[pbleighton]

In no particular order:

The Autobiography Of Bertrand Russell
Lord Of The Rings
Dune
All The King's Men - Robert Penn Warren
Hemingway's short stories
Play It As It Lays - Joan Didion
Yeats' poetry
Eliot's poetry
Startide Rising - David Brin
Death Of A Ghost - Margery Allingham
Dark Star - Alan Furst (the best historical spy novelist ever - check him out)

Peter

[GeeGee]

pbleighton, on Aug 25 2006, 02:12 AM, said:

Death Of A Ghost - Margery Allingham

Peter

Reminded me of The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham as well.

[pbleighton]

"Reminded me of The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham as well."

A great book, and many critics consider it her best, but I prefer Death Of A Ghost, for the characters.

Peter

[GeeGee]

Haven't read it, but now I will, thanks Peter

Geoff

[zasanya]

Hope somebody will write a book about what had happened to this thread between March 13 and August 24

[mikeh]

Late to this thread:

In no particular order:

All of Stehen Jay Gould's collections of essays

The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker: Dawkins (I think his later books add almost nothing to these ones and become repetitious)

(anyone who doubts evolutionary theory should read these)

The Ascent of Man" Bronowsky

Patrick O'Brian: the entire Aubrey-Maturin series is brilliant

Neal Stephenson: The Diamond Age was his first great book, followed by Cryptonomicon and now a book I will reread with pleasure 10 years from now (if I'm still here) The Baroque Cycle

Iain Pears: An Instance of the Fingerpost

Umberto Ecco: The Name of the Rose, and Forcault's Pendulum

Greg Egan: several of his novels are very interesting

Iain Banks: both his science fiction and his mainstream novels: I find the quality of them uneven, but his Culture series of SF and The Business and Complicity were enjoyable

Keegan: several of his books: The History of Warfare, is only one, are great reading and give us insight into historical forces that shaped the modern world

Paris 1919: amongst other topics, shows us the seeds of the current Middle East situation, and is revealing about the extent to which histroical events arise from human frailities

A People's Tragedy: Orlando Figes: an Oxbridge history professor with access to the original Soviet archives writes a fascinating history of the Russian Revolution and the subsequent civil war.

The History of Europe: Norman Davies: do you think that anyone in Greece is descended from the ancient greeks? Read this and think again

Ian Rankin: the Rebus series

Donna Leon: I got hooked on her while in Italy, desperate for English language novels: read three of them on the trip back from Europe...lightweight but very entertaining with some interesting insights into Italian culture.

I could go on for a long time: unfortunately I got hooked on reading at an impressionable age and have been reading, on average, 2-3 books a week for more than 40 years.

[Oren Goren]

We may be in a Golden Age of books.

Undercover Economist
1491
Empires of the Word
------

Favorite Authors
-------------------
C. J. Cherryh!

Shirley Rousseau Murphy (Joe Grey & Dulcie)
Walter Mosley (Easy Rawlins)
Andrew Vachss
James Lee Burke
Charles Goren (lol)
Rex Stout


fun fun fun
------------
Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plums


Oren Goren

[Oren Goren]

mike777, on Mar 6 2006, 07:31 PM, said:

Huge fan of Hercule Poirot books.
Stephen Ambrose books, read Undaunted Courage, Lewis and Clark.
William Gibson Neuromancer
The Amber science fiction series by Zelazny.

Oh,yes! Amber.

And thinking of days of yore, I really liked Farmer's Riverworld.

Oren Goren

[1eyedjack]

I "second" the Patrick O'Brien series (Aubrey/Maturin saga)
Also

The series by Stephen Saylor based on the fictional character Gordianus the Finder (slightly prefer this series to Lindsay Davis "Falco" series)

The Fencing Master, by Arturo Perez-Reverte

[Gerben42]

Quote

The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker: Dawkins (I think his later books add almost nothing to these ones and become repetitious)

Great books yes!

