15 Books You Should Have Read in 2010 - Culture Image by Jane Mount, Courtesy 20x200 Yes, we read Freedom this year and yes, it was good. As Esquire put it, it “was one great slab of a book, at a time when most books have given up on greatness.” But there were other books in 2010, books that had to compete for our ever more challenged attention spans and won. So we asked a few members of the GOOD team & some of our good colleagues which book made their best list this past year. 1. Author: Stephen King Recommended by: Ben Jervey, Environment Editor Why read? 2. Author: George R.R. Recommended by: Morgan Clendaniel, Deputy Editor, GOOD Why read? 3. Author: Jan Gehl Recommended by: Alissa Walker, Contributing Editor, GOOD Why read? 4. Author: Tom Rachman Recommended by: Zach Frechette, Editor in Chief, GOOD Why read? 5. Author: Walter Van Tillburg Clark Recommended by: Cord Jefferson, Culture Editor, GOOD Why Read? 6. Author: Colum McCann Recommended by: Nicola Twilley, Food Editor, GOOD Why read? 7. Author: Diane Ravitch Why read? 8. Why read? 9.
The 16 Best Dystopian Books Of All Time Dystopian novels—stories of the horrific future—are so common as to be almost forgettable. Here is a compilation of what I believe are the 16 greatest of the genre. I could happily list twice as many that are amazing, but these are the best. From the post-apocalyptic wasteland to deadly viruses to social malaise, all possible bad futures end here. 16. Best known for his Narnia novels, CS Lewis also wrote a trilogy dealing with visiting other planets—well the first two books did. 15. Wow, can you get more polar opposite of CS Lewis than Margaret Atwood? 14. While perhaps not as well known as some, John Christopher (the pen name of Samuel Youd) wrote a fantastic trilogy of young adult novels, set in a far future where the world has reverted to a feudal society after a global ecological disaster. 13. This novel, combined with Brooks’ Zombie Survival Guide are all you need to face the inevitable zombie apocalypse. 12. 11. Lets just throw all of Gibson’s cyberpunk in here, shall we?
10 MORE Awesome Fantasy Series That Are Not Potter or LoTR I received a massive response to my previous post that attempted to showcase some less well-known and under-appreciated fantasy series. Infact I received so many great comments with people recommending their favourite series that I decided to create a definitive list of great fantasy series (stay tuned for that one, it is coming in the next few weeks). But since it is a pretty big job to compile such a list (I already have well over 80 series on the list and it is still growing), I thought I would create this little list of 10 MORE under-appreciated fantasy series in the meantime. This list incorporates some of the great suggestions made by readers in the comments on my previous post. These are excellent fantasy series that I, for one, enjoyed tremendously and yet most of these still went unmentioned in the comments to my previous post, despite the fact that it received tens of thousands of visitors with people recommending dozens of great series. 10. Gatherer of Clouds [/column] 9. 8.
Create Better Things by Abandoning Crap and Focusing on the Good Stuff "The truth is this: the Cello got tough at around grade six, so I switched to an instrument that any talentless shitbag can play." I take great exception to this line, it's downright offensive to the art of guitar playing, guitar players and intelligent people the world round. You arrogant little man, just because you are angry at your life and your development where you were spoiled but never really given encouragement by distant parents doesn't mean you can label other people with the same brush when you know nothing about them. To learn guitar is as difficult as any instrument, to learn to read music is a difficult task, to learn to write songs on it even more so. You will spend the rest of your life looking for validation and abandoning the things that don't instantly reward you and we guitarist will stick to our beloved instruments and being content with our hard-mastered skill set.
