OT - Best Book You Have Read?
So, I love to read and between news, sports, and of course mgoblog, I read whatever book strikes my fancy. But I'm stuck and don't have a book "on deck" like I usually do. So what are the best books you have read? Suggestions? I mostly read fiction, but a well written non-fiction or biography can keep my attention.
He was a physicist, served in the military, and owned a collection of medieval weaponry about on par with that of the Platagenet family.
What I really like about the books is the physicist. If you've read some Steven Hawking, or watched that Science Channel show with the creepy long-haired Asian guy, you will start to recognize very advanced physicial principles at play, for example\ there is a time lapse for a person who 'travels' long distances using magic (which is accomplished using 4th dimensional principles).
At one point deep into the series, one of the greatest derrings do is accomplished much in the way that modern wastewater treatment processes work.
After the seventh book of 700 plus pages, which was the third in a row where basically nothing happened, I gave up.
There are apparently no video records of it on the internets, but I remember a bit in which he demonstrated his passion for figure skating. It was not what Brian Boitano would have done.
And I haven't read the book or know if it is regarded the same, but the mini-series 'Shogan', based off the book Shogan, is widely despised in Japanese culture as full of inaccuracies. It is thought that Kurosawa was so angry at Mifune, who played Toranaga, for being a part of it that it was fuel for their by-that-time already fueding ways.
As I said, I haven't read the book, so I don't know if there are big differences. Be careful is all I'm saying. Reading what is supposed to describe another culture when written by someone outside of the culture can be dangerous.
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.
This book made me laugh out loud. We owe the author's Mom and a prof at LSU, both of whom who labored to get it published, a debt of gratitude.
Garbage which never should have been published. Posthumous publication certainly gets you a leg up on the awards though.
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
I'm not sure if this is recommended or not, but I read the Hobbit before I got to Lord of the Rings. I thought it might make more sense that way. It took me about 10 tries to get into that but I always had a hard time getting through the tea party chapter. Eventually, I had the bright idea of skimming it and moving on. It's still slow after that, but if you can get through the first 100 pages, the rest it flows.
After that, I picked up Lord of the Rings and I was only able to get through it because I chose it for a book report in high school. The first book in The Fellowship of the Ring is just as bad as the tea party chapter in The Hobbit. I swear I remember them walking up a hill for two pages only to reach the top and find they had another hill to climb. Then of course the whole conversation with Tom has very little to do with the rest of the story. I think anyone who has read that can see why they cut almost the whole first "book" out of the first movie. At least in doing so, they were able to include about 90% of the rest of the book within the 3.5 hour timespan.
Bombadil didn't really have any impact of the rest of the story, in the book there were only two other scenes in which he was even mentioned so I agree that the film "flowed" better without including him. And I agree that the beginnings of both the Hobbit, and LOTR are very slow, but LOTR is one of my all time favorites. I probably read it once a year.
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?
By pure luck I stumbled across a copy of Roses that Bloomed in the Snow by Fred Lawton (signed!) at some thrift store. It was published in 1959 (by the UofM "M" Club) so it is about things way before my time. It's got some poems about Michigan football, and some of the old legendary players, and Yost. It also has some other miscellaneous poems by the author.
I did some googling and found a little background info and a place you can purchase it.
...Keith Dunnavant's The 50 Year Seduction: How Television Manipulated College Football, from the Birth of the Modern NCAA to the Creation of the BCS is a great book.
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
Oh I hated A Heartbreaking Work... it took me a good year to finally have the patience/will power to get through it. I had already read How We Are Hungry and got so excited for a full length novel.
Turns out, I can only stomach his style for short narratives.
I know and respect a lot of people who love it, just not my cup of tea. (Which is weird, because I read and love most everything. Except A Place of Hiding by Elizabeth George. That was the first book I hated so much I gave it away.)
as well. Certainly not as good as the others, and it's a bit disjointed and sewn together (Tolkien died before it was finished, his son edited the bits of stories into one book). But it gives a great background and lead-up to the tales of Middle Earth. Worth it because you enjoy the others more
In some ways I like the Silmarillion more. The Book of Lost Tales is worth reading too.
"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 finally read Infinite Jest last summer as part of the Infinite Summer online reading project. If you plan on reading the book, it's worth following along with the posts/analysis, which is pretty much spoiler-free and helps track the characters/chronology.
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)
Lone Survivor, (Marcus Luttrell) It's a true story about four Navy Seals on a mission in Afghanistan, written by the team leader. It's an excellent book, a real story of heroism. My better half just read it and she couldn't stop crying throughout. I highly recommend it.
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.
Without Remorse is one of my all-time favorites.
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.
A Confederacy of Dunces
Everybody Poops
(in a cooler)
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!