Just finished "A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius," by Dave Eggers.

What should I read next?

High literature or lay pulp, lay it on me. I like this whole "reading for pleasure" thing. This guy who used to take home library books in grocery sacks rarely reads for pleasure anymore - almost exclusively biology literature.

Blindness by Jose Saramago

why not check out the 20,000 other threads here pertaining to books

"Quiet Days In Clichy", by Henry Miller

or "Joe Gould's Secret", by... um.. can't remember.

i like the threads about books. why not one more? oh shit, i'm the first person to ever start a redundant thread!!! ohmygod!!! i'm so sorry for cluttering up this space efficient and parsimonious message board!!

Eye of the Needle by Ken Follet

It's got everything that great literature shouldn't. Nazis, spies, murder, infidelity, blah blah blah.

Anything by Peter Matthiesson, one of the finer American writers of the past 50 years. The Killing Mr. Watson trilogy is excellent. And Far Tortuga essentially was a new form of the novel altogether for me.

Or. it's Sunday- there's always the comics.

if you go Ken Follett, go for the one about Ross Perot breaking his folks out of Iran, cool and true.

As always: James Ellroy, American Tabloid and Cold 6 Thousand.

and, as we have discussed Chuck, Krakatoa...though you may already know all the shit I found fascinating.

I am also reading What's The Matter With Kansas, but can't exactly reccomend it just yet, as my opinion hinges on if this asshole proposes solutions, or just whines for the nect 90 pages.

I'm reading Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond - a great nonfiction book about why certian civilizations became global superpowers while others with seemingly similar beginings never made it out of the hunter-gatherer stages. This author also has a new book out called Collapse, about how civilizations fail, ala Easter Island and norse Greenland. I haven't read that yet, but plan to soon.

But first I'm going to shift gears and read Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.

We can never have too many book threads. Don't read them if you don't like to read.

I love Jared Diamond. I. Love. Him.

Also a very good read.

read this book and be amazed.

I'll recommend to Naval Academy-centric books.

A Sense of Honor by James Webb
Webb is an academy grad and the youngest Secretary of the Navy in history and now writes fictional accounts of things that are pretty heavily rooted in truth and experience. This was my first Webb book. It details the experiences of a Naval Academy plebe (freshman) and the rather rough treatment he gets from a Midshipman First Class (senior) who is dead set on being a Marine Corps officer.

I also firmly believe that if the right crew put Webb's Vietnam novel Fields of Fire on the silver screen, it would be the absolute best movie about the Vietnam War ever, hands down.

The Nightingale's Song by Robert Timberg
I believe the esteemed Senator from Aladambama has read this one. It follows the oddly intertwined lives of four Naval Academy graduates: John McCain and John Poindexter, Class of 1958; Robert McFarlane, Class of 1965; Oliver North and the aforementioned James Webb, Class of 1968.

Of this crew who manage to cross paths throughout their careers, you have one Senator, one Secretary of the Navy, and three of the central players in the Iran-Contra mess.

There is also some fascinating recollections of McCain's struggles and pains in Hanoi, including his refusal of early release. In case you didn't know, John Sidney McCain, Jr., the Senator's father was Commander in Chief of the Pacific fleet.

It's a hell of a ride, and I like McCain much more after reading this story, especially of his hightailing Academy days. I never could get into McCain's own book, it plodded along enough that I just put it down and never picked it back up.

Nightengale's Song is way up there on my list of favorite non fictions, and makes McCain one of the few Republicans I would openly vote for. I have not read that book by Webb, but have read Fields of Fire when I was in HS, for a class. Never picked it back up, though I have often meant to.

Corey, you'd probably enjoy Krakatoa. Well written pretty encompassing as far as how it changed the world.

I just finished "Fluke" by Christopher Moore. You might dig it, for a light read--whimsical, wacky-but-not-stupid.

Money-Martin Amis

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle-Haruki Murakami

A Conspiracy of Paper-David Liss

Boy's Life-Robert McCammon

Good thread. I'm going to pick up Blindness at the library tomorrow.

You probably already know about these but I recommend Invisible Cities and If on a Winter's Night a Traveller, both by Italo Calvino.

my gf and mother LOVED this book.

Also by Moore is Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. Great stuff.

I think you should read Clive James three part autobiography (Unreliable Memoirs-Falling Towards England-May Week Was In June).

It's basically the touchstone for all modern autobiographies. Funny, poignant and intelligent, what more do you want from a book?

It also features one of my favourite opening lines - "I was born in 1939. The other big event of that year was the outbreak of the Second World War."

I'm not reading anything at the moment, really - but Mrs. Dawg is reading that Enron book "A Conspiracy Of Fools"...& she won't shut up about it. RAVING about that thing.

I'd suggest "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" by Michael Chabon, especially if you've ever had any interest in comic books. But even if you just like books, this one is for you.

Mildly uplifting:
"The Power and the Glory" - Graham Greene

Horribly depressing:
"Last Exit to Brooklyn" - Hubert Selby