[jwi]

Non-fiction list. Alas, I don't read much non-fiction outside of work.

* ABC of Reading by Ezra Pound. The greatest non-mexican non-female* north american poet of all time explain how to read. Elitism at its very best. (*Emily Dickinson is of course the greatest non-mexican, as Pound himself explains in the book.)
* Freedom Climbers by Bernadette McDonalds. Socio-economic explanations of the strongest climbing community the world has ever seen.
* The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society by Norbert Wiener. Read this when I was 18 and was blown away by someone who could explain the point of the internet. In 1954, when there was like ten computers. Still am.
* Parois de Légende, by Bodet and Petit. There is always room for the bible in the haulbag. (Could have chosen Güllich/Zak's High Life: Sportklettern weltweit as well)
* The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. I don't understand why it doesn't pop up more often on lists like this. It's really good.
* The histories by Herodotus. Father of History, Father of Lies.

[moose]

The Flashman series - George MacDonald Fraser
The Aubrey-Maturin series - Patrick O'Brian

Two of my recurring pleasures.  I sometimes have such difficulty ploughing through more "worthy" fare, that I fear my ability to comprehend / enjoy the written word has died and have to seek reassurance.  Aubrey / Maturin or Flashman are always a welcome relief - being well written and researched but also pleasurable page turners (my properly guilty pleasures in the same vein are Lee Childs books).  Based on your tastes, I might have to give the Warlord Trilogy a go.

[Yossarian]

I'm not totally set on non-fiction yet, but an initial stab would be...

The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe
The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes.  Both for reasons given previously.

The Way of the Gun - David Carr - The most brutal tale of addiction, and approached in a totally unexpected fashion.

Miles - The Autobiography - Miles Davis - What a fucking guy.

Black Holes and Time Warps - Kip Thorne - Class A (popular) science.

The Lagoon - Armand Leroi - Some of the most beautiful science writing I've ever read. And Armand wanted my design for the paperback cover. (But Bloomsbury didn't like it...)

The Last Valley - Martin Windrow - An amazing account of a fierce and prophetic battle.

[shark]

No mention of Dr Zhivago? It was a long time ago but I remember it being quite extraordinary. Forget Omar Sharif - the book is is the real deal.

Good as a film and a book - The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

Men of Ideas - A big influence on me at the time. A brilliant transcript of a BBC series interviewing prominent philosophers at the time. Old hat now ? be interesting to revisit

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (or perhaps the more rambling Great Shark Hunt would be more apposite)

Swimming to Cambodia - Spalding Gray

Dialogues with Marcel Duchamp (I think that is what it is called) Brilliant and incisive answers from the founder of Modern Art - the opposite of Warhol. Challenged the boundaries of art and opened the doors for a lot of shit. Chess lover too. 

Dr Seuss - for the words as well as the illustrations. One of a kind

The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings - good call Moose - and for the same reasons

Anything by David Lodge - he makes you feel clever

The Nanga Parbat Pilgrimage - the inventor of the winter girlfriend

This has really turned back the clock - I feel like I'm talking about another me - probably a better one -  really should make an effort to read novels again. Currently crunching through The Age of Alchemy by Mervyn King which whilst  thought provoking and a useful handbook is not so good for the soul. I have been drinking

[Yossarian]

I don't have a Kindle, but am increasingly thinking that, in an age of constant distraction, the trick might be to make reading a more efficient distraction itself...

[moose]

anyone else viewing this thread now have an absurdly long amazon wishlist?

Inspired by Yossarian's choices of,

The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes.  Both for reasons given previously.
The Way of the Gun - David Carr - The most brutal tale of addiction, and approached in a totally unexpected fashion.
The Last Valley - Martin Windrow - An amazing account of a fierce and prophetic battle.

on a similar vein, my non fiction choices would be
- Command & Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser - entertaining and terrfying
- Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon - brilliant reportage from Baltimore, spot the true events that were co-opted by The Wire
- Chickenhawk by Robert Mason - my favourite 'nam book - the account of a boy who just wanted to fly so became a Huey pilot - the (usual) futility / atrocity of war stuff, albeit from an unusual perspetive, plus lots of nerdy techy detail on the mechanics of learning how to pilot choppers.

Other non-fiction that has stuck in my mind,
- Guns Germs & Steel by Jared Diamond, 'nuff said - a classic of the "how we got here" genre;
- A Life too Short - Robert Enke - biography, based on an uncompleted autobiography / diaries of the German goalie who committed suicide - absolutely heartbreaking insight into the effects and consequences of depression on a life lived in public, where a small mistake results in horrible abuse from thousands.

[shark]

London Fields - Martin Amis

This would fit the bill.

Really? Why on a portaledge would you want to be dragged to the (imagined) underbelly of Landan

[moose]

The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings - good call Moose - and for the same reasons

My copies of the Hobbit and LOTR are two of the few Christmas presents that I can truly attribute to my Dad; my Mum generally took care of childhood Christmas stuff, so anything my Dad had gone to the trouble of getting seemed a bit special.  I remember in the following days, him tipsily asking me about my progress when he came back from the pub and I had come down from bed to see if he had brought me back the promised packs of "Cheese Snips" or "Planter's Roasted Peanuts"!  I can remember stopping reading LOTR for a week entirely before picking it back up, purely because the "Shelob's lair" section was scaring me so much (I really don't like spiders).  I must have read it 3-4 times since.... I reckon if I had read it only ever as an adult I would be much more alive to the flaws.... as it is, my near 30 y.o copy would be a definite on the portaledge.

[Yossarian]

Shark - It's a hypothetical portaledge with a view obscured by dense but unthreatening cloud. There are no distractions, but rather than blissfully zoning out you are presented with a deep and compelling desire to put your brain to good use...

[lagerstarfish]

with a view obscured by dense

a terrifying thought

[Yossarian]

Perhaps you could channel that terror into a selection of meaningful titles...?

[lagerstarfish]

Perhaps you could channel that terror into a selection of meaningful titles...?

and keep on subject?

interesting idea

whatever the year, it would have to be The Year's Best Science Fiction Anthology, edited by Gardner Dozois - maybe the previous year too, if I hadn't read that

something by Roger McGough - The Way Things Are, or some bigger collection that includes the good stuff - this stuff needs re-reading out loud to get the proper benefit

Heart of a Dog, by Mikhail Bulgakov - people, just how they are

Her Smoke Rose Up Forever, by James Tiptree Jr - there's always something new that I missed before

The Boy Who Kicked Pigs, by Tom Baker - different  - enjoyed discussing it with lots of people - interesting, simple use of language

The Skinner, by Neal Asher - ACTION, but with lots of back stories to contemplate (or not, if you just want the action)

Books of Blood, Clive Barker - all of them - good variation of horror

[stokesy]

Tricky question:

- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams.
- Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K Jerome.
- The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett.
- The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas.
- The Hundred Year old Man who climbed out of the window and disappeared, Jonas Jonasson.
- The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien.
- The Climbing Essays, Jim Perrin.
- Feeding the Rat, Al Alvarez.

[filz]

Answered something similar on facebook a few years ago and choosing only a few books was really difficult. First books that come to my mind:
Lord of the rings - probably the first book I read that really made me love reading
The process - Kafka
Something written by Neil Gaiman. The sandman or American gods
The non-existent Knight - Italo Calvino
The book of disquiet - Fernando Pessoa
The color of magic - Terry Pratchett
Snow crash -  Neal Stephenson
Gödel, Escher, Bach - Hofstadter. So I could finally finish it. It's a great book, but it needs some dedication.
Neuromancer - William Gibson
The tartar steppe - Dino Buzzati

And finally the biography of Jon Gill, as a reminder of what the hell am I doing on a portaledge when I could be sleeping on my bed, wake up late and go bouldering :-)

Inviato dal mio Nexus 7 utilizzando Tapatalk

[Falling Down]

This is a bit embarrassing to admit, but from the age of 11 or 12 after the first reading when it blew me away I then read LOTR every year starting on September 26 when Frodo and the Hobbits leave Hobbiton.  This lasted well into my thirties.... 

[fried]

At about 11 ish I put talcum powder on my face to make myself look ill so I could spend the day in bed reading LOTR. Don't think my mum ever believed me.

[Falling Down]

At about 11 ish I put talcum powder on my face to make myself look ill so I could spend the day in bed reading LOTR. Don't think my mum ever believed me.

That's brilliant!

[Falling Down]

Heres my list.  Cheating a bit with several trilogies and I'd need an extra haul bag for Jung.

The Stone Book Quartet – Alan Garner.  A wonderful little book.  All life is in here.

2066 – Roberto Bolano.  The best book I've ever read.

Light – M John Harrison.  Absolutely love this book.

Collected works of Robinson Jeffers.  My copy is well thumbed.

Against the Day - Thomas Pynchon.  My favourite of all his massive, dense (there he is again) & playful novels.

The Red Night Trilogy - William Burroughs.  Blew my mind in my late teens and still does today.

To the ends of the Earth - William Golding.  Gripping and beautiful.

Collected Works - C G Jung.  Can't get enough of it.

American Underworld Trilogy - James Ellroy.  Stone cold classic.

The Companion to British History - Charles Arnold Baker.  A self published masterpiece. Part encyclopaedia, part history book.

[fried]

Thanks everyone, that my Christmas wishlist sorted.

Fiction

The tin drum - Gunther Grass - Probably a poignant time to reread
Catch 22 - Joseph Hellier - Didn't read this for years thinking I'd be disappointed...
Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov - Bought this a long time ago, I was expecting Russian literature to be quite dry.
Colony of unrequited dreams - Wayne Johnson - Read in a small guesthouse, didn't look too promising, couldn't put it down.
Periodic table -Primo Levi - My first 'adult' piece of literature.

Non-fiction

The unnatural hisory of the sea - Professeur Calum Roberts - Read this!
Woodlands - Oliver Rackham - Wonderful.
Wildwood - Roger Deakin - Could have chosen Waterlog too.
On and off the rocks - Jim Perrin - My battered old copy.
In Patagonia - Bruce Charwin - One book I try to force anyone I meet to read.

[Falling Down]

Ooh, good shout on Waterlog. 

[Muenchener]

I can remember stopping reading LOTR for a week entirely before picking it back up, purely because the "Shelob's lair" section was scaring me so much (I really don't like spiders). 

I had to skip over that bit on my first run through at the age of about 13 or so - too scary.

Now my son is that age, and we've recently finished the unabridged German language audiobook version in the car. Quite a bit of driving that, but worth every mile.

[fried]

Totally intrigued by 2666 by Roberto Bolano, people seem to love it or hate it.

*Will have to swap Bulgakov's M and M with Flaubert's Madame Bovary; I've read the first at least 10 times.

[jwi]

I was indifferent to 2066, if that helps

[Falling Down]

Shame I got the date/title wrong. 

[fried]

I just assumed it was a typo, there are enough in my posts. Did waste a valuable couple of seconds trying to google it