# Favorite recreational books?



## AThornquist (Dec 8, 2011)

I'm interested in reading (or listening via audiobooks) to books thats are entertaining and perhaps good for cultivating creativity in my own thinking, sermon illustrations, etc. I read _The Hunger Games_ last week and *loved* it, and similar works would be fun.

Anyway, what are your favorite pleasure-reading works, especially secular?


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## FenderPriest (Dec 8, 2011)

Harry Potter. :-D


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## Rufus (Dec 8, 2011)

Secular books should be burned..... 

Anyways, I liked Starship Troopers, 1984, the Lord of the Rings, House of Seven Gables. I'll post more later when I can think of them.


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## Somerset (Dec 8, 2011)

Wisden fills many a happy hour.


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## py3ak (Dec 8, 2011)

For sheer delight, few things surpass _Tintin_. (Not the abominable _Congo_ and _Soviets_ episodes, though, obviously.) Boswell on Johnson, Johnson himself, and the _Spectator_ are excellent ways to fill up little spaces of time with pleasure and profit. And though _The Green Bag_ is an entertaining magazine for lawyers, I suspect those not devoted to the legal profession could also enjoy that repository of curiosities. Some day when you are too unwell to work, you should read _The Diary of a Nobody_ - I doubt it can fail to cheer you up.

People often approach the classics as a duty, and do not expect to find delight in them; but this is wrongheaded. While this is not true of all of them, many of the books considered classics are in that list because they have for so long so reliably combined doctrine and solace in the experience of so many and so diverse readers. In that vein, Stanley Lombardo has a very enjoyable recording of the _Odyssey_ that is well worth a listen. Lately I've been finding the plays of Sophocles also quite compelling. Among living writers, Marilynne Robinson, Annie Dillard, and Stephen R. Donaldson are always worth reading. I don't know that I have ever read one of the books being reviewed, but I also enjoy the book reviews at Spectator Magazine | World Politics & Current Events News and Discussion.

And obviously there is the whole massive and incredible field of English literature, much of which is readily available. At whatever point you find yourself, I think there is an author or two, and at least a handful of works, which will provide you with a delightful entry. Here is one of my favorites:
Amazon.com: George Orwell: As I Please, 1943-1945: The Collected Essays, Journalism & Letters, Vol 3 (9781567921359): George Orwell, Sonia Orwell; Ian Angus: Books


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## FenderPriest (Dec 8, 2011)

Also, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: A Novel by David Mitchell is really good.


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## AThornquist (Dec 8, 2011)

Thank you for the recommendations, all. Keep 'em coming! By the way, here is a list of books recommended from the Art of Manliness. Are there any on here that you see and think, "Yikes- don't waste on that lameness!"?

(I typed this all rather quickly, so it's not typed out perfectly and most of it is lower-case.)
1- The Great Gatsby (fitzgerald)
2- The prince (machiavelli)
3- slaughterhouse-five (vonnegut)
4- 1984 (orwell)
5- the republic (plato)
6- brothers karamazov (dostoevsky)
7- the catcher and the rye (salinger)
8- the wealth of nations (smith)
9- for whom the bell tolls (hemingway)
10- the picture of dorian gray (wilde)
11- the grape of wrath (steinbeck)
12- brave new world (huxley)
13- how to win friends and influence people (carnegie)
14- call of the wild (london)
15- the rise of theodore roosevelt (morris)
16- swiff family robinson (wyss)
17- dharma burns (kerouac)
18- the iliad and odyssey (homer)
19- catch-22 (heller)
20- walden (thoreau)
21- lord of the flies (golding)
22- the master and margarita (bulgakov)
23- bluebeard (vonnegut)
24- atlas shrugged (rand)
25- the metamorphosis (kafka)
26- american boys' handy book
27- into thin air (krakauer)
28- king solomon's mines (haggard)
29- the idiot (dostoevsky)
30- a river runs through it (maclean)
31- the island of dr. moreau (wells)
32- malcolm x: the autobiography
33- theodore rex (morris)
34- the count of monte cristo (dumas)
35- all quiet on the western front (remarq)
36- the red badge of courage (crane)
37- lives of the noble greeks and romans (plutarch)
38- the strenuous life (roosevelt)
40- lonesome dove (mcmurtry)
41- the maltese falcon (hammett)
42- the long goodbye (chandler)
43- to kill a mockingbird (lee)
44- the dangerous book for boys (iggulden)
45- the killer angels (shaara)
46- the autobiography of benjamin franklin
47- the histories (herodotus
48- from here to eternity (jones)
49- the frontier in american history (turner)
50- zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance (pirsig)
51- self reliance (emerson)
52- another roadside attraction (robbins)
53- white noise (delillo)
54- ulysses (joyce)
55- the young man's guide (alcott)
56- blood meridian, or the evening redness in the west (mccarthy)
57- seek: reports from the edges of america & beyond (johnson)
58- crime and punishment (dostoevsky)
59- steppenwolf (hesse)
60- the book of deeds of arms and of chivalry (de pizan)
61- the art of warfare (tzu)
62- don quixote (saavedra)
63- into the wild (krakauer)
64- the divine comedy (alighieri)
65- the hobbit (tolkien)
66- the rough rider (roosevelt)
67- east of eden (steinbeck)
68- leviathan (hobbes)
69- the thin red line (jones)
70- adventures of huckleberry finn (twain)
71- the politics (aristotle)
72- first edition of the boy scout handbook
73- cyrano de bergerac (rostand)
74- tropic of cancer (miller)
75- the crisis (churchill)
76- the naked and the dead (miller)
77- hatchet (paulsen)
78- animal farm (orwell)
79- tarzan of the apes (burroughs)
80- beyond good and evil (nietzsche)
81- the federalist papers (hamilton)
82- moby dick (melville)
83- essential manners for men (post)
84- frankenstein (shelly)
85- hamlet (shakespeare)
86- the boys of summer (kahn)
87- a separate peace (knowles)
88- a farewell to arms (hemingway)
89- the stranger (camus)
90- robinson crusoe (dafoe)
91- the pearl (steinbeck)
92- on the road (kerouac)
93- treasure island (stevenson)
94- confederacy of dunces (toole)
95- foucault's pendulum (eco)
96- the great railway bazaar (theroux)
97- fear and trembling (kierkegaard)
98- undaunted courage (ambrose)
99- paradise lost (milton)
100- cannery row (steinbeck)


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## Somerset (Dec 8, 2011)

Hobbes (no 68) takes several hundred pages to say what could be said in one.


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## py3ak (Dec 8, 2011)

There's several I wouldn't bother to look into myself. I really doubt that 51 or 54 will repay your time. I can't speak authoritatively, of course, never having been able to stand more than a few moments of Emerson, in the one case, or of _Ulysses_ in the other (though Joyce's earlier work is breathtaking at times: syphilis takes a toll on the mind).
If you're looking for manly books the first stop is _Le Morte d'Arthur_ by Sir Thomas Malory. Sir Ector's funeral speech for Lancelot would provide a good motto for a site devoted to the art of manliness.


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## Zach (Dec 8, 2011)

Love the Art of Manliness Book List. A friend and I are planning on reading through it when we retire...in a good 50 or years.


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## hammondjones (Dec 8, 2011)

The writer of #9 said of #70: "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since. "

My favorite is #21 for a realistic view of being a man.


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## py3ak (Dec 8, 2011)

Except for "Mrs. McWilliams and the Lightning" I might be inclined to agree with Hemingway.


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## Quatchu (Dec 8, 2011)

I really enjoy Fantasy and SciFi, I enjoy finding Christian authors of these genres. However of the many secular fiction I have read my favorite for many years is The Memory, Sorrow and Thorn Trilogy by Tad Williams the first book being The Dragon Bone Chair.

Of a Christian nature I highly recommend The Binding of the Blade Series by LB Graham He is in the PCA and a graduate of Covenant Seminary. According to his blog he is within a few days of announcing the release of a new book which i highly look forward too.


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## bookslover (Dec 8, 2011)

py3ak said:


> For sheer delight, few things surpass _Tintin_. (Not the abominable _Congo_ and _Soviets_ episodes, though, obviously.) Boswell on Johnson, Johnson himself, and the _Spectator_ are excellent ways to fill up little spaces of time with pleasure and profit. And though _The Green Bag_ is an entertaining magazine for lawyers, I suspect those not devoted to the legal profession could also enjoy that repository of curiosities. Some day when you are too unwell to work, you should read _The Diary of a Nobody_ - I doubt it can fail to cheer you up.
> 
> People often approach the classics as a duty, and do not expect to find delight in them; but this is wrongheaded. While this is not true of all of them, many of the books considered classics are in that list because they have for so long so reliably combined doctrine and solace in the experience of so many and so diverse readers. In that vein, Stanley Lombardo has a very enjoyable recording of the _Odyssey_ that is well worth a listen. Lately I've been finding the plays of Sophocles also quite compelling. Among living writers, Marilynne Robinson, Annie Dillard, and Stephen R. Donaldson are always worth reading. I don't know that I have ever read one of the books being reviewed, but I also enjoy the book reviews at Spectator Magazine | World Politics & Current Events News and Discussion.
> 
> ...



