jaybone Posted August 18, 2011 Report Share Posted August 18, 2011 (edited) My Kobo is broken so it looks like I'm going to have to buy some old fashioned books to take on vacation next week.Has anyone read anything good lately? Classics, new release, biographies-I'm open to all suggestions. Edited December 9, 2011 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradm Posted August 18, 2011 Report Share Posted August 18, 2011 Carl Sagan - The Demon-Haunted World - Science As A Candle In The Dark Philip Freeman - Running The Voodoo Down - The Electric Music Of Miles Davis Aloha, Brad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubberdinghy Posted August 18, 2011 Report Share Posted August 18, 2011 A Song of Ice and Fire. First Book: Game of Thrones. This series has completely taken over my summer. Currently on the most recent volume, A Dance with Dragons, and I really don't want to finish it because who has any clue when George RR Martin will finish the series. Prior to starting this I finished Drood. I thoroughly enjoyed it. On June 9, 1865, while traveling by train to London with his secret mistress, 53-year-old Charles Dickens--at the height of his powers and popularity, the most famous and successful novelist in the world and perhaps in the history of the world--hurtled into a disaster that changed his life forever. Did Dickens begin living a dark double life after the accident? Were his nightly forays into the worst slums of London and his deepening obsession with corpses, crypts, murder, opium dens, the use of lime pits to dissolve bodies, and a hidden subterranean London mere research . . . or something more terrifying? Just as he did in The Terror, Dan Simmons draws impeccably from history to create a gloriously engaging and terrifying narrative. Based on the historical details of Charles Dickens's life and narrated by Wilkie Collins (Dickens's friend, frequent collaborator, and Salieri-style secret rival), DROOD explores the still-unsolved mysteries of the famous author's last years and may provide the key to Dickens's final, unfinished work: The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Chilling, haunting, and utterly original, DROOD is Dan Simmons at his powerful best. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esau. Posted August 18, 2011 Report Share Posted August 18, 2011 (edited) If you haven't read these yet, grab them all and read them in that order. Awesome books. Easily some of my favourite stories. They all tie in together and are based on true events, and injustices. Main subject of the stories. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ihalmiut The Ihalmiut were largely ignored until author/explorer Farley Mowat visited and lived among them in the 1940s. At the time, they were located between Lake Yathkyed and Lake Ennadai, in the area of the Padlermiut.[10]Mowat wrote several books about his experiences and the subsequent fate of the Ihalmiut people including People of the Deer and The Desperate People. Based on the oral histories of the people, he estimated that the Ihalmiut had numbered 7,000 in 1886,[12] down to 40 by 1947-48, and by 1950, only 30 remained.[10] Their destruction was due to changes in their hunting dynamics (from hunting for food to hunting for furs), introduction of flour and sugar into their diet (through fur trader contact),[8] disease (probably diphtheria),[5] the failure of their primary food source (barren-ground caribou), and sickened sled dogs (possibly rabies). People of the deer - Farley Mowat http://www.ecobooks.com/books/peopdeer.htm The Desperate People - Farley Mowat http://www.ecobooks.com/books/despeop.htm Walking on the land - Farley Mowat http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/329539.Walking_on_the_Land Edited August 18, 2011 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canadianphan Posted August 18, 2011 Report Share Posted August 18, 2011 I've enjoyed these two this summer: Rockbound by Frank Parker Day A great story of family feud and the struggle to survive set at the turn of the century on the north shore of Newfoundland. And I just finished 2030: The Real Story of What Happens to America by Albert Brooks A darkly humours dystopia novel about the near future, when we've cured cancer and the economy falls apart. Lots of good ideas on the list. Thx for the other suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ms.Huxtable Posted August 18, 2011 Report Share Posted August 18, 2011 NEXT WEEK!! Tee hee hee. I just loaded up my Kindle in anticipation. Here's one I'll be reading that you may enjoy: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevO Posted August 18, 2011 Report Share Posted August 18, 2011 I've been reading this for about 8 months now. Slow going but it's getting good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybone Posted August 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 Thanks for the suggestions!Keep them coming! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ms Zimmy Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 Amazing. Long but worth it. Canadian/cooking/so good. A fav. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybone Posted August 19, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 Nice picks Ms Z!!! i have read everything on that list minus Shantaram. I might have to pick it up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hey now Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 the drayenmark saga i'm on aeldenwood book onebig time fantasy epic, and all the trappings of that, with a good twist on the plotthe world has been dark aged into endless mercenary warsgood post republic author is local Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bONES Posted August 19, 2011 Report Share Posted August 19, 2011 I'm reading this... It was also a tv series. Good times on motorbikes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velvet Posted August 20, 2011 Report Share Posted August 20, 2011 I just read a book called Long Way Down, by, is it Nick Hornby? I believe AD might have given it to me, and I'll have to thank him for introducing me to myest new favorite author.I could not stop laughing, like eyes slammed shut laughing. The book is about four people trying to commit suicide. So very clever is this Nick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Groove Fetish Posted August 20, 2011 Report Share Posted August 20, 2011 Killing yourself to live! Just started this one- but so far so good. I need these suggestions too- so as Jaybone said- keep em coming! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hartamophone Posted August 21, 2011 Report Share Posted August 21, 2011 I just read a book called Long Way Down, by, is it Nick Hornby? I believe AD might have given it to me, and I'll have to thank him for introducing me to myest new favorite author.I could not stop laughing, like eyes slammed shut laughing. The book is about four people trying to commit suicide. So very clever is this Nick. He is definitely me favourite contemporary fiction writer. If you haven't read High Fidelity, run to your nearest (independent) bookstore and get it. Seriously, like, now. Also, a fun bonus of reading more than one of his books is that he inserts subtle little self-referential jokes. For example, I just finished reading About a Boy, in which the main character talks about how he loves shopping at Championship Vinyl, which is the fictional record store that is the setting for High Fidelity. As for other books/authors, a couple of summer highlights for me have been these two: and Fascinating and twisted non-fiction mystery/adventure stories really well told. Vaillant is expert at intertwining various elements of complicated stories and making them read like a novel. Another recent favourite, recommended if you're at all interested in contemporary Canadian identity: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamilton Posted August 22, 2011 Report Share Posted August 22, 2011 I just read a book called Long Way Down, by, is it Nick Hornby? I believe AD might have given it to me, and I'll have to thank him for introducing me to myest new favorite author.I could not stop laughing, like eyes slammed shut laughing. The book is about four people trying to commit suicide. So very clever is this Nick.That's definitely a good one. Nick Hornby is a great author. My other favourite from him (aside from High Fidelity) is called How To Be Good. Check it out!As for laughing out loud, I certainly laugh a lot when I read anything by David Sedaris. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hartamophone Posted August 22, 2011 Report Share Posted August 22, 2011 I just read a book called Long Way Down' date=' by, is it Nick Hornby? I believe AD might have given it to me, and I'll have to thank him for introducing me to myest new favorite author.I could not stop laughing, like eyes slammed shut laughing. The book is about four people trying to commit suicide. So very clever is this Nick.[/quote']That's definitely a good one. Nick Hornby is a great author. My other favourite from him (aside from High Fidelity) is called How To Be Good. Check it out!How to be Good is excellent and might be my second favourite of his. Juliet, Naked is also pretty good, and should resonate well with folks around here as it offers up commentary on the geekiness of people who frequent online message boards to talk about obscure musicians that nobody else cares about :laugh: . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canscifan Posted August 22, 2011 Report Share Posted August 22, 2011 I second rubberdinghy's recommendation of the Game of Thrones series. Only on book two so far, but it's damn good! Also, anything by Bill Bryson makes for great summer reading if you have the travelling itch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ms.Huxtable Posted August 23, 2011 Report Share Posted August 23, 2011 Two of my all time favorite vacation reads were: The Apprentice - Jacques Pepin Dirt - Motley Crue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tungsten Gruvsten Posted August 23, 2011 Report Share Posted August 23, 2011 I've been on a Christopher Moore bender - Lamb, Fluke and Fool stand out as my faves so far....funny as hell and the first books in a long time where I've checked to see how long the next chapter is, then stayed up an hour too late to finish 3 more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamilton Posted August 23, 2011 Report Share Posted August 23, 2011 I've been on a Christopher Moore bender - Lamb, Fluke and Fool stand out as my faves so far....funny as hell and the first books in a long time where I've checked to see how long the next chapter is, then stayed up an hour too late to finish 3 more...Lamb is absolutely awesome! I've only read one or two of his other books (titles elude me right now, eight beers into my evening), but none of them made me laugh as hard as Lamb did.I'm also a big proponent of John Irving, even though he seems to have a recurring theme of "young boy, older woman" running through an awful lot of his novels. The World According to Garp and A Prayer For Owen Meany are obvious places to start, but I have pretty much found all of his novels enjoyable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Velvet Posted August 23, 2011 Report Share Posted August 23, 2011 That Owen Meany book is fantastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ms Zimmy Posted August 23, 2011 Report Share Posted August 23, 2011 Yes Jay, you should read Shantaram. This is never too far, I read parts between novels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaybone Posted August 23, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 23, 2011 More great suggestions!Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hartamophone Posted October 16, 2011 Report Share Posted October 16, 2011 I just finished with this one: and highly recommend it. The author takes a months-long around-the-world trip with the rule that he has to take the sketchiest, cheapest and most difficult transportation as he goes. Great stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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