[new_apple]

It's a new year and I've realized that I need some "cultural input". The last couple of years I haven't read all that much, maybe the odd book every now and then. So this year I intend to do something about that. But I really need some help figuring out what books to read. And then I thought: Hey, how about asking you guys? You seem to be spread all over the world, and I'm sure you've got some favourite books that I would enjoy.

So - bring them on! I'm pretty much open to everything. Not to fond of those Bridget Jones' novels though (books that stroll along for a couple of hundred pages, and then sort of ends). They just seem like a waste of time.

For your information: the last books I read were Alfred Besters "The Stars my Destination" and Haruki Murakamis "Norwegian Wood" and "A Wild Sheep Chase". That might get you started with good recommendations!

[MacGorilla]

Slaughter House Five---Kurt Vonnegut

<shameless plug>
Or you can always read my book:
http://www.pabd.com/shop/books/book....book_id=000400
</shameless plug>

[mdc]

hitchhikers guide to the galaxy.
probably my favorite book of all time.

[Randman]

The Hunt For Red October.
The Vampire Lestat.
Who's Your Caddy?
The Stand.
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time.
Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.
American Gods.
Kitchen Confidential.

And three graphic novels: Kingdom Come, From Hell and The Watchmen.

Plenty of variety. You could also try audible.com or iTMS and listen to some audiobooks. Nice change of pace. A couple of good ones are:

Hughes
Memoirs Of A Geisha
Kitchen Confidential (again)
George Carlin Reads To You
America The Book (The Audiobook) [little outdated but still funny]

[macaddict0001]

Definitely The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I would also recommend The Lord of the Rings and White Fang.

[chris v]

Here's a few I've read in the last three years that hav stuck with me:

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius -- David Eggers
I Know This Much is True -Wally Lamb
The Corrections -- Jonathan Frantzen
A Prayer for Owen Meany --John Irving
The Trial -- Franz Kafka
Cat's Cradle -- Vonnegut
The Poisonwood Bible -- Barbara Kingsolver
The Shipping News --Annie Proulx

I read a lot of non-fiction too, but don't know if that's what you're looking for.

[Sherwin]

Huxley's "Brave New World".
Orwell's "1984".
Orwell's "Animal Farm".

[Spliff]

100 Best Novels

100 Best Non-Fiction Books

100 Science Fiction Books You Just Have to Read

Sports Illustrated's Top 100 Sports Books of All Time

The SF Book Club's "The Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years (1953-2002)"

The Guardian's 100 Best Books of All Time

BBC's "The Big Read" - Top 100 Books


My recommendations for books I read recently:

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester. (SF Classic)
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. (SF classic)
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (awesome book about the disaster on Everest in 1996)

[chris v]

Originally posted by Sherwin:
Huxley's "Brave New World".
Orwell's "1984".
Orwell's "Animal Farm".

Dystopian, much?

[new_apple]

Wow! You guys sure do read books! Good I didn't post this at some PC forum, right?

To sum up some of the recommendations:

- Hitchhikers Guide... - Read it! But it's on my short list, need my Adams fix!
- Kitchen Confidential - started on it today, actually. Bourdain is on fire in this one!
- Vonnegut - forgot about him... I haven't read anything he's written, the closest I got was a project in high school. We could choose between Vonnegut and Arthur C. Clark (the Rama series). I chose the latter... But this might be a good time to check him out.
- Huxley: Ordered it the minute I saw the post! Was thinking about this one, but couldn't remember what the name of the book/author was. Thank you for that one.
- John Irving: will check him out.

Again, thank you all - this sure made Amazon's day!

[NYCFarmboy]

A Walk Across America, by Peter Jenkins

The story of a hippie finding America by literally walking across the entire United States.

A Walk Across America covers his journey from New York State to New Orleans.

The Walk West is the 2nd book covering New Orleans to the pacific coast.




Absolutely amazing books.

[new_apple]

Originally posted by Spliff:
100 Best Novels

100 Best Non-Fiction Books

100 Science Fiction Books You Just Have to Read

Sports Illustrated's Top 100 Sports Books of All Time

The SF Book Club's "The Most Significant SF & Fantasy Books of the Last 50 Years (1953-2002)"

The Guardian's 100 Best Books of All Time

BBC's "The Big Read" - Top 100 Books


My recommendations for books I read recently:

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester. (SF Classic)
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. (SF classic)
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (awesome book about the disaster on Everest in 1996)

Thanks! Some good links there. And a couple more of those SF Classics, I just love that series.

[Shaddim]

Some of my favorite fiction.

Dune (with Dune Messiah and Children of Dune)
Ender's Game
Speaker for the Dead
Neuromancer
Flatland
Foundation series
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Lathe of Heaven
The Earthsea Cycle (yeah, I'm a big Ursula Le Guin fan)
The Chronicles of Amber (the first series)

These are all hugely entertaining and a great way to spend some rainy afternoons.

[anthonyvthc]

If you've got time, read "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand.

Also good, anything by Chuck Pahlaniuk, especially "Choke" and "Invisible Monsters."

"Catch 22" is a classic.

[spectre]

Crime and Punishment - Fydor Dostoevsky
The Stranger - Albert Camus
All the Pretty Horses - Cormac McCarthy
Laidlaw - William McIlvanney

Just a few of my favourite novels

Oh, and if you do read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, I suggest you also read The Elements of Moral Philosophy by James Rachels, where he critiques the ethical egoism (aka objectivism) of Rand.

[TubaMuffins]

anything Kurt Vonnegut, and my all time favorite book..."The Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole. Its a wonderful book I wish everyone reads.

[meelk]

Watership Down

[chris v]

Originally posted by TubaMuffins:
"The Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole. Its a wonderful book I wish everyone reads.

This is on my short list right now. My wife loved it, but I have yet to pick it up. It's a wonder it ever made it into print-- apparently, his mother found the manuscript after he died and spent 10 years trying to find a publisher.

[moonmonkey]

A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Supernature - Lyall Watson
The Da Vinchi code - Dan Brown (Yeah I know, but its good)
Tales from the White Hart - A C Clarke
The Damage Done - Warren Fellows
Enders Game - Orson Scott Card
The Man who mistook his wife for a hat- Oliver Sacks
A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson


All of these books are very entertaining, I was going to suggest On the origin of Species, A brief history of time, Brave new world, catch 22 etc but to be honest they drag on a bit. There is no point in reading something that can't keep you awake.

[Spliff]

Originally posted by anthonyvthc:
If you've got time, read "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand.

Why is everyone so obsessed with Ayn Rand and her books? It smacks of a cult like Hubbard and his "Dianetics."

Really, what is the appeal of her books besides a philosophy based on selfishness?

[qualey2]

Well a topic I can relate to, seeing by the time I was 17 or so I had read most of our public library:

Anything by Robert B Parker, known for his "spencer novels" all very good reading

Tom Clancey, dont know if your in to all that spy stuff but good reading yet again.

Jeffrey Deaver, have you every seen the movie the bone collector, he wrote the book and a bunch of others.

Stephen Hunter, pont of impact + 2 other in the trilogy that I cant remember off the top of my head.


Need any more suggestions feel free to ask

[brapper]

The Devil in the White City

[dreilly1]

I haven't heard of Alfred Besters before, but a quick search of his work tells me that he's an early sci-fi writer, who many consider to be a father of the more modern cyberpunk novels. If that floats your boat, go get Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash", which is the best "cyberpunk"ish book I've ever read. "The Diamond Age" is another good read of his. I think these are his best two books, you can skip the rest unless you find you really like his writing style. He's not really a "cyberpunk" author, but he is an author who tells good stories using technology as part of his plots. I'm currently making my way through his latest trilogy (set in the late 1600's/early 1700's), which I like reading, but is definitely too long!

And if you like Douglas Adams, go and read some Terry Pratchett. His collaboration with Neil Gaiman, "Good Omens", is very good.

And as far as audiobooks go, I've listened to the first four Harry Potter books as audiobooks, and the guy who rad sthem does an excellent job.

[xi_hyperon]

- Snow Crash
- Life of Pi
- Middlesex
- The Stand (expanded version)
- Black Cross
- Fatherland (Robert Harris)
- Plum Island
- Up Country
- Night Fall
- Any of the Quiller novels by Adam Hall, a.k.a Elleston Trevor (who also wrote Flight of the Phoenix). These are getting more and more difficult to find in the U.S., however.

[DeathToWindows]

Originally posted by new_apple:

- Kitchen Confidential - started on it today, actually. Bourdain is on fire in this one!

I've read all of Bourdain's books... he is very funny and is a rather good writer. If you like the culinary-memoir genre, read Ruth Reichel's books Tender At The Bone and Comfort Me With Apples as well as Pepin's The Apprentice.

In other genres...

Neil Stephenson's - Cryptonomicon & Baroque Cycle
Brian Hall's - The Saskiad
Sean McMullen's - GreatWinter Trilogy
John Lanchester's - The Debt to Pleasure
Susanna Clarke's - Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrill
Marion Zimmer Bradley's - Darkover series and her Mists of Avalon books
John Fowles - The Magus
Any and ALL Shakespeare
The Gift of the Gorgon (???)

that ought to hold you.

