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Book recommendation: something that blew your mind

  • 22-09-2010 6:07am
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 202 ✭✭


    Hi
    I'm looking for a book recommendation. Something different to the run of the mill. I'm asking here rather than the literature forum because I am looking for something different and excitng with new ideas.
    It can be fiction/non fiction and be any genre, main thing is it had a huge effect on you when you read it.
    Thanks


«13

Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 593 ✭✭✭Scráib


    This is an easy one for me! I cannot recommend this lad enough: David Gemmel.

    He writes fantasy novels, swords and sorcery stuff. What makes him stand out by a mile compared to other authors is his ability to explore the greyness of the human condition, the distinction between what is good and what is evil. You end up questioning your own decisions in life reading one of this books somehow!

    What also makes him exceptional is that he researches everything completely. He knows weapons, swordplay, his battle descriptions are brilliant, and it goes right down to things like how they manages the horses and what characters eat and wear, it's all fantastically accurate.

    He wrote about 20 books before he passed away. They're ridiculously easy to read so they only drawback of his books is that you'll fly through them all at nearly the rate of a book a day, because you'll not put the book down all day long. Read any of them, I recommend starting with Legend or Sword in the Storm.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,166 ✭✭✭enda1


    The Author which affected me the most is an New England American guy called Richard Russo.

    His ability to capture the subtlety of the male mind and its extraordinary complexity in how it deals with relationships and exterior emotions is awe inspiring and led me to quite an amount of introspection.

    Well worth reading, especially I found The Risk Pool and Empire Falls. But really every one of his books is a masterpiece in itself.

    Genre is probably best described as contemporary American drama.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,810 ✭✭✭Mackman


    Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything".
    It covers pretty much the entire history of Science, the Universe, and the Earth. Fantastic read. It covers all the major discoveries, and the people who discovered them. What i loved most about it was, he goes into detail about who these people were, what they were like etc. Definatly worth reading


  • Registered Users Posts: 175 ✭✭Ozziej


    Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
    American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
    The Road, Cormac McCarthy


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 247 ✭✭moonshinerocks


    http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2006/jun/10/featuresreviews.guardianreview15
    "This Book Will Save Your Life" by AM Homes. Don't worry it is not a self help book. Please read the review from the guardian by following the above link, it should peak your interest.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 124 ✭✭charlie1966


    For non fiction
    Edward De Bono - The use of lateral thinking (The first intellectual book I volunteered to read)
    Clyde W Burleson - The Jennifer Project (Because truth is weirder than fiction)
    John Gribbin - Stardust (It was free with a magazine but I think it is a very interesting read)
    Robert Charles Alexander - The inventer of stereo, The life and works of Alan Dower Blumlein (It's relevant to what I do and his story is amazing and sad to say, is unappreciated)

    For fiction
    Arthur C Clark - The Rama series. (I like science fiction)
    Robert Ludlem - The Bourne Trilogy (The 1st 3 books were written by him, the rest in the series were ghost written and not as good. Also much better than the film, though I do like the films too. Any of the other novels he has written are enjoyable too)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,911 ✭✭✭Zombienosh


    Bill Hicks -Love all the people
    Or
    Henry Rollins - Black Coffee Blues trilogy.

    life changing.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,829 ✭✭✭lil_lisa


    "As the Future Catches You" by Juan Enriquez was a big eye opener for me. Very interesting and easy to read. It's not written like a regular book, its difficult to explain. Have a look at the first few pages here


  • Registered Users Posts: 102 ✭✭Fragglefur


    Times Arrow Martin Amis


  • Registered Users Posts: 147 ✭✭68508224


    An experiment with time - J.W. Dunne .. mind boggling and brilliant

    Ever wondered about the nature of time? Life after death? the meaning of dreams? then this is for you.. totally original thinking , and from an Irish author too.. might have to request it from your library though as it may prove hard to find


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  • Registered Users Posts: 202 ✭✭minnow


    Thanks for all the recommendations to date. I suppose it's unfair for me to ask the question without giving my own favourites:

    Fiction:
    Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson (great read for tech buffs)
    The Information - Martin Amis (to my mind the best of his novels)
    The Untouchable - John Banville (beautiful, beautiful writing)

    Non-fiction:
    I enjoy maths/economics related themes, so really enjoyed -
    The Origin of Wealth - E Beinhocker (the rejection of Traditional Economic theory, making the case for the role of Complexity Economics and Evolution in economic systems)
    The Black Swan - NN Taleb (risk)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 365 ✭✭Mat the trasher


    Fiction
    The Millennium Trilogy, by Stieg Larsson

    http://www.stieglarsson.com/Millennium-series


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 180 ✭✭Selected


    68508224 wrote: »
    An experiment with time - J.W. Dunne .. mind boggling and brilliant

    Ever wondered about the nature of time? Life after death? the meaning of dreams? then this is for you.. totally original thinking , and from an Irish author too.. might have to request it from your library though as it may prove hard to find

    It's a book that, once read, you must own.

    Just as a matter of interest, how did you come by such a book?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 766 ✭✭✭ger vallely


    Animals People, set in India, brilliant story. Crossroad- Niccolo Aminiti- fantastic,gritty Italian story-fabulous characters and amazing descriptions. The Red Tent- Anita Diamond, biblical story(I'm not christianly religious but this is a beautiful story.)Clan of the cave bear-Jean M Auel,a wonderful, gripping tale, the sequels are a tad glossy for my liking but this is addictive. I truely hope you try some of these,fine reading in them.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 766 ✭✭✭ger vallely


    Almost somehow nearly forgot Neil Gaiman- American Gods and Nick Cave- The death of Bunny Monroe. Both entertaining in totally different ways. Bunny Monroe is wrong in so many ways, I loved it! American Gods is a book to get stuck into, another one to own.


  • Registered Users Posts: 9 legallybrunette


    Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. It's semi-autobiographical, about an ex-con's life in India. Absolutely brilliant book, shows you a fresh way of looking at a lot of things. I work in a book shop and the amount of customers who recommend this book to me is crazy! It's a big book but well worth the read!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 492 ✭✭Major Lovechild


    Imajica by Clive Barker. There is nothing else to say.

    Wo ist die Gemütlichkeit?



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 544 ✭✭✭Pookah


    minnow wrote: »
    Fiction:
    Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson (great read for tech buffs)

    I was going to recommend Neal Stephenson's ''Baroque Triliogy'' for you.

    Historical fiction; it runs from about the year 1650 to 1720, with a host of historical characters and a few fictional ones thrown into the mix.

    The scope of the authors intellect and range of subjects he covers are astounding. And he can spin a yarn.

    Not for the faint-hearted at 3000+ pages, but very rewarding.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,553 ✭✭✭roosh


    The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

    "Death is a stripping away of all that is not you. The secret of life is to "die before you die" — and find that there is no death"

    "Nothing out there will ever satisfy you except temporarily and superficially, but you may need to experience many disappointments before you realize that truth"

    "...words in themselves are not important. They are not the Truth; they only point to it"

    "Don't get stuck on the level of words. A word is no more than a means to an end. It's an abstraction. Not unlike a signpost, it points beyond itself"

    Power of Now quotes


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 544 ✭✭✭Pookah


    Pookah wrote: »
    I was going to recommend Neal Stephenson's ''Baroque Triliogy'' for you.

    That should have read 'The Baroque Cycle'. :o

    Another auther that blew my mind, was the Canadian Robertson Davies. It's a toss up between the 'Cornish Trilogy' and the 'Deptford trilogy'.

    If you want something to really blow your mind, read any of Robert Anton Wilson's non-fiction.


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,879 ✭✭✭Coriolanus


    Red Mars or Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,453 ✭✭✭Shenshen


    Non-Fiction :

    Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
    I found it a very good read, and quite an eye-opener to a bigger picture of earth, mankind and its history


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,453 ✭✭✭Shenshen


    Ozziej wrote: »
    Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell

    I'm just reading his next book, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, just as brilliant as Cloud Atlas


  • Registered Users Posts: 208 ✭✭Gary L


    Beyond Good and Evil- Neitzsche

    If you want crazy ideas look no further than this sex starved, bitter, profound, genius and eventually insane old German.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,009 ✭✭✭jkforde


    if into science fundamentals, John & Mary Gribbin's classic Deep Simplicity can't be faulted (btw, Jim al-Khalili's BBC4 series The Secret Life of Chaos covers most of the same ground, the final episode is esp. class with the chaotically evolved animations, unreal)

    🌦️ 6.7kwp, 45°, SSW, mid-Galway 🌦️

    "Since I no longer expect anything from mankind except madness, meanness, and mendacity; egotism, cowardice, and self-delusion, I have stopped being a misanthrope." Irving Layton



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 237 ✭✭DS333


    minnow wrote: »
    Hi
    I'm looking for a book recommendation. Something different to the run of the mill. I'm asking here rather than the literature forum because I am looking for something different and excitng with new ideas.
    It can be fiction/non fiction and be any genre, main thing is it had a huge effect on you when you read it.
    Thanks

    "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand. I know she's pushing her philosophy but they're both a damned good read, different to anything else I've read.


  • Registered Users Posts: 134 ✭✭d4v1d


    DS333 wrote: »
    "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand. I know she's pushing her philosophy but they're both a damned good read, different to anything else I've read.

    i also found 'atlas shrugged' to be a great read. i'm now a proudly greedy person :)

    in the science fiction category i'd say 'vurt' by jeff noone. it was written before years before the likes of the matrix was released and was the only book i ever read where i had to call in work to say i was sick as i was just to engrossed in the book to put it down.

    'city of god' was another book that stood out. the movie based on it did not do it justice.

    'trainspotting' by irvine welsh. i've read this seven or eight times and still today would pick it up and re-read some of the stories within.

    roald dahl wrote several books of short stories that are very different from his more famous childrens stories. he's got quite a strange sense of humour and can certainly tell a tale.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13 BuddyBassett


    Zombienosh wrote: »
    Bill Hicks -Love all the people
    Or
    Henry Rollins - Black Coffee Blues trilogy.

