Maldoror by Lautreamont

the da vinci code

Not cool mate. That's just evil.

I actually did read that.

heh

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

books I've read this year (someone pat me on the fucking back; I'm great at reading books)

ethan fromme by edith wharton
the dragons of eden by carl sagan
the way of the wolf by e.e. knight
the man in the high castle by philip k. dick
animal farm by george orwell
slaughterhouse five by kurt vonnegut
the moon is a harsh mistress by robert a. heinlein
the wind in the willows by kenneth grahame
the penultimate truth by philip k. dick
childhood's end by arthur c. clarke

of those, I probably enjoyed The Penultimate Truth, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Animal Farm, The Man in the High Castle, and the Dragons of Eden most. since you've already read part one of the Orwell duopoly, you may as well give Animal Farm a read, and then perhaps mix in a little The Moon is a Harsh Mistress to counter Orwell's raging socialism.

The Penultimate Truth is an epic example of proper sci-fi, and the Man in the High Castle (hugo award winner and loved by many) was not half bad, although it wasn't one of the best books I've ever read.

if you like sci-fi, and you do because you're an internet nerd, then definitely check out the Dick stuff (HEHEHEH). don't know too much about the other books or authors. I'm guessing you've read Fight Club. Sagan is fucking epic and awe-inspiring, just as he is on film, and I'd pick up The Dragons of Eden if you're interesting in any non-fiction (science/philosophy in particular); it's really great. then if you like that, you can pick up some of The Demon-Haunted World or Contact for some sci-fi.

Philip K. Dick has a bunch of interesting books, but he definitely evolved later in his life.

I'd check out:

Ubik
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
Valis
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer
A Scannery Darkly
Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said

Those are some of his fav that I've read of his.

A Scanner Darkly is one the most suspensful books I have ever read, the greatest being 1984.

But nothing can prepare for the head spin that is ASD, christ it leaves you boggled at the end :D

Thanks!

Will get Animal Farm, The Man in the High Castle, The Penultimate Truth from what you've mentioned.

The Demon-Haunted World isn't available on amazon :/

Animal Farm is one of my favorite books. It just works on so many levels. Orwell's best piece by far and that's saying a lot.

http://www.richardandjudybookclub.co.uk

There's so many good books out there to read... Too many to recommend. If you're looking for a "dark"/mythos/fantasy novel, check out:

Gene Wolfe's "Book Of The New Sun" -- dark story with tinges of fantasy, HP Lovecraft horror/mythos, and a bit of scifi.

Book Of The Long Sun sounds cool, going to check it out. ty :)

Whoops! I meant "Book of the New Sun!" XDDDD Book of the Long Sun is the follow up series (which I haven't read).

Here's the first book (of two) in the Book of the New Sun:
Shadow of the Torturer & Claw of the Conciliator

[img1]

what's wrong with borrowing stuff from the library?

Anything from the Discworld series really. The Light Fantastic is really good to start with as it is the first one. =P There is no author who are able to make fun of modern day issues with the help of the fantasy genre as Terry Pratchett.

Urinatingdogurinatingdogurinatingdog

the foundation series

Even though I <3 Isaac Asimov, Foundation was meh. If you're looking for a classy sci-fi space opera, Dune series > Foundation series.

dune was awesome in the beginning. but after a few books it gets kinda meh. so does asimov tbh. but anyway try the recluse or the ecolitan series from moddessitt. kinda like his more personal narrative style.

I agree that the books 3&4 were kinda dry. But I'm reading the 5th book atm and it's really good.

loved few short stories by him

the last question (http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html) <333

the last question is good; nightfall was meh. Breeds There a Man...? is probably as good or better than The Last Question.

and speaking of, I just read The Last Answer, which I thought to be quite good as well.

haha, couldn't remember that name XD but it was awesome indeed!

I was about to suggest that. Imo the first three volumes (the first foundation series) are way better than the sequels though.

And Dune is absolutely fantastic, like lolograde mentioned.

:D

Stephen King nuff said

dark tower series

^this
Read it all, found it pretty amazing

dan simmons is godlike!
read illium+olympos or hyperion+endymon

Just got done reading "The Terror" by Dan Simmons. Was good, but so damn long and the whole situation was so miserable.

well, you cant compare terror and the books i mentioned, its a completely different genre...

Ah, nah. I didn't mean to compare his sci-fi with his Stephen King-esque light-horror. If it's any indication of his talent at writing, which I think The Terror was very well written, then I'm interested in reading Hyperion and Olympos.

I was waiting for someone to mention simmons, best books ive ever read. they are beyond epic.

i've read "illion" (at least that how it's called here :D) recently and must admit it's pretty much awesome!

Any books with the Shrike in them :)

DROOD

My last few reads, getting through the must read as a teen

Catch 22 - never laughed so much whilst reading a book, considered by near everyone as one of the greatest books wrote 'n I'm one of them! A great quote attributed to Joseph Heller recently. An interviewer said to him "You've never written anything else as good as Catch 22" "No", says Heller "I haven't - but neither has anyone else".

Catcher In The Rye - emo self-indulgence but a decent read, if you don't mind the narrative

1984 - amazing, as you know !

The Wasp Factory - fucked up, perverse, fantastic - maybe better read in your youth

The Time Machine - superb, spooky 'n thoughtful

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance waiting to be read, heard great things.

[+]
-Washington Irving

Irving Washington :O)

Fool the bureaucrats ^^

wells is the best. also: consider consider phlebas?

[+]'d for Catcher In The Rye

Salinger is a fucking genius.

.

A year later, but Catch-22 was a bomb!

I never did send it to you :(

i went into zen and .. with a totally closed mind set thinking i would hate it. but ended up enjoying it a lot.

If you don't read much then chances are the world of graphic novels is still new to you, in which case purchase the following:

Watchmen
V for Vendetta
From Hell
Batman: Year One
Dark Knight Returns
Kingdom Come

also Sandman (Preludes&Nocturnes, Doll's House, Dream Country etc.)

and if you like to read some highly acclaimed steampunk - Perdido Street Station and The Scar from China Mieville are there too ;p

guess you'll get a bigger list then you would like ;p

I would add Preacher and Transmetropolitan to that list tbh.

For a new comer to comics I think Transmetropolitan won't be fully appreciated, especially the trade which had all those great guest artists. Though on the other hand, as someone who likes Ellis, if you like one Ellis title you pretty much like them all.

Preacher has the loveliest characters! I mean how can you not love Arseface and Herr Starr? =)

just stumbled upon some transmetropolitan the other day and i was blown away

[+] for watchmen :)

Not strictly ontopic but thought I'd recommend the sony e-reader (PRS-505). A great piece of kit, stylish and lightweight. Best of all is you can download ebooks from the USA and pay a lot less than you would in most EU countries.

It all depends on whether you have to have the 'paperback in your hands' feel or not though. I travel a lot and read a lot so the PRS-505 is ideal for me.

you're not gonna recommend hyperion?

LOL yeah - fantastic series of books though I found the first one a tad dull. I totally forgot to mention it..

Hyperion
Fall of Hyperion
Endymion
The Rise of Endymion

how close is Roadside Picnic to the film?

Haven't seen movie, so have no idea. :3

Anything by Iain M banks

really dark and he goes off on mad tangents

think i'll try catch 22 next as i have heard great things about it from loads of people

catch 22 is great once it gets going but the slow character development at the beginning annoyed me i think

yeah i got about half way and had to put t down

maybe i should try again

=/

Player of Games would be a good Banks book for this kind of crowd I think.

yeah that is good

just about to finish it!

azad seems complex :D

http://www.amazon.com/Master-Margarita-Mikhai...amp;sr=8-1

word

I prefer Kenzaburo Oe over Haruki Murakami as far as writers from Japan go. I just got his latest one, "Sayonara, my books". It is an old man's work written from the perspective of an old novelist who is facing death.

Speaking of old men, they have something to say! Philip Roth - if you like the neurotical sex-obsessed American-Jewish style. Maybe Woody Allen transformed into something readable.

J. M. Coetzee - probably the most powerful novelist alive today. Very sparse style. Laconic style. Good style. "Disgrace" - what a monolithic piece of prose. I read it and it felt as if a bridge fell onto me.

Philip K. Dick has been mentioned. Thank you so much for this. Just read one novel by him - "Time out of joint". He and Stephen King are so good at portraying the American suburbian middle-class world. Two totally underrated authors.

The Da Vinci code is very poor literature and should be avoided to avoid brain damages.

Philip K. Dick was one of my fav authors for a while. He was definitely a prolific writer, he must have at least 50 novels.

Dunno if you knew this, but PKD was clinically insane before the end of his life. He started having "visions" and believing that he was traveling through time and space (probably too much drug use during the 60s). Supposedly his novel Valis is a type of weird autobiography he did a couple years before his death. The main character's name is Horselover Fat which translates to Philip Dick in various root languages.

Valis is a great, interesting read. But it's also supremely challenging. The book covers pretty much ever religion, from Zoroastrianism to I,Ching to Buddism to Judaism. Futhermore, there's tons of ramblings about obviously psychotic ideas (laser beams controlling your mind and stuff) and even ramblings in unique languages like sandscrit and hebrew.

If you're interested in psychology and science fiction, Valis is an awesome read.

Hm, that Dick was productive in his abnormal mental state. Do you really think he was insane? It was probably only a lot of anxiety or a mild schizophrenic situation. Robert Walser spent the last 25 years of his life in a psychiatric unit ( "The patiient admits to hearing voices", it says in his file) without any literary output..I don't think you can write coherently if you are insane.

P.S. I will now travel forward in time to the point where my coffee is ready and through space to the location where my espresso machine resides. The collision of these two points shall bring me a lot of content.

P.S. I will now travel forward in time to the point where my coffee is ready and through space to the location where my espresso machine resides. The collision of these two points shall bring me a lot of content.

xDDD

I honestly think he was nuts and very disturbed. Just reading Valis really shows this guy was... very strange... He also had a really unstable childhood. He wrote a novel called "Confessions of a Crap Artist" which is a book about himself living with his dead twin sister and her husband. His sister died when he was really little, so the story is entirely fictional, but still he expresses himself as being a very confused person through his persona in Confessions of a Crap Artist.

He might not have been completely bonkers, but he definitely was very dissassociated from reality and very paranoid about society and the government. He was in and out of mental institutions for a while, and I think a lot of it was brought on by heavy drug use.

Reading PKD's later books is really a strange experience.

All depends on your definitions of insane, if you're functional and can make your own way in life then I wouldn't necessarily class someone as insane. PkD had some very strange ideas though, like that we all still live in the early Roman Empire and the rest of history is an illusion, or something to that extent. He chronicled a lot of his wierd thoughts like that in what he termed his 'exegesis' which sounds like either a fascinating read or a window into the mind of a disturbed individual; I've yet to find time to read it.

Maybe he was just a weirdo without being totally nuts.

I wouldn't put my money on what he said he tbelieved in. Writers are usually morons with an inflated ego. Most of them are either assholes or just boring farts.. But they see the world in a very sharp and sometimes skewed way, which makes it interesting. And they can endure loneliness, for writing is a lonely work.

What book would you recommend from Kenzaburo Oe ?

A Personal Matter

holy shit, i just noticed delivery cost for few books and a single cd

and price difference between basket and checkout

lmao@amazon

any other internets shop where i can order these paper thingies with reasonable delivery cost?

try play.com

they don't deliver to 3rd world

sux :(

try ebay, can get lots of books in real good condition for stupid prices at times

You guys don't have free public libraries?

http://www.gaismaspils.lv/gp/index.php?l=en&m=jaunumi

Castle of Light!

cost ~ 300* million dollars to build during time when country is in total economy fuckup, awesome!

on a serious note, most of these books are not available and i want to own them not lend :(

Pm me your address 'n pick one from above, I've a few copies lying around ^^

Also take a look at bookmooch

Abebooks.co.uk

On my list when I get the time:

Harris, Sam: The End of Faith
Hitchens, Christopher - God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
Huxley, Aldous: Island, The Doors of Perception
Molyneux, Stefan: Universally Preferable Behaviour: A Rational Proof of Secular Ethics
Pirsig Robert: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Rand, Ayn: Atlas Shrugged

you got like, more time on your hands than ANYONE else

He'll need it if he plans on reading Atlas Shrugged. :P

Ahaha, I was about to say as much.

fountainhead> atlas shrugged
brave new world > doors of perception

imho.

Read Brave New World already.

i was saying it more for fuzz's benefit.

should i read or watch fountainhead first

I didn't know they made a movie of it. Are you maybe thinking of "The Fountain" with Hugh Jackman?

nah its a black and white gary oldman movie from '49

dont for any reason see the movie before reading the book.

so he apparently fucks her in the quarry in the book. sure does not in the movie.

ha gl with Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, i hope you have lots of time inbetween skipping irc windows for that..

The Doors of Perception is an amazing read, truly a book that creates nigh total immersion in the subject matter. Only perhaps for those accustomed to what mescaline/lsd might make you perceive!

fellow anarchist, i see. :D

bryce courtenay, the power of one
jonathan safran foer, extremely loud & incredibly close
khaled hosseini, the kite runner
&
khaled hosseine, a thousand splendid suns

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson

HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy (complete series) - Douglas Adams

Illusions - Richard Bach

The Great and Secret Show - Clive Barker

The Last Question - Isaac Asimov

edit: forgot, also almost anything by Neil Gaiman.

Snow Crash was good. But I think within cyberpunk genre, Neuromancer > Snow Crash.

Also, Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" was probably one of my favorite novels in recent memory.

yeah, that was great. what's the sequel? Anansi Boys? It's not quite as good, but an enjoyable read nonetheless.
And I've never checked out Neuromancer, so I'll stop by booksamillion on the way home.
Thanks for the heads up!

If you like crime, George Pelecanos, Richard Price, Denis Lehane

David Simon - Homicide: A Year On The Killing Streets
Naomi Klein - The Shock Doctrine

"Fight Club" by Chuck Palahniuk. Only novel I ever bothered to read from beginning to end for my own pleasure (rather than, say, school projects, etc.) as I'm not much of a novel junky, but it's definitely worth the read.

I'd recommend Survivor by Palaniuck if you liked Fight Club.

but not Choke :X

Haunted though, that's kinda hard to follow at times, but totally worth it if you make it through.
edit: just remembered the part in Haunted with the kid in the pool. *shudder*

haha yeah I know exactly which part of Haunted you are describing :x

Haunted and Invisible Monsters are my favorites of Palahniuk's books. Although I haven't read any of his latest work.

Oh, and yeah. The pool scene... :(

Yeah, I know. Survivor sounds just as dark and deep as Fight Club, which I'm into. I read the more recent Lullaby for school, and the concept was enticing on paper, but I found the plot and character development was lacking and the ending was disappointing at best. I forget the name of his latest work, but the novel critics didn't really seem to favour it either.

Murakami is rules.

Pelevin - Generation P
Bulgakov - The Master And Margarita
Fitzgerald - Tender Is The Night
Mishima - The Sea Of Fertility quadrilogy

The User Illusion - look it up XD

If u like fantasy i recommend wheel of time by Robert Jordan

Such a shame he died before writing the final novel :(

yeah i know :/
but Brandon Sanderson is suppose to be great writer, i haven't read Mistborn because of stupid swedish publishers who won't translate it in too swedish. might give it a go though if I find it on audio.

Anyway he's 56% done on his first draft, yay =)

his writing style is very different from jordans. but i think the entire plot was laid out fairly clearly so it prolly wont hurt the quality much. altho lots of people have told me wheel of time is a hit or miss thing because if its length. u either think its fucking awesome or u read 20 pages, decide nothings happening and fuck it.

I am currently reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy and it is excellent. Quite bleak but it is so abrupt and to the point you have trouble putting it down.

Ahaha, me too! I just started it!

I'll second that. It's brilliant.

Douglas Adams - Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series

anything from Camus or Kierkegaard

kierkegaard yes, camus no

as special note:
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, written by Sandra Brown

hmm...?

God forgive him! he's an american...and I am trolling a bit...considering....oh, no...not...again!...

wat

checking my ignore list it's an impossible task for dumb persons, ma'dam

you're impossibly stupid
can you be undone?

The Dice Man

The Brothers Lionheart

.

this thread is lies. no one on esr has enough intelligence to read

books are for fag, comics >*

this one is pretty good, a today's classic many say.

If you like popular science books, in this order:
Brian Greene - The Elegant Universe
Leonard Susskind - The Cosmic Landscape
Lee Smolin - The Trouble With Physics

That should keep you busy for a few days if you like physics/astrophysics/cosmology theories.

smolin huh? hmmm

was it well written?

If you learned to read at school only I'm afraid :(

this adds to my mistrust

on that theme try beyond numeracy by john allen paulos. its a series of short essays on different math topics. absolutely brilliant.

If you liked the Haruki Murakami novels that you have already read, you will surely like Norwegian Wood and South of the Border, West of the Sun. Imo those are his best, although I still have not read Kafka on the Shore (lmao @ me).

No time to write anything more but maybe when I'm bored at work and not reading any other book, I will ;)

Oh no, you didn't!

Haven't read much in the last year except for things for my uni courses. Mostly 20th century short stories or British/American literature classics, nothing you wouldn't know. I could some you some titles of the short stories, though - you can find 90% of them on the Internet. Will have to find my old syllabuses, though. Interested?

Sure!

