What Book Should I Be Reading?
Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 - 9:55pm
Piggybacking on Edwin's thread, I just finished reading through Soldiers and Ghosts and Lords of the Horizons, a book which teaches that the Ottomans had fantastic hats, among other things.
Now I need something new. I already have one book on my list, namely "Generation Kill", and that's about as close to a political polemic as I want to come right now. Every now and then I swing by BN, and i'm mildly overwhelmed by the selection. I love historical fiction, but I haven't read any worthwhile Sci-Fi or Fantasy in ages, and wish to get back into the habit. Or perhaps another exhaustively researched (yet still interesting and readable) book on history that might prove interesting (Like Paul Cartledge's very well-written book. Yes I have a boner for antiquity.)
I'm probably going to end up blowing some $75 next time I go by BN, so I was just wondering if anyone had any reccomendations?
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XBL Tag: Prederick
I don't care what anyone says but the first few Terry Goodkind books "The Sword of Truth" series are some good fun reading.
Yeah I know, blast away you literary snobs!
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I recently finished "The Atrocity Archives" by Charles Stross and very much enjoyed it. X-Files/MIB conspiracy theories + civil service bureaucracy + Lovecraft + James Bond + math and computer geek flavor = 100 pounds of awesome in a 10 pound bag. Just started the sequel, "The Jennifer Morgue" so I can't say whether the setting holds up for a second novel, but the first was a blast.
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In Ultima Online I used to poison hams and leave them on the ground in cities for people to pick up and eat. I can't believe how many people thought street ham was a good thing to eat. -Elliottx
If you haven't read Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon you're an idiot.
Do you want to be an idiot?
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That's my most favorite book from the last 10 years.
But it can be difficult to get into unless you're a computer science nerd, a cryptology nerd, or a World War 2 nerd. I was and am a CS and WW2 nerd, and this book turned me into a crypto nerd.
In Ultima Online I used to poison hams and leave them on the ground in cities for people to pick up and eat. I can't believe how many people thought street ham was a good thing to eat. -Elliottx
Everything Bad is Good For You - Steven Johnson
Required reading for gamers.
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I've been reading the Ender series by Orson Scott Card and really enjoying those books.
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Beer For Ben
Wildfire is a fun and easy read. The premise has a Die Hard vibe to it.
Major clues and critical confrontations happen one after another so its hard to put down.
You are basically told a brief version of the plot, or the villains motivations and plans in the first few chapters. The rest of the book you get to relive the main character discovering what you already know. It has many,"Don't do that, you bonehead!" and "Don't go in there!" moments.
Being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster.
If you're in the mood for some lighter history, I thoroughly enjoyed Encyclopedia Idiotica: History's Worst Decisions and the People Who Made Them. Contained within are fifty examples of world leaders making decisions that even at the time were foolish beyond belief. Nice big coffee table-appropriate format, too.
Everything can be debated, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's debatable.
--Chuck Klosterman, Fargo Rock City
Pred, if you haven't read it (which you probably have), you need to read Gates of Fire.
If you have read it and want another, read Collapse by Jared Diamond or A History of Venice by John Julius Norwich.
Or Norwich's recently released The Middle Sea. (I'm only about 50 pages in, but its good so far.)
Quintin_Stone wrote:
Someone hasn't seen my "HUGLAGHALGHALGHALTHERMOPYLAEISAWESOMEHUGLAGHALGHALGHAL" posts.
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I enjoyed Perdido Street Station by China Mieville.
The Children of Men was pretty ponderous. Not certain how it holds up to the movie, though. Not even sure if I recommend it or not, yet..
Mystic Violet wrote:
The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry
The Norton Anthology of Poetry
The Mentor Book of Major American Poets
That oughtta get you started.
Lighter reading musts:
The Once and Future King -- T. H. White
Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson
Magician -- Raymond Feist
at least the first Thomas Covenant Trilogy -- Stephen Donaldson
I wanted to add Garcia Marquez' 100 Years of Solitude and Joyce's Ulysses, but I can get carried away sometimes.
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It's too late for me to give accurate recommendations, but Lords of the Horizon looks pretty awesome. How was it?
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*groan*
I gave it an honest try, but I couldn't take finishing it. His writing style ended up being immensely frustrating. There's only so much self-absorbed patronizing monotone a man can take; it's a shame when there's an interesting story hiding behind it.
But while Cryptonomicon is my second least favorite book, the "worst ever" title belongs to David Foster Wallace and his Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. Wallace takes self-absorption to entirely new levels, previously observed only in emo fanboys and media studies graduate students.
If you're not completely sick of historical fiction, Julian by Gore Vidal is a good book. It's a fictionalized biography of the Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate who tried to turn the empire away from Christianity and back to the old gods. As dry as that may sound, it's a great story with lots of political intrigue and historical detail about the late Roman Empire.
Another great book in the same vein is I, Claudius by Robert Graves. Think HBO's Rome, but without all the sodomy. Well, less sodomy anyway.
"We all pay for life with death, so everything in between should be free." Bill Hicks
You might enjoy In Harm's Way.
Historical nonfiction and a powerful account of the sinking of the Indianapolis.
All this science I don't understand. It's just my job five days a week.
I'm currently reading The count of Monte Cristo which is a good read although I'm only at 1/4 at the moment. Especially for the meager 6 euro's I picked it up for.
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Monte Cristo is my other suggestion. You just have to make sure you get a fully unabridged version of the 1846 English translation. The newer one cuts out a lot of the cool philosphy stuff at the end.
See what I mean, An idiot! j/k
It's not for everyone, admittedly, but I find it immensely enjoyable. And if you do like it there are ~2000 pages of the Baroque Cycle to continue your enjoyment.
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I must not have, because I would have been right there with
"HUGLAGHALGHALGHALYOU'RERIGHTHUGLAGHALGHALGHALTHERMOPYLAEISAWESOMEHUGLAGHALG HALGHALGETTOTHECHOPPERHUGLAGHALGHALGHAL".
/Ahnold
I read alot of history/historical fiction/war, too, and I thought I had better read some of the other fictional accounts of Thermopylae before the 300 movie version comes out, and I'm really glad I did.
I just finished Gates of Fire a week or so ago. Loved it. Internalized it. Probably in my top ten of all time. But its a hollow feeling when you spend an entire book rooting for characters knowing that they all die.
I'll second Danjo's question, too. How was Lords of the Horizon?
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That's not until next Sunday!
/Daa Bears!
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I was gonna say that... but differently.
Dammit, beat me to it twice.
Steven Brust has a great noir-fantasy series starting with Jhereg. I just finished George R. R. Martin's Game of Thrones which I enjoyed tremendously.
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kaostheory wrote:
John Scalzi's Old Man's War and Ghost Brigades are two recent books that I finished and enjoyed. I'm about a third of the way The Androids Dream by him which is completely different than the other two and I'm liking it just as much.
I just picked up World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (link). If you like George Romero style Zombie apocalypse stories, this is the book for you. It is pretty riveting and written by the same guy who wrote the Zombie Survival Guide. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it will be out in paperback until later this year.
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Honestly, I read Cryptonomicon and I hated it. It was long, boring, and slow. And the characters weren't terribly interesting. And it went on, and on, and on, and on, and on.
Did I mention it was slow?
Mystic Violet wrote:
My girlfriend's a big fan of the Ender books. Haven't read them myself but they are on the list once I get bored of the Sword of Truth novels. I just started reading the Forgotten Realms series as well (the Drizzt chronicles). Another excellent read is the Jim Dorsey "Serge A. Storms" novels, if you want to find out why I never want to visit Edwin's personal slice of hell. I recommend Triggerfish twist and Cadillac Beach to get started.
You can't do this!
Of course I can, I'm Will Wright, bitch! - The Simpsons Game
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Oh, god, no. I'm not a literary snob. I'll read all sorts of lowbrow fantasy. I've even read an Ed Greenwood book after turning thirty. But "The Sword of Truth"? Yuck. I could not finish it, and I think it's the only book I've been unable to finish since college.
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Thanks for the recommendations everybody. I think i'm definitely going to try an Ender's game book while i'm out next.
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I definitely understand where you are coming from, especially since the first book starts extremely slow. The rise of a simple woodsman to a mage and ruler of his former enemy's kingdom is extremely fascinating.
Apparently they continue to get better for some time before they end up all preachy and boring. I'm on book 5 now and it's still keeping my interest.
You can't do this!
Of course I can, I'm Will Wright, bitch! - The Simpsons Game
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