I don't read much offline (or online) that doesn't have to do with ancient
and tribal art, but here's some at least semi-biographical stuff that has
registered with me over the last few years...

Wild Colonial Boys, by Frank Clune. Looked down upon by scholars, but vivid
and gripping in its depiction of Australian outlaw life.

Untold Stories, by Jan Critchett. Scholarly if awkwardly written revelations
about the slaughter of Aborigines right here in my little corner of the world,
by the great grandparents of people I actually know around here, who live
on the same properties. Properties that were cleared of Aborigines the same
way they were cleared of roos and dingos. Round them up and mow them down,
then push all the bodies into a ditch.

African Saga, by Mirella Ricciardi Future fashion photographer's
upbringing amidst the Maasai, MauMau, and Watusi of Kenya. Vivid memories
and wonderful photos.

Man and His Symbols, conceived and edited by Carl Jung The writing is
too academic, but integrated with the hundreds of pictures of art through
the ages, a pretty good way to absorb some Jung quickly.

Sigmund Freud, written and illustrated by Ralph Steadman. Too wordy
to be called a comic book, but because its got almost a hundred great
Steadman full page 9x12 inch illustrations, you don't really have to read it.
But you should. Because the drawings pop out even more when you do.

Querelle, by Jean Genet. Supremely twisted. Written just as rock and
roll was dawning in 1953, it feels more like it was written in about 1967.
It feels the same kind of creepy as the movie Performance.

Junky, by William S. Burroughs The comparison to Keith's brilliant
Life is unavoidable. The only time period that matters to a junky is NOW.

Almost forgot, I also very much like The Old Testament by God. Rastafari! Jah!
As for the new testament, only Matthew Mark Luke John and Revelations can
I wholehearedly recommend. (I've got this great bible from the 1700's that's
hard to read because its falling apart and the s's look like f's etc. But it
feels good to sort of decipher each verse, y'know, slowly, as if it was
ancient secret wisdom. which of course it is.)



Edited 9 time(s). Last edit at 2012-04-04 17:47 by superrevvy.

Stoneage, the topic is the best book/books ever read. Why the hostility? You're "99% certain" I haven't read the Bible? As has everyone else on this thread, I gave my opinion, plain and simple. So, why the intensely critical and judgmental reaction? What's your problem?

tomcasagranda, do you seriously expect all of your questions to be answered in this thread? Really?? I'm sure we're all impressed by the breadth of your knowledge regarding the mythology/canonicity/unreliability of the Bible. But, as I said earlier, I simply answered the topic of this thread. I am wondering why you feel the need to try and discredit all who have listed the Bible here. (I am not the only one) Why the enormous chip on your shoulder?

Quote
ROPENI
A good one for me "Lowside of the Road"A life of Tom Waits,by Barney Hoskyns...
also "Hello,Its me" Dispatches from a pop culture Junkie,by our own hbwriter,Fun read...

That Waits book would have been good if anyone who had anything to do with him for the past 25 years had talked to the author!

Thanks stonesrule! So many great books here on this thread - it's good to remember what's out there & what I need to get my head wrapped around. I like Bill Flanagan (I have Written In My Soul), but I'll check out your recommendation.

Someone else mentioned Pat Conroy - I love his stuff.

Some other titles I've enjoyed:
Devil in the White City - Erik Larson
Day After Tomorrow - Alan Folsom

Someone gave me the Anne Rice that's referenced in this thread - haven't read it yet, though.
And that's really cool about hbwriter's book - I'll check it out!
I'm reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo right now (along w/ my required Stones reading: Bobby Keys, Barbara Charone, and Tony Sanchez).
Read on!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-04-05 00:59 by memphiscats.

Dave G, you are right. I overreacted. Sorry. (I have this notion that people who claim that the bible is their best book hardly read books. So I jumped to conclusion).

I actually read the Bible on a daily basis. However, I read all kinds of stuff, mostly non fiction and history.

This has been a great thread. I really like finding out other's recommendations. Reading is an essential part of my life.

Stoneage, apology accepted. Thanks. You're a good man.

I also maybe could have said that, in addition to the Bible, I am reading books all the time, fiction, non, biographies, and more.

Speaking of the Bible, I've also been reading bits and pieces of the Koran.
Here is the chapter from which AR Rahman takes his name, which you get to
read in English as it is sung to you in Arabic. Mesmerizing!

