Book Recommendation Thread

Because it only took Viking-Sensei three years (and the approaching end of Errant Story) to come up with a better name for "General Discussions"
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Imp-Chan
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Book Recommendation Thread

Post by Imp-Chan »

So... I think a thread full of book recommendations/reviews would be cool. Thus, I am starting one.

I recently read Empress by Shan Sa. Altogether, I found it very lyrical and drenched in melancholy, but surprisingly uplifting to read. For me it was made more interesting by the fact that I'd studied Chinese history and had some familiarity with the politics and traditions in question, I'm not sure how well it would read to someone wholly unfamiliar with the setting. It's a surprising take on the Empress's role and motivations... I found this presentation of them more satisfying, because they were a great deal more complex than what I learned in class and made a lot more sense. It was pretty feminist overall, though, and I'm not sure how I feel about that in the context of the historical setting.

^-^'
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Vavrek
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Re: Book Recommendation Thread

Post by Vavrek »

There's a lot of books that I'd normally recommend, but a lot of those books are ones people have heard of before. So I'll skip them.

The book I've recently started rereading, on the side, is The Man Who Was Thursday, by G. K. Chesterton. It's a pretty short book, the kind of length (around 180 pages) that would make it a casual afternoon read if someone wanted, but only if they could handle that much mind-screwing in a single sitting. Written in 1908, the story focuses on Gabriel Syme, poet policeman, who ends up on the Central Anarchist Council of Europe. And that, as they say, is just the start. The rest of the book follows his descent into the surreal and, well, if I were to say anything more, I'd be spoiling it.

The Man Who Was Thursday is a must for anybody who enjoys stories about people who are good (and quick) with words, about warping perceptions, and about the temptation and fight against nihilism. It's available on Project Gutenberg, so check it out if you're interested.

One last word, quoting our dear Mr. Syme....

"...no man should leave in the universe anything of which he is afraid."
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DarkIntruder
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Re: Book Recommendation Thread

Post by DarkIntruder »

Ah man, this reminds me. I used to read so much when I was younger, but lately I've been finding it harder and harder to find time to read. So many books, so little time.

At the moment I'm reading mostly history books, many of which are dreadfully dull to anyone not fascinated by it.

One history book I can gladly reccomend to anyone though is "A Distant Mirror" by Barbara W. Tuchman. It's a history of the 14th century, but I assure you it isn't dull at all. It relates the issues surrounding people of that period, and it's eerie how little somethings have changed.


A non-history book that I can reccomend is "The Power of One" by Bryce Courtenay. It's the story of a young English boy growing up in Dutch South Africa in the 1930's. He battles against the rise of Nazism in the country, rampant racism of the apartheid, and through it all attempts to treat all people with respect and dignity.

I'll try looking around in my book case for any other ones that arn't well known.
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mattz1010
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Re: Book Recommendation Thread

Post by mattz1010 »

I generally like science fiction and/or fantasy, so some good choices in my opinion are

The Golden Man, by Philip K. Dick
the entire Foundationseries by Isaac Asimov
the Mystseries by the creators of that
Last edited by mattz1010 on March 25th, 2008, 12:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Book Recommendation Thread

Post by mattz1010 »

url overload. sorry about the double post ;_;

AWESOME GAME (oh and I hear a fourth book is on its way!)
the Ender's Game series and Shadow series by Orson Scott Card
and this other cool book called What is Your Dangerous Idea?: Today's Leading Thinkers on the Unthinkable

I have the audiobooks of all the Orson Scott Card series previously mentioned if anybody wishes to have them from me.
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davester65
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Re: Book Recommendation Thread

Post by davester65 »

"The Stars My Destination" by Alfred Bester is a masterpiece. He wrote two other novels which I've heard are fantastic as well. I intend on reading them when I find copies of them.
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Book Recommendation - Environmental

Post by dubioso »

Jared Diamond: "Collapse - How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed".
The book has a wikipedia page, and the first chapter is available online.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse_(book)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/st ... llapse.htm

It's not easy reading, being a scientific book. But it's also not written for scientists only, so if you're willing to use your brain to learn something about societies and their reaction to environmental problems and relations to neighbors, this is a really good read. I found it very fascinating to see what could be reconstructed about historic societies, their way of living, and how they handled their problems (or not).
And here's the must-read argument for ES fans: the book opens with a poem called "Ozymandias" - yes, exactly the same opening as ES. Minus the bunnies, but there are rabbits in the chapter on Australia. Those get blown up with dynamite on page 392... ;)
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Re: Book Recommendation Thread

Post by LordofNightmares »

Graywalker trilogy by Kat Richardson
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Re: Book Recommendation Thread

Post by Imp-Chan »

Just finished rereading "If I Pay Thee Not In Gold" by Piers Anthony and Mercedes Lackey. It's simultaneously much better and much worse than I remembered.

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Re: Book Recommendation Thread

Post by Boss Out of Town »

To branch out from fiction . . .

Annals of the Former World, by McPhee. Greatest book on geology ever written, really earned its Pulitzer. Lucidly explains what what the North America continent is made of by way an intermittent trip along Interstate 80 with McPhee and several smart and eloquent geologists. Sets it all in against a majestic backdrop of "Deep Time," which is what geologists call imagining change in millions of years instead of days and months, you learn how the science works, its history, with digressions into geography, biology, chemistry, physics, dinosauria, academic rivalries, intellectual debate, scrap-silver mining, Americana, growing up in Wyoming in the days of the cowboys, politics, the environment, and the bounds and limits of human imagination. McPhee is one of those writers so self-aware and gifted that he can talk about anything and make it interesting and ponderable.

Armageddon: The Battle for Germany 1944-45, and Retribution: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45, covering the last year of World War II on all battlefields and in all the combatant countries. Hastings is one of the best writers on war of this generation. He describes the events from the viewpoint, of both civilians and soldiers, followers and leaders, turns a critical eye on all presumptions about the war, analyzes decisions of all sides with a respectable empathy for both the majesty and madness of the conflict. He balances the tale of the European Gotterdamerung between the Western and Eastern fronts. This is also the first general history of the war I've read that bothers to talk about the horrors inflicted on China by the Japanese and Soviets and relates the importance of the struggle on the Asian mainland to the American juggernaut bearing down on Japan from the east.
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