RaoulDuke79 Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 (edited) 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 March 9, 2019 by RaoulDuke79 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Augie Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 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! ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Another Fan Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 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 More sharing options...
Augie Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 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 More sharing options...
SinceThe70s Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 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 More sharing options...
Augie Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SinceThe70s Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 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 More sharing options...
RaoulDuke79 Posted March 9, 2019 Author Share Posted March 9, 2019 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 More sharing options...
SinceThe70s Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 (edited) 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 March 9, 2019 by SinceThe70s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turk71 Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 (edited) 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 March 9, 2019 by Turk71 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Senator Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 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 More sharing options...
Heavy Kevi Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 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 More sharing options...
EmotionallyUnstable Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 Big fan of mystery/thriller author Harlan Coben. A few of his best: The Stranger Tell No One Gone for Good The Woods Live Wire Short chapter page turners, great for a quick read before bed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeGOATski Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 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 More sharing options...
Ridgewaycynic2013 Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 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 More sharing options...
Gray Beard Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RaoulDuke79 Posted March 9, 2019 Author Share Posted March 9, 2019 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherpa Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 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 More sharing options...
The Senator Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 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 More sharing options...
The Senator Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 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. . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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