Great Books...

[KootenayFlamesFan]

If you are a dog owner or have been in the past check out "Marley and Me"........great book.

[Julio]

If the detective genre is one you like, I reccomend anything by Robert B. Parker (Spenser is my favorite of his 3 main protagonists).

[troutman]

The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution by Richard Dawkins

The Ancestor's Tale takes us from our immediate human ancestors back through what he calls ‘concestors,’ those shared with the apes, monkeys and other mammals and other vertebrates and beyond to the dim and distant microbial beginnings of life some 4 billion years ago.

The God Delusion (waiting for paperback)
by Richard Dawkins

The antireligion wars started by Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris will heat up even more with this salvo from celebrated Oxford biologist Dawkins. For a scientist who criticizes religion for its intolerance, Dawkins has written a surprisingly intolerant book, full of scorn for religion and those who believe. But Dawkins, who gave us the selfish gene, anticipates this criticism.

Planets
by Dava Sobel

The authors lifelong fascination with our solar system is evident in these essays that blend the latest scientific knowledge with popular culture, mythology, astrology, literature, music, and more. Beginning with the Big Bang and the Sun in Genesis, Sobel presents the nine planets in turn, inviting readers to share her sense of wonder.

Nine planets? So 2005.

The Bonehunters: Malazan Book of Fallen 6
by Steven Erikson

The sixth volume in Steven Erikson's truly epic fantasy sequence, The Malazan Book of the Fallen. Steven Erikson is an archaeologist and anthropologist, and a graduate of the celebrated Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He recently returned to Canada after a number of years in the UK, and now lives in Winnipeg.

Best fantasy series ever:

http://www.malazanempire.com/site/index.shtml

[troutman]

Time Magazine, top 100 English novels 1923 to present:

http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/

100 Best First Lines from Novels

http://www.litline.org/ABR/100bestfirstlines.html

Modern Library, 100 Best:

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100best

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by troutman

Best fantasy series ever:

http://www.malazanempire.com/site/index.shtml

I'm not sure I agree with that. Interesting, but it hasn't generated passion that some ather series have been able elicit.

I'm a big fan of Guy Gavriel Kay. I need to re-read The Fionavar Tapestry (I can't even recall most of the storyline), but Tigana, A Song for Arbonne, The Lions of Al-Rassan, well, the rest are all excellent.

Here is the Authorized Website

[JohnnyFlame]

If you haven't read Eragon by Christopher Paolini which is the First book in the Inheritance Trilogy it is an excellent read. Also the Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud is a very funny series. I don't read much non-fiction but easily the best one I've ever read was William L Shirer's the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich which is just a book you can't put down as the details are just fascinating.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by JohnnyFlame

If you haven't read Eragon by Christopher Paolini which is the First book in the Inheritance Trilogy it is an excellent read. Also the Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud is a very funny series. I don't read much non-fiction but easily the best one I've ever read was William L Shirer's the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich which is just a book you can't put down as the details are just fascinating.

I liked the Jonathan Stroud books too--though I haven't read the 3rd book--didn't realize it was out.

If you like that one, then Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is also a great read, albeit on the long side.

[Cowperson]

There should be some depressing Hemingway titles in here:

"The Sun Also Rises" . . . . guy gets his balls shot off in the war and the woman who loves him is very, very frustrated and takes it out on a young bullfighter. Some fine fly-fishing in this one. American "expatriates" living in Europe in the inter-war years.

"A Farewell To Arms" . . . . I can pretty well guarantee you'll throw this book across the room after you read the ending. But not uncommon for American authors in that period to view tragedy as entertainment . . .

"The Old Man And The Sea" . . . . a classic.

Cowperson

[Bobblehead]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

"The Old Man And The Sea" . . . . a classic.

Cowperson

I should reread that. I had to read it in highschool and I wonder if it (along with many other things I read in highschool) would be better with more life-experience behind me now?

The best book I read in highschool was 5th Business. I always meant to read the rest of that trilogy (the Deptford Trilogy) but never did.

*sigh* I have about 4 books at home I want to read, but my want to read list gets longer and longer.

[Iowa_Flames_Fan]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

There should be some depressing Hemingway titles in here:

"The Sun Also Rises" . . . . guy gets his balls shot off in the war and the woman who loves him is very, very frustrated and takes it out on a young bullfighter. Some fine fly-fishing in this one. American "expatriates" living in Europe in the inter-war years.

"A Farewell To Arms" . . . . I can pretty well guarantee you'll throw this book across the room after you read the ending. But not uncommon for American authors in that period to view tragedy as entertainment . . .

"The Old Man And The Sea" . . . . a classic.

