61–70 of 95 posts
I bought Cormac McCarrthy's Border Trilogy on a whim (had seen and loved the film of No Country for Old Men before). I'm based in the UK, but it honestly takes you places you can never go. Read the whole three books four or five times nows. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6163.The_Border_Trilogy
The Bible, Hobbit, LOTR series, Narnia, Catcher in the Rye, 1984, Papa Hemingway, these are all books that I’ve had to buy multiple times because they fall apart over the years. Never realized until just now how many comfort books I have...
I was wondering how comforting reading The Bible (as a cultural catholic) could be, so I dipped in to the first book which came to mind: --- Satan Takes Job's Property and Children 13 Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, 14 and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, 15 and the Sabeans…
I read the Bible every day, a habit that is very important to me. But I don't just "pick specific passages I like", I take a book and read it through sequentially, then move on to the next. I find much of it intensely practical and applicable to my life; it challenges, comforts and teaches me. Of course, some parts are of a more historical interest, yet others (like the one you quote) can be really tough to make sense of. But I believe that the Bible is one of the main ways in which God communicates with people, so I want to read and think about all of it.
Poetry's always nice for familiarity and rereadability. Perhaps Shakespeare's Sonnets .
What was your entry into poetry? Because Shakespeare was always presented as something you should read because it's good for you, not because you enjoy it when I was in high school, I don't think I'll ever be able to enjoy it.
The more I learnt to appreciate poetry, the more I found that Romantics weren't the only good poets, so I expanded to the Realists, the Metaphysical poets, the fin-de-siecle, etc. And, yes, Shakespeare too ;-) (He takes practice to read and you can't read a lot of him in one sitting, but he really deserves his reputation as an amazing author and poet.)
Poetry's always nice for familiarity and rereadability. Perhaps Shakespeare's Sonnets .
What was your entry into poetry? Because Shakespeare was always presented as something you should read because it's good for you, not because you enjoy it when I was in high school, I don't think I'll ever be able to enjoy it.
If this appeals to you, then dip into Shakespeare's sonnets, and let yourself feel the rhythm as you read. It's so bloody good.
These are the books I turn to when I am depressed or stressed or just fed up with life in general :-)
Collapse by Jared Diamond
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbon
Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias (English: A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies ) by Bartolomé de las Casas
Dune by Frank Herbert (only the first book, dislike the rest of the series)
Farmer in the Sky by Robert Heinlein
The Crysalids by John Wyndham
I've probably read these three books at least twice a decade since the 80s when I was a teenager.
The Complete Robot from Isaac Asimov would be a close forth.
The Tripod Trilogy by John Christopher would be fifth on the list. Hadn't read since a teenager, but about ten years ago tracked down copies of them (and the prequel) and it was delightful to reread.