Great Reads

[Stargazer]

One of the advantages of e-books is the ability to read the reviews written by people who have read it and you can read a sample (sometimes). I'm hoping that by starting this thread, others here will add their Good Reads Recommendations.

I just finished And The Mountains Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini, who also wrote The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. If you liked those last two, you will love this one. Clear your calendar when you start this book because you will not be able to put it down, once you start it. I would rate this author side by side with Pearl Buck.

Please share your favorites!

 

[Wander Woman]

For free, I enjoy Robert Service poetry and Mark Twain, especially Roughing It and A Tramp Abroad. These books are in the public domain, so don't pay for them - google and find free downloads. I also enjoyed The Round House and Merle's Door. I found the Untethered Soul of great help in finding emotional peace and learning how to be content with what is.
Kathleen

 

[K1ngN0thing]

I don't have a Kindle/e-reader so I don't know if this is on there, but House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is one of the most interesting books I've ever read. It doesn't fit neatly into one genre, so I won't bother trying to describe it. Read the back and if it sounds like your cup of tea, you'll probably love it. It's one of the few books I plan to read again down the road.

 

[VJG1977]

[font=arial, sans-serif]When I retire and start traveling, I plan to reread all the books I loved in my teens.  I'm going to start with the works of [/font][font=arial, sans-serif]Edgar Rice Burroughs.  I [/font][font=arial, sans-serif]do not know if  this link has been mentioned. [/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?sort_order=downloads[/font]



[font=arial, sans-serif]Over 48,000 books in virtually any format you need.  Has free download or can be sent directly to Dropbox, Google Drive or One Drive.[/font]

 

[K1ngN0thing]

Only a chapter in but I can tell it's going to be one of my favorites. http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-Ernest-Cline-ebook/dp/B004J4WKUQ $4 on kindle, and a cover image relevant to this forum.

 

[mconlonx]

I don't have a Kindle/e-reader so I don't know if this is on there, but House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski is one of the most interesting books I've ever read. It doesn't fit neatly into one genre, so I won't bother trying to describe it. Read the back and if it sounds like your cup of tea, you'll probably love it. It's one of the few books I plan to read again down the road.

I got rid of many thousands of books downsizing, House of Leaves is one of the few I could not part with. And I don't at all see how it could translate to ebook format. 

Considering the ridiculously complex and unique type layout, I wondered what publisher in their right mind would take on such a project. So at an author reading, I asked -- turns out the only way it got published was Danielewski providing the typesetting for free...

Currently enamored with and working my way through Haruki Murakami's latest novel, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

 

[Seraphim]

Baen offers a lot of free scifi books in various formats.


https://www.baenebooks.com/c-1-free-library.aspx

 

[flying kurbmaster]

One of the advantages of e-books is the ability to read the reviews written by people who have read it and you can read a sample (sometimes).  I'm hoping that by starting this thread, others here will add their Good Reads Recommendations.

I just finished And The Mountains Echoed, by Khaled Hosseini, who also wrote The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.  If you liked those last two, you will love this one.  Clear your calendar when you start this book because you will not be able to put it down, once you start it.  I would rate this author side by side with Pearl Buck.

Please share your favorites!

I  will keep that in mind, I read A Thousand Splendid Suns and saw the movie the Kite Runner and enjoyed both, I couple of books I have read lately " The Luminaries " was a great read it is thick 800 pages or more but will make a great movie one day, It is a bit tricky to keep up with all the characters at first but it comes together after awhile, a very young author with a brilliant first novel. Another inspiring novel I just read and started rereading is called Backpacking with the Saints" very inspirational fits right in with that religion thread.

 

[K1ngN0thing]

Working my way through "Ending Aging" by Aubrey de Grey, founder of http://www.SENS.org who makes the case for the practicality of eliminating age-related illness by repairing the cellular damage that accumulates as we age. He's brought about a paradigm shift in how we approach the subject and has a comprehensive plan for doing so. He estimates there's a 50/50 chance we'll see significant results in humans within the lifetimes of those who are, today, middle aged. It's not an overly technical book at all and is extremely easy to read. I highly recommend it, ESPECIALLY if you don't think it's a good idea.

 

[highdesertranger]

for those in the southwest can I recommend "Desert Solitaire" by Edward Abbey. for backpackers "The Thousand Mile Summer" by Colin Fletcher this one gives you a picture of a different California, before it was over run with humans can't remember the year but in the 50's or early 60's. highdesertranger

 

[offroad]

for those in the southwest can I recommend "Desert Solitaire" by Edward Abbey. for backpackers "The Thousand Mile Summer" by Colin Fletcher this one gives you a picture of a different California, before it was over run with humans can't remember the year but in the 50's or early 60's. highdesertranger

Read desert solitaire when I was in my young days. Very inspirational. Almost turned me into a hobo monk back then in 1980.

 

[eDJ_]

I think anyone into the RV, or Van travel should have these three books on their short list.  

If you are on a long trip and want to imagine yourself in a Hippie VW Van with a couple of Hippies in the 1960's,

"Divine Right's Trip"  by Gurney Norman  (often called D.R.'s Trip)

http://www.amazon.com/Divine-Rights-Trip-Gurney-Norman/dp/0917788427

The Van is named  "Urge" and DR tells people that he goes where ever the "Urge" takes him.
This novel was printed on the edges of  "The Last Whole Earth Catalog".  (where I first read it)



This good second Book is a comforting read for the guys who have taken to the road to put a bad divorce
behind them and heal.  All Male solo-travelers could relate to this.  Even if you are sitting at home during a
severe winter this book would take you on the road in your imagination.

"Blue Highways;  A journey into America"  by  William Least  Heat-Moon  (a native American Author)

http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Highways...1433373467&sr=1-1&keywords=blue+highways+moon

Well worth reading and think of it as a "Captain's Log".


"Travels with Charley in search of America"   by John Steinbeck

http://www.amazon.com/Travels-Charley-Search-America-Steinbeck/dp/0140053204



These books are available as .pdf  for free on the internet

 

[gcal]

Tony Hillerman is a good read out west. Ran out of his books and started on James Doss, tho I am finding his style somewhat annoying.

 

[highdesertranger]

I have just finished "Isaac - trek to kings mountain" ... This is a non - fiction read about a 14y/o boy back in 1780 and his involvement in the battle for kings mountain. The battle for kings mountain is a often over looked battle but winning the battle was a major turning event for America's war for independence...
Written by J. Wayne Fears and available in ebook from Amazon

thanks, I love history, I really love revolutionary war history. it's what we are or where, we have strayed so far from the principles of our founding fathers. I feel that many are rolling in their graves. highdesertranger

 

[Ella1]

I just finished THE RISE by Sarah Lewis, and am now reading BEING WRONG Adventures in The Margin of Error, by Kathryn Schultz. Related subject matter--failure, some history of it, how we think about it, how we react to it, the human-ness of it, etc.
quote: http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/3402864.Kathryn_Schulz
“To err is to wander and wandering is the way we discover the world and lost in thought it is the also the way we discover ourselves. Being right might be gratifying but in the end it is static a mere statement. Being wrong is hard and humbling and sometimes even dangerous but in the end it is a journey and a story. Who really wants to stay at home and be right when you can don your armor spring up on your steed and go forth to explore the world True you might get lost along get stranded in a swamp have a scare at the edge of a cliff thieves might steal your gold brigands might imprison you in a cave sorcerers might turn you into a toad but what of what To **** up is to find adventure: it is in the spirit that this book is written.”
― Kathryn Schulz, Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error

 

[WriterMs]

I'm glad this older thread was resurrected, as I greatly enjoy seeing what others are reading and recommending.

One of the free ebooks Cyndi posted today is about how to "disappear" from society's radar. That caused me to think of mentioning a series I found very enjoyable a few years back: Thomas Perry's Jane Whitefield mystery series.

The premise is that a young Whitefield helped a deserving/endangered person "disappear" and found that she was good at it. Others who seemed to deserve help going completely off the radar were referred to her.. and thus a series.

I liked that the author lets you see her thinking: the hows and whys of the things she does. The books are a roadmap of the many ways we put our identities out there. Have a grocery store affinity card so that your purchases are remembered in the store's vast database? That can help track you down even if you no longer use the card. Much of the technology is out of date now, but to me the books are still fascinating.

The main character is also a member of the Seneca nation, so we get some Tony Hillerman-esque background on that culture.

The first in the series is titled: Vanishing Act

 

[Canine]

I can recommend "Blue Highways" (written by a van dweller)Anything by Stienbeck,Tennessee Williams,Cactus Ed.

 

[highdesertranger]

by Cactus Ed I assume Edward Abbey. great reads. highdesertranger

 

[Canine]

HDRanger,Yeah I dld Ed was quite a contradiction.A rabid environmentalist,but he drove an old gas guzzling Cadillac and threw his beer cans out on the side of the road.I guess I've read everything he ever wrote 3 or 4 times.I miss him.

 

[cyndi]

Saw this for free, today and remembered what a great story it was. It should be required reading to remind the citizens of the United States where we have been.

Twelve Years A Slave
"Twelve Years a Slave (1853) is a memoir and slave narrative by Solomon Northup, as told to and edited by David Wilson. Northup, a black man who was born free in New York, details his kidnapping in Washington, D.C. and subsequent sale into slavery. After having been kept in bondage for 12 years in Louisiana by various masters, Northup was able to write to friends and family in New York, who were in turn able to secure his release. Northup's account provides extensive details on the slave markets in Washington, D.C. and New Orleans and describes at length cotton and sugar cultivation on major plantations in Louisiana."

Free for your kindle, for a limited time
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NAGRJZ0