I though this would be a good companion thread to the Worst Books You've Ever Read. I'll start with- Confederacy of Dunces: I've probably read that book 7 times. The entire Dave Robicheaux series by James Lee Burke. Huckleberry Finn Animal Dreams, Pigs in Heaven, The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver The Hotel New Hampshire
One of my best friends is named Dave Robicheaux. That's always cracked us up. Off the top of my head, I'm gonna go with About a Boy by Nick Hornby for fiction and The Last Amateurs by John Feinstein for non-fiction. The latter is required reading for all college basketball fans, IMO.
The last book I actually finished was Jay Mohr's account of his panic disorder while he was on SNL. Very funny stuff. I bought Yao's book and haven't finished it.
Best non-fiction- Guns, Germs, and Steel: Basically an explanation of how societies evolved in the way that they did and why Western nations are so technologically advanced. Really great book and suprisingly readable considering the subject. Jared Diamond, the author, has a new book out-Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
Enders Game-Orson Scott Card i beat everyone to it... any thread i have ever seen like this has this book mentioned. to be honest though it is one of the very very few books i have read twice.
The best book that I've read recently was A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. If you want an entertaining, layman's account of the history of, well, nearly everything it's a great read. However, don't expect it to go into too much scientific depth. It's a lighter book then, say, A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking but probably a lot funnier as well.
Yep, beat me to it. It's been a looooooong time since I've read it. I think I'll go pick up a copy this week. I never read any of the one's that followed it. Are any worth reading?
Bill Bryson is great -- I have not read "A short history..." but his account of walking the appalachian trail was hilarious. As far as "classic" books my favorite must be "The Grapes of Wrath" -- a true classic
If you've followed that up with the "Bean" books (Ender's Shadow, Shadow Puppets, Shadow of the Hegemon), Card just released a new book - Shadow of the Giant - a week or so ago.
Animal Farm is probably the best book I ever read. It just works on a number of levels. I also love Chuck Palahniuk's work, Fight Club, Choke, Diary. His writing is just so dank and nasty and grimey. It just gives off such a visceral picture of some of the seedier sides of life. My current fav is the Tuesday next series, by Jasper Fforde. It's set in an alternate literary sci-fish world, where books are the biggest obsession of people, and it's possible to enter into the world of books. There are a ton of literary referances, and it's an absolute hoot.
gifford. I had to read the guns, germs, and steel book for one of my classes last year. Pretty interesting.
It - Stephen King The Once and Future King - TH White I also agree with the Dave Robicheaux, Animal Farm and Chuck Palaniuk. Can't think of any more for some reason....
I think the 2nd in line is called speaker of the dead which i read and thought was pretty good, i think it won the same awards as enders game "hugo, nebula award" and after that is xenocide which i only got about halfway through. and the author has a more recent line of books that parallel with this story about Ender's friend named Bean. Of which i have read Enders Shadow, which i thought was about average. Another book i have read recently which i think would qualify for one of the best books i have ever read was Band of Brothers. It got me very interested in WWII, and also got me to go out and spend waaay to much on the DVD. Anyone got some suggestions for other WWII Lit beside that and Ghost Soldiers? I would be interested.
In my lifetime, I have only found one book that, when I started reading, I couldn't put down. That book was "9 1/2 Weeks: A Memoir of a Love Affair" by Elizabeth McNeill. -- droxford