On The Road - Kerouac
For Whom The Bell Tolls - Hemingway
Brave New World - Huxley
Edgar Allen Poe - basically everything
Blood Meridian - McCarthy (best book ive ever read)
Watchmen - Moore/Gibbons
The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway
1984 - Orwell


Nonfiction
1776 - McCullough
A Terrible Glory - Donovan (custer book)
Rubicon - Holland
Nothing Like It In The World - Ambrose

I neglected to mention H.P Lovecraft. He makes Steven King look like an amatuer.

Just addressing the initial question of autobios by musicians:

JUST KIDS by Patti Smith

&

CHRONICLES by Bob Dylan

I am not trying to discredit those that read the Bible: I am trying to encourage people to read around it.

....Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird .... always looked at spoons differently after readin that one



ROCKMAN

The Little Red School Book.

The thing is: if you read the Bible, you should read other books around it. For example, in the Gospel of St Matthew, when Christ is going to Golgotha, He says to the women weeping for him "Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me, but for your selves, as the day is coming when you shall say to the mountains fall on us" etc.

This can be seen as a reference to Masada and the defeat of the Jews by the Roman Army under Titus, which is chronicled in Josephus. Surely people's curiosity should lead them to reading Josephus after the Bible.

Likewise, if you read Isaiah's references to the Suffering Servant, and then read Aeschylus who states "pethein methein" (To suffer is to learn); both texts were composed circa 5th Century BC. You then have a wondrous, clearer picture.

If you included 1st Maccabees in the Old Testament Canon, you then have the reference of the "Abomination of Desolation" in Matthew and Luke, and the picture is a lot clearer. For anyone who knows, the Abomination of Desolation was the statue of Antiochus Epiphanes that was placed in the Temple at Jerusalem. It also gives me certainly a clearer understanding of dating the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament as, not at 06th Century BC, when the exile to Babylon took place, but rather in the 2nd century BC. Antiochus Epiphanes rule of Israel was circa 136BC.

All of Cormac Mccathy's books...particualry Suttree
Zen and the art of Motorcycle maintenance - R Pirsig
The Man in the Moss...Phil Rickman (the best horro/supernatural book I ever read)

Quote
tomcasagranda
The thing is: if you read the Bible, you should read other books around it. For example, in the Gospel of St Matthew, when Christ is going to Golgotha, He says to the women weeping for him "Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me, but for your selves, as the day is coming when you shall say to the mountains fall on us" etc.

This can be seen as a reference to Masada and the defeat of the Jews by the Roman Army under Titus, which is chronicled in Josephus. Surely people's curiosity should lead them to reading Josephus after the Bible.

Likewise, if you read Isaiah's references to the Suffering Servant, and then read Aeschylus who states "pethein methein" (To suffer is to learn); both texts were composed circa 5th Century BC. You then have a wondrous, clearer picture.

If you included 1st Maccabees in the Old Testament Canon, you then have the reference of the "Abomination of Desolation" in Matthew and Luke, and the picture is a lot clearer. For anyone who knows, the Abomination of Desolation was the statue of Antiochus Epiphanes that was placed in the Temple at Jerusalem. It also gives me certainly a clearer understanding of dating the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament as, not at 06th Century BC, when the exile to Babylon took place, but rather in the 2nd century BC. Antiochus Epiphanes rule of Israel was circa 136BC.

tomcasagranda, if you like reading around the Bible, you might enjoy Robin Lane Fox's "Pagans and Christians", which is an interesting (if sometimes rather long and scholarly) study of how pagan religion "worked" at the time when Christianity was getting started, how the early churches related to that, and so on.

Green Lady,

I have the Unauthorised Version by Robin Lane Fox, which is about textual emendation of the Bible, and textual contradictions. In a previous lifetime, back when I was a Classics scholar, I read a great deal of Robin Lane Fox.

I also read a great deal of Erich Segal, a Yale expert on Greek Tragedy, and the writer of Love Story and the Yellow Submarine animated feature. John Lennon wrote Hey Bulldog after him.

Mathijs! You're spot on and you get a christmas card outta me!!! 2 spot-on answers provided by the flying dutchman!!!
Sorted 'em out real quick bro!

Respect.

My favourite books are probably Albert Speers biography and S.T.P.A, A journey Through America with The Stones.

In the fiction area it's probably Epepe (a hungarian book from the 70's, forgot the author) and everything by Stephen King up to around 2003.

Pretty much gave up on fiction a long while back....

Anything by Helena Roerich, Krishnamurti and Alice A. Bailey.
Otherwise biographies and autobiographies, have a few lying around when I clear my Blu-rays to watch backlog.

Cheers,
SonicD

A couple of months ago, Amazon offered e-book versions of 34 Ed McBain novels for 99 cents each. I down loaded them all and arranged them in chronological order on my Kindle. It took about three weeks to finish them. They were great. Now I need to get the other 20!

The collection of short stories by Flannery O'Connor - bizarre Southern gothic from a totally original voice, gone too soon. I'm actually jealous of people who haven't read her yet; they're in for a real treat.

For sports fans, especially baseball, I can't say enough good things about The Art of Fielding, a recent best seller. I don't necessarily care if a book is a best seller if I like it.

I am not particularly a baseball fan but after 20 pages I could not put this book down. The plotting surprises were amazing and I felt very sad that the story was over at the end of some 500 pages. This is a book that relates directly to human beings and their goals, disillusions and triumphs. In ways one could never had predicted.

The Book Club
George Carlin

"We've Got Books Out the Ass"

Offer #1: "How-To" Titles

How to Remove Chewing Gum from Your Bush
How to Turn Your Front Lawn into a Cathouse
How to Remove an Infected Cyst from a Loved One
How to Make Two Small Hats out of a Brassiere
How to Make a Brassiere out of Two Small Hats
How to Have Really Nice Lymph Glands
How to Act Laid-Back During a Grease Fire
How to Spot a Creep from Across the Street
How to Dance with a Swedish Person
How to Induce a Clergyman to Grab You by the Nuts
How to Milk a Dog While It's Sleeping
How to Get Through College without Books
How to Make a Small Salad out of Your Work Pants
How to Lure a Weasel into a Cardboard Box
How to Filet a Panda
How to Get a Tan with a Blow Torch
How to Make an Oil Lamp out of Your Genitals
How to Style Your Hair with a Bullwhip
How to Convert an Old Leather Chair into Twelve Pairs of Shoes
How to Achieve Multiple Orgasms with a Pair of Tweezers
How to Kill a Rat with a Paperclip
How to Lease out the Space Inside Your Nose
How to Spot Truly Vicious People in Church
How to Become a Total @#$%&' Greaseball

Offer #2: Advice and Self-Help Titles

Where to Go for a Free @#$%&
Eat, Run, Stay Fit, and Die Anyway
You Give Me Six Weeks and I'll Give You Some Bad Disease
Why You Should Never Mambo with a Policeman
The Stains in Your Shorts Can Indicate Your Future
Earn Big Money by Sitting in Your Car Trunk
Where to Take a Short Woman
I Gave Up Hope and It Worked Just Fine
Why You Should Never Yodel During an Electrical Storm
Fill Yor Life with Croutons
Six Ways to Screw Up Before Breakfast
I Suck, You Suck
Reorganizing Your Pockets
Where to Hide a Really Big Snot
Why You Must Never Give Yourself a Neck Operation
The Wrong Underwear Can Kill
Now You Can Cure Cancer by Simply Washing Up
Lightweight Summer Ensembles to Wear on the Toilet
Why No One Should Be Allowed Out Anymore
A Complete List of People Who Are Not Making Any Progress
Where to Throw Up Secretly
Ten Things No One Can Handle at All
Why You Should Not Sit for More Than Six Weeks in Your Own Filth

Offer #3: General Interest Titles

Twelve Things Nobody Cares About
The Picture Book of Permanent Stains
Firecracker in a Cat's @#$%&: A Novel
The Complete List of Everyone Who Enjoys Coffee
The Official British Empire Registry of Blokes
Ten Places No One Can Find
Tits on the Moon (science fiction)
Why Norway and Hawaii Are Not Near Each Other
The History of Envy
The Pus Almanac
One Hundred People Who Are Only Fooling Themselves
Diary of a Real Evil Prick
Carousel Maintenance
Why It Doesn't Snow Anymore
The Dingleberry Papers
A Treasury of Poorly Understood Ideas
Why Jews Point
The Golden Age of Tongue Kissing
Famous Bullshit Stories of the Aztecs
The Meaning of Corn
Feel This: A Braille Sex Manual
A Complete List of Everything That Is Still Pending
Really Loud Singalongs for the Hard of Hearing



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2012-04-06 01:09 by tatters.

I have to go with a classic. It was my favorite at age 14, and still is (kinda like the Stones):

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Don Quichotte

Quote
tatters
The Book Club
George Carlin

"We've Got Books Out the Ass"

Offer #1: "How-To" Titles

How to Remove Chewing Gum from Your Bush
How to Turn Your Front Lawn into a Cathouse
How to Remove an Infected Cyst from a Loved One
How to Make Two Small Hats out of a Brassiere
How to Make a Brassiere out of Two Small Hats
How to Have Really Nice Lymph Glands
How to Act Laid-Back During a Grease Fire
How to Spot a Creep from Across the Street
How to Dance with a Swedish Person
How to Induce a Clergyman to Grab You by the Nuts
How to Milk a Dog While It's Sleeping
How to Get Through College without Books
How to Make a Small Salad out of Your Work Pants
How to Lure a Weasel into a Cardboard Box
How to Filet a Panda
How to Get a Tan with a Blow Torch
How to Make an Oil Lamp out of Your Genitals
How to Style Your Hair with a Bullwhip
How to Convert an Old Leather Chair into Twelve Pairs of Shoes
How to Achieve Multiple Orgasms with a Pair of Tweezers
How to Kill a Rat with a Paperclip
How to Lease out the Space Inside Your Nose
How to Spot Truly Vicious People in Church
How to Become a Total @#$%&' Greaseball

Offer #2: Advice and Self-Help Titles

Where to Go for a Free @#$%&
Eat, Run, Stay Fit, and Die Anyway
You Give Me Six Weeks and I'll Give You Some Bad Disease
Why You Should Never Mambo with a Policeman
The Stains in Your Shorts Can Indicate Your Future
Earn Big Money by Sitting in Your Car Trunk
Where to Take a Short Woman
I Gave Up Hope and It Worked Just Fine
Why You Should Never Yodel During an Electrical Storm
Fill Yor Life with Croutons
Six Ways to Screw Up Before Breakfast
I Suck, You Suck
Reorganizing Your Pockets
Where to Hide a Really Big Snot
Why You Must Never Give Yourself a Neck Operation
The Wrong Underwear Can Kill
Now You Can Cure Cancer by Simply Washing Up
Lightweight Summer Ensembles to Wear on the Toilet
Why No One Should Be Allowed Out Anymore
A Complete List of People Who Are Not Making Any Progress
Where to Throw Up Secretly
Ten Things No One Can Handle at All
Why You Should Not Sit for More Than Six Weeks in Your Own Filth

Offer #3: General Interest Titles

Twelve Things Nobody Cares About
The Picture Book of Permanent Stains
Firecracker in a Cat's @#$%&: A Novel
The Complete List of Everyone Who Enjoys Coffee
The Official British Empire Registry of Blokes
Ten Places No One Can Find
Tits on the Moon (science fiction)
Why Norway and Hawaii Are Not Near Each Other
The History of Envy
The Pus Almanac
One Hundred People Who Are Only Fooling Themselves
Diary of a Real Evil Prick
Carousel Maintenance
Why It Doesn't Snow Anymore
The Dingleberry Papers
A Treasury of Poorly Understood Ideas
Why Jews Point
The Golden Age of Tongue Kissing
Famous Bullshit Stories of the Aztecs
The Meaning of Corn
Feel This: A Braille Sex Manual
A Complete List of Everything That Is Still Pending
Really Loud Singalongs for the Hard of Hearing

Hahaha - I never saw this before - very funny!

Tatters list is all "the essentials"!

Buffalo7478, you're right! Can't beat Dickens. Of course, didn't understand "Life" the way KR does.

Re CD, Jimi Hendrix used to pick up books in London for a couple of shillings to read on the endless airiplane journeys that became his life. His favorite was David Copperfield. "I cried my way all through that book," he said.

Can't name just one, and if I start there will be to many in the end. But I will mention one book, well it's a pamphlet really, that I always come back to and it's August Strindberg's "Small Catechism for the Working Class". By the way it's 100 years since August's death this year and it will be celebrated all year long in Sweden.

The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave.