Favorite Books

[Bishka]

What are some of your favorite books?

-Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
-The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
-The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
-Anger by Thich Nhat Hanh

Every time you read a book that you enjoy, add it to the list!
​

 

[silvermoon383]

Starship Troopers- Robert Heinlein
The Sum of All Fears- Tom Clancy
The DaVinci Code- Dan Brown
The Book of Mormon- Mormon and Moroni

 

[Smoke]

-The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
​

I keep meaning to read that.

It's hard to choose favorites. The following are some books I've really enjoyed that I think everybody should read:

• The Count of Monte Cristo, by Dumas père
• Housekeeping, by Marilynne Robinsion
• Kristin Lavransdatter, by Sigrid Undset
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams
• The Sibyl, by Pär Lagerkvist
• Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse
• Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, by Gregory Maguire
• A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving
• The Book of the Dun Cow, by Walter Wangerin

I read more non-fiction than fiction, and it would be even harder to narrow down a list of my favorite non-fiction books. However, you can't go wrong with John Julius Norwich, Steven Runciman, Bertrand Russell, Richard Dawkins, William Dever, or Karen Armstrong.

For light humor: Dave Barry, Jean Kerr, and P.G. Wodehouse.

Best religious works:

• Tao Te Ching
• Dhammapada
• The Way of a Pilgrim
• Showings of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich
• the Journal of George Fox
• Dropping Ashes on the Buddha, by Seung Sahn

 

[Comprehend]

My probable top 5 secular books: ( If I thought longer it might change).

The Republic - Plato
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
1984 - George Orwell
The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Dostoyevski
Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand

 

[Smoke]

Oh, and A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle. A really good children's book is good no matter how old you are.

 

[Smoke]

The Republic - Plato

I think this book is horrifying. Karen Armstrong says he probably didn't really mean it, he just wanted to get people thinking. Maybe. But a lot of what Plato wrote horrifies me. I just don't like the man.

 

[Comprehend]

I think this book is horrifying. Karen Armstrong says he probably didn't really mean it, he just wanted to get people thinking. Maybe. But a lot of what Plato wrote horrifies me. I just don't like the man.

I have never heard of Karen Armstrong but unless she is 2300 years old, she is just guessing. The view that Plato didn't "mean it" is how the Neo-Cons got their start. I think the argument is weak at best.

Anyway, I do not think one must agree with the book to find it to be of value. I certainly disagree with a great deal of the Republic however the book is tremendous.

 

[Kungfuzed]

Horton Hears a Who - Dr Seuss
The Lorax - Dr Seuss
How The Grinch Stole Christmas - Dr Seuss
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card
The Illustrated Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking


I haven't read many books recently. :cover: I read Ender's Game because someone said I couldn't finish a whole book so I read it just to spite them, but it turned out to be pretty good... for a book.

I'd also like to add How To See Yourself As You Really Are - His Holiness The Dahli Lama. I just recently finished that one and it's pretty good.

 

[Smoke]

The Illustrated Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking

I've been reading A Brief History of Time over and over again for years; now into the updated version. Sometimes I think I understand it while I'm reading it, but as soon as I put it down my mind goes blank again. I'm going to keep reading it till I get a grasp of it. I think.

 

[Comprehend]

I've been reading A Brief History of Time over and over again for years; now into the updated version. Sometimes I think I understand it while I'm reading it, but as soon as I put it down my mind goes blank again. I'm going to keep reading it till I get a grasp of it. I think.

That is one of my favorites as well.

 

[Smoke]

The view that Plato didn't "mean it" is how the Neo-Cons got their start. I think the argument is weak at best.

Oh, I don't know. Plato's Ideals and his disdain for mere evidence aren't wholly at odds with the neo-cons' disdain for reality.

But I think he meant it, too. I think Armstrong is just trying to give him the benefit of the doubt because so much of what he suggested was just so bizarre and cruel.

 

[Bishka]

The Giver - by Lois Lowry

 

[rojse]

I love reading, particularly science fiction, but not limited to that area.

My favourites that have not been mentioned here:

Stapledon, Olaf - Last and First Men
Stapledon, Olaf - Star Maker
Herbert, Frank - Dune
Bester, Alfred - The Stars My Destination
Clarke, Arthur C. - 2001: A Space Odyssey
Orwell, George - Animal Farm

 

[Smoke]

Herbert, Frank - Dune

My friend Bryan has been telling me for years that I MUST read that book. Someday.

 

[Comprehend]

Oh, I don't know. Plato's Ideals and his disdain for mere evidence aren't wholly at odds with the neo-cons' disdain for reality.

They just try to twist Plato to give them some sort of philosophical authority for what they want to do to the world.

But I think he meant it, too. I think Armstrong is just trying to give him the benefit of the doubt because so much of what he suggested was just so bizarre and cruel.

I think he meant it but as an allegory. The building of the just city represents the "building" of a just man. All of the control discussed is not actually to control people but to control passions and thoughts etc.

If you remember at the beginning of the discussion, they want to determine what a just man is, and in order to determine this, they begin to explore what a just city would look like. It was his way of teaching them in a manner that they could remember the story.

 

[Kungfuzed]

Have you ever got half way through a book and then it seems like every chapter you read from that point on is just a regurgitation of a previous one? I've had a problem getting stuck half way through a book and then loosing interest. It happens alot in threads here too. I've never been all that interested in reading to begin with, but I still like to learn.

 

[rojse]

My friend Bryan has been telling me for years that I MUST read that book. Someday.

It's an excellent book - it combines religion, philosophy, ecology, politics and science in a way that has never been surpassed, and begs to be reread. It's widely considered to be the greatest science fiction novel of all-time. I would suggest reading it.

 

[Smoke]

Also archy and mehitabel by Don Marquis.

[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans serif]do not tease
the inmates
when strolling
through the zoo
for they have
their finer feelings
the same
as me and you
oh deride not
the camel
if grief should
make him die
his ghost will come
to haunt you
with tears
in either eye
and the spirit of
a camel
in the midnight gloom
can be so very
cheerless
as it wanders
round the room[/FONT]​

 

[Popeyesays]

I just finished editing and typesetting a really good book by Tamar Wilhite. The Title is Sirat, it's a science fiction novel about the colonization of a world not quite ready for human life. Really terrific.

It'll be out by November first from Blu Phi'er. Watch out for it, or bug your local bookstore to stock it. I'll post the ISBN as soon as I know what it is.

Regards,
Scott

 

[Melissa G]

What are some of your favorite books?​

-Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer


-The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold


-The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory


-Anger by Thich Nhat Hanh​

Every time you read a book that you enjoy, add it to the list!​

There are so Many !!

Amongst my fav's are..

.- Le Bette Humaine by Emile Zola
The Cold One by Christopher Pike
The Last Vampire by Christopher Pike.
The Plague by Albert Camus
A Happy Death by Albert Camus.
Sati by Christopher Pike
The Blind Mirror by Christopher Pike.

Melissa G