Cowperson

I'm personally a fan of "For Whom the Bell Tolls"--an American sapper in the Spanish Civil War. Great read--gotta love "Poppa" Hemingway.

If we have to include depressing Hemingway titles, why not a few depressing Faulkner titles too? Admittedly not an expatriate like Poppa, but their contrasting styles have led to a lot of comparisons.

As I Lay Dying is a good one--I taught it about 3 years ago, and my students loved it.

[Cowperson]

A few more:

It's not for everyone necessarily, but "Robinson Crusoe" by William Dafoe, written in the period in question, is interesting if for nothing else how a common man of that time viewed the world and the dangers therein.

Jules Verne . . . I have a well-thumbed copy of "Around the World In Eighty Days" which I've photographed on various beaches in exotic locales.

HG Wells . . . . "First Men In The Moon," "The Time Machine" and "The War Of The Worlds."

Mark Twain . . . . "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

Robert Louis Stevenson . . . . "Treasure Island"

A more recent author . . . . Isabelle Allende with "Zorro" . . . . finished reading this in the summer. A lot of fun.

Cowperson

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

A few more:

It's not for everyone necessarily, but "Robinson Crusoe" by William Dafoe, written in the period in question, is interesting if for nothing else how a common man of that time viewed the world and the dangers therein.

Even though it was published almost 300 years ago, it is surprisingly "readable", and everyone should read it. Some of the language is a little different obviously, and he capitalizes a hell of a lot of words, but it's good stuff.

It was Daniel Defoe though, not William.

[looooob]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

Well I just ordered a book called "When the Lights Went Out" about the brawl between Russia and Canada at the WJCs - I read in excpert of it in some magazine and it seemed very good.

.

by Gare Joyce. I'll be interested to hear what you think of it. I skimmed it at the bookstore yesterday while daughter was reading Dora the Explorer books

there was a particuarly daming section on Pierre Turgeon I was reading

[BlackEleven]

Originally Posted by troutman

100 Best First Lines from Novels

http://www.litline.org/ABR/100bestfirstlines.html
t

That's funny. The first thing I thought about before I clicked the link was "Call me Ishmael" and there it was at number 1. The other one I immediately thought of was the one about the clocks striking 13 from 1984, which came in at number 8.

[octothorp]

You know a poll has been hijacked, when:

Originally Posted by troutman

Modern Library, 100 Best:

http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibrary/100best

In the readers' picks list, seven of the top ten books are by Ayn Rand and Ron L. Hubbard. That's pretty funny. At least to me it is.

[BlackEleven]

Originally Posted by octothorp

You know a poll has been hijacked, when:



In the readers' picks list, seven of the top ten books are by Ayn Rand and Ron L. Hubbard. That's pretty funny. At least to me it is.

I was going to make the same comment. How many of those scientology nuts sat there voting for hours on end? Kind of reminds me of those accusations that Scientology is buying thousands of copies of their own books back so that they make the New York Times bestseller list.

[Cowperson]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Even though it was published almost 300 years ago, it is surprisingly "readable", and everyone should read it. Some of the language is a little different obviously, and he capitalizes a hell of a lot of words, but it's good stuff.

It was Daniel Defoe though, not William.

My Daniel Dafoe Reader just fell off the bookshelf in shame . . . .

I brought this up in another book thread and some people dissed the mention, but the "Red Mars," "Green Mars," "Blue Mars" trilogy, about 2000 or more pages of reading by Kim Robinson, is an epic discussion on all manner of topics, including science, philosophy and history, all wrapped around the terraforming and settlement of Mars. If you're left-leaning in the political spectrum, you'll like it even more. But, like War & Peace, it might be best appreciated in 20 page bites per day, with the occasional "can't put it down" segments. To be savoured, but not rushed.

Cowperson

[troutman]

Literary Awards:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_literary_awards

The Hugo Award:

http://www.hugo.org/hugos.html

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr., 1961
Rendezvous with with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke, 1974
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1970
The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick, 1963
To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip José Farmer, 1972

The Nebula Award:

http://www.sfwa.org/awards/

Booker Prize:

http://www.themanbookerprize.com/

Nobel Prize:

http://www.nobelprizes.com/nobel/literature/

[JBR]

For the baseball lovers:

Luckiest Man - The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig

Great read

[FurnaceFace]

On my trip I read:

Getting Stoned with Savages - a humourous look into living on islands in the south pacific.

The Masked Rider by Neil Peart - The adventures of the Rush percussionist as he bicycles around Cameroon. If you're a Rush fan his other books Ghost Rider and Travelling Music are also very good.