Need A Book To Read

Off Topic
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[quote]Flop Hat wrote:
I just finished reading freakonomics. I thought it was pretty good. I would certainly like to get a better understanding of economics after reading it.
[/quote]
Read that book also and loved it; however, don’t know if it really has anythting to do with economics just being able to answer social issue questions from an economists perspective.

What are you interested in? There are a few good science books out without too much jargon and little mathematical rigor. “A Short History of Nearly Everything”, by Bill Bryson; “The God Particle”, by Leon Lederman; “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman”, by R. Feynman, R. Leighton (Very Funny); “Jarhead”, by Anthony Swofford (Funny, but not meant to be!)

22

Death of Ivan Ilyich-Tolstoy

On the nature of life and death.

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The Tipping Point and The World Is Flat are both good reads (if you liked Freakanomics).

In terms of fiction, I’m a big fan of Craig Clevenger who wrote ‘The Contortionist’s Handbook’.

-Nate

24

“The Jansen Directive” by Robert Ludlum. Awesome read, but it’s LONG.

DB

25

Robert Caro’s set of Bios on Lyndon Johnson are absolutely amazing. If you can only read one, read Master of the Senate, but Means of Ascent was also tremendous.

Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink was also enjoyable.

Recent Pulitzer winner, The Known World, by Edward P. Jones, is a great novel on black ownership of slaves in the 1840’s … .reminded me a bit of Faulkner

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  1. 1984
  2. A Prayer for Owen Meany
  3. Star Wars: Shatterpoint
  4. The Heart of Darkness
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[quote]frisbee wrote:
For history, I liked “Flyboys: A True Story of Courage” by James Bradley.

Tells the story of 9 airmen that were shot down on a Japanese island. (one of them was rescued. His name is George Bush)

Good read.[/quote]

I have this one in the pile next to my chair.

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“The Devil’s Cup” - an engaging history of the world and coffee.

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Some good suggestions on here that I will be picking up, I am starting to read a lot more non fiction, so some of these sound great.

Some good books that I have enjoyed lately

‘Conspiracy of Fools’ by Kurt Eichenwald. About the rise and fall of Enron. Written almost like a novel. Great book.

I like several of John Feinstein’s books as well, although I was disappointed in his latest about the NFL. ‘Next man up’. It was worth reading, but a little stale and repetitive.

I have also enjoyed the ‘Pray’ series by John Sanford.

Has anyone read ‘The Davinci Code’? I hear thats a pretty good read.

30

Stories:
“The Mahabharata” by Krishna Dharma
“The Ramayana” by Krishna Dharma
“The Masnavi, Book 1” trans. Jawid Mojaddedi
“Don Quixote” by Miguel Cervantes
“Catch-22” by Joseph Heller
“Requiem for a Dream” by Hubert Selby Jr.
anything by Kurt Vonnegut

Non-Storylined:
“Tao Te Ching” trans. Gia-Fu Feng
“The Way of Chuang Tzu” trans. Thomas Merton
“The Sacred Pipe” by Joseph Epes Brown
“The Upanishads” trans. Swami Prabhavanada and Frederick Manchester
“Bhagavad-Gita” trans. Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood
pictorial presentations of Eastern philosophy by Tsai Chih Chung
“Meister Eckhart” trans. Raymond B. Blakney
“The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” trans. Edward Fitzgerald
“The Universe is a Green Dragon” by Briane Swimme
“The Naked Ape” and “The Human Zoo” by Desmond Morris

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Anything by Ann Coulter.

Brilliant, witty, shocking,…

Many on the Left think she’s a fascist, so if you love controversy…

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“The Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown-you won’t be able to put it down.
“Angels and Demons” by Dan Brown-you won’t be able to put it down.
“Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand-lots of interesting ideas. A little lengthy though (1000+ pages).
“Rainbow Six” by Tom Clancy-another page-turner.

33

Night by Elie Wiesel

The Brothers K by David James Duncan

I also agree with whoever said A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. Even though it may not be fully accurate, it was still an excellent read.

Memoirs of a Geisha was also a pretty good book…especially since I knew nothing about the life of Geishas. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but I hear the book is much better.

34

World is Flat is great.

Atlas Shrugged is an absolute bore. IMHO, her best work is probably Fountainhead.

Freakonomics sucked. Was incredibly boring. Blink was pretty bad too.

If you just like spare economics reading, reading the Economist is awesome. If nothing else, look at the article titles and the pictures they draw.

35

A Pirate Of Exquisite Mind, by Diana and Michael Preston.
-This is the story of William Dampier, who was extraordinary.

Dead Man’s Chest by Roger L. Johnson
-The sequel to Tresure Island, a really fun read.

Under The Black Flag, by David Cordingly
-Pirate life.

Women Sailors and Sailor’s Women, by David Cordingly
-Chicks at sea!

I dig pirates! :wink:

The Black Prince, by Henry Dwight Sedgwick

The Master’s of Rome series, by Colleen McCullough.

Some of the Wilbur Smith books, Bird’s of Prey, and The Seventh Scroll. These are throw away’s but enjoyable.

All the James Clavell, but especially Shogun

Shibumi, by Trevannian. This isn’t historical, but a great read.

36

Try “The End of Faith” by Sam Harris (no relation).

It’s about how the basic structure of religion is antithetical to reason and society. Well thought out and entertaining.

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“The Chronicles of Master Li & Number 10 Ox” Barry Hughart - nice, humorous read set in mythical China. A page turner.

38

i didnt get my money worth on this book.

[quote]SASQUATCH99 wrote:
anything by Hunter S Thompson is preety crazy. I also just finished “Romo” by Bill Romonasoki, That book definetly changed my outlook on some things, Mainly the fact that 99.9% of men besides romo are pussies. Including me. [/quote]

39

Two books I read recently and really enjoyed:

Oswald’s Tale by Norman Mailer
It is about Lee Harvey Oswald, especially his time in the USSR

A Deadly Game by Catherine Crier
It is a behind the scenes look at the Scott Peterson Case. I could not put it down.

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Stranger in a strange land - heinlein
Friday - heinlein
Enders Game - o.S. Card
Inca’s Gold - Cussler
Harry Potter - Rowling