1 Book to read for 2 months

[Blarg]

If we're recommending stuff about China, I'll spring for Iron and Silk, both book and movie form. Movie stars the guy who wrote the book. Book was very well reviewed even in such places as The New Yorker. Both really excellent.

[Jeff W]

Plutarch's Lives

[jaffa]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
the old man and the sea

[/ QUOTE ]

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

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice use, i laughed.

How about some hardcore medical literature. When you get back you'll have the party trick of being able to diagnose all your friends and loved ones with things such as Lupus and Thalassaemia Major and you yourself will become a hypochondriac.

[bugstud]

both of the jared diamond books, as already mentioned. guns germs & steel and collapse

[daman123]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
the old man and the sea

[/ QUOTE ]

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

[/ QUOTE ]

surely you jest, but this is a real book that i received as a gift for my bar-mitzvah. according to half.com, its 222 pages.

[Kintamayama]

Another vote for Cryptonomicon (which I would definitely read before attempting the Baroque Cycle). Another slightly less voluminous choice by the same author is The Diamond Age, an earlier work that creates a picture of the world in the age of nanotechnology.

Tai-Pan and Noble House (both of which take place in Hong Kong instead of Japan) are two other solid choices from James Clavell.


[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
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.

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

[/ QUOTE ]

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.

[/ QUOTE ]

[NLSoldier]

the making of the atomic bomb.

pretty long, tons of depth, but still interesting/fun. also its non-fiction obv.

i have also heard good things about guns germs and steel but havent read it yet. ill order it right now.

[fifield]

Caro's four-part biography of LBJ (only three are finished so far) is the best piece of biographical writing I've ever read. You'll learn the inner-workings of campaigns, the Senate, about Texas hill country and everything else related to Johnson up to his vice presidency. I couldn't put the books down, though, and they still took me over four months to finish.

[bruin]

the brothers karamazov--i know you dont want fiction, but if you haven't read it yet i think it's a must.

[XXXNoahXXX]

Bring these three

Iliad


Odyssey


Aeneid