books to read..

[Patient zer0]

im looking to get a new book and want to cut out the shit thats out there.

im not sure what the "essential" classics books are, i'd really like to read some of them.
also my g.f and I are planning to go to chapters together and get a book for one another to read. so i want to make sure i get a decent book for her, not some drivell that im sure i would have picked out

[hammersavage]

just read 'Catcher in the Rye' by JD Salinger. its perfect.

[KnoxHarrington]

I'd read some Cormac McCarthy. The masterpiece is "Blood Meridian", but his last book "The Road", is good, and he wrote the novel "No Country For Old Men".

A couple of warnings: first, his books are brutal. They deal with evil in its most primal and elemental forms. Also, the writing style can be hard to figure pit at first: for example, dialogue is mixed in with narration without quotation marks. It shows a huge Faulkner influence. But they're books that will stay with you a long time.

[Sue_Bender]

just read 'Catcher in the Rye' by JD Salinger. its perfect.

Yes! Nice and angsty.

Exactly what I would recommend.

And I'm half-retarded.

GREAT BOOK!

[Ritalin]

Buy Love in the time of Cholera, and read it out loud to each other, chapter by chapter.

[Coach]

Lord of the Flies
Death Be Not Proud
A Separate Peace
Grapes of Wrath
all good

[realmenhatelife]

for classics i'd recommend :
moby dick
to kill a mockingbird
catch 22
the sound and the fury
the complete stories of flannery o'connor

contempo id get:
geek love- k. dunne
cruddy- l barry
wonderboys/adventures of kavalier and klay- chabon
(wonderboys is the better book, but k & k is written better)

[Recyclerz]

If you're a Ron & Fez fan (and I'm assuming you are) - A Confederacy of Dunces.

[jonyrotn]

Juliet: Go ask his name, If he be married?
My grave is like to be my wedding bed..

Nursemaid: His name is Romeo, and a Montague..
The only son of your greatest enemy!

Juliet: My only love sprung from my only hate!
Too early seen unknown, and known too late..
Prodigious birth of love it is to me that I love a loathed enemy...

If you don't buy her Romeo and Juliet, and then read it to her aloud, I'll consider that you way off coming out of the closet..

[PhishHead]

The Stranger
Dharma Bums
Junky
The Anti-Utopian Trilogy (We, 1984, Brave New World)
The Trial
The Brothers Karamazov
Notes from the Underground

[Tallman388]

If you're a Ron & Fez fan (and I'm assuming you are) - A Confederacy of Dunces.

Great Call!

Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson is a good read, maybe not for the girlfriend, but still good.

[jonyrotn]

The Stranger
Dharma Bums
Junky
The Anti-Utopian Trilogy (We, 1984, Brave New World)
The Trial
The Brothers Karamazov
Notes from the Underground
Hey Phishey! You know what else your library card is good for?

Picking the bathroom locks at the gas station..Bookworm!

[LaBoob]

I agree with some other posters about Confederacy of Dunces, it was one of my favorite books I read in the past few years...

Other books I'd recommend:
Lolita - Nobikov (he writes so beautifully about this inappropriate love that I was pretty much swept off my feet myself :wub:)
Red Sky At Morning - Bradford (often compared to Catcher in the Rye, as far as it being a coming of age story, but it surpasses it... it's witty, smart, and really captures the culture of the small town in the mountains in New Mexico where it takes place)

Wigfield - Amy Sedaris, Steven Colbert, and Paul Dinello (the geniuses behind Strangers with Candy, my all-time favorite comedy series, it's a screamingly funny book, you and your gf should both read it if you have sick senses of humor)

If you haven't read them, Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn always make great summer reading!!

[PhishHead]

Hey Phishey! You know what else your library card is good for?

Picking the bathroom locks at the gas station..Bookworm!

and that was just a starter list, I had planned on posting a bigger list once I got home, but after this insult I shall never post in this thread again.

Jony made me cry :glurps:

[jonyrotn]

Soaree!
In my nieghborhood that's a compilement...
Not everyone can get into the gas station bathroom..

[midwestjeff]

The Stranger
Dharma Bums
Junky
The Anti-Utopian Trilogy (We, 1984, Brave New World)
The Trial
The Brothers Karamazov
Notes from the Underground

:wub:
This list made me hard.

[ChrisBrown]

If you're a Ron & Fez fan (and I'm assuming you are) - A Confederacy of Dunces.

great choice.

[PhishHead]

:wub:
This list made me hard.

SWEET!!!

Just for that I may play one of your songs tonight!