Also if you can name some good books that you read before this year, that would be great too. As you like Murakami, id like to know what are your other favorites. :P

Been a while since I read anything only for pleasure, so I'll just give you my most recent reads. You're lucky I'm bored at work atm, btw :)

*thinks for a bit*

Ryszard Kapuscinski - The Emperor - short book, rather easy read, very moving. Almost no cultural references, rather an insightful piece about human existence. Wonder if there's a Latvian translation for it :)
Orhan Pamuk - Snow - long book, but a surprisingly easy read (so far, the least complicated language used by a Noble-prize winner that works I've had contact with). Unlike The Emperor, plenty of cultural references, a coverage turned into a fairy tale.
Joshua Waitzkin - The Art of Learning - If you're into getting your mental Quake game better, I recommend this book. I'm a former heavily competitive chess player and I knew Waitzkin's works, so there wasn't anything really new for me. Also, not very gripping. Don't recommend if you're not into sports psychology.
Mikhail Bulgakov - Master and Margarita - a classic, prolly no need to describe it. Also, most likely the best book that I've read in my life.
Romain Gary - Promise at Dawn - beautifully written, you rarely see so many appropriate adjectives in any book these days.
John Irving - The World According to Garp - don't know if it's just me, but the first chapter was bizarre, the rest was a pain to read, but I couldn't give it up. A thing that I analyse often to this day.
Also read two or three Hemingway books, check one of them out and see if you like it.

Cba to write more, atm. I don't read one type of books, as you may have noticed. Next up are probably:
- Solaris by S. Lem (or I'll just see the movie, which my film-theory professor didn't recommend in addition to spoiling the end).
- On the Road by Kerouac, which I've got in a PDF, but I don't have a place to print the fucking thing out.
- Maybe I'll finally read the fucking Kafka on the Shore.
- Some s-f novel that a friend of mine recommended, don't remember the title, but he said that it has the greatest twist that he has seen in literature in his life (and he reads 2x-3x more than me). So, even if I can remember the title, I won't write it here, so that no ESR fucker will spoil it for me :))))

Oh, and Brick Lane by Monica Ali. I've got a whole lecture about it next semester. Anybody knows what to expect? ;x

I'll probably look for my short-story classes syllabuses this weekend, send me a PM on Monday/Tuesday.

To Have and Have Not by Hemingway was cool.

Haven't read that particular one but I've never been disappointed by anything that Hemingway wrote.

You didn't PM me and I forgot to look for the syllabus :)

But, anyway, I'm having another class in American Short Story this semester and I wasn't present at the first two classes (out of six), so what I'm attaching is only materials from the third class and one of the stories for my fourth class (the other one I'll have on paper, no electronic version in my possession at this time).

The three stories from my last class all had a kind of flick towards the ending, this was what the class was about. In my opinion Recitatif was a bit dull, but the others were awesome. The Wallace story is for today's class at 4PM, so I better get down to reading it :)

We're getting new stories regularly, so I'll probably attach all the materials that we'll get in electronic versions.

Attached Misc File: 72486-Girl_With_Curious.pdf (971KB)

Attached Misc File: 72487-Barth_Night.doc (74KB)

Attached Misc File: 72488-Recitatif.doc (97KB)

Attached Misc File: 72489-The_Vane_Sisters.doc (75KB)

Infinite Jest - David Foster Wallace, a very well written novel about escaping irony and about how entertainment works.
Gravity's Rainbow - Thomas Pychon, fuck knows what it's about. Predestination? Psychics? Love? It's great.
A Suitable Boy - Vikram Sethi, a well written soap opera in book form.
The Player of Games - Iain M. Banks, probably his best, maybe tied with Excession. Awesome sci-fi and it should resonate with your gamer side.
The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov. A semi-fantastic and satirical telling of the communist take-over in Russia.

Iain M. Banks is the shit

escaping irony huh? hmm

hmm!!

did it have any solutions?
any positive value?

Yes, it's a very complex and involved book.

yes yes, involved sure. i expect as much from a math guy with voice inflection uncannily similiar to ed witten lol.. but just to make sure, since it's a long book, is it positively charged in the direction of optimism? even if there are just hints or subtle winds breezing through - or a little sunrise hidden away somewhere - i'll be okay, i just can't stand them pessimistic suffocating stuffz, see, though they may be all kinds of clever and all ((:

It's cyclic. More down than up on the whole but not a grind, though one of the sequences is pretty (deliberately) nasty.

hmm!!

xD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6NqCRYy68s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJZLnhSZRyc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvGtQqEiTx0

needs more of this, see! positive contradictions lol

it's all the same under different maskssss

Few others that’ve impressed since we last posted…

Shantaram – Roberts (this book gave me wood – recommended to a few people and they’ve all loved it – can_not articulate how much I enjoyed this book – philosophy, travel, drugs, poverty, war, escapism – everything – and who can avoid falling in love with Karla?!)
The Road – Cormac McCarthy (I’m a traveller at heart – dark ‘n epic – apocalyptic!)
White Noise – DeLillo (reasonable – somewhat thought provoking)
Grapes of Wrath – Steinbeck (classic and apt)
Homicide a Year On The Killing Streets (just because I love The Wire so much – defo worth it, but not amazing)
Band of Brothers – Ambrose (again loved the series so felt obliged – decent read)
To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee (again a classic – they’re classics for a reason!)

Got Heliopolis by Scudamore on the shelf next up – expecting great things!

Also my 'to buy' list based on recommendations from various places...

The Moons A Balloon - David Niven
Danny Boy - Jo-Ann Goodwin
Five Families
Milestones (unlikely I'll ever fully read / comprehend - prolly a tad heavy :p )

Then I'm quite into travel books / Brits locked up abroad lately...

The Damage Done - 12 Years of Hell In A Bangkok Prison
Hells Prisoner
Forget You Had A Daughter
The Lone Brit
Welcome To Hell
Marching Powdwer

Shantaram -> THE F'ING SHIT, most entertaining book I have ever read, made me rebook 2 months travel from thailand to india :)

Wish my rl friends would let me talk books without looking at me with dismay :O(

Heliopolis was very good but that was way back then. Been reading a few more pop books lately...

Started For Ten / One Day by David Nicholls are eminently readable. Related a little too much to Brian in Starter For Ten which is a tad shit!

Blue Blood by Edward Conlon - if you enjoyed Homicide this is a decent beach / plane book.

