Book recomendations please!

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Comment by revtimothy on January 2, 2009 at 11:05pm

A very funny , yet educational book on consensual crimes,eg. why is society putting folks who are different but not hurting others ,into jail? called "Ain't Nobody's Business If You Do" by Peter McWilliams .......a quote on every page ,a very funny writer,some important social vs. individual freedom issues.......a great book.........if you can't find one I could lend you my copy......enjoy!!! - Tim

Comment by Susan LaCroix on December 28, 2008 at 11:46am

I loved all of Anne Rice's "Vampire Chronicles", but after her husband died she "got religion" and no longer writes anything but "Jesus" books. How sad to see such a brilliant woman turned into a religious nut. I also loved the Frank Herbert "Dune" series. I would rate these books as good as "The Lord of the Rings", which has always been my favorite book. As you can tell, I'm a science fiction fan!

Another genre I like is diaries of the people who lived through the Civil War and diaries of the women who traveled west in the 1800's. There's a 3 book set named "Covered Wagon Women: Diaries and Letters from the Western Trails, 1840-1849" by Kenneth Holmes that I enjoyed very much. I've always been an avid reader so my head is filled with good books that I've read over the last 40 years. Without knowing what kind of books you like though, I just listed a few for you. Happy hunting!

Comment by BJ on December 27, 2008 at 9:40pm

Hi Krista, A friend sent me a set of CDs last year by Dan Barker, called Your Friendly Neighborhood Atheist. It's a collection of songs he wrote, mostly parodies of familiar songs. He has a book out, too, but I can't recall the title at the moment. Do a search on Dan Barker and see if it comes up... He's a former preacher who "saw the light" and is now, well, your friendly neighborhood atheist. Also good listening is anything by Pat Condell... He's on YouTube. So, all that stuff is free.

Comment by Фелч Гроган on December 27, 2008 at 7:29pm

Atheist Manifesto - extensive extracts online.

It constantly amazes me how few people have read this. It is bare-knuckle atheism at its best.

Comment by Jennifer W on December 27, 2008 at 7:03pm

If you want a laugh I suggest buying My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One Night Stands by Chelsea Handler. It's about Handler, a standup comedienne, and her life of one-night stands, and she's very vicious, honest, and quite sarcastic in it. I laughed hard in a book before, but Chelsea Handler is the only writer to have me in tears laughing.

Comment by iskate2 on December 27, 2008 at 6:45pm

Buy "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan. excellent book on philosophy, time, and our beginnings. best $8 I've ever spent. Even though is seems like a science book, it really is a philosophical take on the nature of our existence. Carl Sagan was an outspoken atheist and it comes through in a subtle, yet deliberate way. Off the subject, he was a pothead too, and if you ever listen to him speak there are hints placed gracefully through his lectures alluding to it.

Comment by Father Nature on December 27, 2008 at 6:20pm

Krista,
The best book I've read in about the past 10 years is 'Life of Pi" by Yan Martel. It's a very hard book to accurately describe and every review that I've read seems to miss the point completely...or maybe I did. It contains some discussion of religion although not really from a freethought perspective. But don't let that put you off. It's a gem.

Comment by Drew on December 27, 2008 at 5:37pm

Hi Krista. The best fiction in English is The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien. If you haven't read it, you should. It single-handedly created fantasy as a genre, and transcends fantasy because the writing is so good, the story is so powerful, and the characters and plot are truly epic. The best non-fiction I've read in the last few years is Guns, Germs, and Steel, by Jared Diamond. If people read only one history book in their life, it should be this one. It teaches all those of European descent to stop wringing their hands about having basically conquered the world, and it teaches all others to realise exactly how Europe came to dominate the planet. The steps were amazing - from continent location, to flowering grasses, to domesticable animals. It tied together human history with a simplicity I could never have imagined. Let me know if you buy either or both.

Comment by Clarence Dember on December 27, 2008 at 4:43pm

Hi Krista.
I don't know your taste in authors. I will say this however.
As an Ayn Rand Fan myself, I'd read most of what she'd written in terms of her books. She is contravercial in the sense that her philosophy is judgemental- she advocates using your life as a benchmark to measure the worth of things valuable to you.
I understood the metaphysics of this realization better when I read a book by Leonard Peikoff and Garry Hull (Her students and collegues) called "Fearful Symmetry". This really enhanced my working knowledge of Ayn Rands Objectivism. It compares pre-Nazi fascism in Germany with Fascist Trends in the United States. It may not help that this book was first printed in the 1980's but- It's likely still in print.
Cla

Comment by j on December 27, 2008 at 4:05pm

If it were me...365 tao or nearly anything by Deng Ming-Dao (for stuff to think about)...

What do you like to read???