Book Recommendations

Books Matter.

Book Recommendations

Postby Malfeasinator » Fri Apr 22, 2016 10:41 pm

We don't all have the time to read everything we want to read, but sometimes we also have time to read stuff but don't know what's good out there. The internet is full of recommendations by people, and there's no way you're ever going to read all of them, but one or two might enrich your life somehow, I think. Here are some links to some book recommendation lists that seem pretty legit. If you have any recommendations of your own, feel free to post a reply in this topic.

The first few are yearly lists from TED:

http://blog.ted.com/70-book-picks-from-ted-speakers-and-attendees/

http://blog.ted.com/your-summer-reading-list-2014/

http://blog.ted.com/holiday-reading-list-great-novels-by-2013-ted-speakers/

http://blog.ted.com/your-mega-summer-reading-list-180-books-recommended-by-tedsters/

You may find, to your surprise, that you've already read some of these, or that there is some overlap.
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Re: Book Recommendations

Postby iMURDAu » Sun Apr 24, 2016 12:58 am

If Hunter S. Thompson wrote it, I recommend it.
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Re: Book Recommendations

Postby BROWNRECLUSE » Sat May 07, 2016 10:43 pm

Starman: The Truth behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin is a book I cannot recommend enough.

It goes into great length about Gagarin's life and history, the Soviet Cosmonaut program, and his heroic flight as the first man into space.

It also paints a very compelling case that the Soviet Union had his ass killed because he dared to speak out about the growing negligence that the government had for the space program, and for jeopardizing the safety of his fellow cosmonauts. With so much about the Russian space program still a mystery, and with all of the dysfunction that was inherent in the Soviet Union, I strongly believe that this was the case.

In any case, it's a great read. Gagarin was a pioneer, humble and accomplished, but very human at the same time.
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Re: Book Recommendations

Postby mancityfooty » Thu May 19, 2016 11:59 pm

The Dark Tower series, but only if you've read any (all) of King's other books.
Movies don't count.

Spoiler: show
They all tie in together
.
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Re: Book Recommendations

Postby Malfeasinator » Sat Jun 11, 2016 1:41 am

How To Win Friends And Influence People.

It's pretty good. It's old-timey enough that the phrases people use are interesting and somewhat hilarious. There are also some good points raised.

This is one of those books that has been in my family for generations. Granddad always had it on his bookshelf, and it would have probably still been there if the house didn't burn down. Mom used to have a copy or two at all times, as well. I picked up a small paperback version of it at a yard sale last weekend, for 50 cents.

That was also it's original selling price, when this edition was printed.

It's not difficult to read, per se, but some of the truths in it are hard to come to terms with, at least for me, and I have to take breaks to deal with the implications of what I'm learning, as it relates to life, myself, people I've known, the past, and so on.

There are also some really interesting and well-researched facts about Lincoln that would make for a good Cracked article.

I think this book really is essential reading, even for our time.
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Re: Book Recommendations

Postby cmsellers » Sat Jun 11, 2016 2:16 am

I basically read two kinds of books: science fiction and pop science

I try to force myself to read classics of literature periodically, and with a few exceptions I am generally underwhelmed. I really like Elizabethan dramas (Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Webster), though you can quibble over whether plays are really books. I've loved Mark Twain since I was a child and still do.

And then there is a book which I think might be the greatest novel ever written in the English language, a book so great I felt compelled to read other books by people in the same country and start a thread when they fell short. Read Cry, The Beloved Country; it is absolutely amazing.
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Re: Book Recommendations

Postby Piter Lauchy » Sat Jun 11, 2016 10:08 pm

cmsellers wrote:And then there is a book which I think might be the greatest novel ever written in the English language,

This made me think of Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. I haven't read the original yet since when I learned about this book my English comprehension wasn't as good and I just couldn't handle it, but if a German translation of a book already fucks this much with my head then the original has to be incredible.

Its main theme is addiction, but it's about basically everything. If you like amazing satire, highly intelligent (but not overwhelmingly so) concepts and deep looks into human nature, read this. Shit, if you like reading, read this.
Wallace was a god damn genius.
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Re: Book Recommendations

Postby EstebanColberto » Wed Sep 14, 2016 7:46 am

mancityfooty wrote:The Dark Tower series, but only if you've read any (all) of King's other books.
Movies don't count.

Spoiler: show
They all tie in together
.


I'm disagreeing with this. I'm reading Dark Tower right now. I'm on the third book. It really pulls you in. I've only seen Stephen King movies up to this point. The Dark Tower series is my introduction to Stephen King as a writer. This man can mix the supernatural with the real world like nobody else can. The Dark Tower should, if anything, be an introductory series to Stephen King. When he ties his other books to the series, it just makes you want to read those books.
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Re: Book Recommendations

Postby rowdyrodimus » Sun Sep 18, 2016 3:48 am

EstebanColberto wrote:
mancityfooty wrote:The Dark Tower series, but only if you've read any (all) of King's other books.
Movies don't count.

Spoiler: show
They all tie in together
.


I'm disagreeing with this. I'm reading Dark Tower right now. I'm on the third book. It really pulls you in. I've only seen Stephen King movies up to this point. The Dark Tower series is my introduction to Stephen King as a writer. This man can mix the supernatural with the real world like nobody else can. The Dark Tower should, if anything, be an introductory series to Stephen King. When he ties his other books to the series, it just makes you want to read those books.


I have to disagree, Esteban. You'll find out later, for those who don't want to have to read the entire series to know what I'm talking about
Spoiler: show
In the later books, King basically uses them as a way to jerk off over himself and his other books by tying most of them together in TDT. It just feels out of place and took me out of the entire series, especially when he becomes a character in the story and that's coming from someone who likes 95% of his books.


As for a recommendation... If you saw Suicide Squad and liked it at all but felt that it could've been done better and more coherently, read the novelization by Marv Wolfman. So much better than the movie. Plus you get most of the Joker/Harley backstory that was cut from the final film.
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Re: Book Recommendations

Postby mancityfooty » Tue Sep 20, 2016 12:39 am

I admit, I think he was trying to finish the books (in an earlier forward, he referenced Chaucer and how well he did with his series).
Spoiler: show
He even included the time he got hit by the minivan.


Maybe I just like how all his earlier stuff were page turners for me growing up, reading and rereading them till they fell apart. And maybe it was just me being happy to be getting closer to the end. I finished the series after a big move (physically) in my life and maybe that influenced it, too. I'll have them on hand again (there was NO room in the house for books) and reread them and see what happens. I'm 12 years older now, maybe I'll see them differently.

There is another book out, by someone else, that includes all the references to all his other works that he included.
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Re: Book Recommendations

Postby JoReL » Wed Sep 21, 2016 3:29 am

A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers
How the Mind Works - Steven Pinker
House of Leaves - Mark Z. Danielewski
Player Piano - Kurt Vonnegut
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Re: Book Recommendations

Postby ghijkmnop » Wed Sep 21, 2016 6:18 pm

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Re: Book Recommendations

Postby Deathclaw_Puncher » Wed Sep 21, 2016 6:24 pm

"A Canticle For Leibowitz"- Walter Miller
"Rhinoceros"- Eugene Ionesco
"Moju: The Blind Beast"- Edogawa Rampo
"Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination"- Edogawa Rampo
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Re: Book Recommendations

Postby gabrielsholder » Wed Feb 01, 2017 11:51 pm

I will definitely be checking out some of these recs, thanks!

-Gabriel Sholder
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