[jonyrotn]

The adventures of Grand Master Flash..By same..

[Thebazile78]

It depends ... what are you into?

I've been all over the map lately.

I love Dickens ... A Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol are two I've read (and re-read) many times. If you enjoy Two Cities, you might also want to read The Scarlet Pimpernel (Orczy) ... although it might be hit-or-miss.

Les Miserables (Hugo) is good ... get the unabridged edition if you can.

Moby Dick is an interesting read, inspired by the fate of the survivors of the Essex, very 19th century, lots of digressions, strong style. I need to re-read it. When I was in high school, we had to read Billy Budd...I didn't have any patience for it.

The Iliad and The Odyssey are worth familiarizing yourself with ... of course, translations are hit-or-miss.

Same thing with Beowulf...there's a good translation by Seamus Heaney (I think) done in the last 10 years.

I'm partial to The Inferno (Dante Aleghieri) ... but haven't read through the other 2 parts of the Divina Commedia.

The Canterbury Tales are old-school; not everyone finds them as amusing as I do. I've read a bit of the Decameron ... fun read, good translation.

I can wholeheartedly recommend anything by Philip K. Dick (if you enjoyed the films Minority Report, Total Recall, Blade Runner, A Scanner Darkly, you've got a taste of what PKD is all about) ... my favorites are The Man in the High Castle and A Scanner Darkly.

I'll add The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood) to the "distopia" recommendations; read it as part of a literature course in college and see so many crazy parallels to modern-day reality that it's almost prophetic.

For some "comemporary" reading, ttry Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and Wicked by Gregory Maguire. Good reads.

If you have a sick sense of humor, read some Christopher Moore in addition to the Sedarises ... Practical Demonkeeping, Lamb, A Dirty Job and Bloodsucking Fiends are all laugh-out-loud hilarious. Moore is one SICK puppy.

[Servo]

If you're into true crime-type stuff, read The Good Rat by Jimmy Breslin (who was on R&F to talk about it.) It's about the "Mafia Cops" trial that went on here in Brooklyn a couple years back. He has such a good style... almost like you're sitting in a bar with him and he's telling you these stories.

[jonyrotn]

It depends ... what are you into?

I've been all over the map lately.

I love Dickens ... A Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol are two I've read (and re-read) many times. If you enjoy Two Cities, you might also want to read The Scarlet Pimpernel (Orczy) ... although it might be hit-or-miss.

Les Miserables (Hugo) is good ... get the unabridged edition if you can.

Moby Dick is an interesting read, inspired by the fate of the survivors of the Essex, very 19th century, lots of digressions, strong style. I need to re-read it. When I was in high school, we had to read Billy Budd...I didn't have any patience for it.

The Iliad and The Odyssey are worth familiarizing yourself with ... of course, translations are hit-or-miss.

Same thing with Beowulf...there's a good translation by Seamus Heaney (I think) done in the last 10 years.

I'm partial to The Inferno (Dante Aleghieri) ... but haven't read through the other 2 parts of the Divina Commedia.

The Canterbury Tales are old-school; not everyone finds them as amusing as I do. I've read a bit of the Decameron ... fun read, good translation.

I can wholeheartedly recommend anything by Philip K. Dick (if you enjoyed the films Minority Report, Total Recall, Blade Runner, A Scanner Darkly, you've got a taste of what PKD is all about) ... my favorites are The Man in the High Castle and A Scanner Darkly.

I'll add The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood) to the "distopia" recommendations; read it as part of a literature course in college and see so many crazy parallels to modern-day reality that it's almost prophetic.

For some "comemporary" reading, ttry Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister and Wicked by Gregory Maguire. Good reads.

If you have a sick sense of humor, read some Christopher Moore in addition to the Sedarises ... Practical Demonkeeping, Lamb, A Dirty Job and Bloodsucking Fiends are all laugh-out-loud hilarious. Moore is one SICK puppy.
Why do you hang out with us idiots? Did you loose a bet?
I hope it's cause we're devilishly handsome and funny as hell, cause lord knows we ain't smart like you..

[ChrisTheCop]

For both of you, I recommend F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

It's set in the 1920's, on Long Island and New York City, and it's a perfect blend of mystery, romance, and tragedy. I could read it again right now.

Do yourself a favor, DO NOT watch the film. Read the book.



And, if you just cant stomach romance, give that one to her,
and pick up a copy of Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast Of Champions for yourself. Great stuff.

[RhinoinMN]

This is not a classic, but if your a dog lover I would recommend "Marley and Me" by John Grogan.

[Chigworthy]

I love Dickens ... A Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol are two I've read (and re-read) many times. If you enjoy Two Cities, you might also want to read The Scarlet Pimpernel (Orczy) ... although it might be hit-or-miss.


Have you read Mr. Timothy by Louis Bayard (http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Timothy-Novel-Louis-Bayard/dp/0060534222/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213993934&sr=8-1)? It's about young-adult Timothy Cratchit, with legs somewhat fixed and a job teaching whores to read, and how he get's involved in a gritty, London-soot covered murder mystery. Bayard has become one of my favorite authors, although I haven't read his books about gay people (yet).

[Piuki]

I heart Chris the Cop for recommending The Great Gatsby. This is my all-time favorite book. I love reading, I love books, and there are just too many that I love for me to mention them all. Check this out, and see what I mean....http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/296304. Hopefully it will take you to my Goodreads page.

If you choose not to, let me also add East of Eden and/or The Grapes of Wrath to the must-read list. Also...The Stand, by Stephen King, any Shakespeare, oh, goodness...there are just too many.

Happy reading!

[ibanez23]

This is not a classic, but if your a dog lover I would recommend "Marley and Me" by John Grogan.
Great book.Read it twice.Cried twice.I'm such a pussy.:flush:

[PD]

If you're a Ron & Fez fan (and I'm assuming you are) - A Confederacy of Dunces.

Listening to Ronnie introduced me to this book.

A GREAT read.

Vonnegut.
there are a number of choices of his:
Slaughterhouse-Five
Sirens of Titan
Mother Night to name a few

[Mike Teacher]

I liked these.

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m110/MizzleT/MikesPics/b1.jpg

The Best Of...

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m110/MizzleT/MikesPics/b2.jpg

Recent Flea Market Aquisitions...

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m110/MizzleT/MikesPics/b3.jpg

$30 bookshelves at Office Max...

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m110/MizzleT/MikesPics/b4.jpg

Balsa wood is stronger...

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m110/MizzleT/MikesPics/b5.jpg

[Chigworthy]

Did you like the Brian Keene books? I read some zombie book and wasn't impressed. Black Hawk Down was a great one. How's the book on Alan Turing? He played a significant part in the fictional Cryptonimicon by Neal Stephenson.

[midwestjeff]

Balsa wood is stronger...

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m110/MizzleT/MikesPics/b5.jpg

Did you get rid of the bugs?

[landarch]

I always recommend only one author, and that's the late Larry Brown.

I'm not a big reader, but I own everything he has ever written, and have read all but one more than once. It's a bit down-home, as his novels are all based mostly around Lafayette county, Mississippi. Lafayette county is the very same county as William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha county. John Grisham also spent much of his time living and writing there. None of these three have similar writing styles, by the way. I would recommend these books of his first, then any others thereafter:

Fay
Dirty Work
Big Bad Love
Father and Son
The Rabbit Farm

Larry Brown was taken from us by a massive heart attack in 2004, at the age of 54. It really hurts that his talented pen is silenced forever. His last book, The Miracle of Catfish, is the only one I own and haven't read. It was published posthumously without it's ending.

All phenomenal reads, each and every one. In fact, I may have to pick one up and start reading it again tonight!

[PeteRose]

http://www.hollywoodcollectibles.com/autographed/memorabilia/sports/collectibles/authentic/Baseball/Pete_Rose_Book_mid.jpg

Seriously, buy it, I need help

[WhistlePig]

I agree with the Vonnegut post--he's great.
I also recommend Wally Lamb She's come undone and I know this much is true; Richard Brautigan is fun--I liked Willard and his bowling trophies but he's famous for Trout fishing in America; and though I haven't read her in a few years I used to love Anne Tyler. I don't know if these qualify as classics but they are good reads.

[Patient zer0]

wow guys thanks alot!
im going to write down a good chunk of these titles and check them out for her and myself.

i havent been big into reading but would like to start, i think it may help me mentally relax at the end of a long day...

keep em comming if you can think of any more!

[Coach]

It depends ... what are you into?

I've been all over the map lately.

I love Dickens ... A Tale of Two Cities and A Christmas Carol are two I've read (and re-read) many times. If you enjoy Two Cities, you might also want to read The Scarlet Pimpernel (Orczy) ... although it might be hit-or-miss.


Les Miserables (Hugo) is good ... get the unabridged edition if you can.

Moby Dick is an interesting read, inspired by the fate of the survivors of the Essex, very 19th century, lots of digressions, strong style. I need to re-read it. When I was in high school, we had to read Billy Budd...I didn't have any patience for it.

