Recommend Me A Book.

Discussion Topic

Return to Forum List

This thread has been locked

Messages 41 - 60 of total 99 in this topic

<< First | < Previous | Show All | Next > | Last >>

John M

climber

Nov 30, 2012 - 02:48pm PT

Hey Nutjob.. I just started reading wilbur smith. Got any recommendations?

McHale's Navy

Trad climber

Panorama City, California & living in Seattle

Nov 30, 2012 - 02:49pm PT

Latest book to purchase and am reading; THE SECRET RACE, Tyler Hamilton - a real eye opener!

HighTraverse

Trad climber

Bay Area

Nov 30, 2012 - 04:24pm PT

Anatoli Boukreev
"The Climb"
The alternate reality of the Everest South Col disaster.

nutjob

Gym climber

Berkeley, CA

Nov 30, 2012 - 04:47pm PT

John M, from what I've found you can't go wrong with Wilbur Smith.

But it's most enjoyable if you read a given series in the right order so you follow the development of generations of people and get the back stories. The author suggests reading them in the order in which he wrote them. I might have preferred to read more strictly chronological, but that is harder to figure out before you start. Either order is probably fine- just a different experience.

My first was "Seventh Scroll" which is a modern setting dealing with Egyptian antiquities, adventure exploration mixed with puzzle solving where modern explorers pit their intellect against a dude from thousands of years ago who set up traps to foil tomb raiders. There is a whole series of books that occur in that distant past, which are quite good. At first they are strictly historical/realistic, but then there are some supernatural overtones added into a few books toward the end of that series as it morphs into a different series pivoting on one of the characters.

There is another long series that tracks the Courtney family for many generations, from the 1500s/1600s in England and early privateering sea voyages, the coastal exploration of Africa and the Middle East and the conflicts of mixing cultures, toward the full hunting/conquest/exploration of the interior of Africa, and gold mining and the development of Johannesburg, and international colonial power struggles, world wars, diamond mining, the underpinnings of Apartheid in South Africa, white vs. white and white vs. black and black vs. black struggles, the pre-history of Mandela's rise to prominence. All of this is the historical background for blood and guts and love in sometimes too much detail, swashbuckling and hunting adventures and wars, visions of beautiful landscapes, deaths and births, and just good time-passing fiction.

After you've read tens of thousands of pages of his stuff, some hunting scenes get repetitive (especially because I'm not a hunter). But it's a credit to the author that he maintained my interest for so long and I was sad when I finished the last books. Some authors are good because they have an important message to convey and you feel the raw truth of what they write. Others are good because they have finely honed their craft as a writer, regardless of the subject matter. I enjoy reading Wilbur Smith for his mastery of the craft of writing in an immersive and entertaining way. And yet the sweep of history I've absorbed from his writing goes far beyond anything else I learned in school, and that perspective/experience is also quite valuable for me.

Here's one book that is pretty stand-alone, set in the early days of the anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa:
http://www.wilbursmithbooks.com/books/courtney/rage

Ken Follett is another author who does nice historical fiction that expands my awareness.

dee ee

Mountain climber

citizen of planet Earth

Nov 30, 2012 - 09:07pm PT

Do you want to laugh and cry? I do.

The Art of Racing in the Rain
How Evan Broke His Head
...both by Garth Stein....these are MUST reads for people that read.

True Grit-Portis....read it 4 times..twice this year.

Sin Killer- Larry McMurtry...the first in a classic trilogy/guadrilogy

War Horse-Michael Morpurgo

Historical

Over the Edge of the World-Laurence Bergreen....about Magellan

Blue Latitudes-Tony Horwitz...about Captain Cook

Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea-Gary Kinder...about true treasure recovery

These are just a quick few. I've got a million of 'em.

oh yeah, if you are interested in sport I second "The Secret Race"- Tyler Hamilton

Mark Sensenbach

climber

Nov 30, 2012 - 09:33pm PT

The Last Dive

I really liked it. Easy and fun.

Michelle

Trad climber

Toshi's Station, picking up power converters.

Nov 30, 2012 - 09:39pm PT

Twilight series.

Michelle

Trad climber

Toshi's Station, picking up power converters.

Nov 30, 2012 - 09:44pm PT

just kidding.

The Sparrow, by Maria Doria Russell: fascinating

2nd the Plague

The Alchemist, Paolo Coehlo

cuvvy

Sport climber

arkansas

Nov 30, 2012 - 11:33pm PT

I believe its called To the edge of the world. About. Magellans almost round the world trip.

drljefe

climber

El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson

Nov 30, 2012 - 11:38pm PT

Following Atticus
by Tom Ryan

You're in the Granite State, and it's the story of a guy who climbs all of NH's 4k footers with his dog.

phylp

Trad climber

Millbrae, CA

Nov 30, 2012 - 11:41pm PT

Based on King/gaiman, try Neal Stevenson.
Start with snowcrash and if you like it, cryptonomicon..

HighTraverse

Trad climber

Bay Area

Dec 1, 2012 - 12:47pm PT

drljefe
you got the ISBN# for that?
;-)
It's in the Fantasy Fiction section, right?

The Art of Racing in the Rain

^^^^^^

More climbing documentaries (sort of)
"Seven Years In Tibet"
Heinrich Harrer

HW Tilman
"The Seven Mountain Travel Books"
"The Eight Sailing/Mountain Exploration Books"

In the "no one will ever experience this again" category
Paul Theroux
"Riding the Red Rooster"

A unique and chilling insight into Nazi Germany and the psychopaths who ran the show:
"In the Garden Of Beasts"
Larson

Marlow

Sport climber

OSLO

Dec 1, 2012 - 01:54pm PT

"Lost ye way in the dark, said the old man. He stirred the fire, standing slender tusks of bone up out of the ashes.

The kid didn't answer.

The old man swung his head back and forth. The way of the transgressor is hard. God made the world, but he didnt make it to suit everybody, did he?

I don't believe he much had me in mind.

Aye, said the old man. But where does a man come by his notions. What world's he seen that he liked better?

I can think of better places and better ways.

Can ye make it be?

No.

No. It's a mystery. A man's at odds to know his mind cause his mind is aught he has to know it with. He can know his heart, but he dont want to. Rightly so. Best not to look in there. It aint the heart of a creature that is bound in the way that God has set for it. You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow. A creature that can do anything. Make a machine. And a machine to make the machine. And evil that can run itself a thousand years, no need to tend it. You believe that?

I dont know.

Believe that."

......

"For let it go how it will, he said, God speaks in the least of creatures.

The kid thought him to mean birds or things that crawl but the expriest, watching, his head slightly cocked, said: No man is give leave of that voice.

The kid spat into the fire and bent to his work.

I aint heard no voice, he said.

When it stops, said Tobin, you’ll know you’ve heard it all your life.

Is that right?

Aye.

The kid turned the leather in his lap. The expriest watched him.

At night, said Tobin, when the horses are grazing and the company is asleep, who hears them grazing?

Dont nobody hear them if they’re asleep.

Aye. And if they cease their grazing who is it that wakes?

Every man.

Aye, said the expriest. Every man.

The kid looked up. And the judge? Does the voice speak to him?

The judge, said Tobin. He didn’t answer."

Brandon-

climber

The Granite State.

Topic Author's Reply - Dec 16, 2012 - 01:58pm PT

Yeah, so Blood Meridian is a little to heavy to jump into after a few months reading The Dark Tower series.

I needed something a little lighter, so I just picked up Ender's Game.

Know nothing about it other than that my sci fi enthusiast buddy recommended it as lighter reading than what I'd been pursuing.

Twenty pages. So far, so good.