Jump to content

Good Reads


RaoulDuke79

Recommended Posts

Sometime around 5th grade I got the reading bug. As times progressed I've had opportunities to lay back and read for hours on end with no interruptions. Now I just like to get a few pages in which helps me doze off before I go to bed. I really don't have a specific genre, so I'm open to any suggestions. Below are a few of my favorite books and a few that I wasn't that impressed with. Feel free to post the good and bad in your library

Good:

Helter Skelter-Vincent Bugliosi

Where the Red Fern Grows  - Wilson Rawls

Dragonlance Series - Tracy Hickman & Margaret Weis

I am Charlotte Simmons - Tom Wolfe

The Electric Koolaid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe

The Dirt - Motley Crue

Game of Thrones Series: George RR Martin]

To Kill a Mockingbird: Harper Lee

Anything this guy wrote-----------> Hunter S Thompson

End Game - James Frey

I'm sure there are many I'm missing , but I'll add as my memory allows.

....................... JRR Tolkien 

Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain

Nightstalker - Philip Carlo

Lone Survivor -  Marcus Luttrell & Patrick Robinson

The Heroin Diaries - Nikki Sixx

Riders on the Storm - John Densmore 

Illuminati - Dan Brown

 

Disappointments:

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig

A Brave New World- Aldous Huxley

The Tommyknockers - Steven King

The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut

Tales of Ordinary Madness - Charles Bukowski

Edited by RaoulDuke79
  • Like (+1) 1
  • Awesome! (+1) 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Much more well rounded than my list, but I love a good book. I’ll be back when I have more energy. At St Joe’s I started reading because I had to, and I learned to love it. They gave me a good cross section, and I benefited from that. These days I do easy read stuff daily, ANYTHING by Grisham, but also Baldacci, Patterson, etc. I go out to lunch almost every day and sit by myself and read. Most places see the weird book guy coming.....”the usual?” Yes, thank you. 

 

I have a separate list of books I read in the house. More thoughtful stuff. It’s a long story, and I’ll be back later to try to explain it. Curious to hear what others like. 

 

BTW -  from your list I only remember reading To Kill a Mockingbird and Kitchen Confidential. Enjoyed both, of course. I’ve read so many I occasionally get a hundred pages in and the light goes on.....I never said I “studied” them or took notes!  ?

  • Like (+1) 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Edgar Allen Poe I always liked.  O Henry short stories were always very good.  The Phantom tollbooth is one of my favorites.  

 

The wisdom of middle school in that I remember those stories more so than anything I else I learned there after in my educational experience.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another way to look at this is....how many books have you read multiple times?  Off the top of my head, I can say The Winter of Our Discontent, Catch 22 and Travels with Charlie. I’m sure there are more. 

 

I will always remember reading Catcher in the Rye. Somehow I escaped that growing up, and ended up reading it on a family trip to NYC.....just a few weeks after 9/11. We debated cancelling, but then refused to give in. We went, and it was one our best family trips ever. And that little book will always make me think of that trip. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I haven't read a book in years. As a kid I read incessantly. And then I fell out of it for a really long time until I had an extended time working out of state with too much alone time and I read The Firm by John Grisham which was popular at the time. Great book (movie sucked), it re-ignited my interest in reading for a long time. Grisham was hit and miss for me after The Firm, but easy reads.

 

Tom Clancy was my favorite author. Reading one of his books is definitely an investment in time, but well worth it IMO. If you had to pick one to start with, maybe Without Remorse. Central character was one of his best.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, SinceThe70s said:

I haven't read a book in years. As a kid I read incessantly. And then I fell out of it for a really long time until I had an extended time working out of state with too much alone time and I read The Firm by John Grisham which was popular at the time. Great book (movie sucked), it re-ignited my interest in reading for a long time. Grisham was hit and miss for me after The Firm, but easy reads.

 

Tom Clancy was my favorite author. Reading one of his books is definitely an investment in time, but well worth it IMO. If you had to pick one to start with, maybe Without Remorse. Central character was one of his best.

 

Good for you! To each their own. I liked Clancy for a while, but then he started getting into too much military technical jargon, and he lost me. Tell me a story, I’m not trying to be first in my class at West Point. 

  • Like (+1) 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, Augie said:

Much more well rounded than my list, but I love a good book. I’ll be back when I have more energy. At St Joe’s I started reading because I had to, and I learned to love it. They gave me a good cross section, and I benefited from that. These days I do easy read stuff daily, ANYTHING by Grisham, but also Baldacci, Patterson, etc. I go out to lunch almost every day and sit by myself and read. Most places see the weird book guy coming.....”the usual?” Yes, thank you. 

 

I have a separate list of books I read in the house. More thoughtful stuff. It’s a long story, and I’ll be back later to try to explain it. Curious to hear what others like. 

 

BTW -  from your list I only remember reading To Kill a Mockingbird and Kitchen Confidential. Enjoyed both, of course. I’ve read so many I occasionally get a hundred pages in and the light goes on.....I never said I “studied” them or took notes!  ?

 

When I saw the names Baldacci and Patterson it reminded me of another favorite: Nelson DeMille. He was a read-it-when-it-comes-out-when-is-the-next-one guy for a few years. Great stories, easy reads.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Augie said:

Another way to look at this is....how many books have you read multiple times?  Off the top of my head, I can say The Winter of Our Discontent, Catch 22 and Travels with Charlie. I’m sure there are more. 

 

I will always remember reading Catcher in the Rye. Somehow I escaped that growing up, and ended up reading it on a family trip to NYC.....just a few weeks after 9/11. We debated cancelling, but then refused to give in. We went, and it was one our best family trips ever. And that little book will always make me think of that trip. 

My wife is a maniac reader. I've never read a book two times, She has ready many 2 times. When we moved I would venture to say we at least 5 20 gallon totes of books. They are mostly ass stashed in the basement now. She finally transitioned to reading on the tablet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Augie said:

 

Good for you! To each their own. I liked Clancy for a while, but then he started getting into too much military technical jargon, and he lost me. Tell me a story, I’m not trying to be first in my class at West Point. 

 

No, you're absolutely right about that. I remember a long passage about the inner workings of a dirty A-bomb from Sum Of All Fears that was a difficult slog. 

 

I'd read a Clancy book and then need time off to read less taxing books The technical aspects of Clancy were too much for me at times, but the storylines and characters made it worth the effort for me.

Edited by SinceThe70s
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cats Cradle, The Sirens of Titan and anything else by Kurt Vonnegut

Steppenwolf, Siddhartha- Herman Hesse 

Letters From the Earth-Mark Twain published posthumously-Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam-translated Edward Fitzgerald

Kim- Rudyard Kipling

On the Road- Kerouac

Anything by John Steinbeck- Grapes of Wrath, Winter of Our Discontent, Cannery Row etc.

Desert Solitaire -Edward Abbey

The Milagro Beanfield War and New Mexico Trilogy- John Nichols

Last of the Mohicans- James Fennimore Cooper

The Count of Monte Cristo-Dumas

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest-Ken Kesey

Dune- Frank Herbert

Watership Down- Richard Adams

The Mysterious Island and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea-Jules Verne

 

Just a few off the top of my head. I used to read a lot of books, not so much anymore but this thread is inspiring me to start reading books again. Thnx

 

Edited by Turk71
  • Like (+1) 1
  • Awesome! (+1) 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Still no love for ‘A Conferderacy of Dunces’ by John Kennedy Toole?

 

Though I’ve read many of the ones mentioned above, I don’t read as many novels as I should.

 

I tend more toward historical events, political bios, books written by friends of mine, and satirical humor.  As such, authors like Doris Kearns Goodwin, P.J. O’Rourke, Amy and David Sedaris, etc., fill my bookshelves.

.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Best:

1984- Orwell

Into the Wild- Krakauer

A Short History of Nearly Everything- Bryson

 

Favs/Fun Reads:

The whole Spenser series- Parker (really great one-sitting sleuth books)

Anything by Dan Brown

Camel Club series- Baldacci

A Catcher in the Rye- Salinger

A Painted House- Grisham

 

Page Burners:

Intensity- Koontz

Mr. Murder- Koontz

The Dark Half- King

The Mailman- Little

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Hyperion Cantos - Dan Simmons

 

It's 4 books. They're all great.

 

Speaker for the Dead - Orson Scott Card

 

Say what you will about the author, but this second book in the Ender series is great.

 

The Three-Body Problem - Liu Cixin

 

If you can't tell, I'm a sci-fi fan...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some of the books we were compelled to read in high school are good reads when you just pick up the book and read.  The Great Gatsby comes to mind.

 

Early Joseph Wambaugh.  The Choirboys could have you roaring with laughter one moment, and three pages later being repulsed by the situation the characters were in.  The Glitter Dome was Wambaugh’s reaction to what Hollywood did to the screenplay and tone of the former, I have read.

 

 I always enjoyed Ross Macdonald’s Lew Archer novels.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like to read a book with a lot of action to distract me when I’m on an airplane. I hate airplanes.  Clive Cussler is a go to for me as an airplane book.  James Bond ain’t got nuthin’ on Dirk Pitt. 

 

Around the house sometimes I’ll read history books, such as the Robert K. Massie books about WW1, which I have been crawling through lately. 

  • Thank you (+1) 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, The Senator said:

 

Still no love for ‘A Conferderacy of Dunces’ by John Kennedy Toole?

 

Though I’ve read many of the ones mentioned above, I don’t read as many novels as I should.

 

I tend more toward historical events, political bios, books written by friends of mine, and satirical humor.  As such, authors like Doris Kearns Goodwin, P.J. O’Rourke, Amy and David Sedaris, etc., fill my bookshelves.

.

I read Confederacy of Dunces as well. I picked it up after hearing Artie Lange rave about it on the Howard Stern show.  I came away a little let down with it. I think the problem is that I hear about some of these books being so good and I go in with such high expectations that I end up disappointed even if the book is half decent. Speaking of Artie Lange, I did think Too Fat to Fish was pretty good. It's ashame Artie is such a mess now.

6 hours ago, Turk71 said:

Cats Cradle, The Sirens of Titan and anything else by Kurt Vonnegut

Steppenwolf, Siddhartha- Herman Hesse 

Letters From the Earth-Mark Twain published posthumously-Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam-translated Edward Fitzgerald

Kim- Rudyard Kipling

On the Road- Kerouac

Anything by John Steinbeck- Grapes of Wrath, Winter of Our Discontent, Cannery Row etc.

Desert Solitaire -Edward Abbey

The Milagro Beanfield War and New Mexico Trilogy- John Nichols

Last of the Mohicans- James Fennimore Cooper

The Count of Monte Cristo-Dumas

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest-Ken Kesey

Dune- Frank Herbert

Watership Down- Richard Adams

The Mysterious Island and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea-Jules Verne

 

Just a few off the top of my head. I used to read a lot of books, not so much anymore but this thread is inspiring me to start reading books again. Thnx

 

Forgot to add that one to my list. Fantastic book. I followed it up with Sometimes a Great Notion, which was just OK.

  • Like (+1) 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm a non fiction aficionado.

My favorite book ever is "Undaunted  Courage," the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, by Stephen Ambrose.

Just a fantastic story about a time when men dared greatly.

 

Another good one that isn't well known is "the Millionaire and the Bard," by Andrea Mays.

It's the story of Henry Folger's  relentless pursuit of the original Shakespeare folios.  Might not sound like that interesting of a story, but it is really great. It also gets into the creation of the Folger Shakespeare Museum in Washington, which houses the collection and is really a neat place to visit, very close to the Library of Congress.

 

Recently, and since I have an astronomy and space interest,  I just finished "Death by Black Hole," by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

He is an astrophysicist with a real skill of explaining things that  those of lesser skill in providing such explanations can butcher. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, RaoulDuke79 said:

I read Confederacy of Dunces as well. I picked it up after hearing Artie Lange rave about it on the Howard Stern show.  I came away a little let down with it. I think the problem is that I hear about some of these books being so good and I go in with such high expectations that I end up disappointed even if the book is half decent. Speaking of Artie Lange, I did think Too Fat to Fish was pretty good. It's ashame Artie is such a mess now.

 

 

 

I’m surprised you did not enjoy the escapades of Ignatius J. Reilly!

 

While my own slant tends toward the conservative, i.e., O’Rourke.R.Emmett Tyrrell, et al, I will read most anything that I or my friends think will make me laugh hysterically.

 

I’ll hunt down Too Fat to Fish.

.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, sherpa said:

I'm a non fiction aficionado.

My favorite book ever is "Undaunted  Courage," the story of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, by Stephen Ambrose.

Just a fantastic story about a time when men dared greatly.

