|
|
|
|
#1
08-28-2001, 10:04 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
This is no doubt a perennial thread, but if you're like me, the answers change every few months or so. Also, I'm looking for something new to read and would like some suggestions. Right now I'd have to say my current faves are:
'Extraordinary Popular Delusions & the Madness of Crowds' by Charles MacKay ------------- 'The Old Patagonia Express' by Paul Theroux (Really, just about any of Theroux's travel books-this one is my favorite, tho) ------------- 'Fast One' by Paul Cain 'White Jazz' by James Ellroy 'Mona Lisa Overdrive' by Wlliam Gibson (These are my favorite hard-boiled detective/crime books. I know Gibson is sci-fi, but I think of his stuff as being really rooted in hard-boiled pulp fiction.) ------------- 'Frankenstein' by Mary Shelley (I had never actually read this before - it really is an excellent book! It wasn't terribly frightening, but it's really a well-thought-out rebuttal to the Enlightenment.) That's just a few I'd recommend. What say you? 
|
| Advertisements | |
|
|
|
|
#2
08-28-2001, 10:12 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Well, these aren't going to be sci fi recommmendations, but I love them anyway:
A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving should be read by everyone alive. My favorite book of all time is The Collector by John Fowles, I've read it a million times and it only takes about 3 hours to get through (less than 300 pages I believe) The Secret History by Donna Tartt made me want to be a better writer, and also go back to college. It's fascinating. Those are definitely my top three. jarbaby
|
|
#3
08-28-2001, 10:14 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
My two absolute favorite books are:
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (get the unabridged version if you can find it) and Fletch by Gregory MacDonald (Much, much better than the movie. I believe the book won an Edgar award). GES
|
|
#4
08-28-2001, 10:15 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Well, the Straight Dope books, of course....
Bergen Evans' books A Natural History of Nonsense and the other one I can't recall. Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi Frederick Forsyth's The Day of the Jackal David Macaulay's The Great Bridge Martin Gardner's The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener any of C.S. Forester's "Horatio Hornblower" novels Any of Robert S. van Gulik's "Judge Dee" novels Marvin Harris' Cows, Pigs, Wars, and Witches Richard Feynman's Lectures on Physics Michael Faraday's Chemical History of a Candle Neil Simon's Plays The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volumes I, IIA, and IIB
__________________
"You know nothing, Sergeant Schultz"
|
|
#5
08-28-2001, 10:18 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
"Hot Zone"
Kind of introduced Americans to the ebola scare. It's a true story and part of it happened just a few miles from where I lived at the time. If the first chapter doesn't scare the bejeezus out of you, then you're not human.
__________________
Humility and modesty are my two best traits
|
|
#7
08-28-2001, 01:53 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
I had to say that I just love these threads. I always open them with delight, can't wait to see what people suggest.
Some of my best reads over the past year have been from Doper suggestions.
|
|
#8
08-28-2001, 02:01 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Read here now.
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Yeah, you probably read it in high school, but read it again. It's one of America's greatest novels.
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. I've read it three times. Incredible. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. I have never read any other book like it. This book is painful and hilarious, and I mourn the fact that Toole killed himself before writing a follow-up. Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut. This pretty much sums up what I feel about art. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. The younger you are when you pick this one up, the better. I read it when I was 22, and I wish I'd found it earlier. Alex Mendelsohn, Boy from Mars by Daniel Pinkwater. Technically, it's a young-adult novel, but much of it works for adults, too. Young Adult Novel (alternatively titles Young Adults by Daniel Pinkwater. Not really a young-adult novel. But it's a corker! I'm sure there are more, but this is all I'm coming up with off the top of my head. Read these books, folks. You'll thank me.
__________________
"We are in an environment where Republicans talk constantly about class—in a coded way, to be sure—but where Democrats are afraid to bring it up."—Thomas Frank True or Better
|
|
#9
08-28-2001, 02:20 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
Yeccccch. WHITE JAZZ was horrible. If you read closely (well, you don't even have to read it THAT closely) you can tell where Sonny Mehta or his assistant threw up his hands and completely gave up on the editing. If you MUST read Ellroy (and I don't recommend it. the man is a grossly egotistical self-publicist, not a serious novelist) read THE BLACK DAHLIA. AT least he was still striving for coherence back in '87. Now, if you want to read something really REALLY hot, try THE MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN SARAGOSSA by Jan Potocki. I'm up to the 27th Day, and I'm fascinated.
|
|
#10
08-28-2001, 02:29 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Some of those I would have suggested have already been named, so my list is pretty short. However, I must concur with Chance the Gardener; Catch-22. A great book, that.
