Favorite Reads

[JDM]

I just want to throw out there that a lot of the books will have opinions portrayed that I do not agree with or find flawed. I don't want to poison anyone's read by not approaching these books with a clean mind, so I won't include anything along those lines here. If you read any and are curious on that, feel free to message me and discuss it, but I think many of these are best approached as a curiosity and without a specific agenda.

 

[Wazmankg]

Don't read many books any more but I like stuff that makes me laugh. I'll usually pick up something I haven't read by one of these guys - Joseph Heller, Tom Wolfe, Philip Roth, John Irving, Larry McMurtry, John Updike.

 

[H2S]

I haven't heard that term. I may look around at some point.

I do learn the details fairly easily for things I use regularly. I'm a computer science guy so things like code and math are firm in my memory.

not sure if it's common vernacular...but...Clayton mentioned JOHN BRUNNER (re: his incredible work The Traveler In Black) - which, coincidentally, is a book about Magic.) it was...

Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar where I first got the word "synthesist" - basically, an intellectual, expert in many fields, employed as a consultant.

synthesists absorb more & more efficiently than the average bear...they're also more reluctant to share findings without compensation.



jk

 

[H2S]

Don't read many books any more but I like stuff that makes me laugh. I'll usually pick up something I haven't read by one of these guys - Joseph Heller, Tom Wolfe, Philip Roth, John Irving, Larry McMurtry, John Updike.

from Bored of the Rings/1969...the funniest thing I ever read.

“Signs?” said Frito.

“Verily and forsooth,” replied Goodgulf darkly. “In the past year strange and fearful wonders I have seen. Fields sown with barley reap crabgrass and fungus, and even small gardens reject their artichoke hearts. There has been a hot day in December and a blue moon. Calendars are made with a month of Sundays and a blue-ribbon Holstein bore alive two insurance salesmen. The earth splits and the entrails of a goat were found tied in square knots. The face of the sun blackens and the skies have rained down soggy potato chips.”

“But what do all these things mean?” gasped Frito.

“Beats me,” said Goodgulf with a shrug, “but I thought it made good copy. But there is more. My spies tell me of black musters gathering in the East, in the dead Lands of Fordor. Hordes of foul narcs and trolls have multiplied and every day red-eyed wraiths skulk even unto the borders of the Sty. Soon there will be much terror in the land from the black hand of Sorhed.”

“Sorhed!” cried Frito. “But Sorhed is no more.”

“Don’t believe everything you hear from the heralds,” said Dildo gravely. “It had been thought that Sorhed was forever destroyed at the Battle of Brylopad, but it appears this was just wishful thinking. Actually he and his Nine Nozdrul slipped out of the mopping-up cleverly disguised as a troupe of gypsy acrobatic dancers. Escaping through the Ngaio Marsh, they pushed their way into the suburbs of Fordor, where the property values dropped like a paralyzed falcon. From Fordor they have been renewing their strength ever since.”

 

[bigred472]

Kellerman
Sanford
Hoag
Johnason
Koontz--his Frankestien series & his Odd Thomas series.

 

[JDM]

not sure if it's common vernacular...but...Clayton mentioned JOHN BRUNNER (re: his incredible work The Traveler In Black) - which, coincidentally, is a book about Magic.) it was...

Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar where I first got the word "synthesist" - basically, an intellectual, expert in many fields, employed as a consultant.

synthesists absorb more & more efficiently than the average bear...they're also more reluctant to share findings without compensation.



jk

I actually have no problem sharing. Too few care enough to listen, though.

 

[olympicoscar]

Kellerman
Sanford
Hoag
Johnason
Koontz--his Frankestien series & his Odd Thomas series.

Dean Koontz writes great stories. The Odd books are priceless.

 

[JDM]

I don't read as much fiction as I did when I was younger, but when I do one of my favorites is John Grisham. One in particular (my most recent of his work) that I enjoyed was The Broker. I have less to say about this one other than that it's just a well done good read, as is most of Grisham's work. It centers on a big wig lawyer basically in witness protection in Europe, and beyond that, read it and find out.

 

[bigred472]

I don't read as much fiction as I did when I was younger, but when I do one of my favorites is John Grisham. One in particular (my most recent of his work) that I enjoyed was The Broker. I have less to say about this one other than that it's just a well done good read, as is most of Grisham's work. It centers on a big wig lawyer basically in witness protection in Europe, and beyond that, read it and find out.

-------
Thanks for the tip. I could have listed Grisham on my list as well but tried to keep the list short.

 

[bigred472]

Dean Koontz writes great stories. The Odd books are priceless.

-------
Initially Koontz and King ran neck and neck with the best of the horror genre. And while Koontz can and does throw out a scare or two still, his more recent books tend to have a bit of spirituality/phisophy in them that I thought I'd never aooreciate but he does it in a way without being preachy about it.