The Iliad and The Odyssey are worth familiarizing yourself with ... of course, translations are hit-or-miss.

Same thing with Beowulf...there's a good translation by Seamus Heaney (I think) done in the last 10 years.

I'm partial to The Inferno (Dante Aleghieri) ... but haven't read through the other 2 parts of the Divina Commedia.

The Canterbury Tales are old-school; not everyone finds them as amusing as I do. I've read a bit of the Decameron ... fun read, good translation.

I can wholeheartedly recommend anything by Philip K. Dick (if you enjoyed the films Minority Report, Total Recall, Blade Runner, A Scanner Darkly, you've got a taste of what PKD is all about) ... my favorites are The Man in the High Castle and A Scanner Darkly.

I'll add The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood) to the "distopia" recommendations; read it as part of a literature course in college and see so many crazy parallels to modern-day reality that it's almost prophetic.


Being one of the perhaps few who have read all of these..I concur.
Moby Dick was written in a style of the times..in that it spends chapters describing the minutiae of whaling..other books of the Era did the same, anothe good one about whaling was Two Years Before the Mast by Dana.

If it is the Devil you are wanting to read about..Try Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained..Both are poetry like Dante..But not translated from latin unlike Dante...Both are pretty heavy reads, given that Dante is attacking the Catholic church of the time and the selling of "indulgences", whereas Milton while making comments on the political happenings of the time (The disassociation of the British Crown with the people), he does write while following a meter that follows something called "Music of the Stars", which you are supposed to hear when it is read aloud. (That and the fact that he wrote it while blind is pretty amazing!!)

Dickens, while great, was paid something like 1 cent per word, hence his verbosity.

If you are looking at early epic tales like Beowulf..Gilgamesh is perhaps the first..
Tale of Genji and Song of Roland are quality, as is Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais.

I gotta agree with Confederacy of Dunces..freaking hilarious.

I have become a big fan of Neil Gaiman..Especially like American Gods, being someone who usually sees the ending before it happens..I got mad at myself for not seeing the ending to this and threw the book at the wall. My other fave by him is Good Omens, with Terry Pratchett (Whose works alone are legendary.) Think a Monty Python Version of End of Days...great!(Stardust and Mirrormask films were written by Gaiman)
Gaiman's Sandman series of Graphic Novels are great!

Pretty much anything by Hemmingway and Steinbeck are great.

Some origional "a man and his dog" stories can be found in Steinbeck's Travels with Charley in Search of America.

If you want a retelling of Robinson Caruso from a woman's point of view..read Coetzee's Foe (short read).

Scary shit, and finding the basis for "Cloverfield"... read the Collected Works of Hp Lovecraft..

If you need a fix of Mystical Realms and are tired of CS Lewis' "Christ-y" analogies and want something a little more adult..try The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant books by Donaldson.

La Morte De Arthur and Mists of Avalon are great King Arthur Reads.

[Coach]

Did you get rid of the bugs?More concerned about him having duplicate copies of Germs on the same shelf.

[barjockey]

I'd read some Cormac McCarthy. The masterpiece is "Blood Meridian", but his last book "The Road", is good, and he wrote the novel "No Country For Old Men".

A couple of warnings: first, his books are brutal. They deal with evil in its most primal and elemental forms. Also, the writing style can be hard to figure pit at first: for example, dialogue is mixed in with narration without quotation marks. It shows a huge Faulkner influence. But they're books that will stay with you a long time.

Great reads:clap:

[Chigworthy]

i havent been big into reading but would like to start, i think it may help me mentally relax at the end of a long day...



Your mind is a muscle.

[Thebazile78]

Why do you hang out with us idiots? Did you loose a bet?
I hope it's cause we're devilishly handsome and funny as hell, cause lord knows we ain't smart like you..

I don't gamble. (Unless you count the video poker games at the arcades on the Boardwalk in Wildwood. But you pretty much always win at those things. Which is why I prefer skeeball.)

I blame my brother for getting me involved with RonFez.net ... he suggested I join shortly after I broke up with the guy I'd been dating and shortly before Ron and Fez sent him to Prom. I've been repenting ever since.

For both of you, I recommend F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.....

I've been meaning to finish Gatsby for about 14 years. Events beyond my control made me stop reading it when it was assigned for my Sophomore English class. Pity, too, considering it's one of the few assigned "have-to-read" novels I truly enjoyed.

This is not a classic, but if your a dog lover I would recommend "Marley and Me" by John Grogan.

I would also suggest The Dogs of Bedlam Farm by Jon Katz.

