1FF Top 100 Books

[Martino Knockavelli]

Last week I insulted my brother via Goodreads for reading a Terry Pratchett book, and then he died about 2 days later (Pratchett, not my brother). I feel wretched about it.

 

[IanH]

I read Jeremy Clarkson's autobiography last month Carel. What have you got to say about that?

 

[mistermagic]

Wait! Martino is Carel???

 

[Oaf]

Hullo Mistermagic.

Yes.

King regards,
Oaf.

 

[Techno Natch]

Do we still have a good reads page? I signed
up last week.

 

[IanH]

Is that
you pleg?

 

[Oaf]

Do we still have a good reads page? I signed
up last week.

Yeah we do. There's a small bunch of us on there. My username is Oaf on there.

 

[Techno Natch]

Is that
you pleg?

No it's his dad
dean.


Oaf okay cool I will look it up next time I'm on my laptop.

 

[Veggie Legs]

https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/93173-the-football-forum

 

[mistermagic]

#7 - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson - 48 points, 5 lists (2012: N/A)

The posthumous success of Stieg Larsson which was made in an awful lot of films.
The plot is about a journalist, Mikael Blomqvist, who is publicly humiliated at court losing a case and desperately finding a big black hole to hide in from the media. When a mysterious call comes his way he is very wary to go to the middle of Sweden supposed to find out who killed which cousins in a vastly populated family. Something many detectives couldn't do. The inquiry also involves an social nerd named Lisbeth Salander who has a knack for hacking computers which goes a long way in solving her deep personal problems.
So this book is good. I liked it. It got a lot of criticism for being too detailed (opens the door, stretches his legs, has a wank, drops mike) and using too many characters. While the former didn't bother me, I actually agree with the latter. A lot of characters are used and most of them don't do anything interesting. Aside from that it's decently paced and the plot is good enough.
And one last time, the other two of the series are better. Much better.

 

[mistermagic]

#6 - A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin - 51 points, 4 lists (2012: N/A)

4th Martin novel of the list and #2 in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. I must say I'm starting to warm to the depiction of this and what I said about considering reading the whole thing (Martin is currently writing the 8th installment) is quickly transforming into "I'm definitely gonna read this before I turn 30". Just like quite a few books that I want to read, I didn't go into great detail researching fearing that I would stumble upon some spoilers. From what I gathered, it is a tale regarding a constant battle for power, with lots of people having sex (most of it between non-consenting individuals) and that things go very fast.
Oh and Martin makes writing fantasy come accross as child's play.

 

[Oaf]

(Martin is currently writing the 8th installment)

*6th

You've taken Storm of Swords parts 1 and 2 and Dance with Dragons parts 1 and 2 as separate books, but they're one just split into two to make it so that they're not fucking massive.

But you've never read them or seen the show?! This is something that you badly need to change... even if you "don't like fantasy", you'll probably love it.

 

[mistermagic]

*6th

You've taken Storm of Swords parts 1 and 2 and Dance with Dragons parts 1 and 2 as separate books, but they're one just split into two to make it so that they're not fucking massive.

But you've never read them or seen the show?! This is something that you badly need to change... even if you "don't like fantasy", you'll probably love it.

Nah I just assumed books 6 and 7 were already written but they're not.

 

[mistermagic]

And now for the top 5!!!

 

[mistermagic]

#5 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling - 64 points, 4 lists (2012: N/A)

So there you have. The people of 1FF/TFF have chosen the 4th instalment of the Harry Potter series as the best written by Rowling. The plot is rather inconclusive. All I could gather was that Harry was bored eager to get back to Hogwarts for his 4th year and then some things happen between him and Voldemort. It's all very exciting.
What I can tell you though is that the people who weren't sold on the first 3 HPs had their minds completely blown away by this one and were hooked forever after. Apparently, this book is unputdownable à la Grisham (come on, seriously?) even though it's a solid 750-page book.

So the HP novels according to the votes are:

1. Goblet of Fire
2. Philosophers Stone
3. Prisoner of Azkaban
4. Half-Blood Prince
5. Deathly Hallows
6. Order of the Phoenix
7. Chamber of Secrets

Does everyone agree with that?

 

[This Charming Mike]

Certainly the best HP book but my personal order of preference would go something like this:

1. Goblet of Fire
2. Prisoner of Azkaban
3. Order of the Phoenix
4. Philosopher's Stone
5. Deathly Hallows
6. Chamber of Secrets
7. Half-Blood Prince

 

[Jackinky]

I'd go for

1. Goblet of Fire
2. Philosophers Stone
3. Deathly Hallows
4. Prisoner of Azkaban
5. Order of the Phoneix
6. Half Blood Prince
7. Chamber of Secrets

 

[Ginola14]

I'd go for:

NONE OF THE FUCKERS.

 

[mistermagic]

I'd go for:

NONE OF THE FUCKERS.

I don't think I'll read the series but having reviewed all 7 of them it looks like this Rowling chick can write. Kudos.

 

[BCFC Jordan]

6 > 7 > 5 > 3 > 4 > 2

That's going by my memory, which isn't great. I don't think I ever read the first book, for some reason. Just went off the first film.

