The Book Club

[Matt H.O.W.L.]

Cash by Johnny Cash.

Technically not a novel, but good stuff nonetheless.

[JimN]

Jim, a friend of mine passed on an extra copy of this that he had to me a few years ago which I've never read.  In fact, the only book of Bishop's I have read is No Enemy But Time - similar vein?

They share an anthropological core but I'd say they're pretty different. Transfigurations is set on an alien world and deals with the study of a group of alien hominids called the Asadi. It's an expanded version of a Hugo and Nebula-nominated novella titled Death and Designation Among the Asadi, which forms the first part of the novel. I don't want to say much about the actual story because the less you know, the better. It's an earlier Bishop book than No Enemy But Time but they reflect similar interests in the part of the author.

I hope that's helpful. I obviously recommend it!

Jim

[BoomerZ]

I hope that's helpful. I obviously recommend it!

Thanks, Jim!

[SDAL]

If you're after a fast-paced shallow action-packed read, I really Liked Ice Station by Matthew Reilly. I wouldn't really recommend too many of his others, but this was a really fun read that I couldn't put down.

[Matt H.O.W.L.]

I fear we've veered from the topic "The BEST Novel You've Read" into general recommendations, which has its very own thread: https://bullpenbulletinspodcast.com/forum/index.php?topic=2781.0 

Don't make me get my Merge Stick out! 

[Dave Faust]

Valis--Philip K. Dick
House of Leaves--Mark Z. Danielewski
Naked Lunch--William S. Burroughs
Crash--J.G.Ballard
Gravity's Rainbow--Thomas Pynchon
The Stand--Stephen King
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World--Haruki Murakami
The Sound and the Fury--William Faulkner
The Raw Shark Texts--Steven Hall
The Third Policeman--Flann O'Brien

[Jordan]

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami (my friends practically forced me to buy this book against my raging preconceptions - I wasn't ready for it to be as good as it was. I am still waiting for another book to come along and deliver the same experience again)

Karma!

I read this book during the slow parts of a tour through Europe and it completely knocked me on my ass.  I was not prepared for it to be as good as it was. 

[Jeppe]

Gravity's Rainbow--Thomas Pynchon
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World--Haruki Murakami

[NecroBaker]

Toss up between American Gods and Starship Troopers.

[Sean M.]

Gravity's Rainbow- Thomas Pynchon - If I was ever on a desert island, this is the book I'd take. Endlessly re-readable and interpretable
Valis- Philip K Dick - I prefer Dick's personal works, which extrapolated form his life. 
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller - War as comedy. I wish I could get naked and sit in a tree in response to work sometimes.
Flicker - Theodore Roszak - This speaks to the film geek in me despite the fact that Roszak seems completely suspicious of the medium.
War and Peace- Leo Tolstoy - While the first 100 pages are a rather dull party, this is a staggering work.
Dharma Bums- Jack Kerouac - While I love On the Road, I prefer the characters here. I also love Big Sur, the true depiction of the death of the 'beat' dream.
Dark Tower (all of it)- Stephen King - I spent half my life with a snobbish disdain for King's populism then I read this and it completely changed my attitude. I love the pop culture collider nature of it.
You Can't Go Home Again- Thomas Wolfe - Some of the most well constructed prose I've ever read. I should really read more.
Pattern Recognition- William Gibson - The questions in this are far more interesting than the answers but they are such fantastic questions that I don't care that Gibson can't quite stick the landing.
2666- Roberto Bolano - While I love War and Peace, it read like a translation. This never does, which goes to show that the translator did a fantastic job and that the original prose burned so brightly.
 
Interesting that my list (I can't simply name one) shares so many similarities with you guys  (presumably the reason being that we listen to the same podcast and frequent the same forum so not that odd really ). If I had to take only one then it would be Gravity's Rainbow; the only book that shackles you to the text as there is simply no way to predict what is coming in the next sentence.

[Jeppe]

Gravity's Rainbow- Thomas Pynchon - If I was ever on a desert island, this is the book I'd take. Endlessly re-readable and interpretable

Endless karma for the Pynchon love 

Dharma Bums and Pattern Recognition are also great choices.

[Wormworth]

Valis--Philip K. Dick
House of Leaves--Mark Z. Danielewski
Naked Lunch--William S. Burroughs
Crash--J.G.Ballard
Gravity's Rainbow--Thomas Pynchon
The Stand--Stephen King
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World--Haruki Murakami
The Sound and the Fury--William Faulkner
The Raw Shark Texts--Steven Hall
The Third Policeman--Flann O'Brien

A very nice list, and reminded me of The House of Leaves which I have yet to read!

[Matt H.O.W.L.]

A very nice list, and reminded me of The House of Leaves which I have yet to read!

Seconded. 

[Jay Tomio]

10 that popped into my mind:

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
People of Paper by Salvador Plasciena
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
Observatory Mansions by Edward Carrey
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
The Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin.
Never let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Gun, with Occasional Music  by Jonathan Lethem (he undoubtedly became a stronger writer later, but I LIKE his first the best, much in the way I feel about the great Jonathan Carroll.

Jose Saramago - can't pick one. The guy is/was a G.

[Jon_Samuelson]

Animal Farm
To Kill a Mockingbird

I'm actually kind of surprised, in 4 pages of "favorite novel" posts, that neither of these have been mentioned.  Both of these, along with Of Mice and Men, formed a great deal of my philosophical outlook on life.  They're all masterpieces, and I'll fight anyone who says otherwise.

[NeverWanderer (Joey Cruz)]

I just remembered one...

John Dies At The End by David Wong

The Shaun of the Dead of horror novels. Outrageously absurd, truly scary, surprisingly emotional and deep, and written with such wit and inventiveness I all at once can't believe it was written at all and wish there were more books like it. I can not recommend it enough. (Especially if you like smart mile-a-minute writers like Richard Matheson, Greg Rucka, Orson Scott Card, Patrick Rothfuss, etc.)

[Jay Tomio]

Can't believe I didn't list Stepan Chapman's The Troika. 

[Derek Coward]

The Stand by Stephen King
Imajica by Clive Barker
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The General Within His Labyrinth by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

[john_k]

Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut