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ThePurplePerson
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« on: May 10, 2004, 01:44:09 PM » |
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-ruth ann
it's like God himself is coming home to say:
"I, I can do anything, if you want me here.
and I can fix anything, if you'll let me near.
where are those secrets now (that you're just scared to tell)?
I'll whisper them all aloud so you can hear yourself."
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Vlad!
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« Reply #1 on: May 10, 2004, 02:26:12 PM » |
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Two of my favorite authors are H. P. Lovecraft and Arthur C. Clarke. Lovecraft has some excellent short stories, and Clarke has both quality short stories and awe-inspiring full-length novels (Childhood's End, Songs of Distant Earth). Lovecraft is considered one of the fathers of horror, though modern horror tends more towards the gruesome, whereas his was more towards the weird and fantastic. Clarke is a living legend among science fiction enthusiasts.
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If you don’t have freedom as a principle, you can never see a reason not to make an exception. There are constantly going to be times when for one reason or another there’s some practical convenience in making an exception.
rms
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enemy anemone
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« Reply #2 on: May 10, 2004, 02:44:30 PM » |
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if you haven't already read LotR, Les Miserables, Little Women, the Narnia books, or Uncle Tom's Cabin well, read them.  Orthodoxy Heretics The Complete Father Brown all by G. K. Chesterton. just about anything by C. S. Lewis The Complete Tales and Poems of Winnie the Pooh, A. A. Milne Sophie's World, Jostein Gardner as far as a classical education goes, you can't go wrong to start reading Plato, at least the Allegory of the Cave. Shakespeare too but I've never been able to get into his stuff (sorry). sometimes literature anthologies can have a good selection of pretty good stuff. |
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« Last Edit: May 10, 2004, 02:44:43 PM by schilleriana »
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enemy anemone
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« Reply #3 on: May 10, 2004, 02:45:33 PM » |
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oh yeah, be sure to let us know what you read and what you thought. |
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Josh
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« Reply #4 on: May 10, 2004, 02:50:34 PM » |
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A few of my all-time favorites:
The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger, is my favorite novel of all time. In the words of one friend, depression and angst have never been so hilarious. It's an alternately funny and heartbreaking book that gets better every time you read it. I should warn you, though, that it isn't for the hyper-sensitive... the profanity in the book is rather extreme, though true to the characters and circumstances.
The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster, is another essential read. It's technically a children's book, complete with illustrations, but it's witty and clever enough to appeal to readers of all ages. I've read it many times.
Anf, of course, I would be remiss not to mention my favorite author EVER, the great Flannery O'Connor. She is one of my biggest spiritual influences, and I love her writing dearly. Her short stories are better than her two novels, but anything she ever wrote is well worth reading, in my opinion. See if you can track down her Complete Short Stories collection. It's quite a treasure.
I also love Ray Bradbury's Farenheit 451, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, and, of course, the Lord of the Rings series. But you've probably read all those.
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ThePurplePerson
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« Reply #5 on: May 10, 2004, 03:07:42 PM » |
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-ruth ann
it's like God himself is coming home to say:
"I, I can do anything, if you want me here.
and I can fix anything, if you'll let me near.
where are those secrets now (that you're just scared to tell)?
I'll whisper them all aloud so you can hear yourself."
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dgp11776
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« Reply #6 on: May 10, 2004, 03:17:11 PM » |
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I can pretty much only recommend two types of books. First would be brain candy fiction in the vein of Clive Cussler, John Grisham, David Baldacci and others.
But you also mentioned theology, and I can help out there. Some of these will be difficult to procure, but I would heartily recommend all of them.
1. The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ - James Stalker
2. Ray's of Messiah's Glory - David Baron
3. The Resurrection of Life - John Brown
4. The Study of the Types - Ada Habershon
5. The Life of Joseph - Thomas Kirk
6. True Discipleship - William MacDonald
7. The Glory of Christ - John Owen
8. The Holy Spirit - John Owen
9. The Cross in the New Testament - Leon Morris
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THEONEWHOGURGLESCROCKPOTS
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« Reply #7 on: May 10, 2004, 04:13:03 PM » |
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I would say that Hemingway is my favorite writer: For Whom the Bell Tolls, Farewell to Arms, Old Man in the Sea and my favorite his complete short story collection. Kurt Vonnegut also has some good books: Cat's Craddle and Mother Night. I also think that Fight Club is a really good book. It has a different ending than the movie. The movie was based on the bood. I'm sure you've read 1984 by George Orwell, but that is a masterpiece. And if your in to sc-fi I would recommend the Dune Books. They are like Lotr but sci-fi style. They are supposedly the best sci-fi books ever written. I liked them a lot. And be sure to get the ones by Frank Herbert not the ones by his son, Brian.
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Josh
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« Reply #8 on: May 10, 2004, 05:07:54 PM » |
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Yes, Dune is very cool.
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ThePurplePerson
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« Reply #9 on: May 10, 2004, 05:23:53 PM » |
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Oooh! New sc-fi! I'm forever grateful... *grin*
Can't say I care too much for Hemingway. Of course, I've only read Bells, but...
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-ruth ann
it's like God himself is coming home to say:
"I, I can do anything, if you want me here.
and I can fix anything, if you'll let me near.
where are those secrets now (that you're just scared to tell)?
I'll whisper them all aloud so you can hear yourself."
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Vlad!
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« Reply #10 on: May 10, 2004, 06:47:51 PM » |
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If you've read all of Narnia then you've read more than four CS Lewis books  Another thing which you've probably read is Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. I love all of them, and though Schil will undoubtedly disagree, I think they're better than the Father Brown stories. I suppose it's all a matter of taste anyway, and both are quite good. A quick look at my bookshelf also shows that I was delinquent in not recommending Mutiny on the Bounty and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. I risk the wrath of my fellow computer scientists by saying that the latter is somewhat overrated, but that doesn't mean it's not funny. All of this, of course, is subordinate to the Clarke and Lovecraft I recommend. Nobody is complete until he or she has had a bit of Cthulhu. |
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If you don’t have freedom as a principle, you can never see a reason not to make an exception. There are constantly going to be times when for one reason or another there’s some practical convenience in making an exception.
rms
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enemy anemone
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« Reply #11 on: May 10, 2004, 07:23:03 PM » |
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I think the main reason I like Father Brown stories better is because I really like the character and I think they have more humor than the Sherlock Holmes stories. so yeah, I'd say it's a matter of taste. I haven't read the Hitchhiker books but I do know that the number 42 is like the answer to everything...or something. I should probably check the book(s) out... Oh, and I have finally figured out who you are! *smacks forehead* wow, I'm impressed! *I* haven't even figured out who I am yet. I kind figured you had probably read most of the stuff in my list. just looking over my bookshelf again--if you need a music appreciation sort of book, Roger Kamien's Music: An Appreciation is an excellent text that discusses music from the Middle Ages to Modern day in context of what was going on in other arts like painting and architecture. |
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Josh
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« Reply #12 on: May 10, 2004, 07:43:11 PM » |
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Oh, yeah... Hitchhiker's Guide is very funny indeed.
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Vlad!
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« Reply #13 on: May 10, 2004, 07:50:14 PM » |
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42 is the answer to the meaning of life. The question of the answer to the meaning of life, on the other hand, is a trickier problem.
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If you don’t have freedom as a principle, you can never see a reason not to make an exception. There are constantly going to be times when for one reason or another there’s some practical convenience in making an exception.
rms
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DvChWi
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« Reply #14 on: May 20, 2004, 05:18:06 PM » |
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I have been inspired by this thread to check out Clarke, Bradbury, Adams, and Chesterton. I'll let you know what I think when I actually read them all.
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Fun facts about Chuck Norris:
Newton's Third Law is wrong: Although it states that for each action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, there is no force equal in reaction to a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick.
Chuck Norris can divide by zero.
Chuck Norris CAN believe it's not butter.
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bethany
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« Reply #15 on: May 20, 2004, 06:44:56 PM » |
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CS Lewis's Till We Have Faces.
Anything by Chaim Potok, especially My Name is Asher Lev and The Chosen.
Oscar and Lucinda by .... uh...blanking on it now.
The Brothers Karamazov by Dosteovsky.
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oneafroboy
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« Reply #16 on: May 20, 2004, 11:15:22 PM » |
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Some of the books I would recommend were mentioned before, so I won't repeat them.
A few years back I was really into Isaac Asimov. I think he's quite good. The Robot series was pretty good, and the Foundation books are classic, but I think my favorite book of his is Nemesis. I don't think it's very well known, but nevertheless, it is very well written and a fine story.
The one author I'd really suggest is Franics A. Schaeffer. Now, I've only read How Should We Then Live?, so that's his only work that I can truly attest to as being excellent, but I've read excerpts of his other stuff, and he's pretty much on the mark. He's a theologian/philosopher/historian dude. How Should...is brief overview of Western thought from the fall of the Roman Empire to about the 1970s. It's a very intriguing read, and it has shaped the way I view thought and the arts. His best quote is: "As a man thinks, so is he." And how very true that is.
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\"Living your life like you're trapped in a bad rap video is just not that appealing.\"
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DvChWi
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« Reply #17 on: May 21, 2004, 12:02:01 AM » |
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A few years back I was really into Isaac Asimov. I think he's quite good. The Robot series was pretty good, and the Foundation books are classic, but I think my favorite book of his is Nemesis. I don't think it's very well known, but nevertheless, it is very well written and a fine story. I've read Nemesis, actually, and like it fairly well, but I think the newcomer to Asimov would be better served by reading the the Foundation/Robot books. Now, the question when it comes to those is whether one should read them in the order in which they were written( as I did) , or in the or of the chronology of the story. If I were to do it over again, I would take the latter option, though it was interesting to find out later about the connections between the two series which were not intended to exist originally. |
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Fun facts about Chuck Norris:
Newton's Third Law is wrong: Although it states that for each action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, there is no force equal in reaction to a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick.
Chuck Norris can divide by zero.
Chuck Norris CAN believe it's not butter.
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Vlad!
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« Reply #18 on: May 21, 2004, 11:47:54 AM » |
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A few years back I was really into Isaac Asimov. I think he's quite good. The Robot series was pretty good, and the Foundation books are classic, but I think my favorite book of his is Nemesis. I don't think it's very well known, but nevertheless, it is very well written and a fine story.
I've read some of his novels, but I prefer his short stories. I wholeheartedly recommend the collection "The Complete Robot," which contains a whole lot of his short stories about (you guessed it) robots. You may be interested to note that Asimov and Clarke are fairly good friends. |
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If you don’t have freedom as a principle, you can never see a reason not to make an exception. There are constantly going to be times when for one reason or another there’s some practical convenience in making an exception.
rms
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oneafroboy
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« Reply #19 on: May 21, 2004, 04:29:33 PM » |
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You may be interested to note that Asimov and Clarke are fairly good friends. I think you meant to use the past tense form of the verb for the predicate here... |
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\"Living your life like you're trapped in a bad rap video is just not that appealing.\"
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Vlad!
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« Reply #20 on: May 21, 2004, 09:19:18 PM » |
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Hmm...I didn't know Asimov was dead, actually. I knew Clarke was still alive and I assumed Asimov was, though I see now it was a false assumption. I guess that would explain why I haven't seen anything new by him for a few years  |
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If you don’t have freedom as a principle, you can never see a reason not to make an exception. There are constantly going to be times when for one reason or another there’s some practical convenience in making an exception.
rms
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oneafroboy
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« Reply #21 on: May 22, 2004, 05:49:40 PM » |
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Asimov died in 1992, I think. It's okay, though Vlad!, because I didn't realize Clarke was still alive. So I, too, now join the false assumption club. |
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\"Living your life like you're trapped in a bad rap video is just not that appealing.\"
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Vlad!
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« Reply #22 on: May 23, 2004, 06:00:18 PM » |
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When looking up info about these two virtuosos, I encountered something cool: Arthur C. Clarke was the first to suggest that the geosynchronous orbit could be used to establish a communications grid. This orbit is now called the "Clarke Orbit" in his honor. When you talk on your cell phone or watch satellite TV, you owe it to Clarke. Neat, huh?
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If you don’t have freedom as a principle, you can never see a reason not to make an exception. There are constantly going to be times when for one reason or another there’s some practical convenience in making an exception.
rms
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