One of my new years resolutions was to read more, and I was wondering what everyone liked to read. I find much more satisfaction in reading a book then playing video games, watching tv, or being on the internet. It just makes me feel more productive. I've mostly been reading nonfiction books on economics, finance, and general business stuff because that's what I'm most interested in, but I also read a little bit of fiction. Right now, I'm reading The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith. It's a very in depth look into the Great Depression, and find it's similarities with today's economic crisis quite shocking. I just finished reading And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. It's a top notch murder mystery book that is really easy to read (took only a few days, and I'm not a fast reader by any means), and just is interesting all the way through. I definitely recommend it. Recently I read The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort. This was a goddamn entertaining book on a hedge fund manager and his crazy drug addictions, helicoptor flying, money laundering life. Really entertaining and very funny. I also read Freakonomics by Stephen Levitt and Stephen Dubner. This was an economic look, through statistics, at totally non economic things such as swimming pool deaths vs gun deaths, school systems, abortion vs crime. Now this book I reccommend to anyone who reads on Bit-Tech. The Game by Neil Strauss. This is the (true) story of a writer who decides to dive into the world of "pick up artists", people who make getting girls a science. A truly funny story by a fantastic writer. I also just read Reefer Madness by Eric Schlosser. This is an in depth look at the economics of marijuana, illegal immigration, and prostitution. Informative, and really interesting. His other book, which became a movie that you may have heard of, is Fast Food Nation. I have this on the shelf waiting for me too. As for fiction, I just got the Dexter books, and am excited to start those because I LOVE the TV series. I'm planning on reading the biography of Warren Buffet, The Snowball, and another Wall Street story, which seems to be similar to the Wolf of Wall Street, without the criminal aspect, called Liar's Poker. I also am going to read The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. So after this long, rambling post, what do you guys like to read? And do you have any recommendations for me? Is anyone interested in book reviews or anything like that?
i hear the first one is pretty good, but after that the author kind of goes off the deep end talking about all kinds of weird magical things and just generally ruining everything. a friend of mine read them and said they just about ruined the tv show for him. also: http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=162115
Man, that's too bad. I heard that the producers/writers of the show did their own thing for the second and third season, and it turned out quite good. But when I get to these books, I'll let you know what I think.
I'm a Sci-Fi reader myself. Arthur C. Clarke is one of my favorite authors. I highly recommend a collection of his short stores entitled The Sentinel. A few of my other favorites include Imperial Earth, The Currents of Space, The Foundation Trilogy, Prelude to Mars, Ender's Game I'm also a Starwars junkie and I've enjoyed just about everything that was written about the period over the movies, and thereafter up until random authors desecrated the storyline with Jacen and Jaina Solo growing up. When I was younger I enjoyed the series that focused on them at the Jedi Academy but this newest stuff is crap. Outside of Sci-Fi I've found three books to be highly entertaining. Animal Farm, 1984, The Art of War. If you like to draw parallels from literature to current events I definitely recommend Animal Farm I read it over the 04 presidential campaign and some of the things that were said and some of the tactics that were used definitely fit in with certain aspects of the book. 1984 is on my list because I've always liked Utopian scenarios (V for Vendetta anyone?), and then there's The Art of War simply because I find looking through the eyes of a legendary tactician exciting, and because I enjoy stacking my ideas up against those presented in the book.
