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Books you'd recommend and why - 7/20/2007 5:34:53 AM   
Level


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Status: offline 		If someone asked you to recommend some books to them, what would it be? Why?

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RE: Books you'd recommend and why - 7/20/2007 5:50:12 AM   
sublimelysensual


Posts: 298
Joined: 7/25/2005
Status: offline 		This is a hard one for me, because I read constantly. Some all time favorites would have to be "Watership Down" - makes me think and I discover new elements every time I read it; "The Shining"..I've read it at least 15 times, and it still scares me out of my wits every time, the same goes for "It". Actually pretty much anything from King or Koontz, I love description as well, and both are very good for painting a mental picture. I have a lot of authors that I keep up with, wait from new books from, maybe should save them for another thread.
    The book I just finished was "Challenger Park" by Stephen Harrigan, it's new and one I would highly recommend, fiction based around the space program. Don't want to give away too much, but it was one I read in two days because I kept coming back to it when I should have been doing other things, lol.
   Non-fiction, I read mostly humor..Dave Barry is great, as is Tim Allen, believe it or not. Andy Rooney..all of them have a sarcastic bent, which I love and never fails to make me laugh. All right, enough out of me, I guess...
 
-a

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RE: Books you'd recommend and why - 7/20/2007 5:50:48 AM   
ripples


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Status: offline 		The Constant Gardner - John LeCarre; because it's beautifully written, a great story (that's based on fact), very humbling and makes for great brain food.

Anything by Terry Pratchett; because they're not only very witty, but draw many clever comparisons to this world that can make you see things very differently.

Love in the time of Cholera - Gabriel García Márquez; again, beautifully written with great imagery.

We must talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver; dark, thought provoking and superbly constructed as is her other 'Double Fault'.

Gormenghast trilogy - Mervyn Peake; wonderful imagery and a great story.

I love books.... too many to choose from!





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RE: Books you'd recommend and why - 7/20/2007 6:16:20 AM   
Aileen68


Posts: 6091
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Status: offline 		I tend to like strange books.
Haunted by Palahniuk
Perfume by Patrick Suskind

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RE: Books you'd recommend and why - 7/20/2007 7:23:23 AM   
TheHeretic


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Status: offline 		Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig (?)

The Great Shark Hunt by Hunter Thompson

Rivethead by Ben Hamper

The True Believer by Eric Hoffer 

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RE: Books you'd recommend and why - 7/20/2007 7:51:46 AM   
KatyLied


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Status: offline 		Anything by John Irving, I enjoy the dysfunction of his characters.

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RE: Books you'd recommend and why - 7/20/2007 7:57:37 AM   
windchymes


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Joined: 4/18/2005
Status: offline 		It depends on who I'm recommending to.  (Edited because I forgot the 'why?' part of the OP )

To another female who is just looking for a great summer romantic-type read, then I'd recommend the Chesapeake Bay series by Nora Roberts.  Great ongoing story series, compassionate, where the main characters are men rather than women.  About an old retired college professor and his pediatrician wife who take in three and then a fourth runaway boy and give them second chances at a good life.  I found myself totally in love with all the characters and drove right to the bookstore after reading the first one and bought all the others in the series.

For the action/adventure type, anything by Clive Cussler.  Because I like marine archaeology, and there is a lot of action in his plots.

For plot-twisting mystery, Honeymoon by James Patterson. 

For self-help-here's-a-reality-check, He's Just Not That Into You by Greg Berendt.   Good, down-to-earth advice.  Yeah, he's kind of a weenie on tv, but the book was pretty good.

< Message edited by windchymes -- 7/20/2007 8:05:18 AM >

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RE: Books you'd recommend and why - 7/20/2007 8:33:04 AM   
RCdc


Posts: 8674
Status: offline 		Lines in the Sand - Thomas A Ohanian (Amazing, graphic, beautiful)
 
My Name is Asher Lev - Chaim Potok (Well written, powerful, thoughtful)
 
Maximum Ride Series - James Patterson (The books just ROCK- especially recommended if you are a Harry Potter fan)
 
Where the wild things are - Maurice Sendak (reminds me of my childhood)
 
The Stinky Cheesman and other fairly stupid tales by Jon Scieszka (Makes me smile and laugh outloud and is great for putting off the grandpartents when the children relate it)
 
Lady Cottingtons Pressed Fairy Book -  Terry Jones & Brian Froud (Beautiful art, great concept)
 
Anything by Tagore and Rumi. (Stunning thoughtful writings)
 
Harry Potter (of course... ) (Coz I am a HP tart)
 
And anything by My Boy! (Say no more - it rocks, he is a bloody impressive writer and his photography puts you in the place it is taken)
 
Peace
the.dark.