Ruben: I have this collection: _Essays_ by George Orwell; selected and introduced by John Carey; Everyman's Library series (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002). 1,369 pages of Orwellian goodness. One of my favorites of his is "Bookshop Memories" (1936). I'm also a great fan of Dr. Johnson and Boswell.


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## jwithnell (Dec 8, 2011)

I enjoyed the "All Creatures ..." series very much.

I've long enjoyed John Steinbeck, although I could never gain traction with Cannery Row, which made the list. 

Robert Penn Warren's _All the King's Men_ should be on any list of 100 or even 10. Another fav, _ Jane Eyre_ doesn't sound like it fits into this thread


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## he beholds (Dec 8, 2011)

Of that list, these are the ones I could second a recommendation. There were a few others from the list that I did read but don't care about. 
To add to this list, which already could make for a very fun reading list, I recommend C.S. Lewis' _Space Trilogy_ and even more heartily, his _Till We Have Faces_.
The three I put in red are in my top five or ten of all-time favorites. 
1- The Great Gatsby (fitzgerald)
3- slaughterhouse-five (vonnegut)
6- brothers karamazov (dostoevsky)
7- the catcher and the rye (salinger)
9- for whom the bell tolls (hemingway)
11- the grape of wrath (steinbeck)
12- brave new world (huxley)
16- swiff family robinson (wyss)
17- dharma burns (kerouac)
18- the iliad and odyssey (homer)
21- lord of the flies (golding)
29- the idiot (dostoevsky)
31- the island of dr. moreau (wells)
43- to kill a mockingbird (lee)
52- another roadside attraction (robbins)--he's not my favorite, but this book was decent.
56- blood meridian, or the evening redness in the west (mccarthy)--OK, i haven't read this one, but husband liked it a lot. McCarthy's _The Road_ would be my replacement
58- crime and punishment (dostoevsky)
65- the hobbit (tolkien)
67- east of eden (steinbeck)
70- adventures of huckleberry finn (twain)
82- moby dick (melville)
85- hamlet (shakespeare)
87- a separate peace (knowles)
88- a farewell to arms (hemingway)
89- the stranger (camus)
90- robinson crusoe (dafoe)
91- the pearl (steinbeck)
92- on the road (kerouac)
99- paradise lost (milton)
100- cannery row (steinbeck)

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jwithnell said:


> another fav, _ jane eyre_ doesn't sound like it fits into this thread



word.

---------- Post added at 05:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:11 PM ----------

How weird is it that the Jane Eyre was copied as jane eyre? Why did the reply button change capitalization?


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## Tim (Dec 8, 2011)

When I was in South Africa, I was introduced to a book series for younger readers that I wished I had known when I was a boy.

View attachment 2500


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## Tim (Dec 8, 2011)

It is possible that this series is more popular in Britain than in the US.


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## py3ak (Dec 8, 2011)

bookslover said:


> Ruben: I have this collection: _Essays_ by George Orwell; selected and introduced by John Carey; Everyman's Library series (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002). 1,369 pages of Orwellian goodness. One of my favorites of his is "Bookshop Memories" (1936). I'm also a great fan of Dr. Johnson and Boswell.



Nice! I have read them, but do not own them.


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## Philip (Dec 8, 2011)

I have read a good number of the _Discworld_ novels by Terry Pratchett. I would also recommend a good number of the books on the _AOM_ list above.

I have also had a great deal of delight over the years in reading Tolkien's legendarium, particularly _The Silmarillion_.


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## baron (Dec 8, 2011)

I like anything by Hermann Hesse.

My top 3 favorites:

Siddhartha:
Steppenwolf:
Beneath the Wheel 

I owned everything he wrote at least 3 times. But my children and friends keep taking them to read.


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## jwithnell (Dec 8, 2011)

67- east of eden (steinbeck)

This reminds of of a question that's been lurking in the back of my mind. At what point do we as believers say: "This might be considered good literature but it is not good for the Christian mind and soul." The East of Eden plot involves a brothel of the most sordid type. Good fiction? Recommended for "manliness?" (And remember, I'm a Steinbeck fan.)


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## Leslie (Dec 8, 2011)

In the definitely-not-Christian category, the Stieg Larsson trilogy is excellent: The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo is the first and best. The Girl Who Played with Fire is o.k.; it is the sequel to the first. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest is the last of the trilogy, not quite as good as the first, but still excellent.


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## py3ak (Dec 8, 2011)

The art of manliness list is plainly pretty arbitrary.


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## Kim G (Dec 8, 2011)

Not sophisticated at all, but I LOVE everything by P.G. Wodehouse. I've read the complete short stories dozens of times and they always make me laugh.

Um . . . also . . . _The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkein _is fascinating (in my opinion). Enjoyed _War and Peace_, except for the long explanations of war strategy which I duly skimmed. I love both _Jane Eyre _and _Villette_. Also anything by Doyle, Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, and Rex Stout. I love Howard Pyle's _Men of Iron_ and White's _The Once and Future King_. Didn't think I'd like _The Last of the Mohicans_ but I did and cried at the end. I also enjoy reading play scripts like _The Caine Mutiny_, _Pygmalion_, and some by Tennessee Williams. The essays from Addison and Steele in the _Tatler_ and _Spectator_ are both witty and educational. Can't go wrong with Shakespeare either.


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## VictorBravo (Dec 8, 2011)

That's quite a list. And I never thought of myself as being very well-read, but I see there are only some 10 or 12 on that list I haven't read--and only a few I haven't heard of.

But that's what my youth of long hours of sitting on a radio-less tractor plowing thousands of acres of summer fallow allowed me to do: read lots of library books.

I'm with Ruben on Emerson. Thoreau is better because he had a heart. Sad to say, he died thinking himself a good man but not a Christian. His last words, when asked on his deathbed if he had reconciled with God: "we have never quarreled." 

I'd add Steinbeck's _Travels with Charlie_ simply for his description of an America I grew up with and is long gone. That and his self-aware description of himself whitening his sepulcher in preparation for visiting a church in the Midwest named after John Knox.

My personal recreational reading these days, however, tend to involve technical books on old technologies. I love reading about building machine tools, mixing up dangerous compounds for useful purposes, and practical husbandry.

I'd also recommend R Buckminster Fuller's _Critical Path_ for a very intriguing and unconventional view of the world, and history. He's a brilliant modernist mixed with a conspiracy mindset that would blow away the most diligent John Bircher. Not necessarily for everyone, but I got a kick out of it. Then, I really liked Synergetics too, and also _Gödel, Escher, Bach_by Douglas Hofstadter (who is a quiet nice guy and blow-your-socks-off smart--I spent a week next to him in a choir rehearsing Bach's St. John's Passion in honor of Bach's birthday back in 1985).

Other than that, if you would like more dangerous books of useful knowledge, look for titles from Lindsay Books


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## Philip (Dec 8, 2011)

G.K. Chesterton: I just love him on any subject, even when we disagree. Plus his whimsical writing style makes him rather quotable. The _Father Brown_ mysteries are easily some of the best detective fiction ever written, not to mention _The Man Who Was Thursday_.


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## Beoga (Dec 9, 2011)

#6 Brother's Karamazov

Then I recently enjoyed the 100 Cupboards trilogy by ND Wilson and his new Dragon's Tooth series looks to be pretty darn good.


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## Southern Presbyterian (Dec 9, 2011)

The Indispensable Calvin And Hobbes

and

Attack of the Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons

are both modern classics that should not be ignored by any well read individual. Seriously!


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## 21st Century Calvinist (Dec 9, 2011)

JK Rowling, Marilyn Robinson (Gilead and Home) and Flannery O Connor are some of my recent favorites. Slowly working my way through _The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo._


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## Southern Presbyterian (Dec 9, 2011)

A thoroughly enjoyable read:

The Complete Book of Swords, Comprising the First, Second and Third Books

And, of course, these Orson Scott Card series (Card is a master storyteller and builder of worlds/universes):

The Memory of Earth: Homecoming, Volume 1

Ender's Game (Ender, Book 1)


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## Somerset (Dec 9, 2011)

Tim said:


> It is possible that this series is more popular in Britain than in the US.



Biggles was very popular from the 1920's to the 1960/1970's. He is now seen as racist, sexist, homophobic etc. Our local public library won't touch him, but the private library here has a full set - so good hunting chaps and lets not have any wizzo prangs.


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## J. Dean (Dec 9, 2011)

How about my book? 

But that aside, I love reading C.S. Lewis' fiction, although I take some of his theology with a grain of salt. Also read a book called The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien: entertaining, but again not a theological bastion of truth.


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## py3ak (Dec 9, 2011)

21st Century Calvinist said:


> JK Rowling, Marilyn Robinson (Gilead and Home) and Flannery O Connor are some of my recent favorites. Slowly working my way through _The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo._



Donnie, treat yourself to _Housekeeping_ by Marilynne Robinson. I enjoyed Gilead and thought if very memorable; but _Housekeeping_ is much better, simply in a class by itself.


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## J. Dean (Dec 9, 2011)

py3ak said:


> 21st Century Calvinist said:
> 
> 
> > JK Rowling, Marilyn Robinson (Gilead and Home) and Flannery O Connor are some of my recent favorites. Slowly working my way through _The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo._
> ...



Forgot about Flannery O'Connor. She's very good as well.


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## Stargazer65 (Dec 9, 2011)

Les Miserables - Victor Hugo


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## gordo (Dec 9, 2011)

I enjoy Harry Turtledoves alternative history novels.

I really enjoyed reading Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe Series.

I enjoy reading Star Wars books as well. Currently reading book 2 of the Thrawn Trilogy.


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## Myshkin (Dec 9, 2011)

A related thread for the OP:

http://www.puritanboard.com/f29/books-everyone-should-read-66812/


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## cajunhillbilly53 (Dec 9, 2011)

I love scifi and the pulps like Doc Savage, The Shadow, etc


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## a mere housewife (Dec 9, 2011)

_The Once and Future King_ which Kim mentioned is also one of my favorite books: it's hysterical and sad and true to life in so many ways, especially in the way the great hope Arthur entertained of saving men who are basically decent gutters and at the end of the book nearly dies -- it only survives as a disembodied whisper -- as he too becomes inextricably linked into the cycle of evil (in fathering Mordred).

My favorite book by Dostoyevsky is _Crime and Punishment_. I picked it up again recently and am having trouble working through it only because I am overly affected by everything I read (my major problem in all 'recreational reading' at this point). The way he introduces the human condition in Marmeladov's opening speech is like watching a storm come in: at first the wind just picks up and you notice the leaves blowing; and the change in weather comes in almost gaily, the light still shining and the wind blowing more exuberantly until it is recklessly tearing around in the trees -- and then the sky darkens and the wind tears more frenzidly until everything is rumbling and crashing, relentless rain. It's very masterful, but it's not really a book I can read every day, or all at once. However most people are a little more elastic . 

_Housekeeping_ has eternity at its heart in some strange inexplicable way -- perhaps because of their being such strangers and pilgrims at home. It's a very haunting and beautiful book that could probably only have been written by a child of our times who is not a child of her generation (for Marilynne Robinson is very unusual; a true poet and a truly 'religious' soul, though I have some doubt she is the traditionally reformed believer she is sometimes made out to be for various reasons I could note from some of her essays and the thrust of this book).

Perhaps the most incredible book I've been introduced to the last couple years is _Gilgamesh_ by Herbert Mason, but perhaps that is a book one appreciates more after being able to recognise emotionally the themes it is dealing with.

And the _Oresteia Trilogy_ by Aeschylus gains every time I reread it. It was one of the first 'real' books I fell in love with, and is still at the top of the list. I have an edition translated by George Thomson. I've looked into some other editions and though I know nothing of the original, this translation seems to me to have an echoing, incredibly suggestive quality that the others fall somewhat flat of, in my favorite places.

And I can't help strongly recommending Boethius' _Consolation of Philosophy_, but that too is perhaps a book better read when one is in fuller sympathy with the themes in _Gilgamesh_.


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## Mertens (Dec 12, 2011)

py3ak said:


> For sheer delight, few things surpass _Tintin_.



A man after my own heart!


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## JM (Dec 12, 2011)

I work in a library and when stumped by a patron I'll google the title of the last book they read and loved with "readalkes." 

The Hunger Games Readalikes « Normal Public Library Teens
The Hunger Games
Hunger Games Read Alikes | The Prince George Public Library

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After looking through the list of readalikes I noticed a trend toward dystopia...try The Road by Cormac McCarthy. 

The 13 Best Dystopian Novels
http://www.amazon.com/Dystopia-Novels-EVERYONE-Needs-Read/lm/R3VQP4L970BWSQ
Best Dystopian Novels


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## AThornquist (Dec 12, 2011)

Thanks everyone for you input. I've created a list to build on and that should last, well, a long time.


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## jogri17 (Dec 12, 2011)

Star Wars Novels, especailly those that explore the mindset of the Sith. 19th century and early 20th century Québe litterature. Harry Potter. Anything by Stephen King. Greek mythology. French grammar books and historical biographies of Cold War politicians.


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