[OGRipper]

Just went through The Kite Runner in about a week - amazing story of loss and redemption, very well told, especially for a first novel.

Also recently read The Devil's Teeth, non-fiction about white sharks and the Farallon Islands. Great stuff.

 

[caputo1989]

Facts about life and other dirty jokes by Wilie Nelson

 

[Bicyclist]

Just went through The Kite Runner in about a week - amazing story of loss and redemption, very well told, especially for a first novel.

Yes, great book.

 

[Jorvik]

Gates of Fire - Stephen Pressfield
Paddy Whacked - T.J. English

And I'm going to second Walden. Thoreau was pretty much the first American hippy to publish a book, and damn is it good. I used to swim the length of Walden Pond when I was in school.

 

[SkullCrack]

the dark tower series by stephen king- alot of people dont like king, but this series is probably one of the best stories i have ever read.

I'll second this. I really got sucked into that series.

 

[scrublover]

"Eyes of the Calculor" - Sean McMullen

"When Gravity Fails" - George Alec Effinger

Two (new to me) authors with some really cool stuff; both of those above are the first in three book series.

Iain M. Banks, LE Modesitt Jr., Neal Stephenson, and Clive Barker all have some great stuff. Robin Hobb's "Farseer" trilogy is pretty good.
Elizabeth Willey has a three book series that is hard to find, but excellent. Frank Herbert's stuff is good; forget his son's new stuff - it's crap.

Anything by Ruth Reichl, Anthony Bourdain, or Bill Bryson. "The Solace of Open Spaces" by Gretel Ehrlich is wonderful.

Doesn't hurt that my girlie is aquisition head for a large county library system; she brings home all sorts of stuff to read. We really need more bookshelves. Go roam you local library, and grab whatever title/cover/author name seems interesting. Some days it's a tough call between reading or riding. Yeah, I'm a nerd.

 

[Brian HCM#1]

Dr. Suess is some damn good reading.

 

[llkoolkeg]

C'mon now...if it's just High School or Lit 101 required reading, why post it? Try suggesting books that you've read without a gun to your head.

I'm just starting one I picked up from the library Saturday-

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

It came highly recommended by my wife, a far more voracious and disciplined reader than I.

 

[Heidi]

Great book: http://www.brutaljourney.com/

 

[llkoolkeg]

"The Stories of Mary Gordon" is the other book I picked up from the library. It was recomended to me by an acquaintance, but I don't know much about either the author or the book. Anyone familiar with her work?

 

[Zark]

upgr8r has turned my on to a ton of good books this year.

A song of Fire and Ice (series, 3 books so far, fantasy) George RR Martin.
A mix of medieval fantasy, heavy on the politics. Really good series, I'm dying for that next one!

Hyperion Cantos (Sci-fi, series) Dan Simmons. Unbelievable good series of books. Sci-fi usually doesn't have the deep intellectual and emotional content that these have. Good stuff on the dangers of overreliance on technology.

 

[Upgr8r]

upgr8r has turned my on to a ton of good books this year.

A song of Fire and Ice (series, 3 books so far, fantasy) George RR Martin.
A mix of medieval fantasy, heavy on the politics. Really good series, I'm dying for that next one!

Hyperion Cantos (Sci-fi, series) Dan Simmons. Unbelievable good series of books. Sci-fi usually doesn't have the deep intellectual and emotional content that these have. Good stuff on the dangers of overreliance on technology.

Don't forget the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. That has kept you busy for a couple of months

 

[mdc]

The Stand-Stephan King (terrific character development, great story)Clockwork Orange- Anthony Burgess ( the "made up" Nadsat language is fantastic- just get a copy of the book with a Dictionary in the back...)
Geek Love- Katherine Dunn ( circus freak debauchery)
Catcher in the Rye- JD Salinger ( no matter how many times I read that book it is always fantastic)
A Walk in the Woods- Bill Bryson (very light and funny book)

 

[skatetokil]

The trilogy by Carlos Castaneda if you are a hippy/take drugs.

 

[reflux]

It was highly recommended by a few monkeys, and I found it to be quite disturbing...Under the Banner of Heaven.

 

[aviatorsman]

Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut Jr

The World According to Garp - John Irving

any book by David Sedaris

 

[JRogers]

any book by David Sedaris

I like Sedaris quite a bit. I sometimes like David Rakoff too. He's sort of like Sedaris...but a lot meaner.

I also second some of Stephen King's stuff- The Stand, The Dark Tower series and IT are the best I've read.

If you like travel/historical writing check out Tony Horwitz. Confederates in the Attic, Blue Lattitudes and Baghdad Without a Map are all excellent.

For fiction, my favorite modern author is Tom Perrotta. Little Children, Election, Joe College, The Wishbones and Bad Haircut are all great with Little Children, Joe College and Election being the better ones.

For non-fiction, I always recommend people read Ernest Becker. Escape from Evil is one of my favorite books. It was his last and probably best work.

 

[TreeSaw]

Dr. Suess is some damn good reading.

I would agree with that! We have been enjoying him quite a lot lately :biggrin:

 

[TheInedibleHulk]

They've been mentioned once or twice but Tom Robbins and Kurt Vonnegut are easily my favorites at the moment. Any vonnegut is great and they are all quick reads, I'd start with breakfast of Champions or Slaughterhouse 5, but you really cant go wrong. Somone already said Fierce Invalids by Robbins, I will just add Skinny Legs and All which I just finished and was pretty awesome. My next book is The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Woolfe, dont really know anything about ti, just the next one in the stack.

Oh yeah, I thought Sedaris was lame and uninteresting. I listened to the book-on-tape on a long road trip, and maybe his annoying nasaly voice ruined it for me. I absolutely cannot read Dan Brown, the writing is so god awful it barely matters what the content is.

 

[Plummit]

Check out Iain M. Banks' "Culture" series of novels for some cool sci-fi. He also publishes under Iain Banks (no M.), and these novels tend to be darker and more grizzly w/ horror and socially demented themes. "Consider Phlebas" is the first in the "Culture" series, but I've enjoyed them all immensely, especially "Look to Windward," "The Player of Games, and "Use of Weapons." You don't necessarily need to read them in order as they stand alone and compose more of a tapestry than a chronological series.

Enjoy. Link to Amazon Iain M. Banks http://www.amazon.com/s/002-2306488-5455260?ie=UTF8&index=books&rank=-relevance%2C%2Bavailability%2C-daterank&field-author-exact=Banks%2C%20Iain%20M.

 

[Smelly]

I'm a non-fiction and travel writing reader, so here's some good ones I've read lately:

Endurance- Alfred Lansing. The story of Ernest Shackleton's 1917 expedition to traverse Antarctica. It's an incredible story of survival

The Sex Lives of Cannibals- J. Maarten Troost. Very light, witty reading. You'll finish it in three days. Troost and his girlfriend move to a remote equatorial pacific island (Tarawa) when she gets a job there. Amusing and a good book to read in between heavier books.

A short history of nearly everything- Bill Bryson. For that matter, i recommened a lot of Bryson books, particularly the aformentioned, A Walk in the Woods, Neither Here Nor There, and In A Sunburned Country. Bryson is easy and fun to read, though his books can get a tad dull at points. Just skip those parts and move on.

The Devil in the White City- Erik Larsen. Murder in Chicago at the 1893 worlds fair. Twisted and suspensful, and it's all true.

Lastly, anything by Jon Krakauer. I've also heard good things about Paul Theroux but have yet to read anything he's writen.

I'll also have to second the recommendation for Catch 22. I love that book!

 

[Smelly]

Dr. Suess is some damn good reading.

Absolutely. My mom always gives 'Oh The Places You'll Go!' to people as a graduation present. Roahl Dahl is another personal favorite.

 

[stevew]

these were good

 

[koffee]

Airconditioned nightmare - Hubert Selby