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OT: Read a Book. Read many Books.

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OT: Read a Book. Read many Books. 

Post#1 » by DuckIII » Thu Jul 7, 2011 3:15 pm

Well, in the spirit of the TV thread, lets further help each other find something to do until NBA basketball resumes in 2012. Which will be just in time for the world to end.

On Tuesday, A Dance With Dragons comes out. This is the 5th book in the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. The first book in the series is A Game of Thrones, which is now a popular HBO series. Our very own dougthonus turned me on to this series. I didn't start it for a long time because it is a fantasy series, and that really isn't my thing. But I can't overstate how excellent and entertaining these books are.

And they are each between 800-1200 pages long, so it will eat up a few months of leisure time to read them.

Other stuff I'd recommend (trying to be somewhat diverse):

Shogun (the best samurai story ever)

The Pillars of the Earth (13th century knights, priests, and commoners)

Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy western novel. Brutally violent masterpiece, but densely written. Keep an unabridged dictionary handy)

Ender's Game (sci-fi)

The Devil and The White City (non-fiction about the Chicago World's fair and a serial killer)

Moby Dick (greatest book ever written)

Once I finish with A Dance with Dragons, I'm going to need to find more to read. Help me out.
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Re: OT: Read a Book. Read many Books. 

Post#2 » by biggestbullsfan » Thu Jul 7, 2011 3:19 pm

I am gonna read rich dad poor dad when i get a chance.

Then I say hitchhikers guide to the galaxy was a favorite of mine.

Catcher in the Rye.

Then alot of graphic novels. Especially the green lantern and Batman's. Those are great.
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Re: OT: Read a Book. Read many Books. 

Post#3 » by Tommy Udo 6 » Thu Jul 7, 2011 3:19 pm

Moby Dick?

Is that about a sexually transmitted disease?
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Re: OT: Read a Book. Read many Books. 

Post#4 » by DanTown8587 » Thu Jul 7, 2011 3:23 pm

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlKL_EpnSp8[/youtube]
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Re: OT: Read a Book. Read many Books. 

Post#5 » by BuffaloBull » Thu Jul 7, 2011 3:24 pm

A series I just got into are the Richard Stark "Parker" books: Parker is a professional heist man (armored cars, bank job, anywhere there's money), and the series is from the 60s and has that hardbaked, noir feel. Think mad men meets James Bond, without the camp. Parker's all business, and the books are outstanding: fast reads, thrilling, entertaining.

Full disclosure, I happen to work for the press that puts them out (University of Chicago Press), but I don't get a bonus or anything if you decide to check them out. I just started reading them because of work, and figured others here would get a kick out of them.

First one in the series is The Hunter, but there over 20 of them in all:

http://www.amazon.com/Hunter-Parker-Nov ... 242&sr=8-3
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Re: OT: Read a Book. Read many Books. 

Post#6 » by dundlenut » Thu Jul 7, 2011 3:28 pm

If you want to read a great book, I would suggest " Confessions of an Economic Hitman" One of the most eye opening great books of all time.
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Re: OT: Read a Book. Read many Books. 

Post#7 » by chadrucf » Thu Jul 7, 2011 3:28 pm

Great thread.

Einstein - Walter Isaacson (Biography for anyone interested in his life, science, WWII, etc. Fantastic read.)

And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie (Short Mystery novel. Classic Who-Dun-It. Most have probably already read it, but if you haven't - do so.) P.S. - anything by Christie is a good choice.

Hamlet/King Lear/MacBeth - William Shakespeare (really, how have you not read these in your life? If you have not read them, definitely do. If you have read them, read them again.)

The Idiot/The Borthers Karamazov/Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (If you have the time to get through them (very long), they are nearly perfect in every way. :) Get ready to have your heart ripped out and stomped on though...)

Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (Descend into madness and unravel this novel. Very enjoyable, very unique, very good.)

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (Just a fantastic book for so many reasons. Just go read it.)
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Re: OT: Read a Book. Read many Books. 

Post#8 » by Strider7 » Thu Jul 7, 2011 3:32 pm

The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker is an excellent read. All my time will be definitely be consumed with reading ADWD when it comes out next week, however.
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Re: OT: Read a Book. Read many Books. 

Post#9 » by Magilla_Gorilla » Thu Jul 7, 2011 3:40 pm

DuckIII wrote:Well, in the spirit of the TV thread, lets further help each other find something to do until NBA basketball resumes in 2012. Which will be just in time for the world to end.

On Tuesday, A Dance With Dragons comes out. This is the 5th book in the Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. The first book in the series is A Game of Thrones, which is now a popular HBO series. Our very own dougthonus turned me on to this series. I didn't start it for a long time because it is a fantasy series, and that really isn't my thing. But I can't overstate how excellent and entertaining these books are.


Best series I've ever read. Incredible storytelling - lets hope Martin finishes the series in his lifetime.

The Pillars of the Earth (13th century knights, priests, and commoners)


Great book, though complaints about the flatness of the characters is probably legit.

Blood Meridian (Cormac McCarthy western novel. Brutally violent masterpiece, but densely written. Keep an unabridged dictionary handy)


McCarthy is amazing. I've loved every book I have read of his.

Ender's Game (sci-fi)


Everyone should read this. It is IMO at the top of the sci-fi food chain. A masterpiece.

The Devil and The White City (non-fiction about the Chicago World's fair and a serial killer)


Loved this book as well - though I have a fascination with fairs and serial killers.

Moby Dick (greatest book ever written)


I've started reading the classics - and this is one I keep looking at but have never picked up. I need to make some time for it.



I just finished "The Name of the Wind" and loved it. Fantasy in the same vein as Ice and Fire. Its the first book in the Kingkiller Chronicles. I'm about to start the next book "The Wise Man's Fears".

I plan on reading the "Prince of Nothing" series once I'm finished with Kingkiller Chronicles.
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Re: OT: Read a Book. Read many Books. 

Post#10 » by ImSlower » Thu Jul 7, 2011 4:07 pm

Hooray for fantasy fans.

GRRM is my favorite author. I am re-re-(x6)-reading the first four now, timing it for the 12th. Can't wait. Assiduously avoiding my ASOIAF forum until I'm done, as a few people in Germany received mistakenly-sent copies early, and spoilers are sneaking around.

Other superb modern fantasy works:

R Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing series is just stupendous. It's a very challenging series, extremely violent, explicit, compelling, and confusing as hell. The finale to the first trilogy is the most incredible finish to any series I know. The second trilogy has two books out, and honestly I haven't enjoyed it as much. But the 3rd book will probably explode my entire city when it arrives.

Joe Abercrombie writes awesome, awesome, awesome fun and very gritty books. Start with Before They Are Hanged. Super fun.

Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogies are very rewarding, if a little sentimental. I hope she returns to that world; it's very well-crafted.

Patrick Rothfuss's Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear are both great page-turners. Just like Martin's novels, there's a lot of little things that fans can pick out to figure out some plot stuff going on behind-the-scenes.

Brandon Sanderson (whom I've met, and emailed back and forth multiple times, awesome guy) has written some fun stuff, and has started a huge 10 book epic monstrosity with his Way of Kings series. The first book was really fun. Oh, he's finishing Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, which I got tired of 15 years ago.

Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora is one of the most fun-to-read fantasy novels I've ever read. Locke is basically a foul-mouthed con artist / thief, only in a fantasy setting. It's terrific. The third of the Gentleman Bastards series is coming out later this year, I believe, and I am eagerly awaiting it.

Scott Erikson's Malazan Chronicles is enormous, complex as all hell, and a favorite of many current fantasy readers. It's a little too bloated and meandering for me, but fans of it insist that it's tremendously rewarding if you can make it through all 10,000 pages and eleventy dozen major characters.


I'm a big bookworm, but thick, well-written, complex modern fantasy are my favorite kinds of books. I could keep yammering on for hours about it.
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Re: OT: Read a Book. Read many Books. 

Post#11 » by Al Swearengen » Thu Jul 7, 2011 4:10 pm

Some personal recommendations:

A Soldier of the Great War
Mark Helprin

Best book I've ever read. Maybe not my favorite, just because it was emotionally draining to read at times, but honestly the most beautiful book I've read. Definitely not a book I would suggest to read to just pass the time though.

The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
Michael Chabon

Probably the best book by one of the best writers going today. While definitely not "light" reading, it's a very entertaining book and even at 800 pages it's a quick read.


Sirens of Titan
Kurt Vonnegut

My favorite (I'd say the best as well) book of one of my favorite authors.

The Terror
Dan Simmons

Hard to overstate how much I love this book. It's a historical-fiction take on the lost Franklin arctic expedition. Two English ships in the mid 19th century, attempting to navigate the last uncharted section of the Northwest Passage, get stranded in the arctic and are preyed upon by a 15 foot tall bear-like creature. While that synopsis makes it sound like a cheesy horror book, it's actually quite powerful at times. If you do read this book, it's best read in the dead of winter.

EDIT: Also have to say, the hardcover version of The Terror has one of the GOAT covers ever
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Drood
Dan Simmons

Same author as the above novel. This is another historical-fiction novel with a supernatural twist. It's written from the point of view of Charles Dickens closest friend, Wilke Collins, as if the book were a journal intended for future readers. It's a great device; as you read, at times you feel like you've actually stumbled across a secret lost to time. The book covers the final years of Dickens life, starting from a point when Dickens survives a terrible train derailment and encounters an ancient, corpse-like man in black moving among the wreckage.
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Re: OT: Read a Book. Read many Books. 

Post#12 » by ikkoikki » Thu Jul 7, 2011 4:20 pm

I don't mean to criticize because I'm a fan myself, but in a thread entitled "read a book" your suggestion is nothing but fiction books? I like al ot of your suggestions but its not like reading fiction books is much different from watching television. If you want to get smarter, you read non-fiction.
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Re: OT: Read a Book. Read many Books. 

