i'm a nerd so i love books

[signorMars]

awhile back (like 2 or 3 years... yikes) i asked several friends for booklists and they all said "perks of being a wallflower" by stephen chbosky, and i finally got it today and have already read half of it without stopping, so i decided maybe i should see about getting more booklists and actually listening to them, so i wouldnt always spend my christmas book gift certificates on recording books. anyways... let me know what your favorite books are right now!

[durasoundrecordingco]

"Heart of a Dog" - Mikhail Bulgakov
"The Crying of Lot '49" & "Vineland" - Thomas Pynchon
"Revelation Space" - Alastair Reynolds
"Still life with Woodpecker" - Tom Robbins
"Galapagos" - Kurt Vonnegut
"Moon" (Keith Moon bio) - Tony Fletcher
"A Peoples History of the United States" - Howard Zinn
"The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism" - Max Weber
"No More Prisons" - William Upski Wimsatt
"One Market Under God" - Thomas Frank (see also The Baffler)

[Electricide]

I'm reading Catch 22 at the moment, and it's entertaining once you get in the swing of it.

But I read one book every two years, so YMMV

[Lostboy]

i am currently reading margaret atwood's latest novel, titled "oryx and crake." so far it is very promising.

[kingnimrod]

I did ATLAS SHRUGGED and THE FOUNTAINHEAD back to back recently. Great, great books - in my opinion philosophically sound and very engaging. Still very relevant 50 years later. I am reading bits of VIRTUE OF SELFISHNESS here and there right now.

Right now I am trying to sniff out some good "mess with your head" type reads, though, the older the better - 1910's on backward. I want some goosebump inducers - any suggestions?

Other than that, I am always reading 1-3 books on softwar/programming/design/business

[helstab]

I'm reading pattern recognition right now... and so far i DO NOT recommend it.

[jca83]

if you're into metafiction..
read House of Leaves by Danielewski. fantastic. footnotes, poetry books, books in other languages, "second edition" editor notes.. all in his work of fiction. great.

[OM15.2]

I just finished reading The Davinci Code, by Dan Brown. It was lots of fun and overall an ok book.

Get a hold of 'Gould Book of Fish', if you want a totally original incredible read.

[bobbydj]

The Doctorow Denouement - E.E. Faux

A Trillion Warped Pansies - Vincent Lathebug

Stupendous Gimp - Sadie Thrushole

Go Forth and Stultify - Benedict Knypersley

Ferns and Bracken in North Staffordshire - Jon Ven

The Impeachement Imbroglio - Fillip Phincham

Twelve Hungry Yen - Arthur D. Voigtpeg

The Ludlow Moratorium - Brent Tythe

Different Stokes - E.F. Gob and Billy Went

Modern Dancing for the Ballroom Kingdom - Marsha C. Potterkin

The Finbecks Erratum - Maud Fyshe

[JGriffin]

I just finished reading The Davinci Code, by Dan Brown. It was lots of fun and overall an ok book.

Yeah, I enjoyed that one...partly because I just finished sound-designing a video about DaVinci and partly 'cause I really enjoyed the puzzles and secret society stuff. I thought he crammed a little too much in and tied too many things together, though...how can this (I am not spoiling anything here I hope) be such a big secret if every famous artist/author/musician/church official in the last 2000 years was in on it? The guy stopped just short, it seems, of tying in the Ripper murders and Hitler's search for the Spear of Destiny!

[OM15.2]

I just finished reading The Davinci Code, by Dan Brown. It was lots of fun and overall an ok book.

Yeah, I enjoyed that one...partly because I just finished sound-designing a video about DaVinci and partly 'cause I really enjoyed the puzzles and secret society stuff. I thought he crammed a little too much in and tied too many things together, though...how can this (I am not spoiling anything here I hope) be such a big secret if every famous artist/author/musician/church official in the last 2000 years was in on it? The guy stopped just short, it seems, of tying in the Ripper murders and Hitler's search for the Spear of Destiny!

yeah a bit much in there, and didn't like the ending, but it was a fun book to read straight through over a couple of rainy days

[Bear]

awhile back (like 2 or 3 years... yikes) i asked several friends for booklists and they all said "perks of being a wallflower" by stephen chbosky, and i finally got it today and have already read half of it without stopping, so i decided maybe i should see about getting more booklists and actually listening to them, so i wouldnt always spend my christmas book gift certificates on recording books. anyways... let me know what your favorite books are right now!

I enjoyed Perks, too. Idealistic, but nice.

Some of my favorites are as follows:

For Bizzarro fantasy stuff:

Neil Gaiman - American Gods, Neverwhere, Sandman Comics
Jonathan Carroll - White Apples, The Wooden Sea, Bones of the Moon
China Mieville - Perdio Street Station (warning: it's a pretty dense book, with a monstrous vocabulary)
Roger Zelanzy - A night in the lonesome October
Jeffrey Ford - The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque


More standard Fantasy (to a degree):

George R. R. Martin - A game of thrones, The Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords (A good series, but pretty violent and grim)
Lian Hearn - Across the Nightingale Floor, Grass for His Pillow
Philip Pullman - The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife

Mystery (or hard-boiled, or whatever these author's are considered):

Dennis Lehane - A drink Before the War, Sacred, Shudder Island
Harlan Coben - Deal Breaker, Once False Move, Gone for Good
Robert B. Parker - Early Autumn, A Catskill Eagle

Sci-Fi:

Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game, Enchantment
Frank Herbert - Dune

Non Fiction:

David Sedaris - Me Talk Pretty One day, Naked (this guy is hilarious)

[Rigsby]

I'm reading Micheal Nyman's Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond. Interesting reading for sure, but it's going to take me a few goes to take it all in. To be honest, i do see some what he's talking about as prankster behaviour, like the piece that involves the performer to walk into the vagina of a live whale.

[inverseroom]

i am currently reading margaret atwood's latest novel, titled "oryx and crake." so far it is very promising.

She's a badass. That one shoulda won the Booker. And if it's Canadian women you're into right now (and who isn't?) read all of Alice Munro, who for my money is the best living writer of fiction, bar none.

My favorite crime novels ever are the ten books written by the Swedish husband-wife team of Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. These include "The Laughing Policeman" and "The Locked Room." Their heir in Scandinavia seems to be Henning Mankell, who is still going strong. These are really terrific writers, all the books are in print in paperback.

Lately I've been into the following lit'ry stuff--
Thomas Mann "Buddenbrooks"
Walter Mosley "The Man in My Basement"
Stanley Kunitz "Selected Poems"
James Tate "Selected Poems"

And in music--
Peter Forrest "A-Z of Analog Synthesizers" (on eBay!)
That Motley Crue biography, which is hilarious
De Capo Best Music Writing 2003, gotta check out the amazing article on Fat Possum Recs.

[mjau]

I don't read a hell of a lot of fiction, but I did finally read Steinbeck's East of Eden, which I thought was great.

Lately...

A Tragic Vision of Politics...Ned Lebow - unique
The Ape and the Sushi Master...Franz deWaal - very engaging
Nature via Nurture...Matt Ridley - pretty interesting
Unto Others...David Sloan Wilson and Elliott Sober - this book is amazing

My recommended book list would include:

Good Natured...Franz deWaal
The Forgotten Soldier...Guy Sajer
Drive, the autobiography of Larry Bird...good stuff
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72...Hunter S. Thompson

Esepecially the HST book.