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Recommend me some more books, please.

OGRipper

OGRipper

back alley ripper
Feb 3, 2004
10,655
1,129
NORCAL is the hizzle
Just went through The Kite Runner in about a week - amazing story of loss and redemption, very well told, especially for a first novel.

Also recently read The Devil's Teeth, non-fiction about white sharks and the Farallon Islands. Great stuff.
 
Jorvik

Jorvik

Monkey
Jan 29, 2002
810
0
I honestly don't know anymore.
Gates of Fire - Stephen Pressfield
Paddy Whacked - T.J. English

And I'm going to second Walden. Thoreau was pretty much the first American hippy to publish a book, and damn is it good. I used to swim the length of Walden Pond when I was in school.
 
scrublover

scrublover

Turbo Monkey
Sep 1, 2004
2,931
6,319
"Eyes of the Calculor" - Sean McMullen

"When Gravity Fails" - George Alec Effinger

Two (new to me) authors with some really cool stuff; both of those above are the first in three book series.

Iain M. Banks, LE Modesitt Jr., Neal Stephenson, and Clive Barker all have some great stuff. Robin Hobb's "Farseer" trilogy is pretty good.
Elizabeth Willey has a three book series that is hard to find, but excellent. Frank Herbert's stuff is good; forget his son's new stuff - it's crap.

Anything by Ruth Reichl, Anthony Bourdain, or Bill Bryson. "The Solace of Open Spaces" by Gretel Ehrlich is wonderful.

Doesn't hurt that my girlie is aquisition head for a large county library system; she brings home all sorts of stuff to read. We really need more bookshelves. Go roam you local library, and grab whatever title/cover/author name seems interesting. Some days it's a tough call between reading or riding. Yeah, I'm a nerd.
 
llkoolkeg

llkoolkeg

Ranger LL
Sep 5, 2001
4,329
5
in da shed, mon, in da shed
C'mon now...if it's just High School or Lit 101 required reading, why post it? Try suggesting books that you've read without a gun to your head. :rolleyes:

I'm just starting one I picked up from the library Saturday-

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

It came highly recommended by my wife, a far more voracious and disciplined reader than I.
 
llkoolkeg

llkoolkeg

Ranger LL
Sep 5, 2001
4,329
5
in da shed, mon, in da shed
"The Stories of Mary Gordon" is the other book I picked up from the library. It was recomended to me by an acquaintance, but I don't know much about either the author or the book. Anyone familiar with her work?
 
Zark

Zark

Hey little girl, do you want some candy?
Oct 18, 2001
6,254
7
Reno 911
upgr8r has turned my on to a ton of good books this year.

A song of Fire and Ice (series, 3 books so far, fantasy) George RR Martin.
A mix of medieval fantasy, heavy on the politics. Really good series, I'm dying for that next one!

Hyperion Cantos (Sci-fi, series) Dan Simmons. Unbelievable good series of books. Sci-fi usually doesn't have the deep intellectual and emotional content that these have. Good stuff on the dangers of overreliance on technology.
 
Upgr8r

Upgr8r

High Priest or maybe Jedi Master
May 2, 2006
941
0
Ventura, CA
Zark said:
upgr8r has turned my on to a ton of good books this year.

A song of Fire and Ice (series, 3 books so far, fantasy) George RR Martin.
A mix of medieval fantasy, heavy on the politics. Really good series, I'm dying for that next one!