 

[Veggie Legs]

This is my HP order of preference:

1. Prisoner of Azkaban
2. Order of the Phoenix
3. Goblet of Fire
4. Deathly Hallows
5. Philosopher's Stone
6. Half Blood Prince
7. Chamber of Secrets

 

[mistermagic]

#4 - A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin - 74 points, 4 lists (2012: N/A)

Another one out of the Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series. If you have been paying attention to this list you will know how many books of the series have already been unveiled (fyi, there are 5 books in the series, our boy George is writing the 6th) and how many are remaining (if any are remaining!). Thankfully for you, dear readers of books (not kindle/iPads), a good man from Grimsby currently living the high life of Pyongyang (or wherever he's living in Korea) mercilessly obliged me to post the full pre-top 10 list so that you don't have to go through the whole thread page by page.
Anyway, this one is the 3rd installment in the series and the kingdoms are starting to decrease in numbers (this book is about some kind of power struggle between kings with lots of sex involved. Or something.) Browsing the reviews (not the spoilers because I've decided, on Oaf's reliable counsel (he agrees that LotR is rubbish, a knighthood beckons), to read the whole thing from start to finish), it looks like an awful lot of readers were left with vivid anger and hatred that forced them to throw the book at their television, or kitchen fancy china, or their dog. What happens next is even more disconcerting as they then regret their actions, have a telekinetic conversation with GRRM apologizing for harming his paperback bible (would you do that with a kindle or an iPad? Of course not. That's why books are better) and promising not to do it again. A bit like when you hit your laptop coz it's not working but when you see smoke coming out of it you start conversing with it like it was a real thing and promise never to hit it again (rip Sony Vaio 2007-2012).

Well that's how I see it anyway.

 

[Veggie Legs]

A Storm Of Swords was my number one, although I find it hard to separate the books in ASOIAF so really it's a vote for the whole series. It was difficult to choose between this and A Clash Of Kings as my favourite - I think the events around King's Landing are more interesting in ACOC, but what happens in the north and far east are better in ASOS. I think it's really Jon's story that swings it for me - he's my favourite character and what happens to him beyond the wall is the best part of the whole series.

Obviously I can't get inside his head, but I think GRRM had trouble reconciling the events at the of ASOS which is why the next two books were much less exciting.

Spoiler: Safe to read this if you've read the books or watched the latest GOT series

Everything built up with Robb, Joffrey and Tywin as significant belligerents had to be thrown away, and I found it quite jarring to be starting over with previously minor characters being promoted to primary characters. Clearly that's a reflection of how things were for those characters, but it doesn't help the story. By ADWD things have sorted themselves out, but the relatively fallow period of AFFC affects the whole series for me. (Also, it doesn't help if you wait five years for a book to come out and it turns out to be not quite at the same level as the previous one).

Also,

Spoiler: Don't read this unless you've read all five books

The only time I've thrown a book away was at the end of ADWD. Luckily it didn't hit anything, given that it's a 1000 page hardback.

 

[mistermagic]

#3 - Nineteen Eighty-four by George Orwell - 76 points, 7 lists (2012: #2)

It usually is one that either wins it or is in the top bracket of books ever written. One shouldn't want to rush it and read it too young as the implications of the world that Orwell drew in this book are such that I wouldn't have understood as a teenager for instance.
One shouldn't focus on the story of this book but rather on the world that Orwell created (a bit like Huxley's A Brave New World) whilst writing it in 1948. Because this book really is about society and how the powers are governing massive amounts of people.
The world is divided into 3 super powers which are Oceania (all English speaking countries and South America), Eurasia (Europe and Russia) and East Asia (Asia south of Russia and North of Hong Kong). The rest is disputed.
The book takes place in London where the goverment (Big Brother) is controlling every single aspect of everyone's lives with built-it cameras in houses and permission to name and shame people who are not obeying to party rulings. Some kind of nice dictatorship if you will. Ring any bells?

I notice that none of my Goodreads buddies have read this. Get on it dudes, it's great!

 

[Techno Natch]

I'm going to read it again. I did enjoy it but after hearing so much about it I thought the story itself was really average. It is very interesting and you can draw a lot of comparisons between the world we live in now and the one he created.

 

[mistermagic]

I'm going to read it again. I did enjoy it but after hearing so much about it I thought the story itself was really average. It is very interesting and you can draw a lot of comparisons between the world we live in now and the one he created.

The story's forgettable. I always have to look up what happens in this book and in Brave New World to actually remember who's who and what they do. As said above, the worlds are just superb and the imagination of Orwell at the time of writing is astonishing.
My mum got me Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury for Christmas which is of the same genre (written in 1951). Will give it a read asap.

But the big question is: who are the remaining two?

 

[mistermagic]

#2 - The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien - 82 points, 6 lists (2012: #5)

Drawing up the list a while back (almost 3 months now), I was quite surprised to see that the Hobbit had comfortably outscored the three LotR novels by a comfortable distance (points for the trilogy combined gets us to 55 points). Reviewing this, it does seem to have some kind of intrigue and is after all the introduction of Tolkien's world of the Middle Earth (or something). I also kind of want to learn more about Bilbo Baggins who many reckon is a far likeable character than Frodo. I always start watching The Fellowship of the Ring and Baggins comes across as an alright character who doesn't want to let go of the ring but bad boy Gandalf forces him to give it away (I think).
I know it is fantasy and the bad guy is actually a dragon but it just seems a more realistic tale than the Frodo trilogy. Not saying I'm gonna read it or anything but, y'know, it looks good.

Plus, most of my goodreads buds gave it 5 stars so that's cool.

SO WHO IS NUMBER ONE???? ANSWER TOMORROW!!! I BET SOME OF YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO GET ANY SLEEP TONIGHT!!! AMIRITE?? AMIRITE???

 

[Cardsfan]

This is still going?

 

[mistermagic]

This is still going?

You wanna a piece of me?

 

[mistermagic]

AND THE WINNER IS...