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RE: Books You Can't Shut Up About
February 10, 2015 at 11:14 pm
From fiction, Watership Down is one of those books for me, riveting, with a subtext that really speaks to what we see even today.
I also push Hemingway, in his better books: A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises, and For Whom the Bell Tolls. Much of what he wrote was pretty crappy, though, so you gotta be careful what you pick out.
For nonfiction, I'm a big fan of John Keegan's histories. He's a great combination of simple and insightful, and has a great style.
(February 10, 2015 at 6:09 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote: Collapse, by Jared Diamond is probably the best book I've ever read. Jared Diamond is a genius in a way that very few people are.
Jared Diamond is another fantastic nonfiction writer, able to draw the reader in through well-written prose, and at the same time able to convey complex ideas without making you feel like you're in a lecture hall.
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RE: Books You Can't Shut Up About
February 10, 2015 at 11:17 pm
I have been meaning to reread Watership Down for quite some time. You may prove the tipping point.
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RE: Books You Can't Shut Up About
February 10, 2015 at 11:25 pm
(February 10, 2015 at 11:17 pm)thesummerqueen Wrote: I have been meaning to reread Watership Down for quite some time. You may prove the tipping point.
Read it a couple of months ago and kept asking myself "WHY THE FUCK HAVEN'T I READ THIS BEFORE NOW?!?" Top 50 of all books I have ever read!
Anyone who can make me care about rabbits has a talent that is damned near to being evidence of gawd. 
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RE: Books You Can't Shut Up About
February 11, 2015 at 12:34 am
(This post was last modified: February 11, 2015 at 12:34 am by TheRealJoeFish.)
Watership Down is great. I thought the end was one of the most beautiful passages of all time.
But, my favorite ending to any book might be the last pages of Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. I can only imagine how gloriously beautiful it is in its original Italian.
How will we know, when the morning comes, we are still human? - 2D
Don't worry, my friend. If this be the end, then so shall it be.
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RE: Books You Can't Shut Up About
February 11, 2015 at 12:47 am
One I read recently and loved was Pivot Point by Kasie West
It's about a secret town of people with what I guess you would call brain powers. Some people can read minds and others can change your mood and put thoughts into your mind. The main character can see two different paths of the future based on a choice, hence the title.
Really intriguing and with a very relatable cast of characters. Fantastic for a quick, but interesting read. The ending is brilliant and the sequel is crazy. I also recommend another Kasie West novel in Distance Between Us which actually made me interested in a love story. No other book has done that except the Pivot Point books so if you liked one, you'll like the others.
West makes her endings spectacular by the way.
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RE: Books You Can't Shut Up About
February 11, 2015 at 12:56 am
(February 10, 2015 at 6:09 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote: Collapse, by Jared Diamond is probably the best book I've ever read. Jared Diamond is a genius in a way that very few people are. I see your Diamond and raise you a Boorstin.
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RE: Books You Can't Shut Up About
February 11, 2015 at 1:02 am
(February 10, 2015 at 7:39 pm)Clueless Morgan Wrote: Added it to my amazon wishlist. I'm up to 521 items now. (February 10, 2015 at 7:39 pm)Clueless Morgan Wrote: Oops, make that 522...  522? Is that all?!? I've got more books than that currently on my Kobo reader. My wish list at eBooks.com is beginning to rival the Denver public library's e-book catalog and my to read list has grown to the point that I'll never finish it in this life. Guess I'll have to sell my soul to Satan for life and youth until my reading list (and all revisions, past and future) is finished.
Another author I can't seem to stop recommending is C.J. Cherryh. Her Sci-Fi is simply amazing and her fantasy is every bit as good. I would especially recommend the "Faded Sun" trilogy (sci-fi) and the "Fortress" series (fantasy) though I've yet to find a book, novella, short story or shopping list written by her that wasn't good.
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RE: Books You Can't Shut Up About
February 11, 2015 at 12:18 pm
(February 11, 2015 at 1:02 am)SnakeOilWarrior Wrote: 522? Is that all?!? I've got more books than that currently on my Kobo reader. My wish list at eBooks.com is beginning to rival the Denver public library's e-book catalog and my to read list has grown to the point that I'll never finish it in this life. Guess I'll have to sell my soul to Satan for life and youth until my reading list (and all revisions, past and future) is finished.
I'm impressed 
I'm really trying hard NOT to create a wishlist of books that's too long to accomplish, and I tend to reread books I love multiple times as a money-saving mechanism. :p
My amazon wishlist represents mostly the books that I know my library doesn't carry (with some "gotta remember to read this" books in there, too) and while I like the good deals on books from amazon (you can't get much better than $2 for recent-release non-fiction) I have issues with the fact that you can't always loan them to people without also physically loaning them your ereader, and I haven't seen a good way to resell ebooks which is a necessity because I have limited space and don't always want to keep every single book I read.
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.
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RE: Books You Can't Shut Up About
February 11, 2015 at 12:21 pm
My TBR list on Goodreads is 700+
Not that this is a competition or anything.
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RE: Books You Can't Shut Up About
February 11, 2015 at 1:03 pm
This is just a suggestion, but maybe some of you should spend less time compiling lists and more time reading.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
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