Reading

[Rocker Kid]

OK people what the hell do you read? I like fiction, biographies/autobiographys, do it yourself, photographry books, non-fiction, just about everything. I'll give you guys a taste of what I like.

Night- Eli Wiesel
http://books.google.com/books?id=wf-mAAAACAAJ&dq=Night+Elie+Wiesel

This book is amazing... and true. This is a story of a man who lived through the Auchwitz (sp?) concentration camp in WWII at the age of 15. It's sick, scary, you'll feel like you're there with him. And you'll learn a lesson.

Desperation- Stephen King
http://books.google.com/books?id=SZn3AAAACAAJ&dq=Desperation
One of King's best novels. What happens when complete strangers are brought together to fight for their survival and fight somthing so horrible they could've never imagined it? Desperaton! Just read it...

Fire Starter- Stephen King
http://www.horrorking.com/firestarter.html
Charlie is a little girl who can start fires with her mind. She gets it from her parents who took an expieremental drug being tested by some sort of government agency known as "The Shop". After the Shop learns there is a little girl who can start fires they want her for their use and why not her parents as well?

Here's a couple books I want to read. I've heard good things about both.

How to be Sexy- Carmen Electra
http://books.google.com/books?id=NwsGAQAACAAJ&dq=how+to+be+sexy
I think I'm pretty sexy but who knows what I can learn form Carmen Electra. I've heard very good things about this book and I'd like to read it myself. Besides, she's pretty sexy herself so I think she'd know.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas- Hunter S.Thompson
http://books.google.com/books?id=HBi_AAAACAAJ&dq=fear+and+loathing+in+las+vegas
This book is supposed to be amazing. Two guys go to Las Vegas with a Cadillac and a rediculous amount of drugs in search of "the American dream" I've heard great things about this one so I can't wait to read this one.

[Heero Valentine]

last book i read was the da vinci code.
also the best book i've ever read.

don't really have the time to read, should start again though.

[Naysayer]

Fear and Loathing was a good book. Its a pity that thompson had to go and off himself a few years back. He was/is one of my favorite authors. He did have one of the coolest funerals I've ever heard about tho.

A guy I'm really into is Chuck Palahniuk. I've read almost all of his books. He wrote Fight Club which was later turned into a movie. My favorite book by him so far is Choke. It a story about a young sex addict who literally tries to kill himself every night in order to scam people out of money to pay for his mother's health care costs. He may also very well be the reincarnation of Christ.

Heres an excerpt from a book of his called Haunted. Its a collection of short stories all focusing on a central theme. This story is called Guts. Enjoy. http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/books/haunted/guts.php

[MontysDouble]

Uh- Heero, you're kidding about the Da Vinci Code right? I haven't read it, but if Angels and Demons is anything to go by Dan Brown is an utter hack...

The last book I read was Something Wicked This Way Comes. Classic, darkly poetic Bradbury. Awesome read.

I'm currently reading Homage to Catalonia which is about George Orwell's time fighting with the communists in the Spanish civil war.

[Snuff.]

Uh- Heero, you're kidding about the Da Vinci Code right? I haven't read it, but if Angels and Demons is anything to go by Dan Brown is an utter hack...

The last book I read was Something Wicked This Way Comes. Classic, darkly poetic Bradbury. Awesome read.

I'm currently reading Homage to Catalonia which is about George Orwell's time fighting with the communists in the Spanish civil war.

Spanish civil war? He fuckin' got around, didn't he?! :1orglaugh:

I've only read his "Down and out in Paris and London" biographical. The man's certainly seen some shit. And yes; Dan Brown's presence upon this planet is one that fills me with a rage so intense it pops my blood vessels worse than a case of Ebola.

If he's mentioned again I cannot be held responsible for my actions.

Fear and Loathing is a wonderful read. It's utterly misogynistic and appealed to me on a very deep level...not to mention his fuckin' nutter of an attorney! :1orglaugh:

Do a Wiki on Fear and Loathing and fill yourself in who his attorney actually was - it's well worth the read. It's just a damn shame the man couldn't have been more prolific.

I'm big into William Gibson - the man is a fuckin' visionary. I've read all his 'Sprawl' collection and have just started on "the Difference Engine" which he wrote in collaboration with Bruce Sterling.

[Vigil Ante]

Barely Legal.

[asdf]

I never been one fer gul-dang book learnin'.

[MontysDouble]

Gibson is a great writer- I have all of his books. Even tough he's not big on character development and his plots are like an action film, who cares? The worlds he creates are just filled with jaw droppers.

You'll like The Difference Engine Snuff.

[Heero Valentine]

Uh- Heero, you're kidding about the Da Vinci Code right? I haven't read it, but if Angels and Demons is anything to go by Dan Brown is an utter hack...

The last book I read was Something Wicked This Way Comes. Classic, darkly poetic Bradbury. Awesome read.

