Grateful Dead Music Forum

amyjared wrote:I read all the time. I teach, but I can't stop reading. Some of my favorites include:

Christopher Moore. He cracks me up. Try Bloodsucking Fiends and Lamb to get you started

My wife read me Lamb in the car on a road trip - a hilarious book. We love reading to each other on road trips - last one we read a bunch of Truman Capote short stories - he was one brilliant writer.

Javalina - I had an office with mate with a dog named Beckett - I once did an acoustic gig under the name Vladamir and Estragon - love Beckett. I also hear you about forcing kids to read this stuff in school. It mostly went right over my head till Catcher in the Rye - then I started to think these guys might be on the something. Of course, reading a book with "fuck" in it in high school was a bonus unfortunately it's the only exposure to the greats that most kids will ever have. While they won't understand it the exposure is good and a few get it and develop a lifelong love of literature.

Great thread strummin, thanks!

Just started reading Claptons Bio.

i just started The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher. I probably finish about an average of 2 books a month. I just finished The Millennium Trilogy, the girl with the dragon tattoo and the other 2. good stuff i enjoyed it.
within the last year I have tried to read some older stuff.
Some of the ones i really enjoyed and can remember:

Catcher in the rye, JD Salinger
The Picture of Dorian Gray, O.Wilde
Frankenstein, Shelley
The sea wolf, Jack London
prisoner of zenda, anthony Hope
all creatures great and small, james Herriot
Agony at Easter, Thomas M. Coffey
The Chronicles of Narnia, CS Lewis

Great idea for a thread. Got some good suggestions, i will return for ideas.
Sebastian Barry i think i have read something about somewhere, Hmm?


If I was to make one suggestion Shantaram , Gregory David Roberts. It is long but i really enjoyed it.

Strummin,

I like all of the Connelly Bosch books. Also good is Nelson Demille (Plum Island!) and Robert Crais and his Elvis Cole series (more LA Detective stuff ala Bosch). Just finished a pretty good one called The California Roll, by John Vorhaus about grifters in LA. Funny and entertaining. I usually like to keep one of these sort of brainless detective things going along with a bunch of non-fiction for enlightenment! Enjoy the summer.

If you're into crime/detective fiction, I can recommend some non-fiction. One of the professors at my now alma mater wrote this:

A Pickpocket's Tale: The Underworld of Nineteenth-Century New York, by Timothy J. Gilfoyle. I'm sure you can find it on Amazon or the local library.

Actually been reading the Harry Potter series lately because my wife read them to my daughter. They are really good. Also, probably one of the best I read lately was Lunar Park by Easton Ellis, and The Road. Like someone above posted I usually ready the Lord of the rings Hobbit about every other year. Come winter I generaly read about a book every two weeks. Last music book I really enjoyed was the Neil Young Biography, Shakey. Would like to check out the Al Kooper book I think this winter.

How about Cormak McCarthy? Blood Meridian, No Country for Old Men, and that Pretty Horses trilogy; great writing, although kinda dark...

Just starting in on the Millenium Trilogy. Hard start, but it's picking up pace...

Recently enjoyed Ken Follett's World Without End and Pillars Of The Earth (before they announced the miniseries!)... both lengthy period pieces that spoke to my interest in architecture.

Along the same lines as Lunchbox's rec above, a good friend of mine co-wrote (ghosted, but credited) a true-crime called Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures by Robert K. Wittman. It's a very enjoyable read if you're into the arts (painting/sculpture)... even if you're not!

Also have Moore's Fool and Fluke on the to-do list... LOVED Lamb!