Book recommendation thread

[FieldingMellish]

Any good books you’re reading now? Recently read? Anything worth recommending?

Jarhead by Anthony Swofford is excellent. I don’t normally read stuff like this but I saw it cheap and it had some great quotes recommending it so thought I’d give it a shot. It details Swofford’s experiences as a US Marine Corps scout/sniper during the first Gulf War. Some brutally honest stuff in there about the mentality of the army, about his fellow soldiers, his own fears and despair, about the training, the conditions troops dealt with in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, about the experience of battle itself. Very, very well written and fascinating account. I’d highly recommend this one.

Hell Bent for Leather by Seb Hunter is nowhere near as good but parts of it are definitely laugh out loud funny and there’s some surprisingly touching material too. Its about his experiences from about the age of 13 to about 20. His discovery of the joys of Heavy Metal and his progression through to being in a series of Glam Metal bands on the London scene around 1989-1991. The book also has some great material about the Metal scene, detailing the preposterousness of the whole thing. A fun, easy read for anybody who’s ever been into that kind of music. Worth reading.

Right now I’m about a fifth of the way through Heavenly Serbia: From Myth to Genocide by Branimir Anzulovic and its looking very promising. So far he’s detailed the origins of the Serb/Serbian mythology of their moral superiority and the subjugation and plotting they’ve suffered from outsiders, dating from the 14th century. Its material I’m very familiar with and have disagreed with very little so far. He does a good job of debunking the Kosovo Polje 1389 myth and goes into some detail on exactly why the medieaval Serb kingdon collapsed, the role various Serb rulers played in collaborating with and/or doing things that unwittingly helped the Ottoman Empire. Flicking through it, later sections of the book bring things more up to date and explain the role these myths played in the slaughter of the 1990s.

[MZN]

Ok I'm not much of a reader (all those law books eat all my time) but no one has replied yet, so I will. :)

I red two Grisham's (pelican brief, time to kill) and I did like those two but somehow I never read anymore of him.

Being forced to read Dutch literature on high school (or whatever to call it) made me to start liking Leon de Winter. I don't know wether any of his books are translated but I do know they made a movie of one of his books: originally the title was (literally translated) Hollywood's heaven but the movie is called the Hollywood sign (with Tom Berenger, Rod Steiger and Burt Reynolds) but as commonly stated "the book was better Imo".

[( o Y o )]

"Jarhead" better be good as I have just placed an order for it....despite it not being my thing either, but kinda along those lines the book, "My Jihad" was an interesting read too.......I just don`t recommend reading it on a plane trip.

[Eric Persson]

Right now, I'm reading H.P Lovecraft's "Cthulu II" and Stephen King's "The Shining".
The first book is a gathering of novells by all-time horrormaster Lovecraft. It's a good read for anyone interested in horror and it's origin since Lovecraft was ahead of his time. Continuing in the same fashion, "The Shining" by Stephen King is so far (half-way done with the book) a real thriller, and the movie by Kubrick makes the book good justice. A more indept look at Jack Torrance slow demise into madness and his families horror of having to watch the man they love the most slowly turning insane, trapped in the Overlook hotell. A must-read for every fan of the horror-genre.

[FieldingMellish]

"The Shining" is great. Read it a few years ago. A couple of notes about the film version in case you're interested:

Stephen King absolutely hated the idea of Jack Nicholson playing Jack Torrance since he felt everyone would be able to tell straight away that Nicholson was nuts (since thats the way he always came across in films) so you wouldn't get the slow descent into madness you mentioned. Even after the film came out he still hated it and only publicly changed his stance years later. Even though its easily the best film of a King horror novel.

The filmakers also changed the number of Room 217 (from the book) to 237 since the hotel they werefilming at actually had a room 217 and the owners were worrried nobody would dare stay in the room after they saw the film.

[Eric Persson]

"The Shining" is great. Read it a few years ago. A couple of notes about the film version in case you're interested:

Stephen King absolutely hated the idea of Jack Nicholson playing Jack Torrance since he felt everyone would be able to tell straight away that Nicholson was nuts (since thats the way he always came across in films) so you wouldn't get the slow descent into madness you mentioned. Even after the film came out he still hated it and only publicly changed his stance years later. Even though its easily the best film of a King horror novel.

The filmakers also changed the number of Room 217 (from the book) to 237 since the hotel they werefilming at actually had a room 217 and the owners were worrried nobody would dare stay in the room after they saw the film.

And he despised the fact that the changed the rouqe-club to an axe. For some reason...

I have not seen Kings version of it and I intend to keep it that way.

[FieldingMellish]

Finished Heavenly Serbia: From Myth to Genocide and overall its excellent. There's a great section exploring the role played by Serb/Serbian elites like novelists and politicians in formenting hatred in the 1970s and 1980s. Very eye opening stuff.

There were a few things I violently disagreed with - like his lazy and illogical dismissal of Robert Kaplan's 'Balkan Ghosts' but I'd definitely recommend it to anyone interested in how myths/propaganda and history can combine to drive people to hideous atrocities.

[Dado]

I realise that this book might not be easy to acquire overseas but Its a great find if you can track it down.

Billy Graham - Your ship came in the day the doctor smacked your bum

Its basically the life story and a motivational memoir of Billy Graham who was a New Zealand boxing champion. Billy overcame dyslexia and a harsh childhood to become a boxing sucess and one of the wordls hottest and most sought after motivational speakers. The book shares his amazing life stories, some of them extremely funny and others very serious, and how his willigness to try everything and live life has transformed him from becoming something bad into a real gentleman and a very special human being.

I could go into a lot of detail about it but all I have to say is that if you can find the book then read it.

http://www.billygraham.co.nz/images/billybook.jpg

[FieldingMellish]

LOL, that is such a great title!

[Fozzy]

High Society by Ben Elton - just something im currently reading right now for one of my studies, it's a fictional tale about the proposing controlled legalisation of drugs in the UK, looking at it from the roles of 5 or 6 different characters. quite interesting stuff, i highly recommend it, theres alot of humour in it, but still a very gritty truthful text.

just give it a whirl, im sure u can pick it up cheap at ur local bookstores ;)

~Foz

[krikit]

I haven't read anything other then course littature since forever.

But Frantz Fanon - The Wretched of the Earth (Les damnés de la terre) is an interesting read, regardless if you look at it trough a politcal, sociological or just historic perspective.

[freefightdave]

For those who speak Swedish: Stora Retorikboken by Göran Hägglund. As the name says, it`s not "skönlitteratur"(don`t know the English term), but it`s like a manual on the art of speech, written in humorous fashion. It has many great examples on the tricks of old and new proffessionals in the art of speech (Clinton,Cicero and so on).

[zymogen]

I read recently "Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran" by Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt. It's a wonderfull book about friendship beyond the borders of religion and age. They made a movie of it, too (but I haven't seen it).

[krikit]

If you want read swedish litterature my favourite is Per Lagerkvist (got nobel litterature price some year back in the days).

The Dwarf (Dvärgen) & Guest of Reality (Gäst hos Verkligheten) are both great.

[( o Y o )]

I just bought "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson and am really looking forward to it as he had me on the floor with "Downunder"

[FieldingMellish]

High Society by Ben Elton - just something im currently reading right now for one of my studies, it's a fictional tale about the proposing controlled legalisation of drugs in the UK, looking at it from the roles of 5 or 6 different characters. quite interesting stuff, i highly recommend it, theres alot of humour in it, but still a very gritty truthful text.

just give it a whirl, im sure u can pick it up cheap at ur local bookstores ;)

~Foz

Ben Elton is pretty good. A bit annoying when he uses his books as thinly disguised rants about his political beliefs though. Occasionally you'll read a few pages in a row that could almost have been lifted from his old stand-up comedy routines. One of his earlier books Stark is lots of fun though.

[Rattlesnake840]

Halo: The Fall of Reach. I know its a book based off of a game and was never on a best seller list or anything but its a really good sci fi book :)

[Angelco]

I'm reading Cosa Nostra at the moment. It's a book about the history of the Italian Maffia. Really great book.

