Looking for a good book.

[troutman]

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?k...y_h-SEBMq3wVDw

[Yeah_Baby]

A Tale of Two Cities I should read again.

[Rerun]

Most books by Dean Kuntz.

[Finny61]

Originally Posted by Rerun

Really? I was going to buy that at Costco but then I decided to get Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol instead. It was pretty good.

Whats Under the Dome about?

The story is basically the title, like the Simpsons, this town gets enveloped with a dome and people are trying to figure out how to get out, some go a little crazy. Can't give away much, take a shot at it, great characters and pacing of the story. King is the man.

[Madrox]

Originally Posted by Rerun

Most books by Dean Kuntz.

Koontz.

[Rerun]

Originally Posted by Madrox

Koontz.

You're right. Must have been a freudian slip.

[Hi-Psi]

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand
The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
World Without End - Ken Follett

Anything by Harlan Coben, Greg Iles or John Steinbeck

[FlamingInfinity]

I thought that "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy was a really good read. Tough subject matter, and the flow is different, but once you're in a few pages, you can't stop. that good.

Or "I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell" by Tucker Max for something lighter.

[FunkMasterFlame]

John Dies at the End by David Wong (aka Jason Pargin, editor in chief of Cracked.com)



Probably one of the funniest, weirdest, genuinely creepiest, "horror" books I've read. Its the kind of book you pick up and find yourself hardpressed to explain where the last 4 hours went. It was originally written in installments as an e-book back in the early 2000's, but was recently re-published as a full length novel in hardcover.

Here's a selected passage from the prologue that really sets the tone of the novel. The tone of insanity.

In the course of solving the following riddle, you will either reveal the terrifying secret at the very core of existence, or go utterly mad in the attempt.

Let's say you have an ax. The kind that you could use, in a pinch, to hack a man's head off. And let's say that very situation comes up and for some very solid reasons you behead a man. On the follow-through, though, the handle of the ax snaps in half in a spray of splinters.

So the next day you take it to the ax store down the block and get a new handle, fabricating a story for the guy behind the counter and explaining away the reddish dark stains as barbeque sauce.

Now, that next spring you find in your garage a creature that looks like a cross-bred badger and anaconda. A badgerconda. And so you grab your trusty ax and chop off one of the beast's heads, but in the process the blade of the ax strikes the concrete floor and shatters.

This means another trip to McMillan & Sons Ax Mart. As soon as you get home with your newly-headed ax, though, you meet the reanimated body of the guy you beheaded last year. He's also got a new head attached and it's wearing that unique expression of "you're the man who killed me last Spring" resentment that one so rarely encounters in everyday life.

You brandish your ax. He takes a long look at the weapon with his squishy, rotting eyes and in a gargly voice he screams, "that's the same ax that slayed me!"

Is he right?

[icarus]

One I always recommened: Roots by Alex Haley. Still one of my all-time favourites.

It's both:
Fact and Fiction
Literature and Popular Writing
Characterisation and Incident-Driven
History and Imagination

What more can you ask for in a book? You have to be patient for awhile at the beginning of the book though because not too much happens in a little African village until the shiznit goes down.

Also contains one of the most interesting literary techniques I ever come across that really draws the reader into the text (a little bit of a spoiler, so white text): Somewhere towards the middle of the book one main character is separated from another and while you keep expecting the other one to reappear you eventually realise that enough time has passed that he must be dead by now. Really makes the reader feel the loss and confusion of being separated from, and yearning for, a missing character.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by FlamingInfinity

I thought that "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy was a really good read. Tough subject matter, and the flow is different, but once you're in a few pages, you can't stop. that good.

Or "I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell" by Tucker Max for something lighter.

Both these books are pretty good.

[MickMcGeough]

Really hard to recommend anything without knowing what type of book you're looking for. I seriously think the best book of all time is "The Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius but I've got a feeling that's not what you're looking for.

Off the top of my head...

