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Your Top 3 Books


Sci-fi:

Armor - John Steakley (I'm mostly a fantasy guy and have only read a few Sci-fis but this book is great, imo. I've read it about 7 times)


Fantasy:

The Black Company - Glenn Cook. This is a three part book that has enough closure that you can stop reading and be perfectly fine but there are more. It kind of starts off weird for like one or two chapters but then really takes off.

Malazan Book of the Fallen (series) - Steven Erikson. This series is kind of weird. There are things that don't seem to be explained very well but it adds an air of mystery to it. It's like there is a bunch of half-explained lore that leaves you very curious. It can be complicated at times so if you like simple then these books won't work.


I went with these as I don't think they are as well known but they are still in my tops.
 
gdgyva said:
there are so many great series....

in fantasy

Wheel of time (Robert Jordan)
The Sword of Truth (Terry Goodkind)
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I left these two off my list because almost everyone knows them. I'm also a very patient reader so I could handle the WoT series but they did get cumbersome but the overall story was so good and some of the books were amazing.

Sword of Truth was great for quick read but you could literally skip Pillars of Creation and just read the wiki writeup on it and be better for it and it's annoying because the book right before it, Faith of the Fallen, is the best out of the series.
 
Good Will Hunting
Good Will Hunting Transcript

Top three for me:

LOTR

The Essentials of Zen Buddhism Suzuki

The Collected works of C.G. Jung.
 
"King of the World," by David Remnick. The definitive Muhammad Ali book.
"Breakfast of Champions," Kurt Vonnegut
"A Tale Of Two Cities," Charles Dickens
 
Cisero said:
I'm looking for new material to read. What 3 books (or book series) do you think should be on everyones MUST READ list ?

)
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Now that there is a real question.

Good thing I am in a safe space with friends.

I mean in any given setting can you think of anything more revealing about who we are than this answer?
 
Hawkeye10 said:
Now that there is a real question.

Good thing I am in a safe space with friends.

I mean in any given setting can you think of anything more revealing about who we are than this answer?
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What I find even more revealing, is when people don't read anything.
 
Cisero said:
What I find even more revealing, is when people don't read anything.
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Or when they give you BS: "This sounds cool and/or is what I imagine you want to hear so I will give it to you".

You dont do human intell for a living do you?

Not accusing you, but when people ask such probing questions as this I have to wonder.

Or maybe somewhere along the way you figured out all the right questions to figure out which women you can bed fast?

Not accusing you.

Just wondering.

Thanks.

:thumbs:
 
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Pretty much anything by Pratchett, but my favourite is Guards! Guards!.

Dune, by Frank Herbert

Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss.
 
"Guns, Germs and Steel."

Best none-fiction book ever, that I have come across. It should be compulsor reading in school. And also given out to the whole population of places such as Iraq because once you have read it your history goes back much further that the one the present war is about.
 
I am waiting for someone to give us something really juicy, like maybe the Anarchists CookBook, or Sade, or the Bible
 
Modern Times - Paul Johnson
Lincoln's Melancholy - Joshua Wolf Shenk
Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis
Ghost's of Manilla - Mark Kram
Scandalmonger/Freedom - William Safire

I put down 6 instead of 3! :blah:
 

I work in security / internal surveillance. A little "human intel" I guess
My plan is to acquire every users book preference in order to use that information to conquer debatepolitics.com & rule with a mighty fist. *evil laugh*
 

I actually found it riveting. For me he is able to take what would be ordinary dull filler and make it come alive. Well to each his own I suppose. However I suppose from your post you would not be as enthralled as I was with the chapter about the cannon rolling around in Quatrevingt-treize
As to the French bit, I read them all in French as well, so I cant say how the translations fare.
One I didnt mention that I did read in English (the first time at least) was La Peste by Albert Camus. Not a long book like Hugos stuff tends to be so it isnt daunting to people who arent big readers.
 

I do prefer Camus. I read "L'Etranger" and quite enjoyed it. I find XX century french litterature more to my liking (Sartre, Camus, Gary, Gide) compared to XIX century litterature (Hugo, Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Stendhal).

If you read french, have you ever read La Vérité Sur L'Affaire Harry Quebert by Joël Dicker (2012) ? I found it interesting. (And he's a swiss writer )
 
Yeah I really enjoyed L'etranger as well, didnt mention it because it is kinda well disturbing is the best word I can think of.
Never heard of Dicker, will try to look it up.
Have you read Dumas? The movies they have made from his works dont do him justice
 

Nope, haven't read Dumas. Although he's supposed to be excellent. Would you recommend anything (other than the obvious Les 3 Mousquetaires)
 
Cisero said:
Nope, haven't read Dumas. Although he's supposed to be excellent. Would you recommend anything (other than the obvious Les 3 Mousquetaires)
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Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, better than the muskateers IMHO. But then I seem to like more tragic stories. Again the movies change things a fair amount so dont think you know the story because youve seen the movies
 
Top 3? Takes some thinking. Haven't read either of them recently, but these stuck with me.

Spark of Life Erich Maria Remarque

The Chips Are Down JP Satre

The butcher's theater Jonathan Kellerman
 
Fahrenheit 451, the Forever War, and All Quiet on the Western Front.

Sent from my SM-G920K using Tapatalk
 
Jredbaron96 said:
Fahrenheit 451, the Forever War, and All Quiet on the Western Front.

Sent from my SM-G920K using Tapatalk
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Just reread All Quiet on the Western Front a couple weeks ago, excellent book. Read Forever War a long long time ago, dont remember it that well but I did enjoy it.
 
Gonna mix things up by suggesting a non-fiction:

Thinking Fast & Slow - Daniel Kahneman

Gives you a real understanding of how flawed human thinking can be. It allows you to analyze and appreciate your own shortcomings and learn how to tackle them.
 
I can't do just three, but:



LOTR/The Silmarilliion/Unfinished Tales (Tolkein)

East of Eden, Cannery Row (Steinbeck)

For Whom the Bell Tolls, Islands in the Stream, A Farewell to Arms (Hemmingway)

The Beautiful and the Damned, Tender is the Night (Fitzgerald)

Ender's Game (Card). The series gets progressively worse from there, but Ender's Game is simply brilliant.

The five part Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "trilogy" (Adams)

Discworld, all 41 books (Pratchett)

Fiasco, Solaris, His Master's Voice (Lem - perfect for anyone who loves philosophy; it's thinking sci-fi, not action sci-fi).





Anyway, I failed to give you a top three, but I can give a definite top one: LOTR.

A fictional world without parallel, a compelling story, every word/sentence/paragraph fits the tone perfectly; in fact, I daresay it could be used as a better bible. It is ultimately about the truest of human aspirations: honor, duty, the necessity of right action regardless of cost, of discovering hidden strength. The ultimate display of beauty in the fall.
 
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a couple more i thought about that have to be added to the list

Animal Farm...George Orwell

Brave New World ....Huxley

Huck Finn.....Mark Twain

Moby Dick.....Melville

i read them all many many years ago, but just reordered for my kindle
 
I could probably list a hundred but the first three that come to mind are:

Catch-22
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
 
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