# What are some good novels to read this winter?



## xRENx (Nov 6, 2014)

Right now i'm reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and over the summer i read a lot of Edward Abbey books, working on getting a copy of Good News by him. Also I'm pretty into Cormac McCarthy I read Suttre over the summer and it has to be one of my favorite books. Most of the beat poet stuff i've probably read. if anyone has any good suggestions on some cool novels/westerns or know which steinbeck book is about this guy who travels around possibly hopping trains to organize hobos to go on strikes against farmers is one i've heard about but dont know the name of let me know. or just tell me one or more of your favorite books and why it was


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## KootenayRambler (Nov 6, 2014)

Im sure you've already ready On The Road by Kerouac?


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## xRENx (Nov 6, 2014)

yup my favorite Kerouac book was Big Sur and it wasn't really about traveling but i felt like i could relate with his downward spiral with drinking and solitude. darma bums was good too though


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## Deleted member 2626 (Nov 6, 2014)

Dharma bums for sure. Japhy is my favorite dude. Ive read and reread a lot of Kerouac but he is a complete fucking downer man if your not in. The mood for it. I can relate to the drinking as well, never had tremors but have spent a lot of time inebriated by various things but I can't really read much of his stuff anymore. Really into Edward abbey now Literary Barbarian/ hobo that he was. Jack London as well some of his Yukon stories are pretty awesome. Vardis Fisher mountain man is a tough novel but very entertaining and detailed. I always dug rocky mountain trappers and woodsman


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## xRENx (Nov 6, 2014)

hell yea man the only jack london i've read so far was the valley of the moon which is very awesome. from a girls perspective in oakland during the late 1800 she marries a boxer who gets involved in the labor union strikes fighting the cops and running off scabs. dude goes to jail so the wife decides its best to set out on foot with nothing more then back packs with her husband to go start a farm up in norcal and get out of the city. great book. also i have the book jim bridger mountain man. havent read it yet but its on my plate for the winter. its about the original jeremiah johmson


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## kneedleknees (Nov 7, 2014)

xRENx said:


> yup my favorite Kerouac book was Big Sur and it wasn't really about traveling but i felt like i could relate with his downward spiral with drinking and solitude. darma bums was good too though


Dude I read Big Sur extensively throughout 2013, I really felt that one. it's my favorite Kerouac book too

if you want a collection of poetry check out Ginsberg's the Fall of America if you haven't already. a lot of travel, an elegy for Neal Cassady, got some other good stuff in it too


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## Deleted member 2626 (Nov 7, 2014)

I've read some Ginsberg not a big fan. He wanted to be kind of famous, that's no crime judged by some higher law I imagine but not something I agree with, though Kerouac did as well. I really enjoyed desolation angels too from Kerouac. I have an unedited mind fuck scramble he wrote and it stayed original. Kind of dug that, lots of travel and desolation mountain stuff. Its the real start of his insanity. His Paris book too was Alrite basically just him in Europe getting fucked up on cognac every night tracking down his name


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## kneedleknees (Nov 7, 2014)

Tatanka said:


> I've read some Ginsberg not a big fan. He wanted to be kind of famous, that's no crime judged by some higher law I imagine but not something I agree with, though Kerouac did as well. I really enjoyed desolation angels too from Kerouac. I have an unedited mind fuck scramble he wrote and it stayed original. Kind of dug that, lots of travel and desolation mountain stuff. Its the real start of his insanity. His Paris book too was Alrite basically just him in Europe getting fucked up on cognac every night tracking down his name


I like Ginsberg when he's not trying to elevate himself for the sake of maintaining an ego if that makes any sense. like the supermarket poem when he's talking about Whitman seems to me just..... irritating lol. 
totally unrelated series, but for winter Im gonna start reading the Dune series. cant recommend it yet, but the movie is good. if you havent seen that I'd recommend it


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## Traveler (Nov 7, 2014)

Dune by Frank Herbert.

Edit: Totally didn't read your last post


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## mymotherisafish (Nov 7, 2014)

Two of my favorites are the jungle by upton sinclair and as i lay dying by william faulkner. Anything by faulkner is good really. Oh, and crime and punishment by Dostoyevsky. I could talk about books for years


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## mymotherisafish (Nov 7, 2014)

I just now found a copy of Mein Kampf by hitler plus about a gram of weed at the city park in nola HELL YES


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## Kal (Nov 7, 2014)

The Dome, it was written by Stephen King. I love westerns, Louis La' Moore, Zane Grey, Ralph Cotton. I may not be a cowboy but I am one at heart.


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## Deleted member 2626 (Nov 7, 2014)

Kal if you love westerns check out terry c Johnston. He wrote historical novels. A lot of rocky mountain trapper books that are awesome and personal. The main character leaves st. Louis and a life of nothing to travel west alone on a horse. And hr wrote a novel about the guy as a kid leaving home to travel to new Orleans. Its like an 1800s travel novel


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## Kal (Nov 7, 2014)

Tatanka said:


> Kal if you love westerns check out terry c Johnston. He wrote historical novels. A lot of rocky mountain trapper books that are awesome and personal. The main character leaves st. Louis and a life of nothing to travel west alone on a horse. And hr wrote a novel about the guy as a kid leaving home to travel to new Orleans. Its like an 1800s travel novel


Cool I will have to give him a try.


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## xRENx (Nov 7, 2014)

i read the jungle last winter and it was pretty awesome, i like when he finally hopped a train outta chicago to go work on farms out west for the summer then came back. but to be honest i put this book down for like 6 months before i picked it back up to finish it. great book though i want to read oil by upton sinclair. they made a movie sorta about the bood called there will be blood. but back to steven king i want to read gun slinger from the dark tower series. i've read the first two chapters but left the house where it was located and never had a chance since to pick it back up. also im really burn out on all the beat poet shit. to many kids talk about this shit non stop and yea its some good shit but its not something im obsessed with


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## Kal (Nov 8, 2014)

xRENx said:


> i read the jungle last winter and it was pretty awesome, i like when he finally hopped a train outta chicago to go work on farms out west for the summer then came back. but to be honest i put this book down for like 6 months before i picked it back up to finish it. great book though i want to read oil by upton sinclair. they made a movie sorta about the bood called there will be blood. but back to steven king i want to read gun slinger from the dark tower series. i've read the first two chapters but left the house where it was located and never had a chance since to pick it back up. also im really burn out on all the beat poet shit. to many kids talk about this shit non stop and yea its some good shit but its not something im obsessed with


Who wrote the jungle?


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## xRENx (Nov 8, 2014)

upton sinclair, its about the work conditions in the meat packing industry in chicago during the late 1800's.


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## Deleted member 2626 (Nov 9, 2014)

I have it too in my mini library I read 3/4 of it and never finished but it is an interesting and sick book


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## xRENx (Nov 10, 2014)

anyone into anthony burgess, there are a few of his books i'd like to read, i started earthly powers but pus it down. i heard he has a 1985 which some people say is better the 1984 also the wanting seed is supposed to be good but haent read either. i did read a clockwork orange though and it lead me to earthly powers which i may fiinish one day


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## Deleted member 20 (Nov 10, 2014)

Hey @xRENx i too have zen & the art in my pile of books to read. Its on loan from my friend Rick. I gotta start that 1


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## xRENx (Nov 11, 2014)

its been really good so far, if you've ever been to montana the dude that wrote it taught psychology in bozeman. he tends to go off on tangents some times but i like the way he thinks so it doen't bother me.


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## Johnny P (Nov 21, 2014)

I'm reading "Papillion" by Henri Charriere great book about a guy who is continually trying to cavale (escape) from a French Penal colony.
I suggest anything by Ayn Rand, even if you don't agree with some of the ideas presented she has some great stories. Atlas Shrugged, Fountainhead, We the Living, are all great novels.


