Watership Down, seriously.

Thread is depressing. Any given moment I have 3 books being read, more in the wings waiting. My house, vehicle, bathroom are all libraries. I have to throttle myself when I go to libraries, I want to walk out with a stack of books I can't carry.

Attached File

Maybe this

Chronicles of Narnia
The Hobbit
Horn of the Hunter
Face of Battle
Mere Christianity
Savior Generals
Sherlock Holmes collection of short stories

The Federalist Papers
A Texas Cowboy, or, Fifteen Years on the Hurricane Deck of a Spanish Pony
Two Years Before The Mast
With The Old Breed
Lonesome Dove
Storm of  Steel
Blood Red Snow
Going Home
One Second After
Legionnaire - 5  Years in the French Foreign  Legion
Lights Out
Blood Meridian
Enemies: Foreign and Domestic
The Grapes of  Wrath
Treasure Island
A Study In Scarlet
Chickenhawk
Johnny Got His Gun
Crow  Killer
All Quiet On The Western Front

Starship Troopers

The Forgotten Soldier

Im similar age to op. The fact that he/she has never read a book is terrifying. And I’m not a big reader

As an FYI, once you start reading good books. You will realize how misspent the last 35 years of your life was…….

Not literature, but a good read.

Bible…

The Martian by Andy Weir

The Mass Effect books by Drew Karpyshyn are good too.

Your nominations for the guys first book in 25 years are successfully tallied. Thanks!

Current read is Skybreak by Mike Guardia.
Previous was The Way I Heard It by Mike Rowe.(an easy, but fascinating book to read)

Henry David Thoreau  " Walden "  this is a book that is written so eloquently you can feel and taste the water as it turns to ice. one of America's best authors.

Dostoyevsky: Crime and Punishment, Demons
McCammon: Boy's Life
Dumas: The Count of Monte Christo

At a minimum read the first 100 or so pages. It covers the history of gun culture in America.

I can't recall the last book I've finished.

Currently half way through east of eden.
It is beautifully written and painfully descriptive.  

I did get to the 4th or 5th game of thrones book.  The series is decent, but the character names are all very similar and it gets a bit confusing after awhile to keep up with who is doing what.   Since it jumps around from different characters perspectives.

Outstanding book.

Brian McClellan is awesome, I might start there... same, but different.
Mark Lawrence too.
Brandon Sanderson. Same genre, easy reading. His big epic is the way of kings. It drags a bit.
Throw in Larry correia black sword which I love, or monster hunter whatever for fun,  and even the star wars thrawn books.
All are fun and easy reading.
Edit. Will wight has to be in there for easy reading fantasy as well.

Excellent suggestion.

Also +1 on Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels.

You might also enjoy "Flight of the Old Dog" by Dale Brown.

Do you want to start out with a full novel or a shorter 150-190 page paperback type book? If the latter, most any Louis L'Amour western.

If you want to use your imagination, read Dune or The Hobbit.

If you want to read a fascinating book loosely based on historical events, read Shogun by James Clavell.

If you have trouble sleeping, read Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Seriously, it was a torturous read but I feel enriched having read it.

If you want an allegorical interpretation of current events, read 1984.

If you like long winded diatribes that have modern relevance, read Unintended Consequences or Atlas Shrugged. Unintended Consequences has guns and rape, so take that for what it’s worth (might spice things up a bit).

If you like Science Fiction, I already mentioned Dune but also anything by the greatest science fiction writer of all time - Arthur C. Clarke. No, seriously, if you only read one book by ACC, make sure it’s Childhood’s End.

If you want to start off slow with an easy read, that brings us back to 1984.

If you want to start off slow but like history, anything by Bill O’Reilly or Brian Kilmeade will do.

If you really, really need to start off slow I suggest “I had trouble getting to Solla Sollew” by Dr. Seuss. I recommend this book for anyone age 8-80. He does a masterful job of reinterpreting Frederich Nietzcschie’s “To live is to suffer, to survive is to find meaning in the suffering” with the following verse:

“I’ve had troubles of more than one kind.
Some come from ahead and some come from behind.
But I’ve got a big bat and I’m ready you see.
All of my troubles will have trouble with me”

BUT LISTEN - if you haven’t read Treasure Island, leave this forum and read it now. Yeah it’s a kid’s book, but if you haven’t read it you don’t know basic literature. I’m 53 and not only re-read it last year, but just made my 18 yo son sit through Treasure Planet for the umpteenth time. I love that book.

My top five books of all time:
1) Treasure Island
2) Dune
3) Shogun
4) Childhood’s End
5) The Hobbit

I also went through Tom Clancy and Steven King phases back in the 80’s but they didn’t make the cut. But if you’re interested, I suggest Hunt for Red October by Clancy and Christine by King.