I'm not a dog-person, but I've been reading Mr. Katz's essays online in Slate for quite a few years now ... and they always get to me!

He's going to be on my list from now on.

Have you read Mr. Timothy by Louis Bayard (http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Timothy-Novel-Louis-Bayard/dp/0060534222/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213993934&sr=8-1)? It's about young-adult Timothy Cratchit, with legs somewhat fixed and a job teaching whores to read, and how he get's involved in a gritty, London-soot covered murder mystery. Bayard has become one of my favorite authors, although I haven't read his books about gay people (yet).

No, I haven't read that yet ... it sounds REALLY interesting.

I'll have to check it out!

I heart Chris the Cop for recommending The Great Gatsby. This is my all-time favorite book. I love reading, I love books, and there are just too many that I love for me to mention them all. Check this out, and see what I mean....http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/296304. Hopefully it will take you to my Goodreads page.

If you choose not to, let me also add East of Eden and/or The Grapes of Wrath to the must-read list. Also...The Stand, by Stephen King, any Shakespeare, oh, goodness...there are just too many.

Happy reading!

I'm also a Shakespeare nut ... my favorite plays are Hamlet, Macbeth, Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The Stand is perpetually on my "to read" list ... after reading 'salem's Lot and Cycle of the Werewolf, I think I can handle it. (Is it bad that I enjoyed the miniseries? Despite Molly Ringwald's wooden acting?)

BTW, I am also on GoodReads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/267470

Being one of the perhaps few who have read all of these..I concur.
Moby Dick was written in a style of the times..in that it spends chapters describing the minutiae of whaling..other books of the Era did the same, anothe good one about whaling was Two Years Before the Mast by Dana.

Oooh, neat.

I actually wanted to read the "true account" of the wreck of the Essex that came out a few years ago.

At any rate, if you enjoyed Moby Dick, I think you might want to skip a parallel story Ahab's Wife (super pretentious .... ugh.)

If it is the Devil you are wanting to read about..Try Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained..Both are poetry like Dante..But not translated from latin unlike Dante...Both are pretty heavy reads, given that Dante is attacking the Catholic church of the time and the selling of "indulgences", whereas Milton while making comments on the political happenings of the time (The disassociation of the British Crown with the people), he does write while following a meter that follows something called "Music of the Stars", which you are supposed to hear when it is read aloud. (That and the fact that he wrote it while blind is pretty amazing!!)

There was an exhibition this past April about Milton at the NYPL Humanities branch on 5th Avenue ... very interesting. I still have the catalogue at home.


.....

If you are looking at early epic tales like Beowulf..Gilgamesh is perhaps the first..
Tale of Genji and Song of Roland are quality, as is Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais.

Gilgamesh IS the first recorded epic poem.

It's so powerful that the folks who wrote the Darmok episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation had Captain Picard tell part of the story to the alien captain who's stranded with him on that planet.

So amazing ... if that's supposed to be the 24th century, Gilgamesh would then be more than 7,000 years old.

I have become a big fan of Neil Gaiman..Especially like American Gods, being someone who usually sees the ending before it happens..I got mad at myself for not seeing the ending to this and threw the book at the wall. My other fave by him is Good Omens, with Terry Pratchett (Whose works alone are legendary.) Think a Monty Python Version of End of Days...great!(Stardust and Mirrormask films were written by Gaiman)
Gaiman's Sandman series of Graphic Novels are great!

My roomie's brother told me about American Gods ... again, that one's on my "to-read" list.

Pretty much anything by Hemmingway and Steinbeck are great.

I think it depends on who you are and whether or not you're forced to keep a "reader's journal" .... ugh. (Summer reading before Sophomore year English was ... The Old Man and the Sea ... barely 150 pages. Yet we had to journal it. Pointless.)

If you need a fix of Mystical Realms and are tired of CS Lewis' "Christ-y" analogies and want something a little more adult..try The Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant books by Donaldson.

La Morte De Arthur and Mists of Avalon are great King Arthur Reads.

C.S. Lewis is primarily a theologian. I love C.S. Lewis, but do understand that he's not everyone's cup of tea. One that I do universally recommend, however, is The Screwtape Letters ... it's "religious" in a way, but I also find it to be terribly funny.

As a counterpoint, the His Dark Materials series (the series from which The Golden Compass comes) is amazing. Scary on multiple levels, thoughtful and more than "kids' books" ... they're on my shelf, waiting to be re-read.

And I LOVE Mists of Avalon ... great book. Skip the others in the cycle, though. Not worth reading since they're pretty much the same book with different faces.

