# The Book Recommendation Challenge
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [October 8, 2001, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126 "2001-10-08T15:15:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126/1 "2001-10-08T15:15:48Z")
Not just another ‘here’s my favorite book thread’ and not just a “I’m reading this right now thread”. I think we should work together to recommend books based on WHAT WE KNOW about posters. And it should be something well considered. What I mean by this is, no fair recommending the entire Terry Prachett Library to every sci fi freak (:D) on the boards.
I don’t read sci fi. And right now, I’m reading a book that my husband recommended because “he loved it” and “everyone he knows loves it”. It is Pillars of the Earth, and reading it is like a prison sentence. It occurred to me that I have no idea why my boy would recommend it. Why would he even conceive that I would find monks and church building interesting? I am JARBABY, and this book has no sex in it. What the…
So. While I think of a recommendation to give to some of my friends on the board, I will give one general recommendation to those who like a)comedy, b)british comedy, c)spy novels and d)Fry and Laurie
This book is: The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie.
Sure thing.
**Sophie, Arden Ranger and Magdalene** I would recommend The Collector by John Fowles.
**Maeglin** only a fool like me would presume to recommend a book to the most literary guy I know, and I’m sure you’ve already read it, but The Magus by John Fowles seems right up your alley. Mythology, Literature, Mystery, Puzzles. It’s a great, frustrating book. With whole passages written in different languages.
So, anyone else?
jarbaby
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### Author:  [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126/2 "2001-10-08T15:27:18Z")
I’m sorry, jarbaby my love, but I sincerely liked Pillars of The Earth and commend your husband’s tastes.
In fact, I’d recommend it to MrBlue92 after his recent trip to England looking at (among other things) cathedrals. The thing I found so interesting was the role of faith and dedication in getting those things built. They took a lifetime! Someone might spend their entire work life creating this cathedral, while they themselves lived in poverty and want and extreme simplicity. Meanwhile, they’re building a huge beautiful monument to god that will last for centuries. Wow.
I just looked at MrBlue’s vacation pictures (he shared them with us after Geobabe’s concert) and was enthralled all over again.
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### Author:  [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126/3 "2001-10-08T15:30:04Z")
Wow, **jarbabyj** , is The Gun Seller by the same guy who was in two series of _Blackadder?_ Neat!
To **jarbabyj** I recommend Captive of Gor and Kajira of Gor. Yes, these are science fiction. Yes, I know you don’t read science fiction. Trust me on this one.
To **spoke-** I recommend Down With the Old Canoe: A Cultural History of the _Titanic_ Disaster.
That’s all I’ve got at the moment.
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### Author:  [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126/4 "2001-10-08T15:31:44Z")
Cranky, that’s my point. Pillars of the Earth is a fine and wonderful reccomendation to SOME people, but to just blindly recommend a book because YOU like it isn’t always successful. I’ve read plenty of books that people say “Oh, should I read that?” and even if I love it, I refrain, because I might very well have crappy taste. I loved Mall by Eric Bogosian, but I know damn well Fiver would hate it.
jarbaby
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### Author:  [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126/5 "2001-10-08T15:36:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Fiver \*
> Wow, **jarbabyj** , is The Gun Seller by the same guy who was in two series of _Blackadder?_ Neat!
Yes! It’s hilarious. It’s a total spoof on spy novels. I loved it, and I’m not even into spy novels.
> [@](#):
>
> To **jarbabyj** I recommend Captive of Gor and Kajira of Gor. Yes, these are science fiction. Yes, I know you don’t read science fiction. Trust me on this one.
I’ve been considering reading some Gor novels. Although I read about people on the internet who ‘live the gorean lifestyle’ and man, there’s some freaks out there 😃
jarbaby
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### Author:  [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126/6 "2001-10-08T15:41:55Z")
**jarbabyj’s** right, **Maeglin**. I think you’d love _The Magus_. But get the revised version.
**jarbabyj** , have you read the Red Dwarf books?
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### Author:  [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126/7 "2001-10-08T15:49:16Z")
She wouldn’t like the Red Dwarf books, **Gadarene**.
**jarbabyj** , I hadn’t heard of Mall, so I looked it up at Barnes and Noble. You’re probably right, I’d hate it, but I love this turn of phrase from the publisher’s review. It described the cast of characters as a “rogue’s galleria.”
To **manhattan** I recommend Why We Get Sick: A Darwinian Approach to Medicine.
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### Author:  [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126/8 "2001-10-08T16:00:10Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by jarbabyj \*
> Why would he even conceive that I would find monks and church building interesting? I am JARBABY, and this book has no sex in it. What the…
You must have missed the part where Ellen finds Tom after his wife dies, and then rides him blind. Oh, and Aliena was quite the vixen.
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### Author:  [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126/9 "2001-10-08T16:11:39Z")
Well, I enjoyed the Pillars of the Earth, really enjoyed the Gun Seller, and love the Magus - check.
jarbabyj, if you want heavy-duty sex, bondage, and mystery all wrapped up in a page-turner structure, you clearly need to read “Topping from Below” by Laura Reese. A good thriller, erotic but quite disturbing depending on what you’re into…she also wrote “Panic Snap” but it isn’t sufficiently different from the first to recommend it…(I assume you’ve read Vox and The Fermata by Baker - much more literate erotica, but they were on the bestseller lists…)
If you liked the Magus, I would recommend “Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World” by Haruki Murakami. It isn’t really like the Magus, but everyone I know who has read both loves them both and for similar reasons. Not a lot of sex (although it is hard boiled - hence the title - with a touch of noir, if you will, which is cool), but a very engaging, incredibly well-written book.
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### Author:  [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126/10 "2001-10-08T16:11:46Z")
> [@](#):
>
> She wouldn’t like the Red Dwarf books, Gadarene.
Oh. Well, then. Ne’er mind. 🙂
Here’s a recommendation to **Mandelstam** , whom I doubt ever ventures into this forum: _Public Opinion_ by Walter Lippmann.
I’ll give two more a try for **jarbabyj** : _The Basic Eight_ by Daniel Handler, and _Ready, Okay!_ by Adam Cadre. Snarky, literate, full of wordplay and teen sex and hilarious, biting depictions of high school and its denizens. Wonderfully written. (And if someone tells me you won’t like those, **jarbaby** , then I give _up_ recommending books to you! ;))
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### Author:  [@GKW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GKW)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126/11 "2001-10-08T16:12:22Z")
I don’t know anyone here but I’m going to recommend a few more from the b) category (british comedy):
‘Three Men in a Boat’ by Jerome K. Jerome
anything by P. G. Wodehouse
The ‘Flashman’ series by George Macdonald Fraser
jarbabyj~ from reading you post I think you would like:
‘Delta of Venus’ erotica by Anaïs Nin
‘Nightbook’ by William Kotzwinkle
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### Author:  [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126/12 "2001-10-08T16:22:41Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Gadarene \*
> and _Ready, Okay!_ by Adam Cadre. Snarky…
Wow, someone else has read _Ready, Okay!_ and uses the word ‘snarky’ to describe it?
You hang out on r\*if, don’t you?
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### Author:  [@G.B.H.Hornswoggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/G.B.H.Hornswoggler)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126/13 "2001-10-08T16:51:24Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by jarbabyj \*
> \*\*So. While I think of a recommendation to give to some of my friends on the board, I will give one general recommendation to those who like a)comedy, b)british comedy, c)spy novels and d)Fry and Laurie
>
> This book is: The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie.
>
> Sure thing.
> \*\*
**jarbaby** , have you tried Laurie’s buddy Stephen Fry’s books?
His first two novels ( **The Liar** and **The Hippopotamus** ) are hilarious – funnier than **Gun Seller** , I think.
**Making History** is a little more serious, but still has funny moments. **Moab Is My Washpot** is his memoirs, and will make you re-think how “fictional” **The Liar** is…
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### Author:  [@tiny\_ham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tiny_ham)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126/14 "2001-10-08T16:57:53Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by lno \*
>
> You must have missed the part where Ellen finds Tom after his wife dies, and then rides him blind. Oh, and Aliena was quite the vixen.
As a rule, I don’t like romance novel sex, which means neglecting to mention the details of the act, referring to a penis as ‘manhood’ or using the term ‘glorious climax’ 😃 Besides, Ellen, I don’t like her. She’s crabby and unlikeable. Aliena and Jack ‘make love’ which is yawnsome for me. but to each his own.
I like power, violence, trickery, dirty talk, sex and modern, real people.
If the Sopranos was a book, I’d be engrossed in it.
jarbaby
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### Author:  [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126/15 "2001-10-08T17:18:52Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by lno \*
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > \*Originally posted by Gadarene \*
> > and _Ready, Okay!_ by Adam Cadre. Snarky…
>
> Wow, someone else has read _Ready, Okay!_ and uses the word ‘snarky’ to describe it?
>
> You hang out on r\*if, don’t you?
At the risk of answering your question without actually answering your question, what’s r\*if? 🙂
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### Author:  [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126/16 "2001-10-08T17:20:34Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by jarbabyj \*
> **Cranky, that’s my point. Pillars of the Earth is a fine and wonderful reccomendation to SOME people, but to just blindly recommend a book because YOU like it isn’t always successful. I’ve read plenty of books that people say “Oh, should I read that?” and even if I love it, I refrain, because I might very well have crappy taste. I loved Mall by Eric Bogosian, but I know damn well Fiver would hate it.**
Exactly. What you like might not be what someone else likes. That could account for all those different sections at Barnes and Noble. 😉
I, for one (along with Cranky and WordMan), LOVED _Pillars of the Earth_. (I have two copies of it!)
I like all of Ken Follett’s stuff. _A Place Called Freedom_ was really good, also.
I also like most of the Oprah books.
I like the Sue Grafton and Janet Evanovich books.
I like Margaret Atwood.
I like John Grisham and Nelson DeMille.
I like Jeffrey Archer.
I like some Stephen King and some Dean Koontz.
What I don’t like (and I know I in a definite minority here) is Sci-Fi.
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### Author:  [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126/17 "2001-10-08T17:46:14Z")
[QUOTE]
\*Originally posted by jarbabyj \*
\*\*
> [@](#):
>
> I like power, violence, trickery, dirty talk, sex and modern, real people.
> jarbaby \*\*
I don’t know about the “real people” part, but from the other stuff, it sounds like “Topping from Below” would be for you (I am not into BDSM in my real life, so I don’t know how real the portrayals are in the book…)
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### Author:  [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126/18 "2001-10-08T18:27:28Z")
Thanks, **jarbaby** , I will definitely check it out.
I rather enjoyed _Pillars of the Earth_, and from what I recall, it is downright filled with sex. Pregnant sex in a lake, near-rape sex in someone’s house, three-way with a prostitute…
I am sure there is more, but I read the book about ten years ago. 😃
Then again, ten pages of real kink in a thousand-page tome isn’t exactly a high proportion. 😉
I’ll try to think of something for you.
MR
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### Author:  [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126/19 "2001-10-08T18:45:36Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by jarbabyj \*
> Besides, Ellen, I don’t like her. She’s crabby and unlikeable.
Well, true; someone who hikes up her dress and pisses on the Rule of St Benedict probably has some issues with authority.
> [@](#):
>
> _Originally posted by Gadarene_
> At the risk of answering your question without actually answering your question, what’s r\*if?
rec.arts.int-fiction and rec.games.int-fiction - r\*if. Adam Cadre is a prolific IF author as well, and in my experience, most of the people who learned about RO got it either directly or indirectly from there.
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### Author:  [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2001, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-book-recommendation-challenge/86126/20 "2001-10-08T19:11:38Z")
Actually, **Ino** , I discovered Adam Cadre’s IF through his website after reading his book. 🙂 Regardless, I recommend Ready, Okay! to everyone.
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