Recommend an author

[BDBoop]

George RR Martin !! a song of ice and fire series !!

I've already book 1-4 twice, but thanks. Good recommend.

 

[BDBoop]

​

Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo was devastated when his oldest and favorite daughter, Léopoldine, died at age 19 in 1843, shortly after her marriage. She drowned in the Seine at Villequier, pulled down by her heavy skirts, when a boat overturned. Her young husband Charles Vacquerie also died trying to save her. Victor Hugo was traveling with his mistress at the time in the south of France, and learned about Léopoldine's death from a newspaper as he sat in a cafe.[2] He describes his shock and grief in his poem À Villequier:

Hélas ! vers le passé tournant un oeil d'envie,
Sans que rien ici-bas puisse m'en consoler,
Je regarde toujours ce moment de ma vie
Où je l'ai vue ouvrir son aile et s'envoler !

Je verrai cet instant jusqu'à ce que je meure,
L'instant, pleurs superflus !
Où je criai : L'enfant que j'avais tout à l'heure,
Quoi donc ! je ne l'ai plus !

Alas! turning an envious eye towards the past,
unconsolable by anything on earth,
I keep looking at that moment of my life
when I saw her open her wings and fly away!

I will see that instant until I die,
that instant—too much for tears!
when I cried out: "The child that I had just now--
what! I don't have her any more!"

He wrote many poems afterwards about his daughter's life and death, and at least one biographer claims he never completely recovered from it. His most famous poem is probably Demain, dès l'aube, in which he describes visiting her grave.

Les Miserables made a huge impact upon my young mind. His poetry as well.

I've never made a conscious effort to get into poetry. That and short stories. They've never appealed to me. My loss, I know.

 

[BDBoop]

Even if they are from WAY the hell back in the day. For instance; Anne Rice. I've never read her works. Any fans? Dean Koontz? Stephen King? I've got a Kindle gift certificate, and I want to branch out from my usual fantasy fare.

You could do a lot worse than to check in to Harlan Ellison. He writes a lot of short stories, some of which are science fiction, some are creepy, some are downright funny as hell.

But, no matter what the vehicle he uses (fantasy, science fiction, real life, etc), all his writings have a unique perspective on the human condition.

If you can find it, I recommend "Gentleman Junkie and Other Stories of the Hung Up Generation".

That was my first Harlan Ellison book, and it turned me into a rabid fan.

Another "never heard of" that I think I might like, especially inclusive of humor. That's part of why I love Jim Butcher's works.

 

[BDBoop]

H L Mencken.

Terry Pratchett

P J ORoarke

Rudyard Kipling

Vladimir Voinovich

I LOVE Terry Pratchett. Blame my best friend. I also currently have a P J ORoarke that I'm slogging through.

I seem to have developed, thanks to my Kindle, a sort of reading ADD. So I don't stick to one book at a time anymore.

 

[BDBoop]

Herman Wouk
Winds of War
War and Remembrance

A back in the day author. These 2 books are not read in a day nor in a week. You want a taste of what the war in Europe was about and how it affected the people, these 2 books are a must read. I like thick books and the characters here become a part of your life from the very beginning.

I read Winds of War a very long time ago.

Have you ever read Turtledove?

 

[BDBoop]

The Communist Manifesto and Capital : a critique of political economy by Karl Marx
The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism by Max Weber
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life by Emile Durkheim
The Structure of Social Action by Talcott Parsons
Social Theory and Social Structure by Robert K. Merton
Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society by Ralf Dahrendorf
The Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills
The Polish peasant in Europe and America by William Isaac Thomas
Coming of age in Samoa by Margaret Mead
The Social Construction of Reality by Peter L. Berger
A Social History of Anthropology in the U.S. by Thomas C. Patterson
Myth and Meaning by Claude Lévi-Strauss

You read books that sound very ... packed with knowledge and information. Yes? I read to relax, for the most part.

 

[BDBoop]

Joe McGinness "The Rogue". A very funny book.

Read it.

 

[BDBoop]

And personally, for lovers of fantasy, I do thoroughly enjoy Anne Bishop's Black Jewels series.

 

[BDBoop]

And in the vein of Terry Pratchett, I thoroughly enjoy Jasper Fforde.

 

[Mr.Nick]

Even if they are from WAY the hell back in the day. For instance; Anne Rice. I've never read her works. Any fans? Dean Koontz? Stephen King? I've got a Kindle gift certificate, and I want to branch out from my usual fantasy fare.

Ayn Rand
PJ O'Rourke
Michael Savage
Thomas Sowell
George Orwell
Karl Marx
David Horowitz

All is good reading....

 

[Sunshine]

Even if they are from WAY the hell back in the day. For instance; Anne Rice. I've never read her works. Any fans? Dean Koontz? Stephen King? I've got a Kindle gift certificate, and I want to branch out from my usual fantasy fare.

Tom Robbins. Start with: Still Life with Woodpecker.

Canyon of the Vaginas is a good short story of his.

http://canyoneeringusa.com/rave/0808yo/index8.htm

 

[Mr.Nick]

Oh yea...

Hitler
Mao
Barack Obama
Barack Obma Jr
Kim Jong Il
Kim Il Sung
Mao
Pol Pot
Lenin
Castro
Che Guevara (from the sidelines)
Saddam

 

[Ringel05]

The Communist Manifesto and Capital : a critique of political economy by Karl Marx
The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism by Max Weber
The Elementary Forms of Religious Life by Emile Durkheim
The Structure of Social Action by Talcott Parsons
Social Theory and Social Structure by Robert K. Merton
Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society by Ralf Dahrendorf
The Sociological Imagination by C. Wright Mills
The Polish peasant in Europe and America by William Isaac Thomas
Coming of age in Samoa by Margaret Mead
The Social Construction of Reality by Peter L. Berger
A Social History of Anthropology in the U.S. by Thomas C. Patterson
Myth and Meaning by Claude Lévi-Strauss

You read books that sound very ... packed with knowledge and information. Yes? I read to relax, for the most part.

I post here, watch movies and play video games to relax. I did most of my escape reading when I was much younger, pre-personal computer/internet days. Now I read for knowledge and if it is properly written it can be just as engrossing as a good novel, fantasy adventure or sci-fi book.

 

[Sunshine]

Bobbie Ann Mason

 

[Zander]

Here are 3 books that I have recently read and recommend:

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=just+kids&x=0&y=0"]Patty Smith- Just Kids.[/ame] This is a memoir about Patty Smith and her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Patty is an excellent writer and this book is superb. The bonus for me was getting back into Patty Smith's music.....I was "dancing barefoot" by the end...an excellent, easy read.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Last-Days-Ptolemy-Grey-ebook/dp/B0040SYJ0U/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2"]The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley.[/ame] The story of the last days a 91 year old man's life that you will never forget- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. It was really a terrific book and one helluva story.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Wench-A-Novel-P-S-ebook/dp/B003100UPQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1318728664&sr=1-1"]Wench - by Dolen Perkins Valdez. [/ame] A story about the lives of four slave womenwho are their masters' mistresses. The women meet when their owners vacation at the same summer resort in Ohio. There, they see free blacks for the first time and hear rumors of abolition, sparking their own desires to be free. It's a great book that really gets the mind thinking.....get it!

 

[SFC Ollie]

Terry Brooks

 

[Sunshine]

Betty Bao Lord

 

[Si modo]

H L Mencken.

Terry Pratchett

P J ORoarke

Rudyard Kipling

Vladimir Voinovich

Somehow I don't think Boop would enjoy ol' PJ.

 

[percysunshine]

Richard Feynman

What do you care what other people think?

 

[JWBooth]

Kurt Vonnegut - especially Welcome to the Monkey House
John D. McDonald
Dan Jenkins
Michael Crichton
Daniel V. Gallery