Malory is fine if you can find a good version .... if not, sample T.H. White The Once and Future King (this is probably appropriate now, considering Disney has just released its 40th anniversary version of The Sword in the Stone!)

[CountryBob]

Just like the posting above - i recommend The Stand as well. It is a very long story and it is well worth the time put in. Also, if you like this kind of reading - The Dark Tower series is amazing. Angels and Demons was a good read by Dan Brown (I didnt really care for the Davinci Code) and I have read and re-read the Harry Potter books many times. For some reason I can relate to Harry very easy.

[barjockey]

http://www.bookreporter.com/art/covers/140w/0345464826.jpg

Just finished and I really liked this one

[Mike Teacher]

Did you get rid of the bugs?

Nope. They read a lot I guess.

Basement Spiders. Lucily no Silverfish.

I know all the pics look very 'dig me' believe me my book collecting/hoarding is a sickness.

Yeah, I have multiple copies, I have about a dozen hardbound copies of Sagan's 'Cosmos' coz if I'm at a flea market and someone is selling it for less then a buck I buy it and give it to someone who inevitably asks me where to start in science.

=

Boewulf, Caterbury Tales, they made us read those in frosh English; it was torture then, and now. Worthy historically, but some really really bad writing. Just because its old and rare doesnt mean it didnt suck. But books are like flavors; when you want Milk, Orange Juice tastes like Shit.

American Gods ruled.

The Stand ruled.

Try Robbins; Jitterbug Perfume, Another Roadside Attraction...

Pirsigs Zen and the Art of... is also a dense read, but worth the trip. Lotsa science.

Terrence McKenna great stuff; Archaic Revival

Ken Wilbur great philosophy

Read everything by Sagan, Feynman, Gould, Hawking, Dawkins...

[PapaBear]

This is a bit off topic, but Mike the Teacher's mention of buying used books made me remember a weird story. About 10 years ago, when I lived in Leeseburg, VA, the local library had it's yearly used book store. After the sale was over, they filled two construction dumpsters with the unsold books, so people could rummage through them for free.

I decided to give it a shot. I found an Art Buchwald book that was signed by the author. I liked his newspaper columns, and I thought it was cool that it was signed, so I took it home. Less than a week later, he came into the camera store where I worked. I thought it was so weird to have such a random coincidence like that.

OK. Carry on.

[Mike Teacher]

I decided to give it a shot. I found an Art Buchwald book that was signed by the author. I liked his newspaper columns, and I thought it was cool that it was signed, so I took it home. Less than a week later, he came into the camera store where I worked. I thought it was so weird to have such a random coincidence like that.

OK. Carry on.

Flea Markets have yielded me books worth a lot. $4 for the guy who didnt realize he sold me a first edition of Stephen Kings first book Carrie, I got KIng to sign that and a first of The Stand.

Just last week; hardbound first edition of Fear and Loathing: Campaign Trail '72. Guy wants a quarter for it? Sweet.

Flea Markets rule for books.

[eeroomnhoj]

I am in the middle of reading Schultz and Charlie Brown. It is a very interesting biography. It isn't exactly a quick read, but it is quite interesting especially if you liked Peanuts as a kid.

[Thebazile78]

....
Boewulf, Caterbury Tales, they made us read those in frosh English; it was torture then, and now. Worthy historically, but some really really bad writing. Just because its old and rare doesnt mean it didnt suck. But books are like flavors; when you want Milk, Orange Juice tastes like Shit.
...

Beowulf can be a lot of fun if it's the right translation.

The translations in your average high school anthology BLOWS. Agreed.

HOWEVER, the Seamus Heaney translation (published in 2001) is light-years beyond the dumbed-down, clunky translations they fed you in high school. It's rhythmic and pretty clean; much easier to read than the ones I remember from high school.

The other thing to keep in mind about something like Beowulf is that its original intended audience was more likely a bunch of drunken soldiers who were enjoying the spoils of war, not a classroom full of 14-year-old zit-poppers. And it was told not read ... the oral tradition is so much more difficult to read than it is to hear.

Similarly, with The Canterbury Tales, it's a translation of sorts ... they usually don't make you pick out a meaning from the Old English ... they give you a sanitized, dumbed-down version. Bad "translations" ruin even the parts that are my favorites because they're too sanitized. As for the intention, I can't recall if these were intended as printed word or if they were intended as "oral tradition" so they're not entirely relevant.

For example, let's say you have trouble reading Shakespeare, but you LOVED the film version of Hamlet ... what's the difference between them? Sound. Your eye isn't confusing your brain with the archaic spelling and metered lines when you're listening.

Does that make sense?

[Thebazile78]

I am in the middle of reading Schultz and Charlie Brown. It is a very interesting biography. It isn't exactly a quick read, but it is quite interesting especially if you liked Peanuts as a kid.

Is that the one that came out a few months ago?

[eeroomnhoj]

Is that the one that came out a few months ago?

Yes it is.

[burrben]

i saw mike the teacher recommend "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Pirsig and that was gonna be my recommendation too. read it in high school and plan on rereading it this summer.

also 'the great gatsby' might be my favorite book ever. that or hemingway's "the sun also rises" or thoreau's "walden." those are all great choices

[Alice S. Fuzzybutt]

I also recommend Wally Lamb She's come undone

great book WP!!!

I also suggest:

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe (about Kesey)
Even Cow Girls Get The Blues by Tom Robbins

And, although I'm not a fan of the band, I HIGHLY recommend The Dirt by Motley Crue. It will leave you wondering how they survived the 80s.

[DonInNC]

I concur with the masses on A Confederacy of Dunces

Also, some of my favorites, mostly because they took me into a time or place that I knew nothing about and made me feel like I was there:

The Rabbit series by John Updike
Rabbit Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich, Rabbit at Rest

A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving

The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway

Kim - Rudyard Kipling

Crime and Punishment - Dostoyevsky

Arrowsmith - Sinclair Lewis

Bad Blood - Flannery O'Conner

Anything by Vonnegut, but Breakfast of Champions, Cats Cradle, Welcome to the Monkey House and Slaughterhouse Five are my favorites.

How about some newer fiction?

Atonement - Ian McEwan (might be a little slow)

Water for Elephants - Sara Gruen

The Stone Gods - Jeannette Winterson

Knockemstiff - Donald Pollack

Non-fiction?

A Demon Haunted World -Carl Sagan

I'm also a huge fan of short story compilations, like Best Short Stories of 199x or 200x

[cheesehead]

You absolutely cannot go wrong with Cormac McCarthy.

No Country for Old Men is a great place to start.

I just finished Talk Talk - by TC Boyle.

But the biggy (in all senses) is Infinite Jest - a MUST read miracle of metafiction.

http://paytonij.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/0316921173.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

[Thebazile78]

i saw mike the teacher recommend "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Pirsig and that was gonna be my recommendation too. read it in high school and plan on rereading it this summer....

Coincidental story (and seriously off-topic) ... I used to edit a book that was originally written by Mr. Pirsig's father, who was a Minnesota judge.

And, no, I am not making that up.

[Mike Teacher]

Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid (http://www.amazon.com/Godel-Escher-Bach-Eternal-Golden/dp/0465026567)

I've read this at least three times, after which I think I undertsand perhaps 5%

=

Archimedes Revenge (http://www.amazon.com/Archimedes-Revenge-Paul-Hoffman/dp/0449000893/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214485492&sr=1-1)

I'm up to understanding about 70% of this

=

ANYTHING by Martin Gardner

[Thebazile78]

...

ANYTHING by Martin Gardner

I couldn't figure out why he was familiar, but Googling him resulted in The Annotated Alice! (I have fond memories of perusing my dad's copy when I was a little kid. I now want my own copy...it was re-done about 10 years ago.)

I never realized that he was a maths person! (Although that makes perfect sense when you think about the fact that, despite being best known in the US for his Alice stories, Charles Lutiwidge Dodgson, a.k.a. Lewis Carroll, was a mathematician and logician.)

[grlNIN]

Other books I'd recommend:
Lolita - Nobikov (he writes so beautifully about this inappropriate love that I was pretty much swept off my feet myself :wub:)


I started reading this book at the end of summer/early September, got halfway through and when i had to put it aside for schoolwork and did pick it up again (around the spring) it read so fucking badly.

I wasn't at all phased by the context of the characters and story at first but when i started reading it again i wanted to set the thing up in flames. The characters are repulsive and the attempt to make Hubert a person that we should feel sorry for is pitiful.

/end rant

I have been reading a lot of retro-cultural and sociological perspective books in the past 4 months or so. I am sure as a guy you will not want to read some of the following but the book i am currently reading which i will put last is actually really great if you're into counter-culture and social movements.

http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/5775/c0743284283db8.jpg

http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/1826/girlswhowent265x405td9.jpg

http://img50.imageshack.us/img50/6049/515bhceeewlsl500bo22042dk9.jpg

http://img73.imageshack.us/img73/484/14533819ti9.jpg

I personally recommend anything written by John Steinbeck, probably my favorite author of all time.

[Thebazile78]

I started reading this book at the end of summer/early September, got halfway through and when i had to put it aside for schoolwork and did pick it up again (around the spring) it read so fucking badly.

I wasn't at all phased by the context of the characters and story at first but when i started reading it again i wanted to set the thing up in flames. The characters are repulsive and the attempt to make Hubert a person that we should feel sorry for is pitiful.

/end rant....

I don't know that we're exactly supposed to feel sorry for Humbert; I sure as hell didn't. It's kind of like reading the memoirs of any of the "baddies" from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit ... repugnant on one level, yet fascinating on another.

(I read Lolita on the train, it took a day or so ... shortly afterward I finished it, I saw the film. It's amazing how the "thrust" of the narrative shifted in the translation from novel to film. Really amazing.)

[grlNIN]

I saw the movie when i was 20 (the remake not the original) and i enjoyed it-even though i hadnt read the book.

When i read the book it had been so long from when i had seen the movie that it didn't affect me, so i got a different sense of the book.

I really think the character was written to be loathed and also pitied, Humbert's narrative became long, over indulgent and completely vapid. I read about 200 pages of the book and saw/felt no growth in the characters, nothing about them was multi-dimensional and if they weren't meant to be then i guess he succeeded. Otherwise there is absolutely nothing riveting or fascinating about the book, just a drawn out memoir of a pedophile with puppy dog eyes.

[Thebazile78]

I saw the movie when i was 20 (the remake not the original) and i enjoyed it-even though i hadnt read the book.

When i read the book it had been so long from when i had seen the movie that it didn't affect me, so i got a different sense of the book.

I really think the character was written to be loathed and also pitied, Humbert's narrative became long, over indulgent and completely vapid. I read about 200 pages of the book and saw/felt no growth in the characters, nothing about them was multi-dimensional and if they weren't meant to be then i guess he succeeded. Otherwise there is absolutely nothing riveting or fascinating about the book, just a drawn out memoir of a pedophile with puppy dog eyes.

I didn't realize they'd remade the film. Wow. This proves that I've been living in a cave.

Yes, Humbert is a character who craves our attention - be it loathing or pity - so that's why I get the whole "pedophile with puppy dog eyes" aspect. The characters are going to be flat, seeing as how they're drawn from Humbert's perspective ... and that's incredibly 2-dimensional. (It's his sick, twisted fantasy view of the events that transpired ... and isn't most "fantasy" like this 2-dimensional anyway?)

[Coach]

Beowulf can be a lot of fun if it's the right translation.

The translations in your average high school anthology BLOWS. Agreed.

HOWEVER, the Seamus Heaney translation (published in 2001) is light-years beyond the dumbed-down, clunky translations they fed you in high school. It's rhythmic and pretty clean; much easier to read than the ones I remember from high school.
Agreed, although I am An English Lit Geek (12 more credits until a masters). I have a deep dislike for Shakespeare. Having it jammed down my throat through Middle School, High School, and College, it was kinda like eating chocolate for every meal for 10 years, in the end I lost the taste for it.
I like reading the old english..it is kinda like those 3-d image pictures for me.. you relax your mental sense of diction. Canterbury was meant to be orally recited.
I am currently reading The Gunslinger. I like Stephen King's books..admittedly, I have not read them all..The Bachman Books is a fave as well as some of his short story compilations.
Mike is right about Flea Markets..I have found a few origional copies of books for a dollar or under and worth much more than what I paid for them.
A good sailing/boating book, if you like descriptive seafaring tales, is Catboat Summers by John Conway. About restoring and sailing and finding out about a boat he and his family bought in the 80's.
Jimmy Buffet's works are pretty good if you get the whole beach attitude. He's no Milton..but pretty solid reads nonetheless.
I could put out a whole littany of translations I like, but admittedly not everyones cup of tea. I will say Troyes has a nice take on Lancelot.
I can read Mythology till the day I die. Just saying.

[DarkHippie]

I don't know that we're exactly supposed to feel sorry for Humbert; I sure as hell didn't. It's kind of like reading the memoirs of any of the "baddies" from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit ... repugnant on one level, yet fascinating on another.

(I read Lolita on the train, it took a day or so ... shortly afterward I finished it, I saw the film. It's amazing how the "thrust" of the narrative shifted in the translation from novel to film. Really amazing.)

Lolita also has one of the most brilliant 'a-ha' moments (as my creative writing professor used to call it) of any book that I've ever read