Hey,
I read a lot and I'm always looking for suggestions;
Anyone got any ideas?
[coffee]
Atlas Shrugged.
I'm telling you, this one's a page-turner
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51H6hv64bqL._SS500_.jpg)
Quote from: factorPlayer on April 26, 2010, 09:01:53 PM
I'm telling you, this one's a page-turner
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51H6hv64bqL._SS500_.jpg)
Sold, ordered on amazon.
Top notch literature right here:
(http://demergence.com/wtf/mystery-of-the-urinal-turd-small.jpg)
Seriously though I'd recommend this:
(http://cincinnatimercantile.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/gunsgermssteel.jpg)
Without knowing your preference of genres and simply poking at the dark here... I would offer
The 13th Valley by John Del Vecchio
or perhaps The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Blue Highways by William Leastheat Moon
Listen, Little Man! by Wilhelm Reich
Illusions
The Alchemist
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
Hammer of the Gods
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
In Search of the Mole People
Stairway to Heaven
If you like fantasy there is a thread somewhere, just search for it.
If not,
I always suggest The Stand by Stephen King to anyone looking for a great book.
SpeedDog-Atlas Shrugged is a classic. It might be time to read it again.
Noisy Dante-I read Guns, Germs, and Steel. Diamond has another one called Collapse which is great as well.
Rat900-13th Valley is one of the best Vietnam War novels. Blue Highways is a great suggestion. I read it but it was a LONG time ago. Definitely one to re-visit. Master and the Margarita looks fantastic I can't believe I have not heard of it before. Listen Little Man is great one. Reich's The Mass Psychology of Fascism is good too.
If you like dark and you like the southwest, try all three books in the border trilogy by Cormac McCarthy - All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plain. All great books.
Quote from: duc750 on April 27, 2010, 01:08:29 AM
Illusions
The Alchemist
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
Hammer of the Gods
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
In Search of the Mole People
Stairway to Heaven
Illusions-the one by Bach? Great Book!
The Alchemist-Looks very good!
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell-Hilarious
Hammer of the Gods-the one about Led Zeppelin?
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals-by Darwin? Interesting suggestion, and I've never read it.
In Search of the Mole People-Do you remember who wrote it?
Stairway to Heaven-I take it you are a fan ;D
Quote from: angler on April 27, 2010, 03:33:00 AM
If you like dark and you like the southwest, try all three books in the border trilogy by Cormac McCarthy - All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and Cities of the Plain. All great books.
Read em. McCarthy is great.
Tears In The Darkness
http://www.amazon.com/Tears-Darkness-Bataan-Aftermath-Hardcover/dp/B0030S24G2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272372610&sr=1-3 (http://www.amazon.com/Tears-Darkness-Bataan-Aftermath-Hardcover/dp/B0030S24G2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272372610&sr=1-3)
Venus on the Half-Shell...Kilgore Trout
Noli me tangere by jose rizal sparked a revolution and farming for bones is a good quick read.
I prefer non-fiction style books, but some listed below might not be considered that, but some obviously are:
In no order:
Lone Survivor - Marcus Lattrell (most recently read.....what a moving book)
Black Hawk Down - Mark Bowden
Killing Pablo - Mark Bowden
Company of Heroes - Michael Durant (Super-Six Four's pilot....batter of the Mog, see above)
Nightstalkers - Michael Durant
Roughneck 91 - Frank Antenori (what a bunch of cowboy's this unit was/is)
switching to other genre's.......
The Art of War - Sun Tzu
The Republic - Plato (everyone SHOULD BE REQUIRED to read this one)
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon, historian.
Anything Pre-Revolution War / Forming of the United States books
Animal Farm
Fahrenheit 451
I could keep going.
I am really looking forward to the release of George W Bush's book in a few months. I am actually thinking about pre-ordering it on Amazon today. Please don't discuss this book, just mentioning I think it will be a very good read.
Some others you might either want to revisit or know already
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates,
A Confederate General from Big Sur by Richard Brautigan,
The Winter of Our Discontent and Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck,
Book of Illusions by Paul Auster,
Feast of Love by Charles Baxter,
Absurdistan by Gary Shteyngart,
A Disorder Peculiar to the Country by Ken Kalfus,
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon,
The Moviegoer by Walker Percy,
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor,
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers,
Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Murakami,
Thanks for the list, Rat.
My wife has quite a collection of Ben Franklin books. She absolutely loves him.
I really want to read "What if the South had won the Civil War?" or something to that extent. Tizzy was telling me about it a few years ago, but I just haven't gotten around to reading it yet.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
The Art of War by Sun Tsu
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
More to follow
Whaddaya like to read?
A few of my faves:
White Noise - Dom DeLillo
Lolita - Nabokov
Any of the Bukowski novels: Ham on Rye and Post Office are my favorite.
A few I have read more recently:
Blindness - Jose Saramago
Downtown Owl - Chuck Klostermann
Children of Men - PD James (a different story than the movie)
Fun reads:
A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
Hichhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Another Roadside Attraction - Tom Robbins
Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
Michael Savage books are great too. I read one a while back and found it to be interesting.
but then again..........I own every Gary Larson book.
I'm more a fiction guy...some of my favorites...
A prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Nicholas Nickleby - Dickens
historical fiction is my favorite genre....
William Diehl- The Hunt (originally '27')
Stephen Pressfield- Gates of Fire
Wilbur Smith- The River God
Erich Maria Remarque- All Quiet on the Western Front
Michael Shaara- The Killer Angels (I like all of Jeff Shaaras books too)
Conn Iggulden- Genghis: Birth of an Empire
and just to mix it up-
Christopher Moore- Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
Quote from: Billyzoom on April 27, 2010, 06:48:07 AM
I'm more a fiction guy...some of my favorites...
A prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Nicholas Nickleby - Dickens
I was once in a book store in Massachusetts, and my SO at the time pointed to a man a said, "that's John
Updike". I ended up standing near him. A woman walked up and said she was fan. He was gracious.
So, in one of those wonderful brain-fart moments, I said to him, "I'm an admirer of your work. A Prayer for Owen Meany is one of my favorite books". He gave me an odd look and said, "it is one of mine too"
It was about five minutes later that I realized the incredibly stupid thing I'd done. That was about fifteen years ago, and I'm still embarrassed.
If you liked Blue Highways, some of William Least Heat-Moon's other books are favorites of mine -- River Horse and PrairyErth are both good reads; the first an account of his trip to traverse the U.S. (almost) entirely by river, and the second a wonderful, multi-layered essay (?) about Chase County, Kansas.
I'm currently about a third of the way through Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner and believe I'm about that far along in the process of finding a new favorite novel.
Quote from: JEFF_H on April 27, 2010, 06:56:04 AM
Christopher Moore- Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
Christopher Moore is a HUGE hit in our household; you might enjoy a recent interview I heard with him: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125676630 (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125676630)
World War Z by Max Brooks
It's a good read, extremely captivating because you become very quickly attached to the people's lives he paints in the book.
http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/worldwarz/ (http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/worldwarz/)
I uploaded it here if you'd like to read a bit of it before you buy it [thumbsup]
http://rapidshare.com/files/380862268/World_War_Z__An_Oral_History_of_the_Zombie_War__23_.zip.html (http://rapidshare.com/files/380862268/World_War_Z__An_Oral_History_of_the_Zombie_War__23_.zip.html)
Quote from: triangleforge on April 27, 2010, 07:15:17 AM
Christopher Moore is a HUGE hit in our household; you might enjoy a recent interview I heard with him: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125676630 (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125676630)
I LOVE his stuff. Read all of them now.
Is it politically correct to say I like a few of Mark Twain's books?
Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer are classics. Loved them as a kid.
too bad some schools and school libraries have banned them for reasons I can't mention.
I wonder if those said libraries carry Fahrenheit 451?
[laugh] [laugh] [laugh] [laugh] [laugh]
Any of the "Ender" books by Orson Scott Card.
"Welcome to the Monkey House" and "Bagombo Snuff Box" by Kurt Vonnegut.
"A Wrinkle in Time" Madeline L'Engel
Here's some of my fiction favorites:
Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon (or really anything by Pynchon)
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Focault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
Fight Club by Chuck Palaniuk
On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Quote from: hihhs on April 27, 2010, 03:47:33 AM
Illusions-the one by Bach? Great Book! YES
The Alchemist-Looks very good!
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell-Hilarious
Hammer of the Gods-the one about Led Zeppelin? YES
The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals-by Darwin? Interesting suggestion, and I've never read it. CAN BE SLOW AT PARTS, BUT INTERESTING NONE THE LESS
In Search of the Mole People-Do you remember who wrote it? EDIT: THE MOLE PEOPLE by JENNIFER TOTH. VERY INTERESTING BOOK, ITS ABOUT PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE STREETS OF NYC
Stairway to Heaven-I take it you are a fan ;D HUGE FAN, BUT IT'S INTERESTING TO GET A BEHING THE SCENES LOOK AT THE GREATEST ROCK BAND EVER
Quote from: cyrus buelton on April 27, 2010, 04:24:44 AM
The Republic - Plato (everyone SHOULD BE REQUIRED to read this one)
My SO just told me to ask why you thought this is a "required read"?
+1 on Cormick McCarthy - The Road was my favorite of his. I refuse to see the movie because I don't want the images he put in my head destroyed.
Also +1 on the Jared Diamond stuff as well. Guns Germs and Steel is great and even greater if you read The Bell Curve back when it was stirring up the shit pot. He destroys that book.
On the nonfiction side I would recommend Phantoms in the Brain by V.S. Ramachandran. You are not in as much control of you as you think you are.
Fiction I would go with any collection of short stories by Alice Walker, The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, and, since it seems appropriate to include something Italian, give T Zero by Italo Calvino a try.
For poetry try Randall Jarrell (his criticism of Frost and Auden is great as well). He is about the only one of the male post war poets I can stand.
Also, if you like to cook and are at all of a scientific mind then On Food and Cooking might be one of the better references you ever own.
sac
Quote from: duc750 on April 27, 2010, 10:34:06 AM
My SO just told me to ask why you thought this is a "required read"?
I really can't get into because of board rules on politics my friend.
All I will say is all of our Founding Father's were very familiar with this book and democracy is based off a lot of the theories.
enough said.
+1 on a Prayer for Owen Meany. Great read.
Quote from: cyrus buelton on April 27, 2010, 10:54:08 AM
I really can't get into because of board rules on politics my friend.
All I will say is all of our Founding Father's were very familiar with this book and democracy is based off a lot of the theories.
enough said.
+1 on a Prayer for Owen Meany. Great read.
Oh, she has a Masters in Philosophy and was just wondering.
Where to begin...
Fiction:
Another vote for World War Z
Anything by James Lee Burke
Vodka by Boris Starling
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
Les Miserable. The closer to unabridged the better.
Anything by Alexander Dumas
Anything by Pat Conroy. That man wields the English language like a scalpel.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steig Larsson.
1984
The Hitchhiker's Guide series
Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card
Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield
Non-fiction:
Anything by David McCullough
Anything by Rick Atkinson
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Enemy at the Gates by William Craig
Ballad of the Whiskey Robber by Julian Rubinstein.
The Pat Conroy Cookbook. Delicious recipes interspersed with highly entertaining anecdotes from his life.
I didn't realize there were so many nerds on this site. Man, I remember back when being a motorcyclist meant something. When they were a rare breed of rugged individualists.
;D
sac
I would also like to add:
(http://www.city-data.com/forum/members/bs13690-83559-albums-random-pics-pic43266-nerds-ogre.jpg)
Bill Hicks- What your reading for? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvs2g5Nj0NI#lq-lq2-hq-vhq)
/aspiring waffle waitress
Zombie Books:
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
World War Z
Not zombie related:
Lost City of Z (about exploring the Amazon Rain forest)
Slaughterhouse Five
The Things They Carried
Band of Brothers
Tactics of the Crescent Moon
Not a Good Day to Die
More to Follow....
The Hot Zone by Richard Preston
Quote from: duc750 on April 27, 2010, 11:04:46 AM
Oh, she has a Masters in Philosophy and was just wondering.
Not to knock your SO, but someone with a Masters in Philosophy has never read The Republic?
that is interesting to me.
At my college, that was the first book you read in Intro to Philosophy.
He never said she hadn't read it. He said she wondered why you thought it should be required reading.
Quote from: zzilla on April 27, 2010, 12:59:46 PM
Zombie Books:
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
P+P+Z is okay, but Breathers: a zombie's lament (http://www.undeadanonymous.com/) is better.
Am I the only idiot that likes Clive Barker's writing? I lent one of the Books of Blood to someone and they gave back a few days later almost without a word and a look of disgust on their face like I just shit on their sandwich.
Quote from: lethe on April 27, 2010, 01:52:06 PM
Am I the only idiot that likes Clive Barker's writing?
Nope. Great stuff. [thumbsup]
Quote from: SacDuc on April 27, 2010, 12:38:19 PM
I didn't realize there were so many nerds on this site. Man, I remember back when being a motorcyclist meant something. When they were a rare breed of rugged individualists.
;D
sac
Yeah, maybe we need to get some soft-porn avatars or something.
;D
Quote from: Obsessed? on April 27, 2010, 01:47:24 PM
P+P+Z is okay, but Breathers: a zombie's lament (http://www.undeadanonymous.com/) is better.
+1 for breathers
Books are stupid but, that being said, here are some ok ones
The Art of Racing in the Rain â€" Stein (if you love dogs)
Riding with Rilke; Reflections on Motorcycles and Books â€" Bishop (Ducati specific and the author checked in a few times on the old DML)
Trout Fishing in America â€" Brautigan (or anything else by Brautigan)
Shibumi â€" Trevanian
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy â€" LeCarre (or any other spy novel by LeCarre)
Never Cry Wolf â€" Mowat
The Right Stuff - Wolff
To Kill a Mockingbird - Lee
Into the Wild â€" Krakauer
Shogun â€" Clavell (also King Rat and Tai Pan)
Crime and Punishment â€" Dostoyevsky (best book I've ever read)
Wild Swans â€" Chang
One Hundred Years of Solitude â€" Marquez
and another vote for Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance â€" Pirsig (good antidote for Atlas Shrugged)
"One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich"
"The Brothers Karamazov"
"Huckleberry Finn"
Dante's "Inferno"
"de Anima"
"Federalist Papers"
"Othello"
Quote from: Speedbag on April 27, 2010, 01:59:00 PM
Nope. Great stuff. [thumbsup]
+1
Sac, that clip of Hicks was great! I forgot about that one. I had a similar experience. I went into a bar for dinner and took a book with me (ooking for Kings by Ian Kelly. Good book about Antonin Careme) and this Amy Winehouse wannabe starts in with, "I gotta ask? You're reading? In a bar? What's up with that?"
Quote from: cyrus buelton on April 27, 2010, 01:18:47 PM
Not to knock your SO, but someone with a Masters in Philosophy has never read The Republic?
that is interesting to me.
At my college, that was the first book you read in Intro to Philosophy.
She has read it, at least four times. She just found the comment interesting and was curious as to why you thought it should be read.
Quote from: hihhs on April 26, 2010, 07:58:47 PM
Hey,
I read a lot and I'm always looking for suggestions;
Anyone got any ideas?
[coffee]
H, I enjoy a good read as well. I read as opposed to watch tv for the same reason I prefer to ride than drive - it's more of an experience than an observation.
If you enjoy historical fiction then 2 must reads (albeit long ones) are Ken Follet's "The Pillars of the Earth" and "World without End." He has another titled "A Place Called Freedom" that was a good book as well.
A few other more *ahem* recent books that have been good are
Michael Crichton "State of Fear" -- predates the Climatologist debacle of the past year by 6 years. In essence the Da Vinci Code for earth science and a great read no matter which side of the fence you're on.
Tom Wolfe's "A Man in Full" -- like State of Fear it gains in perspective given the recent Real Estate collapse.
Billie Lett "The Honk and Holler Opening Soon" -- it's been a few years but I enjoyed the read.
I just went to Borders and picked up my stack of books for the year I'll PM you if any of them deserve a mention.
Parliament of Whores by P.J. O'Rourke
Quote from: muskrat on April 27, 2010, 06:09:44 PM
Parliament of Whores by P.J. O'Rourke
Quote from PJ;
"Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us."
He is my one my favorite commentators
Quote from: COWBOY on April 27, 2010, 03:48:00 PM
H, I enjoy a good read as well. I read as opposed to watch tv for the same reason I prefer to ride than drive - it's more of an experience than an observation.
If you enjoy historical fiction then 2 must reads (albeit long ones) are Ken Follet's "The Pillars of the Earth" and "World without End." He has another titled "A Place Called Freedom" that was a good book as well.