1984, George Orwell - I barely survived that one with my sanity intact. Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy collection, Douglas Adams - Not only hysterical, but includes slyly hidded satire at anything you can think of. Not a book, but: the essay A Modest Proposal, Jonathan Swift - Hey, I love satire. And it's all sooooo true.
|
|
#11
08-28-2001, 02:50 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
|
|
#12
08-28-2001, 03:07 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond--An excellent book to rebut racists
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray--Absolutely one of the best satires of human behavior ever Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome--The ideal book to read by a riverside Mathematics: From The Birth of Numbers by Jan Gullberg--Not a book to be devoured, but one to pick up and browse through. If you weren't fascinated by numbers before, you will be after reading this book! The Way Things Work by David McCaulay--It's a profusely illustrated book that uses a perplexed mammoth to show how everyday technology works. Guranteed to demystify the gadgets in your life. Anything by Terry Pratchett
__________________
"One good rule of thumb is that those who treat a collection of myths like a science book and a science book like a collection of myths are almost singularly ignorant of everything worth knowing in this world. "--Kirkland1244
|
|
#13
08-28-2001, 03:16 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Laff-out-loud books, all easily findable on sites like http://www.bookfinder.com
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, purportedly by Anita Loos (but I suspect they were ghosted by her hubby, John Emerson) • Show Girl and Hollywood Girl, by J.P. McEvoy • Little Me, by Patrick Dennis (of Mame fame) • Pink & White Tyranny by Harriet Beecher Stowe (yes, she DID write something else besides Uncle Tom's Cabin, and this is a delight!) • Every Other Inch a Lady, Bea Lillie's hilarious memoirs
|
|
#14
08-28-2001, 03:29 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker. An interesting book about linguistics (for a general audience).
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Great Sci-Fi about a not too distant future. Also by Neal Stephenson The Diamond Age. Really cool conception of nanotechnology. Both The Diamond Age and Snow Crash have great descriptions of the social structures in which they take place. (If that makes any sense. "Really cool futuristic worlds" may be easier to understand, but it doesn't quite capture what I'm trying to describe). Just about anything by Oliver Sacks. I particularly recommend The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, An Anthropologist on Mars, and Island of the Colorblind. Umberto Eco is a good Author as well. In the Name of the Rose is a great book, especially after studying up on the Medieval world. (I reread it while I was taking an art history course on the art of the medieval world ans rennaisance and it was even better.) I also recommend Foucalt's Pendulum this is a perfect book for Dopers. It combines virtually every conspiracy theory into one Mutha of a Conspiracy Theory. The cool thing is that the people who create this conspiracy know that they are just making it up, at least in the beginning. It is a perfect illustration of how the human mind creates patterns and draws connections whether they exist or not.
|
|
#16
08-28-2001, 04:14 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
|
|
#17
08-28-2001, 04:46 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card The Princess Bride by William Goldman And I am currently going through a very pro Westmark phase. This is a trilogy by Lloyd Alexander that everyone should be required to read when they are 12. Unfortunantly, the center book is out of print. Why do they do that!?
|
|
#18
08-28-2001, 04:48 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
..cough.. Yes, and his non-fiction is better/scarier than his fiction (better than most fiction)! I would also recommend The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett.
|
|
#19
08-28-2001, 05:49 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea and Shödinger's Cat by Wilson as well. Both have a very interesting writing style and are extremely thought-provoking.
Both books are hard to sum up, but in a nutshell, Illuminatus! is THE novel about conspiracy theories, conspiracy theorists and the supernatural. Maybe not the most "scientific" subjects, but the treatment is fascinating and even though the trilogy is about 800-900 pages, it's a page turner. Schrödinger's Cat is, again in a very big nutshell, 3 days happening over and over again in alternate realities, with different parameters and different outcomes. Schrödinger's Cat is also a sequel of sorts to Illuminatus! and even though you don't have to read them in order, if you plan on reading both I recommend to follow the order. The style of writing in these books in very interesting. Other recommendations: William S. Burrough - Cities of the Red Night. Absolutely fascinating, but not for the faint of heart! Easily shocked sensibilities should definitely stay away from anything by Burroughs or Wilson. Other favorites of mine were already mentionned, so there is no point in going over them again...
__________________
Guidance: See under ADVICE. Advice: See under GUIDANCE. DON'T PANIC! (HHGttG). . . .!FNORD! If you don't see the FNORD, Iä!Iä!Cthulhu fhtagn! It can't eat you. Don't see the fnord. !FNORD!
|
|
#21
08-28-2001, 06:14 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
I don't read. It's against my religion. Besides, even if I did read, I really don't know if I'd ever be able to narrow it down to just one book.
<-------------------- *cough*
__________________
Puedo tenerz las hamburguesas conz queso?!?
|
|
#22
08-28-2001, 06:35 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
If you like sci-fi, you've probably already read these titles. I cite them because like "Mona Lisa Overdrive", they are both sci-fi and hard-boiled gumshoe detective fiction:
"The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton" by Larry Niven "Ringworld" by Larry Niven I read few spy/war novels, but I loved these: "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" by John Le Carre "The Hunt For Red October" by Tom Clancy If it's not too late for a little light summer reading, try: "A Year In Provence" by Peter Mayle "Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories" by Jean Shepherd And lastly, a couple of 19th century English classics: "Barry Lyndon" by William Makepeace Thackeray "Villette" by Charlotte Bronte "Nicholas Nickleby" by Charles Dickens
|
|
#26
08-28-2001, 07:56 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Non-fiction: The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. Superb in every way - as a set of biographies, as a history book, and as a physics primer.
Fiction: Being There by Jerzy Kosinski. Read it! And, 'cause I just finished it and loved it: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. If you like codes, computers, and modern history, it's for you. I will resist the temptation to list all my favourite science biographies eg. Turing, Bohr, Heisenberg. Let me know if you're interested.
|
|
#27
08-28-2001, 08:18 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
__________________
"You know nothing, Sergeant Schultz"
|
|
#29
08-29-2001, 03:03 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again, Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace is one of the best books I've ever read. Anything by Dickens, but David Copperfield is one of my perennial favorites. Denis Johnson writes great books. Already Dead is a trip. Anything by Philip K. Dick, but especially The Man in the High Castle. Ok, I'll stop now.
|
|
#30
08-29-2001, 04:59 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
To anyone reading 1984, I'd whole-heartedly recommend reading Brave New World as well. Also the short stories of Anton Chekhov are an excellent read. Though it is fairly obscure, I'd also recommend Second Skin by John Hawkes; it's gothic, gloomy, psychological and surprisingly humorous at the same time.
|
|
#31
08-29-2001, 09:30 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
[b]The Grapes of Wrath
1984 Fahrenheit 451
|
|
#32
08-29-2001, 09:38 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
 It did take a while for me to get INTO the Secret History, but I liked it a lot. It's about people.My husband is 'making' me read Pillars of The Earth right now. That book is about fighting over stones...but I suppose it's a classic jarbaby
|
|
#33
08-29-2001, 09:38 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
Actually, I don't read...
__________________
"We are in an environment where Republicans talk constantly about class—in a coded way, to be sure—but where Democrats are afraid to bring it up."—Thomas Frank True or Better
|
|
#34
08-29-2001, 09:49 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh. It's about the questo to prove Fermat's Last Theorem. Good even if you don't like math - especially if you don't like math, in fact, since it's very accessible and a nice guide to how beautiful math can be.
The Floating Opera by John Barth.
|
|
#35
08-29-2001, 10:01 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
First ones that popped into my head:
John Gardner's Nickel Mountain (this is not the spy-story John Gardner, this is the other one - the one who persuaded me that "American literature" wasn't an oxymoron after all.) Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose. Lawrence Durrell's Alexandria Quartet. And his brother Gerald's My Family and Other Animals.
