The Book Thread

[Drake Manaweilder]

I think it's about time there was a thread where we could talk about our favorite books, or books we've read recently.

My favorite book I've read so far has to be MechWarrior, Dark Age: Ghost War by Michael A. Stackpole. Despite being about a series that is known about giant 'Mechs blowing the heck out of each other, it only has four or five parts with 'Mechs fighting. It actually taught me a few things, like what an analogy is, as well as the fact that 98% of my town thinks "that an analogy is why you sneeze during pollen season." It may come across as a bit boring at first, as it is more about pollotics and espionage than battles and explosions, but I quite like it.

Analogy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analogy

[RJ]

  Barry Trotter and books by Bill Bryson are my favs (though I was a big Dinotopia nerd for quite a while when I was younger).

[superluser]

I'm waiting for Against the Day to come down in price.  Actually, $23 doesn't sound that bad.

Anybody else think that Pynchon is a strong contender for greatest living English language author?  It looks like the best the British can do right now is JK Rowling, Jasper Fforde and Terry Pratchett.  The last two are good (just finished the Eyre Affair, which has quite a few Pynchonian elements, and currently reading Pyramids), but they're nowhere near Pynchon.

Edit: I take it back.  Rushdie is from the UK?  So is Le Carre?  Maybe the Brits do have competent authors.

[Brunhidden]

ill probably post here often, so you will most likely get sick of me soon.

one of my additions to this list- lucifers hammer by larry niven.

by far the most realistic disaster novel ive ever read, incredibly detailed and thought out in a very disturbing manner. the novel takes place in the early 80s and actually follows over two dozzen diffrent people, giving thier viewpoints and telling thier story of how each handled (or didnt handle) the end of the world. dont worry, most of them dont take up much of the book and many you are glad to say bye bye to, some of theese charicters range from army corporals, convicted sex offenders, a hippie postman, a US seanetor, and a gang leader. the end of the world actually happens about a third of the way through the book, in the form of a comet. everyone was excited about how they could study it seeing as how it would be so close, the US and the USSR even put together a joint space mission to get data. while the comet was discovered by a man named tim hamner it quickly is called the hammer when jhonny carson botches his name, and the country asks "wow, thats some big hammer isnt it?" the scientists quickly say that 'close' is only in astronomical terms, chances of it hitting are a million to one. then a tousand to one, then a hundred to one, and finally ten to one, right before communications blackout.

dont read this paragraph if you dont want any spoilers, the above is mostly told to you on the book cover  and the first two chapters so thats not a spoiler at all. the spoiler is that the commet dosent smash into earth like an 'armageddon' style meteor, its worse. chunks of the commet break off and strike in several spots in the oceans, within five minutes realeasing one quarter of the heat that the earth produces in an entire year. the seas boil, sending clouds that block the sun, megatsunamis a quarter mile tall make five passes back and forth before loosing momentum, every fault line on the planet lets go in one monstrous quake, two weeks of warm and muddy salt rain destroy all crops and wash out most of the roads, the rain continues for a month and breaks all the dams, with little sunlight getting past the clouds an ice age will soon start- the snow reflecting the suns rays long after the clouds part. but the ones who died during 'hammerfall' were the luckey ones, for those who survived realised that men would do far worse to each other then they ever imagined. too many survived, and the kind hearted quickly ran out of everything. the vicious thrived for they did not desire to care for others, and within an hour of hammerfall the homes of those who did prepare were raided by those who did not. canibalisim, an entire army resorted to eating humans to survive and later increased their numbers and supplies untill they only ate men as an initiation rite- anyone they captured was given the choice to eat or be eatten, and handed a knife to butcher thier fellow prisoners who refused. and yet in all this there is still hope, in the high farming lands of california enough people banded together with enough planning and luck that they may survive the winter, and with a whole lotta luck maybe even the next one. this is thier story mostly, for the few charicters who survive gather there, wether as refugees, leaders, or as conquerors.

in all, its a book that can literally give you chills at times while at others just captivating your mind and demanding your full attention. the looks into the human mind it gives are very realistic and give it an ammount of relateability that will have you almost weeping as much when the 'villans' die as when the 'heroes' do.

Too much sanity may be madness - and the maddest of all - to see life as it is, and not as it ought to be

[TheGreyRonin]

"Duck's-eye view of a shotgun blast."

I'm fond of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's shared worlds too, though I'd love to see a follow-up on Lucifer's Hammer. Or perhaps not; I've read The Ringworld Throne...

Hard to narrow down my favorites to one book, though I'd have to say Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers. Forget the groaner of a movie; they butchered the concept quite thoroughly.

The book itself is less a shoot and goo fest than a study of philosophy, morality, and ethics. At one point a character speaking from the future, eerily describes today's society...in a book written in 1941.

It's actually one of the books that helped shape my world view as a youth. I've also heard that it's required reading (or used to be) in the United States Officer Candidate Schools.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

TGR: Have you run across "Revolt in 2100 AD" by Heinlein?

Collection of short stories, some of the running themes include the US run by a religious nutcase dictator...

