Books, and for those who like to read them

Greenplease

Greenplease

Active Member
So, I'm bored here at work and decided to get a book thread going, I will post book names up that I have read and really enjoyed in my life time, I am no book worm, but when I do find a good book, I read it cover to cover pretty quick.

So here goes, add to list as you go! Enjoy

Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa (english version is relatively easy to find.

The Children of Húrin by JRR Tolkien, and finished by his son

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

Tales of the Otori by Lian Hearn (so far, 4 books in total, highly recomended!!)

When Nietzche Cried by Irvin Yalom (a hard read, but a good one, philosophical)

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking

And ofcourse The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien (a classic)

So, add to the list if you like, and maybe some people can use this as a reference!
Reading is a great tool, and can be a great way to broaden your general knowledge and also inform us of certain realities in the world. Open our eyes I guess I would say.

Anyway Peace!
 
Padawanbater2

Padawanbater2

Well-Known Member
Hey Greenplease, good idea for a thread, I remember a few of us had one going a while back pretty similar... I dunno what happened to it, that was before the site crashed and I had to make a new profile..

I'd personally appreciate a little summary of what each book is about, if you don't mind doing that.

Some really good books I'd recommend;

-Guns Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Society by Jared Diamond (won a Pulitzer) - awesome book, I really didn't think very much about the expansion of civilization until I picked it up. It goes into extreme detail about how certain societies were simply lucky by location and how the timing of certain inventions and discoveries was absolutely perfect.

-Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin - great biology book about the discovery of Tiktaalik, the first known limbed animal. If you have any doubts about the theory of evolution, pick up this book! The author does a great job of explaining complex ideas in simplistic ways.

-Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan - Possibly the best book I've ever read. Covers everything with an awesome philosophical tone that only Sagan can bring.

-1984 by George Orwell - Classic book I'd recommend to most people. Insane how closely it applies to our own society.

I'm gonna double stamp my seal of approval for Brysons A Short History of Nearly Everything. That's another one of those books that's fucking outstanding!

I want to pick up Hawkings new book, I skimmed through it in B&N a while back and it looked promising.

It was really great reading Darwins On the Origin of Species. It's crazy putting yourself in the same position, thinking that before this book was published nobody in the world had any way of figuring this stuff out, then when it was, everything came together so beautifully. I'd imagine one would get the same feeling Darwin did about biology from reading Newtons Principia about mathematics.

Good thread. +rep
 
purplehazin

purplehazin

Well-Known Member
Wow, looks like I'll be raiding the library soon enough :D

Thanks for all the book titles guys, and Padawan, good idea to have short descriptions.

Well Im more of a fiction/adventure type of reader, so Ill throw out a short list

Most Michael Crichton novels are good; really liked Prey. About nanotechnology... dont want to give too much away.

A few years ago I really got into the Kate Shugak series, by Dana Stabenow. (Taken from the web: Kate Shugak is an Aleut who lives on a 160-acre homestead in a generic national Park in Alaska. Her roommate is a half-wolf, half-husky dog named Mutt. Her nearest neighbors are a bull moose and a grizzly sow. Farther off are dog mushers, miners, hunters, trappers, fishermen, bush pilots, pipeline workers, Park rats and Park rangers, other Aleuts, Athabascans, a few Tlingits and the residents of Niniltna, a village perched on the edge of the Kanuyaq River, a 600-mile long, salmon-rich tributary that winds through the Park to Prince William Sound.)
 
BudMcLovin

BudMcLovin

Active Member
I just got through reading The Hobbit again myself. Also recently read The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. It’s a pretty good read. Everyone has probably seen the movie but the book of course goes into a lot more detail. Plus it’s interesting to read description of rocket ships and advanced technology from a guy in 1898.
I’m about 200 pages in to Don Quixote and if you haven’t read it you should. It’s one of the funniest books I’ve ever read. It’s laugh out loud funny, especially after a nice toasty bowl. It’s old a shit but still a good read. I don’t know if it’s this funny all the way through but so far I’d give it 2 thumbs up. Don Quixote is a nut. His in 16th century Spain and thinks he’s a knight. This little review can say it better than I can taken from some literature web site. LINK

“The alpha and the omega of the novel form, the first true novel, the best-selling novel and in the eyes of most of the world, the greatest novel of all time. Cervantes uses the theme of the idealistic, insane knight and the devoted, down to earth squire to portray many complex themes through a plethora of unforgettable incidents, tragic and comic in a blend of great variety and colour. The book is unsurpassed as a masterpiece of droll humour, a scintillating portrait of 16th century Spanish society made all the more beautiful by the fantastic prose style. Cervantes started the novel in order to parody the many romances of chivalry which were circulating in those times and which the Church was unsuccessfully trying to check, but the hero got the better of him. The result is Don Quixote, and as the author says the Don is "so conspicous and void of difficulty that children may handle him, youths may read him, men may understand him and old men may celebrate him"
 
Greenplease

Greenplease

Active Member
Greenplease said:
So, I'm bored here at work and decided to get a book thread going, I will post book names up that I have read and really enjoyed in my life time, I am no book worm, but when I do find a good book, I read it cover to cover pretty quick.

So here goes, add to list as you go! Enjoy O.k so as requested I will add a brief description to my chosen novels.

Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa (english version is relatively easy to find) - Basically for anyone who has an interest in Japonese history and Samurai in general, it teaches a huge amount of life philosophy and about self thought, it is the most acurate telling of Miyamoto Musashis life, and is written in great detail. It tells of his triumphs defeats (in battle and in life) and the general hardships that any life brings. I highly recommend this book for any Samurai enthusiast. I have personally read this book 3 times haha

The Children of Húrin by JRR Tolkien, and finished by his son - So this is another tale comming out of middle earth, I can't rightly remember how Húrin fits into the grand scheme of things, but it elaborates on the stories of The Silmarillion. And tells of a time not yet written of in past Tolkien books, with information on the history of middle earth. It's a great read for any of you that enjoy JRR Tolkien.

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien - If you haven't read this book yet, then read it, especially if you enjoyed (the films or books) The Lord of The Rings, it is basically the prequel to the trilogy, and tells of how Bilbo Baggins came into posession of the ring. There is a dragon in this story hahaha, one thing that I thought lacked in The Lord of the Rings.

Tales of the Otori by Lian Hearn (so far, 4 books in total, highly recomended!!) - Ok, so obviously I'm pretty in to Japonese history and anything to do with Samurai (and although relatively mythical, Ninja) Anyway, these books are very well written, and tell a tale of a king who comes into ruling through a fate unknown to him until far into the story ofthe first book. It is full of japonese tales with samurai, and goes off on branches that have never been thought of. You really have to look these books up, they are fantastic, whether you are into japonese history/folklore or not.

When Nietzche Cried by Irvin Yalom (a hard read, but a good one, philosophical) - Basically it talks of Nietzche's philosophy on life and more importantly religion, and how these philosophies affected him. It is a very in depth look into human rationale and relations. An intense read, but well worth it, there is also a film of the same title, which, if you don't understand the book so well, can help you to understand.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson - Well, what can I say, this book is incredible, Bryson talks about everything from quantam physics to evolution and geology, and he writes it all down in laymans terms, so you and I can understand, if you were religious before reading this book, you wont be afterwards. It explains absolutely everything we know about the scientific world. Such a good read, and will really teach you a thing or two about the virulent world that we live in.

The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking - Fairly similar to Bryson's book, but goes off on different angles

And ofcourse The Lord of the Rings Trilogy by JRR Tolkien (a classic) - Read these books hahaha

So, add to the list if you like, and maybe some people can use this as a reference!
Reading is a great tool, and can be a great way to broaden your general knowledge and also inform us of certain realities in the world. Open our eyes I guess I would say.

Anyway Peace!
Click to expand...
Anyway, I kind forgot about this thread, hopefully we can get a good list going.
 
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