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Happiness is..... a good book

monkey5

Active member
Veteran
Jahnice, Thank you for starting this thread! Great idea for a thread! I hope you read and enjoy the selections I posted up! monkey5
 

kaochiu

Well-known member
Veteran
What exactly was the punch about? A steak or something?
Sounds like 'coke rage' to me. Stars...

Pearls and hash looks like an interesting biography but I can't read the authors name.

You reminded me of the Mr. Nice bio
Loved it and loved the film too...
But the book I want to read is from 'MRS. Nice'
I bet she has lots of good stories. Lol

Nope, much simpler. After a morning of work, good old Jeremy went on to have lunch, only to find out it wasn't a hot lunch, just cold sandwiches. Cold sandwiches! So he punched the guy, who wouldn't?
As for the book in the photo, sorry. The authors are two, Ida Treat and Henry de Monfreid. In this case Ida Treat organized with him a kind of bio, but all the stories from Abd El Hai/Henri de Monfreid were already written by himself, notably his "Hashish, a smuggler's tale". He's very popular in France, he also was made a character in Tintin comics and other authors found inspiration in his adventures.
Ida Treat works in this book just as Mrs Nice, now you say. What you are proposing is not just a novel, but a total new genre, or at least a solid collection. Sometimes you read about people and their wives appear just like part of the atrezzo, when often are the very reason why the book was written in the first place, even sometimes they are the ones doing the hard part of the writing job and their husbands taking the credit.
But i think being an author takes much more than just being a man or a woman...
 

Jahnice

thicker skin in training
ICMag Donor
thanks monkey5,
a diet change is essential as you get older and your metabolism changes.
all the bread, cheese, and french fries catch up to you.....;)

@kaochiu
nice, thanks for clearing that up.
i get bbc news on satalite but they only ever glossed over the true story.
sandwiches......how dare they serve only sandwiches!
how uncivilized!

i will look for the 'pearls' book.
it sounds like a good one.

@snook
emperor wears no clothes is one of the few 'pot genre' books i have never read.
i met Jack Herer once at a festival. i shook his hand and such.
he was rushed off to the hospital a few hours later.

RIP Jack Herer
 

Snook

Still Learning
Veteran
why did you edit your original post, Jahnice?
Pics or it never happened>> HAHA!! just breakinem..:tiphat:
 

DickAnubis

Member
I just finished "An Arsonist's Guide to Write's Homes in New England" by Brock Clarke.
This is a very funny and at the same time sad book that is for anyone who has felt that they are stumbling through life and want to know what the heck has happened?

I also recommend Owen King's (yes, son of Stephen) "Double Feature"
If you've ever been to art school, wanted to make a movie or have an absurdly overblown parent you'll identify with this story. But everyone can relate to the characters and King's expertise with seeing behind our social masks. A great First novel.

While in the King family, I also suggest "Horns" by Joe Hill. Just an amazing story.
I never saw the movie version and don't really want to. The characters as created by Hill are so vivid I would only be disappointed by tne actors of choice. Daniel Radcliff plays the lead in the movie and although I like his work, NO he is wrong for this part.
Read it, you'll see what I mean.

Great thread Jahnice! Without books I'd have rooms filled with oddly configured wooden structures.

DA
 
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MrBelvedere

Active member
ICMag Donor
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut

The Floating Opera - John Barth

Thai Stick: Surfers, Scammers, and the Untold Story of the Marijuana Trade [Hardcover]
Peter Maguire (Author), Mike Ritter (Author)

All Donald Goines novels

Killing Pablo: The Hunt for the World's Greatest Outlaw
Bowden, Mark

Rayful Edmond: Washington D.C.'s Most Notorious Drug Lord
Ferranti, Seth

All Seth Ferranti books

Boardwalk Gangster: The Real Lucky Luciano
Tim Newark (Author)

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants
Malcolm Gladwell (Author)

All of FinShaggys threads on RIU
 

vostok

Active member
Veteran
I have too confess I've been struggling to find a great read ....just read Robin Cooks Toxin ...and er 2 others but find them BLAND tv type stories

will be subbing here ...lol
 

DickAnubis

Member
For down and dirty crime fans I recommend "Stark" by Edward Bunker.
He was a real jailbird who turned actor/writer.
An enjoyable read.
 

Genghis Kush

Active member
Best Ganja smuggling books:

"Mr Nice" - Howard Marks
"Thai Stick: surfer, scammers, and the untold story
of the Marijuana trade" - Mike Ritter

books I thought where great:

'Sirens of Titan"
"Slaughter House Five"
"Galapagos" - Kurt Vonnegut'
'The Snow Leopard" - Peter Mathiessen
"Adrift - 76 days lost at sea" - Steve Callahan.
"A Pirate of Exquisite Mind, the life of William Dampier" - Preston
"Moby Dick" - Herman Melville
"The Unbearable Lightness of Being" - Milan Kundera
"Siddhartha" - Herman Hesse
"Call of the Wild" - Jack London
"Deep Survival: who lives, who dies, and Why" - Laurence Gonzalez



books that have changed my life:

