Books

[Zappypants]

I'll share some of the titles of books that I have read that stood out to me. I read a lot of books, but some stand out to me in ways that I can relate.

The Alex Cross Series - James Patterson
Odd Thomas Series - Dean Koontz
Secret Life of Germs - This book will turn you into a Germophobe , for good reasons.
The Halo book series - If you like Military Sci-fi, they are very well written.
1984 - (I forget the authors name) This book is considered propaganda in some politicians eyes.
The Tao of Jeet Kun do - Bruce Lee's Philosophy book
Art of War - Sun Tzu
Starship Troopers the book - ( Fuck the movie, this book was written in the 50's. It was way ahead of its time)
Seal Team 6 - (was released last year)
Black Hawk Down - Again, fuck the movie, this book explains a ton of shit about what happened.

Currently, I'm reading Squirms, Squirts and Screams. It's exactly about the way it's titled. I have a whole bookshelf at home. I only keep a book if it stands out to me. However, if you want to save yourself a lot of money. I bought a kindle and Download
Books now. I have already saved more than I spent on the Kindle( $120).

We read a lot of the same books. I really enjoyed the first couple of Odd Thomas books, but they kind of got 'meh' to me after that. Still, Koontz is awesome. Speaking of...

Dean Koontz: His re-imagining of Frankenstein is really, really well done. Also Phantoms as well as Strangers
Stephen King: The Stand: Unabridged--Pet Sematary--Skeleton Crew (collection of short stories, one in particular, "Survivor Type" is very good)
Clancy: I'm sure you've read alot, but his latest stuff is CRAP...Debt of Honor is my favorite, first 1/3 is slow but the rest is sooooo good. Fuck, maybe Without Remorse is my favorite. Or The Bear and The Dragon. Or Rainbow Six.
Anne Rice: Hear me out on this: the Vampire Chronicles is really good for serious, the 2 best being The Queen of the Damned and my personal favorite, Memnoch the Devil....very controversial and thought provoking imo
The Halo book series: Seconding Rigdonian on this one, the first 3 are well worth it (and come in a 3 pack at Books A Million for cheap iirc)
Holy Blood Holy Grail: Dan Brown of "The DaVinci Code" fame completely ripped off this book, read it and see why
Thomas Harris: Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal. Hannibal, for whatever reason, is the single most disturbing book I've ever read, and I read a metric fuckton of books
Homer: The Iliad, 'nuff said.
Arthur Conan Doyle: Seconding Sixer's recommendation, really good stuff.
Hunter S. Thompson: Everyone should read Fear and Loathing, but my favorite by him is The Rum Diary, dunno why.
Steve Coll: Ghost Wars--non-fiction Pulitzer-Prize winning account of why Afghanistan is so fucked up. A truly amazing read and so insightful that you'll smack your forehead over and over asking yourself "What. The. Fuck."
Ernest Hemingway: Bunches of people knock him for his simplicity, but he tells a great story.

Finally:

John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath. My personal favorite book of all time.

Fuck, looking at this list I'm all over the place lol.

 

[sixer9682]

Quick reads mainly sci-fi;

Ed Howdershelt
Will Greenway
David Weber
Alan Dean Foster
Darrell Bain
Kevin J. Anderson

Longer books mainly sci-fi;

Ted Bell
Vince Flynn
Tom Clancy
Alan Dean Foster
David Drake

Let me know if you want more authors.

Don't forget John Ringo. David Weber, and Drake are good, but Ringo tops the list for military sci-fi.
Also, Jack Campbell, retired naval officer who has written the Lost Fleet series-military sci-fi and a damn good one. Ian Douglass looks shoddy compared to Ringo, Weber, Drake, and Campbell IMO.
John Birmingham is another really good military sci-fi author-never in the military but worked in the Defence Dept. He writes futuristic military sci-fi that kicks ass

 

[sixer9682]

Haven't started the star carrier series yet... actually picked up book one in starfist. and a stand alone called Embedded by Dan Abnett

I hated the Embedded book when I started reading but thought I'd give it a couple of chapters to see if it was any good and I'm glad I did. It was one of the better military sci-fi books I've read in a while and a pleasant surprise considering how I didn't like it at first.

 

[Bob369963]

Did not get to that page in my library, but your definitely right on with Ringo.