 

[H2S]

Absorb a Classic in 10 Minutes...

following is an excerpt from TOM GODWIN'S The Cold Equations/1954. The link is to the entire (short) story...should take only a couple of minutes to read the whole thing. Powerful lesson; highly recommended. Enjoy.



Existence required order, and there was order; the laws of nature, irrevocable and immutable. Men could learn to use them, but men could not change them. The circumference of a circle was always pi times the diameter, and no science of man would ever make it otherwise. The combination of chemical A with chemical B under condition C invariably produced reaction D. The law of gravitation was a rigid equation, and it made no distinction between the fall of a leaf and the ponderous circling of a binary star system. The nuclear conversion process powered the cruisers that carried men to the stars; the same process in the form of a nova would destroy a world with equal efficiency. The laws were, and the universe moved in obedience to them. Along the frontier were arrayed all the forces of nature, and sometimes they destroyed those who were fighting their way outward from Earth. The men of the frontier had long ago learned the bitter futility of cursing the forces that would destroy them, for the forces were blind and deaf; the futility of looking to the heavens for mercy, for the stars of the galaxy swung in their long, long sweep of two hundred million years, as inexorably controlled as they by the laws that knew neither hatred nor compassion. The men of the frontier knew — but how was a girl from Earth to fully understand? h amount of fuel will not power an EDS with a mass of m plus x safely to its destination. To him and her brother and parents she was a sweet-faced girl in her teens; to the laws of nature she was x, the unwanted factor in a cold equation.

The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin (SpaceWesterns.com)

 

[JDM]

A new one I started last night, am about halfway through, that I am liking so far:

Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds For The Better by Clive Thompson.

The title's mostly self explanatory. It looks at how we can utilize a combination of technology and our own intuition to maximize the combined capability of both.

 

[KansasSooner]

Live in the Southwest? You're missing one of the great joys of life if you've not read MICHENER'S Texas/1985 and Mexico/1992.
Northeast? Centennial/1974 and Chesapeake/1978.
Northwest? Alaska/1988.
Anywhere? Hawaii/1959, Space/1982, Caribbean/1989.

I've reveled in them all (and more) since I was a kid...listening to mom read Hawaii and Tales of the South Pacific/1947 to me at bedtime. James Michener is unparalleled at blending captivating stories with fascinating history. His best work, the most interesting, imo, is also one of his least known works: The Source/1965...if you've never read Michener, try The Source first - if you don't like it, you probably won't like any of the others (even if you live in Texas.)

A book about Colorado (Centennial) you put in the Northeast category? Other than that I agree with your assessment of Michener. Next to The Source my favorite of his "Poland", fascinating in that it really showed some Eastern European history that I had learned in school.

 

[H2S]

big meh, even at 40% off cover price.

Read Dan Brown's INFERNO last week...enjoyed the trivia about Florence, Venice and Istanbul - and especially about Dante...but...overall?...finished it feeling...um...sterilized.

Dug into my paperback boxes, pulled out Ambrose Bierce's 2-volume set of short stories - purchased in 1971 and barely touched since. (originally got them to read "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" - which I loved...but the rest? not so much.) Now? My tastes, ability to follow complicated sentence construction and appreciation for sublime satire must have matured, or something...Bierce is a master word chef.

 

[GreenNickle]

Dan Brown is getting to predictable, the books are good reads takes me about 2 days to get through them.

Buddy of mine told me about Ben Coes, says his main character would curbstomp Jack Reacher

I go through spurts with reading, I will read 2-3 books a week and then take a break for awhile.

 

[beardown07]

Anything by Philip K. Dick..love most everything of his I've ever read.

 

[H2S]

Dan Brown is getting to predictable, the books are good reads takes me about 2 days to get through them.

Buddy of mine told me about Ben Coes, says his main character would curbstomp Jack Reacher

I go through spurts with reading, I will read 2-3 books a week and then take a break for awhile.

I took your suggestion and picked up TRIPWIRE...great stuff...thank you. Will check out Coes - just to see if your buddy knows something we should learn.

Also read two of Hammer's suggested Wilbur Smith books - WHEN THE LION FEEDS was freaking awesome; and BLUE HORIZON kicked ass.

 

[H2S]

Anything by Philip K. Dick..love most everything of his I've ever read.

always looked at Dick as a sci-fi version of Eric Hoffer...compelling, but too ethereal for my simpleton's understanding/appreciation. I've only read a few of his works. Thought THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE was inspired...ANDROIDS/ELECTRIC SHEEP was inspiring...and VALIS was (incomprehensibly) meh - maybe another reading someday it'll be different.

 

[beardown07]

Valis is my least favorite.

 

[Tai Chi≈Surfing]

Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino is one of my all time faves.