A mapcore reading list

[Duff-e]

Perhaps you should like to share your favorite literature then? Poems, novels, short stories, essay's, fiction, non-fiction, it's all good. I'll spare you my own weak synopsis and leave it to the thorough amazon reviews to give you a nice outline.

My picks:

The Brothers Karamazov

http://www.amazon.com/Brothers-Karamazov-Fyodor-Dostoevsky/dp/0374528373

Flatland

http://www.amazon.com/Flatland-Romance-Dimensions-Thrift-Editions/dp/048627263X

Notes From Underground

http://www.amazon.com/Notes-Underground-Fyodor-Dostoevsky/dp/067973452X

Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman

http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041

I Am a Strange Loop

http://www.amazon.com/Am-Strange-Loop-Douglas-Hofstadter/dp/0465030785

[Sindwiller]

I second the purpose of this thread!

Ishmael

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ishmael-Daniel- ... 308&sr=8-1

I, Robot

http://www.amazon.co.uk/I-Robot-Isaac-A ... 366&sr=1-1

Plutarch's Moralia

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moralia-Plutarc ... 81&sr=1-19

The Little Earth Book

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Little-Earth-Al ... 609&sr=8-1

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (and basically every other Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy book by DNA)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Restaurant-Univ ... 707&sr=8-1

[Minos]

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (and basically every other Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy book by DNA)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Restaurant-Univ ... 707&sr=8-1

Im trying to read hitchhikers guide to the galaxy at the moment but I'm having a hard time. The author tries so hard to be funny 98% of the time ... It annoys me very much. I wish I could read the same story without all the unfunny jokes.

[Corwin]

Rant - The Oral Biography of Buster Casey

I'm a huge palahniuck fan, and recommend all of his books, but this one seriously surprised me. For the first time he ventures into a bit of sci-fi but manages to keep his unique style. Rant is like those movies that need instant rewatching. It's told in a pretty original way aswell, through interviews of fictional characters that tell the story of this mysterious guy named Rant, and some interviews contradict others so you have to decide what you want to believe.

Anathem

Hard to get into for the first 50 pages, but amazing speculative fiction, very very well thought, intelligent, detailed, hard to believe a single dude can juggle with all the concepts of math, space, time, etc. and he manages to merge them into a great sci-fi story. Loved it. I'm reading Snow Crash right now by the same author and it's great too.

I'll come up with some more later, but being 600km away from my personal library doesn't help remembering what I read.

[Corwin]

Im trying to read hitchhikers guide to the galaxy at the moment but I'm having a hard time. The author tries so hard to be funny 98% of the time ... It annoys me very much. I wish I could read the same story without all the unfunny jokes.

I enjoyed the first one, but in the sequels it got old quickly and the jokes even lamer, so I had a painful time finishing the last 2.

[dux]

Horus Rising, Warhammer 40k

I'm a big 40k nerd

False Gods, Warhammer 40k

Second in the series

Galaxy in Flames, Warhammer 40k

Third

[DaanO]

During my years away from Mapcore i've read hundreds of books (it's amazing how much spare time you've got without a TV or a computer), my favorites were:

Rochefort - The Warrior's Rest

Goncharov - Oblomow

Dostojewski - Crime And Punishment

Sartre - La Nausee

Kafka - Well, basically all his stories

Amundsen's diaries

Gombrowicz - Ferdydurke

Hemingway - The Old Man And The Sea

Saffran Foer - Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close

Kosinski - Painted Bird

Armstrong - The History of God

Anything by Schopenhauer

Sjklovski - Zoo Or Letters Not About Love

Dahl - Boy, Solo

Flaubert - Bouvard Et Pecuchet

Ishiguro - Remains Of The Day

Roth - Portnoy's Complaint

Houellebecq - Atomised, The Possibility Of An Island

Tsjechow's short stories

Ibsen - Peer Gynt

Wilde - The Importance Of Being Earnest, Portrait Of Dorian Gray

And the absolute worst books i've read were whatever books by Jules Verne and Aldous Huxley, two most overrated writers in human history.

[Duff-e]

Ishmael

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ishmael-Daniel- ... 308&sr=8-1

I don't normally like activist/environmental books but I really enjoyed this one.

[vancorso]

DaanO, I'm agree with you about Aldous Huxley, I have only read Brave New World, but was really boring... but Verne? Maybe is because I had read these books when I was very young, but definetly I keep very good memories from A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon or Michael Strogoff

My favorite book list that I can remember:

Arturo Perez-Reverte - El Capitan Alatriste´s saga, El Club Dumas.

Dumas - The Three Musketeers

Gabriel García Márquez - Cien Años de Soledad, Relato de un Naufrago

Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings

Michael Crichton - The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park

Philip K Dick - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Carl Sagan - Contact

Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa - Ébano, Tuareg

Mika Waltari - The Egyptian, The Dark Angel

HG Wells - The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds

Anyway, lately I´ve lost my lecture habits and I barely read a few books per year... (damm you internet, computer and consoles! )

[Sentura]

ayn rand - the fountainhead (absolutely brilliant character analysis and story).

malcolm gladwell - blink (modern day insight into split second judgment we make every day)

isaac asimov - the last question (phisophical propheteering of what will happen in a billion years - good for the soul)

isaac asimov - nightfall (if someone found out with 100% accuracy that the bible was fake in christian times basically)

carlos castaneda - the teachings of don juan - a separate reality (insight into modern spirituality)

it should be noted that all of these books are 'alternative' in the sense that they are very philosophical and are more about teaching things than focusing on whatever story they have. and when i say teaching i mean teaching the ways of life, not the way that education will teach you otherwise. i also second 'el club dumas'!

[DaanO]

Oh, the teachings of Don Juan was awesome, read it when you're on shrooms! It's a great experience.

But anyway, Jules Verne: His dialogues are forced, and he's so desperately trying to make his stories interestingishly by adding pseudo-scientific facts that it gets annoying. The imagination is great, but after a while it gets nhhhhah. Jules Verne is an imaginative guy that would have written great books if he'd used a ghost writers. Also, in his life he has never been outside of France, which explains a lot if you've read his books and still remember

[Sindwiller]

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (and basically every other Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy book by DNA)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Restaurant-Univ ... 707&sr=8-1

Im trying to read hitchhikers guide to the galaxy at the moment but I'm having a hard time. The author tries so hard to be funny 98% of the time ... It annoys me very much. I wish I could read the same story without all the unfunny jokes.

Try to read Terry Pratchett then DNA at least has some depth in his jokes (imho).

I don't normally like activist/environmental books but I really enjoyed this one.

Because it's all true Seriously though, I think everyone with some brains left knows that our society is somewhat faulty, Quinn just knows how to phrase that nicely. Well, I might just be too left for the generality, however I'd go as far as saying that Ishmael should be read in school(s).

But anyway, Jules Verne...

Jules Verne introduced me to Science-Fiction literature.

[dux]

I like Terry Pratchet

Just orderd a new book by Woody Allen called The Complete Prose, love that guy.

[-HP-]

Masters of Doom

http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Doom-Crea ... 0375505245

(what...?! )

[DaanO]

One last thing: Whoever enjoys a good rant, try reading some of Trotski's work. You don't have to agree with the man to love how he tears his opponents to shreds!