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## Johnny P (Nov 21, 2014)

Kerouac is wack IMO...I just can't get past his style, he bores me to death and I can't help but want to smack him, he sounds like such a puss in his writings. The Road was weak.


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## Johnny P (Nov 21, 2014)

You Can't Win by Jack Black is probably the best book about Trampin out there.


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## xRENx (Dec 1, 2014)

I think i watched the movie papillion, great movie i bet the books good too..... man i looked up you cant win, i'm gonna have to read that one it looks bad ass! i'm reading Jim Bridger Mountain Man by Stanley Vestal now. its a biography style book and full of awesome stories so far


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## Johnny P (Dec 1, 2014)

"Land of the Lost Souls" by Cadillac Man, meoirs from being homeless in New York City...pretty vivid stuff...


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## Anagor (Dec 1, 2014)

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16119817-travels-with-a-road-dog
http://www.hitchhikingstories.com/
Just my 2 cents ...


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## SnakeOilWilly (Dec 15, 2014)

I'm just finishing up Steinbeck's Travels with Charley.

Anyone ever read Stephen King's The Stand?


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## Mankini (Dec 15, 2014)

You gotta read the Stand!!!!! It's one of his best ones. I know it's not a novel, but I like Endgame volume 2 by Derrick Jensen.


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## Mankini (Dec 15, 2014)

I LOVE Erskine Caldwell's Tobacco Road and God's Little Acre. He writes about some serious backwoods hillfolk from the Deep South. If you liked Deliverance you'll love Caldwell.


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## Rob Nothing (Dec 16, 2014)

yeah, read suttree myself this fall. good read.

just finished Faulkner's Light in August. also good.

would recommend Blood Meridian to any Mccarthy reader.


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## Kal (Dec 16, 2014)

Tatanka said:


> Kal if you love westerns check out terry c Johnston. He wrote historical novels. A lot of rocky mountain trapper books that are awesome and personal. The main character leaves st. Louis and a life of nothing to travel west alone on a horse. And hr wrote a novel about the guy as a kid leaving home to travel to new Orleans. Its like an 1800s travel novel


I finally read some of his books and liked them. Thanks for the suggestion.


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## Arketype87 (Dec 17, 2014)

I was just about to start a thread and saw this one. Some good reading out there; I'm usually finding myself reading more during the cold season, so for me once a year it's Thoreau's _Walden_, a lot of good winter elements in it. Right now, I've decided to invest some time this winter in J.R.R. Tolkien's _The Silmirillion, The Hobbit, _and _The Lord of the Rings._ Fantasy and history novels are the only fiction I'll read...


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## zapporra (Dec 17, 2014)

Finished A Wizard of Earthsea not long ago, if fantasy of the Ursula K. LeGuin variety is your flavor. The prose sings.


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## Arketype87 (Dec 17, 2014)

zapporra said:


> Finished A Wizard of Earthsea not long ago, if fantasy of the Ursula K. LeGuin variety is your flavor. The prose sings.



I'll have to look it up, author doesn't sound familiar...


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## brando (Nov 4, 2017)

X


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## Weminuche (Nov 4, 2017)

xRENx said:


> Right now i'm reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and over the summer i read a lot of Edward Abbey books, working on getting a copy of Good News by him. Also I'm pretty into Cormac McCarthy I read Suttre over the summer and it has to be one of my favorite books. Most of the beat poet stuff i've probably read. if anyone has any good suggestions on some cool novels/westerns or know which steinbeck book is about this guy who travels around possibly hopping trains to organize hobos to go on strikes against farmers is one i've heard about but dont know the name of let me know. or just tell me one or more of your favorite books and why it was


Hey it's "In Dubious Battle" by Steinbeck. It is a good read.


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## AlwaysLost (Nov 4, 2017)

The Gambler by Doestoevsky or anything by Tom Wolfe who is probably the greatest american writer besides mark twain or thomas payne


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## Railfan David (Nov 4, 2017)

Anything by Cormac McCarthy, but The Road, Blood Meridian, or No Country for Old Men are probably the best starting points. Best living American writer, and best American writer since Faulkner IMO.

