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~Ze~ · 01-18-2018, 04:22 PM

I LOVE when a friend brings a book to add to my collection. My condo is pretty empty right now when it comes to books...

Currently on my nightstand is Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk. He is the author of Fight Club and others.

Just the other day a friend suggested Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond.

In return I told him to pick up a copy of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Professor Yuval Noah Harari.

I only found out later that Harari says Guns, Germs, and Steel was inspiration for Sapiens.

Sapiens has to be my favorite read of last year though it is tied with The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss.

My list is ever growing. What is on yours?

TexTushHog · 01-18-2018, 10:32 PM

If you’ve never read it, Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August is one of the best history books ever written.

Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure is one of the best novel ever written in the English language, IMHO. His Tess of d’Urbervilles is also quite good.

If you like 19th Century French social realism, I’ve been recently retreading Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series (alas in translation, as my French is still not good enough to read in the original). It is interesting. I’d suggest Germinal or Le Ventre de Paris (sometimes identified as The Belly of Paris) for a first read. In the same vein, but a good bit later, I read George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London.. Also good.

Finally, I’ve reread Hemmingway’s A Moveable Feast. Always good to read about Paris whether you are there or wishing you were there.

billw1032 · 01-18-2018, 11:28 PM

I've got Guns, Germs, and Steel. I bought it maybe 10 years ago on a strong recommendation from a friend, and unfortunately it has sat on the bookshelf unread up until now. Probably I should make it next on my list. These days I tend to read books on the Kindle app on my tablet, much more convenient for carrying around and on long flights, so I probably need to pick up the Kindle version.

What I'm really reading now (slowly) is Play It Again by Alan Rusbridger. It's an autobiographical true story by the editor of The Guardian in England who is also an amateur pianist. He took on the challenge of learning Chopin's First Ballade, one of the most difficult of solo piano pieces, and gave himself one year. This book is the diary of his struggles, of interest to me mainly as an adult amateur piano student, but also contains some interesting tidbits about how he dealt with the news items of the day including breaking the original WikiLeaks story.

What's really on my desk right now is New Practical Chinese Reader, the text for a class in Mandarin Chinese that I'm taking.

All that said, I'm missing the SciFi that I used to read years ago, but I've lost track of what's good in recent years. I'd be interested in suggestions if anyone has some.

TexTushHog · 01-19-2018, 04:34 AM

Middlemarch, by George Eliot is another candidate for one of the great English language novels.

MooneyFlyer · 01-22-2018, 04:39 PM

Ze . . . I'm pretty sure you don't want my list of fly fishing books.

~Ze~ · 01-22-2018, 05:00 PM

OH, I am all about those DIY or instructionals.

*sticks tongue out in concentration while attempting to tie a fly*

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have added a few more to my Amazon wishlist.

Something in me still likes good ole fashioned paper books. If for no other reason I can easily put it in someone else's hands when I suggest they HAVE to read it.

I easily handed out 8+ copies of "Ready Player One".

nwss00 · 01-22-2018, 05:32 PM

The Witcher: Last Wish

billw1032 · 01-22-2018, 09:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ~Ze~

Something in me still likes good ole fashioned paper books. If for no other reason I can easily put it in someone else's hands when I suggest they HAVE to read it.

~Ze~, I just bought Guns, Germs, and Steel on Kindle, so you're welcome to my paperback copy if you like.

I understand what you mean, though. It seems there's something lost when we don't get our reading material, books and especially news, in printed form. And there's something satisfying when I look at my shelves full of books (and wish that I knew everything that's in them!). And there are some times I really prefer paper, especially for technical books when I want to page back and forth. But for straight reading, digital format is really convenient. If we had Kindle 30 years ago and I had bought everything in digital format, I could carry my entire reference library with me.

*Edit* I also bought some of the others you recommended. Reading material for my next long flight. Strange, though, "Ready Player One" was actually more expensive on Kindle than paperback. Odd...

~Ze~ · 01-23-2018, 03:25 AM

Ready Player One is in movie production right now with Steven Speilberg directing.

They are bound to be up charging for the Kindle version because it is a hot topic. Read it NOW before the movie ruins it.

I am only a little butt hurt they didn't add 30 minutes to the run time of Ender's Game to touch all the plot points.

Still a fantastic read.

Pass along that paperback! *Smiles*

Crock · 01-23-2018, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billw1032

All that said, I'm missing the SciFi that I used to read years ago, but I've lost track of what's good in recent years. I'd be interested in suggestions if anyone has some.

Ready Player One is a great read and I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to the movie or not.

I just finished The Windup Girl by Paulo Bacigalupi and I highly recommend it. It's set in an incredible near future where corporations went a bit crazy with agricultural GMO and they actually monopolized food. As in, you can't grow food because they've engineered pests/disease that destroys all but their engineered resistant strain of cow/corn/wheat/orange. While the GMO-dystopia is just the setting for the story, it's the setting that made this story so incredible to me. And scary because I can see it as a very possible future.

Quote:

Originally Posted by billw1032

I understand what you mean, though. It seems there's something lost when we don't get our reading material, books and especially news, in printed form. And there's something satisfying when I look at my shelves full of books (and wish that I knew everything that's in them!). And there are some times I really prefer paper, especially for technical books when I want to page back and forth. But for straight reading, digital format is really convenient. If we had Kindle 30 years ago and I had bought everything in digital format, I could carry my entire reference library with me.

I love my Nook, but I guess we should all re-read Fahrenheit 451, too!

crashkopf · 01-23-2018, 10:57 AM

Hmmm....

Capitalism by Ben Stein... A primer for young millenials.
The Four - genetic relationship with Google, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook.
Miles Davis - biography.

cinderbella · 01-23-2018, 11:16 AM

My absolute favorite book of all time is "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Truman Capote. No, I have not seen the movie. I loved it so much that I read it again. There are also a few short stories at the end that are very good. I also love his "One Christmas", that story is just magical and you can hear pdf's of it online ( it is short). I could not stand "In Cold Blood" I would rather hear his personal genre.

"Tess of the D'Urbervilles" is also a classic fave, but I also recommend watching some of the great movie interpretations online as most have stayed faithful to the story and actors were always perfectly cast.

"The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet" is next on my list.

But please, do yourself a favor and READ "Breakfast at Tiffany's" It is so beautifully written and the words are just gorgeous, and so is "One Christmas".

cinderbella · 01-23-2018, 11:40 AM

https://www.shortstorymasterpieces.a...christmas.html

I also love almost anything written by James Joyce. You can find some gems on the above link, under stories.

dallasfan · 01-23-2018, 11:44 AM

I like the really thin ones. That way if a table needs to be leveled you have more options.

necktie · 01-23-2018, 10:48 PM

Loved Guns, Germs and Steel. Currently working through Dataclysm by Christian Rudder. Its interesting. Also trying to get through Max Tegmark's Our Mathematical Universe. Still waiting on Sapiens.

For some fun fantasy, check out The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. Some favorite SF novels are Spin by Robert Charles Wilson, Hyperion by Dan Simmons, and The Dark Forest by Cixin Lui.

Happy reading!