books

[$lmjimy311]

so im doing this thing this summer where i read one book a week (or try to)
so far here is the list that I have:

- Kite Runner (10/10)
- A Thousand Splendid Suns (havent finished it, but its just got REALLY good)

im almost done with splendid suns and was looking for some recommendations. im not looking for like super hipster books or anything so nothing about like ITS ALL AN ILLUSION. but more novels that are just good/fun to read. your recommendations will be very appreciated. also if you could post kind of what the book is about without any spoilers that would be awesome.

[HizzY]

books are for noobs


nick hexum even says so

[KyleRayner]

if your looking for a book a week type deal can't go wrong with michael chrichton stuff. theres also some good stephen king like the dark tower series, but the last 4 books do get pretty long so might not be good for the book a week thing unless you are pretty committed. the talisman is very similar to the dark tower, and normally i wouldn't read stephen king but this series and that book are incredible, truly.

Cormac McCarthy is great(wrote no country for old men), i haven't read too much but The Road and Blood Meridian are great. The Road is about a guy traveling with his young son from the north to florida in the post apocalyptic US. Blood Meridian is about a 14 year old kid called the Kid who works with a gang of americans who pillage and scalp their way through mexico int he 1840s i believe. this isnt so much a quick read as just an important one. it's considered to be one of the greatest american novels and apparently there are graduate level english classes that just analyze this book. McCarthy is quite violent.

and of course the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin is probably the most engrossing thing you could read, but it is long. im rereading it right now in HOPES the new one comes this fall

[311junkee]

Just read "lying" by Sissela Bok. I don't read much but I have been getting into philosophical stuff lately. First book I've actually not been able to put down. Finished it in 3 days, a new record for me.



http://www.google.com/products/catalog? ... ps-sellers

[Sparticus]

Ugh, personally I wouldnt delve too deep into Chrichton or King, although I have heard good things about the Dark Tower series and have considered picking it up once or twice. I've just never really given a shit about Kings work though.

You're Cormac suggestions are spot on though, McCarthy is the shit. Blood Meridian is easily one of the best books I've ever read. Horribly, horribly violent though, I've made the attempt multiple times to just flip through the book and put my finger on a sentence and every time it's come up with something grotesque or violent. The overall plot is basically about the Indian scalp trade in Mexico/The Border States. It's pretty much about the evil inside men. Shit, just read that line from it on Amazon, "The men as they rode turned black in the sun from the blood on their clothes and their faces and then paled slowly in the rising dust until they assumed once more the color of the land through which they passed."

I'm gonna have to recommend my current favorite author(which changes about 2 times a year) and tell you to read some Bukowski. His Hank Chinaski series is basically just an autobiography of his life with embellishments. The mans a poet but not in the sense you would think. Hes vulgar, womanizing, incredibly pessimistic, an alcoholic, a gambler, and generally full of hate for just about everyone. Specifically I'd recommend Ham On Rye and Post Office, also Factotum is pretty baller. You can look up some of his poetry online too, it's some great stuff.

Currently I'm going through another Sci-Fi binge, it being by far my favorite genre, just started reading LeGuin's The Dispossessed, which I'm sure will be great judging by what I've heard. If you're into the whole Sci-Fi shtick I'd have to recommend Iain M. Banks and his Culture novels. My favorite of them being Use Of Weapons. The whole thing is set in a universe, well our universe, where there's kind of a Utopian society called The Culture that is an amalgam of many different races where Sentient AI's(which are also full citizens, with all the same rights, which...well doesn't mean much in a Utopia) basically run everything and the aliens/humanoids basically get to do whatever they want. They are great books which pretty much explore a universe set in these crazy places where they can build their own planets, construct Dyson spheres, and make orbitals(think Halo, actually where they got the idea).

Also if you want some quick, good, and fun Sci-Fi you could take a look at John Scalzi's Old Mans War series. I read the entirety of it, which is 5 books, in about a week and a half. It's quite Heinlieny in it not being too demanding of your brain and instead just tells a fun story with some badass tech set in space. It's set in the future where we discovered "Skip Drives"(think Warp Drive, but not really) that allowed us to venture out into the galaxy and we found a ton of alien life and there are wars going on to colonize all the habitable planets, and we jump right in there. The military takes 70+ year olds from Earth and, well, fix them, and make them into super soldiers to go fight for humanity.

