books books books

[pgil]

Here is a list of the books that I feel should be read at some point by anyone who has the ability to read, in no particular order. feel free to disagree or add to it.

1984 - George Orwell

The catcher in the rye - J.D. Salinger

A clockwork orange - Anthony Burgess (difficult to read at first, but once you get used to the pseudo-russian slang words it is well worth it)

The satanic verses - Salman Rushdie (a special thanks to the Ayatollah for putting a price on the head of Rushdie over this book. without it, I probably would never have heard of it. Particularly interesting if you know anything about the history of Islam)

Beyond good and evil - Neithzsce (read it first without the accompanying interpretations and commentary by 'experts'. its always better to interpret things for yourself before getting someone else's opinion on it)

The shining - Stephen King (optional really, but I enjoyed it)

The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy - Douglas Adams

The outsider - Albert Camus

Anything by the big Russian authors - Tolstoy (war and peace > Anna karenina imo), Dostoyevsky (the idiot was good)

Candide - Voltaire

[gabe]

walden by thoreau is something i keep checking out but never getting around to read

[kingnat]

I read a ton of books in high school... most of which I didn't like, but there were a few that I enjoyed.

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (most anything by Vonnegut is outstanding... but Cat's Cradle is easily digestible)

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, fantastic stuff, but long.

I think everyone should read something by Shakespeare... and I mean REALLY read it slowly enough that you understand most of what's being said. You can find editions that break down most of the words and phrases... in doing this one can actually appreciate why he is so great.

Walden is ok... I probably would appreciate it more now than I did then... for something with a similar feel but makes for easier reading I suggest Travels with Charlie by Steinbeck. I've read WAY more Steinbeck than i care to... and this is the only one I actually enjoyed reading.

Watership Down by Richard Adams - It's political satire with rabbits... now if that ain't str8 balla, i don't know what is...

Animal Farm by George Orwell - I think this book is great and should definitely be read w/ 1984.

I'll be interested to see what people through up...

[thenonsequitur]

Flatland is a must read.

[Miffed22001]

walden by thoreau is something i keep checking out but never getting around to read

i hated this. Thought it was the misarranged ramblings of a freak.

Fwiw, 1984 is an absolute awesome book. For thsoe who think lord of teh rings and watnot are good books you need to read orwell.

You missed To KIll a Mockinbird which is one of my favs, also War of The Worlds is well worth a read. Both classics in their own right as maybe is The Time Machine.
I hate Hitchhikers guide, just personal. I thought it was badly written.

[gabe]

walden by thoreau is something i keep checking out but never getting around to read

i hated this. Thought it was the misarranged ramblings of a freak.

its like 5th level thinking

[bigred]

Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan is a good read if you're into lord of the rings type stuff.

I hated Catcher in the Rye, bored me too death.

Has anyone heard of Margaret Atwood? I had to read her stuff for an AP project in Highschool and I really like her now.

The things they carried by Tim O'Brien is one of the best books you will ever read.

[donkbee]

I hated Catcher in the Rye, bored me too death.

Me too, I couldn't get into it at all. I read it a long long time ago, probably 7 years ago ... maybe I was too dumb at the time to understand it.

Has anyone heard of Margaret Atwood? I had to read her stuff for an AP project in Highschool and I really like her now.

They make us read her stuff in English because she's Canadian.

[Lukie]

Gabe is always on my ass about reading theory of poker (sklansky), so I will probably read that one pretty soon.

[bigred]

Has anyone heard of Margaret Atwood? I had to read her stuff for an AP project in Highschool and I really like her now.

They make us read her stuff in English because she's Canadian.

That's right, I think she's from Toronto. She's a great writer. Some of her plotlines can be a little dry in some of her books but every now and then she has little moments of brilliance that really caught me off guard. The most recent one I read was Oryx and Crake, which I really enjoyed. Her deconstruction of sociological ideaologies usually in scifi-ish settings that still hit close to home are very intriguing.

My favorite books are the hitchhiker's galaxy books. Don't just think the first one is the only good one. The restaurant at the end of the universe is another funny and interesting book.

If you guys liked the movie fight club, check out it's author chuck palahniuk. He fills his novels with a lot of side remakrs similar to the ones in fight club like the comment out "planet starbucks, or the microsoft galaxy". Great nihilist writer.

Trying to think of others, Disgrace by JM Coetzee is a dark, good book.

OOOOOHHHH I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT ABOUT THESE BOOKS TIL NOW. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. One of the best books I have ever read. It's sequels Speaker for the Dead and Ender's Shadow (The ender's game story from the perspective of his right hand man, Bean). Basically, you're in the mind of kid geniuses who are being trained to become military generals in the future/space wars. Card takes you deep into the minds of how these kids think as they struggle to survive training from their trainers and each other.

[bode]

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

This is about a kid growing up in pre-war afghanistan. full of good life lessons.

[donkbee]

Has anyone heard of Margaret Atwood? I had to read her stuff for an AP project in Highschool and I really like her now.

They make us read her stuff in English because she's Canadian.

That's right, I think she's from Toronto. She's a great writer. Some of her plotlines can be a little dry in some of her books but every now and then she has little moments of brilliance that really caught me off guard. The most recent one I read was Oryx and Crake, which I really enjoyed. Her deconstruction of sociological ideaologies usually in scifi-ish settings that still hit close to home are very intriguing.

My favorite books are the hitchhiker's galaxy books. Don't just think the first one is the only good one. The restaurant at the end of the universe is another funny and interesting book.

If you guys liked the movie fight club, check out it's author chuck palahniuk. He fills his novels with a lot of side remakrs similar to the ones in fight club like the comment out "planet starbucks, or the microsoft galaxy". Great nihilist writer.

Trying to think of others, Disgrace by JM Coetzee is a dark, good book.

OOOOOHHHH I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT ABOUT THESE BOOKS TIL NOW. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. One of the best books I have ever read. It's sequels Speaker for the Dead and Ender's Shadow (The ender's game story from the perspective of his right hand man, Bean). Basically, you're in the mind of kid geniuses who are being trained to become military generals in the future/space wars. Card takes you deep into the minds of how these kids think as they struggle to survive training from their trainers and each other.

Damn, new respect for bigred.

[DaNutsInYoEye]

Sklansky and Miller.

[Sykedupp]

Ironman, by Chris Crutcher. Short book, but a great one, has inspired me to improve a few things in my life.


-Chris

[bode]

2 other books by Mitch Albom, a sportswriter, but the books arent about sports.

Tuesdays with Morrie

The 5 People You Meet In Heaven

i would recomment that everyone read these. they are short books that you can read in a single sitting (or shitting).

[mrhappy333]

I liked Angels and Demons, and the DaVinci code-Dan Brown

The Witching Hour-Ann Rice

A painted House- John Grisham
The Bretheren- John Grisham
The Rainmaker- John Grisham

Needful Things- Stephen King

[Al Golagnic]

Ender's Game and Crime and Punishment are, by far, my favorite books out of the compulsory school reading I had.

Since being out of school (well, I'm in school but not in these types of classes), I have been almost exclusively into non-fiction. American Brutus, by Michael W. Kauffman, is an awesome book which chronicles the entire plot put together by John Wilkes Booth and the aftermath of the assassination. It reads like good fiction, but is even better because it's all true.

Since reading this book, I have had a hard time choosing what to read next. Everything that I consider, I can't see being anywhere near as good as AB, so I wind up not getting it because I will inevitably be disappointed.

[thenonsequitur]

Since being out of school (well, I'm in school but not in these types of classes), I have been almost exclusively into non-fiction.

This is true for me too. I haven't read a novel in years. Read a lot of nonfiction though. A few of my favorites:

1. "Sex, Drugs, Einstein, and Elves" by Pickover. The book is just a book about cool/interesting/funny things, and it's very enteraining and you learn a lot of stuff from it too. I highly recommend this book.

2. The book that I'm reading right now is called "Conversations on Consciousness: What the Best Minds Think about the Brain, Free Will, and What It Means to Be Human (Hardcover)" by Susan Blackmore. It's just her interviewing a bunch of notable cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, and philosphers about their views on consciousness and how it interacts with science and the brian. Very cool book.

3. I recently read "Be Here Now". Very trippy book. Written by Dr. Richard Alpert, who was a good friend of Timothy Leary's, and did a shitload of acid. This book was kind of a product of that, and it's vert intruiging. There's some preliminary text he wrote about his life, but the bulk of the book is just a collection of drawings and writing interspresed in the pictures, all a product of a mind on LSD.

[bigred]

I can't believe no one has mentioned The Great Gatsby by F scott Fitzgerald, easily one of the greatest books of our time.

[bigred]

As mentioned from the movie thread, the movie apocalypse now is based on the book Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. All about the colonization (aka rape) of the Congo and the African people. Great book.

[euphoricism]

I liked Angels and Demons, and the DaVinci code-Dan Brown

The Witching Hour-Ann Rice

A painted House- John Grisham
The Bretheren- John Grisham
The Rainmaker- John Grisham

Needful Things- Stephen King

The bretheren does not deserve such good company.

