Literary Discussions AKA T-Nation Book Club

Off Topic
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I have seen a good many threads in this get a life section about a great many topics ranging from TV to movies to comics and many other subjects, but have yet to find one about books. I simply figured that we could delve into a discourse about our own reading tastes, critique each other, and offer suggestions for future reading.

On that note, I shall start, and attempt to list off the books I have read for pleasure in the last few years. I will also sort these books by author or category. Note that discussions of textbooks and journals are welcome also.

J.R.R. Tolkien:
The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarilion, The Hobbit, The books of Lost Tales (I and II), The Unfinished Tales, The lay of Beleriand, and The Lost Road

Stephan King:
The Dark Tower series(7 books total), Bag of Bones, The Green Mile, Hearts in Atlantis, The Tommyknockers, From a Buick 8, The Talisman, Black House, and It.

Michael Crichton:
State of Fear and Jurassic Park

C.S. Lewis:
The Chronicles of Narnia

Tom Clancy:
Red Rabbit, and a few of the Net Force series novels (it has been a while since I read these, and their names escape me).

Brian Lumley:
Necroscope Invaders, Defilers, Avengers, Blood Brothers, The last Airie, Blood Wars, The Lost Years(I and II), and the first few novels in the original Necroscope series (it has been a while and I am likely going to need to re-read these).

Assorted Extended Universe Star Wars novels:
Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, the Last Command, (these last three are known as the Thrawn Trilogy), Specter of the Past, Vision of the Future (the Thrawn Duology), and the Dark Nest Trilogy (I am currently half way through the second book).

Ancient Tales and Legends:
Beowulf, Le Morte Darthur

Ok, there it is, and I believe that my status as a complete geek and bookworm has now been cemented. So, what do you like to read, when time permits?

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I read a lot of Star Wars books, just got finished the last book of the Legacy of the Force series Invincible. Great book and great series. After that I Blazed through Angels and Demons, great book I thought it was much better than the Da Vinci Code.

Inbetween books right now, I usualy like to read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings about oce a year. Thats about it for now =)

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Damn it forgot to attach this

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I just finished Finders Keepers by Mark Bowden. True story about a guy in Philly that found 1.2 million when it fell off the back of an armored car.

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You have to try any Christopher Moore books. Funny as hell.

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I read to my girlfriend at night. We’ve gone through a boatload of novels over the past few years. We just finished “Bleak House” (Dickens) and we’re about to start “Uncle Fred in Springtime” (Wodehouse)

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I’m reading Generation Kill not really thrilled with it the reporter who’s writing it keeps throwing in little jabs at our Armed forces most people wouldn’t pick it up but an educated person would pick them up

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I read a hell of a lot. Sometimes there are even words in the magazines too, not just pictures of naked ladies.

Ohhh - You meant real books…

Rather into biographies at the moment. Reading Gorden Ramsey - very interesting and no where near as up his own ass as many people would assume.

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Finishing off Book 7 in the Dark Tower Cycle.

Have a copy of Godel, Escher, Bah; an Eternal Golden Braid. I tried to read it, got 82 pages in, read the same idea being presented in almost the exact same way, put it down.

After The Dark Tower, hell, I don’t know. The Gunslinger was one of the first 10 books I ever read, so it’s the end of a very long era for me.

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[quote]Himora22 wrote:
I read a lot of Star Wars books, just got finished the last book of the Legacy of the Force series Invincible. Great book and great series. After that I Blazed through Angels and Demons, great book I thought it was much better than the Da Vinci Code.

Inbetween books right now, I usualy like to read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings about oce a year. Thats about it for now =)[/quote]

Nerd.

If you want intellectual reading, I would suggest these titles:

King
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition

That’s about it. They are all literary masterpieces.

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I’d recommend anything by Dan Brown, he has only has 4 or 5 books but they’re all great.

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Currently reading the “Witching Hour” by Anne Rice. I’m not really digging it but my gf is a huge Anne Rice fan so I’ll least read it 1/2 way through.

I really like the Wheel of Time series even though Robert Jordan really started losing focus, never responded to my inquiries of autographing my books, and died before completing the series.

I absolutely hate the Lord of the Rings and can’t fathom how you guys can read that once a year. Why would you punish yourselves. See the movie Clerks 2 for a good summary of the series.

Favorite authors would probably be between Clive Cussler and James Clavell. I’m a big Dirk Pitt fan and I love Clavell’s asian series with Shogun and Taipan being my favorites.

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I am currently reading The 4 hour work week by Timothy Ferris and I would recommend it to anyone!! Some other books I really enjoyed are

  1. Playing For Pizza John Grisham
  2. I Am America And So Can You Stephen Colbert
    3 Freakonomics Stephen D Levitt
    4 Tipping Point Malcom Gladwell
    5 Blink Malcom Gladwell

Has anyoune read Brad Thor’s The Last Patriot?

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Gloablism: Market Ideology Meets Terrorism - Steger
Boulez on Music Today - Boulez
Explosive Running - Yessis
Jihad Vs. McWorld - Barber
Transfer of Training in Sports - Bondarchuk

Steger is precise, lyrical, highly intelligent.

Boulez, is, well, Boulez.

Explosive Running is just what I need to start programming running.

Jihad Vs. McWorld I just started today: snippets of goodness interspersed with overblown hyperbole and superfluous literary techniques.

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[quote]katzenjammer wrote:
I read to my girlfriend at night. We’ve gone through a boatload of novels over the past few years. We just finished “Bleak House” (Dickens) and we’re about to start “Uncle Fred in Springtime” (Wodehouse)

[/quote]

Wodehouse “The MAN”

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Awesome…books! I’ll list fiction and poetry! All of these I highly recommend.

Gun With Occasional Music - Johnathan Lethem

Blood Meridian, The Road, No Country For Old Men - Cormac McCarthy

Notes From the Underground - Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Stranger - Albert Camus

The Namesake - Lihiri Jhumpa

Native Speaker - Chang-Rae Lee

Any short story written by Raymond Carver will leave you wanting more.

For anyone into poetry Billy Collins, Charles Simic, Jack Gilbert, William Carlos Williams, and Rolf Jacobsen are some of my favorites.

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Ayn Rand

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I think I must have missed something, but can anyone explain why Dan Brown is so popular? I’ve read Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons and Digital Fortress but to me they just seem like yor average msytery/thriller books.

Great reads so far:

“A fighters heart” by Sam Sheridan
“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgearald
“Jarhead” by Anthony Swafford

At the moment reading 33 strategies of war by Robert Greene

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[quote]sands wrote:
I think I must have missed something, but can anyone explain why Dan Brown is so popular? I’ve read Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons and Digital Fortress but to me they just seem like yor average msytery/thriller books.

Great reads so far:

“A fighters heart” by Sam Sheridan
“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgearald
“Jarhead” by Anthony Swafford

At the moment reading 33 strategies of war by Robert Greene[/quote]

“The Great Gatsby” is one of my favorites. Other books I would suggest include: “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway, “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding, “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley, and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain.

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[quote]sands wrote:
I think I must have missed something, but can anyone explain why Dan Brown is so popular? I’ve read Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons and Digital Fortress but to me they just seem like your average mystery/thriller books.
[/quote]

They are.