Can someone recommend a book?

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Hey people I've been reading a lot lately in order to try improve my mental coherency by forming opinions and gaining incites about important areas. I've finished Generation Kill, Ross Kemp on Gangs and Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, and I'm looking for something else to read. Do you know any (preferably factual) books about Vietnam that are worth reading about? Or any political analogy that is fairly short, around 300 pages? I've heard Atlas Shrugged is good, but I don't fancy slogging through 1000 pages of paper at the moment. Or do you have any other recommendations, any War/Action related books that stand out, or any classic that deals with a political/social area?

Man's Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl
And There Was Light, by Jacques Lusseyran
Night, by Elie Wiesel
Animal Farm, by George Orwell
Deep Survival, by Laurence Gonzales
Rule Number Two, by Dr. Heidi Squier Kraft

Last edited by DonkeyBuster on 06 Jun 2009, 10:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Gulliver's Travels would fit your criteria.



Candide is a great social satire, very short.

Noam Chomsky: Miseducation

Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone. Haven't read it myself, but I've heard a lot about it.

Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Nothing In This Book Is True, But It's Exactly How Things Are - Bob Frissel (and the following book, haven't read the thrid of the series though. Just look them up if you like)
Canary in A Cat House - Kurt Vonnegut (wasn't bad though most people recommend Slaughterhouse Five which I haven't read myself yet, and Cat's Cradle also seems interesting)

I don't wanna think of any others for now though.

"Do you know any (preferably factual) books about Vietnam that are worth reading about?"
"Incident on hill 192" is a true story about Vietnam, published as "Casualties of war" in the US.
it's quite short, but also quite disturbing (to me anyway)

Or.. Aldous huxley's brilliant "Brave new world"

"The Things They Carried" is an excellent book. And the author actually wrote part of it while he was in the Vietnam war. It's still a work of fiction. But many of the things in it are based on real life events/experiences.

Last edited by kalantir on 07 Jun 2009, 6:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

"The Court of the Air" is an awesome book. Alan Campbell's "Lye Street" and the Deepgate Codex series he wrote is also amazing, if not a little dark/dystopian. I'll always recommend steampunk and/or Sci-Fi, so Stephen Baxter is the author you want if you need some SF in your life, and as far as Steampunk goes, try "Whitechapel Gods", "The Difference Engine", or Jay Lake's "Mainspring" and "Escapement" books. Those are my top recommendations.

-TB

" "

We Were Soldiers Once... and Young by Harold G. Moore and Joseph L Galloway

About Vietnam and supposed to be one of the best... it's on my list to read. There's also a sequel that's recently (?) come out, I think reflecting from this point in time on their experiences... We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battlefields of Vietnam

Also, not entirely related to your subject fields, but so relevent in today's world... religion. I can recommend any book by Karen Armstrong for an impartial history and explanation of basic tenets of the world's great religions. I've read both her book on Buddha and the one on Islam. I find her quite readable on a relatively dry subject.

I knew this thread would be a goldmine Thanks guys

I think, for the moment, I'll look into

Man's Search for Meaning

Rule Number Two

Dog Soldiers

Casualties of war

The Things They Carried

We Were Soldiers Once... and Young

And I've already started Animal Farm, it's only 44 pages Thanks again

Oh, and for quick reads of massive books...
Cliff Notes!
I've taken on the Greek classics with those, and they're great 'cause they emphasize to the important points... the part I somehow don't get sometimes.

They'd be a great way to take on Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Huxley, Solzenitzen (?)...

anyone that mentions that book is already my friend, welcome to WP (:


books, I'm in a current obsession with anything written by Malcolm Gladwell, he does a lot of analysis about people, very interesting reading, for example:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009 ... ntPage=all
if you like the article, I just finished The Tipping Point, very good reading.