Been reading more recently and im almost finished with the book Im reading and looking for recommendations. Mainly into history related books but im open to anything.
What’s your favorite book?
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Been reading more recently and im almost finished with the book Im reading and looking for recommendations. Mainly into history related books but im open to anything.
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Been reading more recently and im almost finished with the book Im reading and looking for recommendations. Mainly into history related books but im open to anything.
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Library
If you like political history books I highly recommend Evil Geniuses by Kurt Anderson. It feels weird to me calling it a favorite book because it’s incredibly depressing to read but is also incredibly important to read.
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.
Weave World by Clive Barker. Author of The Hellraiser series.
Basically….. An ancient civilization of beings hid themselves inside of a tapestry. And now this tapestry is unweaving. Throwing their world into the real world.
It explores history, religion, fantasy and mythology. It’s a complete mind trip of a book. Addresses the origins of man and how those stories were manipulated into becoming the Lord’s gospel. A bastardized retelling of what really happened.
And Barker’s ability to define imagery causes your imagination to envision exactly what he’s trying to show you. He posses Tolkien levels of narrative ability in that regard.
I think mine was vampire economy which made me realize which political parties policies really align with same thing as Hitler. The prince by Machiavelli was another good one. “ the most potent weapon of an oppressor is the minds of the oppressed”. Once you accept the brutal truth then you can truly protect yourself from it and not be a pawn for Machiavellians that want to hold onto power.
The Black Banners, by Ali Soufan is an amazing read for the history of Al Queda written by the lead FBI investigator after 9/11. Long but very insightful
Can’t hurt me, by David Goggins, i’m reading his second book Never Finished right now and it’s pretty good.
Brave New World
Audius Huxley
It’s controversial because Huxley was a proponent of Eugenics, and his dystopia described a future that has proven to be fairly accurate but not the Nirvana Huxley expected.
Drug use is endemic, encouraged, and even part of peoples wages, despite the addictions and resulting deaths. Relationships are disposable. It foretold testube babies and children being raised outside of families. A form of Internet can be recognised, as well as social media and its destructive results.
Catch-22
The Women by Kristin Hannah is amazing.
Same as you. I love history and theology
The brothers Karamazov or Jude the obscure
The Brothers Karamazov. Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Flowers for Algernon
Lord of the Rings is my favorite but my second favorite might be closer to your style. The Moon is Down.
I’m busy reading Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright. Thoroughly enjoyable with healthy dollops of dry humour and wit throughout.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32895535-why-buddhism-is-true
All Quite on the Western Front for history related books. My favroite fantasy series is The First Law and my favorite Sci-Fi books are Old Man’s War and The Forever War, which are both wildly different takes on military sci-fi.
Dictionary – always good for a 5 minute search of an uknown word
I love all Osho books
The brothers karamazov- Dostoyevsky
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. The audiobook is best, I listen to it every now and then to remind myself.
In a nutshell, it centers on connecting to a deeper intelligence within us all emphasizing on living in the present moment to achieve deep inner peace and spiritual awakening
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. Really quick read, but absolutely brilliant.
Cities of the Plain- Cormac McCarthy
The Ender’s Game series (like 12 books).
I first was lent this book from a friend Junior year of high school after a Halo LAN party and spotting it on his shelf. Read it all in about 2 days. Then a year or so later read it again and learned there was a compendium: Ender’s Shadow. That lead me to reading Xenocide and Children of the Mind which were brilliant books. At first I didn’t enjoy the Shadow series, but as I got older and started really understanding more of the geo-politics in the world it became interesting to read the hypothetical wars that could take place.
In general, the series is really good and even if I don’t super like Card’s politics, he’s still a very good writer. I have a friend who is just starting Children of the Mind after getting through the Shadow books and through Xenocide after about 18 months. I’m super excited for him to finish this series with CotM and the concepts it explores. I’d say the series is a must read for any men out there.
> Mainly into history related books
Any preferred time period?
For WWII (broad appeal), I can recommend some classics like “A Bridge Too Far.” For more of a study of atrocities, can’t go wrong with Timothy Snyder’s “Bloodlands.” Another interesting one is Martin Gilbert’s “The Second World War,” which is kind of different in that’s it’s a strict chronology—if you want to know what was happening on any given day of the war, that’s your go-to. “And I was There” is a good memoir of the Pacific War by Nimitz’ intelligence chief, Admiral Layton. “Forgotten Ally” is a good newish book on the Chinese war, which is sadly overlooked in most of the English-speaking world.
Other history books I can recommend are “The Right Stuff,” “The First World War” (John Keegan), “Peter the Great” (Robert Massie), “The Life of Captain James Cook” and “The Exploration of the Pacific” (J. C. Beaglehole), “Lindbergh” by A. Scott Berg, “The Horse, the Wheel, and Language” (archaeology and linguistics, more, but still history-adjacent—David Anthony), and many others, but it depends on the preferred subject.
Exile’s Return by Raymond E. Feist.
It a book late in his many book series, but it’s my favorite because it’s a redemption story about a villain who slowly comes to terms with his actions, what caused his fall, and his determination to make amends.
All this happens in a fascinating story of trudging through an alien land, surviving, and retaining his personality and what makes him an interesting character.
I am a fantasy guy, so it may not be your thing. My favorite book for a long time was Magician by Raymond Feist. It has since been replaced with the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. Both authors bring a world to life.
The lies of Locke Lamora – Scott Lynch.
I don’t do it credit by describing it like this, but imagine if Oliver twist ended differently. I mean like Fagen sells the boy to some gang that operates out of a church.
It’s got some gang warfare as well as deception, trickery, mummery, and a heist. I know, it seems timid, but the wit and humour is second to none. I promise you around half way through the book you’ll end a chapter learning about how a mages guild is so powerful and destructive, that to piss one if them off would be akin to suicide. The start of the very next chapter has Locke greeting such a mage like “nice bird, arsehole!”
This is just the first of three books in the Gentleman bastard sequence, with a fourth waiting to be released hopefully by the end of the year.
The Richard Sharpe series from Bernard Cornwell is historical fiction and follows the career of Wellington during the Napoleonic War. Excellent series and very factual other than the main character, Sharpe.
The picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde.
Dead souls, by Nikolai Gogol.
Dance, dance, dance. By Murakami Haruki.
Don Quixote! It’s hilarious and its 400 years old
Trinity, by Leon Uris. I was so engrossed that I brought it to work, and threw it into a drawer if someone came in to my office.
I really liked both The Tin Drum (Grass) and Steppenwolf (Hesse). I also enjoyed Siddhartha which was also written by Hesse.
The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Animal Farm by George Orwell
It a basic allegory of the Marxist Revolution but told as animals taking control of a british farm.
Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun. Best sci-fi/fantasy series of all time. Intended to be re-read because shits deep y’all. I’ve read them 10 times since the 90’s and some of the rare fiction that I still read.
And Cormac McCarthy. Fucking brilliant. Blood Meridian is a must
I’m not much of a reader–I genuinely think I may actually hate doing it–but, I did enjoy “A Long Petal of the Sea” by Isabel Allende. It’s about the Spanish Civil War, with some parts in Chile. It follows freedom fighters in Spain fighting against the fascist Franco government; eventually they leave for Chile only for Chile to suffer a similar fascist takeover down the road.
As for why I hate reading, can’t say. Just a really boring activity to me. Would rather do just about anything else.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. Influenced my absurdist sense of humor in the most wonderful way.