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Which books should people read at least once in their life


Guest Quinn

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Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code - really fascinated🤯 by the details he actually put into it, read the book! It beats the film☺️

"KNOWLEDGE will be your passport to WHEREVER you want to go in the world." - Marco Pierre White


"Taste. Savor. Relish." - Chef Slowik (The Menu, 2022)

 

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10 hours ago, 1potato2potato said:

Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code - really fascinated🤯 by the details he actually put into it, read the book! It beats the film☺️

Oh yeah. I was so taken up by the plot and couldn't put it down. Read through the night too. Read it a second time a year later and was still fascinated by the details that helped glued me thru every chapter. Still have the book with me and think I am going to read it the third time after so many years...haha

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25 minutes ago, doncoin said:

The Prince by Machiavelli. 

Never read this book before though had read the synopsis.

Bro, can kindly share what are the views of Niccolo in your opinion could still be of important relevance for politicians in present times when the world seems to be fraught with conflicts, and with the potential of a catastrophic WW3? Thks 

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17 hours ago, Guest Neh Neh said:

The Magic of Thinking BIG by David Schwartz, PhD

金庸 《神雕侠女》

Lord of The Rings

 

神雕侠女

 

LOL

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On 4/21/2020 at 12:01 PM, yuquidam said:

Never read this book before though had read the synopsis.

Bro, can kindly share what are the views of Niccolo in your opinion could still be of important relevance for politicians in present times when the world seems to be fraught with conflicts, and with the potential of a catastrophic WW3? Thks 

 

Some of the stuff is a little outdated when i last read the book. But it is a good lesson in leadership. I think what is dangerous is the lack of checks and balances in any political system. 

Love. 

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There are too many! Let’s see, where to begin:

 

To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

Lullaby - Leïla Slimani

Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman

The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood

The Constant Gardener - John Le Carré

Beloved - Toni Morrison

The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje

The Harry Potter series - JK Rowling

Atonement - Ian McEwan

Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding

Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro 

 

 

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Guest 2eyes+

Three Body Problem, Liu Cixin

 

Either in original Chinese or excellent English translation.

 

Changed my perception of super intelligence and what people might be thinking in modern China and how that will impact our real world.

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Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse was pretty memorable for me. Lots of deep meaningful life lessons even if you look past the religious context.
 

Peculiar Chris? Haha pretty significant work in my coming of age experience. Took me a lot of courage to read this in the open at the library even though nobody probably cared. 😂

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Guest Guest

Don’t stop believing ~ Memoirs of Olivia Newton-John , a three time cancer thriver , an amazing lady with amazing real life story !

Every charter is headlined with one of her song title appropriately .

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Guest Books!

I actually can't hold down to any book.  Often will fall into sleep within the first chapter over many books: be it  Inspirational, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Biography, education books..etc

 

The only book that I could hold on thoroughly throughout the night, not falling into sleep and still able to finish it within a single volume, thick fiction is  Lord of the Ring which prompted me to collect all of Tolkien's books (The Silmarillion, The Fall of Gondolin, The Hobbit, The Children of Hurin...etc)  In fact, I read LOTR three times until the books was worn out and still never seems to get tired of it.  

 

I was very much amazed at Tolkien's style of writing - very rich, meticulous and without having to cut corner.  Suprisingly, an adult friend of mine who was an MBA and a professional couldn't quite grasp Tolkien's writings.  I guess, it depends on individual's thinking wave. Not everyone think alike, and I admit I am not a fan of Harry Potter or Stephen Kings books which was written for the sake of writing fictions and wasn't quite impressed with their writing skills.  

 

I prefer something much deeper, provocative, at times funny and relatable to our everyday life experience.  I have Chemistry with Tolkien's thinking process and gained tremendously from his experience, through his books.  Someday I might just replace those paper back with hard-cover if the price comes down. 

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10 minutes ago, Guest Books! said:

I actually can't hold down to any book.  Often will fall into sleep within the first chapter over many books: be it  Inspirational, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Biography, education books..etc

 

The only book that I could hold on thoroughly throughout the night, not falling into sleep and still able to finish it within a single volume, thick fiction is  Lord of the Ring which prompted me to collect all of Tolkien's books (The Silmarillion, The Fall of Gondolin, The Hobbit, The Children of Hurin...etc)  In fact, I read LOTR three times until the books was worn out and still never seems to get tired of it.  

 

I was very much amazed at Tolkien's style of writing - very rich, meticulous and without having to cut corner.  Suprisingly, an adult friend of mine who was an MBA and a professional couldn't quite grasp Tolkien's writings.  I guess, it depends on individual's thinking wave. Not everyone think alike, and I admit I am not a fan of Harry Potter or Stephen Kings books which was written for the sake of writing fictions and wasn't quite impressed with their writing skills.  

