If you are into money or finance, I recommend: Reminiscences of a Stock Operator- Jesse Livermore One Up on Wall Street- Peter Lynch Freakanomics- by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
This is great stuff!!! Thanks so much. Today, I checked out To Kill a Mockingbird, which I should have read in 7th grade. I'll definitely have to try some Chuck Palahniuk, so I can be in the club with you guys. I think that I'll try to find some Shakespeare on tape as well. It sounds like there are a few of you out there that appreciate the audio books and how the reader really makes a difference. I don't like the audio tapes where there are different readers playing their "parts". I like just one person reading me the story. My favorite reader was "Angela's Ashes" and "'Tis" as read by the author, Frank McCourt. It sounds so much more authentic that he is reading his own story and get a better sense of the emotions within the story. I'm going to save this thread so that I have a reference when it's time to get more books.
All three of these have already been mentioned, but just to confirm that these are must-reads: Watership Down by Richard Adams Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (all 5 of them) by Douglas Adams And if you like the Hitchhiker books, definitely pick up Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency and Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (both also by Douglas Adams) and Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaimen. If you're into autobiographies, I really enjoyed Monster by Sanyika Shakur and The Autobiography of Malcom X. And if you're unopposed to delving into a little manga, the entire Berserk series by Kentaro Miura is without question a must-read.
For those of you interested in audio books, you can download them for free from: http://www.netlibrary.com/ It works just like a library. You get a 2 week license to listen, then you can renew for another 2 weeks. If you are still not done, you have to redownload.
Create an account and log in. You should then get to a page that has a link for "Audiobooks Center". One thing I neglected to mention (it has been a while since I signed up). You do need a valid library card at a net library associated library in order to create an account. You should be able to access your local library online to find out if they are associated.
Listening to an Audiobook NetLibrary's audiobook offerings include the latest best sellers and book club favorites from award winning authors, narrated by professional actors with years of stage and screen experience. To listen, you just download the Audiobook to your personal computer. You can also listen to them on your favorite portable listening device. This feature is not available in some libraries. Rice University Library appears to not have available Audiobooks
This isn't an audio book, but I highly recommend it. "Piece of Cake" by Derek Robinson. It's a fictional book about an RAF fighter squadron during the Battle of France and Battle of Britain. I could not put the book down. Darkly humorous and the descriptions of the deadly combat that the fighter pilots faced are well written.