[anthonyvthc]

Originally posted by Spliff:
Why is everyone so obsessed with Ayn Rand and her books? It smacks of a cult like Hubbard and his "Dianetics."

Really, what is the appeal of her books besides a philosophy based on selfishness?

I just found the book to be interesting. It's not her philosophy I'm crazy about, I just thought it was a well-composed story that kept my attention.

[olePigeon]

I really enjoyed Ishmael by Daniel Quinn and The Giver by Lois Lowry.

Just happens that both books are a few of the top most banned books in America. Go figure.

[voyageur]

Originally posted by Spliff:
Why is everyone so obsessed with Ayn Rand and her books? It smacks of a cult like Hubbard and his "Dianetics."

Really, what is the appeal of her books besides a philosophy based on selfishness?

I had a history teacher who said, "Everyone should read her, but no one should believe her."

[voyageur]

Many good suggestions, I'm taking note too. And here are a few more:

Fiction:
Body and Soul - Frank Conroy. Recommended especially if you like music.
Prodigal Summer - Barbara Kingsolver. Sensual and scientific at the same time.
Any of Patrick O'Brian's historical Aubrey-Maturin novels. Witty and well-written. You could start with Master and Commander.

Nonfiction:
A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson. When you need a really good laugh.
Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer. Reads like a psychological thriller. The flip side of A Walk in the Woods. Also, I haven't read it yet, but friends tell me Krakauer's latest, Under the Banner of Heaven, is also fascinating.
My First Cousin, Once Removed: Money, Madness, and the Family of Robert Lowell - Sarah Payne Stuart. Written by an acquaintance of mine. She manages to bring a lot of humor to a tragic story about her own family.
And speaking of madness, A Beautiful Mind - Sylvia Nasar. The real story is even more compelling than the movie.

[cenutrio]

By far the best novel I read lately was from a Barcelona writter called Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The novel "The shadow of the wind".

Amaizing reading

[Stradlater]

If you haven't already, Lolita and Pale Fire (both appear on the Modern Library's top 100 of the 20th c.).

If you have read the above, you should even better enjoy Ada.

[Rampant Desire]

If you're into sci-fi thrillers based on actual real life facts (content, not the story), then check out The Cobra Event by Richard Preston. Very well written... scary as all hell too.

[spiky_dog]

Originally posted by DeathToWindows:
Neil Stephenson's - Cryptonomicon & Baroque Cycle

i second this. quicksilver (book 1 of the baroque cycle) was entertaining. here is what i read in 2004, more or less:

"Notes of a Dirty Old Man", Charles Bukowski
"the merchant's war", frederik pohl
"Temperament", stuart isacoff
"Geons, Black Holes, and Quantum Foam: A Life in Physics", John Archibald Wheeler, Kenneth Ford
Ian McEwan, "The child in time"
W. Somerset Maugham, "The Razor's Edge"
Dao Strom, "Grass Roof, Tin Roof"
Tom Wolfe, "A Man In Full"
"the demolished man", alfred bester
William Broad's "The Universe Below"
"Blind Man's Bluff", by Sherry Sontag
"the sound and the fury", william faulkner
"after the quake", haruki murakami
"Harvard Yard", william martin
Peter Matthiessen, "At Play in the Fields of the Lord"
"Children Of The Mind," Orson Scott Card

of these, here are those that i most enjoyed reading in 2004:

bukowski's notes of a dirty old man. it was crude, it was uneven in its quality, but much of it was hilarious.

w. somerset maugham's the razor's edge. typically i don't like "society" or "people" novels, but maugham's writing was good enough to make it all enjoyable.

tom wolfe's a man in full. i have to admit that i've never read through all of bonfire of the vanities, but i'm tempted to after this book. the portrayal of the racial tension in atlanta struck a nerve, and the story itself was well worth the however-many-hundreds-of-pages.

a combined nod goes to alfred bester's the demolished man and frederik pohl's the merchant's war. i grouped them since i figured if you like early sci fi you'll like them both. (on a similar idea, if you like gibson's neuromancer you'll probably love stephenson's snow crash.)

finally, peter matthiessen's "at play in the fields of the lord" gets the final spot on this random list. it paints a world far from what you or i know that nevertheless exists half way around the world this very day, and the language doesn't beat you about the head a la pohl...

[cszar2001]

Originally posted by olePigeon:
I really enjoyed Ishmael by Daniel Quinn

Heinlein`s "Friday", "Starship Troopers"
John Steakley "Armor"
Steve Perry "The Man Who Never Missed"
Neal Stephenson "Cryptonomicon"
Matt Ruff "Sewer, Gas, Electric"
Richard Morgan "Altered Carbon"

Non-fiction:
Ramachandran "Phantoms in the Brain"
Hadler "The Last Well Person"
Colangelo "Embodied Wisdom"
Feldenkrais

[new_apple]

Thank you all! What can I say? You certainly read a lot! Good to see that there are time for other things than playing with your Mac's.

I got a really good list now, and I wanted to thank you all. Hopefully this thread is helpful to more than me.

new_apple

[Mafia]

Originally posted by cszar2001:
Neal Stephenson "Cryptonomicon"

[KeriVit]

Gotta go ahead and get mine in..

Black Boy by Richard Wright

I learned something from it.

[Kilbey]

Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
A Place Called Freedom - Ken Follett

Also,

Birds of Prey, Monsoon, and Blue Horizon - Wilbur Smith

These are my five favorite books.

[dcmacdaddy]

Two of my all-time favorites are by Salman Rushdie, The Moor's Last Sigh and Haroun and the Sea of Stories.
The latter tale is a parental love-story of sorts. Something he wrote for his wife and son, mostly for his son, while he was in hiding during the Fatwa. He went for several years without seeing them early on when he was under the Fatwa.

Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose
Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time
Bill Bryson - Anything he writes
Hunter S. Thompson - Anything he writes

[voyageur]

Originally posted by dcmacdaddy:
Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose
Stephen Hawking - A Brief History of Time [/B]

Those two are indeed superb.

[f1000]

Originally posted by Spliff:
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. (SF classic)

I read it over a decade years ago. I still remember the arc lamp scene.

[dav]

"a soldier of the great war" - mark helprin

[pathogen]

I like Murakami alot. I'd like to read the new book "Kafka on the Beach".

If you like Murakami, you might like Banana Yoshimoto. "Lizard" is a good start.

I really like the Harry Potter series, so if you've been avoiding it or only saw the movies, get in on the books!

"Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" by Susanna Clarke is a good long yarn, too.

[anthonyvthc]

It makes me incredibly happy that not a single person has suggested "The Da Vinci Code." That was like the book that unintelligent people read last year to make themselves feel smart or something. Blah.

[Shaddim]

Originally posted by anthonyvthc:
It makes me incredibly happy that not a single person has suggested "The Da Vinci Code." That was like the book that unintelligent people read last year to make themselves feel smart or something. Blah.

It was ok, just more rehashed/watered-down Sangreal mythology.

[Kilbey]

Originally posted by anthonyvthc:
It makes me incredibly happy that not a single person has suggested "The Da Vinci Code." That was like the book that unintelligent people read last year to make themselves feel smart or something. Blah.

Uh oh. The unintelligent anti-Christian people are going to jump down your throat!

[deej5871]

Originally posted by olePigeon:
I really enjoyed Ishmael by Daniel Quinn and The Giver by Lois Lowry.

Just happens that both books are a few of the top most banned books in America. Go figure.

Say what? We had to read The Giver for school, public school (I read it twice in fact, once for regular class, and once for an advanced class (this was elementary school BTW)). Where and why is it a banned book? I thought it was great too, but I just don't see any reason it would be banned.

Originally posted by MacNStein:
It was ok, just more rehashed/watered-down Sangreal mythology.

I just saw something on the History Channel all about that earlier today. Was pretty interesting stuff. They completely agreed with your assessment of the book.

[Shaddim]

Originally posted by deej5871:
I just saw something on the History Channel all about that earlier today. Was pretty interesting stuff. They completely agreed with your assessment of the book.

Like I said, it's not bad, just greatly simplified. The myth regrading the Merovingian bloodline is extremely convoluted and would require several volumes to properly detail. A better popular book regarding the myth is Holy Blood, Holy Grail, and followed up by Foucault's Pendulum. I know the latter is a fictional work, but it does provide a good atmosphere to ponder the former.

[finboy]

Originally posted by MacNStein:

Dune
Ender's Game
Speaker for the Dead
Flatland
A Canticle for Leibowitz

Can second those. Next, The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. Plus, find a version of The Bible that you can stand to read (language-wise) and skim through the Old Testament (at least) -- not for religion, but for context.

Just about anything by Stephen King, Tom Clancy, and John Grisham. It's hard to find a clunker with those guys. Again, not because they're "the gospel," but because they're written well and widely read.

[storer]

Digital Fortress - Dan Brown