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Favorite Books

(not in order)
Anything by Dennis Lehane (author of Mystic River, and six other great books)
Any of the Life In Hell books by Matt Groening (if you don't who he is then you are LAME!)
Xxxenophile by Phil Foglio (an 'adult' comic book)
Assorted stuff by Hunter THompson
Star Wars: Tales From the Mos Eisley Cantina, edited by Kevin J. Anderson
I Am Spock by Leonard Nimoy. Fascinating and hilarious memoir of the actor's realtionship with 'The Vulcan.'
Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke. Depressing but compelling tale of the end of man's days on Earth.
Peanuts from 1950-52
Second the vote for Blue Highways!
And my Steinbeck pick, the only book of his I've read, The Short Reign Of Pippin IV. Silly tale of the return of the French Monarchy. I've seen two copies of it in my whole life and I have one of them.
 
Here are some pictures of what I have on my bookshelf that aren't either reference materials for singing (language dictionaries, translation books, etc) or all of my music. Enjoy, and I hope that you can make out some of the titles.


23156668-M.jpg

This is the shelf that has most of my motorcycle books, philosophy, travel writing, and random stuff. I worked in a library in high school so I have a real hard time keeping unlike books together. I still haven't done that ABC order thing though like I have with my CDs. Yes, people think I'm crazy.

23156669-M.jpg

I couldn't quite get this picture to turn out very well. This shelf has all of my Tolkien, Douglas Coupland, my favorite poets (Ginsberg, Neruda, Dylan Thomas), Kerouac, and speaking of beatniks the book I bought at City Lights in San Francisco Dirty Havana Trilogy.
 
My current faves:

"Guns, Germs, And Steel" and "Collapse" - Jared Diamond
 
fav reads

when pressed to select the fav, would have to LOTR.

others, in no order, and by no means exhaustive!!

Demille, Word of Honor and Charm School
Tolstoy Anything he wrote
Dostoevsky Anything, but esp Bros Karamazov
Hesse, esp Glass Bead Game
Hemingway anything.. someone remarked on his style, what I call the iceberg style, where only 10% is revealed., the rest to be discovered by careful reading. He could do this - he was talented enough. Unfortunately, his style redefined modern prose, and has dumbed it down to the point where most novels today are pale imitations of Hemingway. There are exceptions, but far too many just can't write well enough to copy him.

Faulkner Anything, esp Absolom Absolom and Light in August
George R R Martin Song of Fire and Ice series best fantasy in years
Stephen Donaldson Gap series great sci-fi, based loosely on Warner's Ring cycle
King Dark Tower series
Comac McCarthy anything, Sutree, All the Pretty Horses ect


Better stop!
 
Mark11LT said:
I smell a theme
you scare me sometimes....

I like books off both your lists, do I scare you too?


I prefer history books. Military history is a favorite, due to my background, but I enjoy all types. Swinging the scale the complete other way, I enjoy science fiction just as much. The more 'hard science' fiction, the better.

Anything adventurous, like Tom Clancy, Dale Brown, etc, is high on my list too.
 
a few of mine

John Brase said:
I started re-reading Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance yesterday. First read was 25 or so years ago. My margin notes look pretty sophomoric now. Pirsig's second book (don't recall the title) is simply unreadable.

I have been a fan of Larry McMurtry's non fiction work before I started reading the novels. "Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen", is one of my favorite non fiction works. "The Last Picture Show" is a much better book than it was a movie and I liked the movie.
Louise Ehrlich wrote a book of essays "The Solace of Open Spaces", about Wyoming and the people who live there, each chapter is moving.

And now for something comepletely different any of the Michael Palin companion books about his travels around the world.
"Around the World in 80 Days"
"Pole to Pole"
"Hemingways Adventure"
"Full Circle"
 
On a serious note. I just finished reading the ÔÇ£The Chronicles of NarniaÔÇØ by C.S. Lewis to my son. I ready them perhaps 25 years ago & had forgotten how much these books meant to me.

I just saw a movie preview/trailer for ÔÇ£The Lion the Witch & the WardrobeÔÇØ last week.
 
einnar said:
I prefer history books. Military history is a favorite, due to my background, but I enjoy all types.

George MacDonald Fraser wrote a bunch of historical fiction staring a character: Flashman. Flashman was an admitted coward, a womanizer, an excellent horseman and an all around rapscalion. Set during the height of English colonial strength in the 1800s. The stories develop with historical accuracy except that fate places Flashman in the middle of the most historic battles of the English campains where he inadvertly (or wrongly) becomes a hero. The horrors of war and magnificent heroism against unbelievable odds are told, in different books, about battles in Russia, India, Usbekistan, Pakistan and Afganistan. The stories are quick paced and often amusing. One scene in the book Royal Flash, Flashman is in a sleigh racing to escape cossack horsemen. A Russian princess is stowed away in the sleigh so Flashie has his way with her, then to lighten the sleigh's load tosses her out into the snow. A true cad.

I would be sorta cool if people brought old favorite paperbacks to ralleys for exchange. Recommending a book never seems to get them read. Giving the book often does. To kick off the deal I will bring Royal Flash to the Chief Joseph ralley and give it away. :wave
 
Last edited:
username said:
nice thread. now, where to start?

"tao te ching" by lao tzu is one book i wish every person on earth was required to read and think about. it takes 30 minutes read and will rattle in your head for 30 lifetimes.
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I also have a favorite that everyone should read but not mandatory that would be the Book of John by the Apostle of the same name. Probably take 45 min to read but if you let it it could change your life.

Other wise The Lord of the Rings/Hobbit great place to get lost in middle earth.
Favorite Clancy Red Storm rising.
Favorite Stienbeck Of Mice and Men
 
Two of my more recent favorites are: A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving (although I`ve not liked some of his other stuff) and The Short History Of Everything by Bill Bryson. But the book that got me started to enjoy to read is The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein. I love that one so much I read it to all of my 5 kids 4th grade class when they were younger. I was a bread driver at the time and was off every Wed. I read a 1/2 hour to 45 minutes and it took almost the year but the kids loved it so I had to do it for all of them. I actually got much better at it in the end.
 
beemer-red said:
I read a 1/2 hour to 45 minutes and it took almost the year but the kids loved it so I had to do it for all of them. I actually got much better at it in the end.

Now that is really cool. :thumb
 
John Brase said:
I started re-reading Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance yesterday. First read was 25 or so years ago. My margin notes look pretty sophomoric now. Pirsig's second book (don't recall the title) is simply unreadable.


The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, a mystery novel set in a monastary in 1327. It is really much better than you'd think. And better than the movie though Sean Connery is almost always worth watching.
And for sheer fun, anything by Tom Robbins.

John

I tried to reread Zen a few years ago also after about 30 years from the first attempt, got thru the first few chapters, and while I liked it a whole better the second time, it still didn't really capture me so it got put away, again, maybe when I'm 90 I'll pull it out and try again.

Name of the Rose, definately a winner, moive was pretty good to but as you S. C. had a lot to do with that.

RM
 
I just finished African Game Trails by Theodore Roosevelt.

Man, talk about dredging up an old thread! :scratch

Does just finishing a book qualify it as your favorite? Just askin'.

My own favorites from recent years (although my 'old list' is a close match to Manic Mechanic, Randy's) are B.S. Levy's historical fiction series about 19-y-o Jersey garage mechanic Buddy Palumbo getting sucked into sports car road racing in 1952 (The Last Open Road) and continuing hilarity through the Mexican Road Race (Montezuma's Ferrari), building his own sports special (The Fabulous Trashwagon) and the one I'm still behind on (Toly's Ghost). I'd probably read them even if I didn't personally know that the guy is a total lunatic ... :whistle
 
Talk About an Old Thread!

If you go to page two there is a picture of YB in IN`s bookshelf I guess at his dorm/ apt. Just goes to show what apart of our lives he was.
 
Kesey revisited

I pick up a Ken Kesey once every decade or so. "One Flew over Cookoos Nest", "Sometimes a Great Notion"

And last week I picked up "Demon Box" for a wild ride...before that it was his comeback novel "Sailors Song"

Kesey attracts me as much as his books repulse me all at once.

Anybody else read this guy?

Did he pop his literary bubble on his first two novels, and the rest have been swan songs as I suspect?

Then why do I continue to read them?

Me thinks his ability to put a film...in words of sorts..into my head. I don't always like the disjointed sitcomb he's created in his books, but I sure enjoy watching the resulting film in my head!
 
Man, talk about dredging up an old thread! :scratch

Does just finishing a book qualify it as your favorite? Just askin'.

My own favorites from recent years (although my 'old list' is a close match to Manic Mechanic, Randy's) are B.S. Levy's historical fiction series about 19-y-o Jersey garage mechanic Buddy Palumbo getting sucked into sports car road racing in 1952 (The Last Open Road) and continuing hilarity through the Mexican Road Race (Montezuma's Ferrari), building his own sports special (The Fabulous Trashwagon) and the one I'm still behind on (Toly's Ghost). I'd probably read them even if I didn't personally know that the guy is a total lunatic ... :whistle

I also read the first three BS Levy books... I thought "Trashwagon" was the weakest title. I guess after the Mexican Road Race in Montezumas Ferrari Buddy needed a break.

I also like the way BS Levy sells books, on his own!

http://www.lastopenroad.com/index.htm
 
odd assortments

As stated above :
The Hobbit and the LOTR trilogy
Neil Peart...
......
Anne Rice
Dean Koontz
Robert Jordan
Richard Patterson

Many other authors that had story lines that were interesting to read.
 
After an extended hiatus, I have rediscovered reading. Recently read "Blind Your Ponies" by Stanley Gordon West and almost the entire series of books by C.J. Box. (Stories about a Wyoming Gamewarden) Currently reading "Empire of the Summer Moon" by S.C. Gwynne (The story of the Comanche Nation) and "Threat Vector" by Tom Clancy. Reading is suddenly fun again.
 
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