surfpup Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 However, if we are picking favorites to recommend, then it has to be these two. Anthem at only roughly 100 pages changed my life... However, if I had to take one book with me into eternity, it might be The Fountainhead - same ideas as Anthem with more plot... I am Howard Roark, always have been, but I never understood that until I read this book. (I guess you may not understand that if you have not read it, but I said it for me not you) (Which you also might misinterpret - until you read the book.) Another note, fans of RUSH will notice a lot of familiar ideas in Ayn Rand's books. Neil Peart was a huge fan of her writing. Read Anthem and you will never hear their song "Anthem" - or the whole "2112" suite - the same way again, I promise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichCI Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Ugh! The Fountainhead! An old gf of mine recommended that book to me and I couldn't even finish it. Probably the most depressing book I've (almost) ever read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfpup Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 I don't know you anymore, Rich... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FirstMeasure Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 +1's for the Hemingway's, Vonnegut, and Douglas Adams. If you like the Hitchhikers Guide them You'll probably like Adam's Dirk Gentley books, "Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency", and "The Long dark Tea-Time of the Soul". Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" and "Of Mice and Men" "The Sky is Falling" - Aurthur Weingarten "A Christmas Carol" - Dickens (I'm on the first ghost right now) "Doc Savage" novels - Lester Dent (They're just so Hokey they're cool). "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" - B. Traven Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluemoon Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Ugh! The Fountainhead! An old gf of mine recommended that book to me and I couldn't even finish it. Probably the most depressing book I've (almost) ever read. Really. I love her books. One of my all time favorite books, though, is The Stand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeoLibMan Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 'Going Rogue' Lots of big words, but so long as you graduated from the third grade you should be ok. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Well... Tao Te Ching, Hagakure, Go Rin No Sho. Any collection of Plato in a relatively recent translation for easier reading. Aristotle's Poetics - just kinda switch the idea from being about plays into being about music. Any of David Drake's sci fi. For what it's worth, he's a classical scholar who writes a darned good adventure. A few of his pieces start slowly. Probably my favorite recent female fictional character is Adele Mundy from "With the Lightnings" that started a good series that as much of Drake is based on history and myth. Another now hard to find sci fi series was Gordon Dickson's Childe Cycle that is kind of an interesting metaphor for the splintering of culture we may likely be experiencing today in the US. He also mentions a "final encyclopedia" that seems a nearly vision of what the Internet might mean. What else... Plutarch's "lives" is mandatory as are Homer and Herodotus. Thucydides is neat, but so is the Sun Tzu. I read Kerouac as a kid. Always thought the critic who called it "typewriting" instead of "writing" had it nailed. Modern writers? Hmmmm. Probably anything by John Keegan, at least if you're into military history at all. His first widely read piece is "The face of battle" that is pretty neat. It may hook you. I had a short-time college GF talk me into Ayn Rand. I think it was her way of saying she wanted to be dominated a bit, but then a math major girl and a history/lit/guitar/martial arts guy probably wasn't the best mix regardless. Man, Beast, Dust: The Story of Rodeo is 60 years old and still pretty neat if you wonder about rodeo in the "cowboy country" of the U.S. and Canada. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrosurfer1959 Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Anyone who is a science fiction fan should try to find the Horseclan series by Robert Adams - This is a long series in a post-holocaust world. He get's a bit preachy at times not in a bible way but you are definitely subjected to proselytization but still a good read with strong characters he carries through a dozen or more books. It's out of print now but it was like Twilight when they were printed so there in a lot of used bookstores and online Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GIANTRobOT420 Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Art of War Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfootdg Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 A portrait of the artist as a young man by James Joyce Less Than Zeo by Bret Easton Ellis War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky (spelling?) Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevef Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Sci Fi... Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land-- Starship Troopers etc).. Asimov..Bradbury.. Jules Verne Catch-22 - . Joseph Heller. Electric Kool Aid Acid Test.. Tom Wolfe One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey Clockwork Orange.. Burgess Fahrenheit 451.. Bradbury.. Dashiell Hammett (old detective stories.. Maltese Falcon/Thin Man).. Tolkien's stuff... Carlos Castenada's stuff.. Slaughter House - 5--Cat's Cradle. Vonnegut.. (Just saw Back to School/Rodney Dangerfield...),, Sherlock Holmes stuff.. A. Conan Doyle Dr. Seuss..... Among others.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Natural Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 In fiction, I like (and would "recommend to a friend or anyone") Albert Camus (especially "The Stranger" and "The Plague"), John Barth's "Giles Goat Boy", Don DeLillo's "Mao II" and "Underworld", and John LeCarre's spy stuff. In non-fiction, I really enjoyed "The Dancing Wu Li Masters" by Gary Zukav. It's all about quantum mechanics but with only maybe a half a page of math in the whole book. I am re-reading James George Frazer's "The Golden Bough" which is an excellent account of primitive myth, legend, ritual, and symbolism from the dawn of western civilization. On a musical note, Charles Mingus' autobiography "Beneath the Underdog" is really, really good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Retro... Yes, definitely the horseclans stuff too... <grin> Given my name, I kinda bought into those. <lol> Eric Flint writes good stuff... Go to the Baen web site for more - and even some downloadable books to get a hint of some really neat stuff that's available. Mr. Natural: James George Frazer's "The Golden Bough" is quite a neat piece. Do you read some of Eliot's poetry? E.g., The Wasteland?" My mother got me into reading both, and more, when I was a sprout. But then, she was the lit and history nut and my dad was the philosophy nut. I guess Bullfinch's Mythology should be mentioned, too. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jantha Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 The Earthsea Trilogy.. especially the first book; Wizard of Earthsea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Natural Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 ...Mr. Natural: James George Frazer's "The Golden Bough" is quite a neat piece. Do you read some of Eliot's poetry? E.g.' date=' The Wasteland?" My mother got me into reading both, and more, when I was a sprout. But then, she was the lit and history nut and my dad was the philosophy nut. I guess Bullfinch's Mythology should be mentioned, too. m [/quote'] milod, no, I haven't read Eliot. I read a collection of Wallace Stevens' poetry back in college (a girlfriend gave me a book). It was good; I enjoyed it, but I'm just not much of a poetry guy. And, yeah, Bullfinch is good. Robert Graves did a pretty good job recounting the Greek myths, too. Oh, and I forgot "The Troubles" by Tim Pat Coogan. It's pretty thick but a good treatment of the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland conflict, if you're into that history. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShredAstaire Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Dune series - Frank Herbert.... Dark Tower Series - Stephen King Yep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 Giantrobot... Which "Art of War?" I assume you mean Sun Tzu? One might consider either Clausewitz or Jomini as having written such, too. Jomini had several with "Précis de l'Art de la Guerre" as elements of a title and translations of both have used "art of war" in one way or another. JFC Fuller wrote more of the "science" of war although he was a bit nutty into the occult. And Basil Liddel Hart might have been considered to have one title at least that could be considered "art of war." Then there's Machiavelli's "Dell'arte della guerra." Vegetius' "De Re Militari" has similarly had the title translated as "art." It's said the Lionheart carried a copy in his saddlebags. (I always figured William (the) Marshal likely did much of the thinking for Richard, but then... <grin>) Each of those authors have much to offer. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jannusguy Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 "The Road". Soon to be a major motion picture. Like next week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saturn Posted November 19, 2009 Share Posted November 19, 2009 The Killer Angels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
surfpup Posted November 20, 2009 Share Posted November 20, 2009 "The Road". Soon to be a major motion picture. Like next week. +1 -- Cormac McCarthy is great. I enjoyed The Road. No Country for Old Men was excellent too. And his western stuff like Blood Meridian is brilliant as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcmurray Posted November 20, 2009 Share Posted November 20, 2009 Jeffrey Archer - Kane and Abel. Simply awesome story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrJustice Posted November 20, 2009 Share Posted November 20, 2009 Anything by Stanislaw Lem. dem00n should start with "The Cyberiad". Also for dem00n, "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert Heinlein - it's totally metal, dude! Then there's the master, Olaf Stapledown. And when you're ready, Jorge Luis Borges. DJ -- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drumrnmuzik Posted November 20, 2009 Share Posted November 20, 2009 1984 - George Orwell To build a fire - Jack London The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, A Mexican Odyssey - Gilbert Shelton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hector Arcadius Posted November 20, 2009 Share Posted November 20, 2009 Just finished this one: ''Catcher in the Rye'' by Salinger No man is complete however, if he hasn't read George Orwell's ''Animal Farm'' but especially ''1984''. simply life-changing. Fantasy: Anything from J.R. Tolkien, Philip Pullman and the new rising star: Christopher Paolini Science fiction: ''The war of worlds'' - H. G. Wells, anything from Isaac Asimov, Arthur Clarke. Horror: H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe Classics: Anything from Jules Verne (he's perfect for your age - if it's not too late already...!), Alexandre Dumas, Charles Dickens P.S.: Stay as further away from the Bible as possible. I prefer you pick-up Kama-Sutra instead. Far more useful and honest book... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeVeeWee Posted November 20, 2009 Share Posted November 20, 2009 A lot of Dutch literature I would recommend but that won't help the thread... A fiction book that got me and held me right from the beginning is : Brooklyn follies, Paul Auster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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