Official Luthiers Forum!

   O.K. now I'm curious about what you folks like to read, and I don't mean any books of worship...

I'll make it a top 5 for me...

1- A Confederacy of Dunces, John Kennedy Toole. Probably the most outrageous read of my life. Hard to explain and even harder to put down, or forget. This is my 'only book allowed on a deserted island' type scenario read... Oh yeah, did I mention I really like this book?

2- 1984 Eric Arthur Blair (a.k.a. George Orwell)

3- One flew over the Cuckoo's nest. Ken Kesey

4-

5- Anything by Hemmingway, Joyce, Steinbeck, Camus, Faulkner, Poe, Goldring or any of them letter writtin' folk... Hey, it's a long list...   

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

Not much of a reader here but i read "THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED" and read it a couple of times also. The college years and the bit of university i did discouraged me from reading more and also the c**p that we read in the newspapers!

Serge

1.anything by john le carre - aspecially "the spy who came in from the cold" which ive read in 4 languages and loved it each and every time.
2."the executioner's song" by Norman Mailer.
3.Simon Singh's book ("the code book", and the other one about Phermes theorem, but i m not sure how its called in English - read it in hebrew and they always find a funny way of "translating" the books titles.)
4.not books but surely favories - LMI and Lee Valley catalogs ;)
5.i book which ive been looking at way too much lately is "calculus for electrical eng. pt.1&2" by Prof.Yuri Domshlak 7 Dr. Tanya Zaltzmann ;)

The complete works of J.R.R. Tolkien. Still can`t get a positive grasp on The simarillion, though.

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Give me 50 cents worth of regular.
Check my oil too, if you don`t mind,,,

I'm an SF Geek, mostly modern stuff, although Orwell and Huxley get a peek in. Tolkien (The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings) was pretty formative, Neil Stephenson's 'Cryptonomicon' is a favourite, as are several of Neil Gaiman's works (in particular American Gods). In terms of proper SF, the list's a bit on the long side. I recently finished Simon Ing's 'The Weight of Numbers' (not published in the US, and not SF), which is an excellent, excellent book.

Other authors generally enjoyed include Ken MacLeod, Kim Stanley Robinson, Stephen Baxter, and Greg Egan.

In terms of collections of shorter fiction, my hands-down favourite collections are Ted Chiang's "Stories of Your Life and Others", which contains some great, unique SF/Science-Fantasy (as in: they're fantastical, but written with a Science-Fictional sensibility if that makes any sense) stories, and Kelly Link's mind and genre-bending 'weird fiction', beautifully written collection "Magic for Beginners" (stories have deservedly won several awards). If you want to give Link a try, one of the stories from Magic for Beginners can be read here, and her entire first collection, 'Stranger Things Happen' (which is next on my 'to read' pile) may be downloaded/read for free under a Creative Commons license right here.

You might find it a bit too strange (some people can't 'connect' with Link's writing), but I love it to death.Mattia Valente38857.1737615741

I don't really have favorite books. I discover a "new" author and if I like that book, I then pretty much devour everything they've ever written. So I guess I have favorite authors rather than favorite books.

Tolkien's books

Anything by Tad Williams is a pretty good read

Ditto anything by Stephen King, especially his last book Cell, that one was a humdinger, best thing he's done in years, I couldn't put it down and finished it in less than a day.

Richard Adams' Watership Down is one of my favorites.

Raymond Feist's books are great, as are David Eddings' books, they are kinda the same though.

If you like detective novels, then anything by Ian Rankin, Michael Connelly, or Greg Iles.

Douglas Adams Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series are probably my all time favorites, pity the movie was .

I'm also a sucker for a good escape or war time espionage story, particulaly if it's non-fiction. Anything about Colditz by Pat Reid, or A Man Called Intrepid by William Stephenson is a real eye-opener. Those guys were so unbelievably resourceful, I would think that most guys here would enjoy those books.

The list goes on....

(1) Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Hundred Years of Solitude, Love in the Time of Cholera
(2) Thomas Pynchon - Gravity's Rainbow
(3) Ursula LeGuin - everything. Earthsea is my favorite fantasy
(4)Barbara Tuchman - A Distant Mirror (history)

After that, it becomes a continuum. My most avid reader friends these days like Margaret Atwood a lot, but she doesn't grab me.

Lee Valley and LMI catalogs indeed! What about Japan Woodworker?

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Winters Tale is indeed really good - a heady experience. I haven't read Refiner's Fire yet.

I'm actually a fairly slow reader, especially now with my 53 year old eyes and bifocals not helping. Combine that with the fact that I'm editor in chief for a fairly voluminous journal, and it becomes clear why my list of favorite books are 20-30 years old, and not likely to change anytime soon.

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

I've been doing quite a bit of reading lately. Can't stand much of anything on TV anymore. I read for entertainment. With few exceptions, "Literature" leaves me so bored, I'd almost rather watch TV. The few exceptions are Hemmingway, John Steinbeck, and perhaps Arthur Conan Doyle. I also liked John Nichols' Milagro Beanfield War quite a bit. If you liked the movie, hey, the book is even better.

I got on a Dean Koontz kick recently. Ended up reading almost all of his stuff. I'd say that Odd Thomas is my favorite. I liked it better than the sequel Forever Odd.

I've been a fan of scifi since I was 12, and still read it some. I don't really have any current favorites, but like Paul, if I find a writer who's style I like, I'll look for other books he or she has written, and read them as well.

Best,

Michael

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Live to Play, Play to Live

I am a big fan of Chuck Palahniuk. Favorite by him is either Survivor or Choke.

Anything by Hunter S Thompson is always an interesting read.

Some Favorites by others:
Grimms Grimmest
Players (Its about the true identity of William Shakesphere)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Dantes Inferno
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

I'm a SF/Fantasy phreak too. Read the Lord of the Rings in the summer in between 5th and 6th grade, and still think it is one of the finest pieces of western literature ever written.

1. Lord of the Rings/ The Hobbit
2. The River Why
3. The Catcher in the Rye
4. Ringworld (series)
5. Guns, Germs, and Steel

Hard to limit it to five, 'cause I read pretty much everything I can get my hands on! Have since I was 3 1/2. (Dad was an elementary school teacher, and believed reading was the single most important skill a person could have. Thanks Dad!)

-Mark

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Pullman, WA

The more I know, the more I know I don't know.

trippguitars.com
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I don't read a lot but I really liked "Claptons Guitar" by Allen St.John.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Ive just finished reading

One River -Wade Davis -->briliant!!!!
Perfume - Patrick Suskind
The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho
Guitarmaking Tradition and Technology - William R Cumpiano, Johnathan D Natelson{quite a number of other books on the subject, although this is the one I use as my main refference and read and re-read chapters.
The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross - John Marco Allegro
charliewoodcharliewood38857.4741666667

[QUOTE=PaulB] Ditto anything by Stephen King, especially his last book Cell, that one was a humdinger, best thing he's done in years, I couldn't put it down and finished it in less than a day.

[/QUOTE]

I read all of King back in the early days...haven't read him in years, since he seemed to've hit a slump..."Insomnia" cashed it in for me...but I'll give Cell a try...don't know if I'll finish it in a day tho!

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

But, my favorites are,

For fiction, the "Dirk Pitt" series by Clive Cussler, anything by Frank Peretti...

Non-fiction, an antique by Jaques Cousteau called "Silent World" about the early days of underwater exploration,

"A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking...read that a few times, but then I had to to get a grasp of it!

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http://www.presnallguitars.com

The last book I read was the stranger by Camu last week. I couldn't put it down. Read it cover to cover in about 3 hours.

Al

1st and 2nd Corinthians by Paul

Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson (sp?)

Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. THERE! I SAID IT! ecklesweb38857.5200578704

[QUOTE=ToddStock] 'Atlas Shrugged' by Ayn Rand
[/QUOTE]

Yeah, that one tops the list.

I have read a few other good books recently.

In cold blood -- never read it .. then I saw capote. Great BOOK!

Born in Blood -- facinating. (It is about the connction between the ancient order of the templar knights and the modern freemasonic lodges.) It isn't a conspiricy book, just a historical POV. Very interesting though.

The world is flat - By Thomas Friedman. Another very interesting book.

The Kite Runner. This book is a little "girly" but it is a fantastic story.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

The Da Vinci code

Cool... I knew I'd get some good reads here to peak my interest... My 'up next' list just got longer...

I had forgotten to mention Catcher in the Rye... (Wonder if the NSA just picked up on that?...hmmm)

Some other favorites of mine are Lord of the Rings. Hitch Hikers Guide was pretty awesome as well. Leon Uris' Trinity and The Haj are very excellent Historical fiction books, as are Shogun and Tai Pan from James Clavell...

   I'm currently reading a book by Suzanna Clarke 'Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell'... It's quite a good book, superbly written and an outstanding first on her part.

   One book I had started to read but never finished (a real shame) was 'Tommy got a gun'. If I'm not mistaken, Metallica's James Hethfield was inspired by it to write 'One' off the Justice album.... Powerful stuff...

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I'd like to be able to prove, just for once, that money wouldn't make me happy...

For my last birthday, my wife got me the entire series of James Herriot's books: All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Wise and Wonderful, All Things Bright and Beautiful, and The Lord God Made Them All.
I simply couldn't put them down, and read them through maybe three times. Then I ordered James Herriot's Yorkshire, which is a beauty.

I've been an Anglophile of late.

Steve

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From Nacogdoches...the oldest town in Texas.

http://www.stephenkinnaird.com

The Hardy Boys


Actually, for the past year +, nothing but lutherie books. For the 5 years prior to that, nothing but religious books. I'm not a religious nut, but when I have an interest, I pursue it with fervor. Read the Bible through completely 5 (five) times in that time (three of those being King James Version), along with half dozen related books.

Getting ready to start the Da Vinci Code, and I love books by Dave Barry.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Any book that has the first letter in each paragraph oversized and starts with the phrase "Once upon a time"
with a picture on every page.

Mike
White Oak, Texas