-----------

Then a tad heavier read a while back (these would be my actual recommendations);

The Man In The High Castle by Phillip Dick - awesome, subversive; a thinking book! It's an alternative universe where the axis won WW2. Defo need to be very awake to read this.

Slaughterhouse 5 by Vonnegut - again excellent on the absurdity of war.

Interesting thread

The Rights of Man - Thomas Paine.

I was reading a book of Gene Brewer called K-PAX, which actually a movie productor has released a movie based on the first book of the trilogy, its pretty nice and some facts are true and make you think about ourselves and our environment and etc.

the author: Gene Brewer
K-PAX trilogy and others

i recommend that nobody read the Song of Ice and Fire series. i made it to the third book and out of nowhere like every major character dies in one chapter.

i laughed at how sudden, random, and stupidly written it was. you invest a long amount of time in the first few books. then randomly everyone in the stark family gets killed. gg. also the author seems like a moron because people have been waiting for the next book in the series which should have been out years ago. fuck those books.

they're doing an HBO series on the first book A Game of Thrones which should be good.

Plato - The Republic

bump

The Brothers Karamazov.
It contains "everything there was to know about life".

The Heroin Diaries was the most entertaining book I've read since The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams , timeless classic and one of the funniest books out there. I read it once every year, it`s that good.

Try Carlos Castaneda, whole series starting with the Don Juan Teachings. - fantasy, shamanism

Clive Barker - Books of Blood, Horror

Frank Herbert - Dune complete series, SF

Roger Zelazny - Amber chronicles, fantasy

Isaac Asimov - series of Robots, Galactic Empire and Foundations.


....

for now.

+ for Isaac

I too would read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy once a year if I had the time. :(

Non Fiction:

Ayaan Hirsi Ali - Infidel (Great life story about a woman stacked against the odds)
Everyday Drinking - Kingsley Amis (Classic for those who enjoy their drink, some useful tips, general info, recipes, etc)
The Language Instinct - Steven Pinker (How we know how to use language, and how it works)
The Blind Watchmaker - Richard Dawkins (How complexity is gained through evolutionary process, must read imo)
Last Chance to see - Stephen Fry & Mark Cowardine (It is Stephen Fry touring the world!)
What is Good - AC Grayling (Takes on one of the important questions, looks at his history and why religion does not provide a satisfactory answer and looks at alternatives)

Recommending a book without giving info why you like it is like recommending a color.

true, but cba right now :)

blue, is
the best
hue, viz
bluuuehuuue

Women by Bukowski.

If you like Sci Fi, Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke was amazing. It's about a cylinder shaped world sent to our solar system by another species.

Here are my favorite Sci Fi short stories, which can easily be found on google.

The Last Question - Isaac Asimov
The Sentinel - Arthur C. Clarke
Nightfall - Isaac Asimov
The Nine Billion Names of God - Arthur C. Clarke

Also, The Lottery by Shirley Jackson is an interesting and quick read.

[+] for remind me of Rendezvous With Rama, wanted to get it a while ago

the last question. why?

because it was named 4 times.

/metaopinion

HARRY POTTAH HARRY POTTAH

Os Lusíadas; Author: Luís Vaz de Camões

Authors to look at are:

Dan Brown
David Gemmell
J.R.R. Tolkein
Dean Koontz
David&Leigh Eddings
R.A. Salvatore

Dan Brown for obvious reasons: Angels and Demons, Da Vinci Code etc

David Gemmell : Fantasy writer but is a legend imo, would recommend reading the book "Legend" and also "Waylander" from the Drenai series and "White Wolf" (all of them are good but I would get started on those)
And from the Rigante series I would start on "Sword in the Storm"

Tolkein has done other books other than the "LotR" and "The Hobbit" which are widely well known, but others I would look at are "The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun" and "The Children of Hurin"

Dean Koontz books I would recommend "Lightning" but there are many many more good books of his..

David&Leigh Eddings I would recommend the dreamer series, as far as I know there were only 3 of the series ever published, but they are a very good read "The Elder Gods" "The Treasured One" and "The Crystal Gorge"

R.A. Salvatore generally does series based on a character and I havent read all of them yet, but if you can get the box set I would look at "Icewind Dale Trilogy" "The Dark Elf Trilogy" and "Legacy of the Drow"

Obvious flamebait is obvious.

You forgot Garth Marenghi, he's something of a dream weaver and visionary.

tbh forgot the great spiritual philosophers Paulo Coelho and Eckhart Tolle imo

House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski.

running with lidjard

If you like fantasy, George R.R. Martin is pretty good (A Game of Thrones). Best fantasy i ever read, and i read all the crap ones too. Its really mean and full of intrigue.

Besides that, i like Neal Stephenson. I like his baroque books best, most vivid historic novels i read. His scifi/cyberpunk and contemporary novels are really decent too.

Also started reading Stefan Zweig's biographies. Marie-Antoinette, Fouche, Magellan, Mary Stewart and so on. Really interesting and good to read - like a thrilling novel, but actual history.

peter schiff - crash proof 2.0

Peter Schiff rocks! Next american president plz!

The Prodigal Daughter - Jeffrey Archer

Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash

SciFi Classic, recommended if you like William Gibson Neuromancer Trilogy

Charles Stross- the Bob Howard Laundry series for sci-fi satire
Jim Butcher- Dresden Files collection

Entertaining at the least, even if not any kind of classic

If you're into hard sf, I really recommend anything by Alastair Reynolds and Greg Egan. There's also Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy which is the best series of books on the colonization of Mars.

On a lighter side, if you liked the Firefly TV series I think you'll love Chris Wooding's Tales of the Ketty Jay, it's a strange mix of sf and steampunk with pirates in air ships.

I recently started reading China Miéville, he's become one of my favourite authors. His previous book, The City & The City, has a fascinating concept and won the Arthur C. Clarke award for best novel making him the only author to win it three times.

Also, anything by Ursula K. Leguin, especially The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed.

edit: check out LibraryThing it's awesome for finding new books to read.

