The book thread

[General Gonad]

A few of my favs

IMHO, the most brilliant novel written in the past century was Joseph Heller's Catch-22:

http://www.google.ca/books?id=ji3FAAAACAAJ&dq=catch+22

There is nothing that comes close to describing the insanity of war.

But if I had an opportunity to go back in time and have dinner and wine with an author, Henry Miller would be at the top of my list. He is known for the Cancer of Capricorn but he has written many excellent novels. One of my favorite short novels is Miller's A Devil in Paradise:

http://www.google.ca/books?id=MlHZS...adise&sig=fW-TgTefNAfKhuFWUWunmJt_G0w#PPT1,M1



GG

 

[naughtylady]

Good old Henry Miller. I discovered him in high school when we read "Death of a Salesman".

Ronnie,
Naughtylady

 

[Avery]

Good old Henry Miller. I discovered him in high school when we read "Death of a Salesman".

Ronnie,
Naughtylady

Actually, "Death of a Salesman" was written by Arthur Miller (also a New Yorker, but no relation to Henry). Gotta keep those Millers straight!

 

[master_bates]

What im currently reading

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51kuHmFk6EL._SS500_.jpg

 

[455tec]

I recently finished Collapse by Jared Diamond. It's a great read for those interested in large scale history or anthropology. Diamond is the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, BTW.

 

[naughtylady]

Actually, "Death of a Salesman" was written by Arthur Miller (also a New Yorker, but no relation to Henry). Gotta keep those Millers straight!

I guess I was more tired than I realized at ten to three in the morning!

Ronnie,
Naughtylady

 

[General Gonad]

Guns, Germs, and Steel

I recently finished Collapse by Jared Diamond. It's a great read for those interested in large scale history or anthropology. Diamond is the author of Guns, Germs, and Steel, BTW.

Thanks, I loved reading Guns, Germs, and Steel. I hope Collapse is just as good.

GG

 

[hard2cum]

If poor eyesight is your problem in distinguishing between the Millers you should get a Miller Light.
Henry Miller, a party animal, was best known as Miller High Life and the other more serious Miller, always banging away at the typewriter was .... Miller Genuine Draft, of course.

Hope this helps

"the other more serious Miller" wound up banging Marilyn Monroe, so...

 

[ck_nj]

Spent some time in the air on business this month. While waiting at the airport and while up in the air, I read a great book on the way down, and finished it on the way back.

It's called Me and a Guy Named Elvis: My Lifelong Friendship with Elvis Presley.

It was written by Jerry Schilling, one of Elvis's best friends for over 20 years, and who was a member of his personal entourage. It's about 320 pages. It was the only book (besides Priscilla's) that Elvis Presley Enterprises, Priscilla, and Lisa Marie personally authorized. And both Priscilla and Lisa Marie gave positive feedback on the back cover!

What I liked most about this book is that it showed him as a regular human being, not just a superstar/rock star. So from that perspective, it was excellent.

Jerry also stated that had Elvis been still alive, that he would picked Jerry to help him write his memoirs.
A must for any Elvis fan, or just for a great read.

 

[HornyForEver]

An attempt to revive this great thread

I have just discovered a free e-books web site WowIO

I have been browsing through their book collection and they seem to a have a great selection of books, all subjects included.

 

[Miss Maria]

King Kong Théorie

de Virginie Despentes


« J'écris de chez les moches, pour les moches, les frigides, les mal baisées, les imbaisables, toutes les exclues du grand marché à la bonne meuf, aussi bien que pour les hommes qui n'ont pas envie d'être protecteurs, ceux qui voudraient l'être mais ne savent pas s'y prendre, ceux qui ne sont pas ambitieux, ni compétitifs, ni bien membrés. Parce que l'idéal de la femme blanche séduisante qu'on nous brandit tout le temps sous le nez, je crois bien qu'il n'existe pas. » V.D.

En racontant pour la première fois comment elle est devenue
Virginie Despentes, l'auteur de Baise-moi conteste les discours bien-pensants sur le viol, la prostitution, la pornographie. Manifeste pour un nouveau féminisme.


I am pretty sure there is an English translation. This book is amazing.

 

[Doc Holliday]

What the Doc's reading these days.....

Right now i'm reading "Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling", which happens to be wrestler Bret "The Hitman" Hart's great autobiography. If a very honest book full of anecdotes & very hard to put down once you've begun reading it.

I only read non-fiction & Roger Ebert's books on movies.

 

[naughtylady]

I am so glad to see this thread revived

Ronnie,
Naughtylady

 

[joelcairo]

Right now i'm reading "Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling", which happens to be wrestler Bret "The Hitman" Hart's great autobiography. If a very honest book full of anecdotes & very hard to put down once you've begun reading it.

I only read non-fiction & Roger Ebert's books on movies.

Yeah Doc, Hitman is a very good book. The author is credited as being Bret but I think Joe Fiorito might have actually done the writing - my guess is that he's a more talented wordsmith than the Legend in Pink.

 

[Agrippa]

Einstein's Dreams

I just finished Alan Lightman's Einstein's Dreams. It's a great book that I would recommend to anyone, science lover or not! In fact, Lightman's fictional conception of what Einstein dreamt about between April and June of 1905 (Einstein's annus mirabilis) has more to do with the the sur-reality of dreams than science.

Much like Calvino's Invisible Cities, Einstein's Dreams is a series of vignettes into different experiences. Calvino explored cities (well only one really), whereas Lightman examines time. Each one of the 30ish dreams described lasts only a few pages and focuses on 'a type' of time. What would the world be like, how would we live...

if time had texture?
if time was a quality instead of a quantity?
if effect preceded cause?
if time had three dimensions like space does?
if time had a centre?
if one could travel perpendicularly in three dimensions like in space?​

Though the premise is science fiction, it is closer to poetry. Highly recommended!

 

[Shiver MeTimber]

Some Classic Favs: Catcher In The Rye-J.D. Salinger
Stranger In A Strange Land-Robert Heinlein
Great Expectations-Charles Dickens

Also love books by Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese Zen Master. Must have at least 30 books out now. "Being Peace" would be a good into. book to his work.

Just finished "Prey" and "State Of Fear" by Michael Crichton...always liked his style and attention to detail.

I usually get turned on to an author, and go through his work.........strange after getting used to a writer's style......then switching authors...takes some getting used to

Others....Peter De Vries
Daphne Du Maurier
John Grisham

Also.....Penthouse.......for the articles

 

[Alondra.Joltzin]

Some of my favorites

'Anna Karenina' and 'War and Peace' by Leo Tolstoy

'Madame Bovary' by Gustave Flaubert

'Lolita' by Vladimir Nabokov

'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' by Mark Twain

'Ulysses' by James Joyce

'Hamlet' by William Shakespeare

'The Great Gatsby' F. Scott Fitzgerald

'In Search of Lost Time' by Marcel Proust

'The Stories of Anton Chekhov' by Anton Chekhov

'Middlemarch' by George Eliot


As I love Science Fiction, these are some books I enjoyed a lot.

'Evolution' by Stephen Baxter (also Charles Darwin's non fiction books)

'1984' by George Orwell

The 'Foundation' Series and 'I, Robot' by Isaac Asimov

'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley

'Dune', by Frank Herbert

'Flowers for Algernon' by Daniel Keyes

'Fahrenheit 451', by Ray Bradbury

'The Time Machine' and 'War of the Worlds', by H.G. Wells

'Titan',by John Varley

All Jules Verne's books (read in my childhood and leaded me to become a Science Fiction fan).

 

[HornyForEver]

For those who drive a lot, feel lazy to read or like myself need to listen to something in order to fall asleep, these are two web sites that offer a wide collection of audio books:

- Open culture: offers a selected compilation of audio books as well as many other podcasts covering a wide range of areas including education, poetry, psychology, technology, science...

- Librivox: I would say this is the audio equivalent of the Gutenburg project. It includes many audio books that fell into the public domain. Since, books are read by volunteering people, the quality of the audio is not always top notch.


I have listened recently to Orwell's 1984 and to "The Lodger" by Marie Belloc Lowndes. I also downloaded Sherlock Holmes, but the voice of the reader was not nice and I could hear him breathing, so I gave up.

 

[HornyForEver]

The Lost Symbol

I have just got my copy of Dan Brown's new book. The book was released yesterday. Will you read this book, or do you think that this is yet another Dan Brown book? I am anxious to read and will write a review once I am done with it.

 

[naughtylady]

I have just got my copy of Dan Brown's new book. The book was released yesterday. Will you read this book, or do you think that this is yet another Dan Brown book? I am anxious to read and will write a review once I am done with it.

I will likely read it... though I will try to wait for it to come out in paperback
(note the key word is try)

BTW, thanks for reviving this thread...

Ronnie,
Naughtylady