Finally buckling down and giving Moby Dick a read. Once you get the flow of Melville's prose, it gets really good. It deserves the praise it gets for the most part IMO.


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## AlwaysLost (Nov 6, 2017)

Railfan David said:


> Anything by Cormac McCarthy, but The Road, Blood Meridian, or No Country for Old Men are probably the best starting points. Best living American writer, and best American writer since Faulkner IMO.
> 
> Finally buckling down and giving Moby Dick a read. Once you get the flow of Melville's prose, it gets really good. It deserves the praise it gets for the most part IMO.



agreed on Faulkner I only said Tom Wolfe because Faulkner said he was the greatiest American writer of his generation. But i love them both.


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## Pan (Jan 17, 2018)

Throwing these out there: A Confederacy of Dunces, The Moviegoer, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, True Grit, The Picture of Dorian Gray, As I Lay Dying, I Capture the Castle, World's Fair, and On the Move: A Life, which was a surprisingly good travelogue from a guy mostly noted for his neurology texts.


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## All Who Wander (Jan 18, 2018)

Confederacy is definitely on the list, history of the author is very worth knowing also...

considering some of the other choices... "Ishmael"

_*Ishmael*_ is a 1992 philosophical novel by Daniel Quinn. It examines the mythological thinking at the heart of modern civilization, its effect on ethics, and how this relates to sustainability and societal collapse on the global scale.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishmael_(novel)

so wait... the greatest evil mankind ever invented... what led to every war, most of the diseases, and all great human suffering... was agriculture?

yup.

If your into philosophy, I'd also add "The Principa Discordia" by Eris, and the "Illuminatus" trillogy by robert anton willson. (both gods)

For just raw fun... I really liked Gun Monkeys (best pacing of any book I ever read), Hard Magic by Corriea (co-creator of the sad puppies anti-hugo sci fi movement), God is a Bullet, and the entire Hairy Dresden series by Jim Butcher.

and now... operation mindfuck:


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## DowneastDom (Jan 18, 2018)

Not a novel, but I'd add Eden Express from Mark Vonnegut (Kurt's son). He traveled around during the old hippie days (remember them fondly) and wound upon a commune in BC where his mental illness became scarily full blown. Another book from that era was Total Loss Farm by Ray Mungo. It's a hilarious story about a bunch of Ivy League-educated kids starting a farm commune in Vermont. Smart they were, but it seems like not one of them had ever even planted a tomato before. I'd recommend anything by Dashiell Hammett. Hard, fast, mean crime fiction. Hammett invented hard-boiled fiction. Maltese Falcon is the greatest American novel; Red Harvest is a great story of the utter corruption of a company town. You can usually find a hardback collection of 4 of Hammett's novels at GW for a buck or two. Keep you going for a month.


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## Soulutions (Jan 18, 2018)

Traveler said:


> Dune by Frank Herbert.


 
I've been told to read this by a very good friend
But uh:
Supernatural by Graham Hancock!
This book is mind melting, in a sense as reading through it will alter your perception of reality, with or without your consent considering the clear, easy to understand, fluidity that is his writing style added to the completely coherent and logical arguments he presents. Definitely gonna read more of his works in the future.
What it's about is kinda 3fold
The birth of modern behavior and knowledge of symbols, because anatomically modern humans have been around at least 200,000 years, but modern behavior 30,000-40,000
Spirits, aliens, fairy's, folklore and the interlaced commonalities across different cultures and time periods. Religion. And the use of entheogens


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## Jerrell (Jan 24, 2018)

I second that Daniel Quinn's _Ishmael _nod. One of my all time favorites right there. Also, Kurt Vonnegut's books are always good. Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles collection is what I used to read back in the day. _The Well of Lost Plots _by Jasper Fforde wasn't bad. Chuck Palahniuk has some good stuff as well. If you're into science fiction, Isaac Asimov might be up someone's alley.


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