for entertainment- Red Storm Rising, Intensity

for pure power- The Grapes of Wrath

Catch-22 for fiction

Curahee for non-fiction

Quoted: Catch-22 for fiction Curahee for non-fiction

I really need to read that, even though Vietnamstuff is my favorite War to read about

The Stand.....Scariest book out there.  It is about a super-flu.  Well written.
You won't be able to put it down until it is finished.

The Watchmen  by A. Moore

V For Vendetta by A. Moore

Maus by arrrg I forgot his name!  ill add if i remember

Souther Politics by V.O. Key


in that order


then Teddy Roosevelt's : Tales of A Ranchman (or anything by him, wonderful use of the english language from the time period to boot)

Dianetics    J/K

actually Guadalcanal Diary by Tregaskis is my favorite

I'm another fan of Asimov's Foundation series.

Straight fiction would be Leon Uris' Battle Cry.

Non Fiction?  I really don’t know.
The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan I guess.

The Stand - Stephen King
Martyrs' Day: Chronicle of a Small War by the late Michael Kelly

I read The Stand when it first came out....great book.

The Godfather will change your views on conflict resolution

Swan Song, by Robert R. McCammon. Excellent book about the end of the world that makes The Stand seem like a tale shoddily spun for fifth grade readers by comparison.


Some of Clive Barkers stuff is alright too. I liked The Great and Secret Show pretty well. Barker is a blatant homo though and it occasionally shines through in his writing in somewhat of a distasteful manner in my opinion. Good complex plots though and a good author overall.

Quoted: I read The Stand when it first came out....great book.

If you liked The Stand, see my suggestion above. You won't be sorry.

Quoted: I need a book dammit....the last few that I've gotten have been bombs. Don't care about subject matter Don't care about literary praise Don't care about public ratings I'm sure alot of us have similiar taste's....just suggest a good solid book. Include the author so I'll be able to find it.

Kippling's "War stories and poems"    
At least read Kipplings "The drums of the fore and aft"

Gates of Fire : An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae (Paperback)
by Steven Pressfield

Quoted: The Lord of the Rings.

+1

I have the single volume edition (2 copies actually), and I have read it through twice. It is simply amazing in it's creativity and it's intricate detail.

Undaunted Courage was good too.

Chickenhawk. By Robert Mason.

+1000 damn good read

The Sacketts...... Louis L'Amour

Phantom Leader series ....Mark Bendret  (sp I think)

Termite Hill series.... Tom Wilson

Rogue Warrior/Red Cell....Richard Marcinko

One Shot/One Kill........story of Carlos Hathcock Marine sniper

any of the WW2 aircraft books by Martin Caidin

Unintended Consequences.

Of course the hard core amongst you have already read it, but every shooter needs to read this book.

Boston's Gun Bible

These days I lean toward 1984, by Orwell.  

+1 to the comments about Animal Farm.  Great read in one sitting.  

Ernie Pyle's books from WW2 are all excellent.  Great first-hand writings.

I remember reading Moby Dick when I was in 6th grade; I really enjoyed it and it probably led to my interest in reading today.  20,000 Leagues, too.   As an adult... Clear and Present Danger (Clancy), The True History of the Kelly Gang (Carey), Huey Long (Williams), The Power Broker (Caro) and The Seven Sisters (Sampson).    

Quoted: I need a book dammit....the last few that I've gotten have been bombs. Don't care about subject matter Don't care about literary praise Don't care about public ratings I'm sure alot of us have similiar taste's....just suggest a good solid book. Include the author so I'll be able to find it.

Any of Peter Capsticks books are good, if dangerous game hunting interests you. I also like Richard Marcinko, and Andy McNab, Tom Clancy Without Remorse is one of my favorites.

"Otherland", Tad Williams. - 4 book series, ~5k pages

Synopsis:  Richest people on earth go about building a virtual world based upon the neural tissues of aborted fetusses.  Upon their death, they move to the "Otherworld", and live forever.  A group of people get trapped there, and journey between the individual fiefdoms of the rich guys trying to find their way out.

"Without Remorse", Tom Clancy

Intense ex-soldier finds love at first sight with a drugged out runaway turned hooker.  Prior pimp kills her, injures him, and he spends the rest of the book finding creative ways to kill the bad guys.  My favorite is the reverse decompression chamber :)

"Alas, Babylon", Pat Frank

Written in the 50's, typical post-nuclear exchange.  Think "War Day".  A small town in Florida survives the initial war, and is left with only what they have locally.  Town bands together and forms  a loose society, and holds it together for a couple years until the army shows up in a helicopter.  They find out what the rest of world is like... and may or may not leave their homes :)

"Rama", Arthur C. Clarke - 3? book series, ~1.5k pages

Alien spaceship is spotted coming into our solar system.  We rendevouz, find it empty.  Ends up being an unmanned probe.  Man's first contact with galactic-scale civilization.

"Ringworld", Larry Niven

Huge ring founf surrounding a star a ridiculous distance from known civilization.  Humans occupy it, but civilization has fallen to various states of disarray.  Turns out, they ring was built by a human civilaztion, origins unknown, and did well for a long period, but devolved back to barbarism for unknown reasons.  One group of survivors from a ship that was travelling near lightspeed shows up at the end to tell the tale.  Point to ponder - what resource is required for man to rize beyond the stone age?  Metals....

"The Light of Other Days", Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter

Wormholes are scientifically manipulated to create faster than light communication.  While mucking with distance settings, the objective is set too close, and the end up seeing back in time.  Suddenly history is an open book, and nothing is as it seemed.  Some historical figures did not even exist.  Even an individual's past is not what they remember it.  Virtually no crime, as anythign you do can be watched at any time in the future.  No privacy.  They touch on Jesus, but make no definitive answer.  VERY surprising ending :)


Other faves:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Methusela's Children/Revolt in 2100
Harry Potter series
The Lion, the Witch, and wardrobe - in the chronological order they were written - the the order of events :)
The Mahabarata
Empire of Ice
Usa vs Militia series...  Ian Slater i think

That's all off the top of my head :)

Quoted: Patriots!

... I have to say, that book was far better than I had expected. It should be a prerequisite for all serious freedom loving, survivalist, gunnutz

Trooper Down

Either Virtues of War, or Gates of Fire, both by Steven Pressfield.  Lonesome Dove and Shogun also hold up very well.

Lately, Starship Troopers

The Trial by Franz Kafka.

The Stand un-abridged.  Almost ANY ROGUE WARRIOR books also.

Best series: The Book of Swords by Fred Saberhagen, with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke coming in second.

The Chiorboys.....Joesph Wambaugh.
Best cop book ever written............bar none.

Quoted: Unintended Consequences. Of course the hard core amongst you have already read it, but every shooter needs to read this book.

+1

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand!!!  Unintended Consequences; I have read both several times over the years.

I liked the Lord of the Rings, (JRR Tolkien) and The Stand, and the Talisman (S. King)

Hatchet..By Arthor Roth.  Easy reading, great survival story.

tag personal favorite:  The Bible, Bully Father, Centinneal, Who is my God, White men can't dance, John Adams egads - I've read a lot of great books.

Lots of good stuff already mentioned. I can't nail it down to one, but some of my favorites are:The Rama series by Arthur C. Clarke & Gentry Lee,The Lonesome Gods by louis La'Mour(anything else by him also);The Power Of One, by Bryce Courtenay; plus about several hundred others,too many to list.

"The Forgotten Soldier"  Guy Sajer
"Co. Aytch" Sam Watkins
"All Quiet on the Western Front"
"The Peloponnesian War" Thucydides
"Silent Victory" ClayBlair............................

to name a very few

THE PERFECT STORM was an excellent book
STONE CITY  by  Mitchell Smith ...16+ yrs in corrections and it's the best fiction I've read about prison
DESCENT  by Jeff Hall ...  amazing book ; SF (sort of) that ARFcommers would enjoy
anything by John McPhee  Try THE CONTROL OF NATURE
Hemingway's  ISLANDS IN THE STREAM (I HATED the film but love the book)
and PLEASE SOMEONE tell me they also have read THE PEPPERDOGS by Bing West ... if you don't like it ... I'll buy your copy.       Stay safe

Pick up any story by Jules Verne

I have yet to read a bad one by him

Quoted: I need a book dammit....the last few that I've gotten have been bombs. Don't care about subject matter Don't care about literary praise Don't care about public ratings I'm sure alot of us have similiar taste's....just suggest a good solid book. Include the author so I'll be able to find it.

Some of the best I have read, starting with the best:

The Brothers Karamazof (Dostoevsky)

Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky)

Anna Karenina (Tolstoy)

War and Peace (Tolstoy)

The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane)

Of Human Bondage (Somerset Maugham)

The Winter of Our Discontent (Steinbeck)

Of course, the Tolstoy tends to be very intricate and involved. Very good stories, though, and very interesting perspectives on history. War and Peace is long, that's for sure. I guarantee if you start it you will finish it.

Even though The Bothers Karamozof was my fav, if you only choose one of these, take the Red Badge of Courage. Unbelievable insight into what a man might experience in his approach to doing battle.

Crime and punishment is also fascinating. You'll never think about guilt the same way again.

Sorry if you were looking for lighter stuff. I just went with some of the material that has an effect on me over the years.

By way of lighter reading, if you can ignore all the hoopla, The DaVinci Code wasn't a bad story.

Good Luck!

The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Hobbit, and the Silmarillion, all by JRR Tolkien are my faves.

I love the older Tom Clancy up to say "Executive Orders".  I'm not sure what happened after that, but from Rainbow Six on he seemed to get really preachy and dull to read.

Another AWESOME writer is Stephen Hunter.  His first book, "Point of Impact" absolutely kicks ASS, especially if you are a gun nut.  This guy knows guns and he knows a lot about the culture of shooters and gun enthusiasts and he weaves it into tales that while not entirely plausible, are just believable enough not to put the reader off.

The main character is Bob Lee Swagger.  An old Arkansas country boy who was a Marine sniper in Vietnam.  Hunter has written several books using Bob Lee and his father Earl Swagger as the main characters.  I highly recommend them all.

Also the Harry Potter series can't be beat.  Just pure fun escapism!  Sort of LOTR Lite without nearly the underlying storyline or moral lessons.  Don't let the "kids book" label fool you.  They are GOOD!

Quoted: my favorite reads are: Yeager The Right Stuff Band of Brothers Biggest Brother: A more in depth story of Richard Winters

Thanks for the memory bump.. Yeah!  ANYTHING by Stephen Ambrose!  His stuff is non-fiction historical accounts, but they are very entertaining to read, and you can learn a TON!

Quoted: Any of Peter Capsticks books are good, if dangerous game hunting interests you. I also like Richard Marcinko, and Andy McNab, Tom Clancy Without Remorse is one of my favorites.

OH how could I forget!???  Peter Hathaway Capstick is one of the funnest, most informational reads you can find.  Death in the Long Grass and Death in the Silent Places are good ones to whet your whistle.

He has an awesome ability to spin a story, combined with excellent thoughts on the need for sport hunting and the situation in Africa.

I also like John Grisham.  I can usually read his books in one sitting.  I just devour them and toss them aside.  Difficult plot lines to really remember (much like trying to remember details of Harry Potter books) but that makes them easier to read again and again.  The fun part is Grisham's books is the good guy always outsmarts the bad guys and comes out smelling like a rose.

Hustler..


It grabs you right from the start!

A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Alexander Solzhenitsyn is a great short read

Tom Sawyer-Mark Twain

Nephilim,

The best?  Hands down, this 2 volume set:  

1.  I Will Bear Witness, 1933 - 1941, A Diary of The Nazi Years, Victor Klemperer, ISBN 0375753788
2.  I Will Bear Witness, 1942 - 1945, A Diary of The Nazi Years, Victor Klemperer, ISBN 0375756973

His experiences during the years noted are truly personal, remarkable, and heartbreaking.
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I'm currently reading, One Ranger, A Memoir, Joaquin Jackson, ISBN 0292702590.  

Title says it all - Jackson has a great writing style.
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Recent reads:

1.  Not A Good Day To Die, The Untold Story Of Operation Anaconda, Sean Taylor, ISBN 0425196097

2.  In The Company Of Heroes, Michael J, Durant, ISBN 0451210603
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Didn't read the entire thread - have no idea if these were suggested already...

Sorry for the hijack, but help a guy out; what are some alternative history series that are good?

The Dueling Machine by Ben Bova.
It's been a long time since I read it but the premise is that 2 people get into a machine and can pick their battle, sword fight, dogfight, or what have you and have at it.
Written long before virtual reality was even thought of. I believe I read it in the late '70's, early 80's.