Susan came up with a great poll question today.
How many books have you read in the list of books Rob has read? Had you read them before or did you read them because of him? Also what were your thoughts on the book/books.
Here’s the list:
- 2666: A Novel – Roberto Bolano
- Charles Baudelaire – Complete Poems
- Collected Short Stories – E.M. Foster
- Doomed Love: Virgil
- Independent People – Halldor Laxness
- Kill Your Friends: A Novel – John Niven
- Money – Martin Amis
- My Friend The Mercenary – James Brabazon
- Nine Stories – JD Salinger
- The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories – Carson McCullers
- Ticket to Ride – Dennis Potter
- Tom Waits – Anthology
And of course a list of the books associated with his recent movies:
- Bel Ami – Guy de Maupassant
- Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen
Are there any other books you’ve read because of Rob?
Thinking of Rob 
umm i read WFE and BA and now i´m reading: Collected Short Stories — E.M. Foster
Now i don´t have a lot of time cuz the school but… when i have time i will read all of them
I’m a huge reader and I have to admit that out of this list of books I haven’t read many. I’ve read Bel Ami because it was required reading in school. Wasn’t very fond of the book all around. Hated the character (Georges Duroy) although I guess that’s the point of the book.
I read Water for Elephants because of the movie and I absolutely loved it! Such an amazing book.
I started reading The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories but for me this book was a wall thumper. I usually give a book a 100 pages and if I don’t like it by that point I just stop reading it. I call those books my wall thumpers 😉 Well Ballad of the Sad Cafe was one of those.
I started reading JD Salinger’s Nine Stories because I love Catcher in the Rye so much but the stories are erm a little weird to me.
Besides that I haven’t read any of the other books. Mostly because I really don’t think Rob & I have the same taste in books (and yes I’ll say it) some of these books just don’t appeal to me at all. I do like Baudelaire though 😉
The ballad….and Water for elephants
I have read Water for Elephants (great book!) and I’m reading The Ballad of the Sad Cafe now. 🙂
Tina
I have read “Water for Elephants” and “Bel Ami” and I have ordered “My friend the mercenary.”
Did you guys like the books?
Yes, you should start with Water for Elephants if you have not read it. It is a great book and it gets you excited about the movie.(not that Rob being in the movie isn’t exciting enough but you will know the story behind it.):)
I read Water for elephants, and I want to read the Haunting of Toby Jugg!
Oh yeah I forgot that was a book as well. From what I hear it’s nothing like the movie though. Although I may be wrong.
I read “Water for Elephants” back in 2008 and fell in love with the story then, but re-read it when I saw the movie coming out. Also read “Bel Ami” because of the movie and I thought the book was ok. I also read some of “Nine Stories” and “The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and other stories”. I enjoyed reading both, but neither is light reading. I do like Carson McCullers writing style – my son gave me “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter” for my birthday so that is on my list to read soon.
Totally random but I love that bookmark in the book in the pic. I want it lol
I´m a bookworm…. and I luv Rob even more, cause he´s reading so much…
so, I´ve read WFE twice in german, I´m going to read it in english as well,
(I love this book sooooo much, it´s one of my all time faves…)
I read Bel Ami, and The Ballad of the sad Cafe… (amazing book)….
I became a big fan of Carson Mc Cullers because of Rob….
At the moment, I´m reading a collection of her other stories.
Water for Elephants and Bel Ami. I have to thank Rob, probably actually Stephenie Meyer, in a way because I have gotten off the boreing bio and history books and into novels.
I read Ticket to ride by Dennis Potter, which he recommended in an interview (amazon?)have to read it again, I liked it,Water for Elephants, which is a precious book imo, Catcher in the Rye, which I loved the most, BelAmi, Twilight Series lol, Harry Potter didn’t finish, it sucks, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe <– loved that!
Books I'm gonna read: Money, The Haunting of Toby Jugg, Kill your friends, Doomed love
Forgot to mention the film scripts of BelAmi and Remember Me
OMG, how did you get through it. I on the other hand, had a hard time and stopoed after page 16. It’s not that it wasn’t good, it was very,very good. But when the husband and wife’s stories strated to combine in the same chapter, it got very confusing. It may have been over my head and it was a bitch to track down. To exspensive to buy, cheapest one i found was $150. The library had to borrow it from another and had to have it back in a week. I would love it if anyone could email me and tell me about it at shaytwilight@gmail.com. I really do want to finish it (i hate i didn’t).
BTW, The Twilight Saga (too many times to be deemed healthy)lol
Bel Ami – I think that he starts out naive, and because of the women he becomes ruthless. That’s how I took it. I think the movie won’t show that way. I loved this character and it going to be Robs’ sexiest role to date.
Water For Elephants
Ballad of the Sad Cafe
From the books that Rob reads, I think he has a very strange but intelligent mind and very, very weird. Maybe that is what draws me to him. I’ve always loved the British.
I will read them all at some point.
At the beginning of my rant, i was talking about Ticket To Ride. I really want someone to email me….PLEASE, PLEASE WITH ROB ON TOP!!!!!!!
yes, “Bel Ami” and “Water for Elephants” (great book)
others are on my “to read” list 😉
Money — Martin Amis. I was shocked and puzzled when I first began reading, it was hard getting through the first 100 pages or so, but then I got the idea behind it (or so it seems to me). I think I’ll read other books by the same author just for the sake of curiosity and the author’s style and manner of narration.
Water for Elephants — Sara Gruen. I just wanted to know what the film would be about. Don’t kick me, the book is very good as a basis for a film, but as a work of literature it’s overestimated – jerky movement, uniform speech characteristics as if it were the same person speaking all the time, descriptions falling flat, unbelievable ending (too good to be true, a happy end + deus ex machina), etc.
Because of you, guys, I sped up reading “The Shadow of the Wind” by Carlos Zafon (it was in my plans all the same). What to say? I expected more – though the writer has his own style (which reminds me in the translation into my mother tongue of the Russian Silver Age prose of the beginning of the 20th century – syntax, colour palette, strangeness and magic of Barcelona), and all the characters form a meaningful pattern, the plot is very predictable, we’ve got a happy end once again, it’s just another story of eternal love with little philosophy behind the book that we haven’t seen before. It was built artificially, not breathed naturally. Good, but not great, nice for a decade, but will hardly last into the next 20-30 years.
WFE and Bel ami
WFE,the script for Unbound Captives, moving on to Bel Ami*
I read Water for Elephants when I heard, that Rob was in the movie adaption´s cast. Recently I read Salinger´s nine short stories because I had seen that he read them before.
On the other hand, I had to deal with Baudelaire and Guy de Maupassant a lot at university and I was surprised when I found out that those French writers are in his reading list, too.
Currently I´m reading Carlos Ruiz Zafón shadow of the wind in order to keep up to date with the books that Rob will be reading soon….:-)!
I had already read those : Complete Poems — Charles Baudelaire ; Collected Short Stories — E.M. Foster ; Bel Ami — Guy de Maupassant; and Doomed Love: Virgil. I’m French and love Baudelaire et Maupassant, and anyway they’re standard classicals for French literature in every college and university. You can’t escape them if you want to. So no Rob influence here. Forster is an old flame of mine :)) and I read Latin long ago so you can’t really escape Virgil.
Those I read because of Rob :
Independent People — Halldor Laxness (but I already knew that Icelandic writer from other books ; he’s really great, he’s wonderful, his wrting is stark and austere and cruel but gripping and breathtakingly beautiful , he’s like the incarnate voice of Iceland..)
Kill Your Friends: A Novel — John Niven (usually, I would never have thought of trying that but it’s excellent in a dark, incredible, horrific way and I howled with laughter at how evil and yet funny and fascinating the main character is!)
My Friend The Mercenary — James Brabazon (it’s OK, it’s honest and sometimes really gripping ; it’s also not something I would normally have picked. Rob makes me read books I wouldn’t have considered before. And that’s a good thing).
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories — Carson McCullers (I already knew the Ballad… but not the other stories ; and now I’ll also start on her novels, I love her writing!)
Water for Elephants — Sara Gruen (lovely book, even if it’s not perfect ; i read it when I heard about the upcoming film).
Salinger : Rob reading the short stories made me feel ashamed of never having read The Catcher in the Rye so I did and I loved it, but I haven’t read the short stories. Yet.
Now I’m curious about Martin Amis. I’ll check him out some day.
Unfortunately I haven’t read too much books from this list.
I tried to read Nine Stories by JD Salinger, but to be honest I read just the first story from nine, ‘A Perfect Day for Bananafish’, but it was a little bit weird to me, and I wasn’t really interested to read the other eight..but maybe once 🙂
Bel Ami I had to read at high school years and years ago, but when I found out Rob is going to play George’s charakter from this book, I read it again…It wasn’t bad, but Bel Ami is still not my favorite.
Then I read Water for Elephants…Amazing amazing book, I’m going to read it again in english (read it before in hungarian). WFE bacame one of my favorite books. Rob made a really good choice to do this movie, I can’t wait to watch it.
I have read both Bel Ami and Water for Elephants. I have also studied the life of Salvador Dali because of Little Ashes, the books being Diary of a Genius and The Secret Life of Salvador Dali. Interesting character, that Dali!
well..started reading the Twilight books for one thing..
I’ve read Bel Ami script..fiund it had a good plot but a bad ending.
and I’m reading Ballad of the sad cafe right now..its boring though. Totally not into the same books as Rob. But love Catcher in the Rye(not on list but assuming he has read it) and plan to read WFE after I’ve seen the movie 🙂
I read “Ballad of the Sad Cafe” which is actually a short story after he recommended it on Oprah. Had a hard time getting into that. Read “Water for Elephants” as soon as he started filming it and have read it again. I LOVE that book! “Bel Ami” – I liked the script much better. Did not enjoy the book. Maybe it was the translation? And, of course, I’ve read all the Twilight books 9 times each, the first one 10 times. I’m taking a break from them now. 🙂
By the way, there are several more books he’s either mentioned in his interviews or carried in the photos:
– Where Angels Fear to Tread by E. M. Forster
– Maurice: A Novel by E. M. Forster
– A Room With A View by E. M. Forster
– John Steinbeck. East of Eden
– Ian Beck “Summer House”
– R.E.L.Masters – Sex-driven people
Sex Driven People was a prop for a photoshoot (Vanity Fair).
Well, I had barely heard of Twilight books, but a friend asked me to accompany them to Twilight movie. I was fairly captivated by the characters, esp RP. So, read all the Twilight books, Bel Ami, WFE, and will start next on the list provided. Thanks!
I’m already addicted to the written word, but Rob has offered up some very interesting and inspiring authors to explore.
“Invitation to a Beheading,” “Lolita” – Vladimir Nabokov
“Bel Ami,” “A Life” – Guy de Maupassant
“The Ballad of the Sad Cafe” – Carson McCullers
“Hide and Seek,” “Ticket to Ride” – Dennis Potter (It took an immense amount of effort to get these books! I tracked down Hide and Seek through the internet, while Ticket to Ride was found in a tiny bookshop on a bargain shelf in Dublin, Ireland.)
I also live in a French speaking country so Beaudelaire is a must – magnificent poet. Maupassant is also a must-read, love his work and I had somehow not read Bel Ami, so I did because of Rob and I loved it – it’s so not the usual politically correct ending !
WFE of course – loved loved it – read it twice in a row and I could just totally picture Rob in the role.
EM Forster I already know and liked.
2666 I have bought but it’s soooooo BIG that I have yet to find the courage to start it ! I will need a huge handbag to carry it around ! lol
I tried Money but that’s not my cup of tea at.all…
Nine Storied by JD Salinger – great writing, not your usual stories.
Carson McCullers, liked it very much – will have to read more.
And of course the Twilight saga, which I read also because of Rob as I only discovered the books when I first saw the Twilight trailer with gorgeous Rob as Edward !
All of the Twilight books, Water For Elephans, and Bel-Ami
Before knowing him => Charles Baudelaire — Complete Poems
Coz of him => Bel Ami — Guy de Maupassant / Water for Elephants — Sara Gruen
I’ve read Nine Stories by JD Salinger The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories by Carson McCullers but not because of Rob.I got them maybe 5 years ago..Rob has great taste 😛
btw I decided to read Water for Elephant and Bel Ami 😉
Water for Elephants — Sara Gruen
I read Bel Ami and Water for Elephant because I knew that Rob was going to be in the cinematographic adaptation. I loved them both. Can’t wait to see both movie.
I read:
Bel Ami — Guy de Maupassant
Water for Ele phants — Sara Gruen
And yes, because it had something to do with him, I wanted to know if I would like to watch him in those movies…
And … of corse, I liked both books and will be watching the movies wenn they come out!
Due to Rob I read Nine Stories by Salinger, I finished all nine stories but they confused me, they were so weird and non had a real ending.
Bel Ami — Guy de Maupassant, Georges Duroy was a real bastard but because Rob is playing him I gave him a lot of leeway. He can come after me for my money if he wishes. I’ll need a lot of work, I don’t have any money. Shh.
Water for Elephants — Sara Gruen, I loved the book, I didn’t want it to end and when it did I reread again.
I had never heard of the Twilight books but after seeing Twilight and Rob I ordered them all and so far I have read them five times.
I want to read the Toby Jugg book but the movie and the book are extremely different.
May I put in a word about “Nine Stories” ? It’s sad that some people fail to see any meaning at all or find the stories depressive.
There’s an interesting book by I.Galinskaya that analyzes Salinger’s “Nine Stories”. That’s what she writes if we put it in a nutshell:
Why nine? Salinger provides the epigraph and states that that’s a zen k?an. The k?an is by Hakuin Ekaku (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakuin_Ekaku) and hints at the necessity of going beyond the surface of things.
Nine stories correspond to 9 poetic moods (rasas – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasa_(aesthetics) ) that contribute to creating a hidden meaning, and they and the respective stories are:
Erotics and love – “A Perfect Day for Bananafish”
Laughter and irony – “Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut”
Compassion – “Just Before the War with the Eskimos”
Wrath and fury – “The Laughing Man”
Courage and fortitude – “Down at the Dinghy”
Fear – “For Esmé – with Love and Squalor”
Aversion – “Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes”
Surprise and enlightenment – “De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period”
Composure and tranquility leading to abandoning the material world – “Teddy”
So all the stages of ascending to God and achieving composure are represented in the book. Maybe this idea will help to see at least some meanings that Salinger put into his work.
It all depends on our individual perceptions. Some people can see things one way and others can see it a totally other way. I haven’t read more than the first story in Nine Stories so far but I have to say it’s not my cup of tea. I like some of Salinger’s other books but this story was just not for me. As for the first story when you say that it’s “Erotic & Love” I fail to see this in the story. Maybe it’s because of the suicide at the end. My mom committed suicide and it’s not something I take lightly.
Books are personal to each reader. What we look for in books is also personal to each reader. Some people will read to get away from real life a little bit, a short journey in another place, other people will read to find answers and so forth. I’m sure you get my train of thoughts.
I read a wide variety of books but I also love my brain popcorn as I call it (chic lit).
Sure, I agree, many men, many minds. I.Galinskaya’s point of view is just a suggestion, a strange angle, an unexpected twist.
All the four twilight books after watching new moon and twilight movie…. of course after seeing robert as the super handsome edward cullen… WFE will be the next book… i have to make the time to read it though…
I have read :
2666: A Novel by Bolaño ;
Charles Baudelaire — Complete Poems
and Collected Short Stories — E.M. Foster.
Because of Rob I have already read Bel Ami;
Water for Elephants
and all the books of the Twilight Saga.
Twilight – all of them!
Bel Ami
Water for Elephants
I’m so lame…
Read all Twilight books, of course. Then Water for Elephants – that was really good. Then Ballad of the Sad Cafe short stories – the ballad was good, but all of the stories are depressing.
I have read Water for Elephants and I am going to read Bel Ami and the bad mother’s handbook
i read water for elephants and it was really good. i can’t wait for the movie to come out.
Bel Ami … don’t like it that much
i read wfe b/c of rob and part of bel ami. i have 2 read the rest of this list tho
Well, I’ve read these books before:
Charles Baudelaire — Complete Poems
Collected Short Stories — E.M. Foster
Doomed Love: Virgil
Nine Stories — JD Salinger
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories — Carson McCullers
. . . but not because of Rob. I’d read them a long time ago. 😉
The books I have read because of Rob include “Memoirs” by Will Fetters & “Water For Elephants.” I have only seen the movie of Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling, and I REFUSE to EVER read any of the Harry Potter books. (LOL) But, of course, I’ve also read the Twilight saga.
I’m just waiting for the “Bel Ami” movie to come out, and then I’ll buy a copy of Bel Ami” once the “movie tie-in version” is in bookstores, with Rob on the cover. 😉 🙂 And I’d still like to find a movie tie-in book of “Remember Me.” Now that I’ve read the original screenplay “Memoirs,” and now that I’ve actually seen (and now own 😉 ) “Remember Me,” I’d love to also have the book version of “Remember Me.”
Read Water for Elephants because Rob was filming it at the time–and loved it for it’s sense of time and place. He does seem to pick rather a lot of short stories and they’re not my thing. Have read everything by Martin Amis and love the dark, twisted worlds he inhabits.
I had read in French Les fleurs du mal of Baudelaire, many beautiful short stories of Maupassant but not Bel-Ami, and in English Nine stories of Sallinger before knowing Rob about november 2009. After that I read Bel-Ami and did not like very much the book, WFE even if I generally am not interested in circus stories. I find almost everything in the book interesting except the love story.I have read The ballad of the sad café too, very interesting book, as The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.
In French I read again because of Rob Paradoxe sur le comédien written by Diderot because it talks about acting, and Rob is not sure he can act. I’ve read again several other books linked for me with Rob, as Perfume of Süskind or De la lecture of Proust (in this book Proust explains that we can understand the thoughts of the authors of the books more easily than the thoughts of the people around us, as it’s difficult to speak of really interesting things in the real life with real people ; I think it’s à little bit the same with Rob).
And to improve my English in order to try to understand Rob’s interviews I’ve read all the books for childrens of Roald Dahl and several other books : Reborn of Susan Sontag (amazing), the bluest eye of Toni Morrison, Heart of Darkness of Conrad. I’m reading Beloved and To kill a mockingbird is waiting on my table. And I’m reading On the road, the original scroll : I think Rob is perhaps trying for fun to live the book now, travelling through the USA with his friends.
I’ve read in French and in English all the Twilight books; I’ve read The host too,much more interesting than Twilight : why no one speak of it ?
Twilight Series, Water For Elephants, & I have purchased “Ticket To Ride” (which I will soon be reading, but I have a lot of other books that I need to read also!). Reading the Twilight Series has really made me realize what an escape a book can be from reality. Sometimes we need a break from reality & learn about someone else’s life! Even if it is fiction! I really wish there were a “Remember Me” book. That would be an awesome book to read 🙂
I have also fell in love with modern day British literature. I’m pretty sure if Rob wasn’t British, I wouldn’t have started reading modern day British authors. I really like Harriet Evans & others I have read. I love how the authors depict the female in their books. It is VERY VERY realistic & I appreciate that fact. I have also read: “The Love of Her Life,” “Hopeless Romantic,” by Harriet Evans & other misc books written by British authors 🙂 I absolutely love how British people are & the way they carry themselves!
Hoping to read them all at some point, my copy of Water for Elephants is on it’s way, I can’t wait to read and watch this 🙂 I just have to find the others and figure out where I want to start… Rob seems like a great person, down to earth, funny, creative and talented. Even if I never get the chance to meet him reading these books makes me think I might get to know him a little better..
I have read the Twilight Saga to many times to count… People ask me how I am not sick of it, but to me it gets better and better each time I read it.
I also got into Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë because of Twilight, I found that it was great story too. Of course after Twilight I had to read and Watch Romeo and Juliet again, and I still love that aswell…
I have to thank the twilight saga for getting me into reading again.. I used to read a bit but really struggled to get into alot of books, I am the kind of person that needs to be captivated in the first couple of pages, but now I have learnt to be a little more patient, and my patients has been rewarded by some great reads…
I read Bel Ami – again. Guy de Maupassant was required reading in the 1960’s. And being a real suck up, I enjoyed “foreign” dead writers. Living in Katy “the city of churches”, Texas added to the sexual perversion aspects of Bel Ami.
My husband, a University Professor, obtained a copy of Bel Ami from the U of Mn library. It was printed in the 1890″s, and was in very good condition. Not too much reading of Guy in Minnesota in the last 100 years or so.
And in study hall in Katy High, I was more intersted in the SEX than the CORRUPTION of George Duroy. I like to think that Mr. Pattinson’s interpretation will focus on the sex, also.
I bought but haven’t read 2666. I’m not sure if I would have bought this if it weren’t for Rob.
I’ve read Baudelaire but I got that recommendation from an old interview with Johnny Depp.
I read all of Salinger and McCullers in school and I like some more than others. Also Bel Ami in school.
I’m curious about My Friend The Mercenary. Everytime I visit the local used book store I look for it.
Hey, thanks for posting my poll question.
All the Twilight books + Midnight Sun and Water for Elephants. Did not enjoy a single one of them…
I’m reading The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold now (Coolspotters link it to Rob) and that’s a book a love!
I read Water For Elephants when I found out he would be in the movie. I liked his character and other than that, I wasn’t moved by the book. But now I know what to expect from the movie.
I’ve just requested Bel Ami from the local library. Of course the only reason I’m even attempting to read this book is because of Rob.
I read “Water for elephants ” when i find out Rob was doing the movies based on this story .. I liked it very much and looking forward to watch the movies.. while reading it i can clearly picture ROb as Jacob J.
I also read “Bel Ami” if i being honest i wouldn’t have read this book if i didn’t knew ROB was going to be working on this…it is just not the kind of story i would read ..but because of ROb i read it and i don’t like Georges Duroy character at all ..and i am sure ROb’s going to justice to the character as he is a good actor ..and im going to be in delimma if to dislike the character or LOVE ROB ?.. ofcourse the 2nd option is much much easy 😉
and all other books are in ” will be reading ” category .. 🙂
‘Bel-Ami’ – Guy de Maupassant – for the second time, as the first one was many years ago … and ‘Money’ – Martin Amis – … and ‘the Twilight Saga’ that I discovered because of the film and because of Rob 🙂
it’s become a problem. . .
Nine Stories
Independent People
Bel-Ami
Water for Elephants
Ballad of the Sad Cafe
Baudelaire
East of Eden right now – but already planned to before the RP reference
Twilight books of course
Water for Elephants and Bel Ami are the only ones on that list that I’ve read and both of them I read because Rob was doing the movies. I really struggled with Bel Ami, but I’m looking forward to the movie.
Water for Elephants absolutely blew me away. I’ve already read it twice and plan to read it again if not twice more before the movie comes out. I own it in paperback and hardback and will be going to a book signing for Ape House. I’ve read her first two novels as well and truly enjoy her work.
I just finished The Shadow of the Wind today and I was blown away. It may not be anything that I’d have ever come across on my own but I’m very glad that I read it. The characters and plots were artistically interwoven and fantastic.
One of my favorite things about Rob is definitely how he expands our literary experiences.
Gah I’m jealous! I wish I had more autographed books.