Posted - 2009.12.29 19:00:00 - [2]

 

Perdido Street Station - China Miéville (sci fi, but more steam punked/mystical).

Posted - 2009.12.30 00:02:00 - [4]

 

Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss

just read the back of the cover and you'll know whether you want to read it or not ;)

Posted - 2009.12.30 07:47:00 - [6]

 

Anything by Dr Seuss

Posted - 2009.12.30 18:48:00 - [8]

 

Originally by: Neyro7830

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Rogue Squadron series was pretty good IMO, and anything by Michael Stackpole :p

I likes me some star wars EU :p

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Would that be history or politics?

Posted - 2009.12.30 19:08:00 - [10]

 

The Hyperion books by Dan Simmons are excellent if you have not read them.

Hyperion
Fall of Hyperion
Endymion
Rise of Endymion

Posted - 2009.12.30 19:58:00 - [12]

 

For non fiction I recommend 'The God Delusion' by Richard Dawkins.

If you are already an atheist then it's still a fascinating read. If you are religious then you may even get lucky and be cured.

Posted - 2009.12.30 20:29:00 - [14]

 

couple of more I thought to add

War is a force that gives us meaning

and

American Facists both by chris hedges.

DO NOT read War if you are depressed or otherwise mental unstable. It is a depressing but, yet informative. I would reccommend playing Hello Kitty online after your done just to return to normal.

Facists goes after American Fundementalist in a big way.

Enjoy.

Posted - 2010.01.01 16:49:00 - [16]

 

Thanks very much for all the replies folks. In addition to these I'm also considering Freedom Next Time by John Pilger.

http://tinyurl.com/yd4thm4

Posted - 2010.01.01 20:16:00 - [18]

 

Edited by: Malcanis on 01/01/2010 20:21:12
Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire. That'll keep you busy for a while, and will leave you considerably better educated to boot. Not an easy read, but an outstanding work. You could also look at Thucidydes for the birth of realpolitik. Arthur Bryant provides the most heartfelt and entertaining history of the Napoleonic wars, although he makes no pretence of objectivity.

EDIT: if you want Historical fiction, than you seriously cannot beat Patrick O'Brian. These are some of the best books of any genre I have read. Absolutely awesome storytelling.

Posted - 2010.01.01 23:08:00 - [20]

 

Keegan has written some fine history books.

Also I agree with Malcanis. Patrick O'Brian's Aubery-Marturin series is one of the best sets of novels ever written.

Posted - 2010.01.02 02:33:00 - [22]

 

get Steven Kings "Dark Tower" series, best books ever written IMO

Posted - 2010.01.02 09:46:00 - [24]

 

Terry C. Johson has written several fairly extensive series of historical novels on the 19th Century American Frontier. He uses the letters and biographies, often auto-biographies, of actual participants in the events to provide the history while he has his fictional central character move about to be the witness to these events. Very well done.

The First Man in Rome series of historical novels by Collen McCullough. Very entertaining look at the internal politics that led to the fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Empire. If you pay attention - you will notice that it wasn't about the Good Republic being done in by the Evil Empire - as I Claudius and Gladiator (both of which are well done in their own way) would have you believe.

If you like Alternative History - virtually everything written by Harry Turtledove is alternate history. The guy was a history professor before he became a novelist and he's very fond of the might have been's.

Fire In The Sky and Touched by Fire by Eric M. Bergerud, are two outstanding analyzes of, respectively, the air and groud wars in the Southern Pacific from 1942 to early 1944. Not really chronological histories - these books analyze the struggle between Japan and it's opponents the USA and Australia, examining not just what happened but why it happened.

Kipling's works on British Colonial Life in India are fascinating. They provide a view of the world that you are NOT going to see in the politically correct portrayals of today. Whatever the evils of colonialism - and there certainly were some - you can see today - that the imperialists were right when they said that the tribal societies they governed were, by and large, not ready for self government. The cry to "Let us make our own mistakes" of the nationalists of the mid twentieth century led to ... one hell of a lot of corruption, death and destruction in the former colonies. Seeing things through the eyes of the Imperialists themselves is very interesting - and helps you understand why so many new nations formed after the Europeans abandoned their colonial possessions ended up failed states. These weren't just a bunch of jingoistic, uncaring people. A lot of them understood the people they were governing very, very well - better in fact than many of these people understood themselves. You also get to see some of the peculiarities of Victorian society - which is interesting in it's own right. Though most of Kipling's works are fiction - you can get a real flavor for the societies being depicted by reading them.

Julius Caesar's The Conquest of Gaul and The Civil War are both fascinating reads. Obviously Caesar is somewhat self serving in his portrayal of himself but the man was a very good writer and it is something special to get to read such extensive works written by the prime participant himself. It may not be objective - but it does give you things from Caesar's point of view.

For a source of numerous ancient historical works - look for The Penguin Classic's series and you can read a lot of ancient history written by ancient historians.

As to Keegan - he is a very good historian though I'd not go so far as to say that Von Clausewitz was wrong ... Read Von Clausewitz's On War - and judge for yourself. Also - just for the hell of it ... Sun Tzu's The Art of War is a very quick read. Then contrast Von Clausewitz and Sun Tzu - and you will see who knew what he was talking about and who was handing out clever little catch phrases to support his own career as a military adviser ...

The German Army 1933-1945 by Matthew Cooper is a very interesting study of the politics and structure of that army.

Stonewall in the Valley by Robert G. Tanner is an interesting study of the early Shenandoah campaign.

Lee's Lieutenants by D. S. Freeman is the definitive work on the Army of Northern Virginia.

Anything by John Toland is great.

The Pitcher and the Well - RAF bomber crew in early WWII.

Ah .. and I'm out of

Posted - 2010.01.02 10:40:00 - [26]

 

Edited by: JordanParey on 02/01/2010 10:48:21
The Jack Ryan/John Clark books by Tom Clancy, i.e. The Hunt for Red October, The Bear and the Dragon, Rainbow Six, The Sum of All Fears, etc.

The Dirk Pitt series by Clive Cussler, and the OREGON Files series by Clive Cussler.

Jack Whyte- Knights of the Black and White (Templars)
Raymond Khoury- The Last Templar

Voyage of the Basset- This is a kids' book, really, but the story and the illustrations are so cool that I thought I would include this, my favorite of childhood bookds. Fantastical creatures, gods and goddesses, fighting, travel through otherverses, etc. Very deep stuff for a kid to read O_o Set in Victorian England and it goes from there.

Linky: Linkage

Examples of the art in the book:
Professor image.

Please visit your user settings to re-enable images.

Another example of this guy's fantasy-style paintings, this is similar to the stuff in the book.

Mermaid image, from the book.

Link on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Voyage-Basset-James-C-Christensen/dp/B0028LCWA0/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262429063&sr=1-4

Please, PLEASE, give Voyage of the Basset a try. You won't regret it.