The Book of Pook
best book ever on life and women

This thread is awesome... so many good recommendations. I now have a nice long list thanks to fellow ESR-ers.

Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

I'm 1/3 of the way through it and its a pretty good read so far.

Bible, first thing that associates me with books, havent read anything in a while, or well, at all, rather never, ok there was one time, ok got overly excited, this soon turns into a wall of text, whatever.

the twilight series

ADULT ENTERTAINMENT
"ZELDA CARBUNCLE TELLS ALL"
MEMOIRS OF A WOMAN OF DUBIOUS PLEASURE

STUPIDITY
"WALK THRU WALLS: THE INTELLIGENCE AVOIDER"
AN ANALYSIS OF THE SYSTEM, PAT PENDING.

SLANG, PIRATE
"SHIVER MY TIMBERS"
SEE ALSO: LANGUAGE

TEA
"TEA PARTY MASSACRE"
BY LOUISA DE LA CRUZ

SELF-HELP
"NOT EATING PEOPLE AND FEELING GOOD ABOUT IT"
CONFESSIONS OF AN EX-CANNIBAL

RECIPES, VOODOO
"THE JOY OF HEX"
101 ESSENTIAL VOODOO RECIPES.

PIRACY
"PIRATING PRIMER"
FOR THE NOVICE PIRATE
This is about something called "software" piracy.

ORANGUTANS
"OUR HAIRY COUSINS"

OPTIMISM
"THERE'S ALWAYS A RAINBOW"
(especially recommend this book to bloodpa1nt)*

OBSCENITY
"&$*#!"
SYMBOLIC EQUIVALENTS OF OBSCENE WORDS AND PHRASES.

OBESITY
"MORE OF ME TO LOVE"
BY L. PHATT

NIGHT
"SOUNDS UNDER THE BED"

NARCISSISM
"FEELING GOOD ABOUT NARCISSISM"
The 'about the author' part goes almost the whole way through the book

MYSTERY
"HOW MUCH WOOD?"
FROM THE WOODCHUCK MYSTERY SERIES.

MUSIC
"ELVIS LIVES"
PREDICTIONS OF FUTURE MUSIC BY NOTTRUEDAMUS

MARTIAL ARTS
"THEORY AND PRACTICE OF BONE BREAKAGE"
Hey, this guy's only a PINK belt!

LANGUAGE
"HIP LINGO FOR PIRATES"
A DICTIONARY OF MODERN SLANG TERMS.
Hmmm...
"Aaargh."
"Yaarr."
"Shiver my timbers."
"David Jones' locker."
"Dead men don't tell stories."
I should brush up on some of these.

KLEPTOMANIA
"KLEPTOMANIA"
It says here that kleptomania is the nigh-irresistable compulsion to take anything not nailed down.
Hmmm...

KIDNEYS
"THE LITTLE ORGAN THAT COULD"
POP-UP BOOK OF KIDNEY FUNCTIONS.
There are little pop-up kidneys in it!
Ick!

KARMA
"MY KARMA JUST RAN OVER YOUR DOGMA"
SEE ALSO: PHILOSOPHY

INFERIORITY
"THE COMPLEX COMPLEX"

IMAGINARY NUMBERS
"THE NEW TAX LAWS"
LIGHT FICTION.
It's a bit dry, and I don't like the ending.

ICE CREAM
"PIRATES' FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVORS"
Hmm, Pistachio Dryrot, Salmonella Chip, Grog 'n' Cream...

HISTORY
"CAREFUL WITH THOSE CANNONBALLS!"
LEGEND OF THE GLASS-BOTTOMED ARMADA
"Careful With Those Cannonballs!"

GROG, ADDICTION TO
"I AM BLACKBEARD'S LIVER"
THE HORRIFYING TRUE STORY OF A CONFESSED GROGAHOLIC
Just say no to grog.

GAMES
"HAL BARWOOD ON MONKEY 2"
A CRITICAL REVIEW.
"Less is more, guys!"
"You can't polish a turd."

FOOD
"I MARRIED A MUENSTER"
BY S. CHEESE

FOOD
"RATS AS A PROTEIN SOURCE"
Ick.

EDUCATION
"PREPARING FOR THE PIRATE APTITUDE TEST"
BY S. KARPMAN

CRYPTOGRAPHY
"THE CODE IN MY NOSE"
UNIQUE MESSAGE DROPS THROUGH HISTORY.
Sounds uncomfortable.

COOKING
"VISCOUS FLUIDS YOU CAN MAKE AT HOME"

COLLECTABLES
"JUNK, JUNK, AND MORE JUNK"
A GUIDE TO COLLECTABLE MEMORABILIA.

CLASSICS
"GREAT EXPECTORATIONS"
BY CAPTAIN LOOGIE
This is very...
...thick.

CIRCUSES
"DAMN THE HUMAN TORPEDO"
THE ORIGIN OF THE HUMAN CANNONBALL TRICK.

CHILDREN'S BOOKS
"THE SINISTER BEAST UNDER THE BED"

BIOGRAPHY
"YIKES!"
MEMOIRS OF CAPTAIN GILBERT
Yikes!

BIOGRAPHY
"BOTH HEADS EMPTY"
THE FETTUCINI BROTHERS STORY

ARCHAEOLOGY
"X NEVER MARKS THE SPOT"
BY I. JONESY

NOSTALGIA
"SODA FOUNTAINS OF MY YOUTH"
BY PONCE DE LEON
Boy, does this guy ever wan to relive his childhood.

NARCOLEPSY
"CONFESSIONS OF A NARCOLEPTIC
Boy, what a sleeper.

QUOTATIONS
"FAMOUS PIRATE QUOTATIONS"
Quotations:
"Aaarrrrrrrg!"
"Happiness is a warm Manatee."
"Kiss me, I've got scurvy."
"Mouthwash? We don't need no stinking mouthwash!"
"Violets are blue, roses are red...
We're coming aboard. Prepare to eat lead."
Pirates:
-Barney Gout
-Commander Buttonhead
-Fester Leach
-Old Skunk-Eye
-Rapp Scallion

THREE-HEADED MONKEY
"THE PRIDE OF LOCH NESS"
This guy thinks the legendary Three-Headed Monkey is actually the son of the Loch Ness Monster.

