book request

[focalintent]

Recently, I've been playing with an ebook reader on my second coming[1] - and discovering that having books that i'm currently reading always in my pocket gets me through them much faster - probably because I can always grab a page or few here or there.

While I often feel I have this backlog of books that I want to read, though, when I go to the ereader site to look for more books my mind goes blank. Stupid brains. They'd rather be thinking about graphs and profiling and optimizationings and .... well, anyway.

So, I have two questions to toss out there. The first is - If you could recommend two books that a person should absolutely read in the next 6 months, what would they be?

The second is - what book sites do you like/prefer? I'm looking for sites where you list what you have and/or what you've read, can review them, can rate them, can find recommendations, etc... There's the bookshelf app on facebook that i've done a bad job of keeping up to date (I also have a delicious library setup on my machine here, but i've done a really bad job of adding the books i've purchased in the last two or so years to it).

Anyway - to entertain myself in the meantime, i've just started reading The Tipping Point (having just finished Blink) and The Brothers Karamazov.


[1] Oh, yah - I gave in, brought an iPhone, love it so far, want to write apps for it, it has its annoyances but nothing worse than anything i've previously owned and mostly better. Only reason battery life kinda blows for me is i won't stop playing with the damn thing!

Comments

off the top of my head.....

[shepjoe.livejournal.com]

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
DAMIAN by Hermen Hesse

[rubin110.livejournal.com]

http://www.kuro5hin.org/prime-intellect/

[sol3.livejournal.com]

I remember reading that when he first published it - funny how plans for followups/sequels always seem harder to fill in than one thinks :)

[devina.livejournal.com]

I really liked the Time Traveller's Wife. Didn't break my brain, but definitely bent it a little bit.

[ert.livejournal.com]

I really liked the Time Traveller's Wife.

Snaps to that. I loved it. Read it before the movie comes out at the end of the year.

As for book sites, have you tried LibraryThing?

[mercurialcirce.livejournal.com]

Blindness, by Jose Saramago. It's a haunting novel, not too long. It has influenced my imagination more than most books in the two years since I read it, as well as how I perceive objects in my daily life. I haven't read its sequel and doubt I will.

Also, Einstein's Dreams is a short, fun novella that I don't see around much these days.

I'm hoping to pick up a copy of Paradox of Choice before I go to the desert.

[daizeymaizey.livejournal.com]

What is the What kind of rocked my world a little recently. I haven't stopped thinking about it.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

I don't know what to read myself, but think the motherlode of public domain work is Project Gutenberg.

[threadwalker.livejournal.com]

Glut It's a history of information and how we organize it, relate to it, etc. Surprisingly readable. Can bring that over if you like.

I'm on Goodreads- forget if you are or not... have much listed up there.

[sol3.livejournal.com]

I loved glut! Read that earlier this year (late last year? I forget which). Excellent book :)

I'll have to check out goodreads - though, probably not today, still much with the cleaning and the upping of setting to do :)

[ged.livejournal.com]

The 4-Hour Work Week
Red Mars (first of a trilogy, though, which usually puts me off)

[whynotkay.livejournal.com]

"Bonk: the Curious Coupling of Science and Sex", by Mary Roach

It's a fast read, can be read in bits and pieces, and is super entertaining.

[comment13.livejournal.com]

Dictee by Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski