Books you should read

[Discord]

Tao of Pooh
Life and Times of the Wicked Witch Of the West
The Red Tent

[interloper]

Props out to ebbomega for formulating a great list of books! I have recently just finished Larissa Lai's Salt Fish Girl, which is a great book. I also just finished Arhundati Roy's Power Politics book, which is also great.


Ermm... what else are good books. Other than SnowCrash and Neuromancer, I can't really think of any (well obviously LoTR but, thats just a given).

-Preet

[lithe]

a lot of the books in this thread, well, suck. :|

must reads:
the Bible
the Koran
Homer's Odyssey & Iliad
Plato's the Republic
Sophie's World
an Ayn Rand (I would say Atlas Shrugged, but one of my good friends prefers the Fountainhead, so really.. either or.)
Brave New World (Huxley)
Animal Farm (Orwell)
Mein Kampf (Hitler)
Lolita (Nabokov)
A Clockwork Orange (Brugess)
Midnight's Children (Rushdie)
A Fine Balance (Mistry)
Stranger in a Strange Land (Heinlein)
100 Years of Solitude (Marquez)
L'Etranger (Camus)

also a really comprehensive 20th century history book, and an introduction to politics and political systems book.

[dapimpstress]

brave new world.

seriously. read it.

[lithe]

if only all powerful books could be as short, simply written, and widely popular as brave new world. *sigh*

(i'm currently reading it in my engl464a class, i'm crossing my fingers for new, earth-shattering insights!)

[dapimpstress]

Originally Posted by lithe

if only all powerful books could be as short, simply written, and widely popular as brave new world. *sigh*

(i'm currently reading it in my engl464a class, i'm crossing my fingers for new, earth-shattering insights!)

you should check out ocean sea - alessandro barrico... its italian.. amazing, fucking amazing book.

[COMATOS3]

there was this kid at our school who committed suicide after reading Catcher in the Rye

....rough shit.

[.:VAN3SSA:.]

By far best book The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, I highly recommend it.
Or any other books by him.

[Digitz-]

'Of Mice and Men' written by John Steinbeck is a good book I have to say.. its also the ONLY book I read during the course of my highschool years by myself lol

[MarcelM]

Howard Marks: MR. NICE

[Niko]

Re: Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere

Originally Posted by Quin600

Its a damn good book. The BBC made it into a six episode miniseries which is also the shit.

Actually, Neil Gaiman wrote the 6 episode BBC series. Afterwards, he decided to turn it into a novel. Both are cool, but the novel gets a lot deeper into the atmosphere of the world, and captures something that the low-budged BBC soundstages really couldn't.

I have a really hard time reading novels at all. I tend to read the first 50-150 pages of a lot of books, and then find myself completely unable to continue. Here's a list of my most memorable favourites (be forewarned, I'm a bit of a sci-fi fantasy geek):

American Gods by Neil Gaiman -- The #1 book on my "What, you haven't read this?!!?!" list. I haven't really read anything even remotely reminiscent of it. If you like mythology, you'll love this book. I could not put it down for more than 5 minutes until it was done.

Dune by Frank Herbert -- Best sci-fi novel I've ever read... I totally love the bizarre setting. The sequels are great, too, if a bit more tedious, but the first one's a must-read.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin -- My all-time favourite fantasy novel. It's brilliant, and short enough that no one really has any reason to not read it.

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman -- Gaiman's great writing style + uniquely creepy atmosphere = A winner.

Weaveworld by Clive Barker -- Very hard to explain. It's a great, messed up book about a carpet, an insurance salesman, and the garden of eden.

[dapimpstress]

Oh man, if we're going to go that classic, as Steinbeck, then read The Grapes of Wrath, if you haven't already.

It gives you this amazing sense and understanding of the human condition. It just makes you FEEL it. When you read it, don't get discouraged, because it is mildly long, however, once you get the background (which you really do need, for it all to make sense...) the reading just flows. You just have to get into it a bit in the beginning, beautiful writing tho, and the latter half of the book just flys by.

[lithe]

^"The Grapes of Wrath" is still sitting on my nightstand. I think I'm about 30 pages in. yikes. I also have a half-completed "Master & Margarita" and just started "Midnight's Children," plus about a dozens school books, oops. I shoud really just stick to one.

^^Niko, I'm definately going to pick up that Gaiman "American Gods" book. I absolutely loved his "Coraline," which I read for a children's lit class, plus I'm a mythology major, so it sounds perfect for me.

[sidekick]

i just finished 'Ecstasy" by Irvine Welsh (the guy who wrote Trainspotting, Porno, Acid House, Filth, etc...)

this book was really really good. i read it in three days; couldn't put the fucker down.

it's actually three novellas, but they all involve love, drugs, sex and raves, just with varying themes on each of the topics. it's very interesting and well written. i would say it rivals 'Trainspotting' for sure.

[sidekick]

sex, drugs and cocoa puffs by chuck klosterman

it has some really funny/insightful essays about pop culture.

examples of some essay topics:

Saved by the Bell
The Sims
Pamela Anderson
'Left Behind' book series
Serial Killers

[surfacing_X]

Originally Posted by Sidekick

i just finished 'Ecstasy" by Irvine Welsh (the guy who wrote Trainspotting, Porno, Acid House, Filth, etc...)

this book was really really good. i read it in three days; couldn't put the fucker down.

it's actually three novellas, but they all involve love, drugs, sex and raves, just with varying themes on each of the topics. it's very interesting and well written. i would say it rivals 'Trainspotting' for sure.

i fuckin loveeeeeed that book.......have u read Glue?

[sidekick]

Originally Posted by wet00raver

i fuckin loveeeeeed that book.......have u read Glue?

nope, but it's sitting on my bookshelf! i also have 'Filth' sitting up there, but haven't had time to read it. i love irvine welsh. :)

have you read 'Porno'?

[.o0*HaLo*0o.]

oryx and crake rocks!

For those of you who've read "brave new world" its almost like a continuation of that. It starts off almost the same as where brave new world left off... as far as sci fi modern crazy world goes.... as the memory of a grown man reflecting on his childhood... then it hi gears into the future after this "perfect" world comes to a crash. Enough said.. its odd.. and very very interesting. It gets confusing at times tho cause it keeps going from past to present, so if your a speed reader u might wanna slow down or u'll get lost.