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**OFFICIAL** ATOT required reading thread EDIT:Keep 'em comin'!!!

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Ok, this is the Off-Topic Forum, not the Off-Topic THREAD. Please keep the posts to suggested reading or comments on the books themselves, not your own moronic need to drop a nef-load in every thread you see(Papagayo 😛 )

EDIT: Thanks for the suggestions that came in while I typed my rebuke! Hard to keep up with you folks and work at the same time!
 
Black Like Me - John Howard Griffin (short, you should be able to read it in a few hours)
May God Have Mercy - John C. Tucker (whether you are for or against the death penalty, this is a MUST read)
 
War Day - Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka
LOTR
The Hobbit

I'm sure those last two were mentioned in this thread already.


: ) Amanda
 
The Changewinds - Jack L. Chalker

May be out of print, but it's available at my local library. Don't expect deep philosophical meaning out of this, but as a plain old story it's enjoyable as hell to read.

Robert Heinlein's Future History series.

Heinlein's not very good at creating three dimensional characters, but even still I think everyone needs to become acquainted with Lazarus Long.
 
You did say 2 books/series per post, but you didn't say how many posts. 😀

Here are two not so well known, but very good IMO:

Swan Song by Robert McCammon (sp?). If you've read Stephen King's "The Stand", read this one. It is in the same vein but I think a much better story.

Armor by John Steakly (sp?) - I've read this book probably 10 times over the years, it has the best character IMO I've ever read in any sci-fi book. I don't know anyone else who has read it , I'd like to hear other's opinions.
 
The Prize by Daniel Yergin. "The epic quest for oil, money & power."

It won a Pulitzer in 1992, a must read to more fully understand the oil in dusty and the
Middle East.

Sportbike Performance Handbook by Kevin Cameron.

He takes difficult to understand concepts and presents them in such a way that one
is lead to say,"why didn't I think of that."
 
Originally posted by: hoyaguru
Armor by John Steakly (sp?) - I've read this book probably 10 times over the years, it has the best character IMO I've ever read in any sci-fi book. I don't know anyone else who has read it , I'd like to hear other's opinions.
Click to expand...
It's Steakley, but close enough.

I liked Armor myself. It's what I thought Starship Troopers should have been. Sure it suffered a few lapses (Why is the planet with planet-bound bugs important? Orbital bombardment is a GOOD thing, etc) but told a much taunter story overall. I loved all the flashbacks to Felix's life, though they seemed quite irrelevant to the other story arc. Nice how it came together at the end, though. While I haven't read many war bios, Felix's arc certainly reflected it well! Which character do you mean was the best, BTW? Felix or Jack Crow? Oh, and did you ever read his other novel, Vampire$?
 
Gust Front by John Ringo -
Great military science fiction

Issola by Steven Brust -
A great wrap-up and return to the Vlad Taltos series (book #9)
 
Originally posted by: Dr Smooth

The Plague: Albert Camus
Catch 22: Joseph Heller

Pick two...
Click to expand...

on my book list now!

Soong Dynater by Seagrave - modern chinese history (read it, if you are chinese)
Lexus and oliver tree by Thomas Fridman - about globalization (read it, if you want to know what's going on)
 
Originally posted by: ScoobMaster
The Demon Haunted World - Carl Sagan
Flim Flam - James Randi
Click to expand...

1/2 way through Demon Haunted World its good.

I'm going to suggest Elegant Universe by Brian Greene and Entering Space/The Case for Mars both by Robert Zubrin
 
Something by Hesse (steppenwolf is fairly easy to read, or maybe his short stories)
Something by Adams
Something by Salinger
Something by Vonnegut
And some hardware technical manuals
 
Originally posted by: Avatar26
Originally posted by: TheAudit
Gust Front by John Ringo -
Great military science fiction
Click to expand...
Never heard of this one before... Thanks, I'll check it out!🙂
Click to expand...

It's a series, 4 books with the 4th being the last written about that world.
I love his writing style.
Gust Front is actually the 2nd book of the series and the best, I think. He wrote the last two after September the 11th and after his father passed away and his writing got a lot darker. Well, the stories are always dark, but it lost a lot of the mirth and joy from the first two books.
The basic premise of the stories is that an alien race invades the Earth. That sounds totally stupid, I know, but the books aren't. It's told from today's point of view with today's weapons. I forgot what Ringo's military background is but his writing is spot on. The story centers around the family of one man who ends up becoming a centerpiece for the humans resistance to the invasion. The first book shows the Earth first becoming aware of other alien races and has humans going off to fight on other worlds. The second book is about the early fighting on Earth. The 3rd and 4th books depict what resistance is left on Earth.

I loved Gust Front and I highly recommend it.
Link to series
 
Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History by Denise Gess, William Lutz

I strongly, strongly reccomend this book. This fire is often forgotten because it was on the same day as the Chicago Fire. Even though the peshtigo fire killed over 2000 people. The details of eyewittness accounts made me physically ill.
 
Originally posted by: Wuffsunie
Originally posted by: hoyaguru
Armor by John Steakly (sp?) - I've read this book probably 10 times over the years, it has the best character IMO I've ever read in any sci-fi book. I don't know anyone else who has read it , I'd like to hear other's opinions.
Click to expand...
It's Steakley, but close enough.

I liked Armor myself. It's what I thought Starship Troopers should have been. Sure it suffered a few lapses (Why is the planet with planet-bound bugs important? Orbital bombardment is a GOOD thing, etc) but told a much taunter story overall. I loved all the flashbacks to Felix's life, though they seemed quite irrelevant to the other story arc. Nice how it came together at the end, though. While I haven't read many war bios, Felix's arc certainly reflected it well! Which character do you mean was the best, BTW? Felix or Jack Crow? Oh, and did you ever read his other novel, Vampire$?
Click to expand...

I meant Felix was the best character. I read Vampires, thought it was terrible, especially they way he tried to use everything from Armor (the Antwar Salloon, all the names were the same, etc).
 
Originally posted by: matt426malm
Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History by Denise Gess, William Lutz

I strongly, strongly reccomend this book. This fire is often forgotten because it was on the same day as the Chicago Fire. Even though the peshtigo fire killed over 2000 people. The details of eyewittness accounts made me physically ill.
Click to expand...

Good read from what I remember, Peshtigo is not far from where I live... Scary stuff
 
The Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton, which includes The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, and The Naked God. Outstanding, complex, involved, and long.

The War Against the Chtorr series by David Gerrold, which includes A Matter for Men, A Day for Damnation, A Rage for Revenge, and A Season for Slaughter. Very unique.. imagine an alien ecological infestation of the Earth about 40 years from now. Amazing series.
 
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