OT - Best Book You Have Read?

When I was in middle school I read Homer Hickham's October Sky dozens and dozens of times. I haven't revisited it in about a decade now, probably, but it hadn't been mentioned and I thought it deserved it.

My favorite novels are The Great Gatsby and Catch-22, and I'm frankly very surprised Gatsby hadn't shown up in this thread yet. In non-fiction the two best books of recent vintage are Nixonland and Team of Rivals, which totally paints me as an undiagnosed politics junkie.

A series of 4 books by Wilbur Smith I found very entertaining:  River God, The Seventh Scroll, Warlock, and The Quest

For comedy, I like anything by Christopher Moore, the funniest  is Lamb - The Gospel according to Biff, Christ's childhood pal.

I've read is a Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.

The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostevsky

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde

Doctor Faustus - Christopher Marlowe

More modern:

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

World War Z - Max Brooks

We - Yevgeny Zamyatin (Really the first dystopian novel, laid the ground work for 1984, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451, while all great books of their own accord, this one's the first, very good, and especially interesting if you're a math nerd, the society is based around mathematics, and the protagonist breaks out when he discovers imaginary numbers.)

And if you want to go philosophical:

The Prophet - Kahlil Gibran

Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Friedrich Neitzsche (Yes, way overhyped by hipsters, but it is still a very good read)

Easy summer reads:

Thank You for Smoking (Buckley)

The Pleasure of My Company (Martin)

A little heavier, but still awesome:

Anything by David Sedaris

Anything by Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion is quite thorough)

Fountainhead/Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

Snow Crash/Diamond Age/Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson

Shogun - James Clavell

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S. Thompson

Neuromancer - William Gibson

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (to refresh the palate)

Les Miserables - Victor Hugo ("?"  "!")

Lord of the Rings - Tolkien

This could be a long list, but I'll try to keep it short...The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky is a trip to say the least. Like a lot of famous Russian literature, it is quite long, but definitely worth the read. I'm a huge Hemingay and Faulker guy myself as well. Faulkner is frustrating (understatement!) at times, but simply finishing any of his works is an accomplishment in and of itself. I would look to The Sound and the Fury or As I Lay Dying. I'm currently reading Intruder in the Dust, and it is great as well. Also, pretty much every Hemingway novel (even his short story collections) has been amazing, but, like Faulker, Hemingway is not for everyone.

A couple others...One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It's difficult to explain, so I would suggest you checking it out yourself. Truly great stuff. If you're looking for sports-related stuff, I suggest "Can I Keep My Jersey" by Paul Shirley. It's the story of a professional basketball journeyman, and there are some amusing insights and characterizations of many NBA personalities, including Kobe. One last one...I only just began it, but if you're into history then Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond is for you. It details the various circumstances and reasons for why history has progressed the way it has (i.e., why some cultures have seemingly progressed farther than others). I'm only about a hundred pages into but I can tell that it would be a great read for any history buff.

Enjoy! Summertime is a great time to get some reading done.

The Fab Five: Basketball, Trash Talk, and the American Dream - Mitch Albom

Pretty essential reading if you were a fan of the Fab Five...

Lolita, by Nabokov, or Shibumi, by Trevanian.

Do any of you have good recommendations for Michigan football?

While I am not a soccer fan, I do watch the World Cup every four years, which prompted me to check out "Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Germany and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia and Turkey - Even Iraq - Are Desitned to Become the Kings of the World's Most Popular Sport." (by Simon Kuper and Stefan Szymanski). I love sports economics, and this is a rather interesting look at soccer and sports business in general. It will appeal to anyone who liked "Moneyball" by Michael Lewis or "Paydirt" by Rodney Fort and James Quirk.

As far as books all time, here are few:

1. James Bond novels by Ian Fleming

2. P.G. Wodehouse short stories

3. Anything by Graham Greene

4. The Michael and Jeff Shaara historical fiction pieces (i.e. Killer Angels)

5. Any history piece by Jim McPherson or Victor Davis Hanson

6. Anything written by Michael Frost (Golf history)

7. Anything written by Michael Lewis (esp. Liar's Poker)

8. Freakonomics by Leavitt and Dubner

9. "My Early Life" by Sir Winston Churchill

The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

Choke - Chuck Palahniuk

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius - Dave Eggers

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton

The Bear Went Over the Mountain - William Kotzwinkle

"I Know This Much Is True" is hauntingly good... really affects perspective on life and trials of an everyman

"The Quiet American" is a must-read by Graham Greene

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon

Just really really good writing.

by paulo coelho is a great book. One of the best selling books of all time and its only been around since the 80s

Survivor - Palahniuk

The Road - McCarthy

Farewell, My Lovely - Chandler

Hard Revolution - Pelecanos

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - LeCarre

The Name of the Game is Death - Dan J. Marlowe

Darkness, Take My Hand - Lehane

The Last Good Kiss - Crumley

The Far Cry - Fredric Brown

CarrIsMyHomeboy already made passing reference to it but Infinite Jest and also A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, as well David Foster Wallace's many essays, should be required reading for MGoBlog.

If you're a regular reader here, I highly recommend getting your DFW reading going, because Brian's writing is admittedly derivative of Wallace. Read DFW and you'll get Cook.

Wallace died on Sept. 12, 2008 (the day LaLota committed to M). At the time, Michigan was 1-1, having almost beaten eventually No. 2 overall Utah, and then taken care of Miami (Not That Miami). A few days later, Michigan yackitty saxed it to Notre Dame, and the rug was pulled out from under Rich Rod.

I know this is kind of an odd list, but here it goes:

Alas Babylon - Pat Frank

Catcher in the Rye - Salinger

Seriously You're Joking, mr. Feynman and What Do you Care What Other People Think - Richard Feynman

A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking

Fab Five - Mitch Albom (read it as an impressionable youth who was obsessed with M)

Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald

Hot Zone - Richard Preston

John Glenn: A Memoir - John Glenn (received an autographed copy as a graduation gift when i graduated from U of M in Aerospace Eng.)

Case Closed - Gerald Posner

Hamlet - Shakespeare

Anything by Hunter S. Thompson or Douglas Adams.  The book that I highly suggest is "The Rum Diaries" by Thompson. 

Fletch - Gregory Mcdonald

Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry

McCarthy's Blood Meridian

Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

Hemingway's short stories

Bukowski Post Office of Factotum

Any of the novels of Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler

Pynchon's V. or Mason & Dixon (other than Vineland all of Pynchon's stuff is really good, but these are my two favorites).

Non Fiction military:

About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior (Col David Hackworth)

Rogue Warrior (Dick Marcinko)

Carlos Hathcock "White feather" (Chandler)

First Seal (Roy Bohem)

Fiction:

World War Z (Max Brooks)

Point of Impact (the whole series) (Stephan Hunter)  the movie did it no justice.

The Stand (Stephan King)

I did enjoy some of the Tom Clancy novels (Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, etc.).

My favorite was Without Remorse

The plot involves the character development of John Kelly (AKA John Clark), who I thought was the most intriguing character in the Jack Ryan series.

history (medieval English, Russian, US, and military histories particularly) and could probably list a few that were particularly enlightening.

However, I fear that Aftershock (2009) by David Wiedemer, Robert Wiedemer, and Cindy Spitzer and Crash Proof 2.0 (2009) by Peter Schiff and John Downes will end up being my favorites.

Some really frightening stuff in those two books.

I would recommend George R.R. Martin's 'A song of Ice and Fire' series beginning with

'A Game of Thrones'; Martin can weave a tale of suspense and intrigue like few can. His character development is also second to none. It is one of the rare reads that actually stirs my emotions over the twists and turns of the plot; definitely a gifted writer.

If you are into American Civil War stories, 'Cold Mountain' is a fantastic read. Charles Frazier is knowledgable about the American Civil War era and spins a great tale that has a very authentic feel to it.

Tom Clancy's 'Hunt for Red October' is the greatest sea yarn ever told, which was then followed up with another great book,  'Red Storm Rising'. The man practically invented the techno-thriller genre.

"Only Road North"

By a kid from Grandville, MI detailing a journey with his brother and friend dirtbiking from South Africa to Egypt. Crazy stuff they go through. and the end is very good.

"Open" by Andre Agassi.  It's his autobiography, and a fascinating read.  All sorts of interesting stories about his experiences with tennis and the way he grew up.  I liked it so well, that I read the memoir of J.R. Moehringer, who co-wrote Agassi's book.  It's called "The Tender Bar", and it was maybe even more fascinating than Agassi's book.  It's basically about how he grew up without knowing his father.  His uncle that he and his mom lived with ran a bar, and he spent a lot of time there, and many of the regular guys kinda morphed into one to become his surrogate father.  A great read.

eliminating all the good stuff that has already been colored, of course.

The Crying of Lot 49 by Pynchon is amazing if you're looking for fiction.

If you're interested in Detroit or the social/political/economic transformations of large industrial cities after WWII, I highly recommend The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit by Thomas Sugrue. 

a couple of books I've read recently and really liked are Scar Tissue about the life of Anthony Kiedis and Judgement Ridge about the kids who committed the Dartmouth professor murders.  I pretty much only read non-fiction and really like biographies and true crime

Though it seems a little quirky at first, I can't recommend The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides enough.  It's just a beautifully written book. 

For laughs, Little Green Men by Chris Buckley - a story of how NASA stages alien abductions to get more funding from Congress. 

On the non-fiction side, anything by Steven Ambrose, Paul Johnson, or Daniel Boorstin.  All great history writers. 

by Max Brooks.  I am 3/4 of the way through this book and it is awesome!  

"Thread Titles You'll Never See On A Buckeye Blog" for $200, Alex.