books to read? (aka what's your favorite book?)
 

Okay, so i posted about a year ago asking for book recommendations because i was moving overseas. well, i'm asking the same question again because, not only will i be back in the states for a little while, i'm also just about out of the books i picked up.

so the question(s) is/are: what book should i read? in particular, what is your favorite book?

the books recommended and read this past year (incomplete list):
Fast Food Nation
The Bourne Supremacy/The Bourne Ultimatum
The Count of Monte Cristo
Cain and Abel
Why Black People Tend to Shout
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Pursuit
Sound and the Fury
Slaughterhouse-5
1984/Brave New World/Fahrenheit 451 (my dystopia trilogy)
Life of Pi
Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools
The Stand
Stupid White Men/Lies and the Lying Liars that Tell Them (my liberal leanings...)
Ender's Game/Speaker for the Dead

obviously, just like my music taste, i read almost every type of book - so factual or fictional, i don't mind.

oh, and i am looking to broaden by historical knowledge (of the US Civil War especially), so if you know of any not-too-technical, highly-readable history books, that would be great too.

try to keep recommendations to a small list (let's say no more than 5) per post. provide me reasons for your recommendations as well, please.

i know this sounds like i want an essay, and maybe i do, but it would really help me!

thanks very much!
-di doctor-

Have you ever read The Princess Bride? Hilariously great book esp if you liked the movie.

Also try some Thomas Harris - Red Dragon & Silence of the Lambs

I'm currently enjoying Michael Chabon's (Wonder Boys) The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay which is also pretty darn great!

FICTION
Headhunter
Michael Slade
- the first in a (so far) great, violent series of serial killer novels set in the world of modern day Royal Canadian Mounties. This is the kind of book where the plot is not resolved until literally the last word.


NON-FICTION
The Devil In The White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America
Erik Larson
- a fascinating dual history of the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and real-life serial killer

My favorite book always has been & always will be, by far: Musashi by Eji Yoshikawa. It should be mandatory reading for everyone & I'm shocked by how few people have even heard of it, let alone read it. It's just a massive epic, think Gone With The Wind but about Samurais & feudal Japan.

My most enjoyed and reread books:

1984 (my alltime favorite) - George Orwell
On A Pale Horse - Piers Anthony
And Then There Where None - Agatha Christie
Chiefs - Stuart Woods
Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
Sword of Shannara - Terry Brooks
The Stand - Stephen King
Don't Know Much About History - Kenneth Davis

Moby Dick (yes I'm serious!)
The Three Musketeers
Dracula (loved it)
Swan Song - McCammon
Speaks the Nightbird - McCammon

Highly recommend anything by Robert McCammon and Richard Laymon.

Lord of the Rings - Only book I've read multiple times
The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

Stephen King's Dark Tower saga.

Fiction:

The Brothers Karamazov - Feodor Dostoevsky
Emma - Jane Austen
Dubliners (a short story collection) - James Joyce
Ulysses - James Joyce
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut
Candide - Voltaire

Nonfiction:

The Power Broker - Robert Caro
Democracies - Arend Lijpardt
The Federalist Papers - "Publius"
The Rise and Decline of Nations - Mancur Olson
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order - Samuel Huntington
Political Order in Changing Societies - Samuel Huntington

Whoa, flashbacks to Poli Sci 270...-eek-

I've just re-read Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi, the district attorney who put the puzzle together. Excellent read for several reasons:

1) It's true - not to give too much of the story away (if you aren't up on it), Charles Manson was the most dangerous man alive.
2) It's horrifying - the murders were savage and merciless (and blood from the victims were used to write messages on the walls) and the most of the victims were Hollywood celebrities.
3) It's fascinating - because the motive was so insane and the man behind the madness had all the power of Hitler over his minions.

Aside from those reasons, it is written very well.

By far the best fiction I've read in quite a while would be the Song of Fire & Ice series books by George RR Martin. These books have the best-developed characters & don't fall into the usual things that hurt fantasy titles. Although it's technically fantasy it's really more like historical fiction set in some far off land. Also Martin has no real "pet" characters which makes the books that much more interesting.

Slaughterhouse 5
Catcher in the Rye
House of the Spirits
Heart of Darkness

Fiction: without a doubt By Reason of Insantiy by Shane Stevens

Non: I agree with Buttmunker on Helter Skelter and also called Raven about Jim Jones, it is really well done and in depth. I don't recall the writer but he was one of the reporters who was there the day Jonestown when Jim Jones killed all those people.

Some of my favorites that weren't on your list:

As I Lay Dying
Xenogenesis Trilogy (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, Imago)
Bloodchild and Other Stories
Pride and Prejudice
Even the Queen and Other Stories (Connie Willis)
Vorkosigan Series by Lois McMaster Bujold (huge series)
Maps in a Mirror (Orson Scott Card's short fiction collection)
The Best of John Collier (short fiction)
The Dark Descent (a horror short fiction anthology)
Weaveworld
Boy's Life


If you like poetry, some of my favorite poets are:

Geoffrey Chaucer
Edmund Spenser
John Milton
John Donne
William Butler Yeats
T.S. Eliot
Elisabeth Bishop
Ted Hughes
Timothy Donnelly

My favorite ficiton books are Lois McMasters Bujold's series (start with Cordelia's Honor), As I Lay Dying, andPride and Prejudice. My favorite book of poems is John Donne's The Complete English Poems.

thanks for your replies! as i said before, though, i would prefer a few books with explanations as to why they are good rather than a list! ;)

regardless, thanks for the recommendations and i will definitely be picking some of them up! keep them coming!

again, i ask for history books (esp US history). also, i'd like to read the bible (not for religious reasons), but am intimidated not only by the length but the language. are there any <i>good</i> translations in modern english out there? or, preferrably, a side by side translation (vis-a-vis classic literature where they print a translation side-by-side with the original language - be it old english or french, etc)?

thanks again!
-di doctor-

History? Well then, not Civil War, but there's a great looking book on the Revolutionary War called Washington's Crossing which came out earlier this year. Only thing is that it's an Oxford hardback, so it's a bit pricy.

I've got a copy and can't wait to get into it after I finish off Benjamin Franklin by Walter Issacson, which also is a good read of that era.

Gone with the Wind- A classic and set during the Civil War
Secret Life of Bees- A Sweet story about race relations in the South
One Hundred Years of Solitude- Great Imagery and very poetic
Davinci Code- A fun, easy read

Tom Clancy - Clear and Present Danger

Robert Ludlum - The Road to Gondalfo and The Road to Omaha - these books are classic Ludlum w/ an added dose of humor.

Larry McMurtry - Lonesome Dove

Shelby Foote's The Civil War - A Narrative, Volumes 1-3

Amazon Link

I'll just name a few of my recent favorites:

FICTION
A Certain Chemistry - Mil Millington: a funny, light comedic novel about why people cheat on their significant others. Not too deep, but a quick and enjoyable read.

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal - Christopher Moore: I never laughed out loud as much at any book outside the realm of Bryson. Hilarious mix of gospel and wit.

Dante Club - Matthew Pearl: fictional accounts of real historical figures as they track down a killer in Cambridge. Funny, suspenseful and well written. Excellent combination of fact and fiction.

Carter Beats the Devil - Glen David Gold: Another mingling of fact and fiction. Gold's writing style reminds me of Chabon's - and that is a very good thing.

Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic and Madness at the Fair that Changed America - Erik Larsen: I'll just second this nomination. Great stuff.

The Fermata - Nicholson Baker: Not for everyone, but I love Baker's sense of humor. This is arguably the best introduction to Baker in all his glorious erotic de-eroticism. Follow it up with Vox if you made it through Fermata.

NON-FICTION

The Last Best League - Jim Collins: Chronicles from the Cape Cod baseball league. Great book for baseball fans and Codders. But it's a great read, no matter your level of affection for the sport.

...sparing you the details, my favorites also include anything by Bill Bryson, Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse-Five, Monkey House particularly), Poe, Joseph Heller's Catch-22, Salinger, Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint... and on and on....

My all-time favorite book has to be Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men". Also, you can't go wrong with early Crichton novels, and Dan Brown's books featuring Robert Langdon(DaVinci Code, Angels & Demons) were pretty good reads.

Washington's Crossing can be had for about $25 new or $10 used from Amazon.

Watership Down

:thumbsup:
There is a psuedo-sequel called Tales from WsD. It's short stories that feel like bits taken out of the first book to fix the pacing. They're not bad, but if they had been put back in, they would seriously drag the book down.

In a similar vein, Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams (cats on a LOTR type quest)

Has To Kill a Mockingbird been mentioned?

And a good early Crichton to recommend would be The Terminal Man.