Post#13 » by organix85 » Thu Jul 7, 2011 4:31 pm

Duck,

You said fantasy isn't your thing, but you should give the Rothfuss books a try if you like the Martin ones. The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear are the two out now.
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Re: OT: Read a Book. Read many Books. 

Post#14 » by Blue Note » Thu Jul 7, 2011 4:34 pm

chadrucf wrote:The Idiot/The Brothers Karamazov/Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (If you have the time to get through them (very long), they are nearly perfect in every way. :) Get ready to have your heart ripped out and stomped on though...)


Second this. I gained an appreciation for the plain word after reading him.

Few that haven't been mentioned..
Horror/satire/romance:
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Postmodern/sci-fi/"hysterical realism"
Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, aka the book that changed my life

David Foster Wallace didn't have a large output of work, but it's all great. Besides a couple of novels, he wrote essays about U.S. culture.

A sample of his work: Roger Federer as Religious Experience
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Re: OT: Read a Book. Read many Books. 

Post#15 » by Blue Note » Thu Jul 7, 2011 4:40 pm

ikkoikki wrote:I don't mean to criticize because I'm a fan myself, but in a thread entitled "read a book" your suggestion is nothing but fiction books? I like a lot of your suggestions but its not like reading fiction books is much different from watching television. If you want to get smarter, you read non-fiction.


Oh no no no. Reading text is an active activity. Spectatorship is passive. And storytelling, whether in books or TV or movies, is invaluable to human experience and learning.

Though if you like reading, you should try to read both fiction and non-fiction. And yeah, fiction and TV (and non-fiction for that matter) have the potential to be empty experiences if the quality is low.
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Re: OT: Read a Book. Read many Books. 

Post#16 » by zerogravity15 » Thu Jul 7, 2011 4:41 pm

I also recommend all the books in a song of ice and fire.

I picked up the books because of the show; and I've never read through four 1000 page books so fast.

Can't wait for Dance of Dragons to drop.
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Re: OT: Read a Book. Read many Books. 

Post#17 » by cars4978 » Thu Jul 7, 2011 5:03 pm

To add:

Confessions of an economic hitman mentioned earlier is a great book

The Looming Tower - Lawrence Wright
It's all about the events that lead to the creation of Al-Qaeda, how long the US knew about it but failed to do anything, etc. Pretty relevant to current world events

The Dresden Files Series - Jim Butcher
It's again fantasy data, but it's quite good. It's about Harry Dresden, a wizard and takes place here in Chicago. It's more detailed than most, having combinations of old mythology, different classes of vampires, etc. The next book comes out July 24th and is the 13th in the series. I find them very good reads.

Blink - Malcolm Gladwell
Just a good read, I enjoy his stuff a lot. All about the adaptive subconscious basically.

Flow - Mihaly Csikszenmihalyi
Hard to describe, but it's basically again about mental training and submersing yourself in a topic or work. Another good read.
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Re: OT: Read a Book. Read many Books. 

Post#18 » by DuckIII » Thu Jul 7, 2011 5:11 pm

ikkoikki wrote:I don't mean to criticize because I'm a fan myself, but in a thread entitled "read a book" your suggestion is nothing but fiction books? I like al ot of your suggestions but its not like reading fiction books is much different from watching television. If you want to get smarter, you read non-fiction.


Good point. I also recommend that people read textbooks and stuff.

The Devil and the White City is a non-fiction book. I was trying to just throw a few different types of books out there, which is why the list includes fantasy, non-fiction, historical fiction, classics, sci-fi.
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Re: OT: Read a Book. Read many Books. 

Post#19 » by Magilla_Gorilla » Thu Jul 7, 2011 5:18 pm

Blue Note wrote:
ikkoikki wrote:I don't mean to criticize because I'm a fan myself, but in a thread entitled "read a book" your suggestion is nothing but fiction books? I like a lot of your suggestions but its not like reading fiction books is much different from watching television. If you want to get smarter, you read non-fiction.


Oh no no no. Reading text is an active activity. Spectatorship is passive. And storytelling, whether in books or TV or movies, is invaluable to human experience and learning.

Though if you like reading, you should try to read both fiction and non-fiction. And yeah, fiction and TV (and non-fiction for that matter) have the potential to be empty experiences if the quality is low.


Thank you. The post you quoted is utter nonsense.
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Re: OT: Read a Book. Read many Books. 

Post#20 » by Robert23 » Thu Jul 7, 2011 5:25 pm

Some of my favorite books:
Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy
First two books of Riverworld series
Ender's Game
Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit (pretty cliche but great none the less)
Discworld series
Without Remorse ( Tom Clancy's book in the Jack Ryan universe in general I like a lot)
I am Legend ( Way better then movie adaptions)
The Legend of Drizzt series (I'm on the 5th book in the series and so far it's been great)

I saw the Wheel of Time mentioned previously and I would avoid that series. That is one long series and Robert Jordan liked to go overboard on descriptions making it an even longer read. Although I think it would make a great TV series.

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