Bookworms

barc0debaby - 5-25-2006 at 01:15 AM

Are there any other literary enthusiasts on here? Favorite books? I was also thinking of ordering some more books next paycheck, any suggestions for a good fiction book would be appreciated.

tireironsaint - 5-25-2006 at 02:18 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by barc0debaby
Are there any other literary enthusiasts on here? Favorite books? I was also thinking of ordering some more books next paycheck, any suggestions for a good fiction book would be appreciated.

I read constantly. It's a very rare day when I don't get at least an hour's worth of reading in at some point.
Fiction is a very broad category to choose from, what sort of fiction do you enjoy? Tell me what genres you're into and I can tell you some good stuff. What authors are you into? Anything to narrow the scope a bit. Since I'm going to bed and not waiting around for a reply right now, I will recommend two authors I've turned a lot of people on to. James Ellroy is the fuckin' man, if you haven't already read his stuff do it now. If you aren't familiar with him, he wrote the book that became the movie L.A. Confidential, which is a great book, but not my favorite of his. I'd start with The Cold Six Thousand, The Big Nowhere, or American Tabloid as those are my three favorites of his. The vast majority of his stuff is incredibly brutal Noir type stories, mainly set in and around L.A. anywhere from the 1930's through the 1960's and incorporating lots of real historical events. He also wrote an amazing true crime book about his mother's murder and his downward spiral from that event which is called My Dark Places. It's not fiction, but it's highly recommended. Another author I've gotten several people hooked on is China Mieville. His stuff can be a little dense and is sometimes hard to get started on, but it's well worth it. He has a few books based around a common theme and set in the same world, but they aren't really a series. Those would be Perdido Street Station, Iron Council, and The Scar. He has a few other books with a different feel but his writing is great, very dark and once you get past the hard starts it really draws you in. He has a book of short stories called Looking For Jake that is excellent, it has one story that relates to the not quite-series I mentioned, but a lot of other stuff too, some of which has a Lovecraft type feel to it.

I've been really interested in a Japanese author I've been reading about, but haven't read his stuff yet. I can't think of his real name right now, but he renamed himself Edogawa Rampo after Edgar Allen Poe and he wrote some Poe inspired stuff that sounds really good. I ordered a book of his off amazon, but it was out of stock so I still haven't gotten anything of his yet. Anybody read his work? Any opinions on it so I can decide if I wanna keep trying to dig up his books?

Voodoobillyman - 5-25-2006 at 08:44 AM

Brett Easton Ellis has a few good ones (the guy who wrote American Psycho) actually you should read that one first if you liked the movie the book, as is usually the case, is 1000 times better.
I read alot of biography, autobiography type of stuff. Right now I'm reading Lemmys autobiography, before that it was jenna jamesons. I highly recommend Sonny bargers autobiography (Hells angels) it is one hell of a read for sure. He actually has begun writing fictional biker style novels that are supposed to be very good, i havent read any yet though.

BDx13 - 5-25-2006 at 08:47 AM

The last book that I read that I really enjoyed was The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami.

upyerbum - 5-25-2006 at 11:18 AM

Not a big fan of fiction, however, Umberto Eco is always worth a read.
"The Name of the Rose" is a good read and if "The DaVinci Code" floats your boat I'd suggest reading "Foucult's Pendulum" since I'm pretty sure Dan Brown ripped the whole thing off from Umberto Eco.
Also if you like historical fiction, the "Dream of Eagles" series by Jack Whyte is good. It takes place in Britian after the Roman Legions depart and deals with the founding of Camelot, without all the mysticism, pretty good.

barc0debaby - 5-25-2006 at 11:50 AM

Its difficult to narrow it down to any genre. I just finished "Tales of Ordinary Madness" by Charles Bukowski and "Tattoo History" by Steve Gilbert, which was an amazing book. I've been pluggin away at the Quran and Torah for the last month, but they are very slow reads. Tireironsaint, out of the three James Ellroy which one would you recommend? "Hells Angels" by Hunter S. Thompson was a fun book to read, so I'll have to check out Barger's autobiography.

newbreedbrian - 5-25-2006 at 12:54 PM

i'm usually always reading something. here's some recommendations:

Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid by Evelyn Lau:

The author ran away from home when she was 14 and kept a journal the entire 2 years she lived on the streets. This is a collection of those journal entries. Pretty heartbreaking stuff.

American Hardcore, a Tribal History by Steven Blush:

THE book on hardcore if you grew up on the original stuff. All the classic bands are here, each chapter is dedicated to a different scene. An absolute fucking classic

Ishmael by Daniel Quinn:

Interesting book. The premise sounds really fucking hokey but it's a lot better than it sounds. The setting is more of a vehicle for making a point. A guy answers an ad looking for a student. Turns out to be a telepathic gorilla who goes through a history of how we've gone wrong as a civilization.

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller:

Social commentary and parody of the insanity of war. If you don't need everything layed out for you and can follow non linear story lines this is an absolute must. At times hilarious, horrifying and always dripping with irony.

Shake Hands with the Devil by Romeo Dallaire:

A thorough telling of the mans time in Rwanda as UN Force Commander. Also a scathing indictment of the worlds indifference in the face of genocide. As he watches close to a million people die in only a few months while being helpless to stop it he starts to crack. Excellent book, albeit difficult to make it through sometimes as it's very graphic.

Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan

One of the great Irish writers tells with wit and humour of his time in borstal as a result of his connection with the IRA. Fantastic

A Sense of Freedom by Jimmy Boyle -

Jimmy's own story of his childhood growing up in Glasgow's slums and his time in Scotland's criminal underworld. He gets nailed for murder and proceeds to dedicate his life to prison reform from the inside. A sleeper for sure, really good.

Angela's Ashes/'Tis by Frank McCourt:

Can't say enough about both of these books. I've read both so many times and never get sick of them. Angela's Ashes is his autobiography of growing up in the slums in Ireland. It's beyond tragic but filled with humour as well which isn't as evident in the film version. 'Tis starts off right where Angela's Ashes ends when he get to NY and is every bit the book that the first one was.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Can't really go wrong with Steinbeck at all. East of Eden is the story of the lives of generations of two different families growing up in the Salinas valley. All kinds of biblical comparisons going on ala Cane and Abel etc. One of his best for sure.

Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston

Historical fiction based on the life of Joey Smallwood over the course of 50 years. His life is intertwined with that of a woman he met in grade school over the course of his life. Extremely well done and worthy of the praise it received.

moron - 5-25-2006 at 01:52 PM

I usually read non-fiction/history stuff. Some fiction, but only if someone hands me the book to read. I dont go in search of fiction usually. I actually dont read too much, but Ive been on a kick lately. My father gave me a few of his books to read, and Im in the middle of a huge one right now. "A Bright Shining Lie" by Neil Sheehan. It's sort of a history of American involvement in Vietnam through the life of an American advisor to the South Vietnamese Army, John Paul Vann. VERY good read if you interested in this stuff at all. My father calls it the best book on Vietnam he's ever read, and he's got a ton of them.

He gave me some others, but I either dont remember the name of the author or the name of the book so what's the point in mentioning them?

As for fiction, one book that sticks out in my mind that I read a while ago is "Motherless Brooklyn". I think Duane might have read it, because I think he mentioned it on the boards once before. It puts an interesting twist on detective novels. I dont know how else to explain it. I also read the Bourne trilogy, and all of those were excellent. I see a bunch of new "Bourne" books in stores now written by other authors. I picked one up mistakenly thinking it was written by Robert Ludlum, but I havent read it yet to say whether or not it stands up to the originals.

Mrs. Moron loves to read more than me, and she loves fiction. Not one for the non-fiction like me.

moron - 5-25-2006 at 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by newbreedbrian
American Hardcore, a Tribal History by Steven Blush:

THE book on hardcore if you grew up on the original stuff. All the classic bands are here, each chapter is dedicated to a different scene. An absolute fucking classic

Ive read this book about 3 time through. I love it... even though I wasnt there for any it when it happened.

Quote:

Originally posted by newbreedbrian
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn:

Interesting book. The premise sounds really fucking hokey but it's a lot better than it sounds. The setting is more of a vehicle for making a point. A guy answers an ad looking for a student. Turns out to be a telepathic gorilla who goes through a history of how we've gone wrong as a civilization.

I started reading this book and it was pretty good, but about halfway through I figured I had gotten the point of the book already. Humans think they own the earth and are destroying it. Plus, the main character was bugging the shit out of me because he never understood what the gorilla was trying to teach him and kept on asking stupid questions. Got on my nerves. Cool concept for a book though.

Quote:

Originally posted by newbreedbrian
Angela's Ashes/'Tis by Frank McCourt:

Can't say enough about both of these books. I've read both so many times and never get sick of them. Angela's Ashes is his autobiography of growing up in the slums in Ireland. It's beyond tragic but filled with humour as well which isn't as evident in the film version. 'Tis starts off right where Angela's Ashes ends when he get to NY and is every bit the book that the first one was.

my dad raves about this author all the time, but I havent read these books yet or seen the movie Angela's Ashes. My dad is huge into Irish literature and gave Mrs. Moron a bunch of books to read. I'll probably get to them at some point and if this thread is still going I'll report back.

tireironsaint - 5-25-2006 at 08:23 PM

I'll add my thoughts on a couple of authors and books that have been mentioned.

Brett Easton Ellis is fucking worthless in my opinion (sorry Voodoo), he's got one theme stuck in his head and all he does is attack that shit from all sides in a really clumsy and boring way. I've never been able to comprehend his popularity and the movies based on his books are beyond horrible (although that's not entirely his fault).

American Hardcore is a good read and may remind people of forgotten bands or turn them on to ones they never heard before, but it's so full of mistakes, rumors, and outright bullshit that it's kind of sad that it's one of the books people look to as a document of that scene. Personally, I would advise anyone interested in that stuff to check out Going Underground by George Hurchalla instead. For anyone who has already read AH, pick this one up too. Not only is the writing better, but the author actually managed to check his facts and get shit straight before publishing.

Barc0de, of those three, you can't go wrong. The Big Nowhere deals with the Kennedys and their rise along with a bunch of other crazy shit while The Cold Six Thousand takes off from the Kennedy assassination, but both of them use those stories as background and are definitely not just fictional accounts of those issues on their own. Honestly, it's really hard to go wrong with Ellroy, his really early books are good, just nowhere near the level he established later on.

Another author I can't get enough of is Neil Gaiman. I had always kind of known about him and his work in comics, Sandman and all that, but never really checked out those comics or his writing for whatever reason. I picked up American Gods a while back and I've been absolutely hooked on his writing ever sense. I read the pseudo sequel to that, Anansi Boys, not long after it came out and I'm still waiting for more books from him.

I also read tons and tons of historical stuff. Right now I'm reading Paddy Whacked, which is a history of Irish Gangsters in America and so far it's fucking great. I keep running late coming back from my lunch breaks at work because I can't put it down. Among The Thugs is a great read, as is Low Life, which is about the actual history that the Gangs Of New York was based on.

barc0debaby - 5-26-2006 at 12:00 AM

I read Paddy Whacked a couple of months ago, that book was good. Did you catch the History Channel special they did on it ?

tireironsaint - 5-26-2006 at 12:53 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by barc0debaby
I read Paddy Whacked a couple of months ago, that book was good. Did you catch the History Channel special they did on it ?

No cable for me. The History Channel is one of the very few things I miss about TV.

If you liked Paddy Whacked, check out Low Life. It's fuckin' great, the author is Luc Sante. Seriously great book.

GOLD GRILL - 5-26-2006 at 01:00 AM

I'm reading Catch 22 right now; I'm diggin it. Here's a list of a few favorites of mine:
1. Life of Pi (can't remember the author, but it was a bestseller)
2. Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
3. Town and City by Jack Keroack (haha sp)
4. Baldolino and The Name of The Rose by Umberto Echo; GREAT historical fiction
5. Cryptonomicon (also a bestseller; I can't remember the authors name)
6. Breakfast of Champions (Kurt Vonegut haha sp.)
7. Diary, Haunted, and Fight Club by Chuck Palaniuk)

yeah, these are good.

Jason the Magnificent - 5-26-2006 at 05:55 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tireironsaint

American Hardcore is a good read and may remind people of forgotten bands or turn them on to ones they never heard before, but it's so full of mistakes, rumors, and outright bullshit that it's kind of sad that it's one of the books people look to as a document of that scene. Personally, I would advise anyone interested in that stuff to check out Going Underground by George Hurchalla instead. For anyone who has already read AH, pick this one up too. Not only is the writing better, but the author actually managed to check his facts and get shit straight before publishing.

Isn't 95% of American Hardcore quotes?And from the same people that would be this other guys sources for "facts"? This makes no sense to me. I know people have giant issues with Steven Blush for his opinions in his segments of the book, but it's basically a peoples history of hardcore. I don't understand how this can be any less accurate than a single scenesters description of what happened...just food for thought.

as far as books...

I read alot of mafia and crime/corruption books as well as Chicago historical stuff.

Just finished ...

"Double Deal" which is a autobiography of a suburban Chicago sheriff who was on the outfits payroll. Hes kinda like Henry Hill light, great read.

"Double Cross" the biography of Sam Giancana, leader of the Chicago outfit for years and rumored behind the scene guy for almost every shadey thing that happened in the US from '50 to '75, including the election and death of JFK, Hoffa, Marilyn etc etc (both books were co-written by his grandson, hence the similar names)

Getting ready to start "American Pharaoh" which is about the king of corruption Mayor Richard J. Daley of Chicago.

DaveMoral - 5-26-2006 at 05:25 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by barc0debaby
Its difficult to narrow it down to any genre. I just finished "Tales of Ordinary Madness" by Charles Bukowski and "Tattoo History" by Steve Gilbert, which was an amazing book. I've been pluggin away at the Quran and Torah for the last month, but they are very slow reads. Tireironsaint, out of the three James Ellroy which one would you recommend? "Hells Angels" by Hunter S. Thompson was a fun book to read, so I'll have to check out Barger's autobiography.

The Torah is WAAAAY slower a read than the Qur'an for sure though. The Qur'an is basically like the condensed version of the OT and bits of the NT without all the lineage shit... just the main point of the tales and parables, repeated often. Deep book if you keep plugging away at it again and again. I notice new stuff every time I read it.

I read way too much Star Wars. Though currently I'm slowly reading The Power of Myth by Joseph Cambell, that stuff's tight. I'm also reading W.E.B. Dubois' biography of white radical abolitionist John Brown. A book about veganism and I'm starting on the Autobiography of Malcolm X... which is tough because my copy is from like the 60s or 70s and beat all to hell, pages falling out and everything. I need to get a new copy. Anything Steinbeck is good. I read The Grapes of Wrath for the first time a couple months ago... amazing.

barc0debaby - 5-26-2006 at 11:38 PM

Gods Go Begging by Alfredo Vea is a really good one I forgot about. It bounces between the Vietnam War and a homicide case in modern day San Fransico. The protagonist has a connection to both and the author manages to keep a coherent flow throughout the novel that makes a very complex plot come together. Extremely well written!

"Not just a good book; it is a work of art."