My favourite books I've read are 1. Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut 2. Irvine Walsh - Filfth 3. The New York Trilogy - Paul Auster. Somebody who has similar taste tell me some decent books that u have read, I'm running out of ideas...
Actually, I was going to start a thread on this, but you beat me to it. I too would like to know what some of you Sherdoggers think are decent literary works. I'm in for a long boring summer at work, and wouldn't mind some ideas as to some good reads.
'Blood Meridian' by Cormic McCarthy is AWESOME. Anything by Hemingway. I especially like 'For Whom the Bell Tolls' and 'Old Man and the Sea'. John Steinbeck's 'Cannery Row' is pretty cool. Not the usual depressing Steinbeck bit. 'Black Hawk Down'. For obvious reasons. 'Sagas of the Icelanders' which has some OOOOOLD school blood baths. Hell, there's a lot of stuff that I like to read, and the points are usually found in all different topics. =) I suggest taking a few hours outta your day, walking into a Barnes and Nobles, and walking around..just looking at books. Read a bit out of them to get a feel for 'em..if you don't like it, put it back and pick up another. Just peruse the store, and enjoy yourself. You're bound to find something that you like. Also keep in mind that everybody has different tastes in literature. I REALLY enjoyed reading the Song of Roland, but my buddy hated it. It's all personal preference. Oh! Don't forget about Jack Kerouac. 'On the Road' and 'Dharma Bums' are classics.
I'm a horror/thrillerfan myself. The book I'm reading now is 'The Manhattan Hunt club' by John Saul which is pretty weird. http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=0449006522
In Defense of Elitism by William Henry III. Very controversial to say the least. Definitely a book bashing political correctness and this feeling that everyone is special and everyone contributes to society. Here's an intro pulled from a website: Before his untimely death in June 1994 as this book was going to press, William A. Henry III, a registered Democrat, card-carrying member of the ACLU, and senior writer on eclectic subjects for Time, knew the power of language. He had won two Pulitzer Prizes using it with precision and purpose. He claimed that In Defense of Elitism is actually a defense of common sense: "the simple fact that some people are better than others--smarter, harder working, more learned, more productive, harder to replace." He felt America's move from an elitist to an egalitarian society, springing from a congenital, collective guilt not felt in any other country, spelled danger. He attacked the perceived threat with authoritative language so convincing that one understands why dictators often fear writers more than soldiers. Courageous to the end, Henry attempted to gore some sacred cows. Destined to offend many, he opposed political correctness, the religious right, revisionist history, the excuses of the overweight, the media's "digging in the dirt," society's catering to special-interest minorities like women, the physically and mentally disabled, blacks, and non-English-speaking Americans. His purpose was to persuade you, his reader, to agree with him. Henry zealously began the book to change the connotation of the word elitism, which he felt had become "the foremost catchall pejorative of our times." In accomplishing his mission, has he given the same derisive status to the word egalitarianism? When he finished In Defense of Elitism he said, "I am not a right-winger, and I hope I am not a nut." Your book group can be the jury. Bringing in the verdict should be an engaging challenge. "A book guaranteed to provoke spitting and fist fights..." --Vanity Fair "...a worthy pendant to Robert Hughes' The Culture of Complaint...In Defense of Elitism not only doesn't suffer fools gladly, it twists their tiny fluttering wings off. I loved it!" --The New York Observer "Bill Henry was one of the toughest, smartest, and most original men of letters in our generation. In Defense of Elitism shows him at his most provocative and controversial. Even when I disagree with his arguments, I admire the rigor of his thinking, the style with which he sets these ideas forth. A fitting memorial to one of our most original minds." --Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Above all, read GANGSTER by Lorenzo Carcaterra *GREAT BOOK. Encyclopedia of Execution by Abbott. American Scream by Cynthia True.
Notes from the underground. -Dostoyevsky The Art of War - Sun tzu its stimulating if you can get into stuff like that. Noone here gets out alive -Jim Morrisons bio, pretty cool!
Ray Manzarek also wrote a bio of the Doors, can't remember the name, but was a good read, a lot different to John Densmore's version which was almost like he was writing something for his therapist. I just finished a book called the Nemesis File, which was about the British SAS in Nthn Ireland in the early 70's and the stuff they did there. Not what I expected to read, about actual SAS patrols being used as virtual hired killers, disposing of IRA gunmen and innocents alike.
well that depends what you like for cosmic terror: 1-H.P Lovecraft 2-Algernon Blackwood 3-Leonard Cline "the dark chamber" (the 2 above anything you can read). Novels: Hans Lebert: the wolf skin Thomas bernhard Herman Hesse Japanese Contemporary authors: Haruki Murakami The wind-up bird chronicle "excellent book" Kenzaburo Oe And the best of the best read the tetralogy: THE SEA OF FERTILITY BY YUKIO MISHIMA.
I'm gonna TTT this because I want more ideas here. I'm in for a long boring summer at work, and if my work ever decides to ban Sherdoggie.net, I need to get back to reading. I'd go back to reading the Wheel of Time books, but I want something new to expand my horizons. So, let me know of some more decent books.
"How to Argue and Win Every Time" by Dr. Gerry Spence...a criminal defense attorney that NEVER lost a criminal court case
Donegal, you should read CHOKE by Chuck Paluhniak. He wrote FIGHT CLUB, and several others, that are also worth reading. Choke is one of the weirdest and most twisted tales I've ever read. I second the notion of reading HP Lovecraft. Second to only Poe in the horror genre. SHIBUMI by Trevanian. An Israeli James Bond/Ninja hybrid kills Arabs and blows womens minds with his Tantric lovemaking. Oh, he also plays GO. Messiah by Gore Vidal. A cult originates and becomes the dominant religion. The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom (?) Any essays by Camille Paglia- All about sex, culture, art, and history. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand- The triumph of self interest over compulsory altruism.