Oh and as always any Phillip K. Dick is great, Vonnegut of course, and I think you would enjoy Chinua Achebe's
Things Fall Apart.

And I'm tired of rambling so I'm gonna call those suggestions good. Let me know if you want any more, I'm sittin' up at work and got another 3 hours to kill, I can gladly spend those talking about books.

[$lmjimy311]

im really thinking phillip k dick mainly because there is one quote by him that i really like "sometimes the appropriate response to reality is to go insane" and i've read a few more by him, seems like a pretty good writer.

i've also decided on the LOTR series, the metal gear series. i know a lot of people like chuck palauauasomething's books (the fight club) what are some good ones by him.

are the books you guys mentioning like more on the series end? or are they stories. im more partial to the stories, but not like kiddy bullshit stories ya know?

[Sparticus]

Ha, Dick is more than just a pretty good writer. The guy is easily in the top 5 sci-fi writers of all time. The classic that you should probably start with by him is "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep". Great stuff on post-humanism. It's funny that you use a quote by him about insanity, because he actually did go partially insane later on in his life. He actually wrote a series of books about it, Valis mainly. It's about his schizophrenia and god talking to him through a pink light which he claims did in fact happen. Dudes a legend though and just about everything he wrote is great and thought provoking.

Bukowski's got a pretty good Insanity quote that I remember as well:

[Jordan311]

i know a lot of people like chuck palauauasomething's books (the fight club) what are some good ones by him.

RANT.

Go read it now. Awesome fuckin novel

Later

[KyleRayner]

i said i dont normally like stephen king, but you should SERIOUSLY read the dark tower. the gunslinger was written when he was like 18 so its sub par but its short. the rest are truly amazing. the talisman is the same style deal, more fantasy than horror and that's where he shines.

also i stand by my crichton. the jurassic park books, timeline and congo are great, especially for some beach summer fun reading. i wouldnt delve deeply into it but there are some good reads in there.

i would also like to recommend some specific Clancy. Red Storm Rising is probably his best. its about world war 3 with the russians if it had taken place in the late '80s and was so realistic the government investigated clancy because they didnt understand how he knew how much he knew. and as it turned out in desert storm a lot of his predictions were right and the clinton whitehouse purportedly used the book when talking strategy and shit. dunno of thats true or not but the book is awesome

Without Remorse is incredible, less military stuff more just badass stuff. this ex-navy seal seeks revenge on drug dealers and becomes a super badass vigilante. its the origin of john clark and is awesome

yeah chuck palahaniuk or whatever is not so great. they are life changing if you are 14 but after that just sort of blech. fight club, choke, survivor, and if you are a fan invisible monsters are alright. i woulnt go beyond that but i haven't read rant so i dunno about that, i gave up on him.

[John Michael]

i read star wars books

[Jorge]

Seconding the PKD suggestion. He was the man.

Hunter S. Thompson is always a fun read, along with any Christopher Moore. I highly recommend Lamb by Moore. It's about the life of Jesus as told by his child hood friend, Biff. Probably the best story about friendship I have ever read. Seriously.

Dick is the way to go. Sci-fi in general is the way to go.

Oh, and A Clockwork Orange is nothing short of a joy to read. Alex's language is so much fun.

[Sparticus]

Nadsat 4 lyfe

[KyleRayner]

i read star wars books

shadows of the empires is good for sure

[Element]

re-reading the cry for justice

[DumpsterDave]

Anthony Bourdain's books are pretty bitchin'. Very entertaining and extremely quick reads. As you probably know, Bourdain is a cook, so that is what his literature is about. Kitchens, Food, Interesting People and their stories.

Kitchen Confidential

A Cooks Tour

The Nasty Bits

[Sparticus]

Love Bourdain, haven't ever read any of his books though.

Oh and as I predicted, LeGuin's "The Dispossessed" is fucking killer. I forgot how good she was at world building. It's got great commentary on pure anarchist socialism and balls outs patriarchal capitalism, showing the merits of both systems and arguments on which one is better.

[311Baybee]

READ WALLY LAMB!
"I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE"
shes come undone is good as well, but the male perspective of 'i know this much is true' is prolly more your deal. its a great book

[Shiny]

currently reading "Bed" by Tao Lin and I seriously haven't related or pretended to relate to anything anyone's ever written in short stories/novels/whatever before this. I also have "Eeeee Eee Eeee" of his which I'm gonna read next. So I at least recommend "Bed" for now just because I myself am becoming a huge fan.