I'm getting WoT from Audible to listen to on my drive to work just off the strength of the review here. I'll let everyone know what I think
Time to revitalise my old thread, probably as usual for like 1 day I've read 2 basketball related books recently - Phil's eleven rings and a "Los Angeles - Lakers Golden History of the NBA" by Martin Harris. Although I liked Eleven Rings, I was also a little disappointed. Mainly because IMHO, Phil didn't give enough credit to the players he coached. Don't get me wrong, he's probably the best coach ever, but he was also lucky to have coached some incredibly talented teams. Other than that, very good and interesting read. As regards the second book - I assume most of you won't know it as it's probably published only in Polish (Martin Harris was born in Poland and is known here as Marcin Harasimowicz). Anyway, this book was also very interesting - tons of information about the Lakers and the way the league was in the first few decades. Usually we hear only about the best players and teams, I can say that thanks to this book I've really broadened my knowledge of the history of the NBA. It's really fascinating how the league has transformed over the years. For example(I don't remember the team but can look it up), there was a fan of one of the teams who used to enter the court before the game and strangle the best player of the opposing team to scare them. Once a knife was thrown at one of the Lakers diring the warm-up. Crazy stuff... In short, it was an interesting read, even if not very "polished". I would recommend it to all of you guys, if only you spoke Polish
I have read a few books over the summer. Raymond Chandler's What we talk about when we talk about love. Crushing short stories on love. A Raymond Carver two-pack Kiss me deadly and another one. Detective stories. Noir. Never Let Me Go. Ishiguro. I won't spoil it. Good read. Now on Darwin's dangerous idea and Swiss family Robinson.
Bumping this. Going to try and read 52 books for the next year and need some recommendations. I'll read anything.
I just read "b**** Planet" and "Hound of the Baskervilles" - for a class I'm teaching next semester. Both are very short but enjoyable.
Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke Our Ancestors Came from Outer Space - Maurice Chatelain Storm of Steel - Ernst Jünger And a few other odd ones that I'm slowly getting through
I just got done reading through The Martian, much better than the movie and the movie was great. It does a lot more breaking down the science and math behind everything he does.
Couldn't hurt to go after some modern classics. One of my favorites is Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Wow that's ambitioius, good luck and let us know which ones you liked! My recommendations, in no particular order: "Anansi Boys", "The Graveyard Book", "Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman "Guards! Guards!" by Terry Pratchett. If you like it, you can give also his other Discworld novels a shot. "A Song of Ice and Fire" series by George R.R. Martin, if you haven't read it yet. I also loved "The Sandkings", a short story by Martin and the "Wild Cards" series (although I have to admit to have read only 2 books so far) - it's a sci-fi/superhero series in a world created by Martin and a bunch of other writers. Basicaly every older book written by Stephen King. The Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman. "The Witcher" series by Andrzej Sapkowski.
I can't stand Gaiman's writing (he's a great interview, however), but I really liked what he and Pratchett did with "Good Omens." If you're into Star Wars at all, you must read Karen Traviss's work on the clones in the Republic Commando series. "Hard Contact" is the first. Christie Golden also started a trilogy that is no longer canon, but it was called "The Sword of the Jedi." I thought it was excellent. Leia's children and Luke's children.
Yeah Good omens was a good read. Just curious - is there anything specific about Gaiman's writing that you don't like in particular? I'm not a huge fan but I liked all of his novels I came across so far... Many colleagues from work have recommended to me the Star Wars novels recently, I guess I will have to give these a shot if you recommend them too. Are the ones you mentioned the best of them all in your opinion? And is it recommended to start with a concrete one?
You guys are great, thanks for all the recommendations, it'll take me awhile to get through everything. I'll try and update monthly.
He can't write. He has really awesome ideas, he seems like a really good and intelligent human being, but he simply cannot get to the telling of a good story.
But if you haven't read Karen Traviss, you're not really in a position to judge! And material poison is often attractive: watching the Lakers, eating sugar, drinking alcohol, simply stretching out in bed for another "just ten minutes."
Tolstoy was a hard-a**. He didn't know any tasty material poison, aside from a peasant daughter here and there, I guess. At least he knew about manning up.