[Fozzy]

Ben Elton is pretty good. A bit annoying when he uses his books as thinly disguised rants about his political beliefs though. Occasionally you'll read a few pages in a row that could almost have been lifted from his old stand-up comedy routines. One of his earlier books Stark is lots of fun though.

indeed ^^; one of my friends from school has recommended Stark to me, she said its really good. Can't wait to read it.

[smacktime]

I finished reading Anthony Keidis for Chill peppers fame and it was a full on book. I read it in a week!

Any Les Norton novels ( by R.G. Barrett??) are always a good read. Les is an Aussie fella who gets himself into all sorts of adventures!

[( o Y o )]

What was Anothony's book like? I was thinking to buy it...

[Amron]

first of all, if you like a summary of a book i recommend, try amazon.com, they usually have some good readups of people who actually read the book, so you get to see different opinions about it...

Recommendations:

'Dune' by Frank Herbert (Science Fiction, phenomenal)

'Devil's Guard' by George Elford(Oral History of a German Soldier serving in the french Foreign Legion in the Indochina War, for people interested in jungletactics and warfare against terrorists/guerillas, this book is a must read)

'Book of five Rings' by Myamoto Musashi (think you train hard/focused enough? Read this and you will see what hard training ment to a Samurai in ancient Japan)

'The Art of War' by Sun Tzu (just interesting what those guys allready knew of warfare quite some time ago)

Any Book of Haruki Murakami (Lets call it Reality-Fiction)

All of Terry Pratchetts Novels of the Discworld are hilarious/funny as hell to read (Fantasy, needs some time to get into it, but is awesome to read)

The Dark Tower Series of Stephen King (Seven Books, Fantasy)

Bill Bryson rules with his Travel-Books

Kafka - simply one of the Best

[FieldingMellish]

Just finished reading George MacDonald Fraser's "Flashman in the Great Game" - all about the adventures of the cowardly accidental hero during the Indian Mutiny of 1857. My first Flashman novel - loads of fun, and pretty historically accurate the way he weaves in thoise real characters and makers them fit the storyline. Utterly racist (though it is written from the perspective of a 19th century Englishman) and a proper good ROMP. Going to buy my next 'Flashy' book tomorrow

[( o Y o )]

Jarhead by Anthony Swofford is excellent. I don’t normally read stuff like this but I saw it cheap and it had some great quotes recommending it so thought I’d give it a shot. It details Swofford’s experiences as a US Marine Corps scout/sniper during the first Gulf War. Some brutally honest stuff in there about the mentality of the army, about his fellow soldiers, his own fears and despair, about the training, the conditions troops dealt with in Saudi Arabia and Iraq, about the experience of battle itself. Very, very well written and fascinating account. I’d highly recommend this one.

I finally got around to reading this one......I must admit it did little for me. I was not bad, and he got the bleakness of the army across quite well.....it just didn`t really touch any nerves with me. I think if you liked it, you'd love My Jihad.

[FieldingMellish]

My jihad, who wrote that?

I liked Jarhead because I think he conveyed the bleak/vicious/stupid/terrifying/incompotent angle of warfare across very well. Thought he was a good writer too, particularly whern compared to ther kind of drivel you normally expect from soldier's memoirs.

[( o Y o )]

I agree with that....it did show the other side that CNN tries its hardest to keep off the air....it just didn`t really grab me was all.

My Jihad was written by Aukai Collins. You can give the review etc a read here if you are interested. I'd have never bought it had it not been recommended to me, but it really was quite compelling. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0743470591/qid=1122175606/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-6835258-4679052?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

[FieldingMellish]

Think I'm done with war stuff for a while anyways....

Been reading 'The Inimitable Jeeves' by PG Wodehouse (1923) in last few days and its been cracking mke up like mad. Fantastic stuff.

[smacktime]

What was Anothony's book like? I was thinking to buy it...

