[quote]Bchamp wrote:
If you’re a dog lover, “Marley and Me” by John Grogan.[/quote]
Also try “Where the red fern grows” by Wilson Rawls
However my favorite series of all time, would def have to be “The legend of Drizzt” by R.A. Salvatore, yeah its where I got my name. If your a Lord of the Rings or fantasy junkie like me, then you’ll love Salvatores work.
[quote]the_overman wrote:
Iron Dwarf wrote:
Cormac McCarthey’s Pulitzer Prize winning, “The Road”.
If you’re a dad who has a son, it will especially touch you.
I’m reading this. It’s great.
You need to have some appreciation for minimalism though. If you go through it expect something to “happen” you may be disappointed.[/quote]
Exactly.
[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
Cormac McCarthey’s Pulitzer Prize winning, “The Road”.
If you’re a dad who has a son, it will especially touch you.[/quote]
I’m still getting over the trauma of reading ‘The Road’ and ‘Blood Meridian’, a book that really proves just when you think things aren’t going to get any worse: they do!
Really an excellent, exciting read.
I can also recommend Richard Price’s “The Wanderers” which is about a teenage street gang in Brooklyn, set during the 50’s.
“Glass Books of the Dreameaters” (apologies, I can’t remember the author’s name) is an 18th Century-set tale of Sherlock Holmes-esque mystery, very good.
If you want to fuck with someones head this Xmas I can advise a good Magnus Mills book - they are kinda a literal practical joke. “Explorers of the New Century” or “The Restraint of Beasts” are the best two I read.
[quote]Drizzt wrote:
However my favorite series of all time, would def have to be “The legend of Drizzt” by R.A. Salvatore, yeah its where I got my name. If your a Lord of the Rings or fantasy junkie like me, then you’ll love Salvatores work.[/quote]
Hey Drizzt, if you like fantasy fiction check out George RR Martins “Game of Thrones” books, a good read. Let me know what you think if you read them, chief.
[quote]hoosegow wrote:
I have been reading chuck palahniuk lately. The characters have no redeaming qualities. Choke was good and Hauted was full of vile people. Diary was okay. I finished all three in about four weeks. They are fairly easy reads.
I also just got through reading John Paul Evans’s The Letter. I wouldn’t recommend it and am kind of ashamed to admit I read it.[/quote]
If you are in to leading characters totally devoid of redeamning features (ie real people), try Irvine Walsh’s “Filth”, it takes thirty pages to get used to the language, but it’s worth it.
It’s a story about the most disgusting, corrupt, foul Scottish detective in the middle of a murder investigation.
Some of the book is narrated by his tapeworms. Better than any fucking, babbling dog … …
[quote]IvanDmitritch wrote:
xXSeraphimXx wrote:
I also read “The Road” a while back and though it was good I do not think it is the literary masterpiece many people make it out to be.
In my opinion, the only literary masterpiece McCarthy has written is Blood Meridian. Compared to it, The Road is 5th rate. If not for Opera’s endorsement, I doubt The Road would be so praised.
I can’t speak highly enough of Blood Meridian. I first heard about it a number of years ago while watching an interview with literary critic Herold Bloom. He said the following about the novel:
"…if you read your way into the cosmos of the
book, then you are rewarded. You get an extraordinary landscape. You get an extraordinary visionary intensity of personality and character.
You get a great vision, a frightening vision of what is indeed something very deeply embedded in the American spirit, in the American psyche. And the more you read the book, I find, the more you will be
able to read the book.
It is–it’s as close, I think, to being the American prose epic as one can find, more perhaps even than Faulkner, though there are individual books by Faulkner like “As I Lay Dying,” which are perhaps of even higher aesthetic quality and originality than “Blood Meridian.”
But I think you would have to go back to “Moby Dick” for an American epic that fully compares to “Blood Meridian.”
Every time this topic comes up, I say the same thing, but if you haven’t yet, read Blood Meridian – it is one of the best American novels ever written.
[/quote]
Here, here.
How fucked up is the bit where they take over the ferry crossing?
Even if you don’t like poetry, checkout Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins. He’s a 2-term U.S. Poet Laureate that writes poems about Victoria’s Secret catalogues among other non-typical poetry stuff.
[quote]Wrel wrote:
Drizzt wrote:
However my favorite series of all time, would def have to be “The legend of Drizzt” by R.A. Salvatore, yeah its where I got my name. If your a Lord of the Rings or fantasy junkie like me, then you’ll love Salvatores work.
Hey Drizzt, if you like fantasy fiction check out George RR Martins “Game of Thrones” books, a good read. Let me know what you think if you read them, chief.[/quote]
I’ll look into it, thanks for the recommendation.
[quote]Wrel wrote:
IvanDmitritch wrote:
xXSeraphimXx wrote:
I also read “The Road” a while back and though it was good I do not think it is the literary masterpiece many people make it out to be.
In my opinion, the only literary masterpiece McCarthy has written is Blood Meridian. Compared to it, The Road is 5th rate. If not for Opera’s endorsement, I doubt The Road would be so praised.
I can’t speak highly enough of Blood Meridian. I first heard about it a number of years ago while watching an interview with literary critic Herold Bloom. He said the following about the novel:
"…if you read your way into the cosmos of the
book, then you are rewarded. You get an extraordinary landscape. You get an extraordinary visionary intensity of personality and character.
You get a great vision, a frightening vision of what is indeed something very deeply embedded in the American spirit, in the American psyche. And the more you read the book, I find, the more you will be
able to read the book.
It is–it’s as close, I think, to being the American prose epic as one can find, more perhaps even than Faulkner, though there are individual books by Faulkner like “As I Lay Dying,” which are perhaps of even higher aesthetic quality and originality than “Blood Meridian.”
But I think you would have to go back to “Moby Dick” for an American epic that fully compares to “Blood Meridian.”
Every time this topic comes up, I say the same thing, but if you haven’t yet, read Blood Meridian – it is one of the best American novels ever written.
Here, here.
How fucked up is the bit where they take over the ferry crossing?[/quote]
Seriously. And how 'bout the part right after that? When Glanton returns to the ferry and finds the Judge doing his best Brando-Apocalypse-Now impersonation. The naked Mexican girl running around with a rawhide collar on, the doctor gone nuts and mumbling to hinself, and the idot (remember that creepy bastard) drunk and dancing. All the while the Judge strolling around in a flowing robe, naked underneath.
[quote]Wrel wrote:
hoosegow wrote:
I have been reading chuck palahniuk lately. The characters have no redeaming qualities. Choke was good and Hauted was full of vile people. Diary was okay. I finished all three in about four weeks. They are fairly easy reads.
I also just got through reading John Paul Evans’s The Letter. I wouldn’t recommend it and am kind of ashamed to admit I read it.
If you are in to leading characters totally devoid of redeamning features (ie real people), try Irvine Walsh’s “Filth”, it takes thirty pages to get used to the language, but it’s worth it.
It’s a story about the most disgusting, corrupt, foul Scottish detective in the middle of a murder investigation.
Some of the book is narrated by his tapeworms. Better than any fucking, babbling dog … … [/quote]
If you’re recommending Irvine Welsh, someone’s gotta say Trainspotting.
AN ARSONISTS GUIDE TO WRITERS HOMES IN NEW ENGLAND brock clarke. was a hilarious and poignant book
I too just finished “THE ROAD” cormac mccarthy. I liked it
The history of love
was also a great book.
I love to read. maybe Ill get some ideas from this thread!
[quote]lpb wrote:
Can we get an idea on what those books are about? and WHY you recommend them?[/quote]
God’s Demon by Wayne Barlow-A Demon(Fallen Angel) in Hell wants to be redeemed and return to Heaven.
Musashi by Eiji Yoshokawa-Musashi’s search for the “Way of The Sword”. It is a direct translation from Japanese so the way things are done and the way people act will mistify some. A must read for practioners of Kendo.
Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn-A look at Stalin’s Russia and the police stste and prison system by a former prisoner. A man just vanished while with his wife at a train station. He reappeared 10 years later on her doorstep.
Lord of The Barnyard:Killing the Fatted Calf and Arming the Aware in the Cornbelt by Tristan Egolf-Just a hell of a story. He was compared to Céline when the novel was published in France.
Hungry Ghosts:Mao’s Secret Famine by Jasper Becker- The starvation of over 30 million during “The Great Leap Forward”.
Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI by Robert K. Ressler- The man that coined the term serial killer and his carreer. Interviews and insights such as what Bundy did to his victims days after he killed them.
Wolfgang Gullich:A Life in the Vertical by Tillman Hepp-A look at the life of the first man to climb 5.14
series(first book in series)
March Upcountry by David Weber and John Ringo-The Empire of Man series. Military sci-fi by former military men. As good as any I have ever read. Both are great stand alone authors or collaborating with others.
Something from the Nightside by Simon Green-The Nightside series. Great fantasy with characters like Shotgun Suzie(also know as"oh God it’s her run!")the bounty hunter and Razor Eddie, the Punk God of the Straight Razor.
The Shaman Sings by James D. Doss-Charlie Moon Mysteries. Mystery fiction. Tribal investigator Charlie Moon, his aunt Daisy Perika, a Ute Shaman.
Storm Front by Jim Butcher-The Dresden Chronicals. nuff said!
WHY?
I’m not getting into a deep philosophical discussion as the reason I recommend them is simple. I enjoyed every one!
I like the science fiction HYPERION series by Dan Simmons.
1- Hyperion
2- The Fall Of Hyperion
3- Endymion
4- The Rise Of Endymion
Time Ships by Stephen Baxter is a great book.
I read the first two of the Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra) before I left the third (That Hideous Strength) in my parents’ Yukon over Thanksgiving break.
Then I bought The Glass Castle at a random New Hampshire Hannaford’s, and got through five chapters before I left it in the Manchester airport.
I’m pissed because both were great. I’m so damn ditzy I wouldn’t remember I had arms if they weren’t part of my body.
Good thing for local Half-Price Books. 
[quote]hoosegow wrote:
I have been reading chuck palahniuk lately. The characters have no redeaming qualities. Choke was good and Hauted was full of vile people. Diary was okay. I finished all three in about four weeks. They are fairly easy reads.
[/quote]
Yes! Chuck is the man. The stories in Haunted were some of the best I have ever read.
I’d say Survivor is my favorite… oooo weee, wait… Fight Club!
–
I have recently just finished reading Night/Dawn/Day by Elie Wiesel. Wow. Talk about Perspective.
1984 by George Orwell. Some more perspective.
Awareness by Anthony De Mello. This is the ultimate book on observing ego (any dr paul fans here?). Such a life-changing book.
Change Your Brain, Change Your Life by Daniel Amen. After reading this, its hard for me to place judgement on anyone. “We” are after all, just our brain (undeserving) and our evironmental conditioning (undeserving).
–
I start on On The Road by Jack Kerouac tomorrow.
Hey, among my favorite movies are the Stone Cold series which are based on the books by Robert Parker. (With Tom Selleck: Night Passage, etc.) Usually I read books before the movies, but I’d never heard of these. Has anyone read them? The movies are great, so I’m assuming the books must be excellent as well.
How fucked up is the bit where they take over the ferry crossing?
Seriously. And how 'bout the part right after that? When Glanton returns to the ferry and finds the Judge doing his best Brando-Apocalypse-Now impersonation. The naked Mexican girl running around with a rawhide collar on, the doctor gone nuts and mumbling to hinself, and the idot (remember that creepy bastard) drunk and dancing. All the while the Judge strolling around in a flowing robe, naked underneath. [/quote]
Ha ha. I’d almost forgotten about that. Insane, deranged, brilliant.
I read the part about the mules and the village massacre when I was sleeping outdoors while lambing a couple of years ago. I think it was starting to get to me at that point. Have you read the “Child of God”?
That shits pretty fucked up as well, a hillbilly living in caves, whilst cross dressing and being an incest voyeur: another well rounded McCarthy character!
[quote]Vicomte wrote:
Wrel wrote:
hoosegow wrote:
I have been reading chuck palahniuk lately. The characters have no redeaming qualities. Choke was good and Hauted was full of vile people. Diary was okay. I finished all three in about four weeks. They are fairly easy reads.
I also just got through reading John Paul Evans’s The Letter. I wouldn’t recommend it and am kind of ashamed to admit I read it.
If you are in to leading characters totally devoid of redeamning features (ie real people), try Irvine Walsh’s “Filth”, it takes thirty pages to get used to the language, but it’s worth it.
It’s a story about the most disgusting, corrupt, foul Scottish detective in the middle of a murder investigation.
Some of the book is narrated by his tapeworms. Better than any fucking, babbling dog … …
If you’re recommending Irvine Welsh, someone’s gotta say Trainspotting.[/quote]
Yep, Trainspotting credits a mention and defo worth a read -I just think Filth (and even Porno) have more dirty laughs.
Dont know if any of you have seen this but if you read a lot this would really come in handy and help conserve shelf space.
Its just $100-$150 north of what I would pay for it but I would still really like to have one. Could have used it last night when I finished reading my book and had nothing else to read.