[TheGreyRonin]

Why yes, Llearch, I have as a matter of fact. I'm a Heinlein fan, and have all but two of his books sitting not five feet from me. *grins*

Which is why I have a hard time narrowing down a favorite book; my personal library is larger than both of the two nearest local libraries combined. (Show me someone else with an unbroken string of near-mint National Geographics from 1943 to 2003...)

David Drake's Hammer's Slammers series is also one of my favorites. Gritty, realistic future war stories by a man who has actually been there, and understands what he's talking about. And where he borrows from others, he tells you so.

(And for sheer "do not go near this person" effect, one can rarely top Joachim Stueben...)

[Cogidubnus]

On the fantasy note, I love most forgotten realms novels I get my hands on (they are, I suppose, like the milk duds of literature), and the Wheel of Time series, although admittedly  half of my liking that series is the bragging rights to almost 10,000 pages. On a nod to Grey, Starship Troopers is a fantastic novel, and one I wish I'd read years ago. In that same vein, I must admit to being a fan one one Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, which has some surprisingly good prose. Red Moon and Black Mountain by Joy Chant is a forgotten gem, likely to be found at a used bookstore near you. Anyone who's googled Cog's last name has probably figured out that I'm a fan of professor Tolkien - LOTR and the Silmarillion are very nice reads. On a somewhat more mundane note, The Call of the Wild and White Fang are also two of my favorite books, for some strange reason.

Are we limited to just books? Poetry is some of my favorite writings, and 'The Top 500 Poems' by William Harmon (and countless poets) is a great resource for such.

You all might think me mad, but some of my favorite books are not fiction, but philosophy and such. How Shall We Then Live (Francis Shaffer), Surprised by Joy (C.S. Lewis), and various others. Taking a trip through the Book of Five Rings is entertainingly inscrutable, if perhaps not a recommended activity. The same goes for Atlas Shrugged, by the good Mrs. Rand, which is more novel than philosophy, but still the latter.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

TGR: Him and the white rats, yes.
Mostly him.

I could strip out my ebook library, if you like, and print that onto a webpage... I've been meaning to make a webpage front end to my library for a while now....

[Supercheese]

Some of the ones I've liked that I've read recently are the Wheel of Time series (of course it appears I'm not the only one), the Sword of Truth series, and the Halo books. I thought The Fall of Reach and First Strike were better than the graphic novel, although they seem to conflict with the Halo games. They say Master Chief is the last Spartan when there are, in fact, several sitll alive and kicking in the novels.

[Brunhidden]

Recently ive read "World war Z: an oral history of the zombie war". this book was the only book ive ever read where i could honestly say "i couldnt put it down", i literally read it every free moment i had.

no, i didnt read the zombie survival guide, and i know theyre by the same guy. sadly i dont have money so i mostly have to read books i find at thrift stores or used book places (even sadder, used book stores are all far away in big cities while theres only one regular book store within an hours drive) and the only reason i have this book is my mother in law won it on a radio call in contest on a country music station. why on earth they had it as a prize on a country music station i will never know, but she gave it to me knowing i read books and was upset that i misplaced a large box containing roughly 100 pounds of book worth about 200 dollars or more.


what facinated me about this book is that the author essentially took something that would normally be ficticious and essentially ran with it- a purely mental excersize of thinking of every single possibility and reaching disturbingly realistic conclusions. in particular i was impressed at how the authors train of though followed how the zombie plauge first spread from its origin point across the world so quickly. the eerily accurate sounding predictions of the next ten years or so only adds to the heebie jeebies you get and reinforces that something like this is entirely possible, especially the part about how most of the governments of the world are more concerned with world politics rather then not having thier faces chewn.

its not a book for the easily spooked to read, and not to read when your alone often. keep in mind im over 6 foot 2 inches, weigh about 240 pounds (im not fat, my wife hates it when i lift her off the ground during hugs but loves how easily i move furniture) and have beaten the tar out of various wild animals barehanded but after reading this book i was jumping at shadows for two weeks and kept my mace in my trunk 'just in case'. the fact i work night shift and go to and from work very alone did not help.

Heya Tom, it's Bob.. from the office down the hall
Good to see you buddy, how've you been?
Things have been OK for me except that I'm a zombie now
I really wish you'd let us in
I think I speak for all of us when I say I understand
Why you folks might hesitate to submit to our demand
But here's an FYI: you're all gonna die.. screaming

All we want to do is eat your brains
We're not unreasonable, I mean, no-one's gonna eat your eyes
All we want to do is eat your brains
We're at an impasse here, maybe we should compromise:
If you open up the doors
We'll all come inside and eat your brains

I don't want to nitpick, Tom, but is this really your plan?
To spend your whole life locked inside a mall?
Maybe that's OK for now but someday you'll be out of food and guns
And then you'll have to make the call
I'm not surprised to see you haven't thought it through enough
You never had the head for all that bigger picture stuff
But Tom, that's what I do, and I plan on eating you.. slowly

All we want to do is eat your brains
We're not unreasonable, I mean, no-one's gonna eat your eyes
All we want to do is eat your brains
We're at an impasse here, maybe we should compromise:
If you open up the doors
We'll all come inside and eat your brains

I'd like to help you Tom, in any   way   I  can
I sure appreciate the way you're working with me
I'm not a monster Tom, well, technically I am
I guess I am