I just booked a trip to Texas for the first week of February, and I don’t have any good books to read. I was hoping you guys could reccomend some good books for me. I can usually get through 2 smaller books, or 1 decent sized book in the 6 -8 hours of reading involved in waiting for the plane, on the plane, waiting for my ride, etc.
To help you out, here’s a list of books I’ve read recently:
The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The NightTime
The Alchemest
The Stranger
Freakonomics
Blink
Mensa Guide to Blackjack
Henderson The Rain King
Tuesdays With Morrie
Programming Pearls
I’ve picked up The Chocolate War (to re-read.. haven’t read it since 8th grade), and also a copy of Mitch Albom’s new book. I forget what it’s called.
What else is good??
Also… I have a couple DVD’s I’d like to watch, but I don’t have a portable DVD player. Does anybody know of some http://cjni.com/rise-above-the-fray-with-election-coverage/?msg=fail free* software available for ripping a DVD to my iPod?
* People who know me know that I don’t pirate software, or even download movies or music. Please keep that in mind when reccomending software. I only want to copy a DVD that I own onto my iPod so that I can view it on the plane.
Fear: A Cultural History is quite good;
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is quite good (long though);
Animal Farm by George Orwell is a keeper;
Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a favourite;
Anything by H.P. Lovecraft (shorter stories)
Anything by Edgar Allan Poe (short stories/poetry recommended);
The Google Story (a thorough and entertaining history);
Tony Robbins’ books are surprisingly good;
Will o’ the Whisp is a wonderful existential read (though heavy in the same way Donnie Darko was);
Roverandom by J. R. R. Tolkien is a lesser known hit;
The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien;
Anything by Lermontov (especially poetry);
Pablo Neruda’s sonnets (powerful stuff);
…
That should be enough to get you by…
Comment by Shaggy — January 18, 2007 @ 11:48 pm
Hmmm I’m not much of a poetry buff.
I just re-read animal farm for the 3rd time about 2 months ago.
I’ve read some poe in high school..
I also read the google story too. as well as battelle’s “search”. Both good boooks.
I haven’t heard of most of the other, but i’ll be sure to read the descriptions on Amazon.
Comment by Ryan — January 18, 2007 @ 11:52 pm
By the way, shaggy… I’ve seen ur blog. Where’s ur FeedButton? hehe
Comment by Ryan — January 19, 2007 @ 12:03 am
Coming up as soon as I got a better handle at the RSS stuff… right now I appear to be failing in RSS 101… I’d rather give the button full props when I have a good RSS to go into it.
I’m learning though, so I do plan on having your button ASAP. Its a nice bit of software 😉
Comment by Shaggy — January 19, 2007 @ 7:33 pm
“Book Reccomendations” (sic)?
A dictionary!
Awww snap!
Comment by Alexander — January 22, 2007 @ 4:22 am
Microsoft Secrets by Michael Cusumano & Richard Selby
Wellsprings of Knowledge by Dorothy Leonard-Barton (Harvard Business School Press)
The 7 habits of Highly Effective People by Steven Covey
The Running Press Cyclopedia
Encyclopedia Britannica 14th Edition
Encyclopedia Britannica 11th Edition
Non-Fiction from the Great Books of the Western World series
CIA World Fact Book
The World Book Atlas
DK Atlas of World History
Winning by Jack Welch
The Gospel of John / The Bible
I’m supposed to be getting the Google Story on CD myself this week from eBay, so hopefully it will be worthwhile.
Nice to meet you!
Ben Fremer
Comment by Ben Fremer — January 25, 2007 @ 12:14 am
oops–that should read “The World Almanac and Book of Facts”–not “The World Book Atlas”.
Comment by Ben Fremer — January 25, 2007 @ 12:17 am