The best thing you ever read.

^The Experience of Nothingness, by Michael Novak is the most disturbing thing I ever read. Triggered an existential crisis that lasted a few years, in my 20s.
 
xjwmx said:
^The Experience of Nothingness, by Michael Novak is the most disturbing thing I ever read. Triggered an existential crisis that lasted a few years, in my 20s.
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I'm a glutton for punishment, I ordered it :).
 
Novak turned into a Catholic priest since it was written, so evidently he got over writing it too. :)

But if you want a book you'll truly love, the I suggest The Personal Recollections.... that I mentioned.
 
I'm a huge Bukowski fan also. I'll generally read anything I can get my hands on. My Dads the same way. He lives in NC and we send books back and forth so much we could open a used book store. A great read is a book called The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks. Really, give it a try.
 
I ordered The Personal Recollections too, and The Last Samurai. I second the recommendation on The Wasp Factory, that book is really good too. I'm just finishing up "The Way Through Doors", confusing read with stories inside stories inside stories...not sure if I like it or not.
 
The Cathedral and the Bazaar & Homesteading the Noosphere by Eric S. Raymond
 
Best Military history is CHICKENHAWK, by Robert Mason. A Huey Pilot with the 7th Air Cav (Custers old Divison) a true story of life as a combat pilot with over 1000 missions, and an ending that will leave you in shock. www.robertcmason.com
 
One of the most important books I've read is "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" by T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia). True, it is an autobiography of his service, in the mid-east, during WWI. But more than that, it's also a explanation of the mid-east today and how it became what it is.
 
"If a man wants to carry two cats home by their tails, by all means let him. He'll learn things that he might not have otherwise even guessed, and the experience will be one he'll not soon forget!"

~S. Clemens
 
pyroman said:
Best Military history is CHICKENHAWK, by Robert Mason. A Huey Pilot...
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In the early 90s I went through a phase where I read it must have been dozens of true Vietnam accounts in paperback. There's a whole genre of that. There was a group of Rangers who served together and several of them wrote books. A lot of times you realize you're reading an account you've read before, except from a different point of view and position. I remember reading one or two by a special forces guy by the name of Bendel; lots of living with the natives in the mountains and helping direct their resistance efforts. Another by a Medal of Honor recipient. Another by the father of Marine Corps sniping, who uses a Winchester Model 70....
 
xjwmx said:
In the early 90s I went through a phase where I read it must have been dozens of true Vietnam accounts in paperback. There's a whole genre of that. There was a group of Rangers who served together and several of them wrote books. A lot of times you realize you're reading an account you've read before, except from a different point of view and position. I remember reading one or two by a special forces guy by the name of Bendel; lots of living with the natives in the mountains and helping direct their resistance efforts. Another by a Medal of Honor recipient. Another by the father of Marine Corps sniping, who uses a Winchester Model 70....
Click to expand...

I meant to say the best Military I have ever read, personally. Also, working for Bell Helicopter, I am rather a fan of the Huey.
 
+1 on Tom Robbins and Christopher Moore. Moore's "Lamb" is probably the most laugh out loud funny book I have read.
 
For comedy, the old "MASH" series. I happened to find a couple and read them. I never laughed so often as I did with these 2 books.
I read "Chickenhawk too. Going to re-read it soon. "Dispatches" is a fine 'Nam era book.
 
The most recent thing I've read is this:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/bold-spirit-linda-lawrence-hunt/1100618100

A book titled "Bold Spirit", the true story of a woman's walk from Spokane to Manhattan, in 1896. Yes, WALK.

Her carpenter husband becomes injured and the family of seven children are about to be foreclosed on and made homeless. A mysterious stranger back east offers her $10,000 if she and her oldest daughter will walk from Spokane to Manhattan within a stipulated amount of time. Along the way she has to stop at state capitols and get the signatures of various prominent politicians.

She makes it, and the stranger reneges on the deal, and she's stranded in NY for the winter. A couple of her children back home die of diphtheria. She eventually gets back home by train.

From the time she returns home, she's basically an outcast in her family. They blame her for the death of the two children, since in 1896 a mother's place is in the home, not traveling unescorted and not meeting prominent and powerful men. The trip is never spoken of in the family. It's thought of as shameful and is hushed up. She had plans to write a book, but she herself begins to think it was shameful, and so she doesn't.

In her old age, after her husband dies, she begins writing the book, and has created hundreds of pages of notes about the trip. One time her little grand daughter sees her and asks her once what she's doing, and she tell the grand daughter to "keep this story alive."

When the woman dies, two of her daughters gather the notes and purposely burn them. The grand daughter remembers what her grand mother had told her, and is able to secretly save just a very few things. Then when her own husband dies, in 1968, she feels comfortable with making it public.
 
zen and the art of motorcycle maintainence by Robert Persig, alot deeper than it sounds .If youve read it ,im the dude that cuts up a beer can to make up BMW handle bar shims.all aside everyone will get something outa this book.

I don't read much but I did read this one. It's worth reading again. Last book I read was
Shop Class as Soul Craft. Not worth reading again in my humble opinion.
 
Ive just re-read my original edition copy of Ernie Pyles 'Here Is Your War' .
The only book, I think, that Ive read more than twice, its a brilliant read,youve got to try it. WWII from the 'normal' frontline soldiers perspective
 

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