Summer 2012 Reading Thread

[tb1223]

If you're looking for old canonical books, here are some good one's I've read recently:

Nonfiction:
Walden
The Interpretation of Dreams
Thus Spake Zarathustra
Communist Manifesto (if you're going to read Wealth of Nations you might as well give this a look, it's short)

Fiction:
Wuthering Heights
Candide
The Trial
Siddhartha
Crime and Punishment
Moby Dick (only partway through this, but it's excellent)

[xcworldchamp]

Originally Posted by jbf

Not questioning the amount of reading; I don't think you understand how boring some of these books are.

this.


I had to read an excerpt from the Canterbury tales once, it was not fun. Not only did Chauncer write like a dick, but its boring, and long as heck. But if you want to read 200 pages of middle english a day, thats your prerogative. If you want to read on an old English book, try Ivanhoe, its a lot more enjoyable, about something actually interesting, and Scott didn't write like a dick.

Forget Smith and read the Communist Manifesto. Chics dig revolutionaries.

The Count of Monte Cristo is a good book and seems up your alley. Also the Illiad or the Odyssey if you haven't read either of those.

In addition, I'd highly recommend Game of Thrones . The audibook of it set a world record for the most characters of any book, its very complex.
Ya I know, its a long series, but i you don't like it you can always stop

For something thats more literature, and less fantasy try American Gods. HBO has bought the rights to that and is making it into a tv show or miniseries. It might seem just ok at first, but Gaiman's reveal, is absolutely spectacular.

Neverwhere by Gaiman is also pretty good, but not as good as American Gods, although the villain in it is absolutely spectacular, cringe worthy as well.


For a lighter tale, try the Name of the Wind. Actually, thats not lighter, lol, its very dark and complex. Rothfuss mastered the art of telling a frame story - its a story of the most interesting man in the world telling his life story basically. And that story just happens to involve demons, hopeless romance, and a vow for revenge that will tear the world apart.

If you liked the movie Ocean's 11, you should try the Lies of Locke Lamora. Its basically about a con artist thief in a fantasy version of Renaissance Venice. Only Locke would make Danny Ocean look like a fool.

If you're looking for something life changing, try Into the Wild. It'll leave you filling hollow inside.

Lesser Suggestions:

For history, I found Comanche Empire really good. It will change the way you think about the American Southwest and the spread of the United States across the continent.

Mithradates: the Poison King is a pretty good work as well. Supposedly scholars have come up with 20some characteristics that define an epic hero. Cyrus the Great filled them all, he's the epitome of a hero. Mithradates, not Alexander, not Augustus, not Spartacus, filled all but one and if things had gone a little differently Roman eastward expansion would have been stopped. It reads like a narrative.


edit: I know most of the books are pretty modern, but I think you'll fill more fulfilled i you take a few out of your list, and put some of these in. Your list sounds like a college senior being hazed by a literature or philosophy professor with a cruel sense of humor, or one who is so engrossed in academia that he's forgotten that there is a real world out there, where people really do things and make a difference.

[xcworldchamp]

I'm posting a list as well, feel free to make recommendations, critique, etc.


Devil in the White City - Larson
The Sex Life of Cannibals - Troost
The Alchemist - Cohello
The Hunger Games Trilogy - Just to say I've read it
I Claudius - Graves
Xenophon's Cyrus the Great
Warbreaker - Brandon Sanderson
Elantris - Brandon Sanderson
The Millenium Trilogy
Guns, Germs, Steel - Diamond
The Millenium Trilogy - Larrson
Reread of The Wise Man's Fear - Rothfuss


I expect that I'll have a life and won't get through more than a couple of these. This is really a long term, when I'm bored list.

[jbf]

Originally Posted by FIRE CHIEF

One day I'm going to write a book so I can be known as the first person to have ever written more books than he's read.

Who is this quote from, jbf?

I have no idea...

[FIRE CHIEF]

Originally Posted by jbf

I have no idea...

The great philosopher Dr. Lou.

[FIRE CHIEF]

In fact, instead of doing any summer reading, I suggest youtubing Dr. Lou clips and watching them all summer if you really want to be well versed.

[ORXCCoach]

Originally Posted by xcworldchamp

this.
If you want to read on an old English book, try Ivanhoe, its a lot more enjoyable, about something actually interesting, and Scott didn't write like a dick.

Twain has Huck and Jim come upon the wreck of a steamboat named the Walter Scott midway through Huck Finn, which pretty well sums up his and my feelings about Sir Walter Scott. Ugh.

[Fleet Fox]

Two weeks ago I made a sprawling list of everything I want to read before I graduate. Since then I've read Pride and Prejudice, Twelfth Night, 1984 and Animal Farm. Currently reading This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Some books I'm going to read this summer that I picked up at a used book sale:
Robinson Crusoe
Neuromancer
Great Expectations
Catch 22
Freedom
About a Boy
Walden
20000 Leagues Under the Sea

[PenultimateStep]

The Purpose Driven Life - Rick Warren
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't -Jim Collins
How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
Walden - Henry David Thoreau

[Leonard Verney]

As I was studying in a common room earlier yesterday, I saw We by Zamyatin just sitting there. No one else was around and I didn't see any back packs, so I assumed someone left it there by accident. I went back today and it was still there, so I picked it up and will probably read that as well