the books we read

[wellfleet]

we should have a book thread. books are interesting and excellent, like albums and puppies!

what are you reading right now?

i just finished nick hornby's "how to be good". it's much about the challenge of being happily married for the long-haul... something i'm keen on learning.

and now i'm reading "freakonomics" written by an economist and journalist. it examines every day subjects and attempts to distill cause and effect, and demistify correlation and causality. it's totally fascinating and for a book that mostly deals with hard data, it's as readable as any novel.

i'm looking for some good books to read, can anyone recommend?

[tomEisenbraun]

i just got finished readin "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury.

Such an amazing book. The way this guy dissects the human nature and just how we act and feel and what we do is so wonderful. It's not hardly a scifi book as much as it is probably one of the top five books of the 20th century.

that coming from a kid who only spent 13 years in said century, but it really is a damn good book. i'd highly suggest it.

I'm also reading "The Normal Christian Life" by Watchman Nee which is an extremely thought-provoking and invigorating look at Christ and his death and all of what that means. The man's writing style is very interesting, as he was Chinese and wrote this in 1920-something, so the translation is very interesting, but also very exacting. He covers things much like Paul, who wrote a majority of the New Testament of the Bible, covers things. The book has really opened my eyes up a bit, and helped me understand a lot. I'd also highly recommend it.

[tomEisenbraun]

by the way, has anyone read the DaVinci Code? I'm feeling more and more like i probably need to read it this summer, and i don't really knwo too much about what its about, just that it's pretty heretical.

[ManNamedTruth]

I haven't read anything in a couple years, but I'd suggest Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions. If you haven't already.

[dragonboy]

I'm in the middle of Capote's In Cold Blood.

[dragonboy]

Ooo...2000 posts!  :)

[EC]

Tom, I think you'd like De Profundis by Oscar Wilde.  It's all about Jesus Christ as being the first romantic figure in literature.  Just another point of view about your favourite dude.  ;)  (It's a lovely, lovely essay.  He wrote it from Reading Gaol.)

I have been reading The Narrow Road to the Interior by Basho (ancient Japanese haiku poet).  I don't know how much more I'll read.  I love his poems, but am finding that I can't really concentrate on this journal of a long trip he took.

I got The Art of Living by Epictetus for my birthday.  Epictetus was an early Stoic philosopher - he was an emancipated slave and had a very difficult life.  There are some great ideas in there (some of which I don't think really gel with modern life), but mostly it gives excellent examples for problem solving in difficult situations.  I was reading that on my trip.  It's kind of all about how the only thing that matters is how you handle situations, and that you have the power to not allow things to affect you.  Good reminders.

I was reading Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins, and I fucking loved those books.  In fact, I think I'll head to the used bookstore today to find Another Roadside Attraction which I've heard wonderful things about.  Tom Robbins has a wonderful way of steeping philosophy into his stories while also creating brilliant and interesting characters.  

Hm.  Before that I read The Alchemist, which, where I wasn't always crazy about the sentimentalism (and that's not even the right word, but it's close enough), I thought that the message was excellent, and the characters really lovely.  For some reason it reminded me of The Brothers Karamazov (which I love).

I guess I really like reading about characters who are searching around and trying to figure things out.  :)

[corey]

Tom,
Bradbury has written some of my favorite stories. You should find "The Fog Horn" (from The Golden Apples of the Sun" and most of "The October Country" is beautiful as well. In fact, the song "RocketMan" is based loosely on one of his stories.

I've had the opportunity to spend some time with him. He's a very lovely person and a treat to talk to.

[Tree]

I´m reading "Angela´s Ashes" by Frank McCourt. Great book. I´ve seen the movie years ago and thought that it was also great!

[FarmerYoda]

I haven't read anything in a couple years, but I'd suggest Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions. If you haven't already.

thats my favorite in the whooollle world. vonneguts great,. i'm currently reading SIRENS OF TITAN. and tale of two cities with school which isn't so bad, either...
another favorite being catcher in the rye (cliche, but so true)

i also highly suggest "the muse and the mechanism"
which can be found here:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=0974726176&itm=8

not a very popular book, however it's really good... yeah? do it.

[chris]

Right now i'm reading "20,000 leagues under the sea", but two of my favorite contemporary writers over the last few years are Dave Eggers and Sherman Alexie.  Eggers is probably best known for his book "A heartbreaking work of staggering genius", but I like his book "You shall know our velocity" a little bit more (they're both great though).  Sherman Alexie is a native american author who had one of his books adapted into the movie "Smoke Signals", and the book it's based on, "the Lone ranger and Tonto fistfight in heaven", is one of my favorites.  I also like his books "The toughest Indian in the world" and "Reservation Blues" an awful lot.

[ycartrob]

Freakonimics for fun

Collaborative, Competency-Based Counseling and Therapy for work

and I recomend A Prayer for Owen Meaney by John Irving.

Plus, Jesus' Son, a collection of short stories by Denis Johnson'''whhoooo buddy!

[ManNamedTruth]

Tom,
Bradbury has written some of my favorite stories. You should find "The Fog Horn" (from The Golden Apples of the Sun" and most of "The October Country" is beautiful as well. In fact, the song "RocketMan" is based loosely on one of his stories.

I thought that song was about cocaine. Near the beginning of the song he says he's gonna be "high as a kite by then'". And Elton John admittedly had a drug problem back in them days. Plus what other drug literally makes you feel like a rocket man.

[ycartrob]

I thought that song was about cocaine. Near the beginning of the song he says he's gonna be "high as a kite by then'". And Elton John admittedly had a drug problem back in them days. Plus what other drug literally makes you feel like a rocket man.

Bernie Taupin wrote the lyrics to Rocket Man. He says it's about the isolation of rock stardom.

[SMc55]

Ooo...2000 posts!  :)

Congratulations!  ;D

[wellfleet]

tom... the Da Vinci Code...

i read it and enjoyed it. as a book lover, i thought dan brown's writing was putrid. he's not a fantastic author, he certainly doesn't have a flair for words and sentences like vonnegut or robbins or eggers mentioned here. but the story and the plot are very engaging, fast-paced, maybe even thought-provoking. the whole time i was reading it i thought, man this would make a GREAT action-adventure flick like Indiana Jones. i then read two of his other books, and they're the same sort of "truthiness"-based page turners. by that i mean that they *sound* like they could all be fact-based, but they're really just fiction.
i know your religion is very near to your heart and i urge you to read the da vinci code as a fiction novel and not as a tract casting aspersions on God, Jesus, or Christianity. there's been a lot of noise where i live about how the da vinci code is demeaning to Christians and i don't believe that's true. it's just a work of fun fiction and strangely enough, in his book Angels & Demons, there is a fascinating part about a scientist who, during his research, essentially proves the existence of a god-like being. you have to read it to get it and i don't want to give it away... but if you like historically inspired mysteries, you'll like the Code.

[corey]

Well, "RocketMan" may possibly be about drugs or being a rockstar, but it has a lot of similarities between the song and the short story.

[ali]

i enjoyed the da vinci code, but i thought the ending was a bit on the weak side...

currently reading "ticket to ride" by sarah darmody who's an australian girl who won a green card, then decided to see the US travelling around by greyhound bus. hilarious

this is my top 10 (always difficult choices, and not in any order).

1. any one of the following by martin cruz smith - gorky park, polar star, red square, havana bay & wolves eat dogs - all starring a russian investigator Arkady Renko - political/historical (80s & 90s politics) - seriously brilliant novels
2. the beckoning silence - joe simpson (he wrote touching the void, also a great book...)
3. vikram seth - an equal music
4. anything by nick hornby
5. dirt music - tim winton - if any of you ever want to read a seriously great book about australia, pick anything by tim winton. he has an amazingly evocative way of writing, so realistic that you can almost smell the outback or the sea
6. anything by bill bryson - i had to stop reading his books on public transport, they were making me laugh too much
7. the shipping news - annie e proulx
8. rubicon: the triumph & tragedy of the roman empire - tom holland
9. pride & prejudice - jane austen
10. to kill a mockingbird - i re-read this recently (we studied it at school) and was blown away (again) by this book....

fairly random selection, but all books i've read & re-read time & again...

[dragonboy]

Some of my Fav books:

Cash: The Autobiography by Johnny Cash
Last Train To Memphis & Careless Love by Peter Guralnick
Ricky by Ricky Tomlinson
Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha  by Roddy Doyle
Angela's Ashes  by Frank McCourt
The Beach by Alex Garland
The Secret Sexist by David Bowker
Back Roads by Tawni O'Dell
Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger
Anything by Martin Millar (Dreams Of Sex & Stage Diving, The Good Fairies Of New York etc), Bill Byrson, Roald Dahl & all of the Moomin books by Tove Jansson!

[dragonboy]

Anyone read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini?