Topic: Books Thread

[ieism]

Aaah! A booktopic.......best thing I ever did in my life was get rid of the TV and start buying books (that was 10 years ago).

I'm a sucker for all Russian novels, classics as well as recent books.
I can't give titles, because I read most of them in Dutch but any off these writers are genious:

Fazil Iskander
Majakovski
Dostojewski
Ilja Ilf & Jevgeni Petrov
Tolstoj
Toergenjew
Lermontow
Vladimir Nabokov
Osip Mandelsjtam

If you have not read any of these, ask one for x-mas

Ivar

[Ecosse]

......best thing I ever did in my life was get rid of the TV and start buying books.

Hey... let's not get carried away here! TV is our friend. Sometimes our only friend!

It keeps us warm at night and tells us how to think.  ( i love u tv)



I'm not kidding. ...

[CaféElite]

Ahh Atlas Shrugged.. Quality.. flat out quality.

Other books I have enjoyed..
Snow Crash (keep kicking ass Neal!)
Good Omens (check out The sandman series by Neil as well)
Tales of the Otori (whole series kicks ass [dont read book four])
The way of Shadows (got the second book, hoping its good)

Currently reading Dragon Wing.... thats all I got.

[333]

Yes but we barbarians will rise up again.
Bill the demon.

That, and Oprah is going to join the forum.

[mick750F]

......best thing I ever did in my life was get rid of the TV and start buying books.

Hey... let's not get carried away here! TV is our friend. Sometimes our only friend!

It keeps us warm at night and tells us how to think.  ( i love u tv)



I'm not kidding. ...

[mick750F]

   Now that I've gotten that off my chest....

   Wow! I'm surprised to see A Confederacy of Dunces mentioned, and more than once. It's one of my favorite books, I've read it a number of times and had always thought it to be a somewhat obscure title. I've just started rereading for the 5th or 6th time The Milagro Beanfield War. It's been a long time since I've read it and wanted to reacquaint myself with it. I've also just started Guns, Germs, and Steel, which in broad terms is a 13,000 year history of the world and how and why different cultures developed. During the buildup to the recent election I found myself rereading some of Gore Vidals political writings and essays which were mostly written during the 80's and 70's. It's amazing how insightful he was back then about politics and how much of it pertains to the present day.

Mike

[seaweb11]

The next one on my shelf to read over Christmas is
"The Biker Trials"
      bringing down the hells angels

One story from the Quebec biker trials with "mom" Boucher at the helm.

By Paul Cherry.


Ho, Ho, Ho, just a bit of merriment for the Christmas season

[alltherightpills]

......best thing I ever did in my life was get rid of the TV and start buying books.

Hey... let's not get carried away here! TV is our friend. Sometimes our only friend!

It keeps us warm at night and tells us how to think.  ( i love u tv)



I'm not kidding. ...

I have an old RCA TV that is filled with books.  Not having a TV was/is one of the best decisions my wife and I have made.  We either watch TV shows online or through netflix.  I can't tell you how great it is not to have to watch commercials.  We still have the internet, so we aren't total Luddites.

Ieism, I have decided to tackle some of the Russians this winter (what better time to do it, eh?)  I am thinking either Crime and Punishment or Anna Karenina.

[ieism]

Anna Karenina is a fantastic book.

I'm a huge fan of Dostovjewski, but crime and punishment is a heavy starter IMO.
Everybody reads C&P when they read Dos, but "the brothers Karamazov" is a much better book.

I've read everything he's written at least once, great stuff.

[kirkn]

Boy, some of you guys are into heavy lifting, reading-wise!   

I have an old 'decorative' set of classics that we inherited from my wife's grandmother - the kind of heavy, leather-bound books that are mostly suitable for display.  Maybe I'll have to dust off some of them and actually give 'em a read!  Anna Karenina is one of them. 

The only one of 'em I've read wasn't actually a classic at all, but rather, the first-hand account of the first climbing of Mt. Everest, written by the expedition leader, Sir John Hunt.  The book includes a chapter written by Edmund Hillary on his actual summit.  The book was published immediately after the expedition returned and includes some really neat appendices detailing all the 'little' things that made up the expedition - wages, supplies, logistics, etc.

[Ecosse]

kirkn, do you have the title of the Mt. Everest book? My sis would love it if still in print.

Speaking of... I remember telling my lil' sis to point to her head, then tell me the initials for mountain.


I'm a good big brother.

[Rocking-M]

   
   Wow! I'm surprised to see A Confederacy of Dunces mentioned, and more than once. It's one of my favorite books, I've read it a number of times and had always thought it to be a somewhat obscure title.
Mike

Mike, it was obscure to me. I went and read a bit of review on the plot. Right now I have a 25 year old son who is almost moved out.
Til he is officially out I'm afraid the book would hit to close to home. 

[kirkn]

kirkn, do you have the title of the Mt. Everest book? My sis would love it if still in print.

It was called, variously, The Ascent of Everest  or  The Conquest of Everest, by Sir John Hunt.  My version is called The Conquest...  and was published in 1954.  It's an oldie, for sure.  I think there was a paperback version that was called The Ascent...

Not sure if ANY of 'em are still in print, but they ARE available on the used book market.  I take it back - you CAN purchase it:

http://www.amazon.com/Ascent-Everest-John-Hunt/dp/0898863619

Kirk

[Bob Wessner]

kirkn, do you have the title of the Mt. Everest book? My sis would love it if still in print.