TRILOGIES
"WHY PEOPLE WON'T READ TRILOGIES"
BY SIMON FINKLEBERTH
UNDERPANTS
"WEDGIES; HARMLESS FUN OR SADISTIC TORTURE?"
It says here that the wedgie was once used as a law enforcement practice.

VIOLINS
"THIRTY NON-MUSICAL USES FOR YOUR VIOLIN"

VIRUSES
"THINGS YOU CAN CATCH BY READING A LIBRARY BOOK"

VOLCANOES
"WARM ALL YEAR ROUND"
REAL ESTATE HANDBOOK.

YAKS
"THE YAK IS SLOW BUT THE EARTH IS PATIENT"

YETI
"INTERVIEW WITH A SNOWMAN"

YO-YOS
"AT THE END OF THE ROPE"
YO-YO POLITICS.

YO-YOS
"BOUNCING AND BEHAVING"
INTERMEDIATE YO-YO TRICKS.
"Bouncing and Behaving"

YO-YOS
"SPINNING AT THE END OF THE STRING"
YO-YO PHILOSOPHY

ZINJANTHROPUS
"PIRATES OF THE PLEISTOCENE"

ZOOLOGY
"ZOO ANIMALS MORE INTELLIGENT THAN HUMANS"

Her dad confuses me above but nice bump!

Yet to read but came across the other day & the synopsis of both seem interesting;

Zeno's Conscience by Italo Sveno
History: A Novel by Elsa Morante

Anyone read - they worth buying?

the bible, rapha approves

It's probably somewhere above already, but anyway:

Howard Philips Lovecraft - Everything

The Mistborn series was a good read (listen).

The other thread is full of sci fi weirdos so for the rest of us...

Recently went on a massive splurge as I came into some Amazon / Waterstones vouchers from my old job

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Waiting for the Barbarians by J.M. Coetzee
Post Office by Charles Bukowski
Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Engleby by Sebastian Faulks
On The Road by Jack Kerouac

All bought on recommendations from friends and / or threads like this. Really liking Post Office as my first read of the lot - the writing style somewhat reminiscent of Catcher In The Rye but of a more adult nature - me sorted for the next few weeks!

Still got £20 or so to spend if anyone has some more recommendations - open to any genre but I'm not so much into surreal worlds that kinda thing. Like my books grounded in reality.

Last book read was Youth by J.M. Coetzee which is aweomse - would recommend to anyone.

twilight










:DDDDDDDDDDD

One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel García Márquez

It got the nobel prize for literature.......

is that actually a pro or con?

maybe i should have said the book is insanely creative. enjoyable. new perspective on life. a reason for living.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Suzanna Clarke

Judith Hermann - Summerhouse, later and Nothing but ghosts.

The Invisibles by Grant Morrison.

I love Grant Morrison. Went to see him at Comic-con during the summer (:

I´ll bump this with The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman.

Seeds Of Earth by Michael Colbey

Epic Galaxy Spanning Sci-Fi Space Opera, prepare to cum buckets

Everything Is Illuminated by the American writer Jonathan Safran Foer.

just read the 2 daemon books, fun read, it's also illustrates the possible use of "augmented reality" very well, it's also quite new ...

rotfl 200 replies and no orson scott card noobs

Currently reading:

Fiction: Georges Perec - Un homme qui dort
Non-fiction: Saul Friedländer - Nazi Germany and the Jews

In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences - Capote, Truman
Catch-22 - Heller, Joseph
The Razor's Edge - Maugham, W. Somerset
Nineteen Eighty-Four - Orwell, George
Of Mice and Men - Steinbeck, John
Of Human Bondage - Maugham, W. Somerset
Appointment in Samarra - O'Hara, John
East of Eden - Steinbeck, John
Fahrenheit 451 - Bradbury, Ray
For Whom the Bell Tolls - Hemingway, Ernest
Animal Farm - Orwell, George
On the Road - Kerouac, Jack
The Great Gatsby - Fitzgerald, F. Scott
Ashenden, or The British Agent - Maugham, W. Somerset
Coming Up for Air - Orwell, George
Down and Out in Paris and London - Orwell, George
The Magician - Maugham, W. Somerset
A Farewell to Arms - Hemingway, Ernest
BUtterfield 8 - O'Hara, John
Mother Night - Vonnegut, Kurt
Darkness at Noon - Koestler, Arthur
Sons and Lovers - Lawrence, D.H.

The Ramses Series

The story of the greatest Pharaoh in history by Christian Jacq

The Son of the Light (1995)
The Temple of a Million Years Formerly published as The Eternal Temple (1995)
The Battle of Kadesh (1996)
The Lady of Abu Simbel (1996)
Under the Western Acacia (1997)

Just finished A Week In December by Sebastian Faulks. Bought it as I loved Engleby - didn't relate quite the same as Engleby or invoke a similar reaction, it's decent & touches on relevant topics but I didn't run away with it. Sort of felt like I was being preached at & Veals is the only truly interesting character. Basically a big fuck you to bankers & terrorists.

Predictably bought A Game Of Thrones from the A Song Of Ice & Fire series.

Personally I like some sci-fi!

