Read any good books?

[primefactor]

A Prayer for Owen Meany is one of my favorites. I read it about every year. The perfect perfect example of perfect perfect character-driven wonderfulness. It's not like I'm a John Irving freak or anything -- I've really liked some of his books and others have just been okay airplane-reading -- but Owen is such a marvel. I also read Angela's Ashes about every year. Despite the subject matter being so sqalorous and depressing, it is tremendously uplifting. And my Dirty Little Secret read?... When I'm depressed, I will re-read Anne's House of Dreams, my favorite from the Green Gables series. It always makes me feel better.

I so rarely read fiction anymore that is seems like when I get the jones for it, I just want to fall back into one I've already read, like hanging out with old friends.

[TehBorken]

I so rarely read fiction anymore that is seems like when I get the jones for it, I just want to fall back into one I've already read, like hanging out with old friends.

Me too. There are a few books I read over and over. "Shockwave Rider", "The Door Into Summer", "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress", the "Stainless Steel Rat" series....and quite a few others as well. It's like eating your favorite candy bar- you know it's gonna be good.

Anyone else here like the "Stainless Steel Rat" series besides me?
 

[weird al]

That's Harry Harrison, right? Jim Di Griz or something? Read 2 or three. I think Deathworld was one of Harrison's too. Also Make Room Make Room which became Soylent Green. Great stuff!

[weird al]

Mechasm,  by John Sladek, probably long out of print, was a beautiful read." Daisy, duck!"

[TehBorken]

That's Harry Harrison, right? Jim Di Griz or something? Read 2 or three. I think Deathworld was one of Harrison's too. Also Make Room Make Room which became Soylent Green. Great stuff!

Yep, all excellent books!



Mechasm,  by John Sladek, probably long out of print, was a beautiful read." Daisy, duck!"

I haven't read this, so I'll see the library has a copy in the system.

[kitten]

One of my guilty pleasures is reading anything by Anne McCaffrey.  I don't know how many times I've read "Crystal Singer" or any of the"Dragons of Pern" series.  I also enjoy  the "Darkover" series by Marion Zimmer Bradley.  The real world can get rather depressing at times, what with everybody hating everybody for any or no reason.  That's why I crave the escape into better, brighter worlds.

[primefactor]

Would it be cliche to ask people what their Top Five "Trapped on a Desert Island" books would be?

I'm asking anyway -- I love Top Five lists! So, what are your books, and why?

Mine:[/DIV]1) The American Heritage Dictionary, or any dictionary with good etymology. Every time I go to look up a word, I get lost in running across cool other words. I never get sick of it!

2) A Passion for Mathematics, by Cliff Pickover. Full of puzzles, facts, stuff to solve and ponder. Fun!

3) A one-volume set of all the Sherlock Holmes stories.

4) The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov. I love almost all the Russian writers, and even though he's a modern one and not a classic, this book has a special place in my heart.

5) Euclid's Elements, because I've always thought that if I had time, I'd read the whole thing.

[P.C.]

3) A one-volume set of all the Sherlock Holmes stories.[/DIV] [/DIV]LOL primefactor....I bet you're one of those people that goes through the 12 items or less checkout with  a weeks worth of groceries.  ROFL ROFL.

Me thinks there's some cheating going on with that list.  [img style="CURSOR: pointer" onclick=url(this.src); src="vny!://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/smilie/verschiedene/c010.gif" border=0]

[weird al]

I think it's legit to include a one volume collection of stories, since none of the stories would qualify as a book in itself.

 My list:

 The Rosy Crucfixion  ( a trilogy consisting of Sexus, Plexus and Nexus, by Henry Miller);

 Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism - Chogyam Trungpa;

The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade -  by[/DIV]   Alfred McCoy;

 The Sot-Weed Factor - John Barth;

 The Encyclopedia Brittanica ( in one volume).

 Yeah, I cheated. But I have a lot of respect for that 122-item rule.

                                                                                 

[primefactor]

P.C. wrote:
Me thinks there's some cheating going on with that list.[/DIV]
Oh, sure, I'll admit it! I was even considering listing the 20-volume set of the Oxford English Dictionary as one pick, but I thought that was going a bit too far.

Incidentally, the computer on which I am currently posting this message is what our family owns instead of the 20-vol OED. (Or half of it, anyway.) For about 18 months I was saving gold dollar coins and putting them in a sack so I could buy the OED, a dream of mine since my teens... but my sweet FC looked so hangdog when my mother bought her new computer that I decided to cash in my savings ($500 at that point, half of what was needed for the big-ass dictionary) and surprise him for Christmas.

And yes, people have told me and told me that A) I can find the OED online, and B) I can get it on CD, but that defies the whole point. The thing I love about dictionaries is flipping through them. The feel and the smell of them, the weight in my hands and the coy magic. There is no substitute!

I have started my savings again, and am up to about $30. I think I can have the money saved in three years. There's a new version coming out in 2007 anyway, so maybe I'll be glad to have waited.

[P.C.]

PF....I hope you know I was just havin a little fun with ya [img style="CURSOR: pointer" onclick=url(this.src); src="vny!://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/smilie/frech/p020.gif" border=0]

[Sportsdude]

Wow PC your a hero Member![/DIV]Congrats.

[P.C.]

Hi sportsdude.  I see you're in the smite club too.  [/DIV]We got ourselfves some snow here last night.  So purdy.

[Sportsdude]

cool. We got drunks and massive amounts of litter.

[P.C.]

lol......not so purdy.