# What Book Should I Read Next? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 10, 2004, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-should-i-read-next/254423 "2004-07-10T07:12:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PAWKK\_BO4LL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e7dd6/32.png) [@PAWKK\_BO4LL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PAWKK_BO4LL)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-should-i-read-next/254423/1 "2004-07-10T07:12:30Z")
fiction, non-fiction… whatever you like… I will read anything. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-should-i-read-next/254423/2 "2004-07-10T07:14:00Z")
Oh, could you be more general? What did you just finish? What do you like? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-should-i-read-next/254423/3 "2004-07-10T07:29:06Z")
Anything? Read \*\* The Voyeur\*\* Alain Robbe-Grillet. Then report back on your opinion of the focal character’s guilt or innocence. (when I read this for a lit class in 1999, I was suprised that only 2 of us came to the less popular conclusion. But we had textual evidence to support our case! 😃 ) ---
**Author:** ![Cuckoorex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Cuckoorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cuckoorex)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-should-i-read-next/254423/4 "2004-07-10T07:29:30Z")
Read “The Lucifer Principle” by Howard Bloom. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-should-i-read-next/254423/5 "2004-07-10T07:43:27Z")
“Guns, Germs, and Steel” by Jared Diamond “How Few Remain”, The Great War Trilogy, and the American Empire trilogy by Harry Turtledove “1984” by George Orwell ---
**Author:** ![Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9dc877/32.png) [@Nightwatch\_Trailer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightwatch_Trailer)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-should-i-read-next/254423/6 "2004-07-10T14:34:32Z")
_The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay_ by Michael Chabon. _East of Eden_ by John Steinbeck. _Requiem for a Dream_ by Hubert Selby Jr. ---
**Author:** ![Brainiac4](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brainiac4/32/3534_2.png) [@Brainiac4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brainiac4)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-should-i-read-next/254423/7 "2004-07-10T14:54:15Z")
_How to Win Friends and Influence People_ - Dale Carnegie. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![AwSnappity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a3d4f5/32.png) [@AwSnappity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AwSnappity)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-should-i-read-next/254423/8 "2004-07-10T16:15:02Z")
_How to Lose Friends & Alienate People_ by Toby Young _Life of Pi_ by Yann Martel _Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America_ by Dan Savage ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-should-i-read-next/254423/9 "2004-07-10T16:25:42Z")
> [@Cuckoorex](#): > > Read “The Lucifer Principle” by Howard Bloom. Awesome book. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-should-i-read-next/254423/10 "2004-07-10T16:31:19Z")
Nonfiction: In the Beginning by John Gribbin. 4,000 Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby. Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose. Fiction: Voice of the Whirlwind by Walter Jon Williams Island in the Sea of Time by SM Stirling Armor by John Steakley ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-should-i-read-next/254423/11 "2004-07-10T17:54:08Z")
_Illuminatus_ by Robert Anton Wilson and that other guy whose name I can’t remember no matter how many times I Google it. _Byzantium_ by John Julius Norwich. The full three volumes, no fair reading the _Short History of Byzantium_, which is the equivalent of the Reader’s Digest Condensed Version. _The Bible_ should keep you busy for a while. And, since there’s another thread on it, Frank Herbert’s _Dune_ trilogy. ---
**Author:** ![PAWKK\_BO4LL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e7dd6/32.png) [@PAWKK\_BO4LL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PAWKK_BO4LL)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2004, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-book-should-i-read-next/254423/12 "2004-07-10T18:50:28Z")
ok, I’ve read: The Bible How to Win Friends and Influence People Requiem for a Dream 1984 (from amazon) - > [@](#): > > The “Lucifer Principle” is freelance journalist Bloom’s theory that evil-which manifests in violence, destructiveness and war-is woven into our biological fabric. A corollary is that evil is a by-product of nature’s strategy to move the world to greater heights of organization and power as national or religious groups follow ideologies that trigger lofty ideals as well as base cruelty. In an ambitious, often provocative study, Bloom applies the ideas of sociobiology, ethology and the “killer ape” school of anthropology to the broad canvas of history, with examples ranging from Oliver Cromwell’s reputed pleasure in killing and raping to Mao Tse-tung’s bloody Cultural Revolution, India’s caste system and Islamic fundamentalist expansion. , wow. that’ll have to be the First Next Book… > [@](#): > > Oh, could you be more general? What did you just finish? What do you like? the Oxford Companion to Philosophy and The Wizardry Quested are the two books I just finished. Honestly, I have no preferences … I read compulsively …