i need a new book to read...i just finished the LOTR trilogy and i need something to occupy my mind on the 2 hours i spend riding the bus to work and back each day. i open to all books except artsy fartsy crap...
Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises Steinbeck's In Dubious Battle These are 2 of my fav's! If you have a remote interest in the labor movement or unions read the Steinbeck suggestion.
I've said the same thing in almost every book thread but anyways.... If chins could kill, confessions of a b movie actor-bruce campbell
tim powers - the anubis gates - modern day professor goes back in time and mixes it up with gypsies, thieves and samuel taylor coleridge. it won't last as long as lotr, but it's good stuff if you like fantasy/sci-fi. if you want to read another fantasy epic, gene wolfe's book of the new sun (includes two books, "shadow and claw" and "sword and citadel") is very different from lotr, but quite good. i say this so you won't be disappointed when you realize how different it is. it has the same literary feel that lotr has, is a little on the gothic side (the main character is an apprentice torturer/executioner at the beginning of the series). and...gene wolfe was at one time a houstonite. not sure if he is anymore, but if that doesn't sell you on it, i don't know what will. btw, if you don't order books online, you might want to make sure your bookstore has these before you make the trip, they're not as widely available as lotr.
If you want some non-fiction, try <i>Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All American Meal.</i> Who knew that there was a correlation between the founder of McDonald's and Walt Disney?
Selected gems by genre (if multiple entries per category, listed in order of preference): Science Fiction: Orson Scott Card's <i>Ender's Game</i>, Frank Herbert's <i>Dune</i> Western: Louis L'Amour's <i>The Daybreakers</i> or anything with <b>Sackett</b> in the title. Fantasy: Any Robert E. Howard <i>Conan</i> story. Mystery: Wilkie Collins' <i>The Moonstone</i> or if unavailable, <i>The Woman in White</i> Popular Fiction: Stephen King's <i>Dreamcatcher</i> <b>** Read the first 1/3rd of the book and then throw it away. The novel is worth a read just for its excellent beginning, but turns into crap soon after and never recovers. **</b> American Short Story: Any short story by Ernest Hemmingway is excellent. Specifically, look for "Big Two-Hearted river", found in a collection entitled <i>In Our Time</i> amongst other places. Canadian Short Story: Anything by Allistair McLeod Gothic/Horror: Matthew Lewis' <i>The Monk</i> (The first gothic novel!), Bram Stoker's <i>Dracula</i>, Mary Shelley's <i>Frankenstein</i>. Courtroom drama: Nothing. Courtroom drama sucks. Badly. Adventure/Wilderness: Dillon Wallace's <i>The Lure of the Labrador Wild</i> (a true story) Classic literature: Elizabeth Gaskell's <i>North and South</i> or <i>Mary Barton</i>
thanks for the replys guys...i think ill start with Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, confessions of a b movie actor-bruce campbell, and then we will see... i read books pretty fast so im not ruleing out the others...TLOR trilogy and the hobbit took me less than 2 1/2 months... stay tuned...
I just finished what is easily the best history book I've ever read. It's called Angel in the Whirlwind and is about the American Revolution. Absolutely amazing. A great read. I'm reading The Warriors of God right now. It's about the Third Crusade and particularly about the leaders on both sides...Saladin and Richard the Lionheart. It's good so far...but I'm only about 40 pages in. Amazing and sad to see these men twist the tenets of their faith (particularly New Testament scripture) to justify slaughtering innocent women and children.