I'm currently reading Homage to Catalonia which is about George Orwell's time fighting with the communists in the Spanish civil war.

no seriously i really liked it :p i would rather believe his bullshit than bible's bullshit :1orglaugh:

[Cymru am byth]

The last book i read was Gordon Ramsey's autobiography Humble Pie, i thought i was a damn good read and it shows the work and determination he has put in to get where he is today and what a rough childhood he had.
I am currently about 1/2 way through Wolves of the Calla, the Dark Tower pt5 by Stephen King, i've got and read most of his books but the Dark Tower series is different to most of his other work.

[Snuff.]

I have all of his books. Even tough he's not big on character development and his plots are like an action film, who cares?

Hey, you can do that in a world with biological enhancement and neurological computer interfaces though, hey?

:1orglaugh:

You'll like The Difference Engine Snuff.

Aye, their research is pretty meticulous but...well, Dickens they aint.

:1orglaugh: Nice break from his usual prose in a sense, though - I must admit.

[Haseknumber39]

Auschwitz

thats what the sticker i got when i was there says

and its conveniantly located on the back of my phone :D

but yeah, if you go there, it just looks so much worse than in the the movies/tv/books etc.

Block 11 (or the death block), it was like hell on the inside

in the basement they had these rooms...5x5 ft or something...and they went to the full height of the room....but they used to put like 5 people in there for punishment...it was like hell

[Rocker Kid]

Oh man now I can't wait to read "Fear and Loathing"
Thanks for all the insight this topic is doing well.

But seriously you guys gotta read "Night" it's actually pretty short.

[Quackers]

New Harry Potter book out soon :o


Haha, i'm into fantasy mainly, Old Kingdom is my favourite series of books.

I've read Lord of the Rings 5 times and His Dark Materials countless times.

[jaba]

The Soldier's Return Melvyn Bragg - good old nostalgia and kitchen sink drama!
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian Marina Lewycka - unexpected gem absolutely had me in bits.

Biography's are a must! I'm also into Rebus novels (Ian Rankin) when I can't find much else lol.

Rogue Male Geoffrey Household - is a favourite of mine.

[tgd_02]

man
i wish i knew how ta fucking read

[Rocker Kid]

They didn't have "Fear and Loathing" at Half Price Books but they had a monstrous selection of Stephen King. I picked up "Night Shift" a collection of short stories. Can't wait to get started in the middle of the night.

[AllisterFiend]

I probably have every StephenKing book... lol

[Rocker Kid]

I probably have every StephenKing book... lol

Have you read them all? I don't own alot of books, I usually go to the library. :( I want a big bookshelf.

[Afronaught]

I'm a Fan of Tom Clancy and Fredrick Forsyth. Currently reading the Oddesa File again.

[Rocker Kid]

I'm a Fan of Tom Clancy and Fredrick Forsyth. Currently reading the Oddesa File again.

My brother always liked Clancy he's in the army now. I never liked war books very much. He still has some left behind in the house. I oughta send those to Germany for him.

[AllisterFiend]

Have you read them all?

oh hell no.

only read a couple... lol

[Rocker Kid]

oh hell no.

:1orglaugh: :1orglaugh: :1orglaugh: :1orglaugh:

[spunkyfistbisquit]

"Not hear? When noise was everywhere! it tolled
Increasing like a bell. Names in my ears
Of all the lost adventures, my peers-
How such a one was strong, and such was bold,
And such was fortunate, yet each of old
Lost, lost! one moment knelled the woe of years.

There they stood, ranged along the hillsides, met
To view the last of me, a living frame
For one more picture! In a sheet of flame
I saw them and I knew them all. And yet
Dauntless the slug-horn to my lips I set,
And blew. 'Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came.'
-Robert Browning

Fucking Steven King - made all those beatings from the Nuns while trying to read "Salem's Lot" worth it!

short sci fi stories ?- "Her Smoke Rose Up Forever" , James Tiptree, jr
vampire stuff? - Sanct Germaine series, Chelse Quinn Yarbro
politics? "The Fate of Africa", Martin Meredith
anthropolgy? "Guns, Germs, and Steel"
fantasy - Wheel of Time, Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, and LOTR!!!

ok - nuff said, indeed..........

[brownbearclan]

If you liked "Fear and Loathing" you'd also like "Where the Buffalo Roam" by the same author. -Hunter S. Thompson

Off the top of my head I remember reading a book that I couldn't put down and read in a couple days called "Treason" by Orson Scott Card. He's got a lot of other good books too if you like Sci-Fi Fantasy weird type stuff.

Also in that same type of genre, I have a couple friends who swear up and down that a series called "The Wheel of Time" by Robert Jordan kicks ass too. I haven't read it myself, but with how much I've heard people go on about it, it sounds good. I think it's got like a dozen books in the series lol.

[MightyTiny]

I've been reading books as long as I can remember. My usual pace is an average sized book (200-300 pages) in about 2 weeks. I'm definitely a book addict. :1orglaugh:

I read both fiction and non-fiction, perhaps 70% non-fiction, usually popular science titles.

Of the authors mentioned thus far, I kinda like Gibson, (Difference Engine was very original), even though Cyberpunk isn't my favourite genre.

Stephen King's dark tower series was a good read - not everybody likes the ending of the series, but I did.

Orson Scott Card's got some interesting books. Liked the Ender series.

Here's a few of my favourite books:

Non-fiction:

"A Mind of It's Own - How Our Brain Distorts and Deceives" by Cordelia Fine
One of the best, most entertaining, accessible, mind opening books about what goes on in that grey lump between our shoulders.

"Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom" and "The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution" by Sean B. Carroll"

These two books are the most lucid, accessible, beautiful and brilliant introductions into the new revolution happening in the understanding of life; Scientists have only recently begun to truly understand how genes actually work to develop an organism from a single cell to a full grown animal, or plant - and this new understanding has opened entirely new and exiting views into the history of those genes, in the history of evolution on Earth.


"Diving-Bell and the Butterfly" by Jean D Bauby
A remarkable book, written by a man paralyzed after an accident - and not just neck down, but COMPLETELY paralyzed, able to only blink his eye. The book was literally blinked into existence - he used a laborious system involving an assistant writing down the words one letter at a time, as indicated with eye blinks. The book is about his life, and how he perceives his world after the accident - it is inspiring, heartbraking, and a real page turner.

"Religion Explained: The Human Instincts That Fashion Gods, Spirits and Ancestors" by Pascal Boyer
One of the few books that I've ended up reading more than once. Full of insightful conclusions drawn from mountains of empirical data. Starts off by pretty much demolishing each common "arm chair philospher's" explanation for religion, by showing counter examples of religions that don't fulfill the criteria required by the explanations - and then goes on to a deep expose of human instincts, shows the deep connections and similarities shared by ALL religious traditions, and in the process, sheads unprecedented light on what makes us such an overwhealmingly religious species.

Fiction:

The Engineer trilogy by K.J. Parker
A new series not yet finished - the third book is due some time the end of this year. (the first book was "Devices and Desires" and the second was "Evil for Evil"). What's notable about this series is that it's a fantasy series WITHOUT magic, or supernatural elements. Very engaging writing too, good, epic plot.

The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett
Who doesn't know these books? A VERY big series of books, no need to read in order, though it is recommended that you read the "mini-series" sorted by theme (such as "guards", "witches", "gods") in order. The series has considerably improved with time - the later books are brilliant. If I had to name a favourite, it would probably be "Night Watch"

"The Cyberiad" and "The Star Diaries" Stanislaw Lem
These are collections of absurd satire - hilarious, insane, oddly entertaining. Do yourself a favour and read this example from "The Cyberiad". It's a short story called "How the World Was Saved":
http://www.lem.pl/cyberiadinfo/english/opowiadania/opowiadania7.htm

A teaser quote:
One day Trurl the constructor put together a machine that could create anything starting with n. When it was ready, he tried it out, ordering it to make needles, then nankeens and negligees, which it did, then nail the lot to narghiles filled with nepenthe and numerous other narcotics. The machine carried out his instructions to the letter. Still not completely sure of its ability, he had it produce, one after the other, nimbuses, noodles, nuclei, neutrons, naphtha, noses, nymphs, naiads, and natrium. 'This last it could not do, and Trurl, considerably irritated, demanded an explanation....

[AllisterFiend]

Desperation- Stephen King
http://books.google.com/books?id=SZn...dq=Desperation (http://books.google.com/books?id=SZn3AAAACAAJ&dq=Desperation)
One of King's best novels. What happens when complete strangers are brought together to fight for their survival and fight somthing so horrible they could've never imagined it? Desperaton! Just read it...

You have the right to remain silent. If you are not silent, anything you say can be held against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. I am going to kill you. Do you understand these rights as I have explained them to you?

:1orglaugh:

[spunkyfistbisquit]

I got arrested by a cop like that - he hit me with a flashlight!

Phiilp Jose Farmer - "To your scattered bodies go."

[Rocker Kid]

You have the right to remain silent. If you are not silent, anything you say can be held against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. I am going to kill you. Do you understand these rights as I have explained them to you?

:1orglaugh:



That scared the hell out of me after I laughed.

[AllisterFiend]

Yeah, that was probably the only time I've read a book that a part actually scared me lol

[Rocker Kid]

Yeah, that was probably the only time I've read a book that a part actually scared me lol

Yeah it all gets even crazier.
That part never fails to give me the creeps... You might find some other parts very scary as it goes on.

[AllisterFiend]

I finished Desperation in three days.

Now I gotta finish the rest... lol... I found the rest of my Stephen King books... :xyxthumbs:

http://img105.imageshack.us/img105/5944/0621070015ol4.jpg

[Rocker Kid]

Well, "Pet Semetary" is sort of boring....

I dunno.... I always heard "The Dead Zone" is a classic...

[Axis]

Cormac McCarthy.