Here’s a few more that I forgot: The Crying of Lot 49, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Stoppard) and The Pity of War (non fiction - Niall Ferguson).
Books that suck: Anything Henry James wrote, Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels.
how about Dostevsky’s “the Idiot” and “Crime and Punishment”
Frank Herbert’s “Dune” series
Hackworth’s “About Face”
Keenan’s “The Face of Battle”
Vonnegut’s “Cat’s Cradle”
I found Joyce’s Portait of the Artist rather hard to read, maybe i’ll have to pick it up again.
Well, I’m a bookaholic so let’s see if I can pick out a few. This list is in no particular order nor is it meant to be a comprehensive list of the best books I’ve ever read. I reserve the right to add to this at a future date.
Stranger in a Strange Land - Heinlein
Pretty much anything else by Heinlein books have taught me many things, his taught me how to think for myself.
The Odessy and the Illiad - Homer (Made me want to become as much like Odysius as I can, a great fighter, a great athlete, but renown for his intellect)
The Art Of War - Sun Tzu (best book on management ever written)
The Prince - Machiavelli (best book on politics ever written)
Snow Crash - can’t remember (too funny not to include)
The Books of Swords - Saberhaggen (the dangers of letting your creations get too far ahead of your wisdom to use them)
Metamorphosis - Kafka (short story, as long as I’m not a beetle I’ll stop complaining)
Mental skills for competitive swimmers - John Hogg (my sport psych prof, anything by him will teach your more about motivation and mental skills than any 5 other books)
First Into Action - Duncan Faulkner (taught me what heros are, better than anything by Marchinko)
Soldier I SAS - Can’t remember (see above)
That’s it for now I guess. Leave off on the Greek spelling, they’re on the other book shelf and my legs hurt too much from working out yesterday to want to go anywhere and look those things up.
I meant to mention that there’s very few books on this thread that I haven’t read. I’m impressed with the diversity on this board, anyone who think’s having muscles means you can’t have brains as well needs to take a look at this thread.
I read all the time and here are some of my favorites:
“Dune”, by Frank Herbert
“The Sufi Path to Mindfulness” by Kabir Helminski
“The Celestine Prophecy” by James Redfield
“The Art of War” by Sun Tzu
“Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill
“Unleashing the Warrior Within” by Richard Machowicz
“Invisible Monsters” by Chuck Palahniuk
“Monster”, by Sanyika Shakur AKA Monster
“Being Peace” by Thich Nhat Hanh
“What Would Machiavelli Do? The Ends Justify the Meanness” By Stanley Bing
Ursella K. LeGuin - The Left Hand of Darkness
Umberto Eco - Foucault’s Pendulum, The Name of the Rose
Anything by Anne Rice
Shakespeare - Macbeth, Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, others
Rafael Sabatini - Scaramouche
John Norman - The Gor Series
For my money…the Harry Potter series is the most fun I have ever had reading and I read quite a bit. Can’t wait till june 21…‘Order of the Pheonix’ will be in my grubby little hands.
Thick Face, Black Heart : The Warrior Philosphy For Conquering The Challenges OF Business And Life (Chin-Ning Chu)
Leadership Secrets of the Rogue Warrior: A Commando’s Guide to Success (Richard Marcinko)
I Am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action
(Lung Cheng, Jeff Yang, Jackie Chan, Long Cheng)
Swim With the Sharks: Without Being Eaten Alive: Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate, and Outnegotiate Your Competition (Harvey Mackay, Kenneth H. Blanchard)
Die Broke : A Radical Four-Part Financial Plan (Stephen Pollan, Mark Levine)
The Excellent Investment Advisor (Nick Murray)
A Random Walk Down Wall Street (Burton Gordon Malkiel)
Tao of Jeet Kune Do (Bruce Lee)
How Could You Do That?! : The Abdication of Character, Courage, and Conscience (Laura C. Schlessinger)
Looking Out for No. 1 (Robert J. Ringer)
(All for those who prefer reality to fantasy. 'Nuff said. Now go out there and read them).
FYI, Snow Crash is by your friend and mine, Neal Town Stephenson (also wrote Cryptonomicon, mentioned above). This is my favorite book of all time.
I like:
Nickel and Dimed: On (not) getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
The Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk
Coersion by Douglas Rushkoff
The Art and Science of Dumpster Diving by John Hoffman
Hominids by Robert J Sawyer
Out of Sight by Elmore Leonard
Microserfs by Douglas Coupland
and, for kids:
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
The House with a Clock in its Walls by John Bellairs
Here are a few lines from Michael Moore’s “Stupid White Men” in the chapter called Dear George (directed to president Bush):
“All of the signs of this illiteracy are there-and apparently no one has challenged you about them. The first clue was what you named as your favorite childhood book. 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar.” Unfortunately, that book wasn’t even published until a year after you graduated from college.
I have to agree on the Dune Chronicles by Frank Herbert. I just finished Dune and I’m well into Dune Messiah at the moment. The parallels between the planet Arrakis and situation in the Middle East right now are uncanny.
The oRIGINAL Wizard of Oz series, I don’t even remember how many volumes are in it… I’ve never seen it though, other than the set we have in our basement that is god knows how old and is falling apart.