What's your favorite book?

[BGill 0]

whenever i get bored i like to read my little black book. always proves itself to be entertaining

[Shotgun 1]

One of the funniest books I've ever read is Blue Movie by Terry Southern - and very well written (IMO). Hmm, that reminds me - I need to read more Terry Southern! I could use a bit more humor in my life right now...

Another book I recently read (and really liked) is Canyon Solitude: A Woman's Solo River Journey Through the Grand Canyon by Patricia McCairen... Here is one of the editorial reviews:

Quote

Navigating the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon is usually challenging or at very least momentous. This honest, firsthand account by McCairen, a veteran rafter on a 25-day solo journey, describes a trip that was the culmination of McCairen's decision to change her life. Her keenly observant eye and finely detailed descriptions re-create the magnificence of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River in all their danger and beauty. Her trepidation at the outset of the trip and in some of its more alarming moments show the true vulnerability of a woman alone in the wilderness trying to accomplish a "man's" challenge. McCairen is a former city-dweller who fell in love with the Grand Canyon on her first group river trip, and wanted to experience it solo. As the book, and trip, progress, McCairen as writer and subject emerges as an ever more confident woman who discovers that the solitude she has simultaneously craved and feared has diminished as canyon and river sustain her. "Solitude has a sound all its own, a feeling, a special vision. With each stroke on the oars, I draw myself deeper into its realm.... Yes, I'm terribly small and vulnerable, minuscule compared to this deep, green river and the walls growing up around me." McCairen's experience reflects a complex array of emotions, but it is her fear, joy and ultimate elation that come through most vividly.

[FlyinNover 0]

Quote

Hi all,
I'm in a literary rut and looking for some new authors. Any recommendations?

I was going to write my (cue John Cusack) ALL TIME, TOP FIVE......but people said most of them already. Here are some obscure ones I liked.

The Cloud Sketcher, Richard Rayner
Scandinavian architect Esko Vanannen comes to America with dreams to build the worlds largest skyscraper. And he does. Mixes real buildings (set partly in NYC) with fictional stories. Grab a few pictures of Bryant Park if you read it.

The God Of The Machine, Isabel Paterson
An individualists defense of capitalism. It's what Business School students would read if they could handle big books. :)

Contact and Cosmos, Carl Sagan
Contact is better than the movie. Five people go on the mission, not just one. Cosmos......well, if you thought Mr. Wizard was cool, this'll be like crack rock.

Smilla's Sense Of Snow, Peter Hoeg
Winter's coming. Why not follow a murder mystery from Denmark to Scandinavia, where the lead investigator, the young victim's friend, is a scholar of ice who just might have some connection to the motive behind the murder. The quotes in this are great, too.

Les Miserables, Victor Hugo
Sit down with this one day when you have a month. The movie was good, the play was a lot better. The book is deeper, broader, and 1300 pages. If you liked the play, you owe it to yourself to read the book.
The first hundred pages about the Bishop....the essays on the Paris sewers.......the book makes the play seem like Cliffs Notes.


I'm off, I have a Maxim to read,
---Nover

[nathaniel 0]

On the sci-fi front, consider Solaris by Stanislaw Lem and anything by Philip K Dick. PKD wrote the stories that got turned into
Blade Runner - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Total Recall - We Can Remember It For You Wholesale
& Minority Report - The Minority Report

My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?