₦airaland Forum

joshkke:
Hi, thanks, last thing first, read Shogun and liked it though it gets tedious at times, and yes HP and COTC are both fantasy. I don't have any thing against fantasy as a genre, however I'm partial to books in that genre that maintain a distinct philosophy of a supreme being who is fundamentally good. In the case of HP, the good versus evil theme is spurn out in the world of the book, without real world relevance, as in good witches fighting evil witches. For Stephen King, read only one of his books and never tried another one. Sure HP is fascinating but it's root ideology is not exactly my thing.

OK I get you now. It's a personal preference of yours.

halogate:
Marie Corelli
- Sorrows of Satan
- Soul of Lilith

Sir Author Conan Doyle
- All Sherlock Holmes collections

JK Rowland
- Harry Potter 1-7

John Gresham
- The Firm (can never forget "judge Hugo"
- The Partner
- The Last Testament
- The Time to kill.
- Runaway Jury
- The client

Michael Crichton
- Timeline

Stephen King
- (forgetten their titles)

Charles Dickens
- Tale of Two Cities

Hardly Chase novels
- Ring of Borgia

Harlequin novels
Mills and Boom
Things fall Apart
Dan Brown novels.
Edgar Allan Poe novels
All Shakespeare collections



Just the few I can remember

Great choices. I see you read a wide genre.

Timeline was my best Micheal Crichton book even more than Jurassic park. It's one of my all time bests.

I also loved the Woolsworth classics set - Ivanhoe, Tale of 2 cities, Treasure Island and co.

Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes adventures is a literary hall-of-famer. Edgan Allan Poe is also one of the Goats.

Wuthering heights by Emily Bronte is also an all time favorite of many.

There was this book about Chess pieces and its historical implications in discovering immortality. The Eight by Katherine Neville. It's an epic tale of adventure, history, time travel and some intriguing theories.

Mom007:
Did you ever read 'The Matarese Circle' by Robert Ludlum?

Yeah, I did back when I was serving NYSC. Had the intense Americo-Russian CIA-KGB plot intrigues.

The Scarlatti Inheritance was the first Ludlum book I read but The Bourne series were the ones I enjoyed most.

soojar:
Yeah, another masterpiece. Never watched the movie though. Now that you mentioned it I think I will check it out. Just that it's difficult for me to watch those old movies adapted from books. I will still check it out though. But there is this thing about "Pillars of the Earth" that stands it out for me.

I forgot to mention "nothing lasts forever" by Sidney Sheldon, It should be at the top of the shelf too.

If you've read Key to Rebecca, then you dont really need to watch the movie as in most cases movie adaptations are a significant drop off from the entertainment value you got in print.

Every output from Sheldon deserves to be at the top of the shelf.

There are some novels I read as a kid whose front and title pages were already torn so I didn't know their title but were so interesting. Many years after I still have that longing to finally know them.

One of them was an Egyptian setting. The main character was mostly in migration mode with some of his tribesmen through the desert region and encountered several epic challenges. One of such was that he was captured and thrown into a pit that contained a massive crocodile/s that had never been defeated, but he was able to kill the crocodile and come out of the pit.

There was a lot of mention of the sun god Ra in that book. Abeg who can remember the title?

abuhlawal:
Without a silver spoon

I really felt for Ure Chokwe!

soojar:
Difficult to pick out
A few of James Hardly Chase like "Who wants to stay alive?", The four Mark Girland series, etc.
A few from Jeffery Archer, Sidney Sheldon, Robert Ludlum, etc.

But if you push me to pick one by force, I will go for "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follet

A notable mention is this Yoruba Classic "Atoto Arere" By Oladejo Okediji


We learn every day.

Nice pick. Have you read the "Key to Rebecca" by Ken follet? It was also adapted into a movie.

Wegums:
Please where can I get the book? Thanks

Not really sure. I was like 14yrs old when I read it.

Check if you can find it on oceanofpdf.

patchsk:
You didn't mention Sir Lionel Rydal lol.

That's the Lord Rydal I was referring to nah

joshkke:
Great list except for the Harry Potter thing. Didn't read but I try to avoid books that seem to actively promote witchcraft or the occult. Have read all the rest except for Dean Koontz who is a bit too dark for me. Bertha M. Clay is just sensational, and I recently began to read her again under her USA alias, Charlotte M. Brame. Btw, have you tried the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson?

Oh, not read Segun O either

Thanks. If you look at it critically though, Harry Potter is in the same fantasy genre as the Chronicles of TC which you liked. The message in HP is overwhelmingly a battle of good against evil and the value of having friends who are there for each other through thick and thin. The "witchery" was just a unique commercial angle and I can tell you that nobody feels sympathetic to witchcraft after reading that book.

By the way, first time I read HP, I spent over 24 hours continuously eating up the over 1800-pages volumes without food. No other book could have made me do that.

Yeah Dean Koontz is a bit dark but what will you then say about Stephen King lol. Truly I got a bit tired of Koontz novels after a while but By the light of the moon is quite different from Koontz's regular horror vibe. It is an actual thriller and was completely hooked all through.

I haven't read the COTC series. I have only come across its reference several times just as J.R Tolkien's lord of the rings.

If you like epic adventure and enlightening scripts, please read Shogun. It's voluminous but worth the read as an all time classic.

ObalendeCMS:
Looking for a book titled, "Candle in the wind" by Nyengi Koin.

It's about a man that fell in love with, Mrs. Kòfowórolá, the class teacher of his daughter after he lost his wife for many years.