Fiction I've read recently that I'd recommend:
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk (Screw the movie. I love this book more every time I read it.)
A Man in Full - Tom Wolfe (I think Wolfe might be the best pure writer alive)
High Fidelity - Nick Hornby

Nonfiction:
The Meditations - Marcus Aurelius (possibly the most thought-provoking and introspection-inducing piece of writing in human history)
Hell's Angels - Hunter S. Thompson (not finished yet but awesome read so far)
Man's Search for Meaning - Victor Frankl (everyone on the planet should have to read this, and it's pretty short)
Happy Hour is for Amateurs: A Decade Lost in the World's Worst Profession - Philalawyer (reads like Tucker Max's IITSBIH but isn't obviously full of made-up stories and isn't told by a raging ######bag)

[Puppet Guy]

for non-fiction I suggest:
both A Cook's Tour and Kitchen Confidential, by Anthony Bourdain
White Line Fever by Lemmy Kilmister
Ghost Rider by Neil Peart

fiction-wise I nominate the Jack Aubrey/Master and Commander series by Patrick O'Brian, and the Sharpe's series by Bernard Cornwell.

[endeavor]

Originally Posted by FunkMasterFlame

John Dies at the End by David Wong (aka Jason Pargin, editor in chief of Cracked.com)

Probably one of the funniest, weirdest, genuinely creepiest, "horror" books I've read. Its the kind of book you pick up and find yourself hardpressed to explain where the last 4 hours went. It was originally written in installments as an e-book back in the early 2000's, but was recently re-published as a full length novel in hardcover.

Here's a selected passage from the prologue that really sets the tone of the novel. The tone of insanity.

This one looks interesting. I'll be sure to check it out.

OP, I recommend The Fountainhead, Atlas Shrugged, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.

[Yeah_Baby]

The Prince by Machiavelli

[TSXCman]

There was one of those Drafts for authors or books a few months back that had some amazing stuff on it

[MacDaddy77]

1. Shantaram
2. Pillers of Creation
3. Power of One
4. Tandia (Sequel to Power of One)
5,6,7,8,9,10 Fire and Ice series (Fantasy but awesome series) George RR Martin

Shantaram is a great book and I'm pretty sure that Jonny Depp has the rights to make it into a movie (It's based on a true story of Gun running, drugs and life on the run for an Australian Convict in Mumbai.)

[surferguy]

Crusaders Gold
The Last Gospel
The Tiger Warrior

All written by David Gibbins

Basically a mix of a Dan Brown novel and Indiana Jones. Easy to get through and a quick pace. I like them, he also does one about Atlantis - I have yet to read it though.

[InstantDeath]

If you are into history/military history at all – two of my favorite books of all time are about the Vietnam War.

The first one is fiction (sort of), and is called ‘The Things They Carried’ by Tim O’Brien, a Vietnam veteran. It’s a book that is all at once amazingly entertaining and deeply touching. May be my favorite book ever.

From Wiki:

O'Brien feels that the idea of creating a story that is technically false yet truthfully portrays war, as opposed to just stating the facts and creating no emotion in the reader, is the correct way to clear his conscience and tell the story of thousands of soldiers who were forever silenced by society. Critics often cite this distinction when commenting on O'Brien's artistic aims in The Things They Carried and, in general, all of his fiction about Vietnam, claiming that O'Brien feels that the realities of the Vietnam War are best explored in fictional form rather than the presentation of precise facts.

The second book is called ‘Everything We Had’, by Al Santoli. This book is something I think everyone should have to read in high school. It is a collection of (true) short stories from Vietnam vets, ranging from humorous anecdotes about fellow soldiers amidst a totally effd up situation, to some isht that you wouldn’t believe really happened if someone on the street was telling you the story. (Unfortunately, after publishing, two of the vets who volunteered their stories admitted they had lied about them, but that should not take away from the other 31 amazing and deeply personal accounts in the book.)

Definitely recommend both of these – and they are both cheap to get a hold of and very easy reads.

They will have you thinking pretty deeply about mankind itself and the futility of war for quite some time, I think.

[Phaneuf3]

Originally Posted by MacDaddy77

5,6,7,8,9,10 Fire and Ice series (Fantasy but awesome series) George RR Martin

What what what? That seems like too many numbers, isn't it?
Game of Thrones
Clash of Kings
Storm of Swords
Feast for Crows

Was there anything else released that I'm missing? It's been a long time since I've paid attention to that series because of the repeated delays for Dance with Dragons.