After cleaning my room yesterday and finding that I'm simultaneously reading 9 different books, I decided perhaps it was time to focus on just one at a time, even if that is so much less fun. So I'm wondering what everyone else is reading right now and if they have any good recommendations. There are few things I love more than recommending a good book to someone and hearing that they have read it, and I can assure you that when I get a recommendation, I often read it almost immediately. I read way too much for my own good (about two books a week), but I have found few better ways to keep learning in this post-college life of mine :)
Anyways, I've listed the books I'm reading now and a whole bunch of my favorite books below the fold (couldn't resist). I'd love any ideas for new ones, because I'm finding myself re-reading favorites far too often recently.
Currently Reading:
"Enders Game" by Orson Scott Card: this is my favorite book and one that I have read at minimum once a year since I was 14 or so. If you haven't read it, do so :)
"A Deepness in the Sky" by Vernor Vinge: Actually I just finished it (again), but this book is in my top 3 sci-fi books ever. Another good one is "A Fire Upon the Deep," same author. Both Hugo Award winners.
"Undaunted Courage, Merriweather Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West," by Stephen Ambrose: Absolutely Awesome so far, almost done.
"1776" by David McCullough: Every book by McCullough is great.
"To the Last Man" by Jeff Shaara: The son of Michael Shaara of "Killer Angels" fame, Jeff follows in his father's footsteps in many ways. This book, about World War I, is in my opinion his best so far.
"The Lincoln-Douglass Debates": I actually never read these before, so I figured I'd give it a shot. It's tough reading, but worth it for the perspective.
"The Four Agreements, A Toltec Wisdom Book" by Don Miguel Ruiz: I've read the first half of this 3 times so far but for whatever reason can't finish it. It's the type of book that I want to read in one sitting because it flows so well, but I haven't been able to finish it so I keep starting over. It's pretty awesome though, I have to say.
"Beowulf": Never had to read this in school, so I figured I'd check it out. Pretty awesome, especially for a big Tolkien fan such as myself.
"85 Days; The Last Campaign of Bobby Kennedy": Awesome, except you spend the entire book dreading getting to the end because you know exactly what's going to happen; so sad.
"Halo; Contact Harvest" by Joseph Staten: What? I can't read a throw-away novel based on a video game from time to time? :)
Favorite Books
I'll do them by category
Classics:
"The Republic" by Plato
"For Whom the Bell Tolls" by Earnest Hemmingway
"Henry V" by William Shakespeare
"The Odyssey" by Homer
"The Arabian Nights"
Political Philosophy:
"Global Justice: Defending Cosmopolitanism" by Charles Jones
"Just and Unjust Wars" by Michael Walzer
"The Discourses on Livy" by Machiavelli
"A Theory of Justice" by John Rawls
"The Federalist Papers" (My copy is autographed by Scalia, don't hate me :)
"Second Treatise on Government" by John Locke
Biography:
"King Albert of Belgium, Defender of Right" by Emile Cammaerts (Being half Belgian I can tell you that King Albert I is one of the greatest people nobody knows about)
"Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
"John Adams" by David McCullough
"Failure is Not an Option; Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond" by Gene Kranz, former Flight Director, NASA
"Pillar of Fire; America in the King Years 1963-1965" by Taylor Branch
"Napoleon Bonaparte" by Alan Schom
"The Audacity of Hope" by Barack Obama (why haven't I read "Dreams of My Father" yet?)
History:
"The Prize; The Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power" by Daniel Yergin
"From Beirut to Jerusalem" by Thomas Friedman
"An Army at Dawn; The War in North Africa" by Rick Atkinson ("The Day of Battle," the second part of the trilogy, is great also)
"Washington's Crossing" by David Hackett Fischer
"The History of the Peloponnesian War" by Thucydides (this book is worth it just for the Melian Dialogue)
"The Guns of August" by Barbara Tuchman
"The First World War" by John Keegan
"Warriors of God; Richard the Lionheart and Saladin in the Third Crusade" by James Reston, Jr.
Science/Nature
"Encounters with the Archdruid" by John McPhee
"The Call of the Wild" by Jack London
"Desert Solitaire; A Season in the Wilderness" By Edward Abbey
"A Sand County Almanac" by Aldo Leopold
"Six Not So Easy Pieces; Einstein's Relativity, Symmetry, and Space Time" by Richard P. Feynman
"The Great Physicists from Galileo to Einstein" by George Gamow
"Tesla; Man Out of Time" by Margaret Cheney
Science Fiction
"Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card
"The Foundation" by Isaac Asimov
"A Fire Upon the Deep" by Vernor Vinge
"A Deepness in the Sky" by Vernor Vinge
"The Uplift War" by David Brin (Daily Kos contributor!)
"Speaker for the Dead" by Orson Scott Card
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (especially "Return of the King") by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Harry Potter Books (what can I say, I loved every one of them)
"Halo; The Fall of Reach" by Eric Nylund (it's actually a really good book)
"Slaughterhouse 5" by Kurt Vonnegut
Other Books Non-Categorized
"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini
"The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara
"A Good Walk Spoiled" by John Feinstein
"Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe
"Roots" by Alex Haley
"The Butter Battle Book" by Dr. Seus
Well, that's about it. I'm sure I forgot a bunch of them, but it's a good start.
So I'm looking for a book, any advice would be appreciated.
Oh, and if you give me bad advice, my cat Plato knows exactly what to do: