Recommend films and books and music here

[registrar]

I should read more. I should also watch more films. These things make me happy.

So while Plunk is owning me at PLO, feel free to post, in good charity, your suggestions for art which makes life a better place. Mine follow (some may be old hat but if you haven't, by any chance, do)

Books:

Money and London Fields by Martin Amis. Night Train is pretty great too but many others disagree.

The Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. This just blows your mind.

That's pretty much it. As I say, I don't read enough.

Films:

Anything by Hal Hartley. Simple Men is particularly fine.
Anything by Sergio Leone. All of them are particularly fine but a Fistful of Dynamite doesn't get many showings.
On a contemporary note, I thought Sin City.

Oh, beyond the remit of the thread, for music, buy Forever Changes by Love and give Dexy's Midnight Runners albums a chance.

[RichC.]

youre scaring me with this post, but i will post so things you might like in a few.

[jgunnip]

Books
Fooled By Randomness
Stumbling on Happiness

[Soulman]

It would be cool if people said something about the books/films they recommended - I don't feel like picking up a book, reading half of it only to discover it's in a genre I don't much like etc. Will put something here tomorrow, nighty-night for now.

[cappla011]

I used to read a lot, but since college I have been slowing down, it is something that I love to do and need to start reading more again.

Favorite Books:

Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr. is a great book. If you liked the movie, you will LOVE the book. It's alot better. It is a novel about drugs, addiction, and the consequences.

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club) is one of my favorite books. After reading this book, I went on a reading spree where I read like 20 books in a little over a month. Palahniuk's books are all written pretty strange, but if you're up for something different, I'd highly reccomend this book. Courtesy of Amazon - "Victor Mancini is a ruthless con artist. Victor Mancini is a med-school dropout who's taken a job playing an Irish indentured servant in a colonial-era theme park in order to help care for his Alzheimer's-afflicted mother. Victor Mancini is a sex addict. Victor Mancini is a direct descendant of Jesus Christ. All of these statements about the protagonist of Choke are more or less true." Also good books by Palahniuk are Fight Club, Lullaby, Diary, Survivor, Invisible Monsters.

The Thief of Always by Clive Barker was a book that I read when I was younger, and have read again recently. A short read, you can burn through the book quickly. Very nicely written. Here is a review/summary - http://trashotron.com/agony/reviews/..._of_always.htm



A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess is a pretty disturbing book which is also a movie. I've actually never seen the movie in it's entirity, but I'd recommend the book, it's pretty sweet.

Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh is a pretty awesome book. Alike to A Clockwork Orange, it can turn people off quickly because it has a lot of slang and can be hard to read. If you stick with it, the book is pretty funny and interesting. Also a good movie. About sex and drugs and the lifestyle in England.

Sphere by Michael Crichton is also another of my favorites that put me on a Michael Crichton - reading spree. Never seen all of the movie but only heard bad reviews, but the book is VERY good. From School Library Journal - "the focus of this science adventure tale is humankind's encounter with an alien life form. Within a space ship lying on the sea bottom is a mysterious sphere that promises each of the main characters some personal reward: military might, professional prestige, power, understanding. Trapped underwater with the sphere, the humans confront eerie and increasingly dangerous threats after communication with the alien object has been achieved. The story is exciting and loaded with scientific and psychological speculations that add interest at no cost to the action, including an intriguing sequence in which human and computer attempt to decode the alien communication. As the story races to an end, suspicions of evil-doing fall as many ways as in a detective novel. Young adults should find this book both accessible and satisfying." Also good books by Crichton are State of Fear, Rising Sun, Prey.

Hyperion by Dan Simmons is a science fiction novel that is VERY good. I never read my science fiction before, and after this I realized I should read more, or rather more of Dan Simmons. It is a Hugo Award winning novel, courtesy of Amazon - "On the eve of Armageddon, with the entire galaxy at war, seven pilgrims set forth on a final voyage to Hyperion seeking the answers to the unsolved riddles of their lives. Each carries a desperate hope--and a terrible secret. And one may hold the fate of humanity in his hands."

The Long Walk by Richard Bachman (aka Steven King), is a VERY disturbing book about 100 kids who do a competition where you have to walk at a certain pace for as long as possible, and if you fall under pace you get shot, and the winner gets whatever they want. Sounds weird, but is one of my favorite books. Other good reads by Stephen King are Shawshank Redemption, Misery, The Body (the movie Stand By Me, also very good), Apt Pupil.

A Simple Plan by Scott Smith. Two brothers and a friend find $4 million in the cockpit of a downed plane. The pilot is dead. No one is looking for the money. But things get crazy. Great movie, great book. Recommended.

I also used to read a lot of R.A. Salvatore's books. I thought The Dark Elf Trilogy was an amazing series of books. If you love fantasy this is a must read. The Icewind Dale Trilogy was also very good.


Favorite Music -

I like a lot of hardcore/punk/metal/rock and some reggae. A lot of people don't, so I'll just list some of the bands I am currently listening to.


311, Slightly Stoopid, Saves the Day, Sublime, Underoath, Saosin, Alexisonfire, City and Colour, Reggie & the Full Effect, Dave Matthews, Alkaline Trio, Bouncing Souls, Rise Against, Rufio, Millencolin, Pennywise, He Is Legend, Norma Jean, Wolfmother.

If you have never heard of Wolfmother, look into them now. They're prolly gonna be the new big thing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfmother


Favorite Movies -

Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland. Watch this movie when you are stoned or drunk, you will laugh you're ass off. I think I fell in love with Angela Baker (Bruce Springsteen's sister), who is the main killer. It is a stupid slasher with hilarious acting and great quotes. It was on the FearNet channel about a month ago, it still might, so check it out, but try to be under some influences while watching.

Grandma's Boy. Great stoner flick from the people at Happy Madison. Watch it stoned. I had everyone on my college swim team watch it -- we all talk like robots now. It's pretty funny.

Beerfest is funny as hell. I saw it in a movie theater with 2 friends, and we killed a thirty pack right in the theater. I was laughing my ass off. Very funny, recommended.

Bad Santa is a classic movie. Billy Bob Thorton is my idol in this movie. Very funny.

Out Cold is a pretty funny movie, every time I watch it I want to move to Alaska. A cool snowboarding movie.


I might add more later.

[JSchnett]

book: Moneyball

[bobneptune]

books : john adams by david mac cullough. in our time when so few of us have a spine to stand up against the dark side, reading what these founding fathers were up against and their abject selflessness, they were plainly superior people.

warped passages: unraveling the mysteries of the universe's hidden dimensions by dr lisa randall. in the search of reconcilling the weakness of gravity aginst the realative strength of electromagnatism and the strong and weak nuclear forces, dr randall finds extra dimentions.

music : old guy stuff neil young, joni mitchell, the moody blues

movies: old citizen kane..... newer... a history of violence.

[RichC.]

OK

Books: Shogun by James Clavell. Based in 1600 Japan, around the time of an actual historic battle and shifting of power. Pretty cool book.

Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield. Based on ancient battle where 300 Spartans hold off a million man Persian army. The movie 300 is very loosely based on this same battle.

Music: Nothing better than good ol' Metal and Hard rock.

Tool, Killswitch Engage, Dry Kill Logic.

Now to change gears, Jack Johnson.

Films: Well, I'm not much into deep meaning films, I wish to be entertained, not get in touch with my feelings.

Anyway, Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima are really good. Smokin' Aces, also cool, just watched it today.

[nath]

books:

-Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson
-Jesus' Son, Denis Johnson
-the Tao Te Ching (I prefer Stephen Mitchell's translation)
-Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet (again, Stephen Mitchell's version is my favorite)

movies:

-Casablanca
-Chinatown
-Dr. Strangelove
-Say Anything
-Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
-Sideways

music:

two of my five favorite albums have already been mentioned, so i'll give you the last three:

-the Beatles, Revolver
-Big Star, #1 Record / Radio City
-the Beach Boys, Pet Sounds

and some others:

-the Replacements, Let It Be and Tim
-R.E.M., Murmur, Life's Rich Pageant, and Document
-the Rolling Stones, Let It Bleed and Exile on Main Street
-Wilco, Summerteeth and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
-the Flaming Lips, the Soft Bulletin
-Van Morrison, Astral Weeks and Moondance.

[mflip]

The Godfather the novel. WAAAAAAY better than the movie and the movie is one of my all-time favorites.

I listen to rap so I seem to be in the minority around here. And rap is way too divided to just say "here this is good rap, you will like it" without knowing what type of rap you enjoy.

Movies - I'm watching Pulp Fiction at the moment so I'll go with that.