Enjoy Books? Any recommendations?

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RockDiesel

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So every year in San Francisco they have, what is called, the Big Book Sale. It is the largest book sale on the west coast, like over 50,000 books or something like that.

Friends of the San Francisco Public Library - big book sale

I enjoy expanding on my recently started library even though I may never get around to reading all these books I have. All the used books at the sale are cheap as hell, and on Sunday, the last day of the sale, every book is $1 or less. So naturally I will go on Sunday and stock the library.

So if anyone on WickedFire enjoys reading and has any recommendations on good reads I would love to hear them. I am open to pretty much anything as long as it is good.

For example, so far I picked up the whole Dark Tower series by Stephen King, David McCullough's books (1776, John Adams, and Truman), Tolkien's The Silmarillion, The Coming of the King by Nikolai Tolstoy, some thick ass book called the Inside Story of the KGB (spy shit is always cool).

so yeah, whatever recommendations you got I would love to hear them (Fantasy, History, Sports, Mysteries, Biographies, etc...)
 


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Oh, don't remind me of books...I am moving out, and I am still packing my huge library.

Since you like fantasy, I suggest "The Dresden files", by Jim Butcher. There are around 10 in the series, and they are funny and interesting. Its about a wizard in modern day Chicago working as a private investigator, tossing around fireballs. Very funny, almost pulp fiction. I read them at a rate of one book per night, couldn't put them down.
 
Funny you should mention moving. My girlfriend's company is relocating, so we are moving in a couple of weeks. However, they are paying for the whole move, including movers to come pack up all our stuff. So, I am trying to get as many books as possible because I don't need to pack them, someone else will for me.

Someone mentioned the Dresden Files to me a couple days ago, definitely going to check them out.

Thanks for the rec. Dr. Ngo. I will keep an eye out for that series when I go to the sale tomorrow.
 
How about supernatural thrillers? I'm always looking for new authors and a good read in that genre...
 
turbolapp said:
How about supernatural thrillers? I'm always looking for new authors and a good read in that genre...
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are you asking for recommendations or asking if I would read supernatural thrillers? if you are asking me, then yes I would be interested in what you have to recommend.
 
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Rock: Judging from your posting history, here are a few of my favorites that you would probably like.

Sperm Wars: Infidelity, Sexual Conflict, and Other Bedroom Battles
"Published to acclaim and controversy a decade ago, Sperm Wars is a revolutionary thesis about sex that turned centuries-old biological assumptions on their head... best-selling author Robin Baker reveals these new facts of life: ten percent of children are not fathered by their "fathers;" less than one percent of a man's sperm is capable of fertilizing anything (the rest is there to fight off all other men's sperm); "smart" vaginal mucus encourages some sperm but blocks others; and a woman is far more likely to conceive through a casual fling than through sex with her regular partner. It's no wonder that Sperm Wars is a classic of popular science writing that will surprise, entertain, and even shock."
(You'll never look at sex and relationships the same way ever again.)

The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists
"Strauss was a self-described chick repellant--complete with large, bumpy nose, small, beady eyes, glasses, balding head, and, worst of all, painful shyness around women. He felt like "half a man." That is, until a book editor asked him to investigate the community of pickup artists. Strauss's life was transformed. He spent two years bedding some fine chiquitas and studying with some of the North America's most suave gents--including the best of them all, the God of the pickup "community," a man named Mystery."
(Don't get me wrong, I'm no Mystery fan. But this book was a ton of fun to read")

How to Win Friends & Influence People
"This grandfather of all people-skills books was first published in 1937. It was an overnight hit, eventually selling 15 million copies. How to Win Friends and Influence People is just as useful today as it was when it was first published, because Dale Carnegie had an understanding of human nature that will never be outdated. Financial success, Carnegie believed, is due 15 percent to professional knowledge and 85 percent to "the ability to express ideas, to assume leadership, and to arouse enthusiasm among people." He teaches these skills through underlying principles of dealing with people so that they feel important and appreciated."
(One of my favorite books ever. It should be required reading for everyone)

History of My Life by Giacomo Casanova
"While Casanova is most notorious for his womanizing, his memoirs are also remarkable as they give a top-to-bottom view of European life in the 18th century. Johns Hopkins University Press has done a handsome job, packaging the entire story in six double volumes"
(If you can get past the old writing style and sheer volume of this book, you'll find some awesome stories in here)

and because I care for your mortal soul...

The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus: What's So Good About the Good News?
"Asserting that we are meant to go beyond the Bible in order to discover the gospel, Gomes points away from the past toward a future in which promise and fulfillment meet. Meanwhile, we must manage to live in the world as it is—a world steeped in hostility, suffering and injustice. If we take the gospel seriously, then like Jesus we will risk all, and might even lose all."
(That's a gay description, but this book rocks. It's a slap to the face of hypocritical Christians everywhere, but it's still a Christian book written by a well-respected preacher)
 
RockDiesel said:
are you asking for recommendations or asking if I would read supernatural thrillers? if you are asking me, then yes I would be interested in what you have to recommend.
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No. I was asking for recommendations.

However, since you're interested. Richard Laymond is a good author. Mostly he writes about wacked out psychopaths and chaotic cannibalism but he has two good supernatural thrillers that I would definitely recommend: Bodyrides and The Traveling Vampire Show
 
stmadeveloper said:
.... if you like this type of book there is also an 11 or 12 book series that's great. Robert Jordans "wheel of time" series.
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I tried to start the Wheel of Time series, couldn't get into it. Don't know why, because i heard nothing but good things about it.
 
The Agony and the Ecstasy - Irving Stone (Michaelangelo story)

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

Dune - Frank Herbert
 
The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation (Volume One) (Paperback)

by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

Also read volume three, which details the rebellions of Soviet cities in the 1960s and 70s (which curiously enough, were not widely reported in Western media at the time).

Russians make the 1) Toughest mafias 2) Strongest booze 3) Best books.

Best light reading on a airplane:
Vertical Run by Joseph Garber
 
I'm with Amanda... ANYTHING by Chuck Palahnuik is golden! Speaking of, Choke is coming out as a movie soon.

I'll recommend authors instead of single books:

SF&F
Clive Barker
Phillip K Dick
Frederick Pohl
David Brin
Phillip Jose Farmer (which was actually three separate SF authors from the 60s-80s working on side projects together)

Comedy
Ben Elton
Tom Sharpe
Terry Pratchett (although it's also a fair bit of SF&F really)

Suspense & Horror
Any of Stephen King's not supernatural based books (he writes really good psychos, like in Rose Madder)
Clive Barker (again)
H. P. Lovecraft
 
RockDiesel said:
On the list, I heard it was a great book.
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It truly is. The other ones I suggested are great as well if you have not read them. All 3 of my recommendations are classics of one sort or another.

William Gibson's Neuromancer is another good one. Neal Stephenson, Diamond Age and Cryptonomicon.
 
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