Books..vids

[ExiT]

I'm was to do a big amazon.com order...any suggestions for some good books? Especially non-fiction...

And movies...any suggestions for really good movies....maybe ones that weren't so popular...

[FaT CaM]

If u see animated LOTR, dont get it. It was the most childish piece of crap. Compared to the books and normal movies anyway...

[BulletProof]

You've probably seen the movie, but Black Hawk Down, the book, is a good read if you like stuff like that.

[Original9]

You've probably seen the movie, but Black Hawk Down, the book, is a good read if you like stuff like that.

Best f*cking war book I've ever read! :D

[Clayeth]

If u see animated LOTR, dont get it. It was the most childish piece of crap. Compared to the books and normal movies anyway...
I saw The Hobbit one when about 15 years ago as a kid, but I never saw any of the others. I watched it a few years later at a friend's house and it's really good, as I remember.

[Cunubelin]

No particular titles but here's a list of authors you could check out;
Coyle, Harold C
Brown, Dale
King, Stephen
Koontz, Dean R
Shaara, Michael
Chrichton, Michael
Cussler, Clive
Clancy, Tom

That's a short list off the top of my head.
Few comments on that list;
Harold Coyle writes military non-fiction mostly modern day type but also has written a couple of historical books;
Savage Wilderness - is set during the french and indian wars in the mid 18:th century.
Look Away and Until the End - An epic saga covering the civil war in America.
His books are well worth checking out.

Michael Shaara wrote the book The Killer Angels which later became the epic movie Gettysburg.

Dale Brown writes high-tech military stuff. The Airforce type high-tech.
His first book; Flight of the Old Dog is about a rebuilt B-52 bomber that has to fly a mission into the Soviet Union.

Oh, and don't forget J.R.R. Tolkien! :D

[Assymilator]

I really enjoyed Steven Ambrose's Band of Brothers. If you're a WWII junkie like me, this is a must read.

Where movies are concerned: Red Dragon, Twister, Bourne Identity, Terminator 2 (Extreme Edition), Road to Perdition, American Beauty, Shawshank Redemption.

[phatcat]

I saw The Hobbit one when about 15 years ago as a kid, but I never saw any of the others. I watched it a few years later at a friend's house and it's really good, as I remember.

me too! it was really good. I think I still have the tape somewhere :)

[Dain75]

Dean Koontz sucks bum. All his books are the same except like 3 that are kind of good. This is the plot. Something big and threatening threatens people. There is a single woman somewhere, usually with a child that needs a big strong male stranger to protect her. Big strange male appears. Chaos ensues. Big threatening thing is defeated.

[Warm Pudgy]

Dean Koontz sucks bum. All his books are the same except like 3 that are kind of good. This is the plot. Something big and threatening threatens people. There is a single woman somewhere, usually with a child that needs a big strong male stranger to protect her. Big strange male appears. Chaos ensues. Big threatening thing is defeated.

ive only read one book by dean koontz, Seize the Night ,and i thought it was pretty good

although, the way dain described it was pretty much how it went

also thunder rift by Matthew Farrell was pretty good, but i didnt get to finish it

[Cunubelin]

Dean Koontz sucks bum. All his books are the same except like 3 that are kind of good. This is the plot. Something big and threatening threatens people. There is a single woman somewhere, usually with a child that needs a big strong male stranger to protect her. Big strange male appears. Chaos ensues. Big threatening thing is defeated.
That's your opinion Dain.

Btw which 3 of Koontz books did you like?
My favourites in the Koontz lineup are;
Watchers
Lightning
Twilight Eyes
Strangers
Icebound

[Dain75]

Of course it's my opinion. I wouldn't go around using other people's opinions.
I did like the one he wrote about the airplane crash and the weird pictures (I forget what it was called) and another one... was about this chick who discovered this guy who was time travelling, turned into something about the nazi's and world war II.

For good funny, I would recommend Terry Prattchet or Douglas Adams.
John Sandford writes pretty good dectective thrillers.
For an interesting futuristic techno-sci-fi read Proxies by Laura J. Mixon. Clive Barker writes some really cool fantasy stuff.
Orson Scott Card and William Gibson (especially Neuromancer) write excellent cyber punk.
If you want to get into philosophy but don't want your brain to explode Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy Jostein Gaarder, Paulette Moller is excellent. It's a really cool fiction/introduction to philosophy type book.
If you remember the show Spenser For Hire, the novels that the TV show was based on are written by Robert B. Parker. They are great fairly short reads in the dectective/mystery sort of genre.
Daniel Silva writes great espionage type novels.
Chuck Palahniuk wrote fight club and all his books are pretty damn good.
Kurt Vonnegut writes excellent american satire.
Kinky Freidman writes really good detective type novels, they are really full of humor. Of course they'd have to be with a name like that.
If you want bizarre and funny read Tom Robbins (not the same as director Tim Robbins).
Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet is the best historical fiction I have ever read.
Excellent non-fiction:
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Anne Fadiman (A great exaimination of how severe cultural differences lead to communication breakdown)
Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind V.S. Ramachandran, M.D., P.H.D. and Sandra Blakeslee (This one I bought myself, it's an incredibly interesting collection of case histories exaiming strang neurological conditions)
Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail Malika Oufkin & Michele Fitoussi (great book about how a mother and her daughters spent 20 years in prison on the whim of their morrocan king, takes place in the 20th century).
If you are looking for some good classical novels that aren't going to make your brain hurt too much, read Mark Twain (he's pretty funny), Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Nineteen-Eighty Four George Orwell, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (russians are usually a good bet). Don't read Charles Dickens he'll only make you angry.

I could go on here all day, I didn't mention Frank Herbert's Dune series or Laurell K. Hamilton's vampire series or Neil Gaiman, or Terry Brooks or Rudy Rucker or Isaac Asimov or John Irving or Robin Cook or... Well you get the idea. Good luck with your purchases, I didn't even cover movies.... um quickly here, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Usual Suspects, Fight Club, Seven, 12 Monkeys, Blade Runner.

[Chipstick]

Book
Killing Pablo- Mark Bowden Amazon link (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0142000957/002-3672150-9400837?vi=glance)

DVD
City of GodAmazon link (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005JM60/qid%3D1059847703/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr%5F11%5F1/002-3672150-9400837)
DVD
La Haine , brilliant movie french with english subtitles but 1 of the best youth movies ever if not the best
Info link (http://www.movietrailertrash.com/reviews/hate/)

[iolair]

Jostein Gaarder - Maya
Douglas Adams & Mark Carwadine - Last Chance to See (non-fiction)
Simon Singh - The Code Book (non-fiction)
Michael Poole - Beliefs and Values in Science Education (non-fiction, despite the title it's of interest to anyone with any interest in science, religion or philosophy)

[Waffnuffly]

The Jurassic park series and Timeline by Michael Chrichton. Definitely read Timeline... it's good stuff. And get a bunch of Steven King books... those are great too. Get IT :D

[masamax]

Some good authors/novels:

Harry Turtledove - His alternate history series for Civil war->2nd world war is amazing).

Robert J. Sawyer - Amazing science fiction writer whose novels are practically scientific papers themselves.

David Weber - His Honor Harrington series is a well written sci-fi space naval combat series.

[Selerox]

I really enjoyed Steven Ambrose's Band of Brothers. If you're a WWII junkie like me, this is a must read.

I'd also recommend "Wild Blue", also by Stephen E Ambrose. Another WW2 based book, this time chronicling US bomber crews flying missions over Europe.

It makes being an infantry grunt sound almost fun.

As for DVDs, I'd go for the Band of Brothers DVD set. It's expensive, but it's one of the greatest TV series ever made.

[DRT-Maverick]

uhm... the great gatsby yes yes I'm trying to get you to kill yourself.


Actually Michael Crichton's Prey is great.