Reading material

[sxereturn]

Anybody a bit of a bookworm like I am?

I just got done reading Lance Armstrongs book. What a giant piece of self indulged, "pity me" bullshit. Sure, you had cancer, that sucks, and yes, the odds were against you, but no need to devote a complete fucking book to it, retard. I'd really like to know how many times the word "cancer" is printed in that book...

I was in Borders the other day, and picked up a book called "The Boy Called It", sat down on a chair, and before I knew it I was 50 pages in. I didn't have any cash on me, but will go back and buy it, along with the 2 sequels.

Anyone got some recommendations?

 

[S.]

Matt Hoffman - Testimony
The Da Vinci Code
Angels and Demons

Ahh I haven't read anything incredible for ages (other than those), the last good book I read before those would have been one of the Harry Potter books (seriously).

 

[floody]

Most interesting things I've read recently were:
Leo Tolstoy - My Confessions - nothing like existencial angst ad the elusive search for meaning in life, set out in the language of an amazing author...
Ernest Hemingway -For Whom The Bell Tolls awesome book!
The Killers is a cool short story by Hemingway too.
Oscar Wilde -The Picture of Dorian Gray Wilde's language is simly enthralling..
Edgar Allan Poe -Collected Works I really like The Cask of Amontillado, The Masque of the Red Death, The Black Cat, and who couldn't like The Tell Tale heart and The Pit and The Pendulum - I love Poe's work.

I read some tech stuff too, mainly cars and bikes...
Phil Irving -An Autobiography
Phil Irving -Tuning For Speed
Jim Gianatsis - Design and Tuning for Motocross

I'm not reading much at the moment, for shame...In any case, I'd recommend the Wilde text, the Hemingway, and Poe's short stories, as some interesting 19th century works. Some other books I've enjoyed are Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights (one of my all time favourites), Stoker's Dracula (yeah cliched but good), Shelley's Frankenstein. I read Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto recently and it was cool - early gothic stuff is in most cases a refreshing change from hackneyed stuff like Anne Rice and so on...
Any of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels are surefire winners to be a roaring read, with everything from incisive literary cynicism and self reflexiveness to just straight out humour...The only problem is explaining to people you are reading a book about a funny world knid of like ours but flat, magic in place of science, and supported by a turtle and four elephants as it cruises through space..

I mainly read older works, most of my reading is mid 20th century or more often 19th century and earlier - times when the English language was an artistic end not merely a means.

 

[Fat_Ride]

Bringing down the house... don't know the authors name off the top of my head but it is about a group of guys from MIT who create a way to beat black jack and take Las Vegas for millions. True story too, well worth the read.

warning though, you will want to hit the casino afterwards.

 

[notb4dinner]

Anybody a bit of a bookworm like I am?

I just got done reading Lance Armstrongs book. What a giant piece of self indulged, "pity me" bullshit. Sure, you had cancer, that sucks, and yes, the odds were against you, but no need to devote a complete fucking book to it, retard. I'd really like to know how many times the word "cancer" is printed in that book...

I was in Borders the other day, and picked up a book called "The Boy Called It", sat down on a chair, and before I knew it I was 50 pages in. I didn't have any cash on me, but will go back and buy it, along with the 2 sequels.

Anyone got some recommendations?

I can thoroughly recomend the sequels - in fact you can get 'A Boy Called It' and the two sequels in one paper back which I imagine would be cheaper than buying all 3. The shit that kid (and later a grown man) went through and the attitude he came out with is mind blowing. I think anyone complaining about how screwed up their lives are should be sat down and told to read that book, it really puts things in perspective....

 

[CHEWY]

The Da Vinci Code

hell yes, I learnt more from this book than I have at school!

Ernest Hemingway -For Whom The Bell Tolls awesome book!

Red October - that dude..
The forgotten Soldier - Guy Sajer
The thin red line - cant remember

I like the war books.. theres is a shitload of others, I just cant think of them this early in the morn..
Edgar Allen Poe does some damn fine shit too.

 

[matty_2004]

I went to the book store today and asked about the 3 books you recommended Socket, they had no idea about either of them and obviously had none of the 3 in stock. I'm going to try and order them off the internet, they sound like a good read.

 

[zac]

discworld

anything by rob grant or doug naylor (either seperately or as grant naylor). grant naylor created red dwarf, and rob grant wrote 'incompetence', which i'd advise you to have a look at. also 'vienna blood' by that author whose name i can't quite remember.

contest, temple and ice station by matthew reilly - really fast paced action novels that read like a movie (he says he writes in scenes not chapters), but his later novels suck

brian lumley's necroscope series - about a fella who talks to the dead

the sharpe, starbuck and grail quest series by bernard cornwell

all of michael crichton's books

i just finished 'the far arena' by richard ben sapir. really good book about a gladiator who is resurrected nearly 2000 years after he was banished from rome. also see 'the body' and 'quest' by the same author. his books have a nit of a religious bent (the body's about finding a 2000 year old corpse with scars around the skull, through the forearms and shins and quest is about the possible existence of the grail) but they are really engrossing.

for something a bit different, try the 'preacher' series of graphic novels by garth ennis, but i have to say that if you are remotely religious or easily offended give these a wide birth. they cover everything from angels to demons, including vampires, suicides, orgies, drugs, cats in toilets, torture, the irish, good ol' boys, voodoo, john wayne, disgruntled air force employees, the word of god, serial killers, the saint, etc. something for everyone, in other words.