It was called, variously, The Ascent of Everest  or  The Conquest of Everest, by Sir John Hunt.  My version is called The Conquest...  and was published in 1954.  It's an oldie, for sure.  I think there was a paperback version that was called The Ascent...

Not sure if ANY of 'em are still in print, but they ARE available on the used book market.  I take it back - you CAN purchase it:

http://www.amazon.com/Ascent-Everest-John-Hunt/dp/0898863619

Kirk

Try Alibris Books, there are some copies out there right now. Great source for books if you don't have the need for pristine/new copies.

[dusterdude]

currently reading the "womens murder club" series by james patterson,almost through book 5 of the 7 book series.damn good reading.

[eldar]

Gee, I just like to stick to battletech for sci fi and dragonlance for fiction. I get enough reality and free thinking working at a liberal arts college!

[Ecosse]

Thanks Kirk and Bob for those leads. I'll look into it straight away.

[rbmgf7]

i had to read a total of 4 books this semester for my 2 military history classes: one emphasizing on military history from the civil war to gulf war and the other class specifically on vietnam. i thoroughly enjoyed Steel my soldiers heart by david hackworth. great book about leadership. very informal which made it great to read. still finishing up the other which my professor, Dr. McManus, wrote called the 7th Infantry Regiment. It's the history of the 7th INF from the Korean war to the current war in Iraq.

[kirkn]

Thanks Kirk and Bob for those leads. I'll look into it straight away.

Yer Welcome!

Now that I'm home, I dug out the book:

The Conquest of Everest
by Sir John Hunt
With A Chapter On The Final Assault By Sir Edmund Hillary

Foreword by  His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh
c1953

This Book Is Published in England Under the Title The Ascent of Everest.



So, now you know... 

[alltherightpills]

While that book probably predates the ISBN system (1970), I've found that searching for the ISBN number is the best way to find specific editions of books (published after 1970 of course.)  You can just type the ISBN into Amazon's search bar and the book will come up, assuming that either Amazon has it, or someone is selling it in the marketplace. 

[medic09]

On my table now...

Days of Deliverance: Essays on Purim and Hanukkah

The Portable Thoreau (rereading Civil Disobediance)

The Keepsake  a Tess Gerritsen murder novel I bought for my daughter, but ended up staying up all night to read.  Then my wife grabbed it, so daughter still hasn't gotten it.  Gerritsen is an MD turned murder novelist.  Haven't read her for a few years.  Disturbs my sleep.  This one has an archeology twist, so I got it for the anthropologist/archeologist daughter.

Emergency and Transport Nursing Examination Review  gotta get motivated to go take the CFRN exam.  FP-C was the same material, but I hate to restudy the stuff.

Pile of back issues or Journal of Emergency Nursing, Air Medical Journal, Journal of Special Operations Medicine, and Journal of Jewish Medical Ethics.

Back issue of Tradition, Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought.

A number of Hebrew volumes, mostly religious.  That's ongoing reading.  My true passion.

We don't watch much TV in this house.   

[fuzzybutt]

another writer that i love dearly..........Clive Cussler, especially his Dirk Pitt series

[mark]

........ military history ........

'At Dawn We Slept' and one about Midway that I don't recall the full title of, by Gordon Prange...


While not specifically military, William Shirer was close to a lot of history and wrote well(if a bit long).





Technology:

'Edge of the Anvil' by Jack Andrews. 'The Woodwright's Shop' by Roy Underhill. 'Practical Blacksmithing' - originally four separate volumes published 1889-91; also available in a modern compilation. 'The Rifle in America' and 'Complete Guide to Handloading' by Phil Sharpe.

[medic09]

One of the best battle  histories I've read is available in English translation as 'The Heights of Courage'.  Avigdor Kahalani was a tank brigade commander who faced off with the Syrians during the Syrian attack on the Golan Heights in '73.  Amazing story.

[MacM2010]

Oh boy, a book thread... I'm an English teacher/grad student, so you may regret getting me started.

I just began Roberto Bolano's The Savage Detectives, which is going quite well.  Now that school's out, I can read things I actually am interested in, which is a novel concept for me.  After that would be his new one, 2666, which takes place in a fictionalized Cd. Juarez, Mexico, about 40 miles south of where I'm writing.  They're having a good time trying to quell the drug violence down there (they found a beheaded man hanging from a highway overpass last month), so I'm not sure when I might visit.  But I'm excited to read the book.

Are you in a Master's or Ph.D. program?  What's your time period?  My wife is an Early Modernist and is just starting her dissertation at Iowa.  She too relishes the opportunity to read things that aren't either academic or in her time period.  As of late that has meant that she's been reading a lot of YA novels because they are all plot and fun to read.   

I'm doing a master's in creative writing (fiction).  So I tend to study a lot of contemporary American stuff, but it varies a lot (if I have a specialty, it's postmodernism).  When you say Early Modernist, does that mean she's studying stuff from the Early Modern era (16th century) or early Modernism (Joyce, Woolf, etc.)? 

She's in good company with the young adult stuff - everyone I work with grabs a mystery novel or one of the Twilight books after the semester ends to get their "junk reading" fix.  For me, as long as I don't have to read it, it's a treat.