[Calanctus]

A few current bits from my shelf:

-The Roman Revolution, Syme--best book ever on Roman history.
-A Fire Upon the Deep, Vinge--hardcore sci-fi with an Internet riff, worth re-reading.
-Design for Non-Designers--recommended to me as a very good outline of the art and craft of design
-Complete Guide to High-End Audio, Harley--insufficient detail on headphones, but otherwise seems comprehensive and very well-written.
-Cascading Stylesheets 2.0 Programmers Reference--it's sad to see that so many of the great features of style sheets are still not well supported by current web browsers.

--
Calanctus

 

[RMSzero]

Quote:

Originally posted by Calanctus Right--an interesting change from the standard fantasy fare. It also helps that Martin spins an excellent narrative. Some of the characters are a bit shallow, but on the whole this series (including "A Storm of Swords" and "A Clash of Kings") is memorable.

Well, when there are about 234,526 characters some of them will end up shallow. The ones that aren't, though, those are fantastic. Much more interesting than reading 100 pages of Perrin getting over himself, IMO

Anyway, I also like Joseph Heller and Mario Puzo to name a few non-SF/Fantasy authors.

 

[raymondlin]

I have lord of the rings, the Harry Potter series, a photoshop 6 book, a dictionary, a couple other books and 120 DVDs. still trying to read and watch them all.

 

[coolvij]

Solzhenitsyn

Checkov

Dosteovsky

Agatha Christie

A. C. Doyle

Etc.

Spinoza

Nietschze (damned spelling)

 

[tangent]

For cyberpunk-tinged SF, you've got to read all of Neal Stephenson's stuff. If you're a Linux/Unix geek, you also have to read his long essay "In the Beginning...Was the Command Line" (also available in book form). I'm reading Cryptonomicon now...a bit meandering, but a good trip. Similar stuff is Vernor Vinge. On balance, I prefer Vinge.

For great modern fantasy that doesn't get dull about 6 books into the series (*ahem* Anne McCaffrey, *hkk* Piers Anthony *cough*) I recommend David Eddings.

Dune. Nuff said.

I second Terry Pratchett, Orson Scott Card, and all of the Clancy clones mentioned so far. All great stuff.

 

[ray4jc]

i'm in the process of preparing to move..but..

i've got lots of bible commentaries..studies...dictionaries...

lots of classics....my antonia...moby dick....grapes of wrath..to kill a mocking bird....

some programming books...C++.....Data Structures....

oh...and .....a bunch of catalogs.....

...of course...i've got boxes of books....and ....cd's

anyone know if they make audio book minidiscs???

ray

 

[Calanctus]

Quote:

Originally posted by tangent For cyberpunk-tinged SF, you've got to read all of Neal Stephenson's stuff. If you're a Linux/Unix geek, you also have to read his long essay "In the Beginning...Was the Command Line" (also available in book form). I'm reading Cryptonomicon now...a bit meandering, but a good trip.

Stephenson is a particularly rare breed: a techno-geek with a real command of English prose. And "Cryptonomicon" was one of the few books I've recently read that had me laughing out loud repeatedly...even though it's not primarily a comedy. Seconded.

 

[eric343]

True; another book in the same vein is The Art of Electronics, which is hardly fiction- but is at times *very* funny. (see the "how not to draw schematics" chapter, last page(s))

 

[tangent]

I agree, eric -- AoE busts me up sometimes.

 

[stuartr]

Quote:

Originally posted by coolvij Solzhenitsyn Checkov Dosteovsky Agatha Christie A. C. Doyle Etc. Spinoza Nietschze (damned spelling)

vij: "Chekhov" and "Dostoevsky" are the standard transliterations, and everyone's favorite verbose German philosopher (is there any other kind?) is Nietzsche...
What have you picked up by them? I would be interested to hear. My favorites by each are: "Lady with the Lapdog (sometimes Small Dog (Dama s sobachkoy)" "Notes from Underground" (Zapis'ki iz podpol'ya) and "The Birth of Tragedy" (Der Birthen oven Tragerdy (just kidding, I don't speak German).
Stu

 

[Budgie]

Dust. Lots and lots of dust. Under that is books. New books go on top of the dust. I have layers.

 

[legoman]

My shelf is full of books, but on my nightstand one can find the following books:

Iwan Turgenjew:Erzaehlungen.
Martha, Inc.
The Portable Beat Reader

 

[davidcotton]

Well right now I am reading Raymond E feists & Joel Rosenborgs Murder in Lamut (more fantasy!) I also just finished Doctor Who: The Crooked World.

Other fantasy on my bookshelf:-

Terry Brooks (absolute must read for fantasy fans)

The Sword of Shannara (ok so its nicked most of the plot from Lotr but this is Terry just getting started) The Elfstones of Shannara (must read) and The Wishsong of Shannara. If you like these then check out the two follow ups The Heritage of shannara (four books) and The voyage of the Jerle Shannara (three books)


David Eddings :-

The Belgariad/The Mallorean (two 5 book sets)

Jennifer Roberson

The Chronicles of the Cheysuli (8 book set HIGHLY RECCOMMENDED)

Raymond E fiest The RiftWar Saga:-

Magician (must read) Silverthorn, A darkness at sethanon

Melanie Rawn

Dragon Prince (cant remember the others woops!)

Terry Pratchett (preferred his earlier stuff tbh)

Loads of Doctor Who stuff!

 

[Trawlerman]

My bookshelf ?..... Lets see.


Just recently read HI-FIDELITY by Nick Hornby. Almost word for word with the movie except it's set in North London instead of Chicago as in the movie.

Currently devouring THE NAKED LUNCH by William S Burroughs. A classic beat-era novel by one of the most well known beatniks of the time. This book is very weird and disturbing at times.

Neuromancer by William Gibson. If you like Sci-Fi then read this! This is a classic cyberpunk novel. This is where many of the ideas behind the Matrix movie came from.



Cod: A biography of the fish that changed the World by Mark Kurlasnky..... As per usual, my reading usually consists of something fishy. Hehehehe. Maybe something to do with my website http://www.arctic-corsair.co.uk

Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger. Continuing my fish theme

Warships of World War Two. An old Ian Allan book listing all of the british vessels that saw action in WWII. Many local fishing vessels are listed here

Autocad 2002 Complete. About 3 inches thick. Just got this so am gonna start digging into it shortly. I hope.....

Three volumes of Upgrading and Repairing Pc's by Scott Mueller. Along with other various tomes on Frontpage, Office, Dos, Linux, Networking, HTML programming, Photoshop and NT4

Electronics Servicing Vols #1 and #2 by KJ Bohlman. The bible for the City & Guilds 2240 Electronic Servicing course.

A Decca Navigation operation manual along with a Decca Radar service manual? Where they came from, god only knows but they make interesting reading.... sort of





Penguin guide to Jazz. Again, I keep dipping into this for info on CD's.

Gramophone Classical: Good CD Guide and the Opera edition. Both are 1998 issues and were purchased form thre clearance bookstall for £3 the pair.

Are You Ready For The Country? by Peter Doggett. This is an excellent book for those amongst us that are interested in Country Rock, Bluegrass and other fringe country styles and artists.

Hickory Wind: The Life And Times Of Gram Parsons by Ben Fong Torres. Life story of the godfather of Country Rock and other Cosmic American Music.




Holy War Inc: Inside the secret world of Osama Bin Laden by Peter L Bergen. This is a sort of autobiography of the man. Has lots of interesting and disturbing stuff.




Well...... you did ask.

 

[kerelybonto]

stuartr, you a Pushkin fan? I'd be interested in recommendations of his novels if you are.

CaptBubba, have you read Closing Time? Cattch-22 is one of my favorite books, but it just doesn't seem like a sequel would work. I actually have it lying around my house somewhere, but I've never allowed myself to read it.

kerelybonto