Books

[Dave]

So, as I sat here in my office and wrote a list of car-related books in response to the book thread in driving techniques, I looked at the rest of my other 2 full bookcases and realized I read a lot. I know I'm a big nerd and all, but is there anybody else here who reads a lot? Funny thing is, I was at a point in college that I'd knock out a few hundred page book for fun in a week, but couldn't read my 20-page textbook assignment.

[WRXtranceformed]

Count of Monte Cristo.

Best book (and fictitious baller) ever.

[Mike]

freakonomics, kite runner, and five people you meet in heaven are the best i've read recently.

[JohnC]

Post-apocalyptic fiction...

The Forever War was good, and Channing needs to return it.

On The Beach
The Stand
Alas Babylon
The Postman (great book, horrible movie)

And military history...

Anthony Beevor's Stalingrad and The Fall Of Berlin were great...

I just ordered a book about a man's personal quest to ride in the Isle of Man TT...

[REED]

freakonomics, kite runner, and five people you meet in heaven are the best i've read recently.

O man, Kite Runner was awesome. I've been on a real Kurt Vonegut (RIP) kick lately. I've cruised through about 10 or so of his books in the last 4-5 months. I really like Cats Cradle, Player Piano and The Sirens of Titan so far.

Actually I just finished Mother Night, last night - wasn't too impressed. Just started Timequake - so ill have to make an assesment near the end

[Beej]

I've been getting back into reading too - looking forward to the rest of this thread. Recent ones

Loved them:
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
A Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (wish the guy write more books)
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Good:
Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Alright:
Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

I think the Count of Monte Cristo is next - that was recommended by another friend as well.

[Andy]

freakonomics, kite runner, and five people you meet in heaven are the best i've read recently.

O man, Kite Runner was awesome. I've been on a real Kurt Vonegut (RIP) kick lately. I've cruised through about 10 or so of his books in the last 4-5 months. I really like Cats Cradle, Player Piano and The Sirens of Titan so far.

Actually I just finished Mother Night, last night - wasn't too impressed. Just started Timequake - so ill have to make an assesment near the end

My favorite Vonnegut book is God Bless you, Mr. Rosewater. It's very excellent.

If anyone dug Freakonomics, the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell is good as well as "Made to Stick"

I'm just borderline illiterate these days. Between work and beer, I haven't time for much else.

[Apoc]

If it weren't for shitty radio and no satellite radio in my I'd never 'read'.

Starship Troopers <-- highly recommended
Da Vinci Code
Psychopath

Old favorite: God's Debris

[HAULN-SS]

Cryptonomicon(some WW2 fiction too)
Snow Crash
Net Force
Various other techno thrillers

Killer Angels

[WRXtranceformed]

Ender's Game... and that entire series.

DUNE. Read every Dune book that exists... especially the newer ones by Frank Herbert's son.

[Ryan T]

Kite Runner was really good, read it a couple years back for a class. I really don't like reading, in fact I rarely if ever buy my textbooks anymore because I never use them. I am currently reading a book for my seminar class called Mechanizing Minds and Humanizing Machines. Book discusses the steps still yet needed to achieve Artificial Intelligence.

[ScottyB]

my reading is car forums :lol:

one of my favorite novels is a war story called Maverick, by Dennis Marvickson. guy can tell a hell of a story.

currently working through Pillars of The Earth by Ken Follett, pretty good so far.

[CaptainHenreh]

...every Dune book that exists... especially the newer ones by Frank Herbert's son.

WTF are you smoking?

[Maengelito]

my reading is car forums :lol:

i read all day at work, so the last thing i wanna do is read at home, so yeah, all my recreational reading is online garbage

[WRXtranceformed]

...every Dune book that exists... especially the newer ones by Frank Herbert's son.

WTF are you smoking?

Dude they're great! Have you read them? He captured his father's style very well, while successfully avoiding some of the droning heavy gothic boredom that some of the books in the original Dune series were laden with.

[Dave]

the only good Dune book I read was the 1st. I loved that, hated the 2nd and my former roomate, who had similar tastes, said it just kept going downhill.
I love Stephen King. His stories are often a little off the wall, but he has a very captivating style that keeps drawing you further and further in even if you don't like the story.
I was also really big on Robert Heinlein when I was in college. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress sucked me in and it kinda snowballed from there. I think I have about 10 of his novels. Lately I've been really big on reading the classics. Catch-22 was miserable.

[JohnC]

...every Dune book that exists... especially the newer ones by Frank Herbert's son.

WTF are you smoking?

Dude they're great! Have you read them? He captured his father's style very well, while successfully avoiding some of the droning heavy gothic boredom that some of the books in the original Dune series were laden with.

Blech. He turned them into Star Wars books (with Timothy Zahn's help of course).

[WRXtranceformed]

*shrug* I've never read a Star Wars book

[CaptainHenreh]

*shrug* I've never read a Star Wars book

You'd probably dig 'em.

Look, it's not that the Butlerian Jihad story isn't cool, and isn't decent on it's own right.

But to say they're "better" than Dune is...well, a little silly. No offense. Dune is a science fiction classic. The Dune "prequels" are pulp sci-fi raygun literary snacks. It doesn't make them bad, it just makes them not in the same league.

(IMHO)

It's like comparing Tolkien to Christopher Paolini. They've uh...both got elves. And dragons. But they're light years apart.

[WRXtranceformed]

Gotcha I'll have to check them out!

I'd never claim that they're better than the original Dune, but I certainly enjoyed them more than the last three or so of the original Dune series. It was a chore to get through them =/