The 10 Greatest Apocalyptic Novels Of All Time After scouring book reviews and Wikipedia, a list of the Top Ten Best Apocalyptic Novels was born. The books on this list take you down the darkest paths in uncivilized worlds, from cannibalistic gangs to vampire infected corpses. If this list doesn't get you thinking on the quickest way stock your basement full of water, canned goods and rifles, I don't know what will! Enjoy! World War Z Documenting the war on zombies, "World War Z" takes you through horific times with some of the most vivid writing this genre has ever seen. "World War Z" paints such a realistic picture of a world after Zombies that even skeptics would find themselves engrossed in the novel! Blindness Forget world wide pandemics of flesh eating bacteria or a zombie illness! The family unit escapes and attempts to build a new life in the outside world, just as sight is returned, just as quickly as it was taken away. I don't know who I felt worse for reading this book. The Road The Postman Oryx and Crake Alas, Babylon Swan Song
Sum (book) Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, also simply called Sum, is a work of speculative fiction by the neuroscientist David Eagleman. It is in press in 23 languages as of 2012[update]. The Los Angeles Times described it as "teeming, writhing with imagination."[2] Barnes and Noble named it one of the Best Books of 2009.[3] Synopsis[edit] As a short story cycle, the book presents forty mutually exclusive stories staged in a wide variety of possible afterlives. The title word "Sum" refers to the Latin for "I am," as in Cogito ergo sum. Like Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities, Sum does not fit entirely into the traditional category of a novel. The New York Times Book Review called Sum a "delightful, thought-provoking little collection [which] belongs to that category of strange, unclassifiable books that will haunt the reader long after the last page has been turned".[10] Sum was chosen by Time Magazine for their 2009 Summer Reading list, with the acclaim "Eagleman is a true original.
10 Awesome Fantasy Series That Are Not Potter or LoTR In my literature related internet journeys I’ve seen the same scenario time and time again. People have finished reading “Harry Potter” or “Lord of the Rings” or are simply just getting into fantasy and are looking for something interesting, asking for advice from the more experienced fantasy readers. Unfortunately the names they are given are always the same: Jordan (“The Wheel of Time”)Martin (“The Song of Ice and Fire”)Goodkind (“The Sword of Truth”) Don’t get me wrong those are all great authors and great series, but there are many other series and authors that get overlooked when august names such as those start getting thrown around. 10. I had to put this in since it almost never gets mentioned by anyone and it certainly should. I don’t want to give away the plot, but here are a few teasers :). [column size="1-3" last="0" style="0"] The Lion of Farside [/column] [column size="1-3" last="0" style="0"] The Bavarian Gate [/column] [column size="1-3" last="1" style="0"] 9. 8. 7. . 6. 5.
The Art of Giving Up - DYSKE.COM One winter night, one of the few Japanese friends I had in my early 20s was playing a guitar at his company Christmas party. He was an architect and was about 10 years older than I was. Before he decided to study architecture, he was making a living as a guitarist in Japan. This was not the first time I heard him play, but I was still stunned by how good he was. After his performance, I told him that it was a shame that he was no longer pursuing his musical career. Now, I not only understand it, but also believe it myself. “Giving up,” in this sense, isn’t the same as quitting. The big question is: Why do we develop attachments at all? This leads me to believe that there is an evolutionary reason for our tendencies to develop attachments. Zen Buddhism is a process of detachment. As I grow older and face various physical deteriorations, I’m forced to be in peace with the idea of giving up certain things in life. ©2006 Dyske Suematsu, All Rights Reserved.
In Defense of Human Rights: A Non-Religious Grounding in a Pluralistic World (Routledge Innovations in Political Theory) (9780415479691): Ari Kohen Top 10 Best Novels of the Last 20 Years - Top 10 Lists | Listverse Books The ten novels on this list all substantiate the belief that books are the most elastic, introspective, human and entertaining form of media that exist. Not movies, not music, not art, not the theatre. A famous author once said that novels are the best way for two human beings to connect with each other. I believe this, and I believe that people who do not find pleasure in words have never had the opportunity to read one of the great novels. Music for Torching by A.M. First Sentence: ”It is after midnight on one of those Friday nights when the guests have all gone home and the host and hostess are left in their drunkenness to try and put things right again.” As the only woman on the list, A. Homes makes this common enough theme of suburban ennui feel real with her shining prose, a secondary cast of interesting plots and characters, and lack of a fairy-tale ending. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk (1996) Of course, Palahniuk had to be on this list. House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski (2000)