Help me...Please

[Jack_Aubrey]

I got a gift certificate for Christmas to Barnes&Noble, and am clueless o what book to get because of all the choices. So any recommendations are welcome, along with senseless banter.

Thanks.

[Sitaram]

What are your interests? What do you like? What are your hobbies.

The fact that you post here leads me to believe that you have some fictional work in mind.

Obviously, if you are a sports fan, you might like a book about sports, or if you like chess, there are many books on chess.

Regarding literature, one of my all time favorites in sci-fi/fantasy is Ursula LeGuinn's "The Lathe of Heaven," about a man who has "effective" dreams which alter the entire nature of reality, and about a doctor/psychologist megalomanic who tries to harness that power to "make the world right."

Right now, I am getting interested in Sinclair Lewis and his lesser known work "Kingsblood Royal" written in the 1940s about a propserous white banker who discovers he has a distant black ancestor which make him 1/32 Negro, and he lives in the south in a community of great racial prejudice and segregation.

Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning" is an awesome book, and a very short read (in one weekend if you put your mind to it), but it is not fiction. It is a Jewish psychiatrists account of how he survied the Nazi concentration camps.

Another book I really enjoyed, but again this is not fiction, is "If you meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him" by Sheldon Kopp, a psychoanalist who presents the case studies of several of his patients and the problems they faced. Sheldon Kopp draws from the wisdom of many religious and philosophical and literary genres to illustrate the problems which people face in life.

I really enjoyed "Everyday Zen" by Charlotte Joko Beck, but again that is not fiction.

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maitenance" by Pirshig is a great read, is a form of fiction, but has a lot of philosophy woven into it.

I have been trying to get "into" "Moby Dick" by Melville for several years now, and I even have a 1950's dvd of the movie, which starred Gregory Peck.

Sometimes, it really helps to see a movie version to get you into a difficult work. I was enthralled by the PBS television production of "Brideshead Revisited" by Evelyn Waugh. I bough the VHS and watched it several times. It is 5 cassettes so it take about 10 hours to watch the whole thing. I bought the book from B&N which is a slender volume (considering the movie takes 10 hours.) The movie is INCREDIBLY faithful to the text. One may open the novel to any page and notice that the dialogue has been faithfully reproduced word for word in the movie. Evelyn Waugh was a convert to Catholicism. His entire novel, in a subtle way, is about the very gradual conversion to Catholicism, over a period of many years, of the protagonist, Charles Ryder, because of his long time association with members of the Brideshead family. The novel illustrates a phenomenon which Cardinal Newman (also a convert to Catholicism) termed "illation" (a word he coined) meaning the very gradual process over many years whereby a person internalizes various experiences and facts and ultimately arrives at a point where they feel enough religious conviction to convert and embrace the faith.

I have often ment to re-read "Catch 22." We were required to read it in high school (40 years ago) and it is an hilarious comedy with quite a bit of eye-opening truth or philosophy if you will.

As a teenager, I was enthralled by Lawrence Durrell's "Alexandrian Quartet: Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive and Clea", four volumes set in Alexandria Egypt in the 1920's. There is a lot of sex in it, and also much discussion of Islamic culture. It was reading these novels which made me purchase a copy of the Qu'ran (out of sheer curiousity) tranlated by Mohammed Marmaduke Pickthall and read it cover to cover during my summer before college, when I was age 19. Durrell also mentions the poet Cavafy. I becase curious about Cavafy and read his poetry. In my twenties, I learned to speak modern Greek, just for fun, and was able to enjoy some of the poetry in Greek.

Of course, you may search the interent and find so many free downloads of classics to read, especially from the "gugenheim project." You may download many of Tostoy's and Doestoevsky's works. Perhaps "Anna Karenina" and "Crime and Punishment" would be heavy going for you. The books I mention above are probably more easy enjoyable reads for an American, more contemporary.

You might look for "God and the New Physics" by Paul Davies, a physicist who discusses religion in the light of quantum and relativity.