i don't mind the james bond books, but only the ones by ian fleming (john gardner's are ok, but raymond benson should be taken out, shot and put out of our misery)

i liked naked lunch by william s burroughs, and if anyone knows where i can get my hands on american psycho and rules of attraction (i think that's what it's called) i'd be eternally grateful.

eric van lustbader's 'nicholas linnear' cycle starting with 'ninja'

robert ludlum's bourne books which are much better than the movie

i didn't mind 'first blood' by david morrell, but i'm pissed of with the fact that author's are pandering to filmmaker's who want a sequel so are resurrecting characters who have been killed off (also see ian malcolm in jurassic park/the lost world)

 

[Rexy]

umm check out the tommorow series, really good seriesand maybe something like a autobiography, like matt hoffman or tony hawks they are pretty interesting.

 

[tu plang]

Anybody a bit of a bookworm like I am?

I just got done reading Lance Armstrongs book. What a giant piece of self indulged, "pity me" bullshit. Sure, you had cancer, that sucks, and yes, the odds were against you, but no need to devote a complete fucking book to it, retard. I'd really like to know how many times the word "cancer" is printed in that book...

I was in Borders the other day, and picked up a book called "The Boy Called It", sat down on a chair, and before I knew it I was 50 pages in. I didn't have any cash on me, but will go back and buy it, along with the 2 sequels.

Anyone got some recommendations?

I can thoroughly recomend the sequels - in fact you can get 'A Boy Called It' and the two sequels in one paper back which I imagine would be cheaper than buying all 3. The shit that kid (and later a grown man) went through and the attitude he came out with is mind blowing. I think anyone complaining about how screwed up their lives are should be sat down and told to read that book, it really puts things in perspective....

that rings a bell, is that about the boy who got the botched circumcision and was brought up as a girl?

 

[notb4dinner]

No, he was the victim of abuse on a scale you wouldn't even be able to imagine. (Although given the title, that would be a fair enough assumption...)

 

[Adi]

I thought that the last three books that I read were pretty interesting,

Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game
Willy Russell - The Wrong Boy

An expository text,
Michael Moore - Dude, Where's My Country

The next book on my to read list is probably the sequel to Ender's Game.

 

[riderigid]

nineteen-eighty-four - George Orwell
Down Under - Bill Bryson
Airframe - Michael Chrichton
anything by Dale Brown

 

[floody]

Down Under - Bill Bryson

haha definitely, one of the funniest books I've ever read - but with that refreshing subtlety of humour that lends a bit of class to it.

 

[armpit]

omg this is a must read, the weavers of saramyr, by chris wooding, best book ever, i rate it so highly, also the hitch hikers guide to the galaxy, by (the late) doug adams

 

[wombat]

also the hitch hikers guide to the galaxy, by (the late) doug adams

Adams is one of my hero's, I just love the absurdism, possibly some of the funniest book's around. If you like the Hitchhiker's series, get "Dirk's Gently's Hollistic Detective Agency" too, hilarious (there's also the sequel "The Dark Tea Time of the Soul").

Heller's "Catch 22" is another favourite.

 

[ruthlessgirl]

last book i read was "a short history of nearly everything" by bill bryson... so interesting! if i had that when i was in hs i'd have been so much smarter! Real stuff... from big band to evolution to astronomy to biology but it's actually interesting & easy to read!

before that i read Solomon's Song by Bryce Courtney (great story, part of 3 but i didn't know that till after... it's the 3rd)...

 

[parallax]

No, he was the victim of abuse on a scale you wouldn't even be able to imagine. (Although given the title, that would be a fair enough assumption...)

Just don't judge a book by its cover. :lol:

Someone said - Robert Ludlums The Bourne Identity - Farkin awesome read. 10x better than the film.

Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad

Richard III and Twelfth Night - William Shakespeare. I lurve those two.

And I also flick through weblogs. You can find some good stuff out there amongst all the rubbish.

Don't flame me - But the Harry Potter books are pretty damn good. Sort of like a bell curve, with number 3-4 being the best imho. I bashed a kid in yr 10 for reading Harry Potter and my punishment was to read them myself - I've become a convert.

 

[floody]

last book i read was "a short history of nearly everything" by bill bryson... so interesting! if i had that when i was in hs i'd have been so much smarter! Real stuff... from big band to evolution to astronomy to biology but it's actually interesting & easy to read!

Terry Pratchett/Ian Stewart/Jack Cohen's The Science of Discworld is another interesting "history of stuff" kind of book. It does help slightly if you've read any of the discworld novels, though you don't really need to have done so. It kind of follows evolution, geology and science from the big bang through to discovering nuclear fission....And even goes as far as delving into things like space elevators (!).

 

[bighitter184]

I've recently discovered the action novels of Matthew Reilly.Never really
reading this genre before I've chewed through four of his books in three weeks.Awsome over the top stories that get bigger as they go.

Ice station
Temple
Contest
Area 7
and Scarecrow.
He now has a novel online called Hovercar Racer.

I also like douglas adams,Brett Easton Ellis,The red dwarf novels &Tom
Robbins(Jitterbug perfume,I can't stop reading that book)