Books, books and more books

[babyblues]

I love reading books. I would live at Borders bookstore if I could make a living at it. What have you read recently and what are you reading now? Do you like fiction or non-fiction? What books/authors are on your list to read?

Right now I'm reading Steven King's Dark Tower series. I'm on book #5, Wolves of the Calla. Good stuff. It's based on a Robert Browning poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came." I've never been a fan of his horror stuff, but this series is like a western/fantasy kind of thing. I love Louis Lamour's stuff so the western feel is cool, but it's not your typical western. I also loved the fantasy feel of Lord of the Rings so the combination of the two is great IMO. Of course it's got it's classic Steven King kind of weirdness in it, but I'm continually amazed at this guy's imagination. Incredible. Before I started this series, I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Grapes of Wrath.

I have on my list:

Herman Melville
Dickens
Tolstoy
Dostoyevsky
Robert Ludlum

I also would like to read some Norse and Icelandic mythology. Sounds pretty cool to me.

[FitnessBrat]

I love to read as well. I read mostly all fiction - murder mystery type books. Right now I'm reading a book called Ashes to Ashes - Tami Hoag.

I love James Patterson - he's my favorite. I also like the few Dan Brown has, Nicholas Baldacci, Patricia Cornwell, and Jeffrey Deaver. There's many others - I just can't think off-hand....

[Scrumhalf]

I generally read non-fiction. I am currently re-reading Godel, Escher and Bach: An eternal golden braid by Douglas Hofstadter. I have read it multiple times over the years and never tire of it - it is a remarkable book about computers, artificial intelligence and the interesting similarities common to the work of Godel the mathematician, Escher the artist and Bach the musician. Pulitzer prize winner from sometime in the mid-eighties.

[Scrumhalf]

Herman Melville
Dickens
Tolstoy
Dostoyevsky

That's a good list... Melville, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky require a lot of effort of course but are very rewarding - they are not classics without cause. Dickens is one of my favorite English authors - luminous prose, wonderful characters... I would recommend David Copperfield - wonderful story, fabulous characters, etc.

[babyblues]

That's a good list... Melville, Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky require a lot of effort of course but are very rewarding - they are not classics without cause. Dickens is one of my favorite English authors - luminous prose, wonderful characters... I would recommend David Copperfield - wonderful story, fabulous characters, etc.

I actually do have David Copperfield.

Nothing reads like the classics. They're incredible. Those guys had a grasp of the english language that very very few have ever had. I guess that's why they're considered head and shoulders above the rest. I don't know of any modern writers other than Tolkien who had that kind of extensive vocabulary. He created his own language and they consulted him to compile the Q section of Webster's dictionary. Amazing.

[Scrumhalf]

I'm like you - I don't care too much for modern writing. I love the older writing style - that was real literature. Probably the only recent book I have read that can hold a candle to the old masters is The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. That was good book.

[trip]

read about 2-3 hours a day, everything

right now, a few mysteries, forget the womens name, jp beumont series

[babyblues]

I'm like you - I don't care too much for modern writing. I love the older writing style - that was real literature. Probably the only recent book I have read that can hold a candle to the old masters is The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. That was good book.

I find modern writing informative and entertaining, but compared to classic literature, most of the more modern stuff almost sounds like it was written by a child.

[Scrumhalf]

Agreed.... and the gratuitous use of profanity and explicit sexual imagery doesn't work for me at all.

[NYCmitch25]

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: by John Perkins. I rarely read but i recommend this to anyone.

[trip]

that's on my buy list, nyc, saw the guy inteviewed on cnbc, and his stories were like, ohhhhhhh shit, they reallyare con-man and crooks on wall street, kinda sad in a way

[ROCKILLER]

my all time fave is the wheel of time series by Robert Jordan. I read the first in the Dark Tower series. borrowed it from a girl but havent seen much of her lately to get the others. Kinda like a mix of the movie pulp fiction and a fantasy story. How are the rest of them so far?

[coffee-guy]

Has anyone read/reviewed "Gun, Germs and Steel" written by Jared Diamond?

[FitnessBrat]

Has anyone read/reviewed "Gun, Germs and Steel" written by Jared Diamond?

What a coincidence - I just read the overview of that book - looks boring :P

[babyblues]

my all time fave is the wheel of time series by Robert Jordan. I read the first in the Dark Tower series. borrowed it from a girl but havent seen much of her lately to get the others. Kinda like a mix of the movie pulp fiction and a fantasy story. How are the rest of them so far?

I'm at the beginning of book 5. The rest to this point are great. King goes back into Roland's life from time to time and unfolds a little more of the story as the series progresses. You also learn a little more about why he's trying to find the Dark Tower. I still don't understand what the Dark Tower is yet, but there are three more books to go. :D It's too complicated to explain really. Some of the imagery is a little bizzare, but that's Steven King. It's hard to describe any of it without ruining it if you haven't finished the series but ever want to read the rest.