Good Books

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I suppose this topic technically doesn't fit in the description of the forum, because reading isn't art, writing, or music, but I figured artsy people who posted here would be most likely to respond.

What you're supposed to do here is give a BRIEF book report on a good book that you've read recently, and then to give a list of other books that you enjoyed reading. Try to list books that people may not be aware of.


A book I've nearly finished is, "I, Claudius." It is historical fiction about the roman emperor Claudius. It has some of the most vile characters one is likely to find in literature, and because of it I thought it was sometimes difficult to read. But the book itself is very well written. The guy who wrote it knew a lot about history. The book is saturated with little details about ancient roman life which must have taken a considerable amount of research, and which are inseparable from the meaning and structure of nearly every sentence, which makes ancient Rome seem very rich and active. Also, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the things which he must have made up to make the story actually happened. I don't want to give particulars because you should read the book.

Other books or authors I most enjoyed reading or left the biggest impression in the order I think of them: The Rommel Papers, Grant (by Jean Edward Smith), Hume (he hardly counts as a philosopher because nearly everything he says is objectively true), Nietzsche, Look me in the Eye (first book I ever read on autism), basically everything I've ever read from Mark Twain, the Hornblower series by Forester, War and Peace, Ben Franklin by Walter Isaacson, Guns Germs and Steel, Ghosts of Afghanistan, A History of God, Boarding Party, and On the Origin of Species.

I agree with you on guns, germs, and steel. I also recommend half of a yellow sun (about a couple during the biafran struggle for independence), infidel, and the human stain.

^ I also thought "Half a Yellow Sun" was good.

"Journey to the End of the Night" by Louis-Ferdinand Celine is an autobiographical novel. It is relentlessly negative and cynical, but also very funny. Celine volunteered for military service in WW1 before living in colonial West Africa, New York, and subsequently returning to France. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys gallows humor and cynical interpretation of history. Also enjoyed : Irvine Welsh's "Filth", John LeCarre's "A Delicate Truth"

I recently finished reading The End Specialist by Drew Magary. It was a very interesting science fiction book that begins shortly after the invention of a cure for ageing. It is split into four parts, each set a long time apart. As you can probably imagine, things go south pretty quickly after the cure is invented.

Right now I'm reading Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. It's a very entertaining and informative look at how people (particularly quacks and the pharmaceuticals industry) misuse science, and how journalists report it badly, amongst other things.

American Tabloid by James Elroy.
Set in the early sixties, it deals with FBI and CIA agents involved with organized crime in their secret war against Castro's Cuba. The characters lose their souls becoming involved with what grows into an uncontrollable monster. Included are historical characters such as -

The Kennedy brothers John and Bobby, who run afoul of both the CIA and their mob allies.
Howard Hughes, who is rapidly losing his mind, and wants to purchase a tabloid magazine called Confidential, which the feds also have dark interest in.
J. Edgar Hoover, who spiderlike controls everything from the center of his web.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

The heart of darkness joseph conrad.. i can't explain what it is but this book is brilliant, its also tortuously dark

If I was stranded on a desert island and could only have one book for entertainment it would be an illuminated edition of William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience Showing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul.

This deceptively simple collection of illustrated poems is Blake's best work (in my opinion). I could (and I have) spend years pondering the meaning of poems like "A Poison Tree" or "The Human Abstract."

I should mention of Post Office, by Charles Bukowski.
Bukowski's semi-fictionalized biopic of the hell he went through working as a postal employee. Sincerely funny.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Machiavelli the prince