Sorry boobs, haven't seen this thread for a long time...
Yeah, It was a good book, very hard to put down. Very thivk and I got thru it in a week!
Gave some insights into their songs etc so if you are a fan of the RHCP's then i would say.. Buy it!

[ArtOfWar]

Everyone out there should read the book titled 'Collapse'. It is not fiction, actually based on anthropological studies of societies that have collapsed (literally) from scarcity of resources, natural devastations, and of course human interference. How the human society dengerates from order to chaos to the extreme.

It is slow at first, but remember; it COULD / WILL happen to many of us. Actually no time is better (or worse) for our planet. Scary really...but the truth.

[Amron]

ArtOfWar,

funnily i just finished reading Dune by Frank Herbert,

its Science Fiction, but puts up a quite interesting view on societies trying to survive over 1000 of years and how they manage to do it - or not.

A masterpiece

BTW i mean all 6books, not only the first one...

[Toffa]

'Devil's Guard' by George Elford(Oral History of a German Soldier serving in the french Foreign Legion in the Indochina War, for people interested in jungletactics and warfare against terrorists/guerillas, this book is a must read)



I actually have this book as a text file, I can upload it if anyone wants it. Also:

Infantry Attacks by Erwin Rommel

Achtung - Panzer! by Heinz Guderian

Storm of Steel by Ernst Junger

[ArtOfWar]

ArtOfWar,

funnily i just finished reading Dune by Frank Herbert,

its Science Fiction, but puts up a quite interesting view on societies trying to survive over 1000 of years and how they manage to do it - or not.

A masterpiece

BTW i mean all 6books, not only the first one...

I dont mind SF at all Amron; thanks for the recommendation =) Trouble with living in Japan is English books cost a small fortune and there are little public libraries or used book stores to satisfy my appetites for reading.

I'll go pick it up on pay-day (25th of this month) and let you know. Cheers!

[( o Y o )]

Trouble with living in Japan is English books cost a small fortune and there are little public libraries or used book stores to satisfy my appetites for reading.

I assume you know of it, but if not www.amazon.co.jp makes things way cheaper than buying from the likes of Maruzen......like less than half price in many cases.

[ArtOfWar]

I assume you know of it, but if not www.amazon.co.jp makes things way cheaper than buying from the likes of Maruzen......like less than half price in many cases.

Thanks mate. Yes, I did all my ordering from amazon once the site was up in Japan. Saved a bundle on MBA text-books buying from here and still have a couple of gift certificates lying around somewhere.

Need to beg my wife for money though and it has a much greater chance of success on pay-day *lol*. I assume you are also living off a monthly 'okozukai'?

[Amron]

problem of living in europe, is that some books arent even available yet, like 'Collapse' by Jared Diamond, even on amazon, even in english :mad:

Toffa,

dont read too much of that 'Goebbels-orientated-we-were-cool-as-hell' stuff, and if you read it, dont take it too serious, especially the way it is written...

anyone interested in Devil's Guard might dl it via google...

BTW Toffa do you have 'Achtung - Panzer! by Heinz Guderian' in german? I need something to LOL on

AOW,

yea, check it out, it is very interesting, the first book is more kind of a novel, but then it gets more and more into a scientific work...

[Global Honored]

2nd for Murakami here, especially The Wind Up Bird Chronicles & South of the Border, West of the Sun

Another fun read for lit fans is Jasper FForde, who's new series started with The Big Over Easy, a humpty Dumpty murder mystery if you will.

[( o Y o )]

I assume you are also living off a monthly 'okozukai'?

Thankfully, no. On Fridays I generally work for myself, and it is all cash in hand.....so after the weekend is over I get what remains. :-)

[Toffa]

Toffa,

dont read too much of that 'Goebbels-orientated-we-were-cool-as-hell' stuff, and if you read it, dont take it too serious, especially the way it is written...

anyone interested in Devil's Guard might dl it via google...

BTW Toffa do you have 'Achtung - Panzer! by Heinz Guderian' in german? I need something to LOL on



Yeah I read it all in a few days, I really enjoyed that book. Nah, I can't speak much german, I only have the english version, another very good book in my opinion.