what are some good reads?

[uacvax]

i don't care that much about genre, if it's very good i'll give it a shot post the amazon link

 

[NikkiNumberNine]

Not fiction, but everyone in the US should read this book, just so you know your basic legal rights: Beat the Heat : How to Handle Encounters with Law Enforcement . It's written in an easy-to-understand sort of comic book form. Very worthwhile information.

 

[brainsnap]

anything by kurt vonnegut Jr.
I'd especially recommend "player piano", because it deals a lot with technology and how elitist society is run.
"high priest" by timothy leary is one of the most engrossing things i've read in years, it highlights his experiments with mostly psilocybin and a little about LSD.

 

[Finder]

You may want to search Second Opinion and possibly the Lounge as there are a number of book recommendation threads.

I'll recommend a few here, however:

Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
Perfume by Patrick Süskind

 

[Mariposa]

Pikhal and Tikhal, by Alexander and Ann Shulgin. Bibles for anyone interested in entheogens or their history.

A Brief History of Time, by Stephen Hawking.

Valley of the Dolls (or anything by Jacqueline Susann). Call them chick books all you want, they're amazing pieces of literature.

Anything by Chuck Pahlaniuk or Jonathan Lethem (accessible sci-fi if you must label it)

Anything by Madeleine L'Engle if you want an easy-ish read.

Anything by Irvine Welsh, but if you're not from his area you almost have to read the book aloud to understand it. Well worth the effort, though.

 

[citykiddy]

I second the Kurt Vonnegut suggesstion.

I also second Valley of the Dolls, as it's pretty entertaining.

I most definitely suggest a book called Please Kill Me, the Uncensored Oral History of Punk.

I do not suggest the Grapes of Wrath. Avoid that one unless you're into reading about dust rolling across a plain for five hundred pages.

 

[brainsnap]

^ yeah. john steinbeck is "classic literature" but it also will bore the hell out of you.

You could try to read some Norman Mailer books as well, they're a little difficult to read but you get a lot out of them in the end.

 

[knight_marshall]

sophies world

tomorrow, when the war began (book 1 of 7, but not big fat fantasy books, don't worry and standalone readable)

 

[pennywise]

Foxfire by Joyce Carol Oates.

It's about a girl gang in the 1950's. Trust me it's fast paced and sort of counterculture. Plus it was made into a movie starring angelina jolie, if that convinces you further.

 

[wizekrak]

I love most anything by Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho and The Rules of Attraction are his best).

The House of God (If you're at all into medicine and enjoy satire)

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (written in scottish phonetics)

Dean Koontz, they all follow a similar formula but it's fun thriller/suspense

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (CGI universe, offbeat humor, Cosa Nostra Pizza), Cryptonomicon is good as well, part cryptography, part WWII, part modern indiana jones.

 

[huntmich]

Anything by Hemmingway. He's never boring, never long-winded. Lets you know what you need to know and quick. The majority of his stories are about people who have lots of problems, ie drinking, gambling, womanizing, etc. Very easy to associate with his characters. In particular A Farewell To Arms or The Sun Also Rises.

Also Thank You For Smoking by Christopher Buckley. Its a book about the inner workings of the tobacco lobbying industry. Very entertaining.