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Really big book suggestions
06-29-2006, 07:58 PM
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#1
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
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Posts: 5,091
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Really big book suggestions
My RE date is in a couple of weeks and I'm planning a long trip and I am thinking about what books to take with me.
I'm looking for some really long book suggestions. I read James Cavellels' Shogun - about 800 pages and when I finished I thought I was Japaneses - that type of book - big and engrossing.
I also liked A Soldier of the Great War by Helprin about 700 pages.
Most any topic except - Science Fantasy.
thanks
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Re: Really big book suggestions
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06-29-2006, 08:02 PM
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#2
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Re: Really big book suggestions
War and Peace.
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Re: Really big book suggestions
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06-29-2006, 08:03 PM
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#3
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Full time employment: Posting here.
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 899
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Re: Really big book suggestions
Herman Wouk's The Winds of War and/or War and Remembrance. *Think that those are the correct titles?
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Re: Really big book suggestions
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06-30-2006, 05:34 AM
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#4
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Posts: 6,536
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Re: Really big book suggestions
Cryptonomicon (SF, not fantasy).
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Every man is, or hopes to be, an Idler. -- Samuel Johnson
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Re: Really big book suggestions
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06-30-2006, 05:38 AM
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#5
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
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Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 13,842
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Re: Really big book suggestions
"The Good Soldier Svejk" by Jaroslav Hasek. About 400 pages in the English translation (which you will need unless you can read Czech and a smattering of German and Hungarian). The book is an absolutely hysterical story about a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army during WWI who acts like a simpleton, but gets exactly what he wants. Classic story of the little man beating he machine, and very funny as well.
"It happened to me that I drank one beer after another."
- Svejk, explaining why he missed the train that took his unit toward the front.
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"To be a man means that you are brave, loyal and true. When you are in the wrong, you own up and take your punishment. You don't take advantage of women. As a husband, you support and protect your wife and children. You are gracious in victory and a good sport in defeat. Your word is your bond. Your handshake is as good as your word... When the ship goes down, you put the women and children into the lifeboats and wave good-bye with a smile." C Murray
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Re: Really big book suggestions
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06-30-2006, 07:20 AM
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#6
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: DFW
Posts: 1,720
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Re: Really big book suggestions
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry.* Great characters and great writing...
or if history/politics interests you, Master of the Senate, by Robert A. Caro.* This book shows that LBJ was indeed a master politician, who told southern racist senators he was with them while secretly working with the civil rights people.* He knew he could not be perceived as racist and become president.* * Fascinating description of an expert politician, who had to walk a fine line between both sides to maintain power.
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Disclaimer: My Posts are for my amusement only.
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Re: Really big book suggestions
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06-30-2006, 07:32 AM
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#7
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Jan 2005
Posts: 310
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Re: Really big book suggestions
Hitler's Willing Executioners : Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust -- by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen
Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich -- by William L. Shirer
summer time fiction read:
A Widow for One Year -- by John Irving
The World According to Garp by John Irving
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Don Quixote de La Mancha (Modern Library) *by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
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Re: Really big book suggestions
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06-30-2006, 07:41 AM
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#8
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
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Re: Really big book suggestions
 Quote:
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Originally Posted by P.S.
Don Quixote de La Mancha (Modern Library) *by Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra
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Good one.
Another one for a "big" book: Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco. Interesting melange of European history, various conspiracy theories, and what ever happened to the Knights Templar.
__________________
"To be a man means that you are brave, loyal and true. When you are in the wrong, you own up and take your punishment. You don't take advantage of women. As a husband, you support and protect your wife and children. You are gracious in victory and a good sport in defeat. Your word is your bond. Your handshake is as good as your word... When the ship goes down, you put the women and children into the lifeboats and wave good-bye with a smile." C Murray
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Re: Really big book suggestions
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06-30-2006, 07:57 AM
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#9
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 4,009
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Re: Really big book suggestions
Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. I'm about 1/3 through it right now, and it has been a great read so far.
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Re: Really big book suggestions
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06-30-2006, 08:26 AM
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#10
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Losing my whump
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Re: Really big book suggestions
If you like brainless entertainment, both Tom Clancy and Stephen King have produced some really, really long books that are fun to read. In fact, I think the first Clancy book I read about 15-20 years ago was bought simply because I forgot to bring my books for vacation and it was the thickest book on the shelf at the airport book store.
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Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful. Just another form of "buy low, sell high" for those who have trouble with things. This rule is not universal. Do not buy a 1973 Pinto because everyone else is afraid of it.
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Re: Really big book suggestions
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06-30-2006, 08:26 AM
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#11
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Recycles dryer sheets
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 52
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Re: Really big book suggestions
I just got Atlas Shrugged out of the library, but because someone else had a hold on it, they said I could only have it for a week. *Ha!
I enjoyed her other big book: The Fountainhead.
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Re: Really big book suggestions
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06-30-2006, 08:38 AM
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#12
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: minnesota
Posts: 13,196
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Re: Really big book suggestions
Les Miserable, by Victor Hugo. Not light reading and old, but very engrossing.
James Michener books like: Tales of the South Pacific , Hawaii, The Drifters, Centennial, The Source, The Fires of Spring, Chesapeake, Caribbean, Caravans, Alaska, Texas, and Poland.
For something more modern, I recommend Scott Turow's The Law of Our Fathers. It is long. It is engrossing. Scott Turow is a very good writer and this is one of his better books.
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No more lawyer stuff, no more political stuff, so no more CYA
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Re: Really big book suggestions
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06-30-2006, 09:06 AM
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#13
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Moderator
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Charleston, SC
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Re: Really big book suggestions
Second on the Atlas Shrugged, a fabulous book, like all of Ayn Rand's.
Stephen King's The Stand is an old fiction favorite, too.
And Michener's The Drifters is not long, but still a great read from the 60s.
Ditto Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck.
Sarah
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"Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference." - Mark Twain
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Re: Really big book suggestions
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06-30-2006, 09:14 AM
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#14
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Administrator
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Re: Really big book suggestions
..
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You should not assume that I have a clue about anything I post. If you need a lawyer, go get your own.
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Re: Really big book suggestions
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06-30-2006, 10:03 AM
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#15
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jun 2005
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Re: Really big book suggestions
Ayn Rand's Anthem is great too. Very short read (I think you can download it for free from online locations). If you don't like her outlook on the world you may find the books irritating I suppose.
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Re: Really big book suggestions
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06-30-2006, 10:15 AM
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#16
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Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso)
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Re: Really big book suggestions
[
I liked Clavel's King Rat when I read it a million years ago.
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Every man is, or hopes to be, an Idler. -- Samuel Johnson
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Re: Really big book suggestions
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06-30-2006, 11:01 AM
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#17
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
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Posts: 2,000
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Re: Really big book suggestions
I'd argue Cryptonomicon isn't really Sci-fi. It's definitely for techheads.
Stephenson's latest trilogy, the Quicksilver, is historical fiction. Three weighty tomes will take you weeks to read. I'd add that there's a lot of humor in these works too.
Infinite Jest?
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Re: Really big book suggestions
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06-30-2006, 11:01 AM
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#18
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
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Re: Really big book suggestions
nm
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Re: Really big book suggestions
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06-30-2006, 11:09 AM
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#19
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Moderator
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Charleston, SC
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Re: Really big book suggestions
Justin quit baiting "them" with the Ayn Rand! 
I have some nice hardbound copies of the Objectivist Letters as well as Night of Jan 16th and We the Living (more autobiographical about her early years in Russia).
Sarah
__________________
"Never argue with a fool, onlookers may not be able to tell the difference." - Mark Twain
“One day your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it's worth watching.”
Gerard Arthur Way
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Re: Really big book suggestions
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06-30-2006, 11:16 AM
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#20
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Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 2,000
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Re: Really big book suggestions
Yeah, read the Anthem first. The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged are, well, long. LONG.
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