1 Book to read for 2 months
 

So I am going on a 2 month trip and want to bring along a book or maybe 2 to read on it. I don't want to carry more than that though, so I need the book to have a lot of depth to it. I would appreciate any suggestions.

Right now I think I am probably going to bring Godel, Escher, Bach and possibly Mathematics of Poker.

I want books that will really challenge me and am leaning away from fiction (so not really interested in Ulysses or something like that). Bonus points for teaching me something that could have a direct effect on making me money, so I would be interested in maybe some investing type books.

Thanks for any suggestions

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

the bible and im being serious

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

War and Peace.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

get the completed fictions of Borges, it's awesome.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

GEB is more than a two-month read in my opinion. A very good one, mind you, but I'm still working on it after 6 months. It's best in small doses, or you just end up skimming and realizing you don't know what the heck the point of the last 20 pages were.

Though, really, even if you read slowly, slowly considering and mentally digesting every sentence in every paragraph, you still probably won't know what the heck the point of the last 20 pages were. It's a toughie.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

A Lover's Discourse

A review from Amazon.com:

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Captures admirably the absurdity of it all. Contains gems like `Even as he obsessively asks himself why he is not loved, the amorous subject lives in the belief that the loved object does love him but does not tell him so.' Also has what is probably the best paragraph ever written on jealousy: `As a jealous man, I suffer four times over: because I am jealous, because I blame myself for being so, because I fear my jealousy will wound the other, because I allow myself to be subject to a banality: I suffer from being excluded, from being aggressive, from being crazy and from being common.'

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Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

Brothers Karamazov is fantastic and it will take you around 2 months. Just plow through the first 100 pages or so and you'll figure out who everyone is even if Dostoevsky calls them by 3 or 4 different names.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

And he will. Seriously, write down who you think each character is, and all his nicknames, when reading Dostoyevsky, or it can get infuriating. Same guy with endless names, depending on who he's talking to, can get really confusing.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

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Bonus points for teaching me something that could have a direct effect on making me money,

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The Low Down on Going Down: How to Give Her Mind-Blowing Oral Sex by Marcy Micheals..

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

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the bible and im being serious

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Every hotel everywhere has a bible. I hope you were trying to level.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

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GEB is more than a two-month read in my opinion. A very good one, mind you, but I'm still working on it after 6 months. It's best in small doses, or you just end up skimming and realizing you don't know what the heck the point of the last 20 pages were.

Though, really, even if you read slowly, slowly considering and mentally digesting every sentence in every paragraph, you still probably won't know what the heck the point of the last 20 pages were. It's a toughie.

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Did you spend like 5.9 months on the MU thing?

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

I have the perfect suggestion for this:

"Shogun" by James Clavell.

It's not great literature, but it's really really well done. It's an entertaining, sweeping, long, dramatic, violent, funny, fascinating novel about an English sailor stranded in Japan. You learn all about samurai culture while getting wrapped up in the drama. It takes a while to get through, but you can't put it down. Even though it may not be the smartest or most profound novel of our age, it's probably the best 2-month-long read I've ever had.

http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~aahobor...-50/Shogun.jpg

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

War and Peace will last you forever - I'm pretty sure it's about a foot thick.

If you leave after the 20th I'd get a copy of 2+2's Professional No Limit and something like a long Stephen King novel if you like him.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

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the bible and im being serious

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He said that he doesn't want fiction.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

You can try Infinite Jest, it will teach you about juniors tenis and some pharmacolgy.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

EAST OF EDEN

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

Thanks for the suggestions so far. I'm taking them into consideration. Here's my thoughts on them.

the Bible - The thought of reading the Bible has appealed to me at various times in my life, but frankly this isn't one of them. I don't think I would be able to get through it.

War and Peace - Potential, but my high school English teacher confessed to us that he's tried to get through it about a dozen times and was never able to. Makes me think I won't be able to either.

Completed Fictions of Borges - Never heard of it, but just looked it up. Will have to read more about it.

Lover's Discourse - Looks interesting, but I'm not sure if I can see myself getting into it.

Brother's Karamazov - Started and stopped this novel about 4 times already.

Shogun - Seems pretty cool. I think I may have to read this, but maybe not on this trip. I would probably definitely have read it on this trip if we had decided to go to Japan.

Infinite Jest - Will have to look at this one more closely, looks like a possibility

East of Eden - I've read some Steinbeck and never really got that into it. Although I was much younger so maybe I should give some a reread.

GEB - To whoever commented on the denseness of GEB, I appreciate that, and its my main concern too.


It seems most of the suggestions are fiction. Any non-fiction ideas? I guess this type of reading just lends itself more to fiction.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

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It seems most of the suggestions are fiction. Any non-fiction ideas? I guess this type of reading just lends itself more to fiction.

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Well, you want to fill 2 months. Thats a lot of reading to start with, and most of the nonfiction that I've read has been either too boring or too quick of a read.

How do you feel about eBooks? Grab a bunch of classics and put them on a palm pilot or something. That'll be smaller, and you can have more than a few books to read.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

the old man and the sea

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

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the old man and the sea

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How about this leaflet, "Famous Jewish Sports Legends"?

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

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the old man and the sea

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How about this leaflet, "Famous Jewish Sports Legends"?

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Or the entire stock of the Hamtramck (MI) library. I'm pretty sure you can get a hold of the book.

That was probably funnier when Hamtramck was 99% Polish.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

It's 3 books, but Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle might be a good choice. It's fiction (the author considers it science fiction), but he's a huge geek and takes some very interesting diversions into cryptology, economics, politics, history, etc. Each book is 8-900 pages, but they're in paperback now so they shouldn't take up a ton of space.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

Duke,

The eBook thing isn't a bad idea. I don't have one right now though, and can't really see myself reading that much off of a screen. Anyone have one and recommend it?

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

What about any good autobiographies or something of the sort that you can learn a lot from?

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Duke,

The eBook thing isn't a bad idea. I don't have one right now though, and can't really see myself reading that much off of a screen. Anyone have one and recommend it?

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I don't know of any that most people would like. I use an old Palm Vx for that, but I doubt that 99% of people would be OK with the display. The iPhone would be perfect if I wouldn't have to kill so many contracts to switch to AT&T that it would run me $1400+service to start it up.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

war and peace sucks - plz to be avoiding.

i'm trying to read decline and fall of the roman empire but kinda failing. certainly has the length but won't help you make money.

how about super/system? lols.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

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It's 3 books, but Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle might be a good choice. It's fiction (the author considers it science fiction), but he's a huge geek and takes some very interesting diversions into cryptology, economics, politics, history, etc. Each book is 8-900 pages, but they're in paperback now so they shouldn't take up a ton of space.

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Just looked that up and it looks really cool and interesting. Before investing so much time in books like that though, I kind of prefer that they have withstood the test of time already. I know thats snobbish but what can I say.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

All knowledge helps you make money. All of it.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

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It's 3 books, but Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle might be a good choice. It's fiction (the author considers it science fiction), but he's a huge geek and takes some very interesting diversions into cryptology, economics, politics, history, etc. Each book is 8-900 pages, but they're in paperback now so they shouldn't take up a ton of space.

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Just looked that up and it looks really cool and interesting. Before investing so much time in books like that though, I kind of prefer that they have withstood the test of time already. I know thats snobbish but what can I say.

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Cryptonomicon is by the same author, is only one book, and is also very good. Snow Crash is also by the same author, is one short book, and is excellent.

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Screen might be a little small for that much reading, although if you are coming from a Palm maybe not. It will certainly be higher resolution.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

What about A Brief History of Time or Guns,Germs and Steel?

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

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Just looked that up and it looks really cool and interesting. Before investing so much time in books like that though, I kind of prefer that they have withstood the test of time already. I know thats snobbish but what can I say.

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That's reasonable enough. Keep it in mind though.

BTW, where are you going? If you've never read any of Paul Theroux's travel books, and if your itinerary overlaps one of his, it might be a good choice.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

Being as you mentioned making money, why not The Intelligent Investor and The Four Pillars of Investing? Maybe 7-14 days for the former, 2-6 days for the latter, depending on how much time you're spending reading.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

Actually a book on a poker game you did not know well could be very good.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

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Just looked that up and it looks really cool and interesting. Before investing so much time in books like that though, I kind of prefer that they have withstood the test of time already. I know thats snobbish but what can I say.

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That's reasonable enough. Keep it in mind though.

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Yeah, I definitely will. His other books another poster pointed seem like stuff I'd be interested in too.

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BTW, where are you going? If you've never read any of Paul Theroux's travel books, and if your itinerary overlaps one of his, it might be a good choice.

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Thanks for the link. I'm traveling to China and SE Asia. It seems like some of it overlaps. I think I'm gonna get one of these for reading if not on the trip, at least for some point. They seem right up my alley.

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Actually a book on a poker game you did not know well could be very good.

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Only game I really have a desire to be good at that I don't know alright is PLO. None of the PLO books really seem worthy of bringing along on a trip like this though.

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

the intelligent investor is not a bad idea, but i'd take labyrinths by jorge luis borges. it's short fiction + essays and it's all kinds of [censored] up. you can reread it endlessly.

i'd also consider the happy isles of oceania by paul theroux. it's pretty dense, and it's a travel book!

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

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Screen might be a little small for that much reading, although if you are coming from a Palm maybe not. It will certainly be higher resolution.

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When I was hyped up about getting an iPhone to replace my phone, palm, and mp3 player, I was going through some tests with a buddy of mine to see if there was a workaround for it not having "real" storage on it.

We found a way to get PDFs on there as e-mail attachments that would be readable in airplane mode, and he was like: "you can't read on this." Me: "I read like 200 books on a palm Vx." Him: "Oh... then this is about 30x better."

Re: 1 Book to read for 2 months
 

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I'm traveling to China and SE Asia.

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"The Great Railway Bazaar" and "Riding the Iron Rooster" are both books largely about Asia (though in both he starts in London and travels by train).

Both are very good, though I don't know whether it'd be better to read them before, during, or after the trip.

For example, I just came across this passage after opening "Rooster" at random :

"An eerie sight in Guangxi were the caves in those gray limestone hills. The hills had come to look like fat columns and towers, and the caves made them seem hollow. Later I learned that Guangxi is full of caves. Some are underground dripping caverns, but these above ground things - many of them at any rate - had been converted into homes. The strangest ones looked like gaping mouths, with white stalactites showing like teeth.
In a shallow pool among those towerlike hills there was a gray and white crane, the sort the Chinese regard as an auspicious bird, representing long life. The train startled the bird, and off it went,soaring and circling, as we runbled on through a painting of mountains that was being endlessly unrolled.
In the kitchen off the dining car, a young woman was scrubbing pots and singing in Chinese.
I know that you love me
I am waiting
But where do you want me to go? "

Lots of little things like that might help you find places you wouldn't otherwise; but the best part of travelling is usually ending up somewhere unexpected ...

Either way, I'm jealous; have a good trip.