[mike777]

Oren Goren, on Sep 12 2006, 09:21 PM, said:

mike777, on Mar 6 2006, 07:31 PM, said:

Huge fan of Hercule Poirot books.
Stephen Ambrose books, read Undaunted Courage, Lewis and Clark.
William Gibson Neuromancer
The Amber science fiction series by Zelazny.

Oh,yes! Amber.

And thinking of days of yore, I really liked Farmer's Riverworld.

Oren Goren

Agree that was a great series with Richard Burton.

[mikeh]

Just finished reading The God Delusion by Dawkins.

While it is a bit over the top in parts, and is unlikely to be even glanced at by the audience he claims to be aiming at, it is a great read if you feel the least bit defensive about being an atheist.

Unfortunately, religious faith is, by definition, unalterable by reason, so the book is not going to change many minds.

[mike777]

mikeh, on Dec 14 2006, 06:33 PM, said:

Just finished reading The God Delusion by Dawkins.

While it is a bit over the top in parts, and is unlikely to be even glanced at by the audience he claims to be aiming at, it is a great read if you feel the least bit defensive about being an atheist.

Unfortunately, religious faith is, by definition, unalterable by reason, so the book is not going to change many minds.

A bit over the top is an understatement.

He basically calls for a new great Crusade called atheism.

Dawkins has one the best minds in the world but this is really a call for a new religion.

Best book I have read in the last couple of years is called Blood and Thunder. The life and times of Kit Carson. If you live or have ever lived in West Texas, New Mexico or California a must read.

An excellent read for any nonUSA citizen into the mindset of America in the 1800's and today?

[kenrexford]

My wife's top three:

1. Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas, by Nicholas Sparks. "Have a box of tissues ready."
2. Marley and Me, by [cannot remember]. "A must read for every dog lover."
3. [Anything by Patricia Cromwell]

My top three:

1. [/I]Stranger in a Strage Land, Robert Heinlein. "Eat me."
2. Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. "Damn Buggers!"
3. The Bible[I], by various authors. "What can I say; I love sci-fi."

[helene_t]

mikeh, on Aug 28 2006, 10:33 PM, said:

The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker: Dawkins (I think his later books add almost nothing to these ones and become repetitious)

Yes and no. "The extended phenotype" adds little to the newer versions of "The selfish gene" but this is largely because the important bits of TEP were added to TSG in the newer revisions.

But "The ancestor's tale" does add a lot of new stuff (well, not really new stuff, but stuff that wasn't in TSG).

I don't think I would recomend TSG to somebody who doubts evolutionary theory. He/she will need an introduction to the subject. TSG is too advanced. It would be like recomending a state-off-the-art book about alternative models for plate techtonics and geomagnetism to someone who doubts that the Earth isn't flat after all.

[mikeh]

mike777, on Dec 14 2006, 08:26 PM, said:

mikeh, on Dec 14 2006, 06:33 PM, said:

Just finished reading The God Delusion by Dawkins.

While it is a bit over the top in parts, and is unlikely to be even glanced at by the audience he claims to be aiming at, it is a great read if you feel the least bit defensive about being an atheist.

Unfortunately, religious faith is, by definition, unalterable by reason, so the book is not going to change many minds.

A bit over the top is an understatement.

He basically calls for a new great Crusade called atheism.

Dawkins has one the best minds in the world but this is really a call for a new religion.

Best book I have read in the last couple of years is called Blood and Thunder. The life and times of Kit Carson. If you live or have ever lived in West Texas, New Mexico or California a must read.

An excellent read for any nonUSA citizen into the mindset of America in the 1800's and today?

This comment reflects a fundamental misconception about the difference between atheism and religion. It is incorrect to describe an impassioned defence of atheism as a call for a new religion.

Religion entails the surrender of our ability to think rationally, in order to seek comfort in that 'black box' solution to uncomfortable thoughts: God. Atheism calls for us to be open-minded, to face and be awestruck by the truly wonderful nature of reality including the non-intuitive, uncomfortable aspects.

The sad reality appears to be that religion is a meme that successfully inoculates the majority of infected minds against a critical examination of the doctrines of the religion in question.

[mike777]

This is not just a defense....as I said it is a call to a Crusade in every sense of that word.