what do you read?

Interesting, as this book, like All the Pretty Horses was, is also on my bookshelf but as yet unread. Perhaps this will be next up in the queue. I often allow the random things in life to dictate what I read next. I'm one of those people with probably 100+ unread books stacked in the basement.

You should make Cien Anos de Solidad your next read, I promise you, you will not be disappointed in the least. Then read All the Pretty Horses. I, too, have a stack of 100+ books waiting to be read. Now that I have the time, I plan to make my way through them voraciously.

One of those books is Slaughterhouse Five. Vonnegut died today and it reminded me I had never really read any of his books, though I love the SF genre and have admired Vonnegut's work. I've read several of his short stories but never his most famous novel...odd how time sneaks up and steals away your plans to do and say and read all those things you would and could, if only you had the time...
 

mergs

Spokompton's Finest
JORBA.ORG
I also like non-fiction such as Guns Germs and Steel (Diamond), Through a Window (Jane Goodall), Bright Shining Lie (Sheehan, Vietnam book), and Krakaur's Into the Wild.

check out "Collapse" by Jared Diamond. Slightly different than "Guns Germs and Steel" but super interesting. His theories ring very true to me.

I've also read 2 or 3 Krakauer books and they're all very good. I like the one where he's climbing solo in AK (Devils Thumb or something) and he lights his tent on fire in the middle of nowhere. I think he was sparking up, or maybe just careless with his stove due to the ganj but it was a really funny part. That might be Into the Wild, or one of his books that just talks about his climbing exploits before he became a writer.

I am a history junkie, biography addict and science dork, so they tend to drive me towards those topics. I think I've read everything by Stephen Ambrose, Stephen Ellis and David McCullough. But I love outdoors oriented books too esp, anything where people get themselves into a world of hurt and do the impossible (or die trying). I read Lansing's Endurance, and climbing books by Messner, Houston (Savage Mountain), etc.. But even not so hair raising books, like Bryson's books such as Into the Woods are usually on my list.

I do most of my "reading" in the car using books on CD from the library. I am addicted to it. I even know who the good readers are...

Heres one for Sean: "Angela's Ashes", read by the author. Amazing. I read the book, saw the movie but having Mc Court read it, is an experience all its own.
 
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Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
check out "Collapse" by Jared Diamond. Slightly different than "Guns Germs and Steel" but super interesting. His theories ring very true to me.

I've also read 2 or 3 Krakauer books and they're all very good. I like the one where he's climbing solo in AK (Devils Thumb or something) and he lights his tent on fire in the middle of nowhere. I think he was sparking up, or maybe just careless with his stove due to the ganj but it was a really funny part. That might be Into the Wild, or one of his books that just talks about his climbing exploits before he became a writer.

I am a history junkie, biography addict and science dork, so they tend to drive me towards those topics. I think I've read everything by Stephen Ambrose, Stephen Ellis and David McCullough. But I love outdoors oriented books too esp, anything where people get themselves into a world of hurt and do the impossible (or die trying). I read Lansing's Endurance, and climbing books by Messner, Houston (Savage Mountain), etc.. But even not so hair raising books, like Bryson's books such as Into the Woods are usually on my list.

I do most of my "reading" in the car using books on CD from the library. I am addicted to it. I even know who the good readers are...

Heres one for Sean: "Angela's Ashes", read by the author. Amazing. I read the book, saw the movie but having Mc Court read it, is an experience all its own.

Mergs,

I highly recommend this:
http://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Nort...567466/ref=cm_cr-mr-title/002-8010837-6398459

Hard to get but I have a copy if you're interested.

I will definitely check out the other Diamond book. It's on my wish list already.

Oh and I would add Bryson's History of Nearly Everything (or whatever). Quite an enjoyable read. Though I'm told the audio book is bad.
 

bonefishjake

Strong like bull, smart like tractor
Team MTBNJ Halter's
well, based on a chrisg post, I had some time today so I read 'the road' by mccarthy. i'm still not sure how I feel about it. I couldn't put the book down though. it's disturbing, and I think much more so now that I have the girls. it's hard to see how a book like this could end well...taking place in such a setting. I feel...well...kinda empty and lost after it.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
well, based on a chrisg post, I had some time today so I read 'the road' by mccarthy. i'm still not sure how I feel about it. I couldn't put the book down though. it's disturbing, and I think much more so now that I have the girls. it's hard to see how a book like this could end well...taking place in such a setting. I feel...well...kinda empty and lost after it.

Are you sure it's not because you're in Detroit?

I picked up The Road at Costco last week.
 

bonefishjake

Strong like bull, smart like tractor
Team MTBNJ Halter's
the weather could surely be a factor, but really, the book is...well...i don't really know how to describe it. i've never read anything quite like it before. it really left me with a terrible feeling of sorrow. that's the only way to describe it. the world that he paints harkens to one of the level's of hell in dante's "inferno". i can't recall which since i haven't read that book since forever ago. just, well, sad. i mean you watch 'thunderdome' and you think, eh, ok...maybe it wouldn't be that bad. but when you read this book you realize that it will be. it truly doesn't help that the main characters of the book do not have names and are simply referred to as 'the man' or 'the boy'. i don't know...i'm really still trying to wrap my head around it.
 