 

Another good one that isn't well known is "the Millionaire and the Bard," by Andrea Mays.

It's the story of Henry Folger's  relentless pursuit of the original Shakespeare folios.  Might not sound like that interesting of a story, but it is really great. It also gets into the creation of the Folger Shakespeare Museum in Washington, which houses the collection and is really a neat place to visit, very close to the Library of Congress.

 

Recently, and since I have an astronomy and space interest,  I just finished "Death by Black Hole," by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

He is an astrophysicist with a real skill of explaining things that  those of lesser skill in providing such explanations can butcher. 

 

I am a bit of a Shakespeare buff - had the great joy of seeing a young James Earl Jones play Othello at DC’s Folger Theatre in the early ‘80s.

 

I’ll look for Mays book.

.

  • Like (+1) 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lots of great ones already mentioned upthread, thanks! Just wanted to throw in some thumbs up for these authors:

 

-Clive Cussler (if you’re looking for straight up entertaining escapism that’s filled with action and has no political overtones)

-Tolkien of course, already mentioned

-Louis L’Amour for Western genre

-Jules Verne (way ahead of his time in sci-fi of his day)

 

I’m also a big WW2 history nut, so I also enjoy bios written by 1st hand participants in particular. Couple of Favs:

-Manstein, “Lost Victories”

-Skorzeny, “My Commando Operations” (. A great behind the curtain look into WW2 special ops, which was a nascent thing at that time)

-George Patton, “A Life from Beginning to End”

 

-And gentlemen and gentle ladies, I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to our own Jim Kelly: “A playbook for Dads” and what should’ve been the Pulitzer Prize winner, “Armed & Dangerous”  :) 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

38 minutes ago, NoHuddleKelly12 said:

Lots of great ones already mentioned upthread, thanks! Just wanted to throw in some thumbs up for these authors:

 

-Clive Cussler (if you’re looking for straight up entertaining escapism that’s filled with action and has no political overtones)

-Tolkien of course, already mentioned

-Louis L’Amour for Western genre

-Jules Verne (way ahead of his time in sci-fi of his day)

 

I’m also a big WW2 history nut, so I also enjoy bios written by 1st hand participants in particular. Couple of Favs:

-Manstein, “Lost Victories”

-Skorzeny, “My Commando Operations” (. A great behind the curtain look into WW2 special ops, which was a nascent thing at that time)

-George Patton, “A Life from Beginning to End”

 

-And gentlemen and gentle ladies, I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout out to our own Jim Kelly: “A playbook for Dads” and what should’ve been the Pulitzer Prize winner, “Armed & Dangerous”  :) 

 

 

 

 

If you enjoy 1st hand accounts, you might also enjoy The General: MacArthur and The Man He Called ‘Doc’, written by my late friend Roger Egeberg, MacArthur’s personal physician.

 

Nice cover photo of the General wading ashore in the Phillippines with Dr. Egeberg at his side.

.

Edited by The Senator
  • Thank you (+1) 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK, you guys are making me realize I’m in a bit of a rut lately. Years ago I got into the habit of keeping a book in the car to read at lunch and while waiting for appointments. That book is an easy read like Patterson, Baldacci and of course Grisham. I’m pretty sure I’ve read everything Grisham has published other than the last 1/3 of The Reckoning. This includes the Theodore Boone Kid Lawyer books. Kinda sad, I know. Playing For Pizza is an unexpected read from him and is both football related and very funny. 

 

I keep a bit of a deeper reading list for the house. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, RaoulDuke79 said:

My wife is a maniac reader. I've never read a book two times, She has ready many 2 times. When we moved I would venture to say we at least 5 20 gallon totes of books. They are mostly ass stashed in the basement now. She finally transitioned to reading on the tablet.

 

My sister has an annual book sale to raise money for some scolorship fund. She will take my nice hardbacks and sell them for $1-2 each, but they raise about $20k each summer. I stopped giving her my books because while I love the scolorship idea, I found a better use for them. My mother lives in a retirement home with a little library full of crappy paperback romance novels. Very few “quality books” available. I now take my books by the boxload there and  my mom lets her friends pick through first, then they go into circulation. This way, instead of generating $2 for charity they are available to many, many people looking for a cheap way to get a good read. 

  • Like (+1) 2
  • Thank you (+1) 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, RaoulDuke79 said:

Sometime around 5th grade I got the reading bug. As times progressed I've had opportunities to lay back and read for hours on end with no interruptions. Now I just like to get a few pages in which helps me doze off before I go to bed. I really don't have a specific genre, so I'm open to any suggestions. Below are a few of my favorite books and a few that I wasn't that impressed with. Feel free to post the good and bad in your library

Good:

Helter Skelter-Vincent Bugliosi

Where the Red Fern Grows  - Wilson Rawls

Dragonlance Series - Tracy Hickman & Margaret Weis

I am Charlotte Simmons - Tom Wolfe

The Electric Koolaid Acid Test - Tom Wolfe

The Dirt - Motley Crue

Game of Thrones Series: George RR Martin]

To Kill a Mockingbird: Harper Lee

Anything this guy wrote-----------> Hunter S Thompson

End Game - James Frey

I'm sure there are many I'm missing , but I'll add as my memory allows.

....................... JRR Tolkien 

Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain

Nightstalker - Philip Carlo

Lone Survivor -  Marcus Luttrell & Patrick Robinson

The Heroin Diaries - Nikki Sixx

Riders on the Storm - John Densmore 

Illuminati - Dan Brown

 

Disappointments:

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig

A Brave New World- Aldous Huxley

The Tommyknockers - Steven King

The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand

Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut

Tales of Ordinary Madness - Charles Bukowski

Great call on Helter Skelter, been awhile but I've read that more times than any other book.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’ve read Dragonlance Series - Tracy Hickman & Margaret Weis  and just about every other series they wrote 

 

Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit 

 

RA Salvatore Drizzt DoUrden sagas 

 

 

Cussler - Dirk Pitt Numa Files 

and the 

Juan Cabrillo Oregon files 

 

WEB Griffin Presidential (something) 

Charley Castillo 

Edited by ShadyBillsFan
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, ShadyBillsFan said:

I’ve read Dragonlance Series - Tracy Hickman & Margaret Weis  and just about every other series they wrote 

 

Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit 

 

RA Salvatore Drizzt DoUrden sagas 

 

 

Cussler - Dirk Pitt Numa Files 

and the 

I think I started reading Dragonlance somewhere around my freshman year in high school. I remember buying the Legend of Huma at Kmart first and became hooked. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, RaoulDuke79 said:

I think I started reading Dragonlance somewhere around my freshman year in high school. I remember buying the Legend of Huma at Kmart first and became hooked. 

My sons read them so they read them after. 

 

I still do.  I have over a dozen in my errader

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm a big Nabokov fan.  His short stories are great and Invitation to a Beheading is one of my favorite novels.

 

I like postmodern fiction as well (to which Nabokov had some contributions later in his career) - David Foster Wallace, Thomas Pynchon, Neil Gaiman, etc.

 

I enjoy reading people's first novels for some reason.  Most recently, The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry was a very fun read.

  • Like (+1) 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any of Stephen Hunter’s Bob Lee Swagger books. Lee Childs is ok. Grisham is always a great read. Nelson Demille’s Gate House and Gold Coast was great. 

 

I really enjoy Ken Follett.  Pillars of the Earth was amazing. So detailed and informative. 

 

Want to do more reading this summer. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, BringBackFergy said:

Any of Stephen Hunter’s Bob Lee Swagger books. Lee Childs is ok. Grisham is always a great read. Nelson Demille’s Gate House and Gold Coast was great. 

 

I really enjoy Ken Follett.  Pillars of the Earth was amazing. So detailed and informative. 

 

Want to do more reading this summer. 

 

I pick up Lee Childs stuff when I find him on the book table at Costco. It’s NOT Grisham, but I can’t get the guy to write any faster!

 

Costco is where most of my books come from. My ancient parents went to E-readers for ease of use, but I just like the feeling of a book. 

 

 

.

Edited by Augie
Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, Augie said:

 

I pick up Lee Childs stuff when I find him on the book table at Costco. It’s NOT Grisham, but I can’t get the guy to write any faster!

 

Costco is where most of my books come from. My ancient parents went to E-readers for ease of use, but I just like the feeling of a book. 

 

 

.

Yes!! I don’t have a Kindle etc. Paperbacks at Walmart are $6-10.  Pillars of the Earth was hard bound. Weighed a ton. Like having book in my hand rather than tablet. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...