PCinDC

Looking for some recommended reading - any subject. Sid Vicious' post got me wondering what other Rennlister's read in their spare time...Aside from Pano and Excellence
<img border="0" alt="[cheers]" title="" src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" />

Personal favorites include Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Kalil Gibran's The Prophet, Anything by JRR Tolkien (highly recommend the Silmarillion), Frank Herbert's Dune series, and some of the Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles (actually some decent writing there).
I'm currently reading Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Great book so far...

Eric

Paul,

I highly recommend Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange". If you have only seen the movie, read the book, the last chapter changes the entire gist and message of the movie, and reflects Burgess' true point about mankind. It is an easy read too.
"American Psycho" by Ellis is another good read.
And the always classic--"Understanding Media" by Marshall Mcluhan(or McClean-can't remember right now)Great book.

Riff

Paul-

Give "Ender's Game" and the subsequent books by Orson Scott Card a read. Highly recomended.

Cheers

SidViscous

Agree Riff.

Other recomendations.

cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson <a href="http://www.cryptonomicon.com/" target="_blank">www.cryptonomicon.com/</a> As well as all his others, but Crypto was the best.

W.E.B. Griffin has a variety of series about the military (Less combat than peascetime) including The Army, OSS, MArines, and even the Philidelphia police. All great books.

And also "THe making of the Atom Bomb" By richard Rhodes. Absolutely great book. His second one wasn't as good though.

MichelleJD

We've done this once before, but try this: <a href="http://www.theonion.com/" target="_blank">The Onion</a>
Great stuff!

nixwiz

Agree with the Cryptonomicon and other Neal Stephenson recommendations. Also on my list of authors that I read:

Douglas Coupland
James Rollins
Lincoln Child & Douglas J. Preston (great books together and separately)

pcutt

Skunkworks by Ben Rich. About the famous Lockheed group that developed the SR-71.

The Evolution of Civilizations by Carroll Quigley. How and why civlizations rise and fall.

Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William Shirer. History of **** Germany.

History of Trees by Robert Perlin. How trees have played a part in world history.

As you can tell, I like history. A lot.

Jack667

I really liked the Unfair Advantage by Mark Donohue.

Also, the Speed Merchants looks like a "coffee table book", just filled with great photos. Turns out that it's a great read also...

yoyoguy2

i second the neal stepehnson and orson scott card (especially ender's game) in a similar vein i like chuck pahlinuk (most know for the book that inspired the movie fight club).

i also really liked michael shaara's The Killer Angels, the book behind the movie Gettysburg. i've always been interested in the civil war, and it's very historically accurate while still being a great novel.. his son Jeff Shaara continued the series with more books on the civil war, as well as the mexican war and american revolution, which are also good.

i'm also a fan of michael crichton and stephen king, in the "bestselling author" class...

elf89

For novels, try any Nelson DeMille. His later stuff tends to be better. My favorites are "The Gold Coast" and "Plum Island". Although the latest one I'm aware of, "The Lions Game", was pretty good too.

GOBOGIE

The Bible.

It hasn't led me wrong yet & has gotten my butt out of a sling more than once!

lehtola

Armageddon just came out. It's part of the "Left Behind" series. I wish I didn't start reading them until they were all available. I can tell you that when you start reading them...you won't want to put it down.

Dave E

I the way Stephen King writes, even though I'm not big on the genre. Ender's Game was great, Pillars of the earth was pretty good. Car book? Going Faster, by Carl Lopez

UDPride

I recommend The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.

His account of surviving the Vietnam war mentally and physically. Only 200 pages or so. Perhaps the greatest book Ive ever read. Ive never read a person who could turn a phrase like OBrien. Some of his sentences belong in the Smithsonian. As a writer myself, its hard to believe this is fiction, but written on personal experiences. It is too real to be remotely untrue.

ian

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">Originally posted by UDPride:
<strong>I recommend The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien.

</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Helvetica">I'll have to 2nd that, I read it when I was a jr in highschool and have gone back to read it once or twice, it is an incredible read.

But to throw something a little different at the board Hocus Pocus by Vonnegut. Just an interesting fictional story about one mans life only the way K.V. can write.

Or for some satire on the world, by another great writer, Douglas Adams and his off beat works should do the trick.