ChrisG

Unapologetic Lifer for Rock and Roll
the weather could surely be a factor, but really, the book is...well...i don't really know how to describe it. i've never read anything quite like it before. it really left me with a terrible feeling of sorrow. that's the only way to describe it. the world that he paints harkens to one of the level's of hell in dante's "inferno". i can't recall which since i haven't read that book since forever ago. just, well, sad. i mean you watch 'thunderdome' and you think, eh, ok...maybe it wouldn't be that bad. but when you read this book you realize that it will be. it truly doesn't help that the main characters of the book do not have names and are simply referred to as 'the man' or 'the boy'. i don't know...i'm really still trying to wrap my head around it.
Damn. I'm trying to figure out what to say.

Your experience of the book is akin to my own and those of my friends who've read it as well.

I walked into the classroom of one of my colleagues just as he was finishing it, and tears were rolling down his face. His own father passed away about a year ago.

The book compelled me to consider the depth of parental love, among other things, but I came away feeling some sense of hope. The implication of the boy being taken in and cared for gave me something to hold onto.

I'm sure many of you are aware that this is Oprah's current book. It's definitely Cormac's most "readable" work while still retaining the visceral impact and beauty of his previous writing. Last year she was selling Faulkner to her audience, so she does get it right on occasion.
 

bonefishjake

Strong like bull, smart like tractor
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Damn. I'm trying to figure out what to say.

Your experience of the book is akin to my own and those of my friends who've read it as well.

I walked into the classroom of one of my colleagues just as he was finishing it, and tears were rolling down his face. His own father passed away about a year ago.

The book compelled me to consider the depth of parental love, among other things, but I came away feeling some sense of hope. The implication of the boy being taken in and cared for gave me something to hold onto.

I'm sure many of you are aware that this is Oprah's current book. It's definitely Cormac's most "readable" work while still retaining the visceral impact and beauty of his previous writing. Last year she was selling Faulkner to her audience, so she does get it right on occasion.

i actually forgot to comment on that. i saw "oprahs book club" thingy on the cover and dropped the book like it was going to bite me. really. then i figured, eh, what the hell. since you said the other books were good i figured i'd roll the dice. after reading it, and b/c it was my job many moons ago to understand oprahs 'real' audience, i don't think most of the people are going really get it.
 
i actually forgot to comment on that. i saw "oprahs book club" thingy on the cover and dropped the book like it was going to bite me. really. then i figured, eh, what the hell. since you said the other books were good i figured i'd roll the dice. after reading it, and b/c it was my job many moons ago to understand oprahs 'real' audience, i don't think most of the people are going really get it.

I think part of what is a bit damaging about The Road is that none of its character conjure up the typical hero of post-apocalyptia to which readers are accustomed. Usual post-apocalyptic stories narrate the deeds of a hero who swoops in right when society's last tenous holds on itself are unraveling, if they've not unraveled completely already, and conquers the nemesis who personifies disorder, hunger, poverty, and filth, in time to restore order and a modicum of dignity to the human race.

You get none of this in Cormac's novel and this is what makes the novel such a necessary struggle to complete while still preserving a part of your soul.
 
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bonefishjake

Strong like bull, smart like tractor
Team MTBNJ Halter's
to your point, JGR, i just kept waiting for something...anything "colorful" to happen and it just didn't. when i read i tend to immerse myself completely and i needed that to happen. i kept waiting for it and the when i finally came to the realization that it simply wasn't going to happen, well, i finally really felt what mccarthy was trying to do. to that end the book really is beautiful.

i don't want to say more than that since it would really spoil the mood and feel that 'the road' establishes.

i still haven't been able to shake the feeling that this book gave me.
 

Wobbegong

Well-Known Member
Interesting list of books in this thread.

My Last 3 books:

The Terror by Dan Simmons. Very long, but an amazing twist of a true story blended with myth and lore.

Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill(Stephen Kings son). Great story, but the end wasn't as good as it could have been.


I'm half way into The Bone Parade by Mark Nykanen. Very disturbing, with Mountain bike content.....
 

bonefishjake

Strong like bull, smart like tractor
Team MTBNJ Halter's
new pickups

got another mccarthy book (all the pretty horses) and vonnegut's cat's cradle yesterday for my travels. almost grabbed lust lizzard by morre but i'll wait 'til next time on that. gonna start with cat's cradle since i've never read any vonnegut.

hopefully ChrisG's recco's stay good. :D
 

Shaggz

A strong 7
jake: check out job, by robert heinlein. i just finished sirens of titan (again), by vonn, and would offer to lend it to you, but my copy is from '72 and is in very fragile condition. i got a chuckle when i saw that the price of the book was 89 cents.
 
Robert Anson Heinlein

jake: check out job, by robert heinlein. i just finished sirens of titan (again), by vonn, and would offer to lend it to you, but my copy is from '72 and is in very fragile condition. i got a chuckle when i saw that the price of the book was 89 cents.

Also read by Robert Heinlein The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Heavy duty overtones of revolution, libertarianism, and the indomitable human spirit abound.

Probably his most famous book is Stranger in a Strange Land and the uncut version is considered one of my must-reads when recommending books to people. I am not sure you can get the original version in print, but who would want to - the government and Heinlein's publishing house heavily censored the book, and after RAH's death his wife Virginia successfully got Heinlein's original, uncut version printed circa 1982.

Another book worth reading by Heinlein is Starship Troopers. Yeah, yeah, the movie with that cuter-than-a-button Casper van Dien was really, really cheesy. The film did not do the best job of capturing the internal struggle that Johnny Rico experiences in his coming of age in a time of war, but it tried to do an adequate job of portraying the socialist overtones of the novel. This is one (among many) cases where print is richer than the film-adaptation of the book.

If you read Heinlein and like his work, give his catalog a try, then move on to Philip K. Dick (whose short stories inspired the movies Blade Runner and Total Recall) and then try Octavia Butler. I was surprised to find that her novels explore her own past as a descendant of African slaves with a definite Sci-Fi twist.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
So finished Godot and the Foundation trilogy this week. Godot was meh, nothing special in 2007 maybe better if I had read it in college or in 1959, 12 years before I was born. Foundation stuff is dork science fiction which I enjoy, especially for train riding. The trilogy is decent with the first book the best, the middle book the worst (Two Towers anyone?) and the third book rounding out as just solidly decent.

The next books are 100 Years of Solitude and Bluebeard by Vonnegut.
 

bonefishjake

Strong like bull, smart like tractor
Team MTBNJ Halter's
i read cat's cradle (Vonnegut) on the plane to and from ATL this week. i thought it was really, really good. pretty funny at times, pretty cryptic at times. i never knew that "ice-9" was a reference to that book. i also picked up a couple other 'obscure references' so to speak, for instance the line "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die" out of a (gasp!) dave matthews song. over all i really liked it but had absolutely NO IDEA the book was written in the early 60's. interesting that a lot of it is still very timely.

next up is all the pretty horses by mccarthy.

so far so good for the ChrisG reccos.
 
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ChrisG

Unapologetic Lifer for Rock and Roll
i read cat's cradle (Vonnegut) on the plane to and from ATL this week. i thought it was really, really good. pretty funny at times, pretty cryptic at times. i never knew that "ice-9" was a reference to that book. i also picked up a couple other 'obscure references' so to speak, for instance the line "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die" out of a (gasp!) dave matthews song. over all i really liked it but had absolutely NO IDEA the book was written in the early 60's. interesting that a lot of it is still very timely.

next up is all the pretty horses by mccarthy.

so far so good for the ChrisG reccos.
Man, I love this stuff.

Vonnegut was probably the most sigificant American fiction writer alive at the time of his death. Your observation of how applicable it still remains is one reason why good writers transcend time. I need to do some serious restudying/expanding of my Vonnegut catalog.

"Ice-9"- Joe Satriani? Saw him at the Bottom Line on the "Surfing" tour with w few musician-geek buddies. Jonathan Mover gave me a drum stick at the end of the set.

Cormac is not for everyone, but he can hit you so hard, in so many ways. ATP shows this range quite well.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Now don't get me wrong, as I believe Vonnegut is possibly the best American author ever. But I don't think he's written anything significant since Hocus Pocus. Timequake was a mess and God Bless You Dr. Kevorkian was just plain bad, IMO. In terms of most significant maybe Updike? Jeez it's so hard to throw out any names anymore because the most pertinent of the "young" authors are names like Sedaris and Eggers - entertaining but not exactly literary juggernauts. I think English literature is being overrun by non-American authors like Jahiri, Rushdie, Martel, etc. I don't think that's a bad thing at all though.
 

ChrisG

Unapologetic Lifer for Rock and Roll
Now don't get me wrong, as I believe Vonnegut is possibly the best American author ever. But I don't think he's written anything significant since Hocus Pocus. Timequake was a mess and God Bless You Dr. Kevorkian was just plain bad, IMO. In terms of most significant maybe Updike? Jeez it's so hard to throw out any names anymore because the most pertinent of the "young" authors are names like Sedaris and Eggers - entertaining but not exactly literary juggernauts. I think English literature is being overrun by non-American authors like Jahiri, Rushdie, Martel, etc. I don't think that's a bad thing at all though.
Oh yeah, the application of superlatives is always a shaky thing, hence my "probably". I had this same discussion with a few friends the other day and we agreed that there's no way a definitive answer can be arrived at. But Vonnegut certainly would be on the "short list" of important American fiction writers recently alive. Whether or not he's been awesome for his entire career is another issue altogether, I agree.

A certain Mr. McCarthy who has been discussed quite a bit here is also on that short list, as far as I'm concerned.
 
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