Harry Turtledove's Guns of the south or The world war series
Alas Babylon

I haven't read anything but history for years, usually military history.  

My absolute favorite so far has been "The Last Stand of Fox Company" about some beleaguered marines in Korea.  They kick some serious chinese ass.

Is that different than Dreams FROM my father that FBO wrote?

OP find a book in an area that interest you. I read mostly books about guns, wars, cars and racing because that interests me most. I also read some books that get recommended her a lot like One Second After.

Something by Tom Clancey.

At one time I had a list of every book I read, not sure what I did with the list.

A simple path to weath

How a second grader beats wall street

Little red book on common sense investing

When violence is the answer

12 rules for life


If you want some fun light reading i have enjoyed the Monster Hunters Internatiinal books.

I should read more but working on a bath remodel.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Rogue warrior       Thank me later.

For fun, the Harry Turtledove guns of the south series. For a foreshadowing of the times :

Not political/war etc., but "The Great Gatsby" is an excellent book, fairly short, easy language, and brilliant use of language.

Whole book:

https://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/cms/lib/NC01001395/Centricity/Domain/7935/Gatsby_PDF_FullText.pdf

Mitch rapp series

I like Eric Larson but this isn't my favorite of his. The book attempts to tie two stories (a mass murderer and the Chicago world exposition) together, but they never really mesh, except for the two tales happening at the same time. Don’t get me wrong, both parts of the story are interesting and well written but they never came together for me. If you like Eric Larson's style, "Dead Wake" (about the Luistania) is a better read, in my opinion.

I do like history books like that, though. They're my favorite kind of read: true stories, the lesser-known or more personal the better.

Probably one of the better true history books that would be good for the OP to start off with is "The Right Stuff" by Tom Wolfe. It's about the astronaut program, and yes, they made a movie out of it.

Another good one is "The Indianapolis" by Lynn Vincent. Remember the old salty boat captain in "Jaws" describing a ship sinking where a bunch of his fellow soldiers died from sharks? Well, this is the real story.

I also enjoyed "Manhunt" which was about the 12-day hunt for John Wilkes Booth after he shot Lincoln.

Along those same lines, I liked "Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President" by Candice Millard. It tells the story about the assassination of James Garfield and how his doctors basically ended up killing him. Fascinating story. Did you know that Abe Lincolns kid was present at three different assassination attempts? How weird is that?

"The Patriots" is a good read about the men who started the American Revolution

I enjoyed "Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI" by David Grann, but it's probably too "liberal" for an ARFcom audience.

Sort of a different one that I found interesting was "The Oregon Trail" by Rinker Buck. Some dude decides to recreate the western journey on the Oregon Trail. He builds/buys a wagon, gets a team of mules and heads out. Part adventure, part history, part self-realization story. Good read.

If history is a bit much for your first book, maybe start with some light, humorous fiction. Almost anything written by Carl Hiaasen will be a page turner and the humor fits right in with the ARFcom sensibility. Hilarious characters who commit ridiculous crimes that have to be solved by flawed but likable heroes (that reappear from book to book). Every one makes fun of Florida.

The Dan Brown books are pretty fun and easy reads.

Brothers Karamazov when you wanna dig into a big book

Y’all will laugh, but I will add the entire Harry Potter series.

I had never read it until my oldest was in middle school and watched the movies.

The books are much better than any of the movies in the series.

They are an easy read and it gave me great discussions with my daughter on the differences.
Once you get started on them, they are hard to put down.

This is what came to my mind when I read the OP.

Good call.

The parallels between the book and our present day government will give you pause. Right down to blaming an external, disgraced bogeyman for the destruction of the windmill.

It should be on every high school reading list.

Economics in One Lesson by Hazlitt

Same, except I'm 40.

I've tried a few time, fuck that noise I've got better things to do.

I do listen to a ton of audio books, all non fiction though.

Man, some of these recommendations. Hasn’t read a book as an adult and your advice is to start with Neal Stephenson? Yeah, that’ll go well.

My two would be Devil in the White City, if you’d like to learn about a fascinating true story in a really interesting time in America, or The Martian if you want fiction. Both are extremely entertaining, interesting, and fun to read.

Almost panicked until I saw your explanation.  I get it.  I daily read about my trade & updates, so many would think—in this age, at least—why would you read more?

If you like spy/action movie: Vince Flynn’s series about Mitch Rapp are like crack.  The authors who picked up after the fact, not so much….

If you like “what if/alternate history,” Harry Turtledove’s book on “Guns of the South,” and alternate history of the South winning the Civil War & affect on WWI is cool.  He’s painfully descriptive at times, but i really enjoyed his series.

Killing Patton

Really?

I found it a series of rambling non sequiturs.