Recommendation for some Good Books

[tygger]

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera

On The Road by Jack Kerouac

 

[shakeylegs]

Anything by Raymond Carver, John Varley (Millennium or the trilogy of Titan, Wizzard and Demon), or Dennis Lehane (author of Shutter Island which inspired the upcoming movie, Mystic River also made into a movie with Sean Penn, but especially the earlier novels like A Drink Before The War.

 

[da.gee]

100 Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig

My Antonia - Willa Cather

How about some good ol' American poetry: Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman

Feeling saucy? Try Thoreau's Civil Disobedience.

 

[andyw513]

I just thought of another "fun" read: almost any book by Robert Anton Wilson.

 

[ducat]

Terry Pratchett's discworld series. I've never laughed so hard!:laughing:

 

[RAGE CAGE]

The Complete Walker IV- by Collin Fletcher and Chip Rawlins

-excellent camping and outdoors book.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0375703233/?tag=cpf0b6-20

 

[DoctaDink]

The Complete Walker IV- by Collin Fletcher and Chip Rawlins

-excellent camping and outdoors book.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0375703233/?tag=cpf0b6-20

Wow, haven't thought of that book for a while. I read the first editon, way back when. It would be interesting to compare the new info with the old.

 

[fisk-king]

Terry Pratchett's discworld series. I've never laughed so hard!:laughing:

lol, yes that is a good series of books. it has been years since I've picked up and read one though.

 

[ducat]

He's still churning them out, despite early onset alzheimers, and they just get better!

 

[Lit Up]

Not a book recommendation, but you can find good prices on used books at Alibris. I've bought a few through there and have been happy. Each sell offered also gives you a description of the book's condition

http://www.alibris.com/

 

[fisk-king]

Not a book recommendation, but you can find good prices on used books at Alibris. I've bought a few through there and have been happy. Each sell offered also gives you a description of the book's condition

http://www.alibris.com/

hey :thanks:

just received my Thomas Pynchon " V. " in the mail today so I will spend some time reading this as well as studing for the upcoming exam for my job (basically explain the workings of a Hydro Dam electrically and mechanically, in a nut shell).

 

[Chauncey Gardner]

Hey guys:wave:,

I just purchased the following to give it whirl:

V. - Thomas Pynchon

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole

What are some books you guys have read that you consider "great" or "classics" to recommend:tinfoil: to another reader?

Fisk

A short list:

Siddartha by Herman Hesse (forget about religion as you read it, it is a man's journey into himself)

Shutter Island (before the movie, no way can DiCaprio pull it off). Read it over Chrismas (very sick and finished it in a few hours) and it's a well written piece of creepy u out fiction. Gritty in a James Elroy way and stays with you. Denis Lehane gets under your skin as a writer.

Anything by Elmore Leonard but Split Images especially.

Anything by James Elroy.

Anything by Cormack McCarthy.

Atlas Shrugged, as already mentioned....several times. Great read, like War & Peace, the heft of it is reasurring when reading not intimidating. Easy to drop into the world of John Galt.

Free to Choose by Milton Freidman. Everyone should read this book.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. Didn't care for Hitchiker's Guide, but really grokked this book.

Animal Farm by George Orwell. Most especially right now as it will be even funnier with this administration...

A Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Newton Peck. A slice of Americana and a forgotten way of life.

Could type all night but hand is killing me.

Loved Dorian Gray btw, great read (on several levels) and a classic.

Have to add American Pastoral by Phillip Roth. Another book that stays with you ...but very, very dark (easily as dark as Mystic River by Lehane) and very disturbing.

 

[Flying Turtle]

In the science fiction category I've especially enjoyed the books by Robert Charles Wilson. Particular ones are Darwinia, The Chronoliths, and Blind Lake.

DoctaDink mentioned the Redwall series of books by Brian Jaques. I read them all to my son when he was a little guy and probably enjoyed them as much as he did. Think of them as the adventures of squirrels, badgers, and moles in medieval times.

Geoff

 

[kelmo]

"Without Warning" by John Birmingham. A quick synopsis, it is the eve of the 2nd Gulf War in 2003, an energy wave from space fries the continental United States. The only thing left of the US is Seattle, Hawaii, the US territories, and the military abroad. The Continental US burns. The story that follows is how the world reacts when the world's policeman is gone, the biggest consumer and debitor vanishes, and the environment collapses as the toxic cloud of what was left of the US causes environmental collapse (nuclear winter and acid rain). His other trilogy "Weapons of Choice" is also a good read. Its about a 21st century UN task force that get transported back to the Battle of Midway. All the major combatants get a hold of technology 60 years into the future along with a library on the historical timeline that they were following. The Soviets, Germans, and Japanese realize they are going to lose to the US and it gets really interesting.

"Slaughterhouse 5" is a great read. Billy Pilgram is unstuck in time!

"Tilting the Balance" by Harry Turtledove is the 1st of 8 books in the genre. It is about an alien invasion during the height of WWII.

"A Kalidescope Century" by Jeff Barnes is good stuff. It is about a soldier of fortune who rejuvenates every 100 years at the cost of his memory. He wakes up in the 21st century in a war where sentient computers have learned to download programming into human minds and are fighting for global dominance.

 

[Flying Turtle]

I'm glad to hear that Birmingham has a new book. I also enjoyed the "Weapons of Choice" trilogy, and some of the Turtledove books.

Geoff

 

[Monocrom]

Unintended Consequences by John Ross... IF you can find a copy of it. Very hard to find and very expensive right now. My second copy cost me $60.

Damn! Didn't know that. I have a First Edition. Excellent book. Quite thick though. But worth reading.

 

[texascarl]

Chancey Gardner's book tastes are similar to mine - but I'll recommend a specific Cormac McCarthy book - Blood Meridan: Or the Evening Redness In the West.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0679641041/?tag=cpf0b6-20

A specific James Crumley book as well - The Last Good Kiss (first in the series):
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0394759893/?tag=cpf0b6-20

Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0143037072/?tag=cpf0b6-20

Latro in the Mist by Gene Wolfe (one of my favorites - Wolfe uses an 'unreliable narrator' in much of his work, takes some getting used to)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0765302942/?tag=cpf0b6-20

Raymond Chandler collection
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1883011078/?tag=cpf0b6-20

Dashiell Hammett collection
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1883011671/?tag=cpf0b6-20

 

[TedTheLed]

How can Chauncey Gardner not recommend "Being There"
by Jerzy Kosinski??!

 

[PoliceScannerMan]

Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrel, emotional, but it's a story that needed to be told. Very well written, entertaining and gripping all in one book.

+1,000,000 Book brought tears to my eyes, damn good read.

 

[Monocrom]

"Gerald's Game" by Stephen King.

One of his better novels, and unless I'm horribly mistaken it has not been turned into a film or T.V. mini-series.

(The only other one off the top of my head that is still strictly in book form is "Rose Madder." A novel that is his least popular book, despite containing what is easily one of the greatest villians in all of literature. Having read the novel, I can see why it is his least popular book.)

"Gerald's Game" is definitely for adults. Worth reading. Especially for the twist near the end of the novel.