Any interesting books to recommend?

[nettrucker 142]

Hi

can someone point me in the direction of some good books to read.

I've just finished for the second time "Confessions of an ecomomic hitman" by John Perkins. I'm currently reading Naomi Klein "The Shock Doctrine" very interesting. Any other suggestions?:)

Thanks in advance

[mattxr 9]

"Zombie Fallout - Mark Tufo" ... you wont be disappointed check it out and have a look at the reviews... i was hooked.. all out action, great story and great humor...

[Chaostika7-17th 10]

This is a collection of four mesmerizing novellas, including the inspirations for the beloved movies The Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me and Apt Pupil.

US LINK

http://www.amazon.com/Different-Seasons-Signet-Stephen-King/dp/0451167538

UK LINK

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Different-Seasons-Stephen-King/dp/0340952601

[solidsnake2384 10]

Jarhead.

NOTHING like the movie. If you like to read about sex and the Marines then read Jarhead. Very interesting book. Very weird too.

[dysta 10]

If you like human/dragon relation in modern world with military, go for "Voices of Dragons"

http://carrievaughn.com/voices1.html

[Tonci87 163]

If you like military stuff then read Black hawk down. Very interesting and nothing like the movie!

[Darkhorse 1-6 16]

One of my personal favorites is Low Level Hell, very good book about aeroscouts in the Vietnam War.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/low-level-hell-hugh-l-mills-jr/1017384700

http://www.usaircombat.com/LowLH.htm

[batto 17]

Hi.

Utopia/Dystopia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_with_the_Newts

Sci-Fi/Cyberpunk: anything from William Gibson (early stuff), Bruce Sterling and Philip K. Dick

Those are probably best books I've read so far.

[mrcash2009 0]

For those shit scared and duped by 2012 predictions:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/095506080X/2012diregnosi-20

Its not a scare book, but a massively in depth look at all theories and cross referencing all of them against Mayan calender etc, and no it doesn't assume the world ends (like all the other crap) or tells you "this is how it is" its an analysis.

Bruce Lipton "Biology of belief"

http://www.amazon.com/Biology-Belief-Unleashing-Consciousness-Miracles/dp/1401923127/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1325936510&sr=1-1

Contrary to its cheesy New Age looking mantra title, its about what controls DNA through Cells, much more science than some guru idiot talking nonsense (which it might look from the cover).

Then again I could list a few comics, and biographies of "Celebrity" :p

[hellfire257 3]

Firestrike Seven Nine

[walker 0]

Hi all

"The Singularity is Near" Ray Kurzweil

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Singularity_Is_Near

http://www.singularity.com/

The fact that all the Movers and Shakers From Bill Gates to Marvin Minsky and Warren Buffet all recommend it should tell you something.

cc5gIj3jz44

Sci Fi:

"Consider Phlebas" by Iain M. Banks, Start of the Culture series all well worth a read:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consider_Phlebas

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Consider-Phlebas-Culture-Iain-Banks/dp/1857231384

Also "Use of Weapons" and the short story "State of the Art" by the same Author

By the same author as: Iain Banks Not Sci FI

"Espedair Street", "The Bridge", "The Wasp Factory" (This is quite Violent) and "The Crow Road"

"Time Enough for love" by Robert Heinlein

By the same author "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", "Time for the stars" and even "Starship Troopers" (Not the same as the film based on it)

"Chaos: Making a New Science" by James Gleick

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos:_Making_a_New_Science

"A Brief History of Time" By Stephen Hawking

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Brief_History_of_Time

"God Created The Integers" By the same Author (An anthology of a lot of Heavy Math but well worth it)

"The trouble with Physics" by Lee Smolin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Smolin

All these are available free as a PDF or Ebook from various classics libraries for your Phone, Tablet, E-Reader or Computer.

"History" by Herodotus

"The Republic" by Plato if for nothing else other than the Allegory of the Cave (Which predates René Descartes by more than 1500 years and the Matrix by more than 2000 years) But beware the subject is based in Dialectic reasoning with all its attendant inadequacies.

"Histories" by Tacitus

"Art of War" by Sun Tzu

"The Prince" by Niccolò Machiavelli

"The Whole Earth Catalogue" several versions of Crazy Hippy Shit Alternative culture stuff but you would be surprised what it contains, What Wikipedia, Google and the Internet looked like before personal computers and the World Wide Web Existed hence why it Spawned The Well and The EFF:

http://www.wholeearth.com/issue-electronic-edition.php?iss=1010

If you can get hard bound paper copies they make excellent reading on the bog books as it is composed of articles from a column to say 6 pages (for if you have constipation or are avoiding that little task you need to do.

And in the same Vein "Alternative London" if you can get hold of a copy.

http://www.amazon.com/Alternative-London-Nicholas-Saunders/dp/0950162825

Basically a sort of Anarchist Survivalist Guide to London from the 70s/80s with lots of ideas that probably still work anywhere.

I could go on I used to work as a Librarian.

Kind Regards walker

Edited January 7, 2012 by walker

[nettrucker 142]

Thanks for all the suggestions I definitely will buy some and read them as soon as I finish the Shock Doctrine. I've already read some of the suggested books but thanks in any case.

cheers

[wipman 1]

Hi, isn't a book but a .pdf, about politics and economy; an interesting reading IMO...

- Martin Borman (Nazi In Exile) by Paul Manning.

Goes about the deals after the WWII. Let's C ya

[dekster 1]

"Inside Delta Force"

Is it a good book or rather boring?

[PELHAM 10]

A short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0552997048

[Uglyboy 10]

A short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0552997048

Funny you named it, i read that one few months ago, really interesting read i'd recommend it.

[nettrucker 142]

A short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0552997048

hi PELHAM

thanks for the link. I definitely will check it out. Read some reviews sounds interesting and promising. :)

[MrBump 10]

Yikes walker, have you actually read Tacitus' Histories? I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't have a high level of understanding of Roman politics and culture, it's a waste of time otherwise, also Herodotus, hmmm.

Books I really like:

Goldsworthy: Caesar Life of a Colossus - awesome book if you want to know why Caesar is so respected as a general

Beevor: Stalingrad or Berlin The Downfall - the horrors of world war 2 soldier and civvie.

Kershaw: The End - why did the Nazi infrastructure go on even though they knew all was lost.

EB Sledge: With the Old Breed - of mud and maggots in the Pacific war first-hand.

Shermer: The Believing Brain - why do we believe what we believe.

Kurson: Shadow Divers - amazing story of the discovery of the sunken u-boat 'U-Who'.

[walker 0]

Hi all

In Reply to Pelham:

I am not really a serious history buff by any means, but a good place to start is "The Penguin Atlas of World History" by Hermann Kinder and Werner Hilgemann, in two volumes pre the Enlightenment and after. Masses of Maps and Time-lines and virtually no explanations, Just "Facts" that said it is like all "His Stories" from a perspective. But it serves as a good rough map to where everything sits, from which you can jump off into the real stuff and get a fuller understanding. Either volume is a great backpack or briefcase book.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Penguin_Atlas_of_World_History

In Reply to MrBump:

I have read several potted histories of Rome including the rather obvious "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" By Edward Gibbon (John Bagnell Bury edited version), which I first came across in school back in the early 70s but it took me until the 80s to wade through, one of those chapter a month jobs it got easier toward the end. Like the Herodotus, a much easier read, I have it in Paperback as well as Ebook, both are well thumbed. I have read several books about Caesar but I am tending toward dipping in to the original sources lately, though not in either the original Greek or even the Latin, only translations, so there is an element of potted even in these.

If one is reading the Classical historians One has Julius Caesar's own campaign journals for some of the Military History, though Trajan's Column gives much more in terms of the technical aspects. Livy for everything Pre Augustus but it is terrible stuff to read his sentenses even in translation are long-winded and too complex, you are better off reading edited versions. Suetoneous is good for a laugh, a bit like a Hello magazine of the Roman Emperors. There are several others who deal with aspects of Roman History but I prefer Gaius Cornelius Tacitus so far, for the overview and to get a feel for the era, but it is possible I might change my mind, if I can get my mind round Livy.

On Greece: One has to read Herodotus he did after all arguably invent the study of History and it is a sound starting point from which you can dip into much of Greek classical history, philosophy and literature, with an understanding of some of what is going on in the background, and how they thought at the time.

I am a great one for listening to Podcasts "In our Time" is a great resource for all aspects of learning not just the Classics.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/iot

BBC PodCasts.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/genre/factual

Tune In Radio is a great little App, for Android, Ipad and Online with a PC. If you browse to the Talk, then Speciality Talk and Technology sections you get access to the worlds Documentary Radio Podcasts!

http://tunein.com/

Dito the BBC Documentary series I wrote stuff up in an earlier post and got chastised for it because some cannot access it, like it is my fault?

The US has its own PBS system as do many other countries.

And watching the better TV Drama Programs such as I Claudius and the Recent Rome series are useful.

On other matters I found these books to be very good:

"Six Thinking Hats" By Dr. Edward de Bono

"Mind Maps" by Tony Buzan

And Ricardo Semler's "Maverick : The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace" Often quoted as the power behind the rise of Brazil as a world economic power.

Kind Regards walker

Edited January 7, 2012 by walker
Grammar missing Words typing slower than brain and spelling!

[Daniel 0]

A short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0552997048

Nice, ordered this. Sounds similar to 13 Things That Don't Make Sense by Michael Brooks, another good read.

[[evo] dan 79]

If you can ever find a copy in English, Achtung Panzer is a good read, so is Guderians other book, Panzer Leader, which is much easier to find in English.

[kernriver 4]

Dan Simmons - Hyperion quadrilogy (Sci-Fi)

[Daniel 0]

Any of Iain M. Banks' Culture novels. I can recommend:

Consider Phlebas

Look To Windward

Matter

Surface Detail

Sci-Fi on a grand scale with good plots, witty characters and brutal circumstances. He manages to write around a lot of the usual sci-fi cliches.

[Derbysieger 11]

I love the discworld novels by Terry Pratchett and I quite like 'The Gun Seller' by Hugh Laurie.

Edit: Oh yeah, here is an example why I love the discworld novels: "Once he'd been standing so quietly, so withdrawn, so not there that a fleeing robber, who'd evaded his persuers, had leaned against him to catch his breath. And, when Vimes put his arms around him and whispered 'Gotcha!' into his ear, the man had apparently done into his trousers what his dear mother, some forty years before, had very patiently taught him not to do."

Brilliant stuff!

Edited January 7, 2012 by Derbysieger

[oyman 0]

1984 by George Orwell was cool.