DrRingDing

in preperation for living abroad next year (meaning no movies, no tv), i went out and bought a few books. some classics, some easy fiction. i'd like to know what people think of them:

1984 by George Orwell
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
Dune by Frank Herbert

any further recommendations? how about factual, historical books on the Civil War and the early 20th century America?

thanks!
-di doctor-

Surf Monkey

1984 is a fantastic book. Grab Huxley's Brave New World too.

MurraySiskind

Shelby Foote is the man for civil war books. Shaara's civil war books are really popular though I've never read them. His are historical fiction by the way.

I love Slaugherhouse-Five. If you like that then I would suggest Breakfast of Champions by Vonnegut also. And along those lines there is DeLillo's White Noise which is one of my two or three favorite novels.

Oh! One more, The Devil in the White City by Larson. It reads as easy as fiction but is a historical account of both the Chicago's Worlds Fair in 1893 and also the serial killer H. H. Holmes who set up a hotel just outside the fair where he killed many many people. It's a fascinating read.

Alyoshka

I don't like The Sound and the Fury too much, but I think Faulkner is great nonetheless. I really like the Great Gatsby, 1984, and Slaughterhouse.

Scorpio

Murray,

Thanks! I was not aware that a book was written on Holmes. I first learned about him in a high school History of Chicago class and have always wanted to learn more about him.

Beaver

Cat's Cradle is another good one by Vonnegut.

I'm reading Shelby Foote's Civil War: A Narrative. It's a very readable book. As the title states, it's told in narrative fashion with no footnotes, but it is all historical.

James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom is a good one volume overview of the Civil War. It's more of your standard history novel.

djmont

McPherson's book (nonfiction; not a novel, by the way) is the definitive monograph on the Civil War.

What about some Hemingway? Maybe The Sun Also Rises? It's always been a favorite of mine.

Jack's Smirking

When I saw the title of the thread, I was going to recommend "Devil in the White City" as well. It absolutely brings history alive.

DrRingDing

thanks for the suggestions! keep 'em coming!
-di doctor-

devilshalo

Books. Bad. Me worship the talking picture box.

MurraySiskind

From reading the different sources the author of Devil in White City used, I know there are a couple of books about Holmes though I don't have the titles handy. Devil is only half about Holmes, the other half is about the architects and men behind the creation of the World's Fair. But the two stories blend together nicely.

beckham

So where are going abroad?

DrRingDing

barcelona this month and most of next. followed by various european countries the month after. followed by one month back in the u.s. before moving to prague for the year (to teach english).
-di doctor-

junior

I really enjoyed "Carter Beats the Devil". Check out some of the reviews at Amazon.

beckham

Originally posted by DrRingDing
WOW! Thats is fantastic. You know I am a wannabe writer and I have always fancied that as premium way to go abroad (you know move around, teach, and delve into "things"). May I ask how you got into that???

I am vicariously thrilled for you to be getting to Spain. I had a brief sojourn in Madrid and then up north. I fell in love with the place.

I would love to hear more about this and possibly email you?

Walt

DrRingDing

i´ll start my post with a reply to the off-topic discussion also going on here:

try these two places:
this for the Barcelona program. i´m starting monday. i´ll let you know what i think.
this for teaching in Prague.
this for job availability in different countries... of course, all of the jobs on this site require a TEFL certificate, which is what the Barcelona course is for.

any other questions: barna1979 at hotmail

as for this particular topic:

so far on my vacation, i have read Nick Hornby´s "About a Boy" which was a great book. i liked it more than i liked the movie, i think. although, the movie is very good.

and Jeffrey Archer´s "Kane and Abel", which i liked a lot, but i found some passages (notably ANYTHING dealing with sexuality, both the bad and the good) to be very poorly written. thrown away, almost... very good, overall though.

going to finish a book i started for a course i was auditing this past semester next: Robert Whiting´s "You Gotta Have Wa"

thanks for the recommendations, folks! keep ´em coming!
-di doctor-

edited to close an unclosed tag...

Jason

Vonnegut's Deadeye Dick is another good one, if you liked the others listed here.

DrRingDing

I'm preparing for round two... thanks to the 'name one really good book' thread...

i just finished reading The Great Gatsby, which was great! very lyrical and beautiful writing overall... i felt like i was actually living the story.. beautiful book.

the next book out of my mini-library on this trip is Steinbeck's 'Cannery Row'. (to renote the books i've already read this trip: J. Archer's 'Kane and Abel' and N. Hornby's 'About a Boy' - i've also read his other two full-length books...)

anyway, i've started a list of books to purchase this august when i'm home again... but this time, it will be for a year-long trip... so.. i'll need a long list..

K. Grimwood 'Replay'
T. Perry 'Pursuit'
A. Dumas 'Count of Monte Cristo' and 'Three Musketeers'
J. Crowley 'Little, Big'
J. Joyce 'Ulysses'
M. Chabon 'The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay'
S. King 'The Stand'

i need recommendations. lots and lots. i really liked both 'Kane and Abel' and 'About a Boy'..

thanks again!
-di doctor-

DrRingDing

oh, and i'd also like to find a good book on human sexuality. i don't want a purely academic book, but something that blends anecdotes with facts and information... i hope that makes sense.

thanks again!
-di doctor-

RevLiver

For early 20th Century America, at least on the fictional side, you can't go wrong with E.L. Doctorow. Ragtime, Billy Bathgate (much better than the movie) and The Waterworks are all excellent.

Captain Harlock

Never read any of them. Actually I faked my way through 1984. Those look like all the books I was forced to read but didn't in high school.

What kind of backward, third world nation are you going to that you won't have access to movies or television? Man that sounds worse than New England!

DrRingDing

actually, i got half of them off of a high school required reading rack at Borders. i figured that it's about time that i catch up on what i've missed by being a TV/movie fiend my first 22 years..

anybody have any further recommendations? especially toward my final question (books re: sexuality).
-di doctor-

cokeguy

I'd recommend God Knows by Joseph Heller. Excellent, hilarious look at the Bible (or at least some of it).

Dan

Captain Harlock

I still say the "required" high school reading is why people don't read as much as they should. "To be or not to be..." just shut up already!!

One I know one thing, if I weren't bored out of my skull by my "required" high school reading I would have never discovered comic books or Japanese anime.

DrRingDing

i'm resurrecting my own thread to throw out my most recent book-buying spree which is intended to last me the entire year i'm about to spend abroad...

book-buying spree September 2003:

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card
Pursuit by Thomas Perry
Brave New World by Aldus Huxley
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum by Robert Ludlum
The Stand by Stephen King
Ulysees by James Joyce
God Knows by Joseph Heller
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser

chances are, if you remember recommending a book on this forum that is on this list, that is why it is on this list!
-di doctor-