Hyperion Cantos (Sci-fi, series) Dan Simmons. Unbelievable good series of books. Sci-fi usually doesn't have the deep intellectual and emotional content that these have. Good stuff on the dangers of overreliance on technology.
Click to expand...
Don't forget the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. That has kept you busy for a couple of months :banana:
 
mdc

mdc

Monkey
Jul 8, 2006
243
15
Uxbridge
The Stand-Stephan King (terrific character development, great story)Clockwork Orange- Anthony Burgess ( the "made up" Nadsat language is fantastic- just get a copy of the book with a Dictionary in the back...)
Geek Love- Katherine Dunn ( circus freak debauchery)
Catcher in the Rye- JD Salinger ( no matter how many times I read that book it is always fantastic)
A Walk in the Woods- Bill Bryson (very light and funny book)
 
J

JRogers

talks too much
Mar 19, 2002
3,785
1
Claremont, CA
aviatorsman said:
any book by David Sedaris
Click to expand...
I like Sedaris quite a bit. I sometimes like David Rakoff too. He's sort of like Sedaris...but a lot meaner.

I also second some of Stephen King's stuff- The Stand, The Dark Tower series and IT are the best I've read.

If you like travel/historical writing check out Tony Horwitz. Confederates in the Attic, Blue Lattitudes and Baghdad Without a Map are all excellent.

For fiction, my favorite modern author is Tom Perrotta. Little Children, Election, Joe College, The Wishbones and Bad Haircut are all great with Little Children, Joe College and Election being the better ones.

For non-fiction, I always recommend people read Ernest Becker. Escape from Evil is one of my favorite books. It was his last and probably best work.
 
TheInedibleHulk

TheInedibleHulk

Turbo Monkey
May 26, 2004
1,886
0
Colorado
They've been mentioned once or twice but Tom Robbins and Kurt Vonnegut are easily my favorites at the moment. Any vonnegut is great and they are all quick reads, I'd start with breakfast of Champions or Slaughterhouse 5, but you really cant go wrong. Somone already said Fierce Invalids by Robbins, I will just add Skinny Legs and All which I just finished and was pretty awesome. My next book is The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Woolfe, dont really know anything about ti, just the next one in the stack.

Oh yeah, I thought Sedaris was lame and uninteresting. I listened to the book-on-tape on a long road trip, and maybe his annoying nasaly voice ruined it for me. I absolutely cannot read Dan Brown, the writing is so god awful it barely matters what the content is.
 
Plummit

Plummit

Monkey
Mar 12, 2002
233
0
Check out Iain M. Banks' "Culture" series of novels for some cool sci-fi. He also publishes under Iain Banks (no M.), and these novels tend to be darker and more grizzly w/ horror and socially demented themes. "Consider Phlebas" is the first in the "Culture" series, but I've enjoyed them all immensely, especially "Look to Windward," "The Player of Games, and "Use of Weapons." You don't necessarily need to read them in order as they stand alone and compose more of a tapestry than a chronological series.

Enjoy. Link to Amazon Iain M. Banks http://www.amazon.com/s/002-2306488-5455260?ie=UTF8&index=books&rank=-relevance%2C%2Bavailability%2C-daterank&field-author-exact=Banks%2C%20Iain%20M.
 
Smelly

Smelly

Turbo Monkey
Jun 17, 2004
1,254
1
out yonder, round bout a hootinany
I'm a non-fiction and travel writing reader, so here's some good ones I've read lately:

Endurance- Alfred Lansing. The story of Ernest Shackleton's 1917 expedition to traverse Antarctica. It's an incredible story of survival

The Sex Lives of Cannibals- J. Maarten Troost. Very light, witty reading. You'll finish it in three days. Troost and his girlfriend move to a remote equatorial pacific island (Tarawa) when she gets a job there. Amusing and a good book to read in between heavier books.

A short history of nearly everything- Bill Bryson. For that matter, i recommened a lot of Bryson books, particularly the aformentioned, A Walk in the Woods, Neither Here Nor There, and In A Sunburned Country. Bryson is easy and fun to read, though his books can get a tad dull at points. Just skip those parts and move on.

The Devil in the White City- Erik Larsen. Murder in Chicago at the 1893 worlds fair. Twisted and suspensful, and it's all true.

Lastly, anything by Jon Krakauer. I've also heard good things about Paul Theroux but have yet to read anything he's writen.

I'll also have to second the recommendation for Catch 22. I love that book!
 
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