A few other more *ahem* recent books that have been good are
Michael Crichton "State of Fear" -- predates the Climatologist debacle of the past year by 6 years. In essence the Da Vinci Code for earth science and a great read no matter which side of the fence you're on.
Tom Wolfe's "A Man in Full" -- like State of Fear it gains in perspective given the recent Real Estate collapse.
Billie Lett "The Honk and Holler Opening Soon" -- it's been a few years but I enjoyed the read.
Big fan of Tom Wolfe; "A Man in Full" is a favorite
Crichton is great too; I liked "State of Fear". I also enjoyed his book "Timeline". Kind of an "airplane" book but fun.
"Airplane" is my SO's term for a book with very few redeeming qualities but is very entertaining for a few hours.
A perfect example of "airplane" books that I really like are John Sandford's "Prey" series.
Not familiar with Billie Lett, but I'll check it out.
" How to Talk Dirty and Influence People " ...By Lenny Bruce , ..the great comedian
" The Prophet " .....by Kahlil Gibran
Dolph
Quote from: hihhs on April 27, 2010, 07:01:33 AM
I was once in a book store in Massachusetts, and my SO at the time pointed to a man a said, "that's John Updike". I ended up standing near him. A woman walked up and said she was fan. He was gracious.
So, in one of those wonderful brain-fart moments, I said to him, "I'm an admirer of your work. A Prayer for Owen Meany is one of my favorite books". He gave me an odd look and said, "it is one of mine too"
It was about five minutes later that I realized the incredibly stupid thing I'd done. That was about fifteen years ago, and I'm still embarrassed.
Ha..that's great. Many of us have stories like that where we put out foot in our mouth. Definitely was a classic book, though. Laugh out loud all the way through..
The day of St Anthony's Fire by John Fuller
......French village eats ergot fungus bread goes on bizarre community acid trip...real story
[thumbsup]
Great thread so far...
The Long Walk - Slavomir Rawicz
Tietam Brown - Mick Foley (the wrestler)
Tides of War - Steven Pressfield (reading this at the moment)
Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Magician - Raymond E Feist
Quote from: Obsessed? on April 27, 2010, 01:36:12 PM
He never said she hadn't read it. He said she wondered why you thought it should be required reading.
totally missed that one.
Sorry about that 750.
EDITED*******
didn't mean to call him 620.
Quote from: duc750 on April 27, 2010, 03:21:40 PM
She has read it, at least four times. She just found the comment interesting and was curious as to why you thought it should be read.
I misread your post, apologize to your SO for me.
I think it is important to read as a lot of our Government is based off the philosophy and ideas in this book.
but then again, I like history, so that is probably what makes me believe everyone should read this book.
It is hard as make the beast with two backs to read, but informative.
Quote from: Billyzoom on April 27, 2010, 09:12:04 PM
Ha..that's great. Many of us have stories like that where we put out foot in our mouth. Definitely was a classic book, though. Laugh out loud all the way through..
The sad thing is I
am an admirer of John
Updike's writing.
I don't know why my brain insists on doing those kinds of things. :-[
What's this, the 4th book thread? Hopefully none of these are repeats.
in no particular order:
Mine All Mine - Adam Davies
Pushing Ice - Alastair Reynolds
The Egyptologist - Arthur Phillips
The Drawing of the Dark - Tim Powers
Things my Girlfriend and I Have Argued About - Mil Millington
Fool - Christopher Moore (and anything else he writes)
Inversions - Iain M. Banks
As an aside, Banks has the best space ship names (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_%28The_Culture%29) ever.
Glen Cook is my current favorite. Black Company series, Dread Empire series, and the new Instrumentalities of the Night series which is politically, religiously and geographically complicated to start, but you settle into it. Third book due out in the fall.
Can't go wrong with anything by Kurt Vonnegut, Chuck Palahniuk or Steven Pressfield.
The Tennis Partner- Abraham Verghese
Gilead- Marilynne Robinson
Best Tales of the Yukon- Robert Service
Willa Cather- Everything
Sometimes a Great Notion- Ken Kesey
The Painted Word- Tom Wolfe
The Things They Carried- Tim O'Brien
The Art Instinct- Dennis Dutton