Books you would recommend

[Mystophales]

I have been doing a lot of reading over the last couple of months and I figure I will have even more time to read over the summer. Unfortunately I have run through damn near every book I own and am now headed to the library and this is where my fellow BOTL's and SOTL's can give me a hand.

What are some of your favorite books ever? Believe it or not I am currently reading David Copperfield by Charles Dickens as I figured since I only read the Cliff Notes in High School maybe I should actually read the book now...

Any and all recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Figure I could get one hell of list together here...

[volfan]

Lord of the Rings Trilogy and the Hobbit by Tolkein
Anything by Philip K Dick (of bladerunner fame)
Anything by Chuck Palahniuk
THe Bourne Series by Robert Ludlum

[Freak]

Art of War By Niccolò Machiavelli
The Prince By Niccolò Machiavelli

[SmokeyNL]

art of war by by Sun Tzu http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War

[JordanWexler]

If you like modern thrillers -
http://www.joelrosenberg.com/lastjihad.asp
The Last Jihad by Joel Rosenberg

[shaerza]

Any and all of the Dan Brown books.

Or... if you wanna PM me your addy and cover shipping I will send you these 25 or so criminal suspense novels I want to get off of my shelfs =p

[Mad Hatter]

Seven Years in Tibet. Its an awesome real life adventure from start to finish. If you've seen the movie, it mostly deals with only a chapter or two in the book.

[muziq]

Originally Posted by Mystophales

Believe it or not I am currently reading David Copperfield by Charles Dickens as I figured since I only read the Cliff Notes in High School maybe I should actually read the book now...

Do you like classics? If reading DC is doing it for you, you might consider some other late 19th/early 20th cent British and American writers--you'll gain some perspective on the development of literary style, language use, and colloquialism. Some suggestions in that vein:

*Edith Wharton - Age of Innocence - you can follow the book by watching Martin Scorsee's brilliant adaptation of the novel

*Edna Ferber - Cimmaron - there's also a classic Hollywood adaptation of this one, by Anthony Mann starring Glenn Ford.

*John Dos Passos - Manhattan Transfer

*Evelyn Waugh - Vile Bodies - you can follow this by watching the relatively close adaptation, "Bright Young Things"

*Sherwood Anderson - Winesburg, Ohio

*Oscar Wilde - The Picture of Dorian Grey

*Anthony Trollope - The Warden

*Just about anything by Graham Greene - moves on into mid-century, but quite a few of his books have been adapted into films (e.g. The Quiet American)

*Frank Norris - The Octopus

*Upton Sinclair - Oil! (upon which There Will Be Blood is very, very loosely based)

*Hemingway - if you've not ready anything by him, you MUST read something soon. Start with The Sun Also Rises.

*F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby - which you can follow with Jack Clayton's interesting and artful adaptation from 1971. Sam Waterston and Robert Redford are awesome in it, even if Mia Farrow blows.

If you want more modern stuff, some of my favs include E.L Doctorow, Maragaret Atwood, Sherman Alexie, and Cormac McCarthy.

Good luck!

[Bobb]

Term Limits, by Vince Flynn. The author is a cigar smoker and he buys smokes from the shop I work at. There is even a character in the book named after one the owners of the shop.

[smitdavi]

I read a lot of James Patterson (Mystery/ Action Thrillers)

[dccraft]

Originally Posted by shaerza

Any and all of the Dan Brown books.

Or... if you wanna PM me your addy and cover shipping I will send you these 25 or so criminal suspense novels I want to get off of my shelfs =p

I agree. The Dan Brown books are great.

[Corona Gigante]

Lots of great recommendations here:

Best books ever???

[Isombitch]

I second the P K Dick suggestion - one of the truly great American authors.

I also like fictions written by someone who is knowledgeable of the topic. I recently read"The Art Thief", by Noah Charney. Founding director of Assoc. for Research into Crimes Against Art. The man has written a real page turner that also is a glimpse into the art crime world.

Steve

[CigarmanTim]

Grapes of Wrath - Steinbeck
Catcher in the Rye - Salinger
The Kite runner - Hosseini

[mosesbotbol]

The only book worth reading is the Good Book...