graphic Novel:
X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga - Chris Claremont, John Byrne

Humor:
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Historical Fiction:
The King Must Die - Mary Renault

Fantasy:
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - JK Rowling
Nine Princes in Amber - Roger Zelazny

Sci-Fi:
Ender’s Game - Orson Scott Card
Dune - Frank Herbert

Horror/Suspense:
Christine - Stephen King
Watchers - Dean R Koontz

–B

Michael wrote back:

I really have favorite authors and not just favorite books. If you need to
know, “Yeah, but which book should I pick, since s/he wrote about a
hundred,” I’ve listed a suggestion.

Edward Abbey (Fool’s Progress)
Zora Neale Hurston (Their Eyes Were Watching God)
David Sedaris (new! Naked)
Willa Cather (My Antonia)
Vladimir Nabokov (Pnin)
Graham Greene (The Third Man)
E.B. White & James Thurber (Misc. Essays)

And when I need to pick up some poetry, it’s usually Ogden Nash or Robert
Service.

Bob wrote back:

Couple ones quick

Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky
The Hotel New Hampshire by John Irving (all of his stuff is ++)
Nobody’s Fool By Richard Russo

More if brain works…

Here is an email I sent to Hellfish …

I used to read a ton. Then not so much. Then some. Then not again. I’d like to start again. So as a favor to me, please reply with your top 10 favorite books to read for fun. “For fun” means you shouldn’t suggest a book that you thought was really good, but not that fun. “Crime and Punishment” springs to mind for me as an example of a book that is “good” but not “fun”.

So please, reply with your top 10 favorite books. To make it easier, you don’t have to order them, just an unordered list is fine. You don’t have to supply a reason for why you liked it, but if you do, that is OK. If you run over or under 10 books, that is OK. Just reply to me rather than “reply to all” so we can keep the hellfish traffic reasonable. I’ll post a table on our website listing everyone’s favorite books, and you can benefit too.

Here is what everyone replied:
Bob
Mike
Britta
Krista
Wolfe
Ali
Rhetick
Hass

I’ll get you started:
In no particular order ….

Catch 22 -Joseph Heller
Hocus Pocus -Kurt Vonnegut
Cryptonomicon -Neal Stephenson
All four Hitchhikers Guide books -Douglas Adams
The Making of the Atomic Bomb -Richard Rhodes
The Hyperion books -Dan Simmons
Working -Studs Terkel
A Fire Upon The Deep -Vernor Vinge
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn-Mark Twain
To Say Nothing of the Dog -Connie Willis
Heart of Oak - Tristan Jones
First N books from the Aubrey-Maturin Series -Patrick O’Brian
The Last of the Just: A Novel -Andre Schwarz-Bart (OK, not really “fun” but too great not to include)

These are pretty biased toward what I have read in the last couple of years. If I thought harder, I’m sure the list would include some more stuff from earlier in my life.

I was on the Mariners playing first base. I was hoping to do well on defense since I had never had a single at bat in any level of competition. I thought that as long as I did well in the field they would teach me how to bat. There was a high pop-up which I was trying to catch. However, I thought that to get the out I had to make the catch and keep my foot on the bag. So I was leaning way out with my foot on the bag, and just made the catch. Then I got scared that I would have to bat. I started explaining to the Manager how I had never batted so it might take me a few tries to get in the swing of things. While we were talking Edgar Martinez and John Olerud got traded to the Florida Marlins! I was very upset because I thought it was a betrayal of the team by those guys. I asked why they wanted to go to Florida and they said “because it is sunny and warm”. So right in the middle of the game they changed uniform and batted against us! Bastards! Luckly it was just a dream, and we won against Baltimore 1-0 today anyway.