I like biographies. Books about other peoples lives. As a youngster, I use to read books like, the Babe Ruth story and the Mel Ott story. I am not much into fiction. Can't get into it.

I had a voracious appetite for history before. I ate up a lot of Livy, but I don't know how I did when I look back at it. Its just so repetitive. I read both the unabridged and an abridged version of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon. I was into Toynbee for a while too. Then I got sick of reading "what happened" when I began to wonder "what's it all about?"

I have a weak ability to read poetry and works translated from Greek. So yes, Plato and Aristotle gave me problems. Not a good thing for one interested in philosophy :nonooo:. Plotinus was absolute murder for me. I cried "uncle" midway through the Fourth Ennead.

As for non-intellectual reading, my guilty pleasure is Pearls Before Swine.

Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles and novels. Also Stephen King. Im not much into fiction, but Anne Rice is very deep and since the vampires in her books are immortal and live forever, philosophy regarding immortals interests me.

yeah i read the Anne Rice novels. I got loads of Stephen King whom lead me on to read Richard Layman-"Stephen King without a consience."

Picking out favorite books is much like trying to pick out favorite music or food. It tends to depend on what my mood is, or what my current interests are.

My three favorite books by my favorite author, Tom Robbins, are Skinny Legs and All, Jitterbug Perfume, and Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates (I haven't had a chance to read his new "children's" book yet, B is for Beer). All three have some wonderfully insightful philosophy intertwined within rather bizarre narratives.

As someone that studies the ancient Greek language, I enjoy both Plato and Aristotle--although I cannot read them in Greek yet. My favorites are the Theaetetus, the Sopist, and the Statesman by Plato, and Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle.

My other main focus of study, which I have been reading a lot lately, is environmental ethics--specifically environmental justice. My two favorite theorists in this area are the libertarian socialist Murray Bookchin, and Marxist geographer David Harvey.

Has anybody read any Cormac McCarthy? I have read The Road and it was outstanding and a very haunting post-apocalyptic tale and I here his other work is good as well. He is the author of the book that the Coen Brother's made the movie for--No Country for Old Men.

i cant read fiction... i feel i do well enough day dreaming stories up in my head...

although im a preschool teacher and i love to read rhyming books to the kids... especially bill peet (my favorite childrens author) and i love stories with morals and lessons

for the most part i read the nonfiction philosophy, history, biology, physics, and the alternative science, mysticism, new-ageish stuff...

but i do still love a few fiction like norton justers "phantom tollbooth"
michael endes "neverending story" - voltaire - edwin abbots "flatland" - "flowers for algernon" by danielle keyes i think... stuff like that...

I read The Economist everyday.

Read King too. My favorites are Gerald's Game, Insomnia, The Dark Half, Misery and Needful Things. Surprisingly I have never read any of his Dark Tower series.

Favorite biography is Gordon Ramsay by Neil Simpson.
Favorite autobiography is The Snowball: Warren Buffett

I did a book report on Pet Cemetery by Stephen King back in fourth grade, but since about that time I have not been a huge fan of his work. I did read Desperation because I was bored one weekend, and an old roommate had it on the book shelf, and I did enjoy quite a bit. I guess I expect more philosophy within the fiction I read, or at least allegory.

My favourite books, in no particular order,
Love's Executioner by Irvin D. Yalom
Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk
The Dice Man by "Luke Rhinehart"
When Nietzsche Wept by Irvin D. Yalom

Maybe genre Specific would get them on this post for me, spent way too much time thinking on a "what's your fav" question.

Fantasy: at the moment Dresden Files and anything by Christopher Moore
SciFi: The Enders Series
Phil: Derrida: The Ear of the Other, Bergson: Creative Evolution
Social Sci: Goffman: Stigma, Lakoff: Metaphors We Live By, Allport: The Nature of Prejudice
Religious: Talmage: Jesus the Christ, Lewis: Screwtape Letters, Bhagavad Gita, anything by Jalaluddin Rumi, and Unknown: The Cloud of Unknowing
Other: Jogori Kano: Judo, Miyamoto: The Book of Five Rings.

I love Christopher Moore. Lamb was such a classic on so many levels. Summer cannot get here soon enough so I can catch up on my Moore reading.

I like anything written by Douglas Adams, especially the Hicht Hiker series, though I am probally not gonna like his book "Last chance to see" about interesting nearly extinct species since im not a big fan of ecology, but with the humor he applies to everthing that might not be the case

I also liked "Lord of the rings" a lot, it would be my favorite book if I had never read DNA.

I have the funny habit of not caring for who is the author then I read books, so Douglas Adams is pretty much the only author I know anything about, although I know the name of the author of "Lord of the Rings" has Tolkien on it

I dont like non-fiction books, it has to be something trully awesome to keep me reading, like "The Salmon of doubt" by DNA (The book is a tribute to him, since he died suddently, young and in the middle of some writings, and contains a lot non-fiction work he wrote through his life along with some pieces of the book he couldnt complete, "The Salmon of Doubt")

"I don't like non-fiction books" - manored

Really? That's such a shame. There're a lot of good non-fiction books. So you've never read any non-fiction philosophy works?

I have read one, wich, I must admit, shaped a lot of the way I think nowadays, wich is called "The power of the subconscient mind".

But that is not an absolute dislike, if the book is good and the topic pokes my interest I read it. I just have a tendence to not like such books

Yes, non-fiction books does not have the same effect upon me either. I've read lots of them but I prefer fiction. I mean, nowadays its hard to make a fiction book without making an overly cheezy one, and if a fiction book manages to actually draw your interest, its ghoood :=)

I am reading one of the best books I have ever picked up. It is called Justice, Nature, and the Geography of Difference by David Harvey. The book's main focus is a dialectic of competing social, economic, scientific, philosophic, and political theories to find new ways to think about the future of urbanization in the current century while focusing on social and environmental justice. I am amazed at how well researched the book is and how Harvey draws on disparate modes of thinking to form his conclusions.

Mark Steyn - America Alone

Don Quixote - Cervantes

Dostoevsky praised it as the most "sublime" work he'd ever read. Cervantes produced a world classic, a book everyone should read. After all, we have all chased a windmill or two.

Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky

Don't you just hate to see yourself in nasty characters? But that's exactly why this book is so compelling.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Thompson

A post-modern masterpiece.

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 - Thompson

Some of the most compelling, insightful, and downright funny political journalism to be found.

Tao Te Ching

Spiritual classic, the foundation of Taoism and a compelling discourse for people of all traditions, and for those who claim to be atheists.

Gospel of Thomas

Rediscovered and, for that reason, revolutionary. The image of Jesus in this Gospel is truly unique.

Tartuffe - Moliere

Great play, even though the ending is weak.

Book of Revelations

Talk about hallucinatory literature!

The Sun Also Rises - Hemingway

Defining the lost generation, Hemingway rose to widespread popularity with this sparse-versed classic of American literature. Be careful when reading - the meat is under the surface.

On the Road - Kerouac

Another classic defining an American generation, Kerouac gives the beat generation a model for finding itself.

The Inferno - Dante

First part of what may be the greatest allegory ever penned.

Walden - Thoreau

A man with a unique American Dream. Contained within the pages of this text are the foundations of a pure American philosophy.

Lord of the Rings - Tolkien

Out of place in it's own time, but I give Tolkien a pass given that he began composing when the style was still compelling. A critical and simultaneously optimistic fantasy tale about the modern world. Tolkien was, after all, literally writing about our planet.

I just started reading "Clan of the Cave Bear" by Jean M. Auel. I can tell this is a series I am going to follow through on. Good flow in the story telling. i tend to Like those kind of books more.

Also a huge Stephen King fan Since I read "It". Took a while, but it was classic thriller material.

other books I like are:

"A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving (Its Just Amazing):bigsmile:
"Tough Guys Don't Dance" by Norman Mailer (A Mind Bender):brickwall:
"Trinity" by Leon Uris (Irish Freedom):surrender: