Bookshelf thread /recommendations

[an anarchist]

I’ve been posting threads on this site for about a month now. I would say that all of the questions I had in my head I have been able to discuss on this site. Now what’s left for me to do is read, I’m all out of thread topics!
Currently, I have a lot of time to read. I figure I have a college education sitting on my two book shelves
I’m flexing my bookshelf here, but I haven’t even started half of these books
Flex your bookshelf! What books are your favorite? Books books books! I love them

 

[Mock Turtle]

How about this for arranging one's books.

PS And I have a list of books in my profile information, but they might not suit you.

 

[Gargovic Malkav]

My favourites probably are my collection of religious scriptures.

For entertainment I mainly like bizarre and scary stuff, so I have a book that contains all stories of H.P. Lovecraft and a collection of Junji Ito mangas.

I feel like I still need a good informative book on the history and culture of the Aztecs or Mesoamerican cultures in general, as I have a particular fascination for them.
I also wonder if the Chinese novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is any good.

 

[Brickjectivity]

I'll list most of my cookbooks, leaving out only a few.

How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food -- Mark Bittman

• Literally everything. It even has a recipe for Gefilte Fish.

The Marvel Cookbook -- Street & Smith Corporation c1925

• I bet even James Hoffman has never head of this coffee recipe. "Mix one cup of ground coffee with one egg; slightly beaten, and the crushed shell. Add one cup cold water; stir, and pour in three pints of boiling water. Boil three minutes and let stand on back of range or with gas turned very low for ten minutes longer, and serve. This is enough for six persons. If preparing coffee for two, mix egg, eggshell and coffee, and then take one third of mixture, add one third of a cup of cold water and a pint of boiling water, and proceed as before. Remaining egg, eggshell and coffee should be closely covered and use on successive mornings." -- page 1 *Coffee without Percolator*
• Plus its Marvel. Which came first the comics or the cookbook?

Frugal Vegan: Affordable, Easy & Delicious Vegan Cooking -- Katie Koteen & Kate Kasbee

• Has recipes like "Pineapple Scones" and "Crispy Buffalo Tofu Bowl"
  
• "All you need to get started with your fridge triage box is a plastic bin (they're easier to clean than an actual cardboard box) and a sign that says "Eat Me First!" or something like that. Then, go through your entire refrigerator and fill the bin with fruits, vegetables and herbs that are nearing their expiration dates..." --pg 194 *Start a Fridge Triage Box*

Mediterranean Cooking for Beginners! -- Publications International c2019

• Has things like "Parmesan Polenta" and a recipe to make "Pita Bread."

Instant Pot Favorites: Authorized by Instant Pot -- Publications International c2019

• I picked it for its simple and inexpensive ingredients and large number of recipes. One recipe is "Brussels Sprouts in Orange Sauce." I'd have never thought of that myself.

The Soup Bible: 200 Classic recipes from around the world, shown step by step... -- Anne Sheasby

• Many soup ideas with pictures. I picked this because it used ingredients I could easily obtain, it had a wide variety of soup ideas, it had beautiful pictures of only soup. 200 recipes --> 750 color pictures! Each soup gets multiple pictures. There no long talks about philosophy or pictures of the ocean or land or extraneous material. I'm fine with a little philosophy in a cookbook, but I want it to be at least 80% about the food. I also want a lot of information in the book, a dense book; because I'm impatient. I like being able to flip past lots of information and to land on a random page with information in it.

Guide to Microwave Cooking & Recipe Book: J C Penny -- General Electric Company c1977

• Its an early book about small microwave ovens. At the time of its writing microwave ovens have already been in use in restaurants, but they are relatively new to most households. There is not microwave popcorn for sale or large numbers of microwavable frozen dinners. The book talks about how to cook and gives the basics like "Prick foods to release pressure" but in true 1977 style it does not give warnings such as "Eggs might explode if you microwave them in the shell, Brick."
• Introduces the concept of microwave cooking as a novel idea, compares it to conventional methods, lists many recipes, shows some charts, has many color pictures.

 

[Yerda]

@Xavier Graham SA Not much fiction on that shelf, do you like novels?

 

[ChristineM]

I have a problem (stop laughing)... Red bleeds making letters, words etc a smudge of red, i was not diagnosed unit i was 14 and simple green lenses diagnosed, after which i discovered the epiphany that was books. Im still not brilliant with words having missed 10 years of education but i read as avidly now as i did 37 years ago.

I had a library of over 4000 books before moving to france and had to cut back. Ive kept some on graphics, computers (hardware and software), psychology, travel, cooking, roman history, cro magnon era, a couple on antiques but my passion is split 2 ways. Either the Terry Pratchett Discworld series (on which i learned to read) and Iain M Banks culture series. I can recommend any book from both (except the algebraist shuck bored me silly)

Of all the books I've read just one stands out as the best... Excession by Banks.

 

[Brickjectivity]

I have a problem (stop laughing)... Red bleeds making letters, words etc a smudge of red, i was not diagnosed unit i was 14 and simple green lenses diagnosed, after which i discovered the epiphany that was books. Im still not brilliant with words having missed 10 years of education but i read as avidly now as i did 37 years ago.

I had a library of over 4000 books before moving to france and had to cut back. Ive kept some on graphics, computers (hardware and software), psychology, travel, cooking, roman history, cro magnon era, a couple on antiques but my passion is split 2 ways. Either the Terry Pratchett Discworld series (on which i learned to read) and Iain M Banks culture series. I can recommend any book from both (except the algebraist shuck bored me silly)

Of all the books I've read just one stands out as the best... Excession by Banks.

Its problematic for me that there are so many excellent books to read, because I tend to find average books to be disappointing.

 

[RestlessSoul]

A novel I can’t recommend highly enough;

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. A mixture of political satire, dark humour, and profound spiritual enquiry. You have to know a little bit about the history of Soviet Russia to get some of the satire, and even then a lot went over my head.

But the specific political circumstances are not really the point; the novel has been described as a study of how to remain sane in a world without hope, and how to retain hope in a world bereft of sanity.

In the final analysis, it’s actually very beautiful, moving and optimistic. Though all the hope is focused not on this world, which Caesar and the devil have between them, but on the hope of another.

 

[Vinayaka]

I don't read. That's for intelligent people.

 

[SigurdReginson]

How about this for arranging one's books.

View attachment 53170

PS And I have a list of books in my profile information, but they might not suit you.

Is... Is that arranged into the shape of the British isles?

 

[ChristineM]

Is... Is that arranged into the shape of the British isles?

And southern Ireland

 

[Danielle Dark]

These are my physical books on philosophy and religion. I'm more of an ebook person now, though.

 

[icehorse]

I would guess we have 120 linear feet of filled-with-books bookshelves. That would probably go to 150 ft. if we unboxed the rest

 

[an anarchist]

@Xavier Graham SA Not much fiction on that shelf, do you like novels?

not my preference! I think the Bible has a lot of riveting plot points and storylines, as well as whole character arcs. Reading the Bible with it being a novel in mind I find quite fun!

 

[ChristineM]

not my preference! I think the Bible has a lot of riveting plot points and storylines, as well as whole character arcs. Reading the Bible with it being a novel in mind I find quite fun!

The second book i read was the bible, i read it front to back as a novel. You have no idea how many Christians tell me thats the wrong way to read it, that it can't be read that way etc.

Personally i think its given me much more knowledge than Christianity would want in an atheist

 

[an anarchist]

The second book i read was the bible, i read it front to back as a novel. You have no idea how many Christians tell me thats the wrong way to read it, that it can't be read that way etc.

Personally i think its given me much more knowledge than Christianity would want in an atheist

Exactly! If I am convinced at some point in my life that the Bible is wholly man made, I’d still be glad to have read it. It’s literary value alone makes it worth reading. Reading it simply as a novel allows you to identify the overarching themes that permeate the book, and much more.

 

[Yerda]

not my preference! I think the Bible has a lot of riveting plot points and storylines, as well as whole character arcs. Reading the Bible with it being a novel in mind I find quite fun!

Aye, the Bible has loads of great stories.

A novel I can’t recommend highly enough;

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. A mixture of political satire, dark humour, and profound spiritual enquiry. You have to know a little bit about the history of Soviet Russia to get some of the satire, and even then a lot went over my head.

But the specific political circumstances are not really the point; the novel has been described as a study of how to remain sane in a world without hope, and how to retain hope in a world bereft of sanity.

In the final analysis, it’s actually very beautiful, moving and optimistic. Though all the hope is focused not on this world, which Caesar and the devil have between them, but on the hope of another.

This is one of my favourites.

 

[Yerda]

Of all the books I've read just one stands out as the best... Excession by Banks.

Not read that one but I just re-read Use of Weapons. I like Banks' stuff a lot.

 

[Brickjectivity]

I don't read. That's for intelligent people.

You've got it backwards. Intelligent people can't be fooled into reading.

 

[Mock Turtle]

Is... Is that arranged into the shape of the British isles?

Yes, the West Country doesn't seem to get a fair representation, and this one reads across as a story: