Need a Book

[housenuts]

I need to order a book for this summer. I barely ever read but I'm going away for 5 weeks and figure I'll probably read something. Any suggestions?

I mainly like non-fiction stuff, or stuff that is at least based on real events. Some of the posts here regarding somewhat scientific books sounded pretty cool as well but I don't want anything over my head.

any suggestions appreciated.

[YourFoxyGrandma]

"Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs" by Chuck Klosterman is a good, easy read. It's just a bunch of commentary, nothing educational, but he's pretty funny and insightful.

[tbach24]

Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis
Moneyball by Michael Lewis
Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezreich (I think that's his name)

[chaas4747]

"The Devil in the White City". Just finished this and it is a great read. All bases on actual events.

[jakethebake]

Play Poker Like the Pros - Phil Hellmuth.

[MarkL444]

bruiser made a post about Diet for a New America, which i liked.

[riffraff]

Art of War

[housenuts]

i read bringing down the house last summer. that was the last book i read. i'd like to get away from anything gambling related.

anyone have a link to that other post with those scientific books? i can't find it.

[cflynn]

Guns, Germs and Steel. One of best books I've ever read -- quasi-scientific on a sociology/anthropology level without going to heavy on the details. Endeavors to explain the circumstances of why Europe conquered the rest of the world instead of vice versa. Will take you all 5 weeks, too, as it is fairly long.

Moneyball is just as interesting and much shorter.

[housenuts]

ha if it is fairly long it will take me longer than 5 weeks.

btw: i found the other link. http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=1992765&page=&view=&s b=5&o=&vc=1

[MarkL444]

i think youre trying to find the bill bryson book.

edit- ahh i see you found it.

[istewart]

[ QUOTE ]
"Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs" by Chuck Klosterman is a good, easy read. It's just a bunch of commentary, nothing educational, but he's pretty funny and insightful.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a really, really sweet book.

Also try Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

[housenuts]

ya i actually don't know if any of those scientific ones are appealing.

being a 4th year history student that Guns, Germs and Steel one sounds pretty interesting.

an good adventure story like The Motorcycle Diaries also sounds interesting.

any other ideas welcome

[housenuts]

i also like war stories and such.

i've read Dispatches and Jarhead.

[MarkL444]

where ya goin

[istewart]

The Things They Carried

[housenuts]

has anyone read
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century
by Thomas L. Friedman

[Chobohoya]

If you haven't already read it, I'd say "Positively Fifth Street" by James McManus. Otherwise, Cryptonomicon, which was just ridiculously awesome.

[willie]

the selfish gene- richard dawkins

a breakdown of evolutionary psychology/ evolution in general- good read.

[housenuts]

[ QUOTE ]
If you haven't already read it, I'd say "Positively Fifth Street" by James McManus. Otherwise, Cryptonomicon, which was just ridiculously awesome.

[/ QUOTE ]

i actually i read pos. 5 street. i might read it again though

[Jeff W]

Q.E.D. by Feynman. His other books are great to.

Journey to the Ants by Holldobler and Wilson.

Hidden Game of Football by Bob Carroll

Mathematician's Apology by GH Hardy

All of those are accessible non-fiction.

[shakingspear]

Eccentrics: A Study of Sanity and Strangeness by David Joseph Weeks

[kevyk]

Guns, Germs, and Steel is awesome, as is The Third Chimpanzee, also by Jared Diamond. A Brief History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson is great for the layperson trying to round out his scientific knowledge, but it is very long.

Hands down the most enjoyable series of books I have discovered in the past year is the Flashman series, by George MacDonald Fraser.

[pokerjo22]

[ QUOTE ]
Some of the posts here regarding somewhat scientific books sounded pretty cool as well but I don't want anything over my head.

[/ QUOTE ]

book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/074600690X/qid=1112980220/br=1-20/ref=br_lf_b_20//103-6743975-3222221?v=glance&s=books&n=3250)

[Shajen]

I just finished reading this book, and I gotta say, Pokerjo is correct once again.

It was an amazing book. I highly recommend it.

[tolbiny]

book thread (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=exchange&Number=131564 6&fpart=&PHPSESSID=)

Both the Global brain and journey to the ants were good reads (the global brain being more in depth, journey to the ants being better written and more interesting imo- but both are worthwhile.
If you are into anthropology The Third Chimpanzee is a good read as well.

[kevyk]

Flashman (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0452259614/qid=1112980865/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-4986489-2774566?v=glance&s=books&n=507846)

[Ulysses]

GG&S is, imo, a bad choice for someone who does not read much.

[housenuts]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Some of the posts here regarding somewhat scientific books sounded pretty cool as well but I don't want anything over my head.

[/ QUOTE ]

book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/074600690X/qid=1112980220/br=1-20/ref=br_lf_b_20//103-6743975-3222221?v=glance&s=books&n=3250)

[/ QUOTE ]

one of the reviews says 'Not appropriate for toddlers' so I don't think I should waste my money on this book.

[plaster8]

I'd suggest "The Hot Zone" or "The Demon in the Freezer" by Richard Preston. "Hot Zone" is about the Ebola virus; the other one is about anthrax and smallpox. Both are true and read like thrillers. Excellent stuff.

[bwana devil]

Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief

Autobiography of a jewel thief (what else?) Just came out this year. Quick, easy read. Details the break ins and gives you a good adrenaline rush as you hear how he got away w/ crimes. Also hear about the consequences of the lifestyle.

[Skipbidder]

Here are some recommendations that are at least somewhat scientific, but still accessible reads:

Demon Haunted World, by Carl Sagan.

Why People Believe Weird Things, by Michael Shermer.

Flim Flam, by James Randi.

All three of those books (and others by the same authors) have a distinctly skeptical outlook. Sagan and Shermer are relatively nonconfrontational. Randi is a curmudgeon.

Stephen Gould and Martin Gardner have multiple collections of columns available that are well-written and accessible reads.

Prisoner's Dilemma by William Poundstone has alternating chapters about Game Theory and biography of John von Neumann. Addresses the role of game theory in the Cold War and nuclear arms race.

Other posters have already recommended Dawkins and Feynman. These are good suggestions.

Philosopher Daniel Dennett writes well on scientific topics. Darwin's Dangerous Idea is a good book. It may be a more serious read than you are interested in. (Dawkins is also a little rough sometimes. Gould is easier to read, and takes more detours away from scientific topics...you will have to decide whether this is an advantage or disadvantage. Dawkins has a newer book called A Devil's Chaplain which is pretty non-technical.)

There is a guy named Larry Gonick who writes Cartoon Guides to all sorts of things. These are pretty neat. You might check out his Cartoon Guide to Genetics if you want to learn about it from scratch.

Happy reading.

[NLSoldier]

Not gonna lie, I don't give a damn about you needing a book. The only reason I clicked on this thread was to see your avatar some more.

[Roan]

House of God by Samuel Shem
Complications by Atul Gawande

[bisonbison]

Read Catch-22.

[Cubswin]

[ QUOTE ]
has anyone read
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century
by Thomas L. Friedman

[/ QUOTE ]

Havnt read it yet but intend to soon. Ive read a bunch of his stuff and hands-down "From Beirut to Jerusalem" is his best work. It would be a timely read for anyone interested in an easy-to-read account of the Lebanese civil war. You really cant understand what is going on in Lebanon today without understanding what happened their during the 70s and 80s.

[frank_iii]

5 weeks and only one book?

Ignoring poker books, off the cuff:

Animal Farm
I, Claudius
It
Tao Te Ching
Sherlock Holmes Collection

EDIT: gotta second Catch-22.

[Dr. Strangelove]

[ QUOTE ]
Read Catch-22.

[/ QUOTE ]

[bholdr]

[ QUOTE ]

Art of War

[/ QUOTE ]
i second
maybe the most important thing you'll ever read.

[whiskeytown]

personally, if you got 5 weeks -

get the Big blue copy of all the books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series - you'll laugh your ass off for about two weeks, take a week off, and reread it -

great stuff

RB

[jakethebake]

Memorize a random encyclopedia like M-N-L.

Oh. Wait, sorry. Was that really random?

[Hoi Polloi]

[ QUOTE ]
Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezreich (I think that's his name)

[/ QUOTE ]

That's a fun book.

[Hoi Polloi]

[ QUOTE ]
has anyone read
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century
by Thomas L. Friedman

[/ QUOTE ]

Friedman, ugh, blowhard.

[Hoi Polloi]

[ QUOTE ]
the selfish gene- richard dawkins

a breakdown of evolutionary psychology/ evolution in general- good read.

[/ QUOTE ]

Dawkins is great. The Blind Watchmaker is another title of his and he has a new one out in the last year or two. I cannot remember the title.

[Hoi Polloi]

Interesting quirky histories, both by Simon Winchester:

The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary

[Dead]

Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich.

[theBruiser500]

[ QUOTE ]
Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis
Moneyball by Michael Lewis
Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezreich (I think that's his name)

[/ QUOTE ]

liar's poker is excellent
moneyball is a solid choice

[JaBlue]

[ QUOTE ]
Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis


[/ QUOTE ]

[housenuts]

[ QUOTE ]
Read Catch-22.

[/ QUOTE ]

i have read this

[housenuts]

i'm thinking about liar's poker. it's definitely an area i'd like to learn more about. reading some reviews it got mainly good ones but a few that were very critical. one guy recommended these books too..
Barbarians at the Gate
Market Wizards
Money Machine

how do they compare to liar's poker?