|
|
#36
08-29-2001, 10:07 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
[guilty pleasure voice]
The Saint-Germain books, by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro [/guilty pleasure voice] I *really* like the Guy Gavriel Kay books.. his Tapestry series is fantastic. A Case of Need, by Michael Crichton (under his pseudonym Jeffrey Hudson) and Travels by M.C. I second 1984 and Brave New World, and raise you Animal Farm. Mists of Avalon (Marion Zimmer Bradley) is always a perrenial favorite at the Bobkitty House, as is the prequel The Forest House. I've recently ordered new copies of Maus and Maus II (Art Speigelman) and am eagerly looking forward to re-reading them. I'm sure there are more, but I'm away from my seven overflowing bookcases at the moment. Perhaps I'll post more later.  -BK
__________________
pointedly does NOT cop a cheap feel from bobkitty, who he imagines has sharp claws and can hiss like a pissed-off bobcat-iampunha Baroness Junior Grade of Furry Wilderness Creatures. Home of the best hand-crafted ritual tools ANYWHERE: http://www.prisiadieco.com/
|
|
#37
08-29-2001, 10:11 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
__________________
pointedly does NOT cop a cheap feel from bobkitty, who he imagines has sharp claws and can hiss like a pissed-off bobcat-iampunha Baroness Junior Grade of Furry Wilderness Creatures. Home of the best hand-crafted ritual tools ANYWHERE: http://www.prisiadieco.com/
|
|
#38
08-29-2001, 10:25 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
You have no problem whatsover forming and justifying your opinions. Shit, I'm no literary genius but I am as judgmental as one ought to be.Besides Tartt's wasted erudition, I just didn't find the people compelling. Or even remotely real. To me the SH seemed like a pretentious comic book. Then again, I would know all about stuff like that.  I have read Pillars of the Earth. A pretty good story, but also nothing exactly to write home about. Ken Follett's a decent storyteller, but as far as I am concerned, there ain't much redeeming about his work. MR
|
|
#40
08-29-2001, 11:19 AM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Anything by Orson Scott Card
Almost anything be John Steinbeck "Whoever heard of a horse in the house" by Jacqueline Tresl, yup, exactly what it sounnds like, they take in a sick foal and it never makes it back to the barn. I'm printing this list and I'm going to start reading them all.
__________________
Eek! a Murder!
|
|
#41
08-29-2001, 01:44 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
A friend recomended Carter Beats The Devil by Glen David Gold. Anyone read it?
|
|
#42
08-29-2001, 01:55 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Quote:
Well, I think I may have liked the people because they were so unreal. I mean, they became more and more insane and twisted as the book went on,( you quitter ) and the surreality was what grabbed me.Pillars of the Earth, though. Man. You've got to really really dig learning how to build a church to enjoy that book. And not enough sex for my tastes jarbaby
|
|
#43
08-29-2001, 07:45 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Tobacco Road by Erskine Caldwell
Anthem by Ayn Rand I read those two once a year and am glad for where I live and for what I have.
|
|
#45
08-29-2001, 08:15 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
How can you people not like Pillars of the Earth? Great book! What sort of things rally go into the building of a medieval cahedral. Note that hey don't even start building until more than halfway into the book. Heck, I recommend it.
In the same vein, I recommend The Bronze God of Rhodes by L. Sprague deCamp. If you can find it, that is. All the good books seem to go out of print. It's about the building of the Colossus of Rhodes, told in detail by an engineer and classcist and historical novelist (not to mention science fiction and fantasy author of the highest order). as in PotE, the first half of the book sets up the historical situation.
__________________
"You know nothing, Sergeant Schultz"
|
|
#47
08-29-2001, 08:46 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Anything by Cecil Adams
all of the stories by Rue De Day, story guy All the James Herriot books. If you love animals this is required reading Confederacy of Dunces All David Sedaris An Incomplete Education-everything you should have learned in school and didn't or proptly forgot immediatly after taking the test. Written by two Esquire editors, very funny and written so that you WANT to read it. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Gone With The Wind Margret Mitchell-I love this book I think I took it out of the library at least 13 times in jr. high alone. I agree with none of it, but it was like a big window opening and I could see what the other side was thinking. I hope that makes sense. I'm sure tons more to follow
|
|
#49
08-29-2001, 09:02 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
I don't know why, but the first book to pop into my head when I saw the OP was "The Cuckoo's Egg" by Clifford Stoll.
A very interesting read.
|
|
#50
08-29-2001, 09:05 PM
|
|||
|
|||
|
Emily of New Moon and the sequels Emily Climbs, and (I just forgot the name of the third one) by L. M. Montgomery. Just as good, if not better, than the Anne of Green Gables series.
White Noise by Don Delillo. Intriguing look at modern society. Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor. Dante's Inferno in an affluent black community. Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Much, much better than any of the movies. A brief query: Am I the only one in the world who absolutely loathed The Catcher in the Rye? I just can't stand that whiney Holden Caulfield, yet everyone I've ever talked to loves him.
|
 |
| Bookmarks |
| Thread Tools | |
| Display Modes | |
|
|
Linear Mode
