Books to read before I die?

Page 3 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
M

Mojoed

Diamond Member
Jul 20, 2004
4,473
1
81
Originally posted by: Canai
The Dark Tower series by King. If you've read some of this other books, mainly the Stand, it's just one huge story, the best one I've ever read.
Click to expand...

^ What he said.
 
CallMeJoe

CallMeJoe

Diamond Member
Jul 30, 2004
6,938
5
81
If you like science fiction, read Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's The Mote in God's Eye and Lucifer's Hammer.
Orson Scott Card's Pastwatch: the Redemption of Christopher Columbus is also an interesting read.
David Brin's the Postman is far better than the film Mr. Costner based on it.

edit: Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers is a great treatise on the nature of duty and responsibilities of citizenship, far deeper than the shoot-em-up film.
 
Mo0o

Mo0o

Lifer
Jul 31, 2001
24,227
3
76
Dont bother w/ Origin of Species. It's really slow and tedious and Darwin is ridiculously repetitive.
 
F

Farang

Lifer
Jul 7, 2003
10,913
3
0
Originally posted by: ProfJohn
Sun Also Rises, Hemingway's best book. (so they say)
Click to expand...

If that is personal opinion that's fine but Hemingway's magnum opus is generally considered to be A Farewell to Arms, though some may argue For Whom the Bell Tolls. I have not read the latter completely, but it was extremely good and I could see it surpassing Farewell. Which is saying a lot.

There is another school of thought that says his short work was his best, such as The Old Man and the Sea or his anthologies. I don't think I've ever heard The Sun Also Rises described as his best, IMHO it is nothing close to the other two novels I mentioned.

edit: I only rant about this because you added "so they say" which indicates that you haven't read it
 
D

desy

Diamond Member
Jan 13, 2000
5,446
214
106
Just read Animal Farm
Since Sci Fi is on the menu
Piers Anthony Death Rides a Pale Horse
and for younger readers Desmond Bagley Flyaway
 
TallBill

TallBill

Lifer
Apr 29, 2001
46,017
62
91
Farenheight 451, The Fountainhead

I also REALLY enjoyed The Grapes of Wrath. It was intended to be god awefully slow. Makes our current economy problems look like childs play.
 
N

nageov3t

Lifer
Feb 18, 2004
42,808
83
91
if you're into comics/graphic novels, I'd say the entire Sandman series (10 books) and The Watchmen.
 
ProfJohn

ProfJohn

Lifer
Jul 28, 2006
18,161
7
0
Originally posted by: Farang
Originally posted by: ProfJohn
Sun Also Rises, Hemingway's best book. (so they say)
Click to expand...

If that is personal opinion that's fine but Hemingway's magnum opus is generally considered to be A Farewell to Arms, though some may argue For Whom the Bell Tolls. I have not read the latter completely, but it was extremely good and I could see it surpassing Farewell. Which is saying a lot.

There is another school of thought that says his short work was his best, such as The Old Man and the Sea or his anthologies. I don't think I've ever heard The Sun Also Rises described as his best, IMHO it is nothing close to the other two novels I mentioned.

edit: I only rant about this because you added "so they say" which indicates that you haven't read it
Click to expand...
I think the consensus is that The Sun Also Rises is his best.

The Modern Library association did a list of 100 best novels and "Sun" ranked above Farewell to Arms.

The fact that it was his first success also adds to the books reputation.
 
IAteYourMother

IAteYourMother

Lifer
Nov 3, 2004
10,491
22
81
I would put the Brothers Karamazov at the top of the list. It's not considered perhaps the greatest literary work of all time for nothing.
 
B

BrownTown

Diamond Member
Dec 1, 2005
5,314
1
0
Originally posted by: IAteYourMother
I would put the Brothers Karamazov at the top of the list. It's not considered perhaps the greatest literary work of all time for nothing.
Click to expand...

Thats a book I've always wanted to read, but I just can't get past the style and length of it, I mean somehow I read Atlas Shrugged, but I just can't get into anything by Dostoyevsky.

As for a previous post saying that Atlas Shurgged would change ones entire world view, I have to say that any person who can have their world view shifted signifigantly by a book is either not very intellegent, or exceedingly gullible. Atlas Shrugges makes some good points, so do 20 other books I have read, each one adds like a piece to the puzzle of my world view, none ever completely changed the puzzle, just puts a few pieces here and there. Personally I think that is how people should read books, not expecting to shatter their world view, only to refine it. And TBH Atlas Shrugged isn't even all that revolutionary imo, we live (at lesat here in the USA) in a Capitalistic society. If you want something that will really question your world views read something by Karl Marx, thats pretty much the flipside of Atlas Shrugged, and farther from out Capitalist society. I might also suggest Nietzsche for someone who like Ayn Rand has no qualms about survival of the fitest sorts of socail darwinism and was used for example by the Nazis to justify their crimes (although the case can strongly be made that Nietzsche did not intend hie message to be interpreted this way, but non the less he certainlly holds no punches in insulting the fabric of our modern society).
 
P

PrinceofWands

Lifer
May 16, 2000
13,522
0
0
Originally posted by: Woosta
Or if you can recommend a good book on Physics or Chemistry, that would be cool too. Just not something like some Einstein work that would brainfvck me. I'm open to almost anything.
Click to expand...

A Brief History of Time
The Elegant Universe
 
P

PrinceofWands

Lifer
May 16, 2000
13,522
0
0
Originally posted by: xSauronx
Originally posted by: dfdave12
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Great Gatsby
Harry Potter
Click to expand...

i just read the great gatsby

its a good book, i guess, but i didnt get anything out of it where i could recommend that everyone should read it, i just liked Fitzgerald's style of writing.

Originally posted by: Locut0s
100 Years of Solitude
Moby Dick
The Grapes of Wrath
Cloudsplitter - the ending falls apart but amazing right up till then
Click to expand...

i didnt make it 20 pages into the Grapes of Wrath when i opened it last week, what a snoozefest. Hell, I may not have made it 15.

edit: as for the bible (this, from an atheist), i wouldnt recommend reading it if youre not really interested in it. find some material that overviews a number of religions, and then delve further into things if your interest is sparked for whatever reason. the bible is also a snoozefest (albeit with a few interesting tales and highlites, i certainly wouldnt go through the whole thing to find them)
Click to expand...

It's amazing to me that you read Gatsby but didn't make it through Wrath. I thought Gatsby is one of the most worthless reads of my life. I can't possibly explain how much I HATE that book. I really enjoyed Grapes of Wrath though.
 
Bateluer

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
27,730
8
0
Nix the Steinback, just get the cliff notes. His writing style is like trying to watch paint dry while loaded on extra drowsy pain killers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom