Posted on 12/30/2004 1:28:19 PM PST by Tanniker Smith
2004 -- It was a year of catching up on a number of series books.
And it was probably the most books I've read in a long time (even if 12 of them were Lemony Snicket)
Also
Graphic Novels: (I don't normally get to read these, but I found a stack at the local library and went through them!)
I have heard a lot about Ayn Rand's books, but never picked one up. But I'll take a well plotted book no matter what. Does her stuff fall into that category?
So many books, so little time. Try these:
A Short History of Nerely Everything, A Walk in the Woods - both by Bill Bryson
The Descent and Year Zero - both by Jeff Long
Hienlien is always good, try: Starship Troopers, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Stranger in a Strange Land, Glory Road
Sounds dangerous.
Oh no! Bryson is a huge lib. :(
To name a few:
Unfit for Command - O'Neill, Corsi
Treason - Ann Coulter
How to Talk to a Liberal - Ann Coulter
How to Crush the Democrats in Every Election - Hugh Hewitt
Ring - Stephen Baxter (I've never read a hard sci-fi novel that really describes how insignificant we are in this vast universe and across all time. The universal war is not between good and evil, it is between Baryonic Matter and Dark Matter. Mindblowing.)
The Collected Works of Greg Bear - Greg Bear
Picoverse - Robert Metzger
Cosm - Gregory Benford
Kiln People - David Brin
Coyote - Allen Steele
Oops - Forgot to add:
Table in the Presence - Cash
This year I read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and wasn't sure I cared for it at all, BUT I'm finding I think back on it a lot and kinda want to read it again. Lot of interesting concepts.
I think I didn't notice all the idealogical content in his books before now...my distaste for the scientific details got in the way. And he had some interesting ideas.
I'm (very) slowly working my way through the classic readings list of St. Johns College (Annapolis and New Mexico -- check it out on Google). I'm rereading what I've already read, but I can't say I've read the entire list.
I started Homer's Illiad, but got distracted and am reading Plato's Republic. If, for whatever reason, you haven't read Plato, start doing so in 2005. You will be glad you did.
Good books- agrees with what I read.
The Harris book flat out blew me away.
Now go and get Between War and Peace by VDH (I suspect that you are familiar with those initials.)
Compare and contrast with Harris.
:^)
Follow that up with Shadow War, by Richard Miniter.
My neignbor across the street is a twenty-year refugee from Iraq and we frequently discuss politics. I loaned him this one and he recently waved me down just so he could tell me that it was an excellent book.
I'd kill to be able to hear a two-hour roundtable discussion between Harris, VDH and Miniter.
Anything Thomas Sowell writes is excellent.
You may have to put it down and ruminate every twenty pages or so, but I still think he's the smartest man in America today.
VDH and Harris give him a run for his money, but Sowell still comes out on top.
ANYTHING by Dinesh D'Souza.
He has a knack of taking very highly emotionally charged issues and dispassionately analyzing the underpinnings of each side's arguments.
Which is why liberals hate him so intensely.
I may un-database my booklist and post it. I haven't read everything on it, but it guarantees that I can always find something to read in the used bookstore.
Probably already answered but in case not, at least the first three books were made into movies. I liked "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" but didn't get into the next two.
Can't recall - a google might bring it up. I found The Long Walk a great story; and I just posted what I had heard about it being made up.
I believe it is true.
The Chronicles of Narnia were done by British television and you can buy the videos. They were fairly well done.
Hollywood will be different, but will they leave in the religious allusions or expurgate them?
Reread all Lucy Maud Montgomery's "Anne of" books for old time's sake - I still love those! All the way through Rilla of Ingleside
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard
I can't remember if this is the year I discovered Connie Willis. I think so. Read three of her books, at least the last two this year. Wonderful fiction:
Passage
Doomsday Book
To Say Nothing of the Dog
Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin - couldn't quite wrap my head around that one. I may make another go of it someday.
Various and sundry Rex Stout books, Dashiell Hammett, and Alistair MacLean.
Heinlein: for sheer fun--Glory Road, Tunnel in the Sky, Door into Summer, Puppet Masters.
For some newer SF and fantasy, Orson Scott Card: Ender's Game, PastWatch, and Enchantment.
When Heinlein got old, he lost his ability to self-edit, and his books were wandering wet dreams.
The early thinner Heinlein is the good stuff. See my post above.
I have been rereading War and Peace with parallel visits to various web sites illuminating the text.
I found that there are Russian renactors who live the battles in period dress.
There are loads of good maps and other info on the web simply not available in years gone by.
I also read Quick Silver by Neal Stevenson. I hope to read the other two in the trilogy next year.
I agree! I am always humbled in His presence when He honors my obedience to pray for specific things by allowing me to see His answer.
An old North Texas preacher once told me that the Holy Spirit searches for people to "pray through". Although I understood what he was telling me, at the time I had not had such an experience. About 5 years ago, I did and it was awesome. Great is His faithfulness!
Harvard Business Review on Managing the Value Chain
Those are the two best books I read all year.
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