# Tell me what books to buy. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 31, 2001, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-what-books-to-buy/60219 "2001-03-31T06:33:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Tyklfe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@Tyklfe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tyklfe)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-what-books-to-buy/60219/41 "2001-04-03T02:16:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by SPOOFE Bo Diddly \* > \*\*You can do worse than to pick up a set of Tolkien’s books, _The Hobbit_, _Lord of the Rings_, and, to a lesser extant, _The Silmarillion_(sp?). \*\* Woo Hoo! go Spoofe!! I can’t wait for the movies to come out too! ---
**Author:** ![Tyklfe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3e96dc/32.png) [@Tyklfe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tyklfe)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-what-books-to-buy/60219/42 "2001-04-03T02:39:44Z")
Oh yeah by the way - - I have to recommend that you read “Who moved my Cheese?” this is a life changing book ---
**Author:** ![Soup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@Soup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soup)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2001, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-what-books-to-buy/60219/43 "2001-04-03T23:09:10Z")
So, MsWhatsit - what books did you buy? ---
**Author:** ![71-Hour\_Achmed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/7/57b2e6/32.png) [@71-Hour\_Achmed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/71-Hour_Achmed)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-what-books-to-buy/60219/44 "2001-04-04T01:39:42Z")
I am amazed that nobody has yet recommended Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon. You can read the beginning at [http://www.cryptonomicon.com/](http://www.cryptonomicon.com/) While you’re there, download Stephenson’s essay on operating systems design, “In The Beginning Was The Command Line”. It’s free, although he’s published it in paper form as well. Zodiac is also excellent. Getting away from Stephenson, there’s always STL Tutorial and Reference Guide. Plot’s a little thin, but the characterization is nicely done. The Wild Blue and the Gray by William Sanders is well worth the search, if you can find a copy at a used bookstore. It’s been out of print for years. (The “ZShops” at [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) have two copies at the moment.) His newest effort, The Ballad of Billy Badass and the Rose of Turkestan started out well but rapidly deteriorated into an utterly predictable piece with an utterly predictable ending, which was a real pity. Crypto by Steven Levy is a well-done history of the modern cryptography movement. The last few pages are especially interesting and heartwrenching. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-what-books-to-buy/60219/45 "2001-04-04T02:33:31Z")
Cosmos - Carl Sagan Any Dilbert book. Avoid any crappy corporate books that help you do one of the following: organize, strategize, etc, etc. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-what-books-to-buy/60219/46 "2001-04-04T03:11:38Z")
OK, well, Phase 1 of Operation Birthday Books is complete. I went to Half Price Books and bought about fifty bucks’ worth. That is $150 short of $200, but after having spent an hour in there, my arms were getting tired. Here’s the loot: _Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit_, Jeanette Winterson _The Big U_, Neal Stephenson _The Stories of Edith Wharton, Vol. I_ _The Johnny Maxwell Trilogy_, Terry Pratchett _The Last Place on Earth_, Roland Huntford _High Fidelity_, Nick Hornby _Naked_, David Sedaris Roger Ebert’s 1995 Movie Companion I really am going to spend the other $150, I swear, as soon as my arms recover from this trip. 😃 Also, FYI, I had already read the following, just so y’all don’t think I was ignoring your suggestions: Roger Zelazny’s Amber series, The Godfather, The Exorcist, all three People’s Almanacs, all three Book of Lists (Books of Lists?), The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, Everything by Tom Clancy (except the stupid Op Center books), 1984, Animal Farm, Lolita, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Guns, Germs, and Steel, In Cold Blood, An Anthropologist on Mars, Beloved, Memoirs of a Geisha, The Phantom Tollbooth, Jacob Have I Loved, Bridge to Terabithia, The Chronicles of Narnia, A Day No Pigs Would Die, The Chocolate War, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, The Name of the Rose, Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, Jaws, The Catcher in the Rye, Into Thin Air, Into the Wild, Good Omens, Death of a Salesman, Cryptonomicon AND Stephenson’s “command line” essay. ---
**Author:** ![Kat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2001, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-what-books-to-buy/60219/47 "2001-04-04T23:40:45Z")
We _are_ expecting reviews/book reports on all the books you buy from the recommendations on this thread. Same goes for those anyone else picks up because they were mentioned here. ---
**Author:** ![bunnicula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/13edae/32.png) [@bunnicula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bunnicula)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2001, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-what-books-to-buy/60219/48 "2001-04-05T02:35:05Z")
One of my favorite books of all time is “Five Smooth Stones” by Ann Fairbairn. It is a novel about this black boy growing up in the south who becomes a civil rights activist. EXCELLENT! Don’t know if Amazon has it, but… I also read a good book by Tristan Egolf “Lord of the Barnyard: killing the fatted calf and arming the aware in the Corn Belt” Long title, but funny book. A MUST: Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas. Any good home library must contain a copy. If you have kids, go for excellent books that you could read to them…my mom read (and I can’t remember all authors) ANY ROALD DAHL book! String in the Harp House of Dies Drear Summer of the Monkeys The Hobbit My mind is blanking now… ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-what-books-to-buy/60219/49 "2001-04-07T03:43:04Z")
OK, it’s a bit late, but here’s my recommendation. You ready? You set? You sitting down? Because this will come as a complete and total shock to anyone. Well, anyone who is blind, deaf, mute, and has been living in a cave on Mars for the past 10 years, but here goes. Brace yourself **Ender’s Game.** readitreaditreaditreaditreaditreaditreaditreaditreaditreaditreaditreaditreaditreaditreaditreaditreaditreaditreaditreadit OK, with that out of the way, **Shogun** is another highly recommend book. I’ve started on \*\*A Game of Thrones \*\*this Sunday and so far it’s been a very enjoyable book. Oh yes, **Wizard’s First Rule** is an excellent book. The series tends to slowly slide downhill though until book six where it takes a nose dive off a wall street building into rush hour. Anyone else with me on that one? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c2a13f/32.png) [@The\_Man\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_Who)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-what-books-to-buy/60219/50 "2001-04-07T18:26:51Z")
There are a lot of book recommendation threads, and I usually chime in to remind people how good The Brothers K by David James Duncan is. There. All done. And since I’m right under Ender’s post I’ll point out that the only two books I’ve literally not been able to put down until I got to the end are “Enders Game” and “Geeks.” Read those too. -Myron ---
**Author:** ![CBEscapee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@CBEscapee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBEscapee)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-what-books-to-buy/60219/51 "2001-04-07T19:34:27Z")
_Ragtime_ by E.L.Doctorrow _Angeles Ashes_ by Frank McCourt _The Death Ship_ by B.Traven _Tinker,Tailor,Soldier,Spy_ by John Le Carre _Adolf Hitler_ by John Toland _Never Cry Wolf_ by Farley Mowat _Cannery Row_ and _The Grapes of Wrath_ by John Steinbeck _Tattoo_,_A Garden of Sand_ or _Caldo Largo_ by Earl Thompson ---
**Author:** ![hazel-rah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/73ab20/32.png) [@hazel-rah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hazel-rah)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-what-books-to-buy/60219/52 "2001-04-07T20:40:52Z")
Fiction: Donna Tartt’s **The Secret History** Kid from California dreams of going to an east coast liberal arts college, does so, falls in with an eccentric group of classics students, and there is a murder. I have said nothing about this book. You won’t be able to put it down. Haruki Murakami’s **A Wild Sheep Chase** Straightforward story of an unassuming but philosophical guy who starts dating an ear model and is sent on a quest to find a sheep with a star on it’s back by a right-wing mogul. Devolves into emotionally gripping weirdness. You’ll need to read **Dance Dance Dance** to break out of your bleak depression afterwards. Richard Dooling’s **White Man’s Grave** Disaffected white kid goes to Sierra Leone to find his missing Peace Corps friend, hilarity ensues. I read it a few times as a straight adventure, but with each repeated reading it just gets more and more hilarious. It’s a damning indictment of Americans particularly and human nature generally. These are to complement the others books others already mentioned that I liked- everything by Nick Hornby, William Gibson, Umberto Eco, L’Engle, Lewis… -fh ---
**Author:** ![Myrnalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Myrnalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrnalene)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2001, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-what-books-to-buy/60219/53 "2001-04-07T23:16:02Z")
This may be a cliche, but I recommend 1984 by Orwell. This is the one book I think about at least once a week, I have never been able to get it out of my head. And no, I am not a conspiracy theorist! BTW, I’m surprised **bunnicula** did not mention Bunnicula, nor **hazel-rah** Watership Down. I love those! ---
**Author:** ![71-Hour\_Achmed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/7/57b2e6/32.png) [@71-Hour\_Achmed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/71-Hour_Achmed)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2001, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-what-books-to-buy/60219/54 "2001-04-16T06:58:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CBEscapee \* > **_Never Cry Wolf_ by Farley Mowat** Y’know, this used to be a favorite of mine up until 1995. Then, there was an article in one of the Seattle newspapers (probably really from either Reuters or AP) which was about Mowat, and how he had admitted to falsifying the “scientific” information in his books in order to slant them in the direction he wanted. Ever since, although I still enjoy _The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be_, I’ve never read or bought another of his books. I just feel so completely betrayed. ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2001, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-what-books-to-buy/60219/55 "2001-04-18T02:06:49Z")
Based on your prior postings, I may be treading familiar ground here, but what the hell: [ul] [li]_Snow Crash_ by Neal Stephenson[/li][li]_Fear and Loathing on the '72 Campaign Trail_ by Hunter S. Thompson[/li][li]_The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever_ by Stephen R. Donaldson - There are actually two trilogies - the second one isn’t as good as the first, although the first _book_ in the second trilogy,\*The Wounded Land, \* is the most fully realized of any of them.[/li][li]_Dune_ by Frank Herbert[/li][li]_Slaughterhouse Five_ by Kurt Vonnegut[/li][li]_Catch-22_ by Joseph Heller[/li][li]_Watership Down_ by Richard Adams[/li][li]_Billions and Billions_ by Carl Sagan[/li][li]_The Calvin & Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book_ by Bill Watterson[/li][li]_The Man in the High Castle_ by Philip K. Dick[/li][li]_The Monkey Wrench Gang_ by Edward Abbey[/li][li]_The Pillars of the Earth_ by Ken Follett (not his typical book!)[/li][li]_Venus on the Half-Shell_ by Philip Jose Farmer, using the _nom de plum_ Kilgore Trout[/li][/ul] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-what-books-to-buy/60219.md?page=2)