Somebody at work gave me a $20 Barnes & Noble gift certificate and I’d like to find something really obscure to read; you know, some title or genre I’d never pick in a million years.
This means the following are out: classics, adventure, training. Personally, I think most modern fiction is garbage and I absolutely refuse to read anything on Oprah’s book list. Sorry.
Any suggestion? The more obscure the better. But it has to be good!
Have you seen or read “Band of Brothers?” If you did and liked it I recommend “Citizen Soldiers” also by Stephen Ambrose.
Godel, Escher and Bach by Douglas Hofstadter - I don’t always think where he was going was right, but it is a good mental exercise and a fun read. A modern classic in certain areas.
Anything by Christopher Moore, Lamb or Bloodsucking Fiends perhaps
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Into the Wild (Paperback)
by Jon Krakauer
Great book if you like this sort of thing but even if you don’t…great book. Reads nothing like the title says or the jacket for that matter.
Pick it up, you will not be able to put it down.
The Ants by Bert Hölldobler, Edward O. Wilson (anything by Edward O. Williams is first rate) The Triumph of Vulcan : sculptors’ tools, porphyry, and the prince in ducal Florence
by Suzanne B. Butters
The Early Christian World By Philip Francis Esler Annals of the Former World by John McPhee
The Jedburghs
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9781586484620&itm=3
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I’ve read this and couldn’t agree more. Thanks.
David Sedaris will have you rolling on the floor. He has several books which are all equally funny.
Strangely enough, this looks right up my alley. I definately think I’m going to give this Moore guy a try. A ‘Dirty Job’ looks good. Have you read this one?
What ever happened to the day you could get a good new paperback for under $5?
This recommendation looks a bit high brow. Will it make me think? Cause I don’t like to think.
Are you a history buff? It’s not really obscure, but David MacCullough’s “1776” was a good read. We sometimes forget just how bad things were early on in the Revolution.
I LOVE history. In college I had to read a book about Columbus. But it wasn’t your run of the mill grammar school “Columbus was a hero” textbook – it actually went through, in graphic detail, how Columbus killed and enslaved thousands of peaceful natives. Since reading this book I’ve never thought about Columbus Day the same. And it sickens me some of the stuff I hear that my kids learned in school about this “great man.” It is strange how we can put a positive spin on history. But I guess it’s all relative. I wish I could find the name of that book. K, enough babling.
Wow. Never heard that either, at least the slaughter part. Another really obscure book I read a long time ago was “Hitler, The Psychopathic God”, it was a psychoanalysis of Hitler. Really intriging stuff. I can’t remember who wrote it. I am still fascinated (that’s the best word I can come up with) at how so many of the German people could have done the things they did in following this lunatic. Although, I guess we could name 10 or 20 petty dictators in third world countries today doing the same thing on a smaller level.
EDIT: I just found it on amazon, it is by Robert Waite. The reviews either loved it or hammered it mercilessly, no in between. I read it a long time ago, so maybe I am remembering it better than it actually is.
I have read it, it’s not my favorite, but still a good/odd book. Certainly worth a read, but many other good ones.
Anything by Raymond Carver. He writes short stories, yet is considered a classics writer. Pretty disturbing stories, he was a long time alcholic who died at 50 of lung cancer. Short, to the point stories that are dark, disturbing but yet humorous.
I’m a big fan of William Burroughs. I think he lived to be 95 or something and he was a heroin addict. He also liked to tote guns. He has some wild stuff to tell.
Is there a particular title of Carver’s you would recommend?
I just read Short Cuts which was pretty good. Apparently and I didn’t know this going in, Robert Altman (creator of MAS*H) made a movie in '93 of the same name loosely based on the book that got good reviews. My favorite is Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?
Oh this sounds good! I may need to check it out!!
This guy sounds similar to Charles Bukowski, another alcoholic who wrote shorts
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