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RE: Books you'd recommend and why - 7/20/2007 8:48:14 AM   
Alumbrado


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Status: offline 		Any of Harlan Ellison's bitter, sarcastic stuff.

Any of H.L. Mencken's bitter, sarcastic stuff.

Dick Gregory's bitter, sarcastic stuff.

Sam Clemen's bitter, sarcastic stuff.



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RE: Books you'd recommend and why - 7/20/2007 8:55:57 AM   
DominicsJoy


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Status: offline 		Harlan Ellison is a good and funny read, but a very abrasive individual in person. I beleive his best work (if you can find it) was Superman, Man of Steel- woman of kleenex. Done as a short story and part of an anthology about alien sex... this is a great piece of work for the average deviant mind. Part of it describes how lonely our hero must be because if he is truly the superhuman being he is touted to be than any contact with Lois and he would blow her brains out...  (and his sperm would continue to encircle the globe making holes in everything they encounter). Bless him. He makes me smile.

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RE: Books you'd recommend and why - 7/20/2007 9:02:50 AM   
Alumbrado


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Status: offline 		I think that was Larry Niven's story

ETA:  Yeah,  Harlan contributed 'How's the Nightlife on Cissalda' to the Alien Sex collection. 

< Message edited by Alumbrado -- 7/20/2007 9:05:27 AM >

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RE: Books you'd recommend and why - 7/20/2007 2:08:56 PM   
SDFemDom4cuck


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Status: offline 		Depends on whether the reader wants to think or is just interested in a good story.
 
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. A childhood book but one that still make me think about perception, belief and reality.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee also deals with perceptions and beliefs.

Anything by David Sedaris or Geirge Carlin for funny and intellectual.

Anything by Mitch Albom to remind me to appreciate those in my life.

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne all about positive thought and creating your own reality.

Exit to Eden by Anne Rice. Just because I love the book. Love and BDSM coexist. Favorite quote within it would have to be...
"Each of us has within him a dark chamber where real desires flower; and the horror of it is that they never see the light of another's understanding, those strange blooms. It is as lonely as it is dark, that chamber of the heart."

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RE: Books you'd recommend and why - 7/20/2007 2:50:02 PM   
BitaTruble


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From: Texas
Status: offline 		Totally dependant upon genre, but some of my favorites are:

Stranger in a Strange Land: Heinlein

Split Infinity and Blue Adept:  Anthony

I'll second To Kill a Mockingbird
 
The Stand: King

Crime and Punishment: Dostoevsky

A Tale of Two Cities: Dickens

The Topping Book and The Bottoming Book: Easton and Liszt

The Catcher in the Rye: Salinger

To many more to list, but those are off the top of my head. Of course, I could also list all the great graphic novels, but it would make my head hurt.

Celeste

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RE: Books you'd recommend and why - 7/20/2007 5:54:59 PM   
slaveluci


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From: Little Rock, AR
Status: offline 		Fiction I would recommend because it gives me goosebumps and/or brings tears to my eyes:
*"Grapes of Wrath" - John Steinbeck.  The ending scene of this book is perhaps the most hopeful of any novel I've ever read. 
*Anything by Thomas Hardy but especially "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" and "The Mayor of Casterbridge."  Hardy wrote soap opera plots in the 1800's!
*Anything by Carson McCullers.  She makes me feel like I'm right there in her stories.
*Anything by James Lee Burke, especially the Dave Robicheaux series.  I love them all but "Purple Cane Road" is the absolute best.
*"Gentleman Junkie" by Harlan Ellison.  A collection of short stories that never gets old.  I've read them over and over and they grab me each time.

Nonfiction.  I love nonfiction and there are so many but here are some that I've read over and over.  I love them because they are either so touching or I learned so much from them:
*"Shot In The Heart" - Mikal Gilmore.  Written by Gary Gilmore's youngest brother (who also wrote for "Rolling Stone" magazine), this bio of their life growing up is unforgettable. 
*"The Glass Castle" - Jeannette Walls.  Now a gossip columnist for MSNBC, Wells grew up in poverty with very eccentric (some would say abusive or neglectful) parents.  Her teenage years were spent in a southern WV coal town.  This story of her life growing up and after she'd "made it," is hard to put down.
*"Gift of Fear" - Gavin deBecker.  This book is about our "gift" of intuition and how we have repressed it, much to our danger.  Very interesting.
*"Freakonomics" - S. Leavitt.  Sounds dry but is very interesting.  A "rogue" economist digs into such subjects as how a drug-dealing empire is structured much like McDonald's and how children's names at birth may/may not affect their course in life, etc.  Really eye-opening.
*"Redneck Manifesto" - Jim Goad.  Great book about how classism, not racism, is the real issue we must fight.  Great take on how "rednecks" are the only group that it is still socially acceptable (and even encouraged) to make fun of and how if money and power is what really enables "institutional racism," then how can dirt-poor, powerless rednecks really be at fault for it's perpetuation?
*"Something Permanent" - a collection of old B&W Walker Evans photos taken during the Great Depression are paired with modern poetry written by Cynthia Rylant.  Never fails to bring tears to my eyes every single time I open it.

Just a few of a million wonderful books..............luci

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RE: Books you'd recommend and why - 7/20/2007 7:16:07 PM   
TallDarkAndWitty


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Status: offline 		Let see...the books that changed my life, or at least how I looked at it.

Gotta agree with Stranger in a Strange Land and throw in Moon is a Harsh Mistress for fun.  Then The Fountainhead and/or Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.  Fight Club and Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk.  These books actually mark turning points in my life...

Taggard


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RE: Books you'd recommend and why - 7/20/2007 7:25:51 PM   
happypervert


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Status: offline 		The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, because it reveals the meaning of life

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, because soma sounds good

and read some history about the Mongols, because Genghis Khan, Tamerlane and the hordes were some fun lovin' kick-ass guys!


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RE: Books you'd recommend and why - 7/20/2007 7:29:04 PM   
Arpig


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Status: offline 		Through a Distant Mirror, by Barbara Tuchman...because it is simply a wonderful read

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RE: Books you'd recommend and why - 7/21/2007 12:40:39 AM   
UtopianRanger


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quote:



The Constant Gardner - John LeCarre; because it's beautifully written, a great story (that's based on fact), very humbling and makes for great brain food.


I agree. Both book and movie were exceptional.


My choice hands down : AGAINST OLIGARCHY Essays & speeches 1970-1996 by Webster G. Tarpley. 

Damn... will this book cause you to open your eyes and make you forget what you thought you understood as fact, regards the 1929 Great Depression.




- R




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RE: Books you'd recommend and why - 7/21/2007 4:06:25 AM   
Griswold


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Level

If someone asked you to recommend some books to them, what would it be? Why?


Excellent question, and as the answers prove....there's no such thing as a bad book.

Any book I'm currently reading is one I'd recommend.

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RE: Books you'd recommend and why - 7/21/2007 6:22:53 AM   
Level


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Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: sublimelysensual

This is a hard one for me, because I read constantly. Some all time favorites would have to be "Watership Down" - makes me think and I discover new elements every time I read it; "The Shining"..I've read it at least 15 times, and it still scares me out of my wits every time, the same goes for "It". Actually pretty much anything from King or Koontz, I love description as well, and both are very good for painting a mental picture. I have a lot of authors that I keep up with, wait from new books from, maybe should save them for another thread.


Feel free to post as much as you want here  that's why I began the thread, for book lovers to go on and on....
 
What do you think of The Stand?
quote:


    The book I just finished was "Challenger Park" by Stephen Harrigan, it's new and one I would highly recommend, fiction based around the space program. Don't want to give away too much, but it was one I read in two days because I kept coming back to it when I should have been doing other things, lol.
   Non-fiction, I read mostly humor..Dave Barry is great, as is Tim Allen, believe it or not. Andy Rooney..all of them have a sarcastic bent, which I love and never fails to make me laugh. All right, enough out of me, I guess...
 
-a



All 3 guys are interesting, I especially like listening to Rooney on 60 Minutes.

_____________________________

Fake the heat and scratch the itch
Skinned up knees and salty lips
Let go it's harder holding on
One more trip and I'll be gone

~~ Stone Temple Pilots

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