Suggest me some books!

[tdarko]

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Not only are they illuminating and interesting books, you'll easily pwn any christian fundamentalists who ridicule evolution + "intelligent design" tards you encounter.

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haha sounds like my side of the water [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[coolhandkuhn]

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The Dog of the Marriage --- Amy Hempel (short stories)


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wow! you like hempel? first person i know of that has heard of her. have you read tumbe home?

last of the savages was my favorite McInerney.

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I have not read Tumble Home, but have read Reasons to Live. Her short stories are great.

Last of the Savages is very good, just not my fav. McInerney. All of his stuff is great, though. New book in Jan '06.

I like Chuck a lot, but thought Invisible Monsters was his worst book. Haunted, his new book, was less than I thought it would be. Basically a book of short stories tied together by an uninteresting story. Some of the shorts are great, though.

[oddjob]

heartbreaking work of staggering genius by dave eggers.

[Skipbidder]

Judging from the books on the list, you may have already read some of these:

Fiction first:

Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson (first book in a series). His protagonist is complex and interesting. There's a rough patch early on in this first book. You might find yourself wanting to quit the book (and being angry at me for recommending it). Get through this section. It is worth it.

Douglas Adams wrote two books about a detective named Dirk Gently. Long Dark Teatime of the Soul and Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

Rumpole of the Bailey by John Mortimer. There are several short stories available. These are also nice to listen to in the car.

Nonfiction:

Any of Bill Bryson's books, but only if read by the author.

Carl Sagan's Demon-Haunted World. He captures the wonder of science and his feelings about pseudoscience and quackery without getting condescending or preachy.

James Randi's Faith Healers. Randi has the same side of the issue regarding pseudoscience and quackery, but is quite frequently condescending and preachy. In this book, he describes the way he busted religious fraud Peter Popoff. (This story got lifted, without credit or payment, for the movie Leap of Faith.)

Prisoner's Dilema. Half game-theory, half biography of Von Neumann.

Partnership Bidding at Bridge by Robson and Segal. (Probably not such a good suggestion, since I doubt you play bridge. It is, however, easily the best bridge book that is not well-known.)

[Diplomat]

Probably the best book I've read in the last year or so is The Master and The Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Other things to try out would be anything by Vonnegut, A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole...Oh and maybe Against The Gods by Peter Bernstein, for something non-fiction.

-Diplomat

[Blarg]

Cosmicomics, by Italo Calvino(short stories, brilliant imagination by a truly great, gifted author)

In the Heart of the Sea - the true story of Moby Dick; great and frightening -- cannibalism, the terror of the open sea and its monsters, piracy, mutiny, cruelty, heroism, incredibly good and readable evocation of a very strange time and place, you name it, this story has it all

[tdarko]

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What's the knock on Chuck? Just overrated because of Fight Club?

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i think the words that are thrown around here are "trite," "pompous," etc., every time i get into book discussions around here i am waiting for JaBlue (where are ya bud? [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]).

personally i can't think of a more creative book than survivor, maybe AS creative but not more.

i think anytime something that is considered "cult" people cherish it b/c it is unknown and they want to feel like they are the only ones watching it (donnie darko) or reading it (fight club/before the movie) but when it blows up and becomes part of pop culture and mainstream then people start to get pissed because it becomes sort of what it was against even though it has never changed just the audience has.

[Skipbidder]

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The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. If you like that, the Blind Watchmaker by same.

Not only are they illuminating and interesting books, you'll easily pwn any christian fundamentalists who ridicule evolution + "intelligent design" tards you encounter.

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No you won't. They don't listen and they don't think. You will only make yourself extremely frustrated.

[diebitter]

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The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. If you like that, the Blind Watchmaker by same.

Not only are they illuminating and interesting books, you'll easily pwn any christian fundamentalists who ridicule evolution + "intelligent design" tards you encounter.

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No you won't. They don't listen and they don't think. You will only make yourself extremely frustrated.

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Sorry, I didn't explain. You hit them with the books, spine first.

[tdarko]

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Sorry, I didn't explain. You hit them with the books, spine first.

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then gouge eyes with the corners [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]