If you want to get some insight into Islam, from the non-Islamic perspective, there is a paperback "Invasion of Islam" by Robert Morey (though it may be out of print now, Im not certain).

I greatly enjoyed "The History of Heresy" by David Christie-Murray which is a one volume paperback. But if such things really interest you, then Jaroslav Pelikan's 5 volume paperback work on "The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine" is simple a breath-taking panoramic view of 2000 years by a Yale Sterling Professor of history who really writes for the layperson and has no particular ideological axe to grind.

Well, this post is rather lengthy. I could write much more if I put my mind to it, but at least this may give you a variety of things to consider, and some things different from the books commonly discussed at this forum.

I suppose you might even take a look at the book I am writing:

http://toosmallforsupernova.org

which is entitled (obviously) "Too Small For Supernova"

Twenty dollars will get you "Crime and Punishment" AND
"Anna Karenina" with perhaps some change to spare, but then your problem will be in finding the time and the discipline and enthusiasm to read through them.

I am reminded of a Mark Twain quote which I encountered today: "Classics are those books that everybody wants to SAY they have read, but nobody wants to take the time to read."

[simon]

Be wary of inviting senseless banter willingly and without any complications whatsoever, likewise watch out for those gnomes, they get jealous of all the attention the elves receive and are liable to play some nasty tricks. My recomendations would include Kafka's Metamorphosis, Twain's A Conneticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, try something light and fun with a work entitled The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts.

[amuse]

that last sounds Very funny

[amuse]

btw, anna karenina requires little discipline if the style and plot appeals to one. it's all a matter of taste. one man's stinky cabbage is another's gourmet sauerkraut. ;)

and Jack, war and peace was much harder for me to partake of (also by tolstoy) but after the stifling drawing-room scenes, there's a lot of wonderful stuff. war, the psychology of men fighting wars (and yes the women making ridiculous namby-pamby scenes - grr for natasha, also prince andrei's sis).

anna k. is largely, though by no means completely, about a woman who deceives her husband and becomes mentally ill, distraught, and....
w&p is more invigorating. anna k. is glorious. they're both excellent.

[Jack_Aubrey]

I didnt want to post what my interests are simply because I am open and will consider all suggestions.

[trismegistus]

I didnt want to post what my interests are simply because I am open and will consider all suggestions.
Goodnight, Moon ?

[subterranean]

I didnt want to post what my interests are simply because I am open and will consider all suggestions.


But what if you finally do take these suggestion, then you buy those books and get "dissapointed" coz you don't consider those books are as good as the members' have told you, don't you think it would be such a waste?

But of course you can always give/donate your books to the needy ;)

[SuicideKitten]

anime magazines.... well that's what i'm getting with the card i got.
But i already have a line of books to read and i could use some picture inspiration, but i don't expect everyone to think like that.

[subterranean]

Are you from Japan or something?

I remember this one character or story...Evangelion???

[Jack_Aubrey]

I went to B&N today and got The Rule of Four By Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. Along with The Brothers Kamarozov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Thanks for the suggestions I'm sure they'll come in handy some time.

[mono]

I loved "The Brothers Kamarozov," and hopefully you will too, Jack. Some people find Dostoevsky's work verbose and slightly dry, but I consider him my favorite of the Russian writers (then again, I have yet to read much of Tolstoy's work).

[subterranean]

I went to B&N today and got The Rule of Four By Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. Along with The Brothers Kamarozov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Thanks for the suggestions I'm sure they'll come in handy some time.

I can give my support to Dostoevsky's but I don't know about the others. :)

[fayefaye]

I bought a barnes and noble copy of Cyrano de Bergerac yesterday, I quite liked it... (I know, that's weird, finishing something the same day you buy it... but i AM weird so THERE!)

[mono]

I loved "Cyrano de Bergerac," and I would never blame you wrongly for reading the play in one day, fayefaye! Its length seems neither long nor short, but my first time reading it might have averaged near one day.