[Rain]

Along similar veins...lets do a fav book category.

What did BBOers (or BBFers) enjoy reading?

For me:
1) Anything by Lois Mcmaster Bujold.
She is awesome. Can't begin to describe how much I like her books. Luckily she's more industrious than my 2nd favourite author....

2) George R R Martin.
Have you read "A song of ice and fire" series? It reads like a TV serial unfolding before your eyes. Maybe that's the attraction. But it has plenty of everything that keeps me readin. Blood, Lust, Envy, everything. It should be rated R.

He has another fun book called Tuf Voyages, very cute too.

3) Roald Dahl--all his short stories and books. When I get home I'm going to demand them back from cousins who "borrowed" and never returned them.

4) R. K. Narayan, Michael Crichton probably.

While composing this list of favourite non-bridge books/authors, I realise a lot of my favourites are bridge books by Mollo and the Kings. They probably rank joint second. I envy those with more eclectic taste in writers. Some of the books out there are unreadable.

[hrothgar]

Agreed: I'm a big fan of "Song of Ice and Fire" by Martin
(Also agree regarding the first Uplift series by David Brin)

In all honesty, the book that I'm enjoying most right now is 1,000 Indian Recipes by Neelam Batra. Other stuff that I read recenly and enjoyed:

Theordore Rex by Morris
Guns, Germs, and Steel by Diamond
Player of Games and Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

[Elianna]

I find that it's easier to just list authors (and list by books/series if they have more than one, and I've only read one)!

George RR Martin: A Song of Fire and Ice. Wonderful!

Robin Hobb

Kate Elliot: "Crown of Stars" series

Gregory Maguire: "Wicked", but only if you're an Oz fan (and have actually read the books, not just seen the movie). But avoid "Mirror, Mirror"

Stephen Fry

LM Montgomery - I still read the Anne of Green Gables series regularly!

Stephen Brust: The whole Taltos series. Some of the prequels are a little obnoxious.

I'm currently reading Adam's favorite series: The Uplift Series by David Brin. The first (Sundiver) was kind of a snore, but the others are really rivetting.

I'll stop now.
And yes, these are books that I've read (ok, some reread) recently. I like to read!

[mike777]

Huge fan of Hercule Poirot books.
Stephen Ambrose books, read Undaunted Courage, Lewis and Clark.
William Gibson Neuromancer
The Amber science fiction series by Zelazny.

[Echognome]

Tom Sharpe - In particular, Ancestral Vices. Funniest book I've ever read.

Ken Follett - In particular, The Pillars of the Earth.

Dixit and Nalebuff - Thinking Strategically.

[mike777]

Dixit and Nalebuff - Thinking Strategically.

I do not know this one, can you please elaborate?

[inquiry]

The Discoverers by Daniel Boorstin ,

have a lot of time on your hand before reading it.

[Echognome]

"Thinking Strategically: The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life." by Avinash Dixit and Barry Nalebuff

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/039331035...5Fencoding=UTF8

This was the first book on game theory I ever read. Has great examples and excellent intuition behind several of the major theories. Good introduction to the subject and will make you think in ways you hadn't thought of before. You might already know a lot of the ideas but hadn't formulated them scientifically.

[Winstonm]

Shogun.
Noble House.
Taipan.
Whirlwind.
The Excorsist.

[42]

Crime stories, many written by women (Eliszabeth George, Joy Fielding, Sara Paretsky, Minette Walters, etc.)
Michelangelo (Irving Stone)
Da Vinci Code
Il Barone Rampante (Calvino)
Cook books
Lord of the Ring
Avalon
Le Petit Prince
THGTTG (obviously..)
Books with stories that play in former Egypt
Books of German authors like Fontane, Mann, Goethe, Lenz, Frisch, Tucholsky
Books of D.H. Lawrence
.
.
.

[joker_gib]

Echognome, on Mar 7 2006, 04:15 AM, said:

Ken Follett - In particular, The Pillars of the Earth.

I agree this is a fantastic work by K. Follet !

For those who like "thrillers" : Did anybody try "Genesis" from John Case ?

I promise this one will catch you in the first pages !

Alain

[pclayton]

I read everything by Michael Crichton and Ken Follett when they first come out. I liked all of Dan Brown's stuff too, although he seems to wander into Oliver Stone blurred line between fiction and NF.

Started to get into Marquez a few years ago, and kind of liked it. Sentences that last several pages is an oddball style, however, and not well suited to my ADD personality .

Like Matt, Pillars of the Earth is my all time favorite.

[Sigi_BC84]

If you care about hard science fiction: Schismatrix by Bruce Sterling and Eclipse by John Shirley.

--Sigi

[helene_t]

hrothgar, on Mar 7 2006, 02:16 AM, said:

[..]Guns, Germs, and Steel by Diamond[...]

One of my favorites as well.

Other good ones:
- The Selfish Gene (Dawkins)
- The Blank Slate (Pinker)

[slothy]

The books i like :-

Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jarred Diamond was an amazing book. (even mentioned it in introductions )

Birds Without Wings by Bernieres, despite its title throwing mud at the theory of evolution, is a brilliant book, and i challenge anyone to read it without a lump appearing in their throat (simultaneously swallowing a gob-stopper aside). READ IT!!

Anyone interested in Anatolian history and the obstetrical struggles with the birth of modern Turkey would find it fascinating...

My Autobiography entitled 'A Sloth's life: Coping with Doraphobia' which was published posthumously.

Oxford English Dictionary. i admire people who strive to communicate something as descriptively yet as succinctly as possible, using words and phrases in such a way that it adds meaning and beauty to what they say. There is nothing wrong in widening ones vocabulary. May even get you a date

Any book by Richard Dawkins ( a man walking on the shoulders of midgets)

and i agree with Helen (Pinkers Language Instinct and Blank Slate are modern linguistic classics)


Slothy

[Blofeld]

A few of my favourites:

Gödel, Escher, Bach : an Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter. Probably my favourite single book.

Anything by Tolkien
The Amber sequence, and Lord of Light, by Roger Zelazny
Dune by Frank Herbert
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

I'd also second the recommendation of Dawkins.

[joshs]

Here are the books I listed at my amazon site:

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

Political Sophistication, Sociolological Insight, and a main character who would rather be with his beloved, but needs to change two worlds instead...




This Is My Beloved by Walter Benton

Best love poetry ever written. Get Never a Greater Need also.




Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut

My favorite author. His best book. Witty and brilliant. We are what we pretend to be...




The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

All the wisdom one would need.




Speaker for the Dead (Ender Quartet) by Orson Scott Card

My other favorite author. Both Ender's Game and the more sophisticated Speaker for the Dead are great. I think the best treatment of religion in literature.




Ten Poems to Open Your Heart by Roger Housden

Get all of Roger Housden's poetry anthologies even if you are already familiar with the poems. His essays on the poems are incredible. This book contains my favorite poem, Saint Francis and the Sow.




Letters from Prison and Other Essays by Adam Michnik

His letter, Why I am not Signing, is the most "moral without being judgmental" thing I ever read. I re-read this every year.




Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas R. Hofstadter

Brilliant. Got me interested in mathematics and convinced me of the possibility of AI.




The Assistant: A Novel by Bernard Malamud

Heartbreaking!




White Noise (Contemporary American Fiction) by Don DeLillo

Quirky and very funny with great insights into modern america.




A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving

Another funny and brilliant book.




The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke (Vintage) by Rainer Maria Rilke

My favorite poet.




New and Selected Poems : Volume One by Mary Oliver

My favorite contemporary poet.




1919: Volume Two of the U.S.A. Trilogy by John Dos Passos

I can't tell if its a novel, or the best social history ever written.




The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Well I am still a hopeless romantic at heart. I hope life is not this tragic...



The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Another source of great wisdom.




The Grapes of Wrath : (Centennial Edition) by John Steinbeck

This had a great influence on me politically.




Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond

A facenating look at human history.

[luis]

Anything from Asimov. Specially the Fundation series.
Anything from Crichton, I liked "State of Fear" a lot recently.
Dan Brown's books are good too.
Rendezvous with Rama is also a great book.

And any bridge book around there.

[keylime]

Current reads (edited 10 March):

Klinger's book about Keri (Chapter 5)
David Horowitz -> Unholy Alliance (halfway)
Bill O'Reilly (on audiobook) -> Who's Looking Out for You? (on iPod)
Rod Parsley -> Silent No More (just got in, on Chapter 2)
Dr. Charles Stanley -> Living in the Power of the Holy Spirit (3/4th's through)
Marshall Miles ->Modern Constructive Bidding (already own Comp Bidding in the 21st Century)


On order:

Political Incorrect Guide to Science; also one for Islam
Michelle Malkin -> Invasion; Unhinged


I go through a lot of books concurrently through the year; I can't sit down and read ONE book through - brain doesn't work that way.