[bigred]

Remember those books goosebumps when you were like 6?

[biondino]

Baudolino by Umberto Eco is my favourite novel. Other good recent reads in the literary fiction field are Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon, Case Histories and One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson, Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides and Beyond Black by Hilary Mantel.

[bode]

I liked Angels and Demons, and the DaVinci code-Dan Brown

The Witching Hour-Ann Rice

A painted House- John Grisham
The Bretheren- John Grisham
The Rainmaker- John Grisham

Needful Things- Stephen King

The bretheren does not deserve such good company.

ive read all of grishams books, and i liked the brethren

[kingnat]

Remember those books goosebumps when you were like 6?

Goosebumps... hell, who's got some love for "Choose your own adventure"... HOLLA!!

[Warpe]

Has anyone heard of Margaret Atwood? I had to read her stuff for an AP project in Highschool and I really like her now.

They make us read her stuff in English because she's Canadian.

That's right, I think she's from Toronto. She's a great writer. Some of her plotlines can be a little dry in some of her books but every now and then she has little moments of brilliance that really caught me off guard. The most recent one I read was Oryx and Crake, which I really enjoyed. Her deconstruction of sociological ideaologies usually in scifi-ish settings that still hit close to home are very intriguing.

The Handmaid's Tale, by Atwood. I have an autographed first edition of Alias Grace from her, also good.

Barney's Version by Mordecai Richler, another Canadian. Anything by him, actually, but Barney's Version is fuh-neee....

A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller Jr., one of the best sci-fi books ever written.

Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut.

Non-fiction:

Of Wolves and Men, Barry Lopez. Anything by him...

Natural Acts, David Quammen (collection of columns from Outside Magazine)

Anything by Stephen Jay Gould.

[bigred]

Cat's Cradle and Blind Assassin were also good.

[Warpe]

Ooo, ooo....can't forget Guy Vanderhaeghe. Another incredibly talented Canadian:

Novels:
My Present Age (1984)
Homesick (1989)
The Englishman's Boy (1996)
The Last Crossing (2001)

Short story collections:
Man Descending (1982)
The Trouble With Heroes (1983)
Things As They Are? (1992)

...and John Updike, esp. the Rabbit series:

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

[pgil]

can't believe I forgot to put anything by Noam Chomsky (outside of his linguistics work of course), but especially Manufacturing consent.

[Al Golagnic]

Remember those books goosebumps when you were like 6?

Goosebumps... hell, who's got some love for "Choose your own adventure"... HOLLA!!

HOLLA!

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...oker-45096.htm

[metaxy6]

...should be read at some point by anyone who has the ability to read

http://books.mirror.org/gb.titles.html

20, bare minimum.

[pgil]

there were a lot of bad things on that list. first and foremost is the inclusion of anything Milton in a list of great books. Paradise lost was a horrid attempt at an epic poem. to even consider mentioning it alongside the greats (homer, virgil, dante) is tantamount to blasphemy.

The divine comedy was a great read, though difficult due to the large number of references to people and events about which i was largely ignorant. paradise lost was difficult to read because it made me want to vomit.

[Al Golagnic]

Partly due to this thread, I have managed to move on from my last book about the Lincoln assassination. I picked up The Island at the Center of the World, by Russell Shorto.

It is a history of the Dutch colonization of Manhattan. One of the main figures in the book is a guy named van der Donck, though, and I just can't keep from giggling a little whenever I read it. Great name.

[Miffed22001]

walden by thoreau is something i keep checking out but never getting around to read

i hated this. Thought it was the misarranged ramblings of a freak.

its like 5th level thinking

na it was a bluff.

I covered him last year finishing my degree. I can understand why many would say his work is a piece of genius, i just find that their are more elaborate, well thought out arguements from authors of the same period who are much better.

I forgot to add. Frankenstein by Mary shelley is a must read. Possibily the best piece of literature ever written...

[Warpe]

Frankenstein by Mary shelley is a must read. Possibily the best piece of literature ever written...

Agree with first part.

[bigred]

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard was good.

[boost]

1984 - george orwell

only book Ive read cover to cover since probably 6th grade, maybe ever (seriously.) So you can see that Im not a book reader, but my freind gave it to me for my birthday last year, and I figured I should be nice and read it. Ill admit I was really tempted to just read the cliff notes so I could pretend I read it, but in the end I went for it. This book was absolutely amazing, it almost made me start reading books, but I dindt. Anyways read this shit, kthx.