EWolfe Posted August 22, 2005 Share Posted August 22, 2005 Let's hear 'em. We're talking top 5. I'm about 2/3 of the way through "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. Amazing book! Others: "The Immortal Class: Bike Messengers and the Cult of Human Power" Travis Hugh Culley "The Four Agreements" Don Miguel Ruiz The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity" Daniel P. Reid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EWolfe Posted August 22, 2005 Author Share Posted August 22, 2005 An excerpt for Dru (from Bryson's book): "For animals that need never surface, obscurity may be even more tantalizing. Consider the fabled giant squid. Though nthing on the scale of the blue whale, it is a decidedly substantial animal, with eyes the size of soccer balls and trailing tentacles that can reach lengths of sixty feet. It weighs nearly a ton and is earth's largest invertebrate. I f you dump one in a normal household swimming pool, there wouldn't be much room for anything else. Yet no scientist-no person as far as we know-has ever seen a giant squid alive. Zoologists have devoted careers to trying to capture, or just glimpse living giant squid and have always failed. They are mostly known from being washed up on beaches-particularly, for unknown reasons, the beaches of the south island of New Zealand. They must exist in large numbers because they form a central part of the sperm whales diet, and sperm whales take a lot of feeding.* *The indigestible parts of giant squid, in particular their beaks, accumulate in sperm whales' stomach into the substance known as ambergris, which is used as a fixative in perfumes. The next time you spray on Chanel #5 (assuming you do), you may wish to reflect that you are dousing yourself in distillate of unseen sea monster." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisT Posted August 22, 2005 Share Posted August 22, 2005 The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blake Posted August 22, 2005 Share Posted August 22, 2005 Brothers K - David Duncan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EWolfe Posted August 22, 2005 Author Share Posted August 22, 2005 Brothers K - David Duncan That's a great book. A new perspective on baseball! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dechristo Posted August 22, 2005 Share Posted August 22, 2005 I forget the name of it, but in '79, while I was in a drunken stupor, I was reading a pretty good book in the Rock Springs, Wyoming jail. The title escapes me. Rode to da jailhouse with the stripper that they busted for indecent exposure at the same juke joint I got arrested for public drunkeness, disturbing the peace (I said "fuck-you" to a cop), and resisting arrest (it took six fat-ass cops to put me on the hood of the patrol car because I laid the "drunken climber sock-monkey move" on 'em). She was a nice girl. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dru Posted August 22, 2005 Share Posted August 22, 2005 An excerpt for Dru (from Bryson's book): "For animals that need never surface, obscurity may be even more tantalizing. Consider the fabled giant squid. Though nthing on the scale of the blue whale, it is a decidedly substantial animal, with eyes the size of soccer balls and trailing tentacles that can reach lengths of sixty feet. It weighs nearly a ton and is earth's largest invertebrate. I f you dump one in a normal household swimming pool, there wouldn't be much room for anything else. Yet no scientist-no person as far as we know-has ever seen a giant squid alive. Zoologists have devoted careers to trying to capture, or just glimpse living giant squid and have always failed. They are mostly known from being washed up on beaches-particularly, for unknown reasons, the beaches of the south island of New Zealand. They must exist in large numbers because they form a central part of the sperm whales diet, and sperm whales take a lot of feeding.* *The indigestible parts of giant squid, in particular their beaks, accumulate in sperm whales' stomach into the substance known as ambergris, which is used as a fixative in perfumes. The next time you spray on Chanel #5 (assuming you do), you may wish to reflect that you are dousing yourself in distillate of unseen sea monster." Live giant squid have been seen and filmed now, and they do not get any longer than 45 feet So your book is wrong, but don't let that stop you from loving it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olyclimber Posted August 22, 2005 Share Posted August 22, 2005 War and Peace. Its online. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ireneo_Funes Posted August 22, 2005 Share Posted August 22, 2005 Some random great books: Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov Pnin, by Nabokov Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis This Gun for Hire, by Graham Greene ...and? I just started Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace. It might make it onto a list like this, but I'll have to let you know in a month or two, or however long it takes me to read all 1,000+ pages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Couloir Posted August 22, 2005 Share Posted August 22, 2005 Ham on Rye, by Charles Bukowski Women, by Charles Bukowski Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foraker Posted August 22, 2005 Share Posted August 22, 2005 The Deptford Trilogy by Robertson Davies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cj001f Posted August 22, 2005 Share Posted August 22, 2005 So your book is wrong, but don't let that stop you from loving it. Billy Bryson in error Who's next Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thelawgoddess Posted August 22, 2005 Share Posted August 22, 2005 tuesdays with morrie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbw1966 Posted August 22, 2005 Share Posted August 22, 2005 Some random great books: Pale Fire, by Vladimir Nabokov Pnin, by Nabokov Lucky Jim, by Kingsley Amis This Gun for Hire, by Graham Greene ...and? I just started Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace. It might make it onto a list like this, but I'll have to let you know in a month or two, or however long it takes me to read all 1,000+ pages. Another Nabakov fan! I read Infinite Jest--twice. Great book. My favs: White Noise by Delillo London Calling by Martin Amis Don Quixote by Cervantes (unabridged version) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ireneo_Funes Posted August 22, 2005 Share Posted August 22, 2005 I bet you mean London Fields? That's my favorite book by Amis the younger, but it's a close call between that one and The Information. London Calling, on the other hand, is the Clash's 2nd best album. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squid Posted August 22, 2005 Share Posted August 22, 2005 Welcome to Hard Times by Doctorow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbw1966 Posted August 22, 2005 Share Posted August 22, 2005 Correct. As luck would have it London Calling was playing in my office as I wrote that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don_Serl Posted August 23, 2005 Share Posted August 23, 2005 From Dawn to Decadence, by Jacques Barzun totally puts the last 500 years of western culture into perspective. way too heavy for camp fodder tho... cheers, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EWolfe Posted August 23, 2005 Author Share Posted August 23, 2005 "A Life" by Edward Abbey, is really good, too. (as is anything he wrote, pretty much.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Posted August 23, 2005 Share Posted August 23, 2005 London Calling, on the other hand, is the Clash's 2nd best album. interesting... what's the first? christ rbw, you really read 'infinite jest' twice? And it couldn't have been while tentbound because the fucker's way too big to put in a pack... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ireneo_Funes Posted August 23, 2005 Share Posted August 23, 2005 London Calling, on the other hand, is the Clash's 2nd best album. interesting... what's the first? Their first is first...um, best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbw1966 Posted August 23, 2005 Share Posted August 23, 2005 christ rbw, you really read 'infinite jest' twice? And it couldn't have been while tentbound because the fucker's way too big to put in a pack... Correct--I read it the first time right after it came out but it took me a long time. Its actually quite interesting and entertaining. The second time I read it was while vacationing in Croatia when I knew I would be lounging a long time on beaches and have time to devote to it in longer stretches. I took Delillo's Underworld with me on my first trip to the Alaska range. Even paperback, that tome weighed me down. I had a hell of a time getting rid of it when I finished it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lummox Posted August 23, 2005 Share Posted August 23, 2005 story of o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EWolfe Posted August 23, 2005 Author Share Posted August 23, 2005 Thanks for the feedback. I am going on a long trip with Mike next week, and I am going to the used book store to look for some of these I haven't read. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
archenemy Posted August 23, 2005 Share Posted August 23, 2005 story of o Revelation is a good modern equivalent to this book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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