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Jebadiah_Smith

Joined
Jul 28, 2004
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It seems to me that I enjoy alot of the books that you guys recomend from time to time.

A while back someone mentioned "My War Gone By I Miss It So". I just got a copy off of Amazon and it seems pretty good. Then The Hunter S. Thompson thread got me to buy "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", and "Hell's Angels".

So what books do you all recomend for Cantina members? I remember post-apocalyptic books seemed popular.


Hows that for a forum boredom buster? ;)
 
"1421--the year China discovered America" by Gavin Menzies

Hundreds (thousands?) of pieces of evidence, including maps, inscriptions, and shipwrecks that indicate the Chinese circumnavigated the globe from 1421-1423AD :eek: . Incredible stuff (well it is credible, so awesome stuff)! Don't let the size get you down; easy to read and full of interesting facts and theories.

jw
 
An excellent idea, Jeb.

"My War Gone By..." is one of the most outstanding books that I've ever read. Count on reading it a few more times over the next couple of years. I know that I have.

Just started "The Heart of Darkness" and I'm enjoying it - all the moreso because of what a fascinating man Joseph Conrad (a fellow sailor nonetheless) is, and how his best fiction is based on his life. ("Heart" is one of these.) I find it amazing that his grasp of written English surpasses that of many contemporary authors, yet it was his third language (after Polish and French) and one that he hadn't even begun to learn until young adulthood.

One author that I always mention is Dan Simmons...if you're into fiction, that is. His "Hyperion" series is excellent science fiction in every way and is destined to be a literary classic.

Most of what I read is technical in nature. If you enjoy big guns that go boom and the stories behind them, anything by Anthony G. Williams is worth checking out. His web page makes for a good stop when one is surfing aimlessly.

If you enjoy smaller guns that go boom, the two best that I've read in recent years are the legendary "Hatcher's Notebook," by Julian S. Hatcher, and "A Rifleman Went to War," by H.W. McBride. McBride's book is far more entertaining a read and is worth the search.
 
Kipling and Robert Service, if you love poetry.

It's like poetry has the chewyness of a good multigrain bread, where fiction sometimes feels like Rainbow or Wonder bread. There's almost nothing there, and what there is of it gets stuck to the roof of your mouth.
 
The only poems I really enjoy are dirty limmericks.

Anyone read the Dark Tower series? I just finished the last one, and I was really disappointed. The first 3 were great though.
 
Read Stranger in a Strange Land recently. Just finished Nocturne for a Dangerous Man by Marc Matz, who I'd never heard of before...excellent book. Not Heimlein, but better in other ways. Very introspective, which is proper for what is really a detective story.

The Initiate Brother and Gatherer of Clouds by Sean Russell are...ah, well, perfect, in their way.

John
 
There was a small series of books that I recall reading, but that is about all.

Where they hda demons that were nuclear weapons when Technology changed into Magic.

I remember thinking how great they were. Now that is about all I recall.

Those of you older than me, is this the way it is with most things?
 
I read an awful lot...here would be my pick o' the litter at this moment.



Fiction:
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, yes definitely. (but it isn't fiction...or is it?)

Software, and also Wetware, by Rudy Rucker (science fiction)

Across Realtime, by Vernor Vinge (also science fiction)

The Man In the High Castle, by Phillip Dick (science fiction, sort of)

Valis, by Phillip Dick (science fiction I guess)




Business:
The 80/20 Principle by Richard Koch

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, Al Ries/Jack Trout

Innovator's Dilemma, Clayton Christensen

Innovator's Solution, if only for the chapter on marketing, by Clayton Christensen

Science and stuff:
The Fabric of Reality, by David Deustch (can't recommend this highly enough)

The Moral Animal, by Robert Wright

Wisdom of Crowds, JAMES SUROWIECKI, (changed my mind about a lot of things, really changed my world view


Reality and life:
Loving What Is, by Byron Katie and Stephen Mitchell (again, can't recommend highly enough)

The Mind's Past, Robert Gazzaniga (how our brains work and what we should know about them

The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are (Alan Watts, ahhhh, Alan Watts...yes)
 
I loved A Rifleman Went to War, a great example of the old hardcore men of the west. For some reason I didn't get much out of My War Gone By, perhaps I need to try it again.

I always recommend Neal Stephenson, but his latest Baroque series books are not for everyone. Stephen Pressfield is excellent historical fiction, Gates of Fire especially. His latest, Virtues of War, is a pretty good retelling of the Alexander campaigns, but I'm in the middle of Manfredi's Alexander trilogy and enjoying it more.

Lately I've been reading my way through Clavell (Shogun great, Tai-Pan and King Rat good, the rest okay), he only has Stephenson as competition in the length department. I'm also catching up on all of Bernard Cornwell's non-Sharpe books, they are readable fiction but nothing spectacular.

In the lineup to come (that I can see from here) are:
All of Jeff Cooper's older books
Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination
Beard and Beard, History of the United States, published 1930, I want to see the differences from today's books
Russ Schneider, Siege, WWII east-front action
de Becker, Gift of Fear, great book on trusting your instincts, despite the author's antigun leanings and celebrity namedropping.

Weekend sale pickups at Half Price Books:
Year's Best Sci-Fi #2 and #8, I really like SF shorts
Solzhenitsyn, August 1914, I didn't know he had done other things than Gulag Archipeligo and Day in the Life
Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath, somehow got through school without reading this.
Mangold and Goldberg, Plague Wars, nonfiction on bio warfare
A basic wiring book so I can rig some overhead lights in the workshop
 
All of Stephen Hunter's books, but especially "Point of Impact" and the other "Bob The Nailer" series!
 
Some of my faves:

Modern Milk Goats - Irmagarde Richards

Mind at Play - Stephen Gaskin

The Bible

The I Ching

The Tao

Journey to Ixtlan - Castenada

After Esctacy, the Laundry - Jack Kornfield

The Nag Hammadi Library

The Book of the Subgenius

The Bhagavad Gita

There's others but those are the ones that come to mind.

Cognitive,

speaking of Nag Hammadi and VALIS by Phillip K Dick did you know that he had some sort of a religious experience and incorporated a lot of the ideas of the Gnostics into his writing?

Also another one I'd highly reccomend and in a lot of ways it is kind of related to Gnosticism, although I don't know if he knew about it or it was just coincidence is the extremely great short story

The Mysterious Stranger

By Mark Twain. It is a story set in mediaeval europe during the witch hunts and these kids meet an angel named Satan who is the nephew(supposedly?) of the devil. It really has sort of a gnostic take on God, humanity and organized religion and I try to make everyone I know read it ;)
 
If you like detective\mystery stuff, I highly recommend Lee Child, John Connolly and Micheal Connelley and John Sandford.

Also, the old standard, Robert B. Parker.
 
The Norton Anthology of Modern War

Understand? Good, Play!

The Alien Chronicles: UFO's in Art throughout history

The Unfettered Mind

I'd also like to suggest that you all read a modern book on Anthropology or Human evolution. Dont just read one and keep those ideas like gold nuggets. Read one every 5 years or so, because we learn new things every day and the truth does indeed change.
Never stop learning.
 
Another one of Zelazny's greats: "This Immortal". Still my favorite, followed closely by "Lord of Light".
 
Yes, Zelazny's Amber series. I don't recall a satisfying conclusion, and a lot of repeat besides, but he gives you a good place to settle into and takes care of the reader along the way.

The Stars My Destination is the book that grabbed the imagination of Science Fiction writers. When you look at the date it was written and compare it to the pulp of that time you'll understand just what a bombshell was dropped.

Readers of the forum should know Dashell Hammet. And then we had Raymond Chandler step in and carry the torch. The Lady in the Lake and many more. His succesor was Elmore Leonard, if you really want to know the truth, advancing the concept of what a mystery was and could be.

I always liked Islands in the Stream, though Hemmingway did not.
One should read the first pages of Notes From the Underground by Dostoyevsky, even if you don't read him again. You need to read the Brother's Karamosoff (sic!)
To me, the universe these writers created was more important that just any one book. A book can rise or fall on it's merits; was it complete? Did the central issue resolve or was addressed to the satisfaction of the reader adn Art? But if a writer can create in his words a place you are content to experience, regardless of plot, or who did it, or if the character was developed more than cardboard, or if the book sold, then he has done his real job. If he reached your heart he made it. HI forum does this occasionally. That's why we come back. Like a good book, there are bad pages and good pages, places you'd rather not visit again, but overall it's worth your time simply to be there

A good book and HI forum; worth just being there, how it ends is unimportant. It doesn't end.

munk
 
A few years ago in a $5 discount bin at Santa Cruz Books I found a copy of "Down in the Zero" by Andrew Vachss. It was just out but had been relegated to the bin already for some reason. I stood in the end aisle and started reading it, took it home and finished it the next day. Over the next 6 months I read every one of the Vachss Burke novels, and they are some of the best written most riveting fiction novels I have ever read. Some of the titles are "Flood" (his first Burke novel), "Blue Belle", "Hard Candy", "Born Bad", "False Allegations", "Safe House", "Dead and Gone", "Down Here", "Only Child", "Pain Management", "Sacrifice", "Blossom", "Strega", "Hard Looks", "Footsteps of the Hawk", "Everybody Pays", "Choice of Evil", "The Getaway Man", etc.

The theme of most of the books centers around missing or abused children, but covers a wide area around that subject. Vachss is just one of those incredibly naturally gifted writers that sucks you in and you won't want to put the books down. It is definitely classified as "Vintage Crime Fiction", and if you like Chandler or Hammet or Spillane classics you will probably love this stuff.

I have space for two or possibly three more bookcases in my house, and then that's it, as I have been collecting books for over 30 years, a few every month, and building bookcases as I go, so I am getting much more selective now on what I bring into the library. I made room for Vachss right between the set of Ian Fleming James Bond and Joseph Wambaughs police novels.

Black Lizard Crime Books has a nice set of his work in trade paperback size, for only about $10 -$12 or so each.

Regards,

Norm

P.S. My favorite SF book of all time is "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" by Heinlein, although "Time Enough For Love" is a close second. My favorite short story of all time is probably "The Man Who Traveled In Elephants", also by Heinlein. I defy anyone with half a soul to not be in tears by the time they reach the end of that story, or at least be complaining about that piece of grit they got in their eye! (-:
 
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