Are you sure you are not referring to Time changes yesterday? Kofoworola Odu was in that story

ignisaqua:
Windmills of the gods had a movie,,watched it,,that hard female assassin angel

I think you meant to say Bloodline. That's the one with the assassin and boss Angel.

WOTG was about a widowed doctor Ashley and an American Presidential candidate who was also in cahoots with a Russian cult.

Mom007:
I don't blame you. The book is a masterpiece! They don't make them like that anymore. Just sex, blood. Occultism, gay stuffs and other whotnot. Pstcheew.

I don't even know the new generation of foreign authors again that took over from dem Sheldon, Grisham, Ludlum's set. Na only few local authors I still sabi. Times have indeed changed.

ObalendeCMS:
The info therein is legit o!

Yeah. Can't forget this quote from the book - "Get rich, that's the best way to help the poor"

Mom007:
Quite the voracious reader you are! Some great books you got there. I thought I'd see Masters of the game by Sidney Sheldon among your list of greats.

Thanks. MOTG is without a doubt one of my GOAT novels along with Bloodline but I wanted to only include one novel per author for DEI purposes (lol) so I chose the first Sheldon novel I read that totally made me feel like I was having an unending literary orgasm - Windmills of the Gods.

patchsk:
Sorrows of Satan.
Beyond Pardon.

Apart from the Chases...

Beyond pardon was the most emotional romance story I read. Lord and Lady Eleanor Rydal. I could visualize the scenes with the way the story was told. A true classic.

ObalendeCMS:
Were you able to lay your hands on the book that inspired the author to write it?

I mean, "The Science of Getting Rich" by Wallace D. Wattles.

I believe in miracle!

I have this book! Sitting somewhere in my yahoo mail since 2009.

It had some really interesting concepts about bending things to your will with your mind.

imagrg:
Oh man, the mad rat-race in Nigeria doesn't allow anyone to read fiction novels again. The present reality breeds hard times.

Be that as it may, the novel that touched my heart most is Sydney Sheldon's novel:
A stone for Danny Fisher
Read it and hate poverty!

True Nigeria has changed our reading culture. I started by reading novels my dad bought and read when he was in active employment. Now I don't have the same luxury.

Sidney Sheldon was the best storyteller I've seen. All his novels were tremendous hits and page turners with no single dulling moment. From Master of the game, bloodline, windmill of the gods, rage of angels, if tomorrow comes, stars shine down, memories and other side of midnight were back-to-back-to-back hits.

God rest his soul.

Pedrocross4568:
Same here.

I keep telling myself I'll go back to reading books once again soon but the hustle of life has taking away all the time to relax with a great book.

God, how I have missed reading like crazy.

It give me the most satisfying joy ever.

Just so you know we both seem to have almost the same favorite author.

Brother, few years ago, I stumbled on a bookshop and took the opportunity to buy several classic storybooks (pacesetters and the likes) out of nostalgia. But they've been gathering dust since on my shelf, it's like I've missed that window for enjoying them and don't want to spoil it.

I assume you are referring to Sidney Sheldon. He's untouchable to me. His use of short punchy sentences to create suspense and emphasis is unrivalled. Very unpredictable to the extent that he became predictable with his unpredictability.

Bloodline, oh my God!

Bhella5:
Annoyingly boring

Could not get past page 8 and I dozed off on it.

Quantum physics was way more interesting.

Iagos:
Please do you have soft copies of the following books? African Nights entertainment, the children of Ananse. I would do anything to read those books again

Unfortunately no. But you can check "ocean of pdf" online as someone earlier suggested on this thread.

ruzell86:
Mothers Choice - Agbo Areo

Nice. Agbo Areo was a legend of the Pacesetters series.

Meanwhile there are some novels I read as a kid whose front and title pages were already torn so I didn't know their title but were so interesting. Many years after I still have that longing to finally know them.

One of them was an Egyptian setting. The main character was mostly in migration mode with some of his tribe and encountered several epic challenges. One of such was that he was captured and thrown into a pit that contained a massive crocodile/s that had never been defeated, but he was able to kill the crocodile and come out of the pit.

There was a lot of mention of the sun god Ra in that book. Abeg who can remember the title?

Pedrocross4568:
Smile. Great list

Thanks!

Sadly, it's been years since I've last read a novel. Most of the ones I read were when I was between 9 - 24 years. Can't seem to find the motivation to create the time any longer.

But the beautiful memories will never go away.

Harry Potter series 1 - 7 by J.K Rowling is the most interesting and engaging piece of literature I've ever read, but I don't consider it a novel due to the length.

For proper novels, my best five are:

1. Windmill of the Gods - Sidney Sheldon (The don of unexpected twists, mindblowing suspense and action. Number 1 for a reason)

2. By the light of the moon - Dean Koontz (Exciting mystery, thriller, gave me my first insight into fictional nanotechnology)

3. Kane & Abel - Jeffery Archer (a masterpiece in family politics, plots & business intrigues)

4. Shogun - James Clavell (Greatest epic book imo. My first introduction to Seppuku and other Asian practices)

5. Beyond Pardon - Bertha M. Clay (greatest romance novel in my opinion and to think it was written since 1890)


Locally, my best five:

1. The Gods are not to blame - Ola Rotimi

2. Arrows of God - Chinua Achebe

3. An African night's entertainment - Cyprian Ekwensi

4. A gift to the troubled tribe - Segun Okunoren

5. Shaka Zulu (the funny sounding names like bulawayo, dingiswayo were so fascinating to me at the time combined with the epic plot)

By the way who remembers the book below: