I read contemporary stuff from time to time, but have been going through a classics phase, again. One with an incredibly contemporary subject matter, written about a time in England when a financial collapse ensued on the heels of a Ponzi scheme involving railroad stock is The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope. My wife is reading it now and enjoying it very much. The parallels to today are truly startling, but even without that it is a great book. Great characters. I am reading a Dickens novel I had never read before, Our Mutual Friend. Fantastic. Next up I have Lincoln as Military Commander.
I just read the auto-biography of John Wayne. A pretty good read. I was surprised about all the politics they talked about. He was a conservative which is rare in hollywood.
For anyone that is a fan of Stephen King and/or Cormac McCarthy check out God is a Bullet by Boston Teran...great fucking book. It's being adapted into a movie in 2010...
I didn't know we had a book thread... I have read a few good books over the past 6 months, I'm kinda picky on what I read tho. Green Mile is my favorite, if you have seen the movie, this is 99% accurate to that. The Ruins was AMAZING! I'm dreading watching the movie, from the trailers I've seen looks like they changed it around in a few spots. Heartbreak and Triumph by Shawn Michaels *WWE Wrestler* is one of the best autobiographies I've ever read. That and To Be the Man by Ric Flair is another great book The Nightstalker by Philip Carlo is about the very weird and sick crimes of Richard Ramirez, any true crime fan needs to read this book.
I just got done with The Last Lecture. It seems to me, the author was arrogant as fuck...anyone else hold the same opinion?
If we're going wrestling autobiographies, I've read a lot and Bret's is fantastic. Philip Carlo also came out with a book on Richard Kuklinski...pretty insane stuff
Just re read Animal Farm, always a good laugh. I'm reading One Second After by William Forstchen right now. About a town in NC after an EMP attack on the US. Very frightening and eye opening.
Just finished Dennis Lehane's "Shutter Island". Very good thriller/mystery. Scorsese and DiCaprio's movie version comes out this fall.
Randy Pausch was a pretty good man...I suppose he may have been arrogant. But he had 11 tumors in his liver when he made that lecture and wrote the book so...even to be arrogant and have a positive attitude is freaking impressive.
I am reading something by Stephen Clarke called Talk to Snail, it's by an Englishmen who has spent half his life living in France... it's a guide book to dealing with the French. Quite funny if you have a dry sense of humour.
I read Blood Meridian for an upper level English class when I was a junior in college. It is the hardest thing that I've ever read, but it's also one of the best. It's almost like a 300 plus page ancient poem. Read it slowly and if something doesn't make sense (a lot of stuff is very confusing), look it up on the internet. Reading the sparknotes on each chapter helped me understand it so much better.
i just finished 2 books that i would suggest "wizards first rule" TERRY GOODKIND "the power of one" Bryce Courtenay both great reads
Death At Intervals by Jose Saramago. Very interesting read although it takes a little bit to get used to the writing style. Also know as Death With Interruptions.
So glad that you said that. When I saw him do his presentation at Carnegie Hall, he seemed so dynamic. Then I started reading the book & he seemed totally self obscessed. It was such a dicotomy from Lance Armstrong's book, "It's not about the bike." When Armstrong was told that he had stage 4 cancer of the testicles & that it had spread to his brain & his lungs, his response was much more human. He said, "Oh, F*ck"
If you're interested in history, particularly natural history, try "The Long Summer" by Brian Fagan. It accurately and interestingly chronicles the rise of human civilization during the unprecedented continual warming that followed the last Ice Age. It's like a much less dry "Guns, Germs and Steel" and it's a great take on global warming as a 15,000 year old phenomena that has only recently accelerated again.
I recently read "wizards first rule" and didn't care for it. I read a ton of sci fi and felt he was just too far out there for me. Have you read any Raymond Fiest? Magician Apprentence was his first book. He is a quick fun read.
"Shutter Island" was a great book. Recently finished "The Given Day" by Dennis Lehane. Takes place around WWI. Involves Boston cops, Irish immigrants, anarchists, race relations and Babe Ruth. Terrific read. I'd also recommend "Water for Elephants" about life on a traveling circus in the 1920s.
