Favorite Reads

[H2S]

First though, I don't know if you read any fantasy H2S, but skimming through some of the excerpts you posted I think you might like "The Prince of Nothing" series by R. Scott Baker. Personally I've found I'm apparently not smart enough to read it, but a lot of fantasy readers love it. Baker was a philosophy major, and the book is filled with a bunch of existentialist stuff and heavy, HEAVY prose. I just can't chew through it. I bought the whole trilogy and books that size usually take me a week of light reading, or often one long night if I get especially hooked. Both times I've tried reading it, the first book takes me a month to get through, mostly forcing myself to read it. And I have made it part way into book 2 twice before giving up. It's not my style at all, but you might like it a lot more.

Did you ever take a look at the Prince of Nothing series that I recommended to you? Every time I come back to this thread and see you've added a new quote that you enjoy I get further convinced that you would like Princeton Nothing. But I also think it's the first time I've ever recommended somebody else read something I hated. So I'm curious.

please forgive.
no, I didn't check PoN out...until now.
and now I'm curious - how arcane can Bakker be if someone as well-read as you has problems with him? Are you really recommending I try something you hated? If so, I'll take the challenge.

ever read Gravity's Rainbow (T. PYNCHON) or Magister Ludi (H. HESSE)? I had the same problem with both...took years of starting before I ever finished either.

what Steven Erikson book was the best you've ever read?

 

[Edonidd]

please forgive.
no, I didn't check PoN out...until now.
and now I'm curious - how arcane can Bakker be if someone as well-read as you has problems with him? Are you really recommending I try something you hated? If so, I'll take the challenge.

ever read Gravity's Rainbow (T. PYNCHON) or Magister Ludi (H. HESSE)? I had the same problem with both...took years of starting before I ever finished either.

what Steven Erikson book was the best you've ever read?

For me, Bakker is something I can't just read, I have to actually think about. There's a weight to his words and a rhythm to his prose that I guess just doesn't synch up with my internal measuring system, I don't know which one of us is metric and which is imperial, but we don't seem to match up. And on top of that is the philosophy and what I (maybe mistakenly?) refer to as existentialism. I don't know, I just can't ever get into the rhythm of reading his books. Most books I don't like because they're bad. These I don't think I can label, but I know they're not for me.

Never read of (nor heard of) either.

Hands down the single best book is Deadhouse Gates (book 2), but I caution against trying to read it without reading book 1.

 

[H2S]

Never read of (nor heard of) either.

Hands down the single best book is Deadhouse Gates (book 2), but I caution against trying to read it without reading book 1.

Pynchon copped a Pulitzer for Gravity's Rainbow...
Hesse copped a Nobel for Magister Ludi.

ok, thx, re: Erikson

 

[UVA_Guy81]

My main reads are action/mystery thrillers. I'd say that my favorite authors would probably be Dan Brown and David Baldacci as I do like the King/Maxwell series. There's also an author named William Forstchen that has an excellent book called One Second After that I'd highly recommend and a sequel to that coming out next month I believe called One Year After. A book in the similar vain to those that I finished not too long ago is JL Bourne's Tomorrow War.

 

[H2S]

“did anybody ever come back from the dead any single one of the millions who got killed did any one of them ever come back and say by god i'm glad i'm dead because death is always better than dishonor? did they say i'm glad i died to make the world safe for democracy? did they say i like death better than losing liberty? did any of them ever say it's good to think i got my guts blown out for the honor of my country? did any of them ever say look at me i'm dead but i died for decency and that's better than being alive? did any of them ever say here i am i've been rotting for two years in a foreign grave but it's wonderful to die for your native land? did any of them say hurray i died for womanhood and i'm happy see how i sing even though my mouth is choked with worms?”

― Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun/1939

I read Johnny in Aspen, 1971 - an old, tattered copy given me by a Vietnam vet, Lt. Colonel/retired friend who had a place on the Frying Pan River outside of Basalt, COLO. probably the most powerful book I've ever read - recommended, with reservations.

 

[Hank Kingsley]

Currently reading a Michael Connelly, The Black Box.

As always, I love it. Harry Bosch can do no wrong.

 

[Hank Kingsley]

My main reads are action/mystery thrillers. I'd say that my favorite authors would probably be Dan Brown and David Baldacci as I do like the King/Maxwell series. There's also an author named William Forstchen that has an excellent book called One Second After that I'd highly recommend and a sequel to that coming out next month I believe called One Year After. A book in the similar vain to those that I finished not too long ago is JL Bourne's Tomorrow War.

Dunno if he's the same guy but I read a whole series of a William Forstchen that was based on a destroyer crew from 1939? or so that ended up in an alternate timeline with all kinds of shenanigans.

At least 5 books in the series.

 

[H2S]

space is not for man, DEPT...

one of the great classics of Science Fiction, Clarke's CHILDHOOD'S END/1953, will be interpreted-for-tv in a three day series (SCI-FI Channel) beginning 14DEC. The book's ending is like nothing you've ever read...I hope the movie's at least a fraction as good.

 

[Chewbaccer]

The usual stuff.

The Turner Diaries
The Anarchist Cookbook

Things of that nature, along with Doyle Brunson's Super/System. A little dated, but still informative.

 

[H2S]

The usual stuff.

The Turner Diaries
The Anarchist Cookbook

Things of that nature, along with Doyle Brunson's Super/System. A little dated, but still informative.

lol...wotta demon.

I've got a 1st edition/1st printing of the ANARCHIST COOKBOOK/1971 in decent condition - now worth a couple hundred bucks. Put it on eBay recently - the listing was cancelled two days later because "the item facilitates criminal activities."

seems silly, considering you can pull up how to make nuclear devices on the internet these days.

 

[Chewbaccer]

lol...wotta demon.

I've got a 1st edition/1st printing of the ANARCHIST COOKBOOK/1971 in decent condition - now worth a couple hundred bucks. Put it on eBay recently - the listing was cancelled two days later because "the item facilitates criminal activities."

seems silly, considering you can pull up how to make nuclear devices on the internet these days.

My dad has a copy of the Anarchist Cookbook. I was reading through it, and found it had some pretty crazy shit. Like skinning a common toad frog, the ones that you find under your porch all the time, letting the body dry out in the sun, then scrape the white flaky stuff off and smoke it, and it's supposed to be a better trip than acid. I couldn't help but wonder who the first person was to discover this.

 

[H2S]

My dad has a copy of the Anarchist Cookbook. I was reading through it, and found it had some pretty crazy shit. Like skinning a common toad frog, the ones that you find under your porch all the time, letting the body dry out in the sun, then scrape the white flaky stuff off and smoke it, and it's supposed to be a better trip than acid. I couldn't help but wonder who the first person was to discover this.

mid-to-late 1960s, early 1970s...EVERYBODY was popping, snorting, smoking, injecting anything and everything looking for novel ways to cop a buzz...oh, and speaking of toads, I don't doubt folks tried smoking dried skin squeeze flakes, but I do remember people saying you could get high licking live toads...yah, those were some fun days.

 

[Omar 382]

I'm currently reading A Storm of Swords. How about anyone else?

 

[Omar 382]

I'm halfway through Appointment in Samarra, published in 1934 by John O'Hara. I'm enjoying it thus far. It's set during Prohibition and The Depression with the social elite of fictional Gibbsville, PA, which is based on Pottsville, PA. It's more engaging with better story-telling than The Great Gatsby thus far. I'll let you know what I think when I finish it

 

[Omar 382]

I'm looking for something sci-fi, dystopian, cyber punk or military related. Any suggestions?

I know this post is three years old, but if you're still looking for something that contains sic-fi, dystopian, and military all together; I would recommend the Red Rising trilogy by Pierce Brown. Red Rising came out in 2014, the sequel, Golden Son in 2015, and the finale Morning Star this February.

I read Red Rising about a year ago in two weeks; Golden Son immediately after in two weeks. Fucking bad ass. It's like Game of Thrones mixed in with The Hunger Games mixed in with Elysium. I haven't read Morning Star yet because I've been so busy. In the summer, I'm going to re-read the first two and then Morning Star. They're also making it into a movie.

Red Rising - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Omar 382]

Well, just finished Appointment in Samarra. Kind of a let down. The first 100 pages were very fascinating, but then the last 100 were pretty boring. I love stories that happen in a day or two days- but they're better suited for action movies/books, like Training Day, than for personal decays- if that's what you'd say this story was about. Honestly, I thought it was going to be Catcher in the Rye-ish from the first 100 pages, but it was actually very far from it. 2.5/5 stars.

I'll next be reading Inferno by Dante

 

[theboardref]

Currently reading a Michael Connelly, The Black Box.

As always, I love it. Harry Bosch can do no wrong.

I hated reading for years, and I saw The Drop on the 5 dollar pile in Barnes and Nobles. Since then I have read up to the middle of City of Bones, including Blood work as well. The man is an incredible writer. My biggest regret is I am reading his books too fast, worried about running out.

 

[theboardref]

I own Stephen Kings, 11/22/63 but can't pull myself away from the Bosch series. I've said I'm reading that next after the past 5 Bosch books.

 

[beardown07]

I read all day long for a living. The most boring fucking shit possible.



Add two kids under 5......can't remember the last book I read.

 

[theboardref]

I read all day long for a living. The most boring fucking shit possible.



Add two kids under 5......can't remember the last book I read.

That is what deterred me from reading for so long. Reading boring crap my teacher made me read that were so called 'classics'. As a kid you think Frankenstein is a bad ass but really its a freaking snooze fest.