Foo - Any good books?

Anyone know any good books that one just has to read? Thinking about ordering Johnny Got His Gun. Is it a good read?

1984 is definitely one, but for more casual & interesting/original story, definitely The Prince of Tides.

http://www.amazon.com/Prince-Tides-Novel-Pat-Conroy/dp/0553268880

Just read 'Fall of Giants' by Ken Follett. Cracking read. I really enjoyed the 'Pillars of the Earth' trilogy.

Johnny Got His Gun, I read it, pretty depressing stuff but a worthwhile read. It is certainly thought provoking when the only source of the main characters consciousness is his own internal monologue.

I've heard of the Bible as The Good Book.

I just finished The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. Great read.

Lately, I have been reading Daniel Silva. Writes spy / espionage stuff. Entertaining.

Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut is an excellent read.

I've heard of the Bible as The Good Book.

It certainly is entertaining fiction. War, famine, revenge, sex, murder, love, redemption (hell, it's even got resurrection!) - it's got it all!

The Iliad
The Three Musketeers
The Count of Monte Christo
anything by Terry Pratchet
Animal Farm
A Brave New World
Longitude by Dava Sobel
A Brief History of Time
anything by Bill Bryson
The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester
Krakatoa: the day the World exploded by Simon Winchester.
Anything by William Shakespeare

The Iron Tower trilogy by Dennis L. McKiernan is great. Kinda like Lord of the Rings only not. It's composed of three books, The Dark Tide, Shadows of Doom and The Darkest Day.
Ernest

If you have a dog, 'The Art of Racing in the Rain' will make you cry. It did me.

Me? I'm just ripping my through all the free books downloadable from amazon for the kindle.

I've been reading Carl Hiaasen's books for middle-schoolers passed on from my son: Hoot, Flush, and Scat.

Also been reading Harry Potter to my daughter.

1984 should go on any such list.

Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad.

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury. It's a collection of short stories, some of which lead into the next story. "The Long Rain" is especially good. (My opinion, you mileage may vary)

It's not Thoreau, I just read Laird Hamilton's 'Force of Nature'. If you want to relax, turn your brain off for awhile and get some insight into an unbelieveable athlete...

Go ahead, flame away.

Anything from Vince Flynn.

+1 to 1984

Ayn Rand- The Fountainhead (has a special place in my heart so I always recommend)

Anyone know any good books that one just has to read?

Not sure if anyone "just has to read" these, but fwiw some of the most memorable books I've read that I would recommend highly are

- Jitterbug Perfume - Tom Robbins
- Conciousness Explained - Daniel Dennett
- If On A Winter's Night A Traveller - Italo Calvino
- The Life Of Pi - Yann Martel
- Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson

The Gargoyle,
The Imperfectionists,
Last Night at The Lobster,

Post #2 & #12 are worthwhile,

On to longer reads:

Herman Wouk: Winds Of War, War and Rememberance, Inside Outside, The Hope, The Glory, Youngblood Hawke.

Colleen McCullough: Morgan's Run, Thornbirds, Master of Rome series.

Any of John Irving's work.

Any Jane Smiley.

All of Joeseph Wambaugh ( I suggest reading his works in order of issue).

Clavell's Shogun.

Machine Dreams and We Were The Mulvaneys are very good.

There. Lots and lots to read:D

Ayn Rand- The Fountainhead (has a special place in my heart so I always recommend)

blech. The only Ayn Rand I can stand reading is Anthem (which actually is a good book). The rest is just overly wordy pretentiousness. I remember getting a good laugh at all the angsty girls in college who both claimed to be strong liberals and also claimed to love Ayn Rand as their favorite author.

Of John Irving's work (of which I've read a fair bit) I can really only A Prayer for Owen Meany and maybe The World According to Garp or Widow for One Year.

If you can get over your feelings about the author, Final Blackout by a pre-Scientology L. Ron Hubbard is an excellent book.

Just got done reading The Panic Virus by Seth Mnookin. Good read, but will make you mad. Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks was also excellent.

Currently reading Sarum by Edward Rutheford. His books give an interesting way to go through history, but I'm not sure I'd call them must reads.

Oh and whoever suggested Daniel Silva, right on. I've liked his stuff for a while. Very entertaining, but I keep thinking about how Gabriel Allon should be getting rather old by now.

Oh and the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher for fun reads by the pool/at the beach (not essential reads, but good, fast, and fun).

And pretty much anything by Guy Gavriel Kay (especially the Fionavar series).

Love You Forever by Robert Munsch (but only if you're a parent or have lost one).

Aristotle's "Βιολογία"

"φυσική" is also a good read

Plato's "η Δημοκρατία" would be good, in particular, Οι διάλογοι του Σωκράτη and my favorite teaching story is Δαχτυλίδι του Γύγη, and it addresses the concept of power without consequence.

1984 should go on any such list.

Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad.

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury. It's a collection of short stories, some of which lead into the next story. "The Long Rain" is especially good. (My opinion, you mileage may vary)

The Screwtape Letters is worth reading, if for no other reason than that Screwtape told his nephew in one of the letters that the trick with humans is getting them worried about the wrong thing. To get them all running to the side of the ship that is low in the water is an example he used.

1984 is just that. Screwtape is winning! 1984 is all the rage. People are all afraid of Big Brother, who will grind them under his boot.

In todays world, at least for the West, what we need to fear is those who will do us good, not Big Brother, but little sister. 1984 is not the work to inform people. Brave New World is the book people should be reading. It is not the ugly road we need fear, but the attractive one, the road of a Brave new world with such wonderful people in it.

Hats off to Gnome for mentioning it.

Freakonomics :)

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, then read the followup Lilia if you want to find out what he's writing about.
The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein or A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn will tell you whey this country's in the mess it's in.

Enjoyed reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. It is written from the point of view of a 15-year-old autistic boy. Very sad in places, accurately depicting the tumult many have with family life and relationships.

Currently reading the non-fiction work A Long Way Gone--Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. Powerful--difficult to keep going with the book at times because of the descriptions of slaughter and cruelty.

I am an English teacher, so while I enjoy several books on a personal level, I also keep an eye toward what is teachable, as with the two books above.

Two others I'm reading purely for personal pleasure are At Home--A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson, and The War of the Copper Kings by C.B. Glasscock, about the history of Butte, Montana. Both very good.

Thanks to the poster above for mention of The Panic Virus by Mnookin. Have checked it on Amazon and it is going on my 'to read' list.

two books I absolutely loved in the last few years were Dickens' David Copperfield and How Green was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn.

For pure entertainment reading:

The Dark Tower series by King

Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard

Others:
Slaughterhouse 5
Robert Browning Poetry... dunno just like it.
Rudyard Kipling

Has anyone mentioned Heinlein? His early stuff was some of my first science fiction readings. I really like his late and middle works. Time Enough for Love, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, Stranger in a Strange Land are all very worth reading. He is, or was prolific enough that it would take quite a while to read all of his works.

Also, for light reading, if you like mystery, try Dick Francis. He was a jockey, rode for the British Royal Family at some point, and when he retired, he began to write. Most of his work center around horse racing and is easy to read and entertaining.

someone who is not getting much attention nationally but should is anything by Tim Dorsey.

He has a set formula and characters but it is some excellent beach or airplane reading.

If you liked Tom Robbins, or Christopher Moore, or Hiaasen, Tim Dorsey is a good match.

Currently reading A Salty Piece of Land by Jimmy Buffet. He is a good story teller.

For pure entertainment reading:

The Dark Tower series by King

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+1 ... I got into the Dark Tower back when it was stalled out on Wastelands in the mid-90s. Half-heartedly finished Wizard and Glass, then dropped it until this year. I was jazzed to hear the series finished and quickly picked back up Wizard and Glass and actually read it this time (VERY good, but still not quite as good as the first three). Then picked up Wolves of Calla ... ranking it above Wizard and Glass but still not as good as the first three. Ordered and anxiously awaiting Song of Susannah (#6) and hoping it does the series proud. Then only have book 7 to finish it. It's been an ... interesting ... journey since starting it back in 1994. And, if you've never read the series, it's a fun ~ 5000 page read. :)

+1 ... I got into the Dark Tower back when it was stalled out on Wastelands in the mid-90s. Half-heartedly finished Wizard and Glass, then dropped it until this year. I was jazzed to hear the series finished and quickly picked back up Wizard and Glass and actually read it this time (VERY good, but still not quite as good as the first three). Then picked up Wolves of Calla ... ranking it above Wizard and Glass but still not as good as the first three. Ordered and anxiously awaiting Song of Susannah (#6) and hoping it does the series proud. Then only have book 7 to finish it. It's been an ... interesting ... journey since starting it back in 1994. And, if you've never read the series, it's a fun ~ 5000 page read. :)

I've finished them all. Let me just say that it is probably good that rumors are circulating the movie has been dropped. I don't think there is any way they could do it properly. It would end up just like Battlefield Earth if they tried to condense it all.