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Roughster
Sport climber
Vacaville, CA
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Apr 28, 2010 - 04:16pm PT
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More Female targeted: anything Jodi Picoult - House Rules is her newest. My wife loves all of her books. They are usually suspense based.
If you like Fantasy / Sci-Fi: Fire and Ice series by George RR Martin. 1st book is Game of Thrones
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bluNgoldhornet6
Big Wall climber
Tampa, Fl
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Apr 28, 2010 - 04:18pm PT
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SciFi- FlashForward by Robert J. Sawyer
Really good book. Well, atleast i enjoyed it. Basic Physics enough to melt your mind. Better than the show.
Science NonFiction- A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.
Actually just orderd this one and i hope to bend my mind again. I guess he put it in terms Non scientist can understand.
Non Fiction- In to the Wild by Jon Krakauer.
Best book i have read. May make you pack your sh#t and hit the road.
Just a few and of course. Oh and, stick to the classics you will never go wrong.
Cheers
Matt
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 28, 2010 - 04:22pm PT
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This just helps me to narrow things down. I get overwhelmed walking into the library or bookstore sometimes.
Talking with Flouride about naval history last weekend.... I just realized one that is missing from my "maritime disasters collection"... just now ordered: "A Furnace Afloat: The Wreck of the Hornet and the Harrowing 4,300-mile Voyage of Its Survivors"
...but keep em' coming.
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MisterE
Social climber
Across Town From Easy Street
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Apr 28, 2010 - 04:27pm PT
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"Out of Freedom, Into Slavery" by Gerry Spence is a good read.
"The Milagro Beanfield Wars" by John Nichols is a classic if you haven't read it, as is "Desert Solitaire" or "The Monkeywrench Gang" by Ed Abbey.
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jbaker
Trad climber
Redwood City, CA
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Apr 28, 2010 - 04:28pm PT
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Another vote for The Big Short. Extremely well written. And infuriating.
Other good recent nonfiction:
The War that Killed Achilles by Caroline Alexander (who wrote The Endurance).
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
Priceless by William Poundstone
The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama, is pretty good so far.
Rolling Nowhere by Ted Conover. It isn't recent, but just re-reread it and it is still good.
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pda2540
climber
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Apr 28, 2010 - 04:30pm PT
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Recently reread 'Soul of Nowhere' by Craig Childs. I love that book.
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max factor
Trad climber
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Apr 28, 2010 - 04:39pm PT
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"The Things They Carried"
An awesome collection of stories about the Vietnam War. Very visceral and full of emotion.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Apr 28, 2010 - 04:56pm PT
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Geek Love, by Katherine Dunn
you'll either thank me
or
kill me.
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tradchick
Trad climber
Vermont
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Apr 28, 2010 - 05:16pm PT
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Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (the first book in a series of 6)
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson (a true account of the discovery of a German U boat off the Jersey coast)
Nelson Demille wrote 4 books that feature detective John Corey that are lots of fun. Plum Island, The Lions Game, Wild Fire and I can't remember the 4th.
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Prezwoodz
climber
Anchorage
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Apr 28, 2010 - 05:19pm PT
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If your into History check out Brunelleschi's Dome by Ross King and Michelangelo and the Popes Cieling. The first one is probably the best history book I have read to date.
Also Armor by John Steakely is my all time fav Sci-Fi
Oh Cats Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut! One of the best for sure.
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Off White
climber
Tenino, WA
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Apr 28, 2010 - 05:20pm PT
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Non Fiction: Mistakes Were Made (but not by me) - an awesome examination of cognitive dissonance that will affect the way you look at a lot of things (in a good way). Super readable pop sociology ala Malcolm Gladwell but warmer and more personal.
Fiction: The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. This is actually three fat books (Quicksilver/The Confusion/System Of The World) that make up a 3000 page novel that covers the time between the execution of Charles I in England 1649 to 1714 or so. Threading the fantabulous and fictional in with stacks of real history, it takes in the life of Isaac Newton (scientist & alchemist) the Dutch invention of banking, the Siege of Vienna, development of the scientific method by the Royal Society, and a bazillion other things that will have you constantly checking to see what and who are real as compared to imagined. How can you not love a novel featuring Half Cocked Jack Shaftoe, named after a botched attempt at a cure for the French Pox administered with a red hot poker?
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The Wolf
Trad climber
Martinez, CA
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Apr 28, 2010 - 05:22pm PT
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River of Doubt
Lee Child's Jack Reacher series of books are great fun.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Apr 28, 2010 - 05:46pm PT
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The Baroque cycle; I'll give quarter to anyone who can get half way through just Quicksilver without skipping pages, take about someone who needs a new editor. And this from the Author of Snow crash!
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zeta
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Apr 28, 2010 - 05:51pm PT
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a couple of my favorites:
Angle of Repose--Wallace Stegner
A Fine Balance--Rohintan Mistry
Reading Lolita in Tehran--Azar Nifisi
all are great! let's keep this thread going by the way, i'd love a list of more cool books to read
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
Full Silos of Iowa
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Apr 28, 2010 - 05:58pm PT
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My recommendation:
A Genetic Switch, by Mark Ptashne
c.1987
Shows the mechanistic basis of the virus lamda, and by extenstion, E. coli... and by extension, all life, all living things... I mean, if you want to know about that, how life really works. Down deep. Some don't.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 28, 2010 - 06:13pm PT
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I just cut and pasted all the titles that I haven't already read.
The tiny used book store down the street from me owes me about $150.00 in store credit for all the books I've given him. He almost never has anything I want to buy since the place is the size about the size of a broom-closet. Now I can walk in with a list and hopefully he will cough some books up.
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le_bruce
climber
Oakland: what's not to love?
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Apr 28, 2010 - 06:15pm PT
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"The Things They Carried"
Should be mandatory.
"Geek Love"
Gack! But I liked it, I think?
Someone recommended some newer Cormac McCarthy - don't forget the old ones either!
Best knife fight: All The Pretty Horses.
Best necrophiliac cave dweller in rural Tennessee plot: Child of God.
Best hobo living in Knoxville, a town nobody ever writes about: Suttree.
Best and freakiest bad guy who will haunt you: The Judge in Blood Meridian.
Great list from everybody, I'm taking notes on the suggestions.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 28, 2010 - 06:26pm PT
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Necrophiliac cave dweller? Gotta add that to the list!
Since others are taking notes too.
A couple of my personal favorites:
Favorite Sci-Fi: Hyperion + Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons (I've read them like...10 times) &
One of my favorite history books: Nathaniel's Nutmeg which is the nautical history of the spice trade- written in a very entertaining (not dry)style.
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Nibs
Trad climber
Humboldt, CA
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Apr 28, 2010 - 06:26pm PT
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continuing the history thread -
Mapmaker's Wife - Robert Whitaker (author does a great job of placing a woman's survival story in historical context)
Blood and Thunder - Hampton Sides
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