Can anyone recommend any good books?

Has anybody read anything lately that they would recommend to someone else? The subject or type of book doesn't matter, although I would prefer it not be a computer book... that's too much like work.

It seems that Ranchers, being the birght lot that they are, would have a wide variety of reading material they might like to recommend. Oh and if you could also briefly say what type of book / what it is about that would be great too. Thanks.

[ March 06, 2002: Message edited by: Jason Menard ]

Native Son by Richard Wright is awesome. He also wrote Bigger which is also great.

Best thing I've read recently is The Tellling by Ursula LeGuin. It's beautifully written and intelligent -- on par with her classics such as The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness.
It's a genre sometimes called humanist science fiction. Light on hardcore science, heavy on exploring the effects that technology has on cultures and civilizations.
This particular book follows the path of an envoy to a planet whose primary culture is ahistoric techno-dictatorial, as she makes a journey to visit a region that still practices, mostly in secret, the ancient religion and culture, a centerpiece of which is a lively tradition of oral storytellers.
(Very loose comparisions could be made to China and Tibet.)
This book does refer back to technologies and events of her series of Hainish novels 20-30 years ago (such as The Dispossessed and The Left Hand of Darkness), so if you haven't read any of those, you might not understand some of those references. But it's still a great read.

Try one of the south Florida authors - they are really great:
Carl Hiaasen
Randy White
Lawrence Shames
Tim Dorsey
Regards, Guy

"Go To": The story of the math majors, bridge players, engineers, chess wizards, maverick scientists and iconoclasts - THE PROGRAMMERS WHO CREATED THE SOFTWARE REVOLUTION.
by Steve Lohr

Originally posted by <Unreg>:
... bridge players ...
by Steve Lohr

Most of the kids on these fora will not know what that is.
G.

I just read The Silmarillian by J.R.R Tolkien for the first time.
Great book. If you liked Lord of the Rings, this book will really expand your understanding of Middle Earth.

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy - Booker Prize 1997. Am reading it right now and cant wait for the day to end to start my train journey when i can read it.
It lies on my Desk all day and I am amazed by the number of people who come to my desk and tell me how much they liked the book.
Have a Go.
Also would recommend Angela's Ashes which i finished last month.

Hi,
I found these to be very good reads:
Microserfs by Douglas Coupland
The Crow Road by Iain Banks
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien
They were all very good books and if you have any doubts (How could you doubt the Lord of the Rings ?!?!?

), then check out Amazon.com
Enjoy!

Mark

I read the first two books of Lord of the Rings when I was in highschool or junior high. I've read the Hobbit multiple times (everytime we were able to choose a book for a book report I chose "The Hobbit"). I regret never reading the third LOTR book or the Silmarillion though. I will definitely have to add them to my list.
Getting all kinds of great suggestions here. Many that are outside the sphere of what I normally might look at, and that makes them all the better because it introduces us to works we might not otherwise be aware of. Keep 'em coming.

Rob, I just finished the Silmarillion myself for the first time last month. It was great! I had been through the first 50 pages or so two or three times but always fizzled out before the real story gets going. I was really glad that I stuck with it this time!
Now I am re-reading the trilogy. It has been about five years since the last time I read it, and I figure that I'm due. Plus, the movies got me excited about it again.

Last good book I read: Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Asteroid slamming into the Earth post-apocalyptic goodness. Not as epic as King's outstanding post-apocalyptic masterpiece The Stand, but great story nonetheless.
Other fiction recommendations:

The Regulators by Richard Bachman (Stephen King), and Desperation by Stephen King. Read these two back to back. These books have the same cast of characters, although they are in different roles, and the same antagonist, but completely different stories.

Clive Barker's Books of Blood series of short stories. "Everybody is a book of blood. Whenever we're opened, we're red."

Any collection of stories by H.P. Lovecraft. This is the guy who people like King and Barker pay hommage to.

I'll admit that, with the exception of Lovecraft's works and The Stand those may not be exactly considered classics, but hey, reading is supposed to be fun too, right?

[ March 12, 2002: Message edited by: Jason Menard ]

Try Ayn Rand : 'Fountainhead' and 'Atlas Shrugged'.

I really enjoyed "Trinity," by Leon Uris. I suppose my Irish background makes me a little biased, but I thought it was a great book.

Originally posted by <Pranav Jaidka>:
Try Ayn Rand : 'Fountainhead' and 'Atlas Shrugged'.

Perhaps the two most childish books ever written.

I just started reading, "Five Points: The Nineteenth-Century New York City Neighborhood That Invented Tap Dance, Stole Elections and Became the Worlds Most Notorious Slum". So far it is excellent.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684859955/ref%3Dase%5Felectricporkchop/

Cryptonomicon++
Not what I was expecting when I picked it up, and the jumping back and forwards between time frames had me confused for a while, but I was surprised (when I finally put it down) how much I enjoyed it.
Currently reading High Fidelity (movie based on the book) and it's quite different. I'm enjoying the fact that the book was set in London and was 'translated' to the USA in the movie. But then, any movie made into a book is an interesting study.

'The Naked Ape' by Desmond Morris. It's an old book, written in the '60s(I think). It's human evolution explained from a zoologist's perspective. I found it very interesting, outrageous, and convincing too.

Originally posted by David O'Meara:
Currently reading High Fidelity (movie based on the book) and it's quite different. I'm enjoying the fact that the book was set in London and was 'translated' to the USA in the movie. But then, any movie made into a book is an interesting study.

I'd like to hear your impressions on that one. I too recently read the book, having first seen the movie.
I liked the movie better. Thought the characters seemed more fleshed out and lively.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 is a funny, bitter-sweet comedy that will bring back those painful but amusing memories of growing up. Recommended.
Life is no fun for an adolescent intellectual... especially when your name is Adrian Mole.

All Ayn Rand's books are worthwhile, but "The Virtue Of Selfishness" is the best. The title sounds offensive at first until you understand what she is getting at. Life changing books for most people since they go to the fundamentals of ethics and this is really at the bottom of most difficulties in life and on this forum. Ayn Rand proposes a rational basis of morality, rather than on mysticism or tradition. Deep stuff. My favorite essay is her "Rights of Man" in her book on Capitalism. Ayn Rand is sort of the Karl Marx of Capitalism.

From Dawn to Decadence: 500 years of Western Cultural Life by Jacques Berzun.
It's a fascinating, whirlwind tour of Western culture from the close of the Medieval period to the close of the 20th century. It's also huge -- I've been reading this for almost a week now and have only made it to around 1750 (and this is from someone who can make it through the Lord of the Rings Trilogy in three days...)
Kyle

Originally posted by Kyle Brown:
and this is from someone who can make it through the Lord of the Rings Trilogy in three days...

Three Days?!?

I'm not worthy. Hell, it takes me a month just to read the TV Guide.

[ March 16, 2002: Message edited by: Jason Menard ]

Originally posted by <Pranav Jaidka>:
Try Ayn Rand : 'Fountainhead' and 'Atlas Shrugged'.

thats what today I came to suggest in this thread..

try Night of January 16th by Ayn Rand (it's a play) which was suppose to be named "Lord/King of Penthouse".
Can you see any relation in these two names?
Ya I know its very difficult to find relation coz there is no relation. First name is someone else thinking and other is Rand's.
It's small play and one should also try to read preface by Ayn Rand and the story behind the play, how it was first staged and reaction of Rand after first play.
Its true every one can not understand Philosphy of Ayn Rand.
Some facts about Ayn Rand:

Her first novel, We the Living, was completed in 1933 but was rejected by publishers for years.

"The Fountainhead" was rejected by twelve publishers

"The Fountainhead" made history by becoming a best seller through word-of-mouth two years later.

She wrote only two fictions Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged.

[ March 17, 2002: Message edited by: Ravish Kumar ]

enjoy CHAMPAK !!