Prey - Michael Crichton

I can also recommend reading some of the follow ups on the Star Wars saga...
My personal favorites:

Thrawn Trilogy
Hand of Thrawn duology

bump

u

hmm, read some books recently

- daemon + darknet, futuristic thriller in 2 books, entertaining stuff, but lacks sensitivity and also philosophy for me, but still nice perspective on augmented reality
- masters of doom, history of idsoftware, o.k. stuff, but only really recommended to absolute id fans
- steve jobs biography, isaacson, inspiring to some extent
- why the west rules for now, world history and comparison of west and east, o.k. stuff, but takes long to read ...
- weaving the web, berners lee, about history of the www, but nothing really special, can't really recommend tbh.
- einstein, his life and universe, isaacson, very good biography you also find some scientific explanations, definitely recommended

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

Some of the more notable ones I've read:

The Hunger Games - Considering it's popularity, I'm surprised it was never mentioned here. Was an excellent book IMO. I'll admit that I'm not much of a reader but this one did catch my attention and it was quite enjoyable. It's a bit sad but it's very exciting as well and has great emotional effect. Only problem is that with the movie coming out, people are starting to transform it into the next Twilight, what with Team Peeta / Gale and all that stuff... but this is probably a much better story than Twilight anyways. :]

Black Ice - An adventure / thriller novel set in the Antarctic. Very intense and exciting.

Across The Nightingale Floor - Here's one to those interested in Japanese culture. The setting seems pretty faithful and is paced well, it left a bit of a cliche taste in some parts but w/e, still very good.

Hyperspace / Physics of the Impossible - Both by Michio Kaku, these are incredibly interesting and provide details about things such as the fourth dimension, and what could make many things you see in most science fiction a reality.

rofl @ seeking reading recommendations on esr
and lmao @ most of the recommendations

Not everyone is a romanian gypsy here... Some of us read books.

reading for assholes.....

A game of thrones/ a song of ice and fire

Twilight

The Aeneid
The Odyssey
The Iliad
Works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, ect.

Why Homer? Not trolling, just interested.

http://classics.mit.edu/Browse/index.html

ctrl+f:
no "Count of Montecristo"/"Alexandre Dumas"
no "Praise of Folly"/"Erasmus of Rotterdam"

I thought these were widely known and appreciated books,guess I was wrong.

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

This book thread was better.

The Blackwater Lightship - Colm Toibin.

John Dies at the End (2007) by David Wong.

I'm actually quite surprised no one has mentioned it before.

seems interesting

also there is a movie based on it

smartbomb - heather chaplin

Into thin air
No way down
Touching the void

all based on true stories

Might as well add something from myself:

Ghostwritten - David Mitchell
American Psycho - Bret Easton Ellis
The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss

i just read tinker tailor soldier spy. best spy novel ive read so far.

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.

It's fantastic if you like puzzles; if you don't you'll just be annoyed at all the footnotes and the weird text. It's definitely not an quick read though and it might take a while.

I bet it's crap, without even reading it

Do you read often?

It uses seven-letter words so it might be hard for you. Also, it's in English.

yea I have read few hundreds. When I was a kid almost everything seemed like a masterpiece to me. Nowadays, most books I read (all recommended and with good reviews) are like written by kids and treat their readers like retards.

the book u suggest seems like going one step further, by flattering its tard readers

A lot of assuming going on, considering you haven't even read the book. What clues did you pick up that made you think the book "flatters its tard readers?" Did you learn your detective skills from ray?

Nowadays, most books I read (all recommended and with good reviews) are like written by kids and treat their readers like retards.

Well, saying that a book is crap because most of the books you read are crap is weak reasoning. After all, most male adults don't read the books you read, stuff like Learning the Alphabet, How to Pick Up Men 101, Adventures in Naughtyville: Shocking Erotica Vol 5, and Dora the Explorer: Journey to Mexico.

A lot of assuming going on, considering you haven't even read the book. What clues did you pick up that made you think the book "flatters its tard readers?" Did you learn your detective skills from ray?

a) u read it and u even liked it

b) It's fantastic if you like puzzles... just lol

c) Customer Reviews (all flash no substance, just pretentious etc)

d) apart from u, see what other ppl liked it: Sam Candle "Sam" - It Made Me Shiver (should I trust David - All flash no substance or Sam Candle "Sam" - It Made Me Shiver?)

It’s a no brainer, it stinks

86 1-star reviews
375 5-star reviews

lol. Not sure what you're trying to prove here.This is Jamerio-level logic right here.

As you can see (but I'm not even sure you can), there are more 5-star reviews than 1-star reviews. As you can also see, the book has an average rating of 4 stars.

b) It's fantastic if you like puzzles... just lol

Yeah, fiction books are nice if you lilke fiction, romance novels are nice if you like romance, history books are nice if you like history. Were you diagnosed with a learning disablity as an adolescent?

who that spent many hours reading a book will give it a negative rating? U should weight more the negative ones and it has plenty. Many of the ppl that give 4-5 starts are like u or the Sam Candle “Sam”.

just read what he writes:

This book made me shiver when I read it. If you would like to see if it is possible for a mere book to produce feelings of dread, and even horror, I suggest you begin your experiment here.

Materials :
1.
10 or 20 small candles, maybe "tealight" style candles, from the dollar tree or superstore
2.
A small lighter
3.
A place alone with no artificial light, or just cover up those little blinking LEDs with napkins or something
4.
House of Leaves
5.
A mind altering drug, perhaps alcohol, if legally available.

Procedure :
1.
Wait until the dead of night, when most people are asleep.
2.
Put the candles somewhere prominent near where you will be reading.
3.
Flex your imagination, and try to suspend disbelief as much as possible.
4.
Rip off the book jacket and front matter blank pages of the book House of Leaves.
5.
Take a shot of whiskey, or what have you.
6.
Read House of Leaves by candle light.

then look at u and what u write. Do u sound like someone educated that I should trust? Even ur description-review of the book is lol "It's fantastic if you like puzzles", not to mention ur kindergarten insult attempts.

Kindergarten insults to compensate for your Kindergarten intelligence. Anything more complex and you would not understand. Anything more harsh and you might hurt yourself.

Proof:

who that spent many hours reading a book will give it a negative rating?

lol? Do you speak English?

Do u sound like someone educated that I should trust?

lol

sure

recently read:
An american dream, Barack Obama, just a mediocre book imho
It's not about the bike, Lance Armstrong, the writing style is nice how lance directly talks at you, but otherwise not "that" great
Das sogenannte Boese, Konrad Lorenz, halfway through and really great read so far, really explains many behaviors/customs of humans, could make it in my all time favourite book list ...