If you want to read some Jon Krakauer, I would recommend Under the Banner of Heaven. A fair bit longer, but more interesting from a social standpoint.

I'll look into it.
but it was the subject not the writer that interested me in 'into the wild'

for those reading the 'thucydides' thread, the precolumbian presence of africans in america is mentioned in some of these books. particularly, "lies my teacher told me"

I'm sure most of you have read at least a couple of these..
but take a gander a tthe rest, all good books that I reccomend

I've read most of the "Under the Banner of Heaven" book recommeded by Casper (don't remember why I didn't finish it....I think I lost it). The history presented in the book, while I think a little biased, is very interesting.

ive read your jennsen & been down with him, but perhaps he is too severe. ethical no doubt. dick = best. dick = awesome. unjobbing = eh. nice if you can afford it, which most cant, but then again, some can, so why not? naomi klein = hack. no offense, but utter hack. hakim = pervert but stimulating. zinn = informative, but ultimately wrong. lies my teacher = informative, again, but wrong.

we'll have to meet at that crimeThinc in MKE.

mind explaining youe opinions?

um, yeah maybe. your opinions make me want to beat your ass, but as long as your a good guy I'm sure we'll get along great. this peculiar aspect of the internet has already been disscussed

well you seem like a hippie weirdo to me but i am sure in mke we can find a mutually agreeable bier to sip on, at least.

i dunno what you want me to explain. of them, jensen is a very emotive author and really resonates with the human experience, but i am not sure his conclusions are tenable for mass society. as an ethical orientation, certainly, but humans are in it for the long hall, so i would think generations of people cannot live up to his standards while we move in that direction.

dick is dick and great on his own, there is nothing i can add or take away.

klein is a total hack, she just says the antiglobalist party line which is at its best intellectually compromised. hakim does write good poetry but he is explicitly a pervert. i dont mean that as a slight but its true enough for the social context. sex with underage boys is illegal regardless of how beautiful he thinks they are you know?

to beer!

The Man in the High Castle > A Scanner Darkly
The Martian Chronicles > Fahrenheit 451

Out of curiosity, do you read any books that aren't completely in line with your own politics/philosophy?

Excellent Point, last person whose name I cannot pronounce in the English language! I was looking at those books, and minus the science fiction-ish selections, just about all of those books offer a viewpoint that I think gives me a pretty good idea of who you are, and what you believe to be important and true.

I'm not a journalism student, but I find this to be the most interesting trend in media today: the shift from a "pushing" media, in which users are thrust information from media, to a "pulling" media, in which individuals can now track down and "pull" in the information that they want. Typically, this information is commonly the most in alignment with that person's own individual religious/political/social ideologies.

Everyone's entitled to their opinion, and every opinion counts, I suppose.... I just tend to ignore opinions that seem to be rooted heavily on one side of the issue.

This is just my own ranting; nothing implied against any individual person here.

i would like to add the bible.
regardless of personal beliefs, i think a book that has lasted thousands of years, that has grown roots into the western society, and has caused so much debate too should be read to understand what all the commotion is about. plus its just phenominal to see how some brilliant things in that book that still apply today were written by people, peasants, living over 5000 years ago (particularly genesis)

I concur with Vampiero.
Some of my other favorites...
*Enders Game
*Dune
*Freakonomics
*The most dangerous game - this is actually a short story but you should read it anyway
*Crime and Punishment
*The Hobbit - Perhaps my favorite book ever, I even own a hobbit-related website www.hobbitcentral.com
*Lord of the Flies
*Watership Down

Also, i would like an answer to Tuco's question.

Brothers Karamazov
Confessions(Augustine)

Mein Kempf...Adolf Hitler
that book about Chairman Mao

yes I read all kinds of books.
in no way do I read only books I agree with, that would be boring as shit
I read everything from shakespeare to machevelli
vonnegut to card
twain to homer

I'll second enders game, the bible, the hobbit, and lord of the flies

I'd also like to add the koran, mother night, the ear the eye and the arm (fav childhood book) and harry potter (either 5 or 6 cant remember)
and I like the count of monte cristo and the man in the iron mask

oh, to the couple people who were curious about primitivism, I especially reccomend Ishmael

Am I the only one in the world who isn't completely thrilled with Vonnegut's works? I just never really got into them.
Also, I left out earlier...
*Hitchhiker's Guide (Wasn't too fond of it actually, but I think it is an important book to read, since it is alluded to a lot)
*To Kill a Mockingbird

i'm reading poetry of hafiz at the moment - spectacular - touched.

the only vonnegut I really like is mother night

"Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared Diamond provides a good response to racism.

arnt you a racist?

I'm not trying to insult you, but I seem to remember you saying that...

Lay off the Aqua Velva shooters. It's screwing up your long term memory.

Barney's Version - Mordecai Richler. Hilarious and yet very depressing at the same time. Very well written.

a simple 'no you're mistaken' would have sufficed you asshole

fwancophile, you say both loewen and zinn are wrong. why is it you think this?

I'm about a third of the way through "Guns, Germs, and Steel". It's a fantastic book, does an excellent job providing a broad history of the world and then exploring the reasons that different areas of the world developed at different rates, and what forms that development took. Readably, interesting, and informative.

On a sci-fi note check out 'Permutation City' by Greg Egan. It's not epic but it is hugely enjoyable.

Sicarius, it's "Palahniuk"

I think what fwancophile is saying (at least in Zinn's case) is that although his book is titled "A People's History of the US" it really is a history of moron's and Robin Hoods. It assumes that the entire history of the US revolves around a class struggle in which the lower class is constantly being made fools of by the rich. A real "people's history" would be more balanced.

El perro
more balanced? as in a Fox's "fair and balanced" ?
haha

Also a big difference between "assumes" and "makes the case that"

I'm getting alot of good recommendations on books to read! In a few weeks, assuming that I pass all of my classes, I will graduate from college, and i will actually have time to read books for enjoyment again! (This reminds me of a Billy Collins poem, 'Introduction to Poetry', in which he tries to teach a class to simply enjoy reading poetry for the moment, rather than '...tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it.' Sometimes, analysis is all professors expect you to learn from arts and letters classes.)

I especially liked "Neuromancer", although getting used to the style of the writing took some time.

"Snow Crash" (Can't remember the author) was also very cool...much easier to read than Neuromancer, more lighthearted (I suppose).

From what I remember of "The Most Dangerous Game," the ending was a little anticlimatic IMO.

"Freakonomics" was very cool ... especially what I read from that one (never read the last few chapters, can't find the book anymore).