Books

[gamelan]

i'm on disability right now from a herniated disc. give me some good books to read. i'll tend to avoid anything that relates to history, politics, and world affairs so any recommendations there on how to ease into those subjects would be great. i'm muddling through Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man" right now. it is doubtful that i will finish it because the English is very tedious for my unread mind.

also, i'd love recommendations on good fiinance/personal investing books.

an an idea, here's what i've read so far. i've enjoyed all the books:

Machiavelli's The Prince
Agile Project Development with Scrum
Sun Tzu's The Ancient Art of War
Gogol's Deal Souls
Keith Ferrazzi's Never Eat Alone
Doestoevsky's The Idiot
Richard Burn's Pathfinder
Peter Lynch's One Up On Wall Street
Kenneth Fisher's Common Stocks, Uncommon Profits

on my plate:

Buffett's The Intelligent Investor
Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influnce People
Shackelton's Endurance
probably something by Pushkin since every other Russian novelist quotes him in their own novels

please help a man through periods of immense boredom.

-Jeff

 

[Huntsman]

Tim Robbins' "Even Cowgirls Get The Blues." Very odd, but you can learn quite a good deal from it if you read it with an open mind.

Regards,
Huntsman

 

[VMan]

But seriously, are you interested in fiction or non-fiction mostly? If I were in your position I'd do my best to try and read all the 'necessary classics'.

 

[Edward Appleby]

If you fancy something to keep you up at night, read House of Leaves.

 

[gamelan]

Originally Posted by VersaceMan

But seriously, are you interested in fiction or non-fiction mostly? If I were in your position I'd do my best to try and read all the 'necessary classics'.

ha! i'll add Coulter to my list. seriously, though, fiction/non-fiction it doesn't really matter. but if there is a list of 'necessary classics' i'd definitely be interested in taking a look.

-Jeff

 

[Rome]

Books: (fiction)
James Joyce – Ulysses (once without the companion and once with to see all the stuff you missed.)
Herman Melville – Moby Dick and only this book “aka” everything you never wanted to know about whaling
Jack Kerouac – On the road, The Dharma bums

Poetry:
Allen Ginsberg – Selected poems
Saul Williams – Said the Shotgun to the Head
Ezra Pound – Selected poems

Bojangles the Racist Cat’s “Pick of the Litter” is:

Franz Kafka – The Complete Stories (then maybe you too can be one those people that feel to compelled to correct others when they misuse the term “Kafkaesque” )

 

[Kent Wang]

Originally Posted by Rome

Bojangles the Racist Cat
Who is this?

 

[Rome]

My cat.

 

[Kent Wang]

I have always wondered if cats are prone to racism, if they look at black or orange cats and think that they are below them. They are certainly fickle and miserly in affection towards humans that I would not rule out such behavior towards fellow felines.

 

[esquire.]

Originally Posted by Kent Wang

I have always wondered if cats are prone to racism, if they look at black or orange cats and think that they are below them. They are certainly fickle and miserly in affection towards humans that I would not rule out such behavior towards fellow felines.

Probably not, since their vision would be different than ours. They wouldn't see the same colors their owners do.

But, they probably do distinguish other cats by smell.

 

[Earthmover]

I've always been a reader of fiction, so here's a few I'd recommend that are fairly easy reads:

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
The Glass Bead Game by Herman Hesse (this one is rather long, but I think a rather quick read; I read it in English, and found it to be quite phenomenal)
Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway

In nonfiction, one I've always wanted to read was Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond (about the way those three things shaped world history; Disclaimer: I was a history major), and my favorite autobiography, although I haven't read many, was Nelson Mandela's "Long Walk to Freedom", which was both inspiring and was a very comprehensive background into the history of South Africa at the time.

The problem with Pushkin, as I understand it, has always been that translations are nowhere near as sublime as the originals (particulary for poetry), in terms of diction, meter and rhythm. I read a few of his short stories and novels, which were fine, but not great. I haven't read Queen of Spades, but I heard good things about it, so I'd recommend that. I found Captain's Daughter to be rather mundane, so I don't recommend that. Also, half the ballets and operas by Russian composers originate from Pushkin, so that's another way to enjoy them.

Finance, I think there's a few classics. Random walk down Wall street was interesting, but it pounds the same idea for something like 600 pages, but still rather interesting. For simplicity, I have been recommended "The Wealthy Barber" many times, and it's been pretty good for what it sets out to do. For finance related, the two I would go for is Barbarians at the Gate and Liar's Poker by Michael Lewis (who also wrote Moneyball, and by the looks of it, always writes good books)

For purely interesting miscellania, check out two books by Paco Underhill, who claims to be an experts in malls, and consumer anthropology. I picked them up randomly while browsing at a B&N and it can be finished in 3-4 hours.

Yeah, that was long.

Originally Posted by gamelan

i'm on disability right now from a herniated disc. give me some good books to read. i'll tend to avoid anything that relates to history, politics, and world affairs so any recommendations there on how to ease into those subjects would be great. i'm muddling through Thomas Paine's "Rights of Man" right now. it is doubtful that i will finish it because the English is very tedious for my unread mind.

also, i'd love recommendations on good fiinance/personal investing books.

an an idea, here's what i've read so far. i've enjoyed all the books:

Machiavelli's The Prince
Agile Project Development with Scrum
Sun Tzu's The Ancient Art of War
Gogol's Deal Souls
Keith Ferrazzi's Never Eat Alone
Doestoevsky's The Idiot
Richard Burn's Pathfinder
Peter Lynch's One Up On Wall Street
Kenneth Fisher's Common Stocks, Uncommon Profits

on my plate:

Buffett's The Intelligent Investor
Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influnce People
Shackelton's Endurance
probably something by Pushkin since every other Russian novelist quotes him in their own novels

please help a man through periods of immense boredom.

-Jeff

 

[AdamG]

Some good reads posted so far.

My picks:
House of the Spirits - Isabelle Allende
Meditations - Marcus Aurelius

 

[LabelKing]

Originally Posted by esquire.

Probably not, since their vision would be different than ours. They wouldn't see the same colors their owners do.

But, they probably do distinguish other cats by smell.
Have you seen White Dog?

 

[faustian bargain]

The 48 Laws of Power, Robert Greene

Malcom Gladwell's books were fun to read

for canonical literature, there's a guidebook called 'The New Lifetime Reading Plan' by Clifton Fadiman and John S Major; it's got a nice survey of the classics in its list, from ancient to modern, including western and non-western traditions.

 

[Rome]

Sorry forgot to mention this...

Lefty the Butcher's "Choice Cut":

Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Strange Pilgrims and A Memoir of My Melancholy Whores