NationStates Jolt Archive

I have run out of good books to read. *shiver* So please, enlighten me with your favorites, and why etc. Thanks!

ps.. i read everthing and anything

Well, considering that taste is depending on genre, hereby some of my own favourites atm.

Clive Cussler: All his Dirk Pitt work (the rest might be good too, but not for me)
Ludlum: And not just the Bourne trilogy either.
Tolkien: LotR and The Hobbit still remain classics for a reason ;)

Any of the Michael Crichton books... Watership Down... Lord of the Flies... The Stand... The Bridge... simply because they are incredibly gripping stories.

I have run out of good books to read. *shiver* So please, enlighten me with your favorites, and why etc. Thanks!

What are you looking for? Fiction? Non-Fiction? Which topics/genres interest you?

What do you usually read? (I read anything) If you can answer that I ight be able to help.

Sadly, I'll read anything with words above a highschool reading level, so go for it!

The Kite Runner may interest you -- it's a novel about a family in Afghanistan bridging the time before and after the Taliban takeover.

MASH. It might seem crude, but it's great comedy.

The Kite Runner may interest you -- it's a novel about a family in Afghanistan bridging the time before and after the Taliban takeover.

Ooh yes, but I've read it. It was very interesting and informative etc.

Ooh yes, but I've read it. It was very interesting and informative etc.

Hmm....

http://www.amazon.com/Curious-Incident-Dog-Night-Time/dp/1400032717

A novel about a young man and his family struggling with his Asperger's Syndrome, and his quest to find out what's REALLY going on in his family?

Life of Pi (a survival novel/allegory) and The Secret Life of Bees (coming of age novel, self discovery)are also good ones, in my opinion.

Erlend Loe: Supernaive
easy, funny, light hearted

Umberto Eco: Foucalt's pendulum
Everyone should read at least one book by Eco.

Jean-Paul Sartre: Huis Clos (closed doors?)
I love his plays

Hmm....

http://www.amazon.com/Curious-Incident-Dog-Night-Time/dp/1400032717

A novel about a young man and his family struggling with his Asperger's Syndrome, and his quest to find out what's REALLY going on in his family?

Life of Pi (a survival novel/allegory) and The Secret Life of Bees (coming of age novel, self discovery)are also good ones, in my opinion.

Lol... I've read all those too... we should just be in the same book club

Robert Jordan's WHeel of Time series has over 10 books and is a decent read. There is also the War of Swords trilogy though I can't remember its author. RA Salvatore has many many good novels (I like the Highwayman far more than Drizzt). MIcheal Crhitchton, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Noel Hines... all very good authurs. If you like funny stories, check out the book "Blood Sucking Freaks". Its a lighthearted vampire parody.

Richard Dawkins' Selfish Gene is one of my favourite non-fiction books. The Traveller by John Twelve Hawks is a great work of fiction (and the sequel's coming out soon).

Lol... I've read all those too... we should just be in the same book club

:-D

Ok, this is gonna be a challenge. ;)

http://www.sooniwillbeinvincible.com/

I read a preview copy. It's an interesting look at the genre of superheroes.

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780375424861&view=excerpt

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan

Clive Cussler: All his Dirk Pitt work (the rest might be good too, but not for me)


Seconded. You should read the Kurt Austin series (the ones co-authored with Paul Kemprecos) and the Oregon files. Both quality Cussler.

Also, Hawaii by James Michener. The last few chapters get so ridiculously confusing with names its fun. :)

:-D

Ok, this is gonna be a challenge. ;)

http://www.sooniwillbeinvincible.com/

I read a preview copy. It's an interesting look at the genre of superheroes.

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780375424861&view=excerpt

Score! I have not read that.

I have run out of good books to read. *shiver* So please, enlighten me with your favorites, and why etc. Thanks!

ps.. i read everthing and anything

Anything written by Tom Clancy if you like action and drama. A very good old book was written by John Steinbeck and is titled "Travels with Charlie." Steinbeck took off on a cross country road trip with his dog Charlie. It is a wonderful book about life in the US at the time. My wife and I also like Ann Rice.

Snow Crash and Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.

Burning Chrome by William Gibson.

One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr (Alexander) Solzhenitsyn.

I, Robot and Foundation by Isaac Asimov.



I especially recommend Snow Crash and One Day In The Life...

John Steakley with Armor and Vampire$.

And then, of course, there's always the books Max wrote...

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

That is an awesome book.

And then, of course, there's always the books Max wrote...

Nah, those SUCK!

*runs like hell*

Anything written by Tom Clancy if you like action and drama. A very good old book was written by John Steinbeck and is titled "Travels with Charlie." Steinbeck took off on a cross country road trip with his dog Charlie. It is a wonderful book about life in the US at the time. My wife and I also like Ann Rice.

Ann Rice started off good and then went WAY downhill.

the name of the wind (http://www.amazon.com/Name-Wind-Kingkiller-Chronicle-Day/dp/075640407X) by patrick rothfuss

Anything written by Tom Clancy if you like action and drama. A very good old book was written by John Steinbeck and is titled "Travels with Charlie." Steinbeck took off on a cross country road trip with his dog Charlie. It is a wonderful book about life in the US at the time. My wife and I also like Ann Rice.

Oh, I LOVED Travels with Charlie. Gave a real look at the man behind Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath, and other great American novels about the Everyman.

A Song of Ice and Fire series, by George Martin.

East of Eden by Steinbeck (since others were talking about him, I figured I'd recommend my favorite of his books.
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Anna Karenina by Leopold Tolstoy. I haven't finished it yet, but I like it so far.
Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Wayyyyyyyy better than Gatsby.

Those should be enough for now.

The view from the mirror By Ian Irvine is a good (though hefty) quartet.

I almost forgot:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ab/DanielQuinn_Ishmael.jpg
Highly recommended.

Maybe read Accelerando of Charles Stross. It is available online for free at http://www.accelerando.org . for me this marketing worked, I bought every other book of charles Stross, which was available in German. Also, Company by Max Barry is a great read. It's hillarious and really funny. Other good books are those of Andreas Eschbach if you know German or they are translated into your native language. One Trillion Dollar is a good book.

Everyone loves telling other people what they need to read, and I've gotten bored with holidays already after finishing Absurdistan by Eric Campbell and am after a new book, so here is your chance. A few qualifiers:

Preferably non-fiction, <500 pages and about history/politics.

Or just suggest random books adhering to none of those criteria and I'll try and track it down... Yeah... Go for that one.

Thread prediction: epic fail.

Well, it's a bit longer than you specified, and it's not in your library, but I just finished (and really enjoyed) The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins. One of the best explanations of evolution and evolutionary development I've ever encountered.

Well, your criteria are horrible. Anyway, here are some books about history/politics/etc.:

1984/BNW/We/Animal Farm... just do one of those...
Dead Mars, Dying Earth
Fight Club (get the movie too)

Well, your criteria are horrible. Anyway, here are some books about history/politics/etc.:

1984/BNW/We/Animal Farm... just do one of those...
Dead Mars, Dying Earth
Fight Club (get the movie too)

He said non-, I thought. :p

Everyone loves telling other people what they need to read, and I've gotten bored with holidays already after finishing Absurdistan by Eric Campbell and am after a new book, so here is your chance. A few qualifiers:


I mis-read Eric Campbell as Joeseph Campbell at first - your library has some of his obscure stuff, but none of his bestsellers, oddly. :p

http://library-catalogue.rockhampton.qld.gov.au/uhtbin/cgisirsi.exe/LwsqqDp2mP/COLLSERV/282530005/123

But he's great, if you like to read about world history from the perspective of myth and ritual. :)

I was going to recommend Joseph Ellis's "Founding Brothers," for politics, before I remembered you were in Australia - I haven't read it, but a friend tells me it's the best he's read on the topic.

He said non-, I thought. :p

Well, Dead Mars, Dying Earth is nonfiction.

# I'm a cheap-scape so can you check to see if my library has it?
# Preferably covers history/politics
# Preferably <500 pages

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldwar

It's not non-fiction, but it's historical speculative fiction and it's a fun read. Plus the whole series totals eight books of about 600 pages each, so it's got your page requirement down. :p

Well, Dead Mars, Dying Earth is nonfiction.

My mistake - hadn't heard of it. :)

My mistake - hadn't heard of it. :)

It's an older book about Global Warming/Climate Change- written before the political debate and subsequent BS started.

IF you have any interest in Sci-Fi, I highly Recommend Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worldwar

It's not non-fiction, but it's historical speculative fiction and it's a fun read. Plus the whole series totals eight books of about 600 pages each, so it's got your page requirement down. :p

That looks good. I think I might read that, as long as it isn't too cheesy.

I have to read Dune too. I've been neglecting good books.

Have you tried Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel? Or The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee? I don't recommend Collapse unless you don't mind environmentalist preaching, however.

The bible. Not exactly non-ficition, but really nice and gory. Lots of sex and violence and entertainment.

Gyre;12837482']Have you tried Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel? Or The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee? I don't recommend Collapse unless you don't mind environmentalist preaching, however.

It's not at his library - I checked earlier. :p That's the third or fourth mention this week. ;)

Al Gore's new book, The Assault on Reason

Or American Fascists by Chris Hedges

Al Gore's new book, The Assault on Reason

Eh. I wouldn't recommend Al Gore until he at least acknowledges the more glaring errors in his movie - not that I don't believe climate change is a problem, but it would be a thousand times easier to read him as a credible source if he'd let go of the claims the UN has determined to be false, both before and after the movie was made, and stick to the facts. Until he does this (which any scientific writer does routinely as a matter of principle), he's still just another politician, and not even in the top-100 writers on the topic, to me. ;) It's just ridiculous seeing him roll his eyes at any criticism in interviews when his errors are so blatant, but that's probably been said a thousand times here.

I could recommend "The importance of self-knowledge in succesful living with Asperger's syndrome".
It's non-fiction, and only 3 pages.

Okay, it's in Dutch and you can't buy it anywhere, but hey, I wrote it, so it's good! :p

I could recommend "The importance of self-knowledge in succesful living with Asperger's syndrome".
It's non-fiction, and only 3 pages.

Okay, it's in Dutch and you can't buy it anywhere, but hey, I wrote it, so it's good! :p

Probably appeals to a somewhat narrow audience though, wouldn't you say? ;) Cool that you've published though, it's an achievement that eludes many of us. :p

Cool that you've published though, it's an achievement that eludes many of us. :p

Well, "published"... It's the text of a speech I held at a conference, and later for a group of people who were being trained for working with Aspies. Somewhere at the end of this year I'll do another modified version at a medical faculty.
I did write the foreword to an actually published book, though (also on autism). Does that count as a publication in my name? ;)

i think the staff editorials at the beginning of every analog sf magazene are something everyone into politics, whether professionally or as a hobby, ought to, need to read.

for this reason i really think that is one of the things the publishers ought to make public on their web site, as a matter of civic duty and conscounsonse.

(yah, the most important word in the language and i can never remember how to spell it right. precisely because it is. because that's the way i am.)

=^^=
.../\...

Everyone loves telling other people what they need to read, and I've gotten bored with holidays already after finishing Absurdistan by Eric Campbell and am after a new book, so here is your chance. A few qualifiers:

Preferably non-fiction, <500 pages and about history/politics.

Or just suggest random books adhering to none of those criteria and I'll try and track it down... Yeah... Go for that one.

Thread prediction: epic fail.

Anything by Joe R Lansdale.

Although it compeltely defies every category you set out, I shall recommend it anyway because it should be recommended. And also because I'm reading it (again) at the moment, and so am in a prime position to appreciate its awesome.

The Dune Trilogy by Frank Herbert. 150% awesome baby, that's how awesome it is. And I got the whole trilogy, plus appendices, for only £15 :D who rocks out hard? oh that's right, it's me :D

"Where The Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak. *nod*

Although it compeltely defies every category you set out, I shall recommend it anyway because it should be recommended. And also because I'm reading it (again) at the moment, and so am in a prime position to appreciate its awesome.

The Dune Trilogy by Frank Herbert. 150% awesome baby, that's how awesome it is. And I got the whole trilogy, plus appendices, for only £15 :D who rocks out hard? oh that's right, it's me :D

I tried reading Dune. Couldn't get through the first 100 pages. Thought it was boring.

could read Pevsner Buildings of England series nice and long and informative or With a Flash of his Sword: The Writings of. Maj. Holman S. Melcher, 20th Maine Infantry

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova


That is an awesome book.

yes, and it's a debut novel. When I read it I understood clearly why I will never write a book.

Snow Crash and Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.

Burning Chrome by William Gibson.

One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr (Alexander) Solzhenitsyn.

I, Robot and Foundation by Isaac Asimov.



I especially recommend Snow Crash and One Day In The Life...one of the few cyberpunkish books I've read. heh... Deliverators Rule!

Everyone loves telling other people what they need to read, and I've gotten bored with holidays already after finishing Absurdistan by Eric Campbell and am after a new book, so here is your chance. A few qualifiers:

Preferably non-fiction, <500 pages and about history/politics.

Or just suggest random books adhering to none of those criteria and I'll try and track it down... Yeah... Go for that one.

Thread prediction: epic fail.... the phone book. the plotline is non existant, but the cast of characters is AWSOME! :D

The bible. Not exactly non-ficition, but really nice and gory. Lots of sex and violence and entertainment.
and alot of what's in there can be applied to RL. ;)

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville.

I've only read half of it, but the half I read was REALLY good.

Also, the Illumanitus! Trilogy. You HAVE to read the Illumanitus! Trilogy.

one of the few cyberpunkish books I've read. heh... Deliverators Rule!

It's the book that got me into cyberpunk. :)

Snow Crash is massive win. :D

For a New Liberty by Murray N. Rothbard. Whether you agree with him or not, it will least give you a perspective on anarcho-capitalism.

You can download it for free either here:

in text (http://www.mises.org/rothbard/newlibertywhole.asp)

or here:

in .PDF (http://www.mises.org/rothbard/foranewlb.pdf)

I think "The Dilbert Future" by Scott Adams was pretty funny. Also, Monsoon by Wilbur Smith was a good read.

I have run out of good books to read. *shiver* So please, enlighten me with your favorites, and why etc. Thanks!

ps.. i read everthing and anything

Two good ones I just slammed through pretty quickly:
Full Frontal Feminism by Jessica Valenti. It's irreverent, funny, and full of f-bombs, and explains why anyone with any sense is a feminist, even if they don't like the word. It also puts the lie to the stereotype of feminists as humorless, man-hating, ugly lesbians. She's hot.

Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey. It won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry last year and it damn well deserved it. It's a slim volume, but it's tight and powerful.

I think "The Dilbert Future" by Scott Adams was pretty funny. Also, Monsoon by Wilbur Smith was a good read.

Damn, now I'm hungry for a Dilberito.

i'm quite a fan of books by Sergey Lukyanenko, though not many of them have been published in english yet and i haven't read any of the english translations
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Lukyanenko
the current books of his that have been translated are from the watch series, which 2 movies have been based upon (the only one i've seen with english subtitles is Night Watch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Watch_%282004_movie%29) which some people here have probably seen)

Damn, now I'm hungry for a Dilberito.

I've been trying to find one, just to try it out. Any clue where they sell in Canada?