| TBShot
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| 916586. Wed Jun 13, 2012 3:26 pm |
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My one - The Second Big Bang, shameless plug, I know ;)
otherwise...
Valperga - Mary Shelley
The Windswept Dawn - William Heinesen
The Potato Factory - Bryce Courtney |
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| Jenny
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| 916628. Wed Jun 13, 2012 8:12 pm |
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Thank you for not providing a commercial link, TBShot :-)
Interested parties can find it on Amazon. |
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| Celebaelin
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| 916661. Thu Jun 14, 2012 3:09 am |
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| djgordy wrote: | | I read "Lord of the Flies". I couldn't understand why Gandalf didn't just hop on an eagle and drop the fly into Mount Doom and save us all that faffing about. |
Because for the fourth age to belong to mortals, as it must with the passing of the rings of power, mortals must control their own destiny. That's why Ralph and Piggy have to sneak past The Beast to get their flies undone.
Or something like that. |
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| djgordy
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| 916664. Thu Jun 14, 2012 3:23 am |
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| I feel I must point out that the Buddha achieved enlightenment not by reading books but by sitting under a banyan tree. |
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| sally carr
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| 916700. Thu Jun 14, 2012 6:00 am |
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| I bet he was bored and wished he had a book. |
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| mckeonj
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| 916729. Thu Jun 14, 2012 9:11 am |
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Just had a thought: would anyone care to suggest a booklist for some famous person? Not more than ten books, I suggest, and the person can be real or fictional.
I'll open with Jesus of Nazareth;
1 The Talmud
Next, Benjamin Disraeli (who said, "If I want a good book, I write it")
10 books by Benjamin Disraeli |
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| 'yorz
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| 916731. Thu Jun 14, 2012 9:20 am |
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| Good idea, but you better start a new thread for that, mckeonj. |
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| Starfish13
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| 917111. Fri Jun 15, 2012 1:50 pm |
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Samantha Brick
The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf
The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer
Being Jordan by Katie Price |
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| Posital
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| 917247. Sat Jun 16, 2012 2:45 am |
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| sally carr wrote: | | I bet he was bored and wished he had a book. |
+1 |
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| Inquiring Mind
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| 917793. Mon Jun 18, 2012 2:40 pm |
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*Update*
Three books arrived from Amazon today: The Art of War, 1984 and Animal Farm. The first thing I noticed was how thin Animal Farm and The Art of War were. I should get through them pretty quickly - although I'm sure I'll be reading them more than once.
I think I'll order a couple of books mentioned in this thread as well - interesting books from the little bit of research I've done.
Bertrand Russell interests me as well, although he'll have to wait for a while. |
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| Neotenic
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| 917843. Mon Jun 18, 2012 7:32 pm |
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| Quote: | | The first thing I noticed was how thin Animal Farm and The Art of War were. |
| Nietzsche wrote: | | It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book. |
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| Posital
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| 917852. Tue Jun 19, 2012 1:41 am |
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| Neotenic wrote: | | Quote: | | The first thing I noticed was how thin Animal Farm and The Art of War were. |
| Nietzsche wrote: | | It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book. |
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Yes, I noticed that about animal farm too... I prefer "The Leadership Skills of Attila the Hun" over "The Art of War".
Not sure why neecher says these things - he's never relevant... :-P |
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| BobTheScientist
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| 918497. Thu Jun 21, 2012 10:43 am |
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200,000 new books published each year in UK (and 20,000 in English in India), so you can't hope to read them all. None on this list (which I generated when goaded by similar lists from two of my children) was published this year, indeed possibly none this century, and I pop them down here in case they open a door for someone else. I first heard about Bill Bryson as a recommendation on the newsgroup rec.arts.books (20 year ago, lad, 'twere before the WWW) and have had 20 years being grateful.
Narziss und Goldmund by Hermann Hesse. A love story between mentor and a pupil who outshines his master in another field. A life – freedom – that one talent which is death to hide.
The Heather Blazing by Colm Toibín. Life of a judge the same age as a nation. Work - life – family.
The Tangled Wing: biological constraints on the human spirit by Mel Konner. Title says it all. Love – Rage – Hate.
Prairierth by William Least Heat Moon. Everything you didn’t know you needed to know about a single county in Kansas. Detail – detail – detail.
The Hot Gates by William Golding. Read this then go on pilgrimage to Thermopylae. Leonidas – laurel – geology.
Periodic Table by Primo Levi. Gold, Lead, Cerium – each element serving as a hook to hang a tale. Frightful – courage – luck.
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee. Young Laurie graduates from cider to red wine. Hot – dry – sensuous.
The Greeks by HDF Kitto. If you read this, you won’t have to read ZAMM. All the philosophy about how to think and feel without the distressing descent into madness and without all the motorcycle maintenance. Arête – anabasis – trireme.
The Reason Why by Cecil Woodham-Smith. You can’t help but feel the heart beat faster as the thin red line stands up and faces off a hoard of Russians to allow an orderly retreat by their comrades. Alma – Raglan – hussars.
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer by Francis Yeats-Brown. One man’s search for truth in my grandfather’s generation. Soldier – contemplation – quest.
Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman. Deconstructs the conceit that television is a suitable vehicle for sensible discourse. Lincoln – soundbyte – Bilko.
The Lost Continent by Bill Bryson. Earliest and funniest of Bryson’s books. Woot – hoot – ooops I wet ‘em.
The Sleepwalkers by Arthur Koestler. Grandiose, wonderful, lives of Kopernicus, Tycho Brahe and Kepler. Platonic solids – ellipse – quadrant. |
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| Jenny
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| 918516. Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:02 pm |
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| Some great recommendations there Bob - I also loved Narziss und Goldmund, and the other Hesse books I read - especially The Glass Bead Game. I haven't read Golding's The Hot Gates, but I have enjoyed everything else I read by him so will give that a try. Levi's Periodic Table is also an amazing book. I loved all the Laurie Lee books, and As I Walked Out is fabulous, especially for people who might have read Cider With Rosie at school. I also remember reading Koestler's The Sleepwalkers many years ago, but tbh have forgotten most of it! Bill Bryson is fabulous - I've enjoyed everything of his - but doesn't always fact check, something that has occasionally tripped me up when I've posted something on this site from his work only to have an elf contradict me based on research. |
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| Starfish13
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| 918521. Thu Jun 21, 2012 12:31 pm |
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I picked up The Hot Gates in Oxfam books the other day, looking forward to reading that.
But I have to disagree with Bill Bryson as a great writer, especially of travel books. There are better, and funnier, writers that deserve to be read instead. Eric Newby; Jan Morris; John Gimlette; Patrick Leigh-Fermor; Tony Hawks (the fridge-guy not the skateboarder); Simon Reeve; Robert Macfarlane; Ryszard Kapuściński; Jack London; Kira Salak and so on. |
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