 

I prefer something much deeper, provocative, at times funny and relatable to our everyday life experience.  I have Chemistry with Tolkien's thinking process and gained tremendously from his experience, through his books.  Someday I might just replace those paper back with hard-cover if the price comes down. 

 

you cant hold down any books but you finish tolkien LOTR, 3 times! you are very very powerful already... hahahaha

 

i read LOTR 4 times, and im still reading it. its so deep both action, and history... really really enduring book!

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Guest Books!
13 hours ago, mith said:

 

you cant hold down any books but you finish tolkien LOTR, 3 times! you are very very powerful already... hahahaha

 

i read LOTR 4 times, and im still reading it. its so deep both action, and history... really really enduring book!

Yes, Yes!!  If you read the book till the very end - after Frodo has been shipped to the gray Haven.  You also get bonus glimse on the ultimate fate of Sam,  Aragon, Gimli, Legolas, Pippin, Merry, Arwen, Eomer, in bit and pieces,which Tolkien wasn't able to finish in his later years. You also need to read his other books (The Silmarillion), to understand how those elves came into existence, who is Gandalf, Sauron, Galadriel, Tom Bombadil, the Giant Spider, the Balrog...etc.   I particularly like the story the children of Hurin  (sad ending) and Beren & Luthien (sad love story between two different elves).  The unfinished Tales, and The Hobbit,  were a starter before  LOTR stories began.

 

These books are now on my wish list for hardcover copy and then get placed on bookends made of Argonath statue or Desolution of Smaug Statue Those on paper back were worn out and discarded after reading several times.

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On 5/2/2020 at 10:26 PM, Guest Books! said:

Yes, Yes!!  If you read the book till the very end - after Frodo has been shipped to the gray Haven.  You also get bonus glimse on the ultimate fate of Sam,  Aragon, Gimli, Legolas, Pippin, Merry, Arwen, Eomer, in bit and pieces,which Tolkien wasn't able to finish in his later years. You also need to read his other books (The Silmarillion), to understand how those elves came into existence, who is Gandalf, Sauron, Galadriel, Tom Bombadil, the Giant Spider, the Balrog...etc.   I particularly like the story the children of Hurin  (sad ending) and Beren & Luthien (sad love story between two different elves).  The unfinished Tales, and The Hobbit,  were a starter before  LOTR stories began.

 

These books are now on my wish list for hardcover copy and then get placed on bookends made of Argonath statue or Desolution of Smaug Statue Those on paper back were worn out and discarded after reading several times.

 

yes yes yes... those parts are bittersweet!

 

tolkien's work on middle earth is indeed very enduring, one could spend a lifetime reading them!

 

now u mentioned harcovers copies..... i really regretted when mph closed down last year, the children of hurin and beren&luthien, both hardcover, new and factory wrapped, going for $4 and i didn't buy them!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Guest Books!
2 hours ago, mith said:

 

yes yes yes... those parts are bittersweet!

 

tolkien's work on middle earth is indeed very enduring, one could spend a lifetime reading them!

 

now u mentioned harcovers copies..... i really regretted when mph closed down last year, the children of hurin and beren&luthien, both hardcover, new and factory wrapped, going for $4 and i didn't buy them!!!!!!!!!!!!

MPH closed?   $4 for each hardcover??   I would have camped outside the shop for a night, if I knew they were clearing at that price!!!

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Guest InBangkok

Gay guys should definitely read at least one of the factual books about the HIV-AIDS crisis in the 1980s. And the Band Played On by San Francisco journalist Randy Shilts is an excellent read - far better than the TV series made from it. More recent discoveries do not take away from the impact of the book. Sadly Shilts himself did of AIDS.

 

My list of other great reads -

 

The Goldfinch by Donna Tart. A recent novel about the adventures of a small painting and the young boy who steals it. A story of deep love, loss of a loved one in a terrible crime, betrayal and double dealing. Story telling at its finest.

Endurance by Caroline Alexander - an account of Ernest Shackleton's superhuman efforts a century ago to rescue his crew after their ship got trapped in Antarctic ice and eventually sank. Arguably the greatest act of personal heroism of the 20th century.

Birdsong, the first novel by Sebastian Faulks - a superbly written intense love story set before and during World War 1

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, a long fascinating book about an Indian mother's attempts to find a husband for her daughter

Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia by William Shawcross. This was one of the first books to reveal the USA's secret undeclared war in Cambodia and the resultant genocide of the Khmer Rouge regime, a hugely moving and damning indictment of people in power.

The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. The only book I read cover to cover in one sitting! Once again the movie was a pale version of the book.

 

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21 hours ago, Guest Books! said:

MPH closed?   $4 for each hardcover??   I would have camped outside the shop for a night, if I knew they were clearing at that price!!!

 

singapore MPH has official closed island wide.

 

worst is i was there and i even held the 2 books in my hands, but i didn't purchase them in the end. ... aiyaya!

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21 hours ago, Guest InBangkok said:

Gay guys should definitely read at least one of the factual books about the HIV-AIDS crisis in the 1980s. And the Band Played On by San Francisco journalist Randy Shilts is an excellent read - far better than the TV series made from it. More recent discoveries do not take away from the impact of the book. Sadly Shilts himself did of AIDS.

 

My list of other great reads -

 

The Goldfinch by Donna Tart. A recent novel about the adventures of a small painting and the young boy who steals it. A story of deep love, loss of a loved one in a terrible crime, betrayal and double dealing. Story telling at its finest.

Endurance by Caroline Alexander - an account of Ernest Shackleton's superhuman efforts a century ago to rescue his crew after their ship got trapped in Antarctic ice and eventually sank. Arguably the greatest act of personal heroism of the 20th century.

Birdsong, the first novel by Sebastian Faulks - a superbly written intense love story set before and during World War 1

A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, a long fascinating book about an Indian mother's attempts to find a husband for her daughter

Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia by William Shawcross. This was one of the first books to reveal the USA's secret undeclared war in Cambodia and the resultant genocide of the Khmer Rouge regime, a hugely moving and damning indictment of people in power.

The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth. The only book I read cover to cover in one sitting! Once again the movie was a pale version of the book.

 

 

i grew in 80s, very intense period for Gay people, i read THE NORMAL HEART by Larry Kramer a few times... watched AND THE BAND PLAYED ON too. now you mentioned it, must get my hand on the book!

 

must get my hand on shawcross's book too. as i found out more about nixon over the years, my 'puke' intensity increases...a damn ugly person, inside and out!

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Guest InBangkok
2 hours ago, mith said:

 

i grew in 80s, very intense period for Gay people, i read THE NORMAL HEART by Larry Kramer a few times... watched AND THE BAND PLAYED ON too. now you mentioned it, must get my hand on the book!

 

With a quarter century of HIV treatments, in talking to younger guys I am always amazed that so few are really aware of what gay men (and haemophiliacs and some others) went through in the period from roughly 1980 to 1993 - the fear that the cute guy you just had sex with might be infected and have passed the HIV virus to you. If so, both of you would suffer dreadfully, perhaps for more than a year, and then die.

 

Quote

“There were 15 dreadful years of unmitigated death – 15 years! – before treatments finally became available to make an HIV infection survivable. I spent those years in brutal terror, flat-out convinced I would be one of the dead."

 

There is an article in today's edition of the British newspaper The Guardian about how gay men who lived through the early years of the AIDS pandemic can teach the world how to survive the coronavirus.

 

Although a blood test was developed in mid-1985, if you tested positive, you died. Life for gay men was as simple and dreadful as that. It was not for another seven years before the first drugs were developed that could control the virus. By then, millions around the world were infected. Ironically, AZT was not a new drug. It had been developed years earlier as a treatment for cancer. When first introduced, gay men had to take four or more pills every 6 hours or so, and there were considerable side effects including nausea, headaches, loss of appetite and more. Now one daily pill with no side effects controls the HIV virus very effectively.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/04/hiv-teach-us-to-survive-coronavirus

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  • 1 year later...
Guest Alexis Carrington.

The 4 gospel books but exclude the old testaments, and the other books , and especially the very last book. The one that title begins with R.

 

4 GOSPEL is about love, love.

 

 

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17 minutes ago, Guest Alexis Carrington. said:

The 4 gospel books but exclude the old testaments, and the other books , and especially the very last book. The one that title begins with R.

 

4 GOSPEL is about love, love.

 

 

1 Gospel is good enough.  From John.

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Cant think 1 read but there are a few that have left an impression:

 

1. Mahabharata

2. Art of War

3. Da vinci code

4. Lord of the rings

5. Rumi: Book of love

6. Animal Farm

7. Alice in Wonderland

8. Harry Potter Series

9. All quiet in the western front

10. Windup bird chronicles

 

 

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The English Roses by Madonna.

 

 

Madonna wrote a children 's book preaching about morality and kindness. 

 

The Brits were not too pleased that a woman who came out with an explicit coffee table book named X , 

 

Should be reaching out to tween girls about how to behave. 

 

Read it for yourselves and see why. 

 

 

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