Your Favorite Books?

I finally have some free time to read, and was hoping to here some recommendations of books that people have liked.

FHM.

Are you looking for weightlifting/health books to read or books of all types?

You ought to check out SEARCH ENGINE by T. Nation. I can’t say enough good things about it.

[quote]simon-hecubus wrote:
You ought to check out SEARCH ENGINE by T. Nation. I can’t say enough good things about it.[/quote]

Along those lines, I’d like to remind everyone that if you click on the big red ARTICLES drop-down to the left, you can click on Random Article which will open up a random article from our nine-year archive. It’s one way to keep things interesting.

Harlan Coben is a great writer…especially his Myron Bolitar novels.

Also, Clive Cussler is a great easy read.

What are you interested in? Looking for Fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, self help, historical novels?

Bernard Cromwell is a good story teller for semi historical fiction. I like Dean Koontz and Tom Clancy as well.

Dark Ages America by Morris Berman is fantastic. That gest 5 stars by me.

Citizen You by Mike Lowe is also a good choice if satire is your thing. 3 stars.

Beginner’s Guide to Constructing the Universe is a great read if Math, Art and Science combined interests you. I give it 5 stars.

The God Gene by Dean Hammer is a great read if you are into science and moderately religious. I give it 4 stars.

A Fighters Heart by Sam Sheridan is one of my favorite books ever. As a combat athlete, its damn inspiring. I give it a full 5 stars.

The Art of Seduction is damn great. 5 stars

The 48 Laws of Power Is also great, as is War presumably, by the same author.

Guns, Germs & Steel is a great book I havent read yet.

Other books of interest that I have read include Freakonomics, Fast Food Nation, Muscle Revolution, The Book of Muscle (Ian King), Book of Five Rings, The Prince, The Millionaire Mind, and The Science of Sleep.

I have yet to get to TC’s book. Soon though, soon…

[quote]simon-hecubus wrote:
You ought to check out SEARCH ENGINE by T. Nation. I can’t say enough good things about it.[/quote]

I agree with this, as I have read several great books that were recomended on these threads, but a good books thread every so many months is a good thing in my opinion. Someone may have read something new.

Might be better to bump an old thread up than start a new one though.

The only book that ever really kept my young interest was Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. Extremely well written and literally laugh out loud funny at times.

you can get the big 5 or 6 book edition for like 20 bucks too, its a steal.

The richest man in babylon

I read TC’s new book. It was good. So was Muscle Logic. I kinda have a one track mind though.

“You Can’t Win”, by Jack Black. No, not the actor; the biography of the turn of the century thief/hobo. William S. Burroughs cited him as a huge influence. Think “Down and Out in Paris and London” meets Jack London.

“Hard Boiled”, by Frank Miller and Geof Darrow. Intricately detailed art + sex ‘n’ violence + killer robots = win

The “Gotrek & Felix” Warhammer novels. Really entertaining pulp stuff.

Also, ANYTHING Philip K. Dick wrote.

Moby Dick
Midnight’s Children
The Grapes of Wrath

A Fighters Heart - Sam Sheridan
Art Of War - Sun Tzu

Bret Easton Ellis- American Psycho, Less Than Zero, Rules of Attraction

Chuck Palahniuk- Fight Club, Lullaby, Stranger Than Fiction (a collection of true short stories)

Rick Collins, JD- Legal Muscle: Anabolics in America

J.D. Salinger- The Catcher in the Rye

Here’s a couple of great books that I doubt many here have read:

Journey to the End of the Night

Ham on Rye

As far as just random “burn some time” reading, Dean Koontz is probably my favorite author. Guy just flat out knows how to tell a story.

If you’re looking for something to read I suggest picking up a copy of The New York Times Book Review or The New York Review of Books or a similar publication and reading up on some contemporary authors who are also producing books that are considered worthwhile reading.

Decide on whether or not you feel like being challenged and if you want to read something intelligent and considered as literature. If you merely wish to be mildly entertained by what you read and not moved or made to think then go forward and read some of the crap off the bestseller lists (like Clive Cussler, Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Danielle Steele).

The good stuff usually wins one of the following awards–PEN/Faulkner, PEN/Nabokov, Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and National Book Critic’s Circle Award–but not always. Keep in mind that popular fiction usually means that it is crap. Think of what separates you as someone who works out. Do you want to be included among the masses who feed their brains with folderal? Or do you want to stand out and read something that will make you smarter and a better thinker?

Nearly anything by the following authors of fiction will be good, but especially White Noise and Libra by Don DeLillo, Outer Dark, Child of God, Blood Meridian, All the Pretty Horses and The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Everyman, The Plot Against America, American Pastoral, The Human Stain, and I Married A Communist by Philip Roth.

I’m kind of a big reader myself, here are some books that rocked my brain.

“The Alchemist” By Paulo Coelho. Aamazing book. Gives great insight about life.

“Fight Club” by Chuck Palaniuk… way better than the movie.

“A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” by Mark Twain. Funny book with a lot of symbolism