Wondering... (Page 2)

I'm right with you.  I was going to sleep but this is more fun.  Let's see...David Brin definitely - Earth, startide rising, the uplift war, kiln people are all great.  jon krakauer's into the wild and into thin air are fantastic (as is anatoliy boukreev's rebuttal, the climb).  I'll check out Dorothy Sayers.  You should read Cryptonomicon by neal stephenson, I'm like an evangelist for that book.

Past week I went through Typhoon (joseph konrad), everything's eventual (stephen king), passion play (sean stewart), and lol Ron, part of my polymer science text.

I tend to move around between SF, history, science, outdoor stuff, disasters, and books by reporters.  Here are some favorites:

from beiruit to jerusalem. 

mutiny on the bounty & men against the sea (Hall)

Alive (piers paul read)  The uraguayan rugby team that crashed in the andes.

jon krakauer's books.  outdoor disasters

the worst journey in the world (apsley cherry-garard).  3 yrs in the antarctic with Scott, including a winter sledging trip of 50 days to fetch penguin eggs.  they had no sled dogs and pulled themselves, very british.

South (shackleton)

timescape & eater (gregory benford).  The best SF ever about time travel, bar none.

foundation trilogy (asimov).  What if mathematical prediction of the future were possible?

Anything by Cordwainer Smith (GREAT!!)  The guy was a china expert for the CIA in the 50s and wrote a textbook on psychological warfare, but in his sparetime published these amazing SF short stories that are unlike anyone else.

killing pablo (mark bowden)  How we helped to track down and kill pablo escobar

god has ninety-nine names (judith miller) survey of the middle east by a reporter who's lived there for years

voyage of the beagle (darwin)  his description of south america in the early 19th century is fascinating.  This guy was into everything he saw.

journals of lewis and clark

a confederacy of dunces.  The world according to a lunatic. 

Watership down.  rabbits in search of  a new home

anything by patrick o'brien.  Naval adventure in the time of nelson.

the imperial animal (lionel tiger).  ideas about how evolution affects behavior.

the shining, the dead zone (stephen king) my 2 favorites of his.

sense and sensibility (jane austen)  jane knew what it was all about

ender's game & speaker for the dead (orson scott card).  Childhood, being an instrument of war, and life after

anything by phillip k. dick.  paranoid but fun

lord of the rings.  This has got me over the roughest patches in my life and made smile during them

a distant mirror, the guns of august, bible and sword (barbara tuchman). 

the man who loved only numbers - biography of mathematician paul erdos, who kept no home but travelled the world for 50 years from one math profs house to another.

doomsday book, to say nothing about the dog (connie willis).  The other best time travel SF novels.

I better sleep.  Happy reading!  (hope to finish heart of darkness tonight, i'm on a bit of a konrad kick)

Reading, ahhh, a subject that is most precious to me. I read so much it's difficult to pick just one favorite author.

I mostly read nonfiction, autobiographies are wonderful. I also love anything and everything about politics. When I do read fiction I usually read Stephen King, James Patterson and Tom Clancy. But I also love anything by James Michener.

I love Zora Neal Hurston, Richard Wright, Octavia Butler (she writes sci-fi), anything by Orson Scott Card (The Sci-Fi Ender's Game Series is awesome tells the story of a young Messiah who saves the world from the buggers by learning to play a video game.)

Of course there are the classics: Shakespeare, Kafka, Tolstoy, (The Death of Ivan Illych), Volaire's Candide (interesting philosophy on the rich and powerful a scathing indictment of the Church). Wole Soyinka, Bessie Head and Achebe.

But the best book, with the greatest stories, the most emotional stories and the most fantastical adventures of course is the Bible. I'm currently rereading it and it is amazing how many great stories are in there. Whew! A good read overall.

I think he could act the part although he's not fat enough.  It's kind of a question actually, because Ignatius Reilly has such an absurb dignity to him.  Will Farrel would definitely have to stretch but he could maybe do it.  It's too bad Toole killed himself, Dunces is about the funniest thing I ever read. 

I've never heard of Po Bronson, what's that? 

I remember reading executioner's song a long time ago and liking it.  Oddly i haven't read any other norman mailer.  Someday I'll do the naked and the dead, anyone read that?  As good as it's rep or overrated?

Dana - Cryptonomicon may or may not be your taste too.  Here's a description.  The plot follows related characters in two times, WWII and the silicon valley gold rush.  It involves war gold, cryptography (bletchley park and alan turing come into it), hackers, china marines, ronald reagan, and the phillipines.  The author is almost definitely a jerk, but he's my kind of jerk and he's funny as hell.

Definitely interesting to read, although not everything makes sense.  I like the old testament quite a bit, it's got the feeling of things and legends passed down from way, way back.  I'm still trying to figure out why Melville picked ahab and ishmael for the characters names in moby dick.  Revelation is fun too with its beast with eleven heads and eyeballs in it's arms and whatnot. 

Octavia butler did parable of the talents, right?  Another biblical tie there too.  Good book as well.  Who is Zora Neal Hurston?

It's funny, I've always read candide as a satire of polyannas more than religion per se.  Have to go back...

As much as I like the running and all, this is still more my speed.

Nuc school was Navy Nuclear Power Schools for working on reactors on ships (not nuclear weapons :-) )

I have enjoyed all of Cornwell's books. I recommend them all. Some of her earlier ones are my favorites.