You guessed right, I have read and own both 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. They are also really important books to me. I haven't even heard of those others, I will add them to my reading this. I really...
You guessed right, I have read and own both 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. They are also really important books to me.
I haven't even heard of those others, I will add them to my reading this. I really appreciate suggestions. Aldous Huxley is an author I have been wanting to tackle for a long time so having more books of his to read would be extra awesome.
I'd say Burmese days is also quite good from Orwell. Covers themes of imperialism - based of Orwell's experiences living and working for the British gov. in Burma.
I'd say Burmese days is also quite good from Orwell. Covers themes of imperialism - based of Orwell's experiences living and working for the British gov. in Burma.
Nice to meet you, fellow dead-tree book lover! :) I enjoyed Island, despite Huxley's weakish treatment of minor characters. George Orwell must be remembered as one of the writers who turned...
Nice to meet you, fellow dead-tree book lover! :)
I enjoyed Island, despite Huxley's weakish treatment of minor characters.
George Orwell must be remembered as one of the writers who turned literary review into a true art. You can find some of his essays at Bibliowiki. For example, his commentary on Rudyard Kipling would give you a taste of Orwell's incisive observations.
Don't forget Zamyatin's We as well, which most definitely served as an early inspiration to:
Don't forget Zamyatin's We as well, which most definitely served as an early inspiration to:
Aldous Huxley's Brave New World
Ayn Rand's Anthem
George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four
Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano
William F. Nolan & George Clayton Johnson's Logan's Run
Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed
I love to impulse buy books on Amazon so I tend to develop a stack as I read through them. Sorry for the potato cell phone image, I couldn't find my real camera. Here is a list; The Monkey Wrench...
I love to impulse buy books on Amazon so I tend to develop a stack as I read through them. Sorry for the potato cell phone image, I couldn't find my real camera. Here is a list;
The Monkey Wrench Gang - Edward Abbey
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
The Secret Life of Violet Grant - Beatriz Williams
The Martian - Andy Weir
The Devil in the White City - Erik Larson
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien (single book edition)
The Road Chose Me - Dan Grec
Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain
Medium Raw - Anthony Bourdain
A Cook's Tour - Anthony Bourdain
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
Desert Solitaire - Edward Abbey
The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah
Norse Mythology - Neil Gaiman
The Adventures of Theodore Roosevelt - Theodore Roosevelt
I am currently about mid way through the first three books on the list. I tend to read 2-4 books at a time, cycling through them as one would TV shows. I have read both The Monkey Wrench Gang and The Lord of the Rings many times before (and will read both of them many times again). I did have to pick up a new copy of LotR because I kinda killed my old one, so it will be my first time reading that printing. Anthony Bourdain was an idol of mine, he inspired me to go to culinary school and travel way more than I can afford, I have regretted never picking up his books before now.
EDIT: also good to note that Dan Grec is a redditor currently circumventing the entire coastline of Africa in a Jeep, The Road Chose Me is a book he wrote about his first trip from Alaska to Argentina on the Pan American highway.
That's a fair point, and I was tempted to include Snow Crash instead, but Stephenson's novel is both an homage and a satire to the cyberpunk aesthetic Neuromancer helped popularize. In any case,...
That's a fair point, and I was tempted to include Snow Crash instead, but Stephenson's novel is both an homage and a satire to the cyberpunk aesthetic Neuromancer helped popularize.
In any case, if I were to pick a Neal Stephenson novel to explain the current zeitgeist, I'd probably go with Cryptonomicon: a couple of Silicon Valley techies who don't know nearly as much about history as they think, trying to free the world with cryptocurrency.
Admittedly I haven't read Cryptonomicon or Neuromancer, but I think Snow Crash is applicable to our current situation both because of the sheer absurdity, and the concepts of post-rationality and...
Admittedly I haven't read Cryptonomicon or Neuromancer, but I think Snow Crash is applicable to our current situation both because of the sheer absurdity, and the concepts of post-rationality and viral ideas coming to dominate a society.
Yea, I have been on a Gaiman kick lately. It started with rereading Good Omens, the book he co wrote with Terry Pratchett and then I picked up a copy of The Ocean at the End of the Lane and things...
Yea, I have been on a Gaiman kick lately. It started with rereading Good Omens, the book he co wrote with Terry Pratchett and then I picked up a copy of The Ocean at the End of the Lane and things kinda snowballed from there. I had started American Gods years ago after first reading Good Omens but I never got around to finishing it, I am about two thirds of the way through it now and am loving every second of it.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Gaimain at his best, in my opinion. I've found he really excels in the shorter-form but sometimes loses his way in longer works (for example, I wasn't a huge...
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Gaimain at his best, in my opinion. I've found he really excels in the shorter-form but sometimes loses his way in longer works (for example, I wasn't a huge fan of American Gods, though there were parts I quite liked).
Norse Mythology is another example of Gaiman's proficiency with short(er) stories, hopefully OP enjoys it! As a lifelong lover of the Norse myths, I thought Gaiman did some admirable work with his re-tellings.
One other book from Gaiman I'd recommend @EscReality (if you haven't already read it) is Neverwhere. It's my favourite by him, and apparently will be getting a sequel sometime in the near future.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is one of my favorite books now. I do agree that American Gods drags on a bit, but I do like the story and its actually fine for my reading style as I tend to read...
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is one of my favorite books now. I do agree that American Gods drags on a bit, but I do like the story and its actually fine for my reading style as I tend to read multiple books at once and it's nice to take a break for a while. Neverwhere is in my stack (towards the bottom) and I was planning on adding it into my rotation when I was done with American Gods.
I definitely prefer his shorter works too. The Ocean... is probably the perfect length for me, being a bit more satisfying than a short story. I honestly didn't really like Neverwhere, but it...
I definitely prefer his shorter works too. The Ocean... is probably the perfect length for me, being a bit more satisfying than a short story.
I honestly didn't really like Neverwhere, but it might be because I didn't really get the play on places. I read the graphic novel of it and love that though.
Me too. I sort of go through phases of reading, and it was one that started a new cycle for me. It was just so beautiful. I think I'm going to reread it tonight :)
Me too. I sort of go through phases of reading, and it was one that started a new cycle for me. It was just so beautiful. I think I'm going to reread it tonight :)
It was highly recommended to me by several friends who love it and praise it quite a bit. It's good to note those same friends were not very fond of the movie because apparently it didn't do it...
It was highly recommended to me by several friends who love it and praise it quite a bit.
It's good to note those same friends were not very fond of the movie because apparently it didn't do it justice, as is common with movies made from famous books.
I have neither seen the movie or read the book (yet) so I cannot speak to the validity of that claim.
The movie is pretty true to the book except for some minor details. I loved the book, but I know a lot of people found it more boring than the movie. I am an engineer and I loved the problem...
The movie is pretty true to the book except for some minor details. I loved the book, but I know a lot of people found it more boring than the movie. I am an engineer and I loved the problem solving bits, but they can drag a bit.
Just to offer a dissenting viewpoint, I was thoroughly disappointed by The Martian when I read it a few years back. But I think I went into it with entirely the wrong expectations. The book is...
Just to offer a dissenting viewpoint, I was thoroughly disappointed by The Martian when I read it a few years back.
But I think I went into it with entirely the wrong expectations. The book is superb as a technical study of how one might survive alone stranded on Mars. The plot is brisk, the writing clear.
However, the three elements I value most highly in a novel are 1) Character, 2) Writing, and 3) Theme. If you've seen the movie, I suspect you already know that these probably aren't the strengths of The Martian. I can't really fault Weir, though, because I don't think he was aiming for an elegantly-written character study/meditation on the human condition when he wrote the novel.
More likely, Weir was trying to produce an exciting work of hard-scifi with a protagonist who remains steadfastly upbeat in the face of overwhelming peril. In that regard, he was outstandingly successful. I didn't care for the humour and I found the plot repetitive, but those are more matters of personal taste than anything.
Overall, it's an interesting book and a very light read. It just wasn't what I was hoping for.
It's been a few years since I read it, but it's quite good. I still haven't seen the movie because I don't really care to, but I will someday. It's pretty technical with the details of each step...
It's been a few years since I read it, but it's quite good. I still haven't seen the movie because I don't really care to, but I will someday. It's pretty technical with the details of each step of his survival, and I loved that. The POV switches between Mars and the ship are very well done. I'm probably going to dig right back into it after writing this comment. Good book.
A very quick and easy read. I tackled it in a few hours at a hotel whilst travelling a few years back. The film complemented it nicely: slight abridgements, but fantastic visuals and, overall,...
A very quick and easy read. I tackled it in a few hours at a hotel whilst travelling a few years back.
The film complemented it nicely: slight abridgements, but fantastic visuals and, overall, acceptable acting.
Some nonfiction suggestions: Lies My Teacher Told Me, James W. Loewen. The Human Use of Human Beings, Norbert Wiener. Grammatical Man, Jeremy Campbell. Ecology and the Politics of Scarcity,...
Awesome selection. The audiobook version of Norse Mythology, read by Neil Gaiman, is great, see if you can track it. As for Bourdain, they're all good, though I don't recall almost anything on...
Awesome selection. The audiobook version of Norse Mythology, read by Neil Gaiman, is great, see if you can track it.
As for Bourdain, they're all good, though I don't recall almost anything on Medium Raw. Damn, I miss the guy's style.
Gaiman reads all of his audiobooks (except Anansi Boys I believe) and he’s always brilliant, in my opinion. Not many authors can pull off reading their own work aloud (and I’ve heard some dreadful...
Gaiman reads all of his audiobooks (except Anansi Boys I believe) and he’s always brilliant, in my opinion.
Not many authors can pull off reading their own work aloud (and I’ve heard some dreadful renditions...) but Gaiman is an exception. It can really elevate a book to be able to experience it in the cadence and rhythm of the author him/herself.
Ahh, the unread book. For insight I offer you a third hand account of Umberto Eco's Antilibrary (From Nicolas Nassim Taleb via Maria Popova of brainpickings.org: BTW I highly recommend Popova's...
Ahh, the unread book. For insight I offer you a third hand account of Umberto Eco's Antilibrary (From Nicolas Nassim Taleb via Maria Popova of brainpickings.org:
The writer Umberto Eco belongs to that small class of scholars who are encyclopedic, insightful, and nondull. He is the owner of a large personal library (containing thirty thousand books), and separates visitors into two categories: those who react with “Wow! Signore professore dottore Eco, what a library you have! How many of these books have you read?” and the others — a very small minority — who get the point that a private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market allows you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary.
BTW I highly recommend Popova's site to anyone who loves an intelligent take on culture.
You guessed right, I have read and own both 1984 and Fahrenheit 451. They are also really important books to me.
I haven't even heard of those others, I will add them to my reading this. I really appreciate suggestions. Aldous Huxley is an author I have been wanting to tackle for a long time so having more books of his to read would be extra awesome.
I'd say Burmese days is also quite good from Orwell. Covers themes of imperialism - based of Orwell's experiences living and working for the British gov. in Burma.
Nice to meet you, fellow dead-tree book lover! :)
I enjoyed Island, despite Huxley's weakish treatment of minor characters.
George Orwell must be remembered as one of the writers who turned literary review into a true art. You can find some of his essays at Bibliowiki. For example, his commentary on Rudyard Kipling would give you a taste of Orwell's incisive observations.
Don't forget Zamyatin's We as well, which most definitely served as an early inspiration to:
Throw 'Animal Farm' in there as well.
I read that years ago, I think I still have my copy around. Its required reading in high schools in Colorado.
Huxley's Brave New World and Island also recommended.
I love to impulse buy books on Amazon so I tend to develop a stack as I read through them. Sorry for the potato cell phone image, I couldn't find my real camera. Here is a list;
The Monkey Wrench Gang - Edward Abbey
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
The Secret Life of Violet Grant - Beatriz Williams
The Martian - Andy Weir
The Devil in the White City - Erik Larson
Anansi Boys - Neil Gaiman
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien (single book edition)
The Road Chose Me - Dan Grec
Kitchen Confidential - Anthony Bourdain
Medium Raw - Anthony Bourdain
A Cook's Tour - Anthony Bourdain
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
Desert Solitaire - Edward Abbey
The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah
Norse Mythology - Neil Gaiman
The Adventures of Theodore Roosevelt - Theodore Roosevelt
I am currently about mid way through the first three books on the list. I tend to read 2-4 books at a time, cycling through them as one would TV shows. I have read both The Monkey Wrench Gang and The Lord of the Rings many times before (and will read both of them many times again). I did have to pick up a new copy of LotR because I kinda killed my old one, so it will be my first time reading that printing. Anthony Bourdain was an idol of mine, he inspired me to go to culinary school and travel way more than I can afford, I have regretted never picking up his books before now.
EDIT: also good to note that Dan Grec is a redditor currently circumventing the entire coastline of Africa in a Jeep, The Road Chose Me is a book he wrote about his first trip from Alaska to Argentina on the Pan American highway.
Nice variety. I hope you don't have cats, though. All it takes is one to knock down your stack.
No cats, but I do have a four year old son that has a similar effect.
Add The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood and Neuromancer by William Gibson, and you have five novels that explain our postmodern world.
I feel like the cyberpunk dystopia we live in is more Snow Crash than Neuromancer.
That's a fair point, and I was tempted to include Snow Crash instead, but Stephenson's novel is both an homage and a satire to the cyberpunk aesthetic Neuromancer helped popularize.
In any case, if I were to pick a Neal Stephenson novel to explain the current zeitgeist, I'd probably go with Cryptonomicon: a couple of Silicon Valley techies who don't know nearly as much about history as they think, trying to free the world with cryptocurrency.
Admittedly I haven't read Cryptonomicon or Neuromancer, but I think Snow Crash is applicable to our current situation both because of the sheer absurdity, and the concepts of post-rationality and viral ideas coming to dominate a society.
Damn good point.
That is a great Gaiman block in there. American Gods is the first book I recommend if/when anyone asks for a good read. Enjoy!
Yea, I have been on a Gaiman kick lately. It started with rereading Good Omens, the book he co wrote with Terry Pratchett and then I picked up a copy of The Ocean at the End of the Lane and things kinda snowballed from there. I had started American Gods years ago after first reading Good Omens but I never got around to finishing it, I am about two thirds of the way through it now and am loving every second of it.
The Ocean at the End of the Land is one of my favourites! I was going to suggest adding it until I saw this comment.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is Gaimain at his best, in my opinion. I've found he really excels in the shorter-form but sometimes loses his way in longer works (for example, I wasn't a huge fan of American Gods, though there were parts I quite liked).
Norse Mythology is another example of Gaiman's proficiency with short(er) stories, hopefully OP enjoys it! As a lifelong lover of the Norse myths, I thought Gaiman did some admirable work with his re-tellings.
One other book from Gaiman I'd recommend @EscReality (if you haven't already read it) is Neverwhere. It's my favourite by him, and apparently will be getting a sequel sometime in the near future.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane is one of my favorite books now. I do agree that American Gods drags on a bit, but I do like the story and its actually fine for my reading style as I tend to read multiple books at once and it's nice to take a break for a while. Neverwhere is in my stack (towards the bottom) and I was planning on adding it into my rotation when I was done with American Gods.
I definitely prefer his shorter works too. The Ocean... is probably the perfect length for me, being a bit more satisfying than a short story.
I honestly didn't really like Neverwhere, but it might be because I didn't really get the play on places. I read the graphic novel of it and love that though.
I will be honest, it was one of the first books in a very long time that I read straight through in a single sitting, it was a very good read.
Me too. I sort of go through phases of reading, and it was one that started a new cycle for me. It was just so beautiful. I think I'm going to reread it tonight :)
Nice stack OP! I've actually been thinking about reading The Martian, I enjoyed the movie well enough. Has anyone good things to say about the novel?
It was highly recommended to me by several friends who love it and praise it quite a bit.
It's good to note those same friends were not very fond of the movie because apparently it didn't do it justice, as is common with movies made from famous books.
I have neither seen the movie or read the book (yet) so I cannot speak to the validity of that claim.
Hopefully someone else can chime in....
The movie is pretty true to the book except for some minor details. I loved the book, but I know a lot of people found it more boring than the movie. I am an engineer and I loved the problem solving bits, but they can drag a bit.
Just to offer a dissenting viewpoint, I was thoroughly disappointed by The Martian when I read it a few years back.
But I think I went into it with entirely the wrong expectations. The book is superb as a technical study of how one might survive alone stranded on Mars. The plot is brisk, the writing clear.
However, the three elements I value most highly in a novel are 1) Character, 2) Writing, and 3) Theme. If you've seen the movie, I suspect you already know that these probably aren't the strengths of The Martian. I can't really fault Weir, though, because I don't think he was aiming for an elegantly-written character study/meditation on the human condition when he wrote the novel.
More likely, Weir was trying to produce an exciting work of hard-scifi with a protagonist who remains steadfastly upbeat in the face of overwhelming peril. In that regard, he was outstandingly successful. I didn't care for the humour and I found the plot repetitive, but those are more matters of personal taste than anything.
Overall, it's an interesting book and a very light read. It just wasn't what I was hoping for.
It's been a few years since I read it, but it's quite good. I still haven't seen the movie because I don't really care to, but I will someday. It's pretty technical with the details of each step of his survival, and I loved that. The POV switches between Mars and the ship are very well done. I'm probably going to dig right back into it after writing this comment. Good book.
A very quick and easy read. I tackled it in a few hours at a hotel whilst travelling a few years back.
The film complemented it nicely: slight abridgements, but fantastic visuals and, overall, acceptable acting.
Some nonfiction suggestions:
Each of these has opened my mind in interesting ways.
Awesome selection. The audiobook version of Norse Mythology, read by Neil Gaiman, is great, see if you can track it.
As for Bourdain, they're all good, though I don't recall almost anything on Medium Raw. Damn, I miss the guy's style.
Gaiman reads all of his audiobooks (except Anansi Boys I believe) and he’s always brilliant, in my opinion.
Not many authors can pull off reading their own work aloud (and I’ve heard some dreadful renditions...) but Gaiman is an exception. It can really elevate a book to be able to experience it in the cadence and rhythm of the author him/herself.
Ahh, the unread book. For insight I offer you a third hand account of Umberto Eco's Antilibrary (From Nicolas Nassim Taleb via Maria Popova of brainpickings.org:
BTW I highly recommend Popova's site to anyone who loves an intelligent take on culture.