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30 Jan 07 - 04:50 PM (#1952871) Subject: BS: Good Book From: Herge Just finished an assignment and have promised myself a few weeks without study - apart from chilling out / drinking more beer / playing more music - anyone recommend a good read? I like travel books, thrillers (not horror), humour, history. Whats top of your must read book list? |
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30 Jan 07 - 05:10 PM (#1952888) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Beer Pure History or Historical Novels? Beer (adrien) |
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30 Jan 07 - 05:21 PM (#1952897) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Captain Ginger Thrillers and history? Try the Patrick O'Brien sea stories - they're highly addictive. Search this site for more on O'Brien; he inspires fierce devotion. |
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30 Jan 07 - 05:44 PM (#1952911) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Wesley S Ragtime by EL Doctrow |
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30 Jan 07 - 06:06 PM (#1952931) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Becca72 I'm a big fan of the "Prey" series by John Sanford. Detective stuff. |
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30 Jan 07 - 06:37 PM (#1952958) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Barb'ry The Book Thief Can't put it down |
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30 Jan 07 - 10:20 PM (#1953097) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: heric Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe by Laurence Bergreen |
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30 Jan 07 - 10:36 PM (#1953105) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Amergin I've been reading the Worldwar series by Harry Turtledove...he is a master at alternate history. |
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30 Jan 07 - 10:43 PM (#1953112) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Cluin There's always the Bible. A good thing to read, even if you don't hold much faith in it being gospel. |
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31 Jan 07 - 03:28 AM (#1953207) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Herge Thanks for the recommendation - didnt like Patrick O'Brien (get chased - get away - attack ship - get chased - get away - attack ship!). Like the idea of 'edge of the world' - Bible a bit too far fetched! |
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31 Jan 07 - 06:40 AM (#1953327) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: JennyO The first thing I thought of when you mentioned humour, was Terry Pratchett and the Discworld novels. I started off with the stories of the witches - Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Equal Rites, Carpe Jugulum - but they are all good - you can't go wrong with a Pratchett. Or you could explore an alternative universe with the works of Douglas Adams. All good stuff! |
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31 Jan 07 - 06:44 AM (#1953331) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Jean(eanjay) I enjoy Ruth Rendell although I am not keen when she writes as Barbara Vine. |
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31 Jan 07 - 07:15 AM (#1953348) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Crystal Jim Butchers "The Dresden Files" Supernatural detective stories which are excellant! I agree that the Discworld books are good if you like humour! |
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31 Jan 07 - 08:32 AM (#1953432) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Dave Hanson War And Peace, that should keep you occupied for a while. eric |
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31 Jan 07 - 08:46 AM (#1953447) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Georgiansilver The 'Left Behind' series took away much of my interest in the rest of society so I had to limit my reading to stay sociable. I became addicted once I had my head in the first book. |
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31 Jan 07 - 01:31 PM (#1953724) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: GUEST,Seiri Omaar Peter Tremayne's Sister Fidelma series (written by Celtic scholar Peter Berresford Ellis, Tremayne is a pseudonym). They are a series of detective novels about a 7th century AD placed fictional Irish religieuse named Fidelma, who is qualified in Brehon law as an advocate. They are excellent reads. The first one is called Absolution by Murder, but reading them out of order doesn't hurt all that much. |
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31 Jan 07 - 04:01 PM (#1953849) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Anne Lister Jasper Fforde ... anything by him, really. Dorothy Dunnett, if you want something more complex with fantastic historical detail. |
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31 Jan 07 - 04:24 PM (#1953869) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Mississippi Saxaphone "I Claudius" and "Claudius the God" by Robert Graves. |
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31 Jan 07 - 04:53 PM (#1953896) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: ranger1 Any of Peter Millman's travel narratives are good. I especially liked "An Evening With Headhunters" and "Last Places." |
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01 Feb 07 - 07:31 AM (#1954391) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Dazbo The Falco books by Lindsey Davies are detective/thriller/comedy set in Rome and are enjoyable light reading. |
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01 Feb 07 - 07:56 AM (#1954408) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: GUEST,noddy Michael Norton's "365 Ways to Change the World" |
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01 Feb 07 - 06:41 PM (#1955072) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Riginslinger I'd like to recommend one of my books. They can be found at: http://www.riginslinger.com |
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03 Feb 07 - 02:59 PM (#1956747) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: GUEST,Canadienne I was loaned this book last night by a fellow catter - a stunning read and should be "above the line" |
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03 Feb 07 - 04:13 PM (#1956793) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Bat Goddess The book I just finished and should have read a long time ago is "The Story of a Bad Boy" by Thomas Bailey Aldrich. It was written in 1869 and is autobiographical fiction about a 13 or 14 year old boy growing up in Portsmouth, NH in the 1840s. It is an absolute delight! He entitled it "Bad Boy", of course, not because the author was a scamp, but to differentiate from the books for boys of that era that held up prim little prigs as boys to be emulated. His book is about a realistic boy of the 1840s in a smallish port city disguised as "Rivermouth", NH. Now I need to spend some more time at the Aldrich house at Strawbery Banke Museum now that I know what I'm looking at. Linn |
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03 Feb 07 - 04:52 PM (#1956832) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: McGrath of Harlow Ellis Peters' detective series with Cadfael the Twelfth Century monk might hit the spot. (And her other nom de plume as Edith Pargeter for historical novels.) And I always recommend Alexander McCall Smith's Ladies First Detective books. |
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03 Feb 07 - 05:59 PM (#1956886) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Bert Just a few that spring immediately to mind. Wilt by Tom Sharpe Trapp's War by Brian Callison Hot Ice by Nora Roberts Air Bridge by Hammond Innes 73 North by Dudley Pope Golden Keel by David Higgins Any of 'The Dover' books by Joyce Porter and of course, all the Harry Potter books, which I'll have to read again before the final one comes out in July. |
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04 Feb 07 - 08:59 AM (#1957379) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: GUEST,Shimrod I've just finished a stunning novel, called 'The King's Last Song' by Geoff Ryman. It's set in Cambodia. In this book archeolgists discover the autobiography of the 12th Century Khmer king, Javayarman. Before the book can be deciphered it is stolen by an ex-Khmer Rouges cadre who also kidnaps a French archeologist and a Cambodian General. Two Cambodians, Tan Map and William, who both bear the mental scars of Cambodia's recent history, set off to recover the book. Their story is interwoven with that of Javaryarman. In my opinion this novel is a truly amazing achievement - highly recommended! |
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04 Feb 07 - 10:52 AM (#1957472) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: John on the Sunset Coast I don't much find a lot of good fiction to read. Most authors recycle the same protagonist through as many as 26 books a la series television; after 2 or 3 tomes the character is generally exhausted from a literary perspective. Often they cannot write in complex sentences, nor can they convey a feeling of time and place. Generally, I read non-fiction. My current interests are: How and why Paul invented Christianity, separating it from normative Judaism of the period; History and archaeology of the ancient Middle East, especially Assyria and Babylonia; History of the immediate post WWI construction of the world. |
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04 Feb 07 - 03:52 PM (#1957676) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: autolycus Since humour is your thing,(and given that humour is a terribly personal thing), the first two,South African-set Tom Sharpe novels did it for me (Riotous Assembly and Indecent Exposure). Also Alan Coren and Miles Kington and Michael Frayn in their short pieces. Every time I find a P.G.Wodehouse quote in a quotations Dictionary,I laugh. And the short pieces that Muir and Norden did for the BBC radio prog. My Word were brilliant, and many were published,fr example in the collection You Can't Have Your Kayak and Heat It! Ivor |
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04 Feb 07 - 05:11 PM (#1957750) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: kendall Anything by Bill Bryson or Dave Barry |
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05 Feb 07 - 11:00 AM (#1957951) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Riginslinger I agree with autolycus. I love P.G. Wodehouse. The material is funny generations later. Also, I can read anything by Robert B. Parker and be thoroughly entertained, though I've never been able to figure out exactly why. |
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05 Feb 07 - 12:09 PM (#1957983) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Elmer Fudd If you like travel books, Eric Hansen is a vivid and entertaining travel writer. "Motoring with Mohammed" is the best travel book I have ever read. "Stranger in the Forest" and "The Bird Man and the Lap Dancer" are excellent as well. "Orchid Fever" is not strictly a travel book, but is a riveting read nonetheless. Hansen is a first-class writer. Pico Iyer is another excellent travel writer, although some books are better than others. He is more cerebral and philosophical than Hansen, who is marvelously descriptive and often humorous. "Video Night in Kathmandu" and "Falling Off the Map" are both wonderful. Elmer |
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05 Feb 07 - 07:41 PM (#1958470) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: kendall Bill Bryson wrote about his hiking trip around England. It's titled, "Notes from a small island". After spending some time there, I found it quite entertaining. |
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06 Feb 07 - 09:56 AM (#1958993) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: kendall You know what they saw about opinions... |
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06 Feb 07 - 10:04 AM (#1959009) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: kendall If you are not into light humor, try "Customs and crises in Communication". Heavy and dry as a Baptist picnic. Guest, what have you read of Bryson that causes you to put him down? |
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06 Feb 07 - 10:46 AM (#1959075) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: GUEST The very book you mentioned and one about Australia. I just don't care for his humour. It seems full of the owrst sort of cliches and sterotypes. I know a lot of people enjoy his work, but I guess I just don't get . |
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06 Feb 07 - 11:06 AM (#1959106) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Metchosin While humour is not the first thing that comes to mind, oddly enough Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky is a damned good read and might cover a lot of your listed interests. |
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06 Feb 07 - 11:17 AM (#1959118) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: GUEST,Canadienne A great Xmas present last year - "Narrow Dog to Carcasonne" by Terry Darlington Travel, humour AND a narrow boat! - not for Francophobes :-) |
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06 Feb 07 - 03:46 PM (#1959445) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: gnu |
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06 Feb 07 - 03:55 PM (#1959452) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Elaine Green Though I'm only 1/3 of the way through it, I highly recommend 'Getting Stoned with Savages: A Trip Through the Islands of Fiji and Vanuatu' by J. Maarten Troost. I bought it on sale this past weekend, and it is a marvel of humor and insight. |
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06 Feb 07 - 08:02 PM (#1959774) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Cluin Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, I highly recommend. Also: Norman Maclean's Young Men and Fire, Walter Mosley's R.L.'s Dream, Anne Ross' Folklore of the Scottish Highlands, John Myers Myers Silverlock (if you can find it), Farley Mowat's The Farfarers, Leonard Shlain's Art and Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time and Light, William Horwood's The Stonor Eagles... To name just a few |
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11 Feb 07 - 10:55 AM (#1963975) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Riginslinger Barnes and Noble is reproducing classics in paperback--real cheap to buy--which are extensively footnoted for some of the more obscure references in the text. I just finshed Thomas Hardy's "Return of the Native"--a book I gave up on many years ago--and found it fascinating. |
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11 Feb 07 - 05:50 PM (#1964329) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: mick p r.m s.c flashman books if you not P.C. |
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12 Feb 07 - 08:58 AM (#1964754) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Riginslinger Flashman? |
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12 Feb 07 - 11:26 AM (#1964882) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: GUEST,rob the roadie just re-read a great little book by Bob Davidson entitled " a diary from the wooden shed". Contact him on www.bobdavidson.co.uk. |
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19 Feb 07 - 10:36 AM (#1972512) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: GUEST,noddy just finished reading three of les barkers books of poems . still have not recovered from laughing. |
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19 Feb 07 - 06:41 PM (#1973008) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Lox If the Magellan story lights your fire you might appreciate "Nathaniels nutmeg" or "Big chief elizabeth" Alternatively, "In Patagonia" by bruce chatwin or "songlines" by the same, or Wiliam dalrymples "city of djinns" or "from the holy mountain" All fascinating and challenging in terms of the information they contain, yet real roller coaster reads at the same time. |
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20 Feb 07 - 04:53 PM (#1974125) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Nigel Parsons Rigingslinger queried "Flashman" A series of sequels written by George MacDonald Fraser with the central character of Harry Flashman. The stories have a quasi-historical background, and follow Harry Flashman (coward, bully, womaniser) through his many adventures where he seems to play a central part in any historic tableau. The character may seem familiar to those who have read Thomas Hughes' "Tom Brown's Schooldays" CHEERS Nigel |
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20 Feb 07 - 08:09 PM (#1974381) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: LilyFestre I don't know if this fits your criteria of likes, BUT I finished reading a book called "Knitting Circle" by Ann Hood earlier this week. It's a wonderful story of friendship. A five star book in my opinion. Mrs. Mike is another five star book (early 1800s, wilderness kind of story). LQF |
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21 Feb 07 - 06:11 PM (#1975352) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Riginslinger Nigel - have not read either Thomas Hughes or Flashman. When were the Flashman books written? |
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10 Sep 07 - 06:56 AM (#2145297) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: GUEST Incidentally, the vicious Edmund Spenser, in his book A View of the Present State of Ireland has a lot to say about the Brehon laws, for instance: Eudox: What is that which you call the Brehon law? it is a word unto us altogether unknowne. Iren: It is a certaine rule of right, unwritten, but delivered by tradition from one to an other, in which oftentimes there appereth great shew of equity, in determining the right betwene part and party, but in many things repugning quite from gods law and mans, as for example, in the case of murther. The Brehon that is ther judg, will compound betwene the murtherer, and the frends of the party murthered, which prosecute the action, that the malefactor shall give unto them, or to the child, or wife of him that is slaine, a recompence, which they call an Iriach; by which vile law of thers, many murders are amongest them made up and smothered. And this judg being, as he is called, the Lords Brehon, adjudgeth for the most part a better share unto his Lord, that is the Lord of the soyle, or the head of that septe, and also unto him self, for his judgment, a greater portion than unto the plaintifes or parties grieved. |
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10 Sep 07 - 07:26 AM (#2145308) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: kendall My favorite is still SILVERLOCK by John Myers Myers. |
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10 Sep 07 - 09:14 AM (#2145382) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Uncle_DaveO An enthusiastic recommendation for The Autobiography of Henry VIII, by Margaret George. This is (contrary to its title) a novel. The premise is that, after his death, his fool was able to save Henry's private journals from destruction by his daughter, Queen Anne. The fool inserts into Henry's text occasional comments and sidelights from his own knowledge and point of view. It's great reading, and gave me a much better idea of Henry's times, his actions, and his personality. Of course, since it's from his point of view, Ms George resolves some historical ambiguities and uncertainties in Henry's favor. It's a big book, but at the same time all too short! Dave Oesterreich |
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10 Sep 07 - 11:42 AM (#2145505) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Uncle_DaveO Since I recommended ONE book by Margaret George, I'll go further. She also wrote these, which are excellent: Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles and Cleopatra She also wrote Helen of Troy. It's pretty good, but not nearly as good as The Autobiography of Henry VIII, Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles, and Cleopatra. The reason I say that is that those books are based on good historical bases, whereas almost nothing is actually known about Helen, (if she ever actually existed). Ms George, in Helen, builds the Greek gods in, who MUST be part of that story, although only as they appear to human senses and minds, which makes the mythological content easier to take. Dave Oesterreich |
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10 Sep 07 - 12:04 PM (#2145528) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: 3refs Billions and Billions. Carl Sagan |
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10 Sep 07 - 12:14 PM (#2145538) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: David C. Carter A Confederacy of Dunces-John Kennedy Toole. Sadly no longer with us. David |
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11 Sep 07 - 08:53 AM (#2146320) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Uncle_DaveO What David Carter said: A Confederacy of Dunces! Dave Oesterreich |
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11 Sep 07 - 01:14 PM (#2146512) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Q (Frank Staplin) Just finished a book that combines history, legend, love, murder an revenge, revolution, destruction of a society, and development of an assassin, beautifully written with insight, compassion and humor. Impossible? Not so when written in clear, poetic prose by Salman Rushdie. "Shalimar the Clown." |
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11 Sep 07 - 01:27 PM (#2146524) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: David C. Carter Dave Oesterreich-I believe somebody did a one man show concerning that book.Did you see it,or know anything about it? David |
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11 Sep 07 - 01:33 PM (#2146528) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: John Hardly Best book I've read in years -- The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch. |
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11 Sep 07 - 04:29 PM (#2146691) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: Uncle_DaveO David Carter: No, I had not been aware of a stage production of A Confederacy of Dunces. The one-man production might well be a very good thing, but I can't even remotely imagine that it could do justice to the book. (Which I've read three times now.) Dave Oesterreich |
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12 Sep 07 - 04:19 AM (#2147069) Subject: RE: BS: Good Book From: David C. Carter I go along with your comments about a one-man production. Thanks for getting back to me. David |