The Book Thread - What You're Reading & Everything Book Related

[Honkytonk]

The UFO Diaries - Travels in the Weird World of High Strangeness by Martin Plowman
Arena Books, an imprint of Allen & Unwin

My Life As A UFOlogy-Ologist
I never thought I’d grow up to be a grave robber. It may well be
the world’s third oldest profession after politics and you-know-
what, and I hear the pay is good as long as you don’t mind working
with a bunch of stiffs, but grave robbing just doesn’t have the
romantic appeal of, say, arms dealer, nor the dinner party cachet
of Peace Corps volunteer. What did you do in Peru, Martin? people
would ask me back home, and I would have to say something like,
‘I trespassed upon the burial grounds of civilisations that were old
before the country I was born in even existed.’ Unfortunately my
camera would be stolen on a bus exactly two days later as I left
the plateau of Marcahuasi to return to Lima, Peru’s smog-bound
capital, so I don’t even have the photos to prove my guilt...

 

[humble1]

The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde
Biting and insightful commentary on the human condition in the form of fiction.

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Just for fun.

 

[jack Haze]

can anyboddy help me find a book? i need a: how to of home repair. the baseics exsplained to a guy that have no clue. stuff like plumbing, how to change a tap, and how to change a plug,or install a lamp. that kind of stuff. something along the line of the king of the handymen, exsplaining to a normal guy how to do all around the house.

hope anyboddy knows of a good book
thanks

Any book offered for sale online can be found between;

Google

http://www.fetchbook.info/ -For most modern books.

Antiquarian and Ultra collectible books are best found here.

http://www.bookfinder.com/.

Amazon.com usually has the widest selection and most titles listed. Generally they're the cheapest as well.


Anyway. I'm midway through Rising Up. Rising Down. (William Vollmann) I've read it about a dozen times but it's always better the next time I do.

 

[motaco]

If anybody is into post apocalypse stuff, but are down to earth I've read almost all of them that aren't aimed at 15 year olds.

The road, after london, alas babylon, earth abides, canticle for leibowitz, riddley walker... and a few I probably am missing.

At any rate most of them are okay (except riddley walker), but two were exceptional. I have a tough time deciding which I like best because they both deal with different aspects of humanity.

Earth abides is about a man who is resistant to a disease that kills 99% of the world population. He comes down from hiking several months in the mountains and everyone is dead. He manages to find a few people worth staying with including a woman, and they begin to rebuild humanity on a very small scale. But they all find even trying to build something that resembles the old world a fantasy, but one they have a hard time letting go of. It deals with human nature in the sense of our personalities, and interpersonal relationships.

 

[motaco]

The other book and one that I think is probably the best of all post apocalyptic fiction is "A Canticle for Leibowitz" which deals with humanity on a grand scale. Its exceptionally well written and perhaps a bit hard to explain. One of few books I won't give away since I've read it. Its about a small group of monks who deify science in a world that blames it for the collapse. It spans centuries from the anarchy after the collapse, the rediscoveries of science, the building back to civilization, and onto the verge of yet another nuclear war.

This is the back cover, I think it says better than I can.

"In a nightmarish ruined world slowly awakening to the light after sleeping in darkness, the infant rediscoveries of science are secretly nourished by cloistered monks dedicated to the study of preservation of the relics and writings of the blessed Saint Isaac Leiobowitz. From there the story spans centuries of ignorance, violence, and barbarism, viewing through the sharp satirical eye the relentless progression of a human race damned by its inherent humanness to recelebrate its grand foibles and repeat its grievous mistakes. Seriously funny, stunning, and tragic, eternally fresh and remarkable. It is now and has always been a masterpiece"

 

[mosstrooper]

I recently read The Places In-between, by Rory Stewart, its a travelogue detailing his epic walk across Afghanistan after 9-11 and the American/British invasion. He adopted a giant Himalayan Mastiff on the way, a great tale. You have to admire his balls, he went on to be a junior British diplomat in Iraq after the invasion.

 

[Protea]

Any book offered for sale online can be found between;

Google

http://www.fetchbook.info/ -For most modern books.

Antiquarian and Ultra collectible books are best found here.

http://www.bookfinder.com/.

Amazon.com usually has the widest selection and most titles listed. Generally they're the cheapest as well.


Anyway. I'm midway through Rising Up. Rising Down. (William Vollmann) I've read it about a dozen times but it's always better the next time I do.

Thanks, but i knew that. my real problem is to find the best one. i realy know nothing about this kind of stuff, so it get very hard to find out whitch one is good and witch ones are crap.
Looked up the Rising up. Rising Down book. it looks exelent, and i orderd it just now.
thank you for the recomendation

 

[jack Haze]

You'll love it! Vollmann has a writing style all of his own. One of the most prolific writers in History. As far as getting a copy as described...It's a crapshoot. I personally know 100's of good, ethical sellers that sell exactly as they describe. I'd never be able to list every good seller I know. Feedback on Amazon is a joke. Sellers bribe the buyer with a free book or other perk to avoid negatives.

Best thing is to read their feedback and look for a pattern of accuracy. If you ever need a specific title, you can PM me and I'll do my best to find a seller I know and trust and send you a link.

 

[Cojito]

anybody read Roberto Bolano? i like him better than Garcia Marquez and Vargas Llosa. i just finished up Marquez's "Memories of my Melancholy Whores", and Vargas Llosa's ("Death in the Andes"). they were good. but i really loved Bolano's "Last Evenings on Earth," and his cool novel/memoir "The Savage Detectives."

 

[AfroSheep]

i recently read, angels and demons and the da vinci code, the books are much better than the movies IMO. Dan brown is a great author,

At the moment i have just finished reading Bloodstream by Tess Gerritsen, it tells about the lengths major pharmecuetical companys go to, so they can hide new "drugs" from other companys as they are being discovered, a small town and some murders lead to the discovery of this so called new "drug".

Now im about to start my next book called NEXT by Michael Crichton, from the back of the book it sounds like its all about the future of science, and how DNA and certain chromosomes are so sought after, certain ppl will kill and more to get there hands on it.
Sounds interesting hope its a good one.

Any other great reads out there?

 

[MVC]

I would start with my most favourite book: Little prince, I can read it again and again still finding new meanings.....

Recently I read Pianist (Wladyslaw Szpilman), Grass (Phil Sparrowhawk), The Economics of Good and Evil (Tomáš Sedláček).
Currently I am reading Rant (Chuck Palahniuk), Nevada gas (Raymond Chandler) and some spanish fairy tales

 

[AfroSheep]

has anyone ever read, the prince, by nicollo machiavelli, can never spell his name right,
A war strategist from the renaissance age.
id love to have a good squiz through this book, always sounded like a great read from what i hear.

 

[kobaia]

The other book and one that I think is probably the best of all post apocalyptic fiction is "A Canticle for Leibowitz"

Yes, and that's in my opinion one of the best science-fiction books ever and unfortunately, very underrated nowadays. Maybe that's because he wrote only this one novel (just later in his life he started writing "sequel"). But my fav s-f writer is Philip K. Dick, I think his "Deus Irae" is another apocalyptic fiction inspired by Miller's novel "Canticle...".

Currenty, I'm reading Raymond Chandler's "Trouble is my business". I like his style an cynical humour of Phil Marlowe, there are some very good film-noir movies based on his novels too.

 

[Mrs.Babba]

You guys read some heady shit!! hehe
Anyone read the Earth's Children series?...Jean Auel
I just got it yesterday, waited years for this book! She is an awesome writer. Its the last one in the series. Its called The Land of Painted Caves.

 

[e4ian]

j r r tolkien.

j r r tolkien.

yep sure do,read all the time. recently finished the hobbit then lord of the rings now reading the two towers.
twilight4 breaking dawn was fab btw.

 

[e4ian]

over the past few yrs or so from what i can remember ive read all the harrypotters several times espc,nO4 goblet of fire,best imo.
phillip pullmans: northern lights,the subtle knife and the amber spyglass read several times[all 3 books rolled into a film called the golden compass.p]
watership down
patrick swayze bio
breaking dawn twilight 4
bree tanner.. twilight a short novella [story]
now lotr 2towers.
the bible too!! cus the one i read b4 was the childrens bible. 30 yrs ago.

 

[rasputin]

Just finished Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. About Louis Zamperini, a former Olympic runner who was in WWII as a bombardier, crashed on a Rescue mission and then basically went through hell and beyond. Good read.

 

[Max Headroom]

one book i must recommend here, which i read a couple of years ago is Martin Torgoff's "Can't Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945-2000"

it chronicles the use of recreational drugs in the specified time frame.
well & entertainingly written, good research. i devoured this one.
give it a try, you won't regret it!
http://www.amazon.com/Cant-Find-Way...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1306931594&sr=1-1

 

[laylow]

Can anyone suggest a good book to read?

Can anyone suggest a good book to read?

Im going away in a few weeks and want a book to read while im on the beach chillin ect... read Howard Mark's MR NICE last hol i went on and really enjoyed it...

not interested in fiction...

what do you read?

 

[sirbudsalot]

Two fantastic non-fiction books I've read recently:

Unbroken. A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
http://www.amazon.com/Unbroken-World-Survival-Resilience-Redemption/dp/0739319698

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
http://www.amazon.com/Born-Run-Superathletes-Greatest-Vintage/dp/0307279189