Singapore Expats

what would be the best books you have ever read?

it would be great to lest a few with a brief description (and the style: novel, artcile, historical...)

my favorites where:

- "The clash of civilizations, remaking of the world order" by S.P Huntington
an attempt to explain how cultures and religious beliefs can shape nowadays conflicts.
it was an article in Foreign Affairs that was further developed as a book.


- "The prince" by Macchiavelli (novel)
This is the first treatise on Merger and Acquisitions! written in the 15th century.


- Art of war by Sun Tsu (military treatise)
13 chapters dedicated to warfare. every single management manual quote this book that was written 2500 years ago...


- the Chess Player by Stefan Zweig (short story)
I loved this one.
it's about an inmate during 2nd world war who managed to steal a chess manual from a Nazi warden. his only freedom in his cell is to imagine chess boards and play games against himself...


how about yours?

luxiana wrote:- "The prince" by Macchiavelli

- Art of war by Sun Tsu (military treatise)

Sama Sama plus:

1) The Tao of Physics - Frijtov (probably wrong spelling but whats new from me)

2) The Riftwar Trilogy (Magician, etc) - Raymond E Fiest

3) Tolkien.

Anything by Frank McCourt (Angela's Ashes, Tis, Teacher Man etc). But if you don't have a Catholic background you may not really appreciate it...

Did anyone try to read the Nobel Prize winning book THE AUTUMN OF THE PATRIARCH ?(1991) I gave up after 10 pages. Think the author must have been stoned .....

Forgot to mention Crime And Punishment . (Dostoyevsky).
Now that is a classic that everyone should have a read of ! Yeah that's gotta be my fave...

Hands down the best book I have read was 'The Catcher in the Rye'. JD Salinger.

I'd agree with Ozchick Crime and Punishment is pretty good. I've just finished War and Peace, although not the best book I've ever read it was definitely the longest!

For sci-fi stuff anything by Iain M Banks (Culture series). Tom Clancy is also a good writer.

But my all time favorite is Terry Pratchett. His Discworld novels are some of the funniest and most clever books I've ever read.

A good quote I heard before about War and Peace was someone said that they were'nt sure if the author was a good writer but that if you managed to read the whole lot of it you certinaly were a good reader!

www.dailylit.com is the way forward, breaks it down into bite sized chunks 1 email a day (although to be fair I did read a few a day...) Still took about 6 months...

markhed wrote:Hands down the best book I have read was 'The Catcher in the Rye'. JD Salinger.

Yep ! Enjoyed that too ! Used a line out of that book when I 'sacked' a guest house where I'd been unhappily employed ! A friend and I did a runner in the middle of the night and blasted the car horn as loud as we could as we accelerated out of their establishment, yelling as loud as we could- "Sleep tight you morons !" I don't remember where that line comes in the book but it's from somewhere in them there pages !

just finished reading khaled hosseini's "the kite runner". absolutely astounding considering it was his first novel.

The Catcher in the Rye was on the syllabus when I was in school and I wouldnt read it, you get older and you appreciate it.

Wonder if that applies to other things???

I can't believe people are knocking War and Peace and praising Crime and Punishment? Weird. W&P is brilliant (Anna Karenina is even better) and I found C&P quite tedious. Weird because the Brother Karamazov is incredible!!! (But long.)

Other favs ... A Separate Peace by John Knowles (If you liked Catcher, you should at least try it), The Red and the Black by Stendahl, Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett (Light hearted and hilarious).

All time fav is To Kill a Mockingbird.

remersonh wrote:
All time fav is To Kill a Mockingbird.

Oh yeah ! A very good read I agree. And the film by the same name not too bad either .

I think some old (but still hot) favorites are 'To Kill a Mocking Bird' and 'The Catcher in the Rye'. I'm reading 'The World Is Flat' by Thomas Friedman at the moment. It is controversial I must say...

Samm wrote:I'm reading 'The World Is Flat' by Thomas Friedman at the moment. It is controversial I must say...

I thought it was brilliant, and found the real-life people and companies he used as examples most useful. He's an excellent journalist, even if you don't agree with his thesis.