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Your favorite 2 books (non series) and your 2 favorite series

Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault
A historical novel about Alexander the Great at ages 5-20.

Lincoln by Gore Vidal
A historical novel about Lincoln during his presidency.

Series: The Ring quadrilogy (including The Hobbit, which IMO was actually the best of the series) by Tolkien.
 
Grand Mal said:
D.T.Suzuki? Ever get a look at 'Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind' by Shunryu Suzuki? I found it more accesible, maybe because he'd spent time in the west. Daisetz Suzuki, at least the translation I read, seemed kind of cumbersome.
Agree about the Alan Watts. A good intro to Taoism. If Taoism needs to be introduced. I recommend Thomas Merton (a Benedictine monk) on Chuang Tzu as an alternative.
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I traveled from Fromm to Jung to Watts to Suzuki and was heavily into the Tao..a year or so after when I tried to read S Suzuki he just did not grove, I got nothing out of it, so I stopped.

It probably will not shock you that during this time I did a lot of drugs to include some very important acid trips, and that there is a great story about the day that I showed up for work at 5 am on a Sat morning at the East Lansing BIG BOY still tripping on acid.....the only day I ever got sent home early in my entire work career that was actually my fault.



Note Thomas Merton I have long known and appreciated.
 
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Hawkeye10 said:
I traveled from Fromm to Jung to Watts to Suzuki and was heavily into the Tao..a year or so after when I tried to read S Suzuki he just did not grove, I got nothing out of it, so I stopped.

It probably will not shock you that during this time I did a lot of drugs to include some very important acid trips, and that there is a great story about the day that I showed up for work at 5 am on a Sat morning at the East Lansing BIG BOY still tripping on acid.....the only day I ever got sent home early in my entire work career that was actually my fault.



Note Thomas Merton I have long known and appreciated.
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Cool. Merton is worth a lot of anyone's time. The Chuang Tzu, the Birds of Appetite, and that other thing, Modern Man? Something like that. What I liked about Merton instead of Watts- Watts knew what he was talking about and had immersed himself in the subject. Merton just was. He was a religious mystic, he didn't dwell on what that meant- he just took it to Zen and Tao and wrote what he thought. There was that other thing, too, about him realizing his calling when he was young. The last line mentioned the monastery he joined, Gethsemane?
 
Skeptic Bob said:
Non-series
Of Mice and Men
It

Series
The Dresden Files
Harry Potter

I am almost certain Game of Thrones would replace Dresden Files if I read the whole series. I only read the first book of GoT and it was one of the best books I have ever read. But I didn’t want to continue until the series was finished and I can’t really rate a whole series if I have only read one book of it. The two series I did list are the only non-trilogy series that I read straight through and would eagerly await any new release.
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Somehow I had never heard of the Dresden Files until about a year ago. I'm about 6 books in now.
 
Winston said:
I prefer the scrawlings of 19th century Englishmen and women.

Almost all of my faves are from English writers in the 1800's. Dickens, Austen, Hardy, James, etc. I had a fetish for long winded and flowery expression. Basically the equal and opposite of Hemingway.

Should probably give a shout to Crime and Punishment by Dostoevky too. That's arguably the greatest novel ever written.
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I second your shout out to Crime and Punishment. I love that novel.
 
devildavid said:
I second your shout out to Crime and Punishment. I love that novel.
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Perfect example of tension in a narrative.


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Favorite non-series:

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Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
The Alienist by Caleb Carr

Favorite series:

Trevanian's spy trilogy: The Eiger Sanction, The Loo Sanction and Shibumi

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Non-series
A brave new world and 1984

series
Lord of the rings and Crave the mark series
 
Winston said:
Should probably give a shout to Crime and Punishment by Dostoevky too. That's arguably the greatest novel ever written.
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They say that he was a bad or second rate writer, but that book has scenes that, for some reason, just stay in my brain forever. I read it over 30 years ago, yet parts like the sister's reaction to being axed, and the part where he's trying different keys to open the lock, or Katerina coughing from tb, Dostoevsky makes you feel like you were standing in the room while these events were happening.
 
aociswundumho said:
They say that he was a bad or second rate writer, but that book has scenes that, for some reason, just stay in my brain forever. I read it over 30 years ago, yet parts like the sister's reaction to being axed, and the part where he's trying different keys to open the lock, or Katerina coughing from tb, Dostoevsky makes you feel like you were standing in the room while these events were happening.
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Agree he was an incredibly visceral writer
 
ttwtt78640 said:
Everything that Ken Follett has written is worth reading, IMHO, as is the case with Tom Clancy - both have a knack for the hero not being a "super hero" and taking some lumps and bumps. Michener was great for making history come alive even if he had to make up some names and places to do so. Jean Auel was very interesting and entertaining if you can stand her feminist view of pre-history (even God was Earth Mother).
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I was an early fan of Tom Clancy with Hunt for Red October. Later, I felt he was phoning it in with Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. When he started just putting his name of the covers of of other writers, I gave up on him.

Big fan of Louis L'Amour. I think I've read virtually everything David Baldacci ever wrote.
 
The King James Bible








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Autobiography of Einstein


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