Have you read "Hogfather"? I've read four of the Discworld series by Pratchett, and Hogfather has been the best so far. And if you are a Pratchett fan, I assume you've read everything by Douglas Adams? (Never met a Pratchett fan who hasn't read at least the majority of Adams' books 🙂 )
Also I strongly recommend any satire by Stanislav Lem. Never been a great fan of his "regular" SciFi, but "The Star Diaries", and "The Cyberiad" are the two most wonderfully absurd collections of fiction that I've ever had the pleasure of reading. If you've yet to read those I envy you - you've got a real treat coming, should you accept the challenge. 😉
Lately I've been reading mainly non-fiction; there are some truly worthwile popular science books out there. Currently working my way through Daniel Dennett's "Kinds of Minds". Fascinating stuff!
-Jarno
Originally posted by koolkatA thread on books?
Anyone read any good books lately? Currently I am reading Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett. Any recommendations? 🙂
Yipee! I've been waiting for one for a few weeks. I'm so excited that we will finally get to talk of books (and only books 😉) for a while!
I've been reading Pilgrim's Progress (by the legendary John Bunyan). That's one hard read. I probably won't finish it for a while (if you've read it, you know why 😀). Let's just say that I'm taking a break from that particular book 😏.
Before Pilgrim's Progress, I was reading the serious of Left Behind >The Kids< 🙂. That was a good series. I didn't quite finish the 26+ books there are, but I got through over half of them.
Before that, I was just reading some other good classics...The Swiss Family Robinson, The Odyssey, Robinson Crusoe, Sherlock Holmes, Oliver Twist, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn- to name a few.
The Prayer of Jabez and The Secrets of the Vine are two good Christian books (I don't know if you guys are into those).
Hmmm, let's find out what everbody's favorite type of book is!
Originally posted by zach918Lots of good ones there Zach.
A thread on books?
Yipee! I've been waiting for one for a few weeks. I'm so excited that we will finally get to talk of books (and only books 😉) for a while!
I've been reading Pilgrim's Progress (by the legendary John Bunyan). That's one hard read. I probably won't finish it for a while (if you've read it, you know why 😀). Let's just say that I' ...[text shortened]... w if you guys are into those).
Hmmm, let's find out what everbody's favorite type of book is!
Best non-fictions are history books. Then biography. Best fiction... "The Only True And Enjoyable Fiction" = Science Fiction.😀
Was John Bunyan one of "Pauls" brothers?😕 Jest Kidding! If so... what color was his ox?
Originally posted by StarValleyWyThanks Mike!
Lots of good ones there Zach.
Best non-fictions are history books. Then biography. Best fiction... "The Only True And Enjoyable Fiction" = Science Fiction.😀
Was John Bunyan one of "Pauls" brothers?😕 Jest Kidding! If so... what color was his ox?
This post gave me a nice laugh 🙂.
No, John was not Paul's brother 😲 😉.
Have you heard of Pilgrim's Progress?
Throughout the last few weeks, I've been discussing it with some of my opponents and many have never heard of it!
If not, I'd be glad to talk about it a little (because it is a great book).
But if you have, I think I'll save the time in ranting on about it, assuming that you haven't!
EDIT: What good biography's have you read? Last year, I read Oral Roberts' (autobiography) 🙂. I would recommend that to everyone (Christian or not)!
Originally posted by koolkatStrange coincidence... just bought that very book from a clear-out sale at my local library. Got Witches Abroad and Hog Father for 10 pence each - in Hardback!
Anyone read any good books lately? Currently I am reading Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett. Any recommendations? 🙂
A question... having not read any Pratchett books as yet, does it matter what order you read the Discworld novels in?
Andrew
Originally posted by RhymesterWow! That's a great deal! 🙂
Strange coincidence... just bought that very book from a clear-out sale at my local library. Got Witches Abroad and Hog Father for 10 pence each - in Hardback!
A question... having not read any Pratchett books as yet, does it matter what order you read the Discworld novels in?
Andrew
I don't think that the order in which you read the books really matters that much. I started with "Mort", which I believe was the fourth in the series (someone who knows better correct me if I'm wrong). Haven't read Witches Abroad, but I've read two latter books featuring the witches; "Wyrd Sisters" and "Lords and Ladies".
-Jarno
Originally posted by zach918I did read Pilgrim's Progress a long time ago. Also "Waiting For Godot" which might have been Becketts reaction to "Progress" in another world. Kind of similar.😉 Joke.
Thanks Mike!
This post gave me a nice laugh 🙂.
No, John was not Paul's brother 😲 😉.
Have you heard of Pilgrim's Progress?
Throughout the last few weeks, I've been discussing it with some of my opponents and many have never heard o ...[text shortened]... graphy) 🙂. I would recommend that to everyone (Christian or not)!
Trying to keep up with the RHP Europe crowd... the last two non-fiction history/biographys have been:
Queen Victoria by Cecil Woodham-Smith
Edward VII by Keith Middlemas
Bought both for three dollars at a yard sale last year.🙂
The last American one was a very good biography called:
An Untold Story... The Roosevelts of Hyde Park by Elliott Roosevelt and James Brough.
My hero is Albert Einstein... I have read several Biography's. The one I have in my library is "Creator And Rebel Albert Einstein"... by Banesh Hoffman with Helen Dukas.
<edit> A good LONG read is "The Mind's I" Fantasies and Reflections on Self and Soul... by Douglas R. Hofstadter and Daniel C. Dennet
These are a collection of works by seventeen or twenty people. Excellent to just take one a month and enjoy the reflections you gain. Paid good hard cash for that one.😠
Let's see books:
I am currently in four.
Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
by Charles Petzold
A really cool book that describes how a computer is architectured. He begins with Morse code, then Braille, then the telegraph...Really cool.
The WHOLE SHEBANG : A STATE OF THE UNIVERSE S REPORT
by Timothy Ferris
Neat book on how we currently understand the universe to be.
How to Reassess Your Chess: The Complete Chess-Mastery Course
by Jeremy Silman
uhh...so don't say I didn't warn ya.
A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1) -- by George R.R. Martin
Junkfood fantasy, but not dumb and teen like a lot of the other stuff out there (read Jordan).
Oh yeah I also have a couple that I SHOULD be reading but they've been pushed off the stack as of right now.
Art of Computer Programming, Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms
by Donald E. Knuth
umm...heavy stuff here man.
and
Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2000
by Kalen Delaney
Has anyone here ever read anything by Milan Kundera? He is one of my favorites.
But my alltime favorite is a fantasy author by the name of Julie Dean Smith. Her books are all out of print now, but they put everything else written in the English language to shame. Hands down, no contest. She makes Mark Twain look like an illiterate savage. Hamlet looks like a cesspool of raw sewage next to her books. She wrote a series of four books for Del Ray in the early '90s called: Call of Madness, Mission of Magic, Sage of Sare, and The Wizard King. If you find them in a used bookstore somewhere, buy them or your head will explode. 😲
It's about time we had another book thread.
What I'm reading at the moment.
A History of Europe by H.A.L Fisher.
Nicely presented, easy enough to read, and gives a good general overview.
FootFall by Niven & Pournelle.
SciFi Novel, and a big one at that. Haven't decided whether I like this yet. It's definitely slow to get going.
The Civil War by Shelby Foote.
A three part narrative on the American Civil War. I'm knee deep in the second one now, but only reading it in bits here and there so I don't lose interest. Good though.
I also recently finished, and very much enjoyed, Colleen McCullough's 'Masters of Rome' Series. Some of the best Historical Fiction I've read.
Zach, I'm a big fan of Sherlock Holmes as well. I've read 'The penguin complete Sherlock Holmes' dozens of times.
I originally posted this in another thread, but I'll move it here.
I was just wondering if anyone had read any books by Greg Iles. If you haven't, you should try one. I recommend Dead Sleep. I'm reading his second newest one now footprints of God and I was up 'till 2:00 last night because I couldn't put it down. It's all about this government conspiracy to build a supercomputer that thinks like a human, kind of like HAL from 2001:space oddesy, except that in this computer you load actual human memory into a computer, which allows you to expand on that memory with other knowledge very quickly (like in the Matrix). Anyway, good author.
Also, he Da Vinci Code was another excellent book, a real page turner by Dan Brown.
Originally posted by dylHey dyl... I think that one is a follow-up to either "The Hammer Of God" or "Thor's Hammer"... I don't remember sf titles very well. But there was a character about an Englishman in it that was the "Post Man" who pretty much single handedly preserved civilization in the aftermath of an astroid strike by simply continuing to do his job... and carry information in the face of constant danger. Then in "Footfall"... they totally lost his character. I think Kevin Costners "Post Man" movie was an effort to cash in on the wonderful original character. Poor job on that.
FootFall by Niven & Pournelle.
SciFi Novel, and a big one at that. Haven't decided whether I like this yet. It's definitely slow to get going.