Bhagavat Ghita
Thus Spake Zarathustra" - Friedrich Nietchze
The Hero With a Thousand Faces." - Joseph Campbell
"Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism" - Chogyam Trungpa
Tao Te Ching" Lao Tzu
"Sugar Blues" - William Duffy
 

kaochiu

Well-known member
Veteran
Ok, i go with a few.
The Manuscript Found in Saragossa
This book deserves far more reputation than it has, and it has a lot. If you enjoy reading, this is a real must read. Stories entangled with other stories with absolutely perfect math, lots of indescriptibly strange characters and no way to drop it once hooked. There are two different editions, one more popular for being more condensed, the other is the original and groups the complete stories. It was published in a newspaper as it was being written. A bit over two centuries ago.
Nagib Mahfouz. He got the nobel prize of literature for a reason. It's too prolific to name just one book, everybody has a different favourite, but i just like them all. "The Children of Gebelawi", also published as "The Children of the Alley" is one of my favourite books of all time.
Jorge Amado. The problem with Jorge Amado books is that they should be sold with a plane ticket in the last page that takes you straight to Bahia do Brasil, otherwise you'll suffer post-reading anxiety, specially if you live in a gloomy city. Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon, a pleasure from begginning to end.
Umberto Eco. Again, this guy has this capacity of ending any of his books and feeling like you just learned new things. Few can say that. Recently i've read again Baudolino, a novel about the errands of sort of a spin doctor from the middle ages, at Barbarossa "service".
Salman Rushdie. Some people think he's boring, but that's because they've never read Shalimar the Clown. He's a master story teller.
That's the good thing with books, they're a bit like cannabis genetics, too many to try them all, and more coming all the time.
 

paulo73

Convicted for turning dreams into reality
Veteran
I admit i do books, loads of them!!!
I can´t imagine a world without music&books. I´d probably start making them, music and books.
But in the meanwhile, because there are so many around, i just keep being the lazy me and enjoy other people´s creation.

Books that changed my Life in a big way.
"How to win friends and influence people" from Dale Carnegie
"Under a glass bell" from Anais Nin
"Heartsnatcher" , "The Ants" and "Froth of the daydream" from Boris Vian
"Non Violent Communication: A Language of Life" from Marshall B. Rosenberg
"Stranger in a Strange Land" from Robert A. Heinlein
"Raised from the Ground" and "Blindness" from José Saramago
"The Art of War" from Sun Tzu
Rumi´s works interpreted by Coleman Barks

And i better stop now because in a sense books made me what i am today. Reality always seemed very scarce when compared with everything that i´ve read by then ;)
 

Genghis Kush

Active member
@Paulo76
Good call on,
"Non Violent Communication: A Language of Life" from Marshall B. Rosenberg

Definitely one of the best and most important books. The world would be a happier place if everyone read it
 

Jahnice

thicker skin in training
ICMag Donor
why did you edit your original post, Jahnice?
Pics or it never happened>> HAHA!! just breakinem..:tiphat:

I don't see where you mean that I edited in this thread but I do it all the time.
I am OCD with spelling, grammar, punctuation ...maybe that was the reason.
Maybe I just felt like it.
Who knows.
We are all oddballs around here, so no need to 'break 'em'.
 

Gry

Well-known member
Loved books all my life, as a kid they were the most wonderful refuge. Hate to say it, as I did not like it at all, but "the secret team", may have had more impact than anything else.
It gave me a new of appreciation for integrity, it has also left me with a very lasting sense of regret.
 

Jahnice

thicker skin in training
ICMag Donor
That's the good thing with books, they're a bit like cannabis genetics, too many to try them all, and more coming all the time.

i like that:)


i went into the shelves to check if i still had anything by Anais Nin.
she was a lover of Henry Miller in Paris the early 1900's when that was the place to be for artists, writers, musicians etc.
sounds like a pretty lively scene.
she wrote erotica from a female perspective that was really enchanting and beautiful while not being vulgar.
i must have given all the erotica type books away at some point or maybe they got put away in a secret place when the mother in law came to visit;)

anyway, i found a section devoted to trippers....
Hunter S. Thompson , Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs, Tom Wolfe, Irvine Welsh
i am personally not into hard drug escapism but i do like to read about other peoples experiences, ex. talking to aliens on mushrooms or whatever.
i saw Burroughs do a live read in the 90's.
he was quite a character with an immediately recognizable voice.
see 'dial a poem' series of music/art/literature where musicians have sampled his readings and overlayed music or noise.
same tripper genre---James Frey, A Million Little Pieces (oprah book club pick)
a tale of an addicts slip and the story of his 6 weeks in rehab. a really great read.

i cant say i loved books all my life like gry. i didn't read much until high school.
i have noticed that my reading comes and goes in waves.
normally i pick up a book if i am stressing out about something and want to immerse in another world.
books do that for me and sometimes i have a sense of loss when i finish a good one.
 
If on cannabis, only a clear cerebral sativa will allow me to comprehend what I've just read. Otherwise on indicas and blends I've got to start over again and again :|

Love discworld. Science fiction and cannabis go together so well. One of the all time "great" combos in life. Like tea and milk or bread and butter.
 

wolfhoundaddy

Member
Veteran
Captains and the kings. Taylor Caldwell. The story is about a poor Irish immigrant who comes to America and becomes wealthy. The true pleasure in reading is the authors style. She goes to great lengths to describe all the nuances of the characters involved. I read it every few years. I enjoy it that much.
 

paulo73

Convicted for turning dreams into reality
Veteran
Essential books imo
"Confessions of an Economic Hitman" by John Perkins
"Open veins of Latin America" by Eduardo Galeano
"The Trial" By Franz Kafka

Btw Anais Nin wrote much more than Erotica and imo her best works are not even in that genre.
 
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