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Favourite non-bridge books?


Rain

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LOTR trilogy

 

Momo--Michael Ende, i had it for literature in school love the simple story.

 

Harry Potter 1-6. Easy read

 

Sherlock holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle various books-- I like detective type stories, a classic

 

 

Newer books I like (technical ones)

 

--Excel 2003 programming(savior for my project)

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Couple other books worth mentioning:

 

Last Call by Tim Powers. (Virutally anything by Tim Powers is worth reading, however, Last Call is especially good if you play bridge/power). I also strongly recommend his novel "Declare"

 

The Last Coin by James Blaylock

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amazed that Douglas Adams hasn't rated a mention yet. Nor Terry Pratchett.
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amazed that Douglas Adams hasn't rated a mention yet. Nor Terry Pratchett.

I mentioned both of them! Edit: Oops, no I missed Adams. Had meant to include h2g2 in my list.

 

Stories of Your Life and Others, by Ted Chiang, is an absolutely fantastic set of short (speculative fiction) stories that I read recently. Probably makes my list.

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I love too many books to pick.

However, I think it's important to point out that Terry Pratchett plays bridge. I didn't catch that the first time I read The Light Fantastic. This thread seemed as good a place as any to mention it.

 

By the way for those of you who have a developed sense of humor and like Pratchett try Christopher Moore.

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  • 5 months later...

Just finished reading 'The Worst Journey in the World' by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. It's about Scott's Antartic expedition of 1911-12, and it's an amazing read. The author was on the expedition.

 

The opening sentence is: -

' Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised.'

 

Incidentally, Scott's journey to the pole (and almost back) is not the worst journey in the world of the title.

 

Geoff

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However, I think it's important to point out that Terry Pratchett plays bridge. I didn't catch that the first time I read The Light Fantastic. This thread seemed as good a place as any to mention it.

 

Here are some relevant quotes from The Light Fantastic:

 

On the other side of the door the heavy voice said: 'DID YOU SAY HUMANS PLAY THIS FOR FUN?'

 

'Some of them get to be very good at it, yes. I'm only an amateur, I'm afraid.'

 

BUT THEY ONLY LIVE EIGHTY OR NINETY YEARS!

 

To read more, you'd need to buy the book hehe.

 

Okay one more:

 

'What, playing with cards?'

 

'It's a special kind of playing,' said Twoflower. 'It's called—' he hesitated. Language wasn't his strong point. 'In your language it's called a thing you put across a river, for example,' he concluded, 'I think.'

 

'Aqueduct?' hazarded Rincewind. 'Fishing line? Weir? Dam?'

 

'Yes, possibly.'

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The Heliconia trilogy of Brian Aldiss

 

Hmm... Have not read it but just reread Foundation (Asimov!) and of course one of the planets mentioned there is Helicon. I'd think this would be suspicious if not both were named after a mountain in Greece...

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In no particular order:

 

The Autobiography Of Bertrand Russell

Lord Of The Rings

Dune

All The King's Men - Robert Penn Warren

Hemingway's short stories

Play It As It Lays - Joan Didion

Yeats' poetry

Eliot's poetry

Startide Rising - David Brin

Death Of A Ghost - Margery Allingham

Dark Star - Alan Furst (the best historical spy novelist ever - check him out)

 

Peter

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Late to this thread:

 

In no particular order:

 

All of Stehen Jay Gould's collections of essays

 

The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker: Dawkins (I think his later books add almost nothing to these ones and become repetitious)

 

(anyone who doubts evolutionary theory should read these)

 

The Ascent of Man" Bronowsky

 

Patrick O'Brian: the entire Aubrey-Maturin series is brilliant

 

Neal Stephenson: The Diamond Age was his first great book, followed by Cryptonomicon and now a book I will reread with pleasure 10 years from now (if I'm still here) The Baroque Cycle

 

Iain Pears: An Instance of the Fingerpost

 

Umberto Ecco: The Name of the Rose, and Forcault's Pendulum

 

Greg Egan: several of his novels are very interesting

 

Iain Banks: both his science fiction and his mainstream novels: I find the quality of them uneven, but his Culture series of SF and The Business and Complicity were enjoyable

 

Keegan: several of his books: The History of Warfare, is only one, are great reading and give us insight into historical forces that shaped the modern world

 

Paris 1919: amongst other topics, shows us the seeds of the current Middle East situation, and is revealing about the extent to which histroical events arise from human frailities

 

A People's Tragedy: Orlando Figes: an Oxbridge history professor with access to the original Soviet archives writes a fascinating history of the Russian Revolution and the subsequent civil war.

 

The History of Europe: Norman Davies: do you think that anyone in Greece is descended from the ancient greeks? Read this and think again :lol:

 

Ian Rankin: the Rebus series

 

Donna Leon: I got hooked on her while in Italy, desperate for English language novels: read three of them on the trip back from Europe...lightweight but very entertaining with some interesting insights into Italian culture.

 

I could go on for a long time: unfortunately I got hooked on reading at an impressionable age and have been reading, on average, 2-3 books a week for more than 40 years.

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  • 3 weeks later...

We may be in a Golden Age of books.

 

Undercover Economist

1491

Empires of the Word

------

 

Favorite Authors

-------------------

C. J. Cherryh!

 

Shirley Rousseau Murphy (Joe Grey & Dulcie)

Walter Mosley (Easy Rawlins)

Andrew Vachss

James Lee Burke

Charles Goren (lol)

Rex Stout

 

 

fun fun fun

------------

Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plums

 

 

Oren Goren

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