Recommended Reading

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AuthorTopic: Recommended Reading
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #0
Hi all,
Sigh, looking for more reading material again.

I just finished reading On Bull**** by Harry G. Frankfurt; an excellent treatise on the meaning of bull****. Highly recommended for spiderwebbers and only 67 pages long.

Also just read Andreas Eschbach -- The Carpet Makers an interesting piece of science fiction.

I am waiting for my local library system to get The Way To Glory by David Drake.

Anything which you are enjoying reading lately?

Looking for a few things to try.

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Guardian
Member # 2238
Profile Homepage #1
I'm still on Homer's "The Iliad" (second time through).

It's great, but perhaps a niche genre.

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The critics agree!

Demonslayer is "a five star hit!" raves TIMES Weekly!

"I've never heard such thoughtful comments. This man is a genious!" says two-time Nobel Prize winning physicist Erwin Rasputin!
Posts: 1582 | Registered: Wednesday, November 13 2002 08:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 4445
Profile #2
Dostoyevsky's The Possessed for something intelligent but light-hearted (by comparison, anyway), or Crime and Punishment/The Brothers Karamazov for a darker story.

If you're feeling modern, I highly, highly recommend David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest.
Posts: 293 | Registered: Saturday, May 29 2004 07:00
BANNED
Member # 3477
Profile #3
the sword of truth series by terry goodkind.
fantasy, i read it twice
should keep your mind off things for a while
8 books in the series as far as i know.

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Avernum is as addictive as skribbane!!! Withdrawal symptoms are harsh so I just keep playing.
Free skribbane at Wal-mart
Posts: 296 | Registered: Monday, September 22 2003 07:00
Agent
Member # 1558
Profile #4
Victor Hugo, Les Miserables and poetry.

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I'm tired of the strain and the pain ___ ___ ___ I feel the same, I feel nothing
Nothing is important to me ___ ___ ___ ___ __ And nobody nowhere understands anything
About me and all my dreams lost at sea ___ __ But we’re not the same, we’re different tonight
We’ll make things right, we’ll feel it all tonight _ The indescribable moments of your life tonight
The impossible is possible tonight ___ ____ ___ Believe in me as I believe in you, tonight

Go All Blacks xtraMSN Rugby _ MuggleNet
Posts: 1112 | Registered: Friday, July 19 2002 07:00
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #5
quote:
Originally written by An Upright stranger:

Victor Hugo, Les Miserables.
Never were truer words uttered.

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Infiltrator
Member # 4248
Profile #6
Hyperion and The fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons are quite good.

Also, for those members who can read finnish, try Joe-setä by Veikko Huovinen.

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Somebody PLEASE turn the heat on.
Posts: 617 | Registered: Tuesday, April 13 2004 07:00
La Canaliste
Member # 5563
Profile #7
Try anything by Iain Banks or Iain W Banks (same writer, different genres). Well written, dark and original stories.

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I am a pale shadow of the previous self.
quote:

Deep down, you know you should have voted for Alcritas!
Posts: 387 | Registered: Tuesday, March 1 2005 08:00
...b10010b...
Member # 869
Profile Homepage #8
It's actually Iain M. Banks, not W.

As for my own recommendations, well, I've mostly been reading textbooks lately. But if you're in the market for one of those, Pharmacology by Rang, Dale, Ritter and Moore has some amusing parts, like the anecdote about the effect of amphetamines on one medical student, or the extended rant on the lamentable failure of aphrodisiacs throughout history.

[ Thursday, May 12, 2005 00:50: Message edited by: So I Will Eat Fugu ]

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My BoE Page
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Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Lifecrafter
Member # 3171
Profile Homepage #9
A really good book that I found a while ago was "the source: Earth Voyage" and it was really really good. No-one else seems to have heard of it though and I can't find any others from the same series.
Posts: 776 | Registered: Friday, July 4 2003 07:00
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #10
Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series (source material for the movie "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World"). I'm on book nineteen of twenty right now, and still loving them. Worth going to the library for, though - they're pricey!

EDIT: "Les Mis" is my favorite book ever.

EDIT 2: Another interesting, quick read is "War of the Worlds" by H.G. Wells. It's very dated, but in many ways quite prescient, and its lesson is timeless.

[ Thursday, May 12, 2005 08:38: Message edited by: andrew miller ]
Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #11
I finished reading Watership Down by Richard Adams a few days ago. It's a great book. It's about fluffy bunny rabbits.

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The Lyceum - The Headquarters of the Blades designing community
The Louvre - The Blades of Avernum graphics database
Alexandria - The Blades of Exile Scenario database
BoE Webring - Self explanatory
Polaris - Free porn here
Odd Todd - Fun for the unemployed (and everyone else too)
Famous Last Words - A local pop-punk band
They Might Be Giants - Four websites for one of the greatest bands in existance
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Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
La Canaliste
Member # 5563
Profile #12
*nods* It is Iain M Banks. I was half asleep. Watership Down is also excellent.

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I am a pale shadow of the previous self.
quote:

Deep down, you know you should have voted for Alcritas!
Posts: 387 | Registered: Tuesday, March 1 2005 08:00
Guardian
Member # 3521
Profile #13
quote:
Originally written by The Almighty Doer of Stuff:

I finished reading Watership Down by Richard Adams a few days ago. It's a great book. It's about fluffy bunny rabbits.
True. Easily in my top five. I'm not sure what my personal favorite is, but it's probably Killer Angels. Other favorites include A Tale Of Two Cities and A Separate Peace, which I basically enjoy because practically everyone else seems to hate it with a passion.

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Stughalf

"Delusion arises from anger. The mind is bewildered by delusion. Reasoning is destroyed when the mind is bewildered. One falls down when reasoning is destroyed."- The Bhagavad Gita.
Posts: 1798 | Registered: Sunday, October 5 2003 07:00
Master
Member # 4614
Profile Homepage #14
NightWatch by Terence Dickinson.

But if you don't like astronomy, you can try a book by Brian Jacques. There's a whole bunch, but if you read them all, the do seem to get generic, however.

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-ben4808

For those who love to spam:
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Posts: 3360 | Registered: Friday, June 25 2004 07:00
BANNED
Member # 4
Profile Homepage #15
quote:
Originally written by An Upright stranger:

Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
But DO NOT- I repeat, DO NOT- see the broadway bastardization.

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私のバラドですそしてころしたいいらればころす
Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Shaper
Member # 5450
Profile Homepage #16
Harry Potter (J.K Rowling).

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (Stehpen Donaldson).

The Belgaraid and The Malloraen by David Eddings.

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Mugglenet--The ULTIMATE Harry Potter Site.
Polaris-- New location.
Posts: 2396 | Registered: Saturday, January 29 2005 08:00
Warrior
Member # 4590
Profile #17
If you like sci-fi, "Ender's Game" and "A Mote in God's Eye" are both really good books.

Edit: Ooh, I can't forget to mention the books about the video game Halo! If you've played Halo, there are three books that are really good that everyone should read!

[ Thursday, May 12, 2005 19:13: Message edited by: cfgauss ]

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I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.
- George Bernard Shaw
Posts: 103 | Registered: Sunday, June 20 2004 07:00
E Equals MC What!!!!
Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #18
quote:
Originally written by Kirk Johnson:

But DO NOT- I repeat, DO NOT- see the broadway bastardization.
What's wrong with the musical? The various movie versions and the TV mini-series have ruined the story for sure, but the musical really has a lot of power. Some parts are weaker than the book ("Bring Him Home" is pretty bland compared to the original, when Valjean rescues Marius despite hating his guts, and no song could ever compare to the way Hugo wrote Eponine's death scene), but all in all it's one of the most worthy adaptations I know of.

[ Thursday, May 12, 2005 19:47: Message edited by: Ash Lael ]

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Sex is easier than love.
Posts: 1861 | Registered: Friday, February 11 2005 08:00
Lifecrafter
Member # 3171
Profile Homepage #19
quote:
Originally written by N00BEN:

NightWatch by Terence Dickinson.

But if you don't like astronomy, you can try a book by Brian Jacques. There's a whole bunch, but if you read them all, the do seem to get generic, however.

Yea, do you mean the redwall series?
My sister bought a bunch of those and I have read a few and found them quite good and also quite funny in places.
Posts: 776 | Registered: Friday, July 4 2003 07:00
...b10010b...
Member # 869
Profile Homepage #20
quote:
What's wrong with the musical? The various movie versions and the TV mini-series have ruined the story for sure, but the musical really has a lot of power.
Considering our little conversation about Moulin Rouge, I'm starting to suspect you're just overly fond of musicals.

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My BoE Page
Bandwagons are fun!
Roots
Hunted!
Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00
Warrior
Member # 5091
Profile #21
quote:
Originally written by Skribbane now? Ask me how.:

the sword of truth series by terry goodkind.
fantasy, i read it twice
should keep your mind off things for a while
8 books in the series as far as i know.

I like the one where the totally hot bondage chicks do stuff, and women get brutally killed by dominant men.

Wait, that's all of them.

What's that I hear?

Terry Goodkind is, like most fantasy authors, just a worthless pervert? For heaven's sake.
Posts: 180 | Registered: Friday, October 15 2004 07:00
Triad Mage
Member # 7
Profile Homepage #22
quote:
Originally written by So I Will Eat Fugu:

quote:
What's wrong with the musical? The various movie versions and the TV mini-series have ruined the story for sure, but the musical really has a lot of power.
Considering our little conversation about Moulin Rouge, I'm starting to suspect you're just overly fond of musicals.

Nothing wrong with musicals. They're great.

I recently saw a crazy adaptation of Les Miserables in French that happened during WWII, with a man named Henri Fortin as a parallel Jean Valjean, and his whole life followed Les Miserables. It was a great movie, but I don't know its name.

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"At times discretion should be thrown aside, and with the foolish we should play the fool." - Menander
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Posts: 9436 | Registered: Wednesday, September 19 2001 07:00
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #23
Nothing like waiting for a few good books. Sigh I wish my library would hurry up and get them for me.

George R.R. Martin-- A Feast For Crows

John Ringo-- Into the Looking Glass

Richard Morgan-- Woken Furies

Karin Lowachee-- Cagebird

A recommendation-- The Overnight by Ramsey Campbell-- a horror novel set in a chain bookstore. It really does give that sense of strange other dimensionality which can occur in bookstores.

[ Friday, May 13, 2005 06:16: Message edited by: Duke of Toast ]

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Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh.

Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight.
Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 4153
Profile Homepage #24
Try Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. It's perfect for a good mix of fantasy (not the perverted kind, as Experience Unlimited noted) and satire on... everything. Start with The Color of Magic. It's really good stuff, just not if you're looking for a serious, heavy read.

And Ray Bradbury. Can't forget him... excellent short stories.

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Gamble with Gaea, and she eats your dice.

I hate undead. I really, really, really, really hate undead. With a passion.
Posts: 4130 | Registered: Friday, March 26 2004 08:00

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