Books you've read and would recommend?

[RU_]

Just finished Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, really enjoyed it. Probably not as well written as 1984 but I think I enjoyed it more - so funny yet kind of disturbing to think of our future

Aha, last term at school we had to read that and then compare 3 arguments from within it to society today.

Didn't actually read it.. assed it for a B.

 

[CLUBMEDhurst]

You gotta link for that Thrillho?

 

[Illinois Nazi]

Can't go wrong with anything by Max Walker, surely.

 

[THRILLHO]

You gotta link for that Thrillho?

It's from a 1985 book by Neil Postman. Here's a PDF.

It's not very well formatted, but I guess you get what you pay for. Otherwise it's $10-$13 on BD and Amazon.

 

[PP34]

My copy of "The Book of Basketball" arrived a few days ago and I highly recommend it to those who are right into basketball (especially NBA).

 

[JCore]

I enjoy reading, I just don't seem to do it enough. However, I just purchased the following so hopefully I can start a pretty awesome hobby/habit:

A Song of Ice and Fire, Books 1-4
Nineteen Eighty-Four
How To Win Friends and Influence People
The Great Gatsby
The Prince
Slaughterhouse-Five
Lord of the Flies

 

[FootyJunkie]

the secret history - donna tart

 

[tiger dream]

On Rock Books. Billy Thorpe's Sex, Thugs and Rock n' Roll! (96)is a ripper which you won't want to put down.

 

[THRILLHO]

I enjoy reading, I just don't seem to do it enough. However, I just purchased the following so hopefully I can start a pretty awesome hobby/habit:

A Song of Ice and Fire, Books 1-4

May as well go and order number five now.

 

[Caesar]

Just started Imperium, by Robert Harris. I read his bestseller Pompeii many years ago and enjoyed it immensely. I like that he makes the effort to make the historical details meticulously accurate.

 

[Gough]

Just started Imperium, by Robert Harris. I read his bestseller Pompeii many years ago and enjoyed it immensely. I like that he makes the effort to make the historical details meticulously accurate.

I read Fatherland in one sitting on a plane some years ago, only one of his I've ever read, defiantly a cut above most airport books.

 

[Caesar]

I read Fatherland in one sitting on a plane some years ago, only one of his I've ever read, defiantly a cut above most airport books.

I didn't realise that The Ghost Writer was an adaption of one of his books until I read the dustjacket. He's more prolific than I thought.

 

[Tulip]

Been trucking through all the Sherlock stories this year when I have a few minutes off, love it.

 

[Ed_Gein]

Must read.... 9.5/10

I'm 300 pages into this......Does it get better? It's quite patriotic, you know? "America. F*ck yeah!" and all that and the first 200 pages was just wall after wall of conversations where all the characters sound the same without much else....

 

[crazyman27]

Any accounts by soldiers of WWII that are worth reading?

Really full-on recount of a British soldier that 'broke' into Auschwitz to document what happened inside. Gives a really graphic idea of what it was like. Truth of the story has been questioned but it's a really enthralling read nonetheless.

 

[Caesar]

If you liked that story, try and find a biography of Witold Pilecki. He was a Polish soldier who fought against the Nazis, then after Poland was overrun helped founded the resistance movement. Getting bored with that, he then pretended to be a Jew to deliberately get arrested and sent to Auchwitz. He spent two and a half years there gathering intelligence before breaking out and writing a comprehensive report, becoming the first person to alert the Allies that the concentration camps were death camps rather than simply internment camps. Unfortunately the Allies ignored his report because they thought it was exaggerated.

Then he went back to Poland to fight in the Warsaw Uprising, got captured again, and was sent to another concentration camp. He was liberated, escaped to Italy, and then after the war returned to Poland to establish an intelligence network for the Polish government-in-exile against the Communists. They finally caught and killed him in 1948.

Possibly the most badass dude in history.

 

[IAMJUNGLEMUFFIN]

Wilbur Smith: Whe the Lion feeds. Set around the turn of the 20th century in South Afria, about a big burly hero and his exploits ranging from diamod miing, the zulu war, elephant hunting. A bit of a blokey book, but don't let that hold you back, my younger sister loves it to bits, her favourite book of all time, and mine too.

Absolutely cracking book, and Smith's next novels follow on from where this one finishes, so if you like it, there's more to get into.

 

[bradrowe#32]

The Flashman series. Excellent historical fiction with a lot of fun/naughtiness.

 

[Gough]

Just finished this; probably one of the very few things that most who tread this boards would have in common, is watching this as as kid. The story behind it is equally as fascinating.

 

[Fossie 32]

Most People I Know - Billy Thorpe's autobiography. I'm a slow reader but 'couldn't put it down'

Sequel 'Sex Drugs and Rock'n'Roll' is very good too.

 

[HolyRioli]

A Fortunate Life - AB Facey. Probably my favourite book. I recommend it to everyone because it's a fantastic, inspiring story that is incredibly easy to read. Written by an illiterate man who never went to school and taught himself to read and write, it chronicles his life from the turn of the 20th century through to his death in 1987. From being whipped as a boy, to being shipped away to another family to work as a child, to landing at Gallipoli, to his post-war life in WA, to a heart breaking ending (I've teared up four times when re-reading that ending), it's told in a classical Australian manner of understatement and "she'll be right" attitude. If I remember rightly, it was on the English curriculum for awhile back in the 90s and has sold over 250 000 copies (John Howard's political autobiography is heralded as one of the best selling autobiographies and its only sold a tick over 100 000).

Another vote for this book - one of my absolute favorites.

Lord of the Rings is a must read if you haven't already.

The Power of One / Tandia is my favorite pair of books

Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer is a wonderful story (not at all biblical, is set in the early 20th Century, from before WW1, through WW2 and beyond).

 

[moses]

In Cold Blood

 

[davefromjerra]

Dean Jones' autobiography is my favourite sporting biography. Deano isn't afraid to take a few potshots at his former teammates which makes it entertaining.

 

[Corleone]

There are some fantastic suggestions here, especially Shanataram, I had the pleasure of having the author as a guest lecturer a few years ago, the most engaging person I've ever met.

The following are books/series that I recommend to anyone who will listen.

The Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan - If you watched Game of Thrones/read the book series(Song of Fire and Ice, which I also recommend), watched Lord of the Rings/read the series (it goes without saying I recommend these also), and liked any of them, I strongly recommend reading this series, the vastness of this series cannot be overstated. The way the author creates an entire world and ties so many unique characters and themes so flawlessly into this world is amazing. The themes that are covered in this series are so vast and varied that you really become immersed in the books. Epic .... Simply Epic.

Battle Royale by Koushun Takami - If you read hunger games/saw the movie, and liked the theme, read this. Battle Royale is basically the adult version of that story, I read Battle Royale about 10 years ago and to be honest it changed the way I looked at the world a little. The way the characters reacted to the situation they'd be thrust into rang very true, and reading the story play out was painful, scary and depressing at times as well.

I know many people that say the following; "reading is for losers" "I don't read" "I'll wait for the movie" .... It's becoming an alarming trend, whenever I meet someone who says this (usually young lads around the ages of 13-25), I recommend they pick up a copy of something written by Matthew Reilly, he's an Australian author who writes Action/Adventure novels. His writing style is extremely fast paced (almost no filler between gun battles, car chases, massive mircowave executions, amazing escapes from the previously mentioned), and not for everyone, but I thoroughly enjoy his stuff.

Also briefly, the following;

Tales of the Otori by Lian Hearn - An epic journey
The Hannibal Lecture Series by Thomas Harris - Truly terrifying
Il Dottore by Ron Felber - Mafia doctor, his story
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury - Sci-Fi Classic
Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Steven Dubner - Funny way to see the world
Rohypnol by Andrew Hutchinson - Shocking
The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart - Take away moral choice, introduce chaos = ?
Down to This by Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall - A year of living with the homeless
The Game by Neil Strauss - Won't help you pick up chicks, but the stories are gold nonetheless
Kane and Abel by Jeffery Archer - Great tale of two men of power and how they got there

I try to read a book a week, not hard given the quality of television/movies being produced these days, but once a month I try and delve into a "Classic", think Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austin, Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy, Arthur Conan Doyle ... I'm not going to lie, sometimes these books are dull, dry and obviously written for a different audience a long time ago, and often I can't finish them, but sometimes you finish a classic and realise there's a good reason why so many people have read and loved it and passed it on. Other times ... it's pretty shit.

Please keep coming with more and more suggestions, many of these are going on my reading list

 

[PP34]

Bump.

Any recommendations on the US Civil War or revolution?