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Recently I've read "The Elements of Style", "The History of Love", and "Catcher in the Rye". I enjoyed reading all of them although it's difficult to say I 'enjoyed' "The Elements of Style" with it being what it is.
I have two books that I'm going to read :
I found the one on the right on sale for five dollars, so I bought it. I don't know if it's good or credible, but hey, five dollars.
I want to read "1984" by Orwell but I can't find it in the library or at the bookshops I've been to.
I was looking for depressing books previously, but I'm pass that stage for now. I would love to read a book that has the history of great composers like Mozart, Tchaikovsky, or Beethoven, basically like Wikipedia on a book I guess. Reason for this is I want to familiarise myself with terms used in classical music and learn the story behind each piece of music.
I really, really, want to read "Infinite Jest", but it's status is the same as "1984".
Also, please recommend me
- Books with a really gripping storyline, that are a real page turner.
- Uh, I don't really have the words to explain it, but maybe something like Freakonomics, or like a TEDTalk in a book format.
Thanks!
 
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I loved angels and deamons. One of my favorite books of all time. A page turner from the first sentence.
I don't read too too much, and whta I dor ead you likely would not enjoy. I doubt you want to read Baha'i books haha.
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I would highly recommend:
John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meany.
- One of the all time best books ever written, and one of my favorites. At its core, it's about belief and fate, but it's mostly just a really good book. Anyone who likes to read, would do themselves a favor by reading it in my opinion.
Elizabeth Moon - The Speed of Dark.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Speed-Dark-Elizabeth-Moon/dp/0345481399/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335431634&sr=8-1
- It's a science fiction novel about identity. The main character is a grown man, with high-functioning autism, who is working as a bioinformatics specialist along with other autistics. One of the last remaining autistics in the word, because new knowledge have made it possible to 'fix' babies in the womb before they are born. He also have 'normal' friends.
He hears about a new procedure that can 'cure' him of autism, and he struggles with the idea - mainly because he does not believe he needs to be cured at all, however, the firm where he works pressures him about doing it, and he is unsure of what the best choice would be.
I really, truly love this book.
... you mention music, have you considered:
http://www.amazon.com/Science-Music-Cambridge-Library-Collection/dp/1108005691/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335432196&sr=1-1 ?
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I'm not sure if it is what you're looking for, but I found Zone 22 by Tig Hague quite interesting.
It's a true story about winding up in jail in Russia for quite a few years, based on authors own experience.
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Does it have anything to do with Catch 22?
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On April 26 2012 19:20 Azera wrote:
Does it have anything to do with Catch 22?
I haven't read Catch 22, but reading a description of it at wikipedia, those books have nothing in common. The name Zone 22 actually refers to the place where the author was in jail at. The book is sort of a diary/documentation.
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I see, thanks for your efforts =)
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American Gods and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman are some of my favourite works of fantasy fiction. Red Dwarf is also well up there in my mind.
As far as more 'thought-provoking' works go you've got the obvious ones:
The Castle - Franz Kafka
Zen & The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig
Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche
Then there are some equally well renowned but perhaps lesser known titles:
A Severed Head - Iris Murdoch
Intimacy - Jean-Paul Sartre
Candide - Voltaire
Those are all quite deep pieces of work though, don't worry if you struggle with some of them, something tells me that if I tell you that you'll be all the more keen to try them out though.
I also read a lot of comics too, for me these are the greatest 'page turners' but that's just due to their episodic nature I think. I think the Fables series is possibly my favourite 'universe' created, its wonderful and so rich.
Sandman
Y: The Last Man
Fables
The Walking Dead
I'm currently reading The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks, its also fantastic.
Edited for clarity.
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United Arab Emirates1141 Posts
The gospel of John.
Not trolling, genuinely a gripping read.
Blessings to you,
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I'm quite sure you have already come across to the title I'm about to suggest, because it was so massively popular.
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
I don't know what was special about that book, but I really enjoyed reading it. I'm not much of a reader (haven't really read books since I started playing/watching SCBW huehuehue) but that book in particular was awesome.
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If you have not yet, read Ender's Game. Brilliant Sci-Fi, very gripping, very intellectually stimulating.
Also, Watchmen is absolutely incredible if you are alright with reading graphic novels. That book changed my life.
Any of Michael Crichton's books are usually very page turning, since he pretty much wrote cinema in book format; my personal favorite is Sphere, but Jurassic Park is a good introduction to his writing, since it is his most famous movie adaptation. If you like those, pick up Prey and The Andromeda Strain, both are great.
For something a little lighter, grab the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy :D. Seriously though, if you have never read it.... you are missing out on some of the greatest humor you will ever read.
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Thank you for all the interesting recommendations :D
@OpticalShot, Hey man, I can't connect to GMS and it's not because of my proxy or my Singaporean IP. I'm receiving some error pertaining to my firewall or some other bullshit. I looked online for all available fixes but nothing happened. =(
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On April 26 2012 23:02 Azera wrote:
Thank you for all the interesting recommendations :D
@OpticalShot, Hey man, I can't connect to GMS and it's not because of my proxy or my Singaporean IP. I'm receiving some error pertaining to my firewall or some other bullshit. I looked online for all available fixes but nothing happened. =(
Errr... I'm no tech support specialist, but if you provide more details (screenshots / exact error messages) then maybe we can help? Out of the 10-12 people in our TS channel (that all played MS at some point) I think one of us might have the answer.
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Naive, super is supposedly very good though i haven't gotten around to reading it. I read the neil strauss books, the ones on being a player and the game was actually a very good read despite being very graphic and lewd. Other books include The Dwarf by Par Lagerkvist, despite being a but hard to take, its a good book on why machiavellian politics will get you screwed over. The prince - machiavelli, The art of war - Sun Tzu and the one by Machiavelli. I personally like philosophy based books, but that is just me  .
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To Kill a Mockingbird - a classic of American literature. It's a must-read whether or not you give a damn about the subject matter.
Brave New World if you're wanting to read 1984, you might as well read that, too. Animal Farm, also, if you haven't read it.
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If you like Catcher in the Rye, try out Franny and Zooey. I actually enjoyed it much more than Catcher. After I finished reading F&Z, I gave it a second read through right away. Something I don't usually do with a lot of books.
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Thanks guys, I'll be going to the library today so I'll look for all these books =)
@OpticalShot
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/KuVJE.png)
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Got these at the library today!
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Holja.jpg)
It's also a beautiful sunny day today :D
+ Show Spoiler +
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On April 27 2012 06:30 Azera wrote:Thanks guys, I'll be going to the library today so I'll look for all these books =) @OpticalShot + Show Spoiler +
That's the standard message for everything lol. You made sure that you were connecting to the NA server with proper proxy setup? When did you create your account and was it used for other versions (for example, MapleSEA)?
I remember that I created an account for someone because they were having problems (overseas). I guess an NA-created account has some sort of automatic bypass to one of the problems he was having...
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Yeah, my HotSpot Shield said that it was "connected" (working) and I was using a working NA account provided to me by a fellow TLer that was created in 2006.
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On April 26 2012 21:50 adwodon wrote:
American Gods and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman are some of my favourite works of fantasy fiction. Red Dwarf is also well up there in my mind.
As far as more 'thought-provoking' works go you've got the obvious ones:
The Castle - Franz Kafka
Zen & The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M. Pirsig
Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Friedrich Nietzsche
Edited for clarity.
I'd stay away from Zarathustra at the beginning, it's a bit dense and esoteric. Try The Antichrist by Nietzsche if you want to wet your whistle.
If you like fantasy:
Wheel of Time
A Song of Ice and Fire
are both great reads.
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I also just finished The Catcher in the Rye, awesome book. I suggest you give "To Kill a Mockingbird" a shot, I'm reading it now and it's pretty good.
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Thanks! I heard quite a bit about Nietzsche, so I might check him out next.
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Lots of good recommendations, but I didn't see any Asimov. Read Asimov!! Start with either the foundation, robot, or empire series. Also you might want to invest in a cheap E-Reader for those books you can't find. I've downloaded many hard to find books on the pirate bay.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/zq9Fn.jpg)
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