Bruno Bettelheim: The Informed Heart.
From the backsleeve of my copy: In 1938-9, BB spent a year in the concentration camps of Dachau and Buchenwald. In order to keep alive and remain human, he began to analyse his own behaviour and everyone around him.
J.G.Ballard: Empire of the sun.
Much, much better than the movie.
[quote]invictaWW wrote:
a brief history of everything, ken wilber
Can anyone shed some more light on this one?
Does it go through the times, from major civilization to major civilization?
I am under the impression that the Bill Bryson book does not, correct?
Thanks for the help,
Tucker
Shogun by James Clavell although his other books never really lived up to this one.
non fiction? couln’t tell ya… tend to like my escapism,
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.
Yossarian is a pilot in WWII, chaos insues. I guess the book made me realize that life is just as fucking crazy as it appears. Things don’t always have to make sense.
“Classic Feynman: All the Adventures of a Curious Character”
a compilation of the best Feynman stories. For those that don’t know Feynman was one of the Los Alamos boys during the development of the atomic bomb. He’s truly a unique character.
La’
Redsol1
I have a literary hard-on for Harlan Coben books lately-I’m finishing his last one this week, I think I’ve read all 13 in about 7 weeks.
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. One of those books that just shakes you to your very core.
[quote]Donut62 wrote:
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.
Yossarian is a pilot in WWII, chaos insues. I guess the book made me realize that life is just as fucking crazy as it appears. Things don’t always have to make sense.[/quote]
It also made me read with the novel in one hand a frickin’ dictionary in the other.
If that book doesn’t expand your vocabulary, nothing will.
-Nate
“The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century” by Thomas L. Friedman.
I had to read it for one of my management courses, very good book and a good read. It talks about globalization, the changes it is causing, and the opportunities it is creating. I highly recommend it, especially to anyone who works for a global company or someone who is entrepreneurial and has their own business.
If you like good war stories then I highly recommend:
A Rumor of War
By Philip Caputo
It’s an amazing first person account of the Vietnam War. Caputo, a Pulitzer Prize winner, was a Marine Corps 1st Lieutenant during the Vietnam War. His experience is unique, because not only was he a “grunt” during his tour of duty in the late 1960s, but he later returned to Vietnam as a reporter to cover America’s withdrawal from Vietnam.
IMO, the most eloquently written book on Vietnam ever written. The level of detail is simply amazing.
If you like good war stories then I highly recommend:
A Rumor of War
By Philip Caputo
It’s an amazing first person account of the Vietnam War. Caputo, a Pulitzer Prize winner, was a Marine Corps 1st Lieutenant during the Vietnam War. His experience is unique, because not only was he a “grunt” during his tour of duty in the late 1960s, but he later returned to Vietnam as a reporter to cover America’s withdrawal from Vietnam.
IMO, the most eloquently written book on Vietnam ever written. The level of detail is simply amazing.
Chuck Yeagers’ autobiography is always inspiring to me. I it read once a year or so.
In Cold Blood by Capote is naturally an American Classic, but that book still holds up in my opinion.
The rise of Theodore Roosevelt
and
Theodore rex. - Both by Edmund Morris.
Simply the greatest president in US history.
Starship Troopers- Robert Heinlein
The movie has nothing to do w/ the book.
The book is a classic.
The Folly of Empire- John Judis
Crucial reading for today.
Rogue Warrior- Red cell - Richard Marcinko.
Just a fun read. CounterTerrorist Thriller.
Other good ones are:
1984 - The novel that every human everywhere needs to read on principle.
Monster: The autobiography of an LA Gang Member- Sanyika Shakur, aka Kody Scott- fantastic book about growing up in the ghetto.
A Drinking Life- Journalist Pete Hamill’s autobiography
Crime and Punishment- Seminal work by Dostoyevsky.
Hell’s Angels- Hunter S. Thompson travels with the Angels in the Sixties
On the Road - Jack Kerouac. The Bible of a generation.
Where’s the Hemingway so far? A definite read for any T-man. I just read Farewell to Arms and I read The Sun Also Rises a few years back. Both are phenomenal books and really capture the feel of the decades they describe. Farewell to Arms is considered the defining book on WW I.
Hemingway truly shines with his short stories. My two favorite are “The Snows of Kilimanjaro” and “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”. They’re both about accepting death as a part of life, and through that acceptance becoming a greater person. Truly phenomenal writing, delivered in Hemingway’s terse style that drives the point home (did that sound enough like a prick literary critic to you?).
For other good books, Confessions of an Economic Hitman by John Perkins is a great book about America’s imperialist economic strategy. A little preachy, but good. My favorite survival story is Between a Rock and a Hard Place, the story of the climber who cut off his arm when it was trapped under a boulder. 1984 and Catch 22 are my favorite all around novels, they both just make you think about the world. Also, Catch 22 is one of the few books I’ve ever actually laughed out loud at. But speaking of funny books, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is the funniest ever written.
God’s Debris is a rather thought provoking book. It’s a fictional theory on how the universe was created, among other things. I can’t say too much about it without ruining the story.
[quote]Devil0351Dog wrote:
Perhaps the best book I’ve read is “Fields of Fire” by James Webb. Not only is it an excellent account of the Vietnam War but in my opinion it sheds a light on the Iraq War as well. Further, it’s a story about service and sacrifice that should make all of us think.
DD [/quote]
I loved that book as well. One of my favorites.
“Gates of Fire” by Steven Pressfield another of my top books.
Other books that I’ve read that I thought were interesting are “Stolen Valor” by BG Burkett and “Pornified” by Pamela Paul.
Was anyone a fan of Jim Kjelgaard? I remember reading a lot of his books when I was young. Big Red, Irish Red, Outlaw Red, Haunt Fox, Lion Hound, Wild Trek…they were all so good to me back then.
Amen to Starship Troopers
If you wanna get hyped to slay some Persians: Gates of Fire by Stephen Pressfield
The baddest mofo ever written about on paper Druss the Axeman–Legend by David Gemmel --Always the indominable spirit and unconquerable(sp) Will of man.
“A man needs many things in his life tomake it bearable. A good woman. sons and daughters. Comradeship. Warmth. Food and shelter. But above all these things he needs to be ableto know that he is a man.
And what is a man? He is someone who riseswhen life has knocked himdown. He is someone who raises his fist toheaven when a storm has ruined his crop-andthen plants again. And again. A man remains unbroken by the savage twists of fate.
That man may never win. But when he sees himself reflected, he can be proud ofwhathe sees. For low he may be in the scheme of things: peasant,serf, or dispossesssed. But he is unconquerable
And what is death? An end to trouble. An end to strife and fear.
…I have seen many men die. And women, too. In the main, they died proud”
Ohhh…and a little more on the literate side
Candide by Voltaire
The Stranger by Camus
Haruin and the Sea of Stories by Salmon Rushdie
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Obedience to Authority by Milgram is really good.
Nietzsche’s Genealogy of Morality is very thought provoking.
It’s hard to find a more fun book than Catch 22, but Infinite Jest by Wallace might be the closest.
I liked White Noise by Delillo a lot, and Melville’s short stories (Bartleby, Benito Cereno) are all excellent.