Most inspirational book you have recently read?

[ErikB]

The Boys of Everest by Clint Willis was a fantastic read

[El Presidente]

Cheers for the recommendations!

With a birthday coming up I now have a great list to give family

[ogus]

The New Birth Explained

[guideright]

Inspiration -

The Purpose Driven Life "What on Earth am I Here For" - by Rick Warren

The Shack - as mentioned before very good read

The Bible -

not in that order:)

[garnett]

11/22/63 - Stephen King

Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts

Chickenhawk - Robert Mason

[El Presidente]

Just finished "Predatory thinking" by Dave Trott.

excellent read

[canadianbeaver]

11/22/63 - Stephen King

Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts

Chickenhawk - Robert Mason

I was going to include 11/22/63. Wasn't that great? It was so clever! And such a different style read for Stephen King. He really is a super star.

[Colt45]

Sargent's Venice - John Singer Sargent

[DrunkenMonkey]

Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood

The first book of a great trilogy.

[dicko]

"The Surgeon" it's an autobiography by this doctor from Chechnya. His practice got bombed a couple it times. He turned down big coin in Russia to help out at home. Helped enemy soldiers etc.

Also growing up he had a hard life. Had to get up super early to feed the animals, then to school, then to sports then studied. Only slept a few hours fitting it all in.

Puts things into perspective

[cigcars]

"A New Pair of Glasses" by Charles Chamberlain written for Alcoholics Anonymous members and such. Very inspirational reading, read it back in 1988, there or abouts.

[Dave O)))]

Shikasta, by the late & great Doris Lessing. Truly mind blowing and inspirational.

[brian1]

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion - Robert Cialdini PHD

"Influence, the classic book on persuasion, explains the psychology of why people say "yes"—and how to apply these understandings"

The most insightful book I have ever read. Everyone trust me on this.....just buy it.

[HarveyBoulevard]

I prefer non-fiction so my wife just bought me this book.  Kind of a self help/how to cope book.

[Ethernut]

I read a TON.. and could make this a long post without much trouble..

In no particular order 4 that I consider notable that come to mind:

1. Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand (Fiction)

2. The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand (Fiction)

3. The Four Hour Workweek - Tim Ferriss (You and yer Biz)

4. Ego is the Enemy - Ryan Holiday (You and yer Biz)

 

Ether -

[ElPuro]

Lord of the Flies. "Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy." 

[headstand]

Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Humor, tragedy, life on a Greek island during WW2.

 

[zeedubbya]

My two favorite business books are one new and one old.  

New is 

1.) Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh

and old is

2.) Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill.

And if you can take it Peter Drucker is a fantastic wealth of knowledge but his stuff is extremely tedious and text book like, but wonderful information.

 

[PigFish]

... all Piggies are true wise friends!

-Piggy

[cigcars]

On 8/5/2016 at 6:53 PM, ElPuro said:

Lord of the Flies. "Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy." 

     ** I had to jangle my memory banks for a moment because I thought you were talking about "our" Piggy here on the forum!! Then I finally recalled...Oh yeah! That's right, that kid's forced on name in that story was Piggy! It's been awhile since I'd seen that film and scanned the book - like over 30+ years ago! 

  OH - but you're still a good guy to know, Ray...Our Piggy! (LOL)!

[gweilgi]

Someone pointed out to me that Joseph Conrad died on my birthday (several years apart), so I took the opportunity to re-read "Heart of Darkness".  Not exactly an uplifting positive work, but an absobloodylutely amazing read....

"“Droll thing life is -- that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself -- that comes too late -- a crop of inextinguishable regrets.”

 

[garnett]

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

[demer]

House of leaves. I read it once a year. It is still the scariest and most unsettling book I have ever read.

[foursite12]

On 1/12/2014 at 11:01 PM, PapaDisco said:

"Incompleteness" by Rebecca Goldstein. It's mind-blowing philosophy/history, with some great story telling around Godel, Einstein, Wittgenstein, et. al.

More fun though; I just finished the Aubrey/Maturin "Master and Commander" series. Perfect cigar smoking fiction!

I'll second that on the Master and Commander books.  The Aubrey/Maturin series was authored by Patrick O'Brian and I have read the entire 20 volume set at least 3 times, and for certain individual titles it's been several more times than that. You might call that overkill; however, I can only tell you that I consistently get more and more out of them with each reading.  Ultimately a story of friendship and the timeless nature of human-ness. Complex, rich literature laced with a tremendous sense of humor. And cracking good stories into the bargain. Written in a unique, spare style utilizing early 1800's conversational and maritime vocabulary, O'Brian demands that the reader be mentally engaged as an active participant.  He refuses to connect every dot; yet, as with all fine art regardless of medium, the reader is transported to precise visions and feelings that cannot be described in specific, non-abstract terms. These are not books that talk at you. If you are willing to invest yourself, I can't recommend the series highly enough.  I also recommend buying the companion dictionary until the jargon becomes second nature.

[TomF]

Fiction: One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Non-fiction: The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight by Thom Hartmann

Honorable Mention: Young Men And Fire by Norman Maclean