Recommend a book!

ha...... I still have to figure that one out ) in theory and in practice Originally Posted by ninasastri

The Secret..should help you understand it. Full movie of the book is on youtube.:-)

The Secret..should help you understand it. Full movie of the book is on youtube.:-) Originally Posted by SensualSpecialist

Thank you I read a little a while ago, it`s a thought triggering book

High fantasy...Tolkein Lord of the Rings and Wheel of Tome are clearly the best. Incredible literature in Tolkein, who started it all. Incredible world building and characterization by Jordan in WOT. If you prefer a darker fantasy, Martin is great, but everyone you like at first will soon die and the series is full of sex, incest and, in general, men behaving badly. If you prefer a more shallow, preachy with much lame copying from WOT, with the worst ending in fantasy, The Sword of Truth is for you. I liked Erickson but it is crazy trying to follow the plot and characters as it is so disjointed.

Dune is the best Science Fiction series of all time, but Heinlein is great, and I enjoy Vonnegut.

I am a big fan of historical fiction. For books about Rome, try the series by Colleen McCullough That starts with The First Man in Rome about Gaius Marius and through several books leading up to Caesar and finishing with the war between Octavian and Marc Anthony. The books are full of actual letters between the antagonists that make it seem very authentic.

Another great Historical Fiction book about Spain and Cortez is Captain from Castille by Samuel Schellebarger.

The Robe and Ben Hur are also very good as was Shogun..

Freakonomics - It will fascinate you.

Read a fascinating book this weekend on Amelia Earhart. It is very well researched and documented. According to this book she was killed by the Japanese. I always wondered what happened to her. I find her to be kinda sexy being that she was unconventional and pushed societal norms. She was a strong, smart woman and I like that.

Amelia Earhart: The Truth at Last by Mike Campbell.

Norwegian Wood and/or Kafka on the Shore - by Haruki Murakami

If you love math and science...

The Elegant Universe: Superstrings,Hidden Dimensions and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory. Brian Green explains the world according to theoretical physics in an interesting and understandable way.

The Grand Design by Steven Hawking.

If you are interested in the spiritual, The Shack and Heaven is Real are thought provoking.

This is ALWAYS so tough....so many great books...so little time. For purposes of the language of the request here..... A (singular) book....

Zen & The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig.

A (singular) tale, told in the form of several books, I have to go with The Baroque Cycle by Neil Stephenson. It's a trilogy:

Quicksilver
The Confusion
The System of the World

I'd argue you also need Cryptonimicon for full effect. It was written first, but takes place after the other three.

Any of Chuck Palahniuk's books. They are all twisted and will hsve you on the edge of your seat.

Secrets of Mental Math by Arthur Benjamin and Michael Shermer

Lords of Chaos by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind

Great recommendations, I'm glad I found this thread! Just read The Pathfinder by Nicholas Lore, aimed at those like myself considering a career change. Very introspective read.

Secrets of Mental Math by Arthur Benjamin and Michael Shermer

Lords of Chaos by Michael Moynihan and Didrik Soderlind Originally Posted by zerodahero

Shut up!!! Who are you?! That is awesome.

I really like reading older children's fiction. Somehow, I find it more entertaining than adult fiction. I am wrapping up the final book in the "Gregor the Overlander" series. It was written by an author before she was made popular from "The Hunger Games." -- Suzanne Collins

Second the Erikson (exposition is murky, but his characters are fantastic), Butcher (Dresden files) and John Sandford (Prey, though his Virgil Flowers novels are slightly better to me. That fuckin' Flowers.) recommendations. If you like the urban fantasy, Laurel K Hamilton's Anita Blake series was groundbreaking in that genre, though it's become softcore vampire porn. Anything up to Obsidian Butterfly (the best) is a good read.
If you like detective fiction, Michael Connelly is solid and Robert Crais is outstanding. His Elvis Cole novels have a poetic melancholy that can just about make you cry. Harlan Coben's novels are electric but feeling kind of one note, except his Myron Bolitar books are still great.
Speaking of poetic, Guy Gavriel Kay writes historical fantasy that can take your breath away. His Wandering Fire series reads like a ripoff of the Silmarillion, but then he wrote the latter, so it's understandable. Tigana and A Song for Arbonne are incredible standalones.
For action fiction, Lee Child's series is quite readable, though Reacher is quite the ubermensch. Didn't see the movie but don't let it turn you off.
If you're a Southerner, or you want to know what it's like to be a Southerner, then Pat Conroy is a must read. The Lords of Discipline had me on pins and needles (I still hate the Citadel to this day), the Great Santini actually changed how I felt about my own father (in that I thought well maybe he's not that big an asshole as it seems), Beach Music was great, and I haven't yet gotten to read South of Broad. But his best book is one I admit I wouldn't read for a long time because Barbara Streisand starred in a movie off of it (and I detest that overrated hag), but it's simply one of the best books of the 20th or any century, so don't repeat my folly and read The Prince of Tides if you haven't already.

But the first book that popped into my head is Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth. Medieval cathedral building is a subject that fascinates me (I adore the concept of Light as God.) and he wraps a good tale around it. It made a decent miniseries with Ian Mcshane (and full female nudity!) a while back. Follet's written a sequel that's on my to read list. I don't often reread books - the curse of having a good memory is that I remember too much about them - but I've read that one two or three times.

I'm currently reading 'the childhood roots of adult happiness' excellent easy entertaining helpful reading