Books

Anything. Fiction, Non-Fiction, Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Smut and Satire. What you're reading now, and why should we read it. I'm an avid reader of anything and nothing in particular. I try to read several books a month, and am always looking for more. Here's one I just finished, and one I just started. Both recommended. Please post a disclaimer before any spoilers.

Soon I Will Be Invincible


Loved it. You'll be rooting for Doctor Impossible the whole time. "Malign Hypercognition Disorder" will be your new favorite malady.

Go-Go Girls Of The Apocalypse


Just started it, less than halfway though. Love it already. Vivid, brutal, will keep your heart beating rapidly with every page. Everyone loves stories about the end of the world, right? The end all be all might not be so much fun if you're an insurance salesman enduring sadistic Ozark hillbilly cannibals, deranged psych-ward cults and rifle-toting militia men. I can't put this one down.

Recommendations? Gimmie more!

i just ordered this from amazon...

true accounts of fucked up shit. nuff said.

This is bound to be crazier than fiction.

Last edited by PaulieVinyl on Thu Nov 20, 2008 7:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Had to list these two. If you've never read Jonathan Carroll, you should. Life changing stuff. I can't begin to describe the subject matter or writing style, so just read them for yourself. These are two of my favorites.

Best Book Ever, IMHO: Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
1st Runner up: Siddhartha - Herman Hesse

Some other books I've read or reread and really loved in the past year or two...

The Contortionist's Handbook - Craig Clevenger

Kill Your Darlings - Terence Blacker

Life of Pi - Yann Martel

Just a Couple of Days - Tony Vigorito

Kafka on the Shore & The Wind up Bird Chronicles - Haruki Murakami

Notes on a Scandal - Zoe Heller

'Classics' I go to again and again: The Courage to Create - Rollo May, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey, Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk, The Great Gatsby - F Scot Fitzgerald, A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess, Other Voices, Other Rooms - Truman Capote, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S Thompson, The Talented Mr Ripley - Patricia Highsmith,

Last edited by UnderBeit on Wed Aug 27, 2008 9:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I'm gonna have to add all of these to my list. BTW, heard of goodreads.com? If not, you should check it out. I imagine it's kinda like facebook or whatever, but for books. If you sign up you can add people as friends and see what they've read and how they rate it, etc.

Currently I'm ready Salman Rushdie's newest - "The Enchantress of Florence". It's quite good so far, but then I love practically everything Rushdie's written. So far my only complaint is that it appears that he attempted to beef up the page count based on the way it was published.

The last six books I read are all by Dan Simmons. They're sci-fi. I don't read much of this genre because so much is so bad, but I picked up the first book on recommendation and loved it! The first four are part of a series. And the last two are a series of there own:
Hyperion
Fall of Hyperion
Endymion
Rise of Endymion
Illium
Olympos

I read H.Thompson's "Hell Angels" as well as Sonny Barger's autobiography. Both were alright - some great stories in them for sure! Frank Zappa's autobiography was great!

HMS - it appears Yves Lavigne has written several books on the angels:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/29030.Yves_Lavigne
I can't tell which one you're reading.

HMS - it appears Yves Lavigne has written several books on the angels:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/29030.Yves_Lavigne
I can't tell which one you're reading.

Hell's Angels: Three Can Keep A Secret If Two Are Dead. I didn't see it in that list.

Ok, just making sure there wasn't some other tag line on your book that I was missing. Weird that it's not on goodreads...

This is one of my favorites:
4,000 Days: My Life and Survival in a Bangkok Prison by - Warren Fellows

really makes you appreciate life (IMO)

I'm currently reading...

Watchmen


&

Snuff

I have "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy here, but I haven't been in the right frame of mind to read it. I know that it was on Oprah's book club list, but I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic stories.

You can't go wrong with Cormac McCarthy, I just finished Blood Meridian and it's my favorite McCarthy. The Road was excellent, if you have a young son, it will affect you.

Jonathan Carroll is also great. Glass Soup and White Apples are highly recommended.

I'm gearing up for Halloween/spooky reads which I usually start in Sept.
I asked about this time last year for suggestions and got several good tips. World War Z by Max Brooks was awesome, especially for a Fall read.

I loved World War Z. I have the revised first draft of the script if anyone wants it.

Loved 'The Road'. It's got to be the most unlikely 'Oprah' book selection ever. Sure the father/son relationship is central, but damn that book is *DARK*.

I can only think of 2 other Oprah books I really enjoyed. THe Lovely Bones, and The Corrections.

Kevlo, what do you think of Snuff? I've been debating buying it or not. Chuck P used to be an automatic purchase but his last few books haven't been that great...so I'm on the fence.

The Road was great. Simple, dark and I loved it.

I usually get my sci-fi requirements thru reading comic books
but a friend sent me SNOW CRASH by Neal Stephenson
and this book was excellent!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_Crash

I read it in 1998 and thought the author must have had
advanced information on the future of computers and virtual reality.
I was really surprised when I found out that it was published in 1992!!!
Amazing book that will hopefully be a good movie some day.
1) motorcycle racing in virtual reality called the "Metaverse"
2) a quadriplegic surgically grafted into the cab of his dump truck
3) Off road skateboards
4) Very tricky birth control devises...
5) the main character carries swords, because they never run out of ammo...

Joe Haldeman's "The Accidental Time Machine" is out in paperback. More light-hearted than a lot of his previous stuff, also works in some interesting allegory about the "left" and "right" Americas.

i started reading World War Z on my way home from Japan, what I got through was awesome, I just wish i had some time to get back into it.

There is an abridged audiobook of World War Z that is very well done. It features Alan Alda, Rob Reiner, Carl Reiner, and Jurgen Prochnow, and I think Mel Brooks is in there, too (of course).

There is an abridged audiobook of World War Z that is very well done. It features Alan Alda, Rob Reiner, Carl Reiner, and Jurgen Prochnow, and I think Mel Brooks is in there, too (of course).

My wife and I listened to that on our way to Japan, it is well done.

Roger, I would be interested in seeing that script.

Hungrily awaiting the new Hellblazer trade release.

Just finished

Arabesques: More Tales of the Arabian Nights ed. Susan Shwartz
Short fantasy stories. Consistantly top notch. Loved it. Great theme.

Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter
Gives a strong statement as to why middle eastern nations have such an issue with Isreal.

Just started

The End Of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time by Jeffrey Sachs
Throwing a lot of my old concepts out the window. History of international economics over the last 200 years, whats going doing with international trade now, and a blueprint on how to end extreme poverty by 2025. I am learning so much so fast.

Next up

Christ the Lord by Anne Rice
Fiction on the famous Jesus guys early life. I havent read Anne Rice before. I hope its not to simple.

Collapse: How Societies Choose To Fail or Succeed by Jarad Diamond
Should be interesting especially since one consistant problem with societies in overpopulation and the depletion of resources. And now we are doing the same on a global scale with no where left to go.

i started reading World War Z on my way home from Japan, what I got through was awesome, I just wish i had some time to get back into it.

I finished this just a few months ago. Absolutely one of my favorite books I've read this year. Brooks has some great insight into human nature and how people might react if the scenario were real. Great book.

I read this every few years for shits and giggles.

and

RAW is a fun read....and strangely comforting in a very weird, innate way.
+ standard toilet/bedside reading =

Well since this is a Japanese toy forum.

The Hagakure is a must read, if you haven't read it yet. I re-read it every year. it's just little snippets and blurbs on the way of the samurai, if you've ever seen the film Ghost Dog, it's the book they quote in there.

"Even if one's head were to be suddenly cut off, he should be able to do one more action with certainty. With martial valor, if one becomes like a revengeful ghost and shows great determination, though his head is cut off, he should not die. " from the Hagakure.