59 replies to this topic

[Shrapnac]

I read the back of shampoo bottles while dumping, does that count?

I read quite a bit, currently going back through The Hobbit/Lord of the Rings, read that every 5 years or so.

I'm a big historical fiction fan, stuff like James Clavell, Gore Vidal, Herman Wouk but also sometimes like the turn your brain off stuff by guys like Clive Cussler. I feel like I need to start reading more challenging stuff again but it's hard to really dedicate the time required to read that kind of stuff.

I was never a big video game player or TV watcher in my youth, I read a ton. I'd love it if I could get myself back into the routine of reading a book or two a week.

[gibbyfan]

I am glad that this topic has been started. I'm always on the lookout for something new to read, although I must admit, that I am a binge reader. I will read a few books a month and then nothing for a few months. Most of the books that I read are for my classroom so I don't get into a lot of adult books unless I hooked early by them. I'll check back more often to the thread

[bubbagump]

All the Vince Flynn books are really good reads for me.

Also really liked "No Angel" by Federal Agent Jay Dobbyns.  Was about his multiple undercover years infiltrating the Hells Angels.

[iplay2muchgolf]

You should read Golf Digest man its the bomb

[Gripit_Swiftit]

Jeff, it seems like we have similar taste in books as I have read literally every book you listed and little else.

One great book that I read recently on a flight to South America was Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller by Chernow.

http://www.amazon.co...r/dp/1400077303

Great read and an amazing man.

Another simple read to kill time (as I can only assume being Canadian that you are a hockey fan) was Wearing The C.  Stories of leadership from hockey's greatest captains.

http://www.amazon.co...s/dp/1600787576

Glad to hear someone else was intrigued by The Psycopath Test as everyone else I have talked to about it thought I was crazy.

-Swift

[Bitz22]

bubbagump, on 05 February 2013 - 06:57 AM, said:

All the Vince Flynn books are really good reads for me.

Also really liked "No Angel" by Federal Agent Jay Dobbyns.  Was about his multiple undercover years infiltrating the Hells Angels.

read this book.  Great read!  What a life he lead.

[KBNYY]

bubbagump, on 05 February 2013 - 06:57 AM, said:

All the Vince Flynn books are really good reads for me.

I concur!! Anyone who is interested in military/espionage type books I highly suggest Vince Flynn and his Mitch Rapp series. Basically, Rapp is a CIA agent and it details his exploits. I have the whole set (just loaned out to a friend ) Also very similar is Brad Thor and his Will Harvath character. Harvath is more gritty and both are very entertaining reads!

Edited by KBNYY, 05 February 2013 - 07:03 PM.

[Petethreeput]

I like those books that describe how America got to where it is now.  I really like Chomsky for these books, a couple of others I have enjoyed is "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" don't remember the author (who is so full of himself I almost didn't finish the book) and "Tales of an Economic Hitman"  Another book I found fascinating, and I mean it, was the "WalMart Effect" by Fishman.  Also I enjoyed Eichenmann's "Nickeled and Dimed" and Shipley did something along the same lines using case studies from around America, don't remember the name of it.  I used to read quite a bit, but don't anymore.

[wetdogsmell]

Pretty much 100% non-fiction for me. I read a bunch of Bill Bryson's books after starting with "A walk in the woods" which is by far his best in my opinion.

I kind of rotate between light-hearted and frustrating to mix things up. Pretty much anything Bob Woodward has written.

[Hogan's Cardy]

There's a very good biography on a largely forgotten polymath of yesteryear, Max Woosnam (no relation to Ian). He is probably the greatest all round sportsman of all time and yet nobody has heard of him, mainly as he was around during WW1 and the 1920s in terms of playing his sports.

If you can stomach a few bits about cricket (come on, a bit of civilised behaviour may do you good ;o) ) then I reckon most of you guys would enjoy this; it's not often you read about a chap who once beat Charlie Chaplin at table tennis using a butter knife now is it?

http://www.amazon.co...n/dp/1845131371

Wiki page for Max - http://en.wikipedia....iki/Max_Woosnam

A mountaineering based book I enjoyed was "Shadow of the Matterhorn: The Life of Edward Whymper" by Ian Smith. It centres around the first successful ascent of the famed mount, the less successful descent and the man who lead the expedition Edward Whymper. It's a little window into a very different age.

[damnorcross]

I try to read, but with a 4 month old I don't seem to find the time.  I probably have 70-80 books in my book shelf that I plan on reading.  99% is non-fiction, mostly sports, music, or history related.  I really became interested in military biographies over the past few years, reading what soldiers went through in Vietnam just blew my mind.  I had the Chris Kyle American Sniper book on my Amazon wish list, but bought after he was killed and will read it right away.  Wish I had more time to read, I need to put a dent in the book shelf.

[prsgtrman]

great thread. im always looking for books. i dont consider myself a reader but i go thru books like its my job.

i dont read fiction some recent good reads

bravo two zero, british sas escape and evade/capture story
buried alive, hostage story from iraq
several books on the appalachian trail and the pacific coast trail, favorites have been AWOL on the App trail, "Skywalker" books and "Wild".
all of the krakauer books
unbroken-wwII hostage book
slash's book
the heroin diaries by nikki sixx, great great great read
5 years to freedom-vietnam pow book
chickenhawk-vietnam huey pilot book
no easy day-navy seal about killing OBL.
outlaw platoon- afg motorized patrol unit memoirs.
the slot swing by jim mclean(changed golf for me)

[agray94]

If you have any bit of conspiracy theory in your make up, read the Dan Brown books..(Davinci Code, Angels and Demons, etc.) I have read them all several times and love em. (Better than the movies)
Brad Metzlers is also in the same vein.

[Dr. Shankenstein]

agray94, on 06 February 2013 - 02:01 PM, said:

If you have any bit of conspiracy theory in your make up, read the Dan Brown books..(Davinci Code, Angels and Demons, etc.) I have read them all several times and love em. (Better than the movies)
Brad Metzlers is also in the same vein.

I just now started DaVinci Code. I have a feeling that this is one of those stories that will really suck you in. Langdon just arrived at the Louvre.

[lumberman2462]

I've read everything Tom Clancy has written.  I read a series of W.E.B Griffen books and like them.  Fun/light reading stuff from most of the "big name" current fiction writers.

Serious writers:

William Manchester (especially his series about Winston Churchill)
Robert Caro
Hunter S. Thompson
Winston Churchill (although at time I find myself having to backup and re-read a paragraph)
David McCullough
Michael Beschloss

Just to help them out in retirement - I'll read the memoirs of any former President (although I've given up on the latter books of Jimmy Carter.)

Arthur Conan Doyle
Jules Verne
Thomas Paine
Mark Twain
James Michener

[Shrapnac]

agray94, on 06 February 2013 - 02:01 PM, said:

If you have any bit of conspiracy theory in your make up, read the Dan Brown books..(Davinci Code, Angels and Demons, etc.) I have read them all several times and love em. (Better than the movies)
Brad Metzlers is also in the same vein.

Ugh, Dan Brown's stuff is so contrived it's almost as bad as that Twilight chick's stuff.

I guess it's ok for a beach book or something but it's really not good literature.

[H.A. Kerr]

Back in HS/college, I loooooved stuff like Band of Brothers and anything else WW2. I plowed through lots of serials like Stephen King and Cussler and Ludlam but started to feel like I was just reading movies.

I then tried a decent bit of auto/biography, but it's all is such non-truths (I even read "It's Not About the Bike"!),  that i came to prefer mostly just straight fiction.

Chuck Palahniuk. More raw than cheese-grating your hamburger dinner off the side of a live cow. Read 'em all. Everything. The guy can't lose. I don't care if you saw Fight Club. READ Fight Club. And Beautiful Monster. And Rant.

As Jeff said, Chuck Klosterman is a master class in pop culture. I've read everything. ("Invisible Man" was a great foray into fiction for him. Really tight.)

David Foster Wallace = my favorite author of all time. He's like the Crossfit of reading. I feel stupid as I slog through reading him, and smart afterward for feeling like I actually plucked meanings out of one sentence longer than most authors would craft five paragraphs. I agree with the poster above that his essay books ("'Lobster") are probably the easiest to get into, and damn fine, but the legendary "Infinite Jest" is just ... well ... totally worth the incredible effort. "Broom of the System" is a great easier-to-digest novel. Halfway through "Pale King" now.

Since DFW is gone, I'd anoint George Saunders as one of the finest American fiction writers going. No peers. "In Persuasion Nation" is one of the best essay comps I've ever read.

I subscribe to McSweeny's Quarterly Concern (as well as The Believer), and have piles of short fiction and essays and random stuff just waiting to read at all times.

"Truck, a Love Story" by Michael Perry is one of my favorite one-offs (never read anything else by him). A rich story built around the singular task of restoring a truck.

For non-fiction, I veer less toward history and more toward documentary.

Studs Terkel might have most closely achieved putting the American experience—within a certain time frame—on paper. Not really culturally relevant to today, but still relevant as stories about human beings.

"Please Kill Me" and a whole host of other Ramones/Lou Reed/various other NY music scene books line a good portion of my shelves. Always good to wish I was a teen in the late 70s.

A good dose of graphic novels by folks like Chris Ware, Harvey Pekar, Lars Martenson, etc thrown in (plus, I have all the Tin Tin comics ever published).

And finally, I'd just say David Eggers is flat-out incredible. "Zeitoun", a true story about a family caught in the midst of Katrina,  should be required reading for ... well, everybody. So good.

Reading everyone else's lists is really awesome. There are certainly different types of readers, and it's fun to see a few things you have in common and then look into the other stuff those folks have listed.

[jholz]

Off the top of my head and in the vein of good, readable literary fiction I would suggest:

In Cold Blood - Truman Capote
Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
The Good Soldier - Ford Madox Ford
Barry Lyndon - William M. Thakeray
The End of the Road - John Barth
Brighton Rock - Graham Green

Military History:
A Time for Trumpets - Charles B. MacDonald (an excellent record of The Battle of the Bulge)

If I thought about it some more I could come up with a longer list, but it is time for bed. Happy reading!

Edited by jholz, 09 February 2013 - 07:48 PM.

[plus8]

MtlJeff, on 03 February 2013 - 05:19 PM, said:

I never was a big book reader, but in the past few years i've had to travel a bit more for my job. Sometimes to Asia which from Montreal is a brutal flight not to mention the downtime in airports. I also made a concerted effort to stop learning for a few years after finishing college, as i was trying to mostly just fill my brain with girls phone numbers.

But the past few years (i'm 31 now) i've really gotten into it. I don't like fiction, so usually stick to non-fiction or opinion based stuff. Mostly related to general world knowledge or history (not very big on money making or investing books, though i probably should give a few a try)

Wondering what you guys are into, or if based on some of the stuff i've read if you have any suggestions....Here's some of my favorites from the past few years:

-All the Gladwell books (yeah not very original i know)
-All the Bill Bryson books (a short history of nearly everything is a classic, i like "at home" better though, A walk in the wild is great...Bryson is really good)
-The Psychopath Test, and The men who stare at goats, from Jon Ronson
-A brief history or time, Stephen Hawking
-The blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins
-Here on Earth, Tim Flannery
-Into thin air , and into the wild, from Jon Krakauer
-All the Chuck Klosterman books (I never thought someone could make you think about pop culture so much)
-This will make you smarter, John Brockman
-The world without us, Alan Weisman
-Brain Candy and Brain Trust from Garth Sundum ( not really books but full of factoids)
-The world in 2050, Laurence Smith
-Moonwalking with Eistein, Josh Foar
-Jack Welsh's books from the gut, and winning
-The War for Late Night from Bill Carter (actually pretty interesting)

I also read a lot of short articles/papers about astronomy which is a hobby of mine

What about you guys? BTW Thrillhouse playboy does not count

Yeah, I read a bit.  I've read Bryson's 'A short History' - VERY good book and puts things into perspective if you care. Also 'A Walk In the Woods', amusing characters (having backpacked much of the AT, I've met a few folks like those).
Fiasco -
Plan of Attack
My Life
Dark Side of Camelot
Team of Rivals
The coming Great Depression of 2013
Peltz's putting book (it screwed up my putting game for awhile!)
And I do a fair bit of stock market research


Also some Michael Connelly detective stuff

[wetdogsmell]

After reading Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" i have went on to a few other hiking books but they haven't been as good.

"The Cactus Eaters" and "Wild" were kind of weak.

[mac94]

Currently reading, "Book Was There," by Andrew Piper. Analyzes the move from print to digital text.

Other recently, Surprised by Joy by CS Lewis, and Total Truth by Nancy Pearcy.

[OldSkoolTexan]

Exclusively a tech reader here. Recent titles: Professional Node.js and Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja.

[One_Putt_Blunder]

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan SR and JR Fictions have always been a guilty pleasure of mine
Stephen Hunters series on Bob Lee Swagger aka the Shooter movie were fun reads.

Harry Combs Brules was an excellent western

No Easy Day was a good read Blackhawk Down was a gut wrencher

The Carlos Hathcock story was another good read

Just downloaded the Nook app on my tablet and really want to start reading some more stuff,

[MtlJeff]

On my recent trip to SJ and Milwaukee, i bought a book just called "world history" (i think, i left it at work but i think that's the title) that was basically just a page on every major dynasty since the beginning of humanity. Pretty cool stuff. I also bought "trust me i know what i am doing" from Bill Fawcett which was a follow up to "100 mistakes that changed history" that he also wrote, and i have read aswell. It's a few pages on some of the major mistakes of history, either military or other. Both were pretty good for airplanes since they are short chapters.

got stuck in Cleveland for a few hours so i made it through both of them

[Son_of_Sahm]

Walter Mosely, namely the Easy stuff.

Robert B. Parker.

Lee Childs.

Vince Flynn.

[Napkin2011]

David McCullough is great, Truman and John Adams, and 1776 were my favorites, but they were all really good.

For business books, enjoyed Clayton Christensen quite a bit. Agree with the earlier poster that Fooled by Randomness is a must read. The Black Swan was Talib's "big book" but it's almost unreadable.

[Son_of_Sahm]

Richard Stark, although his books can be tougher to find.

The two Eddie Little books were great, I thought.

[billyhandsomeface]

H.A. Kerr, on 07 February 2013 - 09:28 PM, said:

Back in HS/college, I loooooved stuff like Band of Brothers and anything else WW2. I plowed through lots of serials like Stephen King and Cussler and Ludlam but started to feel like I was just reading movies.

I then tried a decent bit of auto/biography, but it's all is such non-truths (I even read "It's Not About the Bike"!),  that i came to prefer mostly just straight fiction.

Chuck Palahniuk. More raw than cheese-grating your hamburger dinner off the side of a live cow. Read 'em all. Everything. The guy can't lose. I don't care if you saw Fight Club. READ Fight Club. And Beautiful Monster. And Rant.

As Jeff said, Chuck Klosterman is a master class in pop culture. I've read everything. ("Invisible Man" was a great foray into fiction for him. Really tight.)

David Foster Wallace = my favorite author of all time. He's like the Crossfit of reading. I feel stupid as I slog through reading him, and smart afterward for feeling like I actually plucked meanings out of one sentence longer than most authors would craft five paragraphs. I agree with the poster above that his essay books ("'Lobster") are probably the easiest to get into, and damn fine, but the legendary "Infinite Jest" is just ... well ... totally worth the incredible effort. "Broom of the System" is a great easier-to-digest novel. Halfway through "Pale King" now.

Since DFW is gone, I'd anoint George Saunders as one of the finest American fiction writers going. No peers. "In Persuasion Nation" is one of the best essay comps I've ever read.

I subscribe to McSweeny's Quarterly Concern (as well as The Believer), and have piles of short fiction and essays and random stuff just waiting to read at all times.

"Truck, a Love Story" by Michael Perry is one of my favorite one-offs (never read anything else by him). A rich story built around the singular task of restoring a truck.

For non-fiction, I veer less toward history and more toward documentary.

Studs Terkel might have most closely achieved putting the American experience—within a certain time frame—on paper. Not really culturally relevant to today, but still relevant as stories about human beings.

"Please Kill Me" and a whole host of other Ramones/Lou Reed/various other NY music scene books line a good portion of my shelves. Always good to wish I was a teen in the late 70s.

A good dose of graphic novels by folks like Chris Ware, Harvey Pekar, Lars Martenson, etc thrown in (plus, I have all the Tin Tin comics ever published).

And finally, I'd just say David Eggers is flat-out incredible. "Zeitoun", a true story about a family caught in the midst of Katrina,  should be required reading for ... well, everybody. So good.

Reading everyone else's lists is really awesome. There are certainly different types of readers, and it's fun to see a few things you have in common and then look into the other stuff those folks have listed.

The Broom of the System is amazing!!! Love Vlad the Impaler!!! You and I have similar tastes. I love Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. There is a story in there about a Guns N Roses tribute band that killed me.

I love anything by Vonnegut, Bukowski, Larry McMurtry, Jonathan Ames and John Niven.
Wake up, sir! by Jonathan Ames is incredible.
Kill Your Friends by John Niven is great. He also has a golf book called the Amateurs that is pretty good too.
You can't go wrong with Vonnegut, but my favorites are Breakfast of Champions and Hocus Pocus.
Any of the semi autobiographical Bukowski books (Ham on Rye, Women, Factotum, and Post Office) are amazing.
Larry McMurtry's All My friends are going to be strangers is awesome. My favorite by him is Leaving Cheyenne.
If you are into sports you should read A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley and North Dallas Forty by Peter Gent.
I am currently reading Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer by Chris Salewicz.

Usually the only non fiction I read is about sports or music.

Edited by billyhandsomeface, 21 March 2013 - 10:07 PM.

[KYMAR]

I read typically a book a week. It's much more mixed now but there was a time when i was pretty much fiction only. Started in middle school, i read "Pet Cemetary" and then every other Stephen King book published my school library had. I still love his stuff.

I got into Clive Barker quite a bit. His "The Art Trilogy" including The Great and Secret Show, and Everville are two of the most amazing things I've ever read. As far as I know, even though he's talked about it for decades, he has not written the planned 3rd book as of yet and may not.

I also like other fiction writers like Chuck Palahnuik's.  His Lullaby is a great quick read. I like some Nicholas Sparks books too (the Notebook, The Photograph etc) I'm such a romantic.

When I was 19 I was visiting my brother who lived in Cincinnati and read his copy of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson and I was in awe. I stopped being as enamored with him gradually over the years. His suicide pissed me off a little bit but I will never forget taking little gems from that book and reading them over and over. He amazed and influenced my young mind and might explain in some part why I might be described as a cynic.

I love scienctific material even though i am definitely a layman.  I will admit to being more interested in the artistic side of it like theoretical physics. I read The elegant Universe by Brian Green who was, and i guess is, a leader in the research for a unified theory. (for anyone interested and doesn't know that's basically finding the missing piece between Einstein's theory of general relativity and quantum mechanics.)  I guess he is most known for his work on string theory which this book is a solid introduction to without all the damn math.

But i have my spiritual side, I like books about religious philosophy.  I was most influenced by a guy named Brennan Manning in a couple books The ragamuffin Gospel and Abba Child. Miracles and The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis were fabulous as is Mere Christianity.

So many others, Robert Ludlum was so great. The Parsifal Mosaic Is mind blowing. So complex a story but it reads so easy. it goes down like smooth scotch. but grips you like heroine.

I am actually not reading anything at the moment. Sometimes I just put it away for a while. I will check back for recommendations from you fools so give me some good ones!

Great 19th hole topic Jeff. Do yourself a favor and pick up a Novel!  

Edited by KYMAR, 01 April 2013 - 09:22 PM.

[Fatsack540]

I'm not a huge reader by any means, But a friend recently recommended the books The wolf of wallstreet and Catching the wolf of wallstreet by Jordan Belfort. Once I started reading the first book I couldn't put it down and when I finished it was right to the next book. Can't wait to see the movie this summer.