Books?

What book(s) are you reading / do you recommend?

"The Tao of Pooh"

Benjamin Hoff

(Not sure atm if I recommend this )

Probably posted in the wrong forum

i haven't been able to read a book in a pretty long time due to my brain not cooperating... but when i was in 6th grade i read all of piers anthony books they had in the library... if you like fantasy... you probably will like them...

i actually read alot of books in 6th grade... cant remember them all but it was my escape... before i stopped going to public school and made my dad let me do homeschool...

i wish i could remember them all, they were really good... i would escape into a fantasy world, i miss it so much!

they were doing a reader program where you read books and get points for reading them and taking quizes... and like 10 people were going to be chosen to go on a fieldtrip with the highest points and i had more points than anyone in middle school! but of course i didnt go on the trip because i didnt want to...

piers anthony is the only author i can remember though... if you read any of them lemme know which one and if you like it

I've been reading Charles Dickens' 'Bleak House' on and off. It's rather long but funny in parts.
Before that I read a psychological thriller called 'Therapy' written by a German author, which was compelling and particularly effective because it was from the protagonist's point of view, which was completely unreliable due to his various neurological issues.
I also recently read 'Her fearful symmetry' by Audrey Niffenegger. Strong characterisation and themes although I found the ghost talk a bit unnerving.

I've also taken up writing again in recent months, which I find very empowering. And getting absorbed in a story by reading is fantastic, too.

Similar to what you said, Elevatedsoul, I find it really takes me away from the aspects of my life that I find difficult to contend with. I find art and stories absolutely essential. It's something I deeply believe in and it has kept me going in the absence of other things I have wanted and didn't get.

Yes, maybe I check out one of the book forums here. :-)

The power of now.
Many lives many masters.
Walden.
Siddhartha.
Soul on fire (Peter Calhoun).
Into the wild (Krakauer).
Journey of Souls (Michael Newton).

I like science fiction... currently my favorite author is Robert J. Sawyer. Hard sci-fi with interesting characters and social themes.

I highly recommend Rollback featuring a romance of an elderly couple.

His WWW Trilogy (www:Wake, www:Watch, and www:Wonder)is maybe my favorite book series ever (toppling Issac Asimov's Foundation), about the internet becoming sentient and learning morality from a teenage blind girl. Sounds silly but truly brilliant ideas and some exciting themes.

I'm currently reading his new novel... Just released a week or so ago, Quantum Night about the nature of psychopathy and consciousness. He has several novels considering the nature of consciousness.

And I can't help but mention Isaac Asimov... When I was a kid hospitalized (medical issue... mental health didn't hit me until much later) I had trouble focusing in the hospital and therefore reading but someone got me a book of his short stories including Buy Jupiter and other stories, some of them were very short (one story was 1 and a half pages!) and I found them great to take my mind off of things and that's what got me reading science fiction.

He was a genius.

Yep I fell in love with him reading his work in the hospital. The short stories got me started and all of his Robot "Three Laws Of Robotics" stories were absolutely brilliant and I started on the Foundation Trilogy either while I was still in the hospital or while I was home recovering.

I recently picked up one that I had missed so long ago... The Gods Themselves. Amazing, can't believe I had missed it.

I find Robert J. Sawyer to be very similar in style and themes and I am enjoying him thoroughly. If you like mysteries (like Asimov's mysteries) I can also recommend Sawyer's The Golden Fleece. Setup very very similar to Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey with a colony ship heading out to populate a planet and a murder by a computer. The mystery is the protagonist discovering that the computer committed murder and then exposing why. Engaging with a satisfying if spooky ending.

When I could read books my favourite Authors, who I reread over and over again, were:

Isaac Asimov.
Terry Pratchett.
H.G. Wells.
Roger Zelazny.

Apart from Asimov's classic Foundation and Robots Series, his best novel imo was The End of Eternity.

Dave.

I have a book autographed by him, he asked me how to spell my name. D-A-V-I-D. LOL I will never forget that. Geez I don't even remember what book that is, it has to be one of my hardcover Foundation sequels.

Edit: Found it... Foundation's Edge, signed June 1985. Sitting on my shelf next to Robots and Empire...

If I'm remembering the correct novel, The End of Eternity had one of the best plot twists I ever read that was revealed with a subtle hint in a previous chapter that made me flip the pages back once it was revealed... WAIT, WHAT?!

And it was the same plot twist he used in an earlier novel and I couldn't believe he got me with it again.

WOW that's awesome. And funny at the same time. Someone once told me that extremely intelligent people are very good for some specific things but dumb for some others!

Nice anecdote, thanks for sharing.

I always assumed he didn't hear me or didn't understand what I said and asking me was more polite than asking me to repeat myself. In any case it made for a memorable story.

Ah haha haven't thought of that. Maybe you're right!

He also eventually - and brilliantly - combined this storyline with the Foundation reality to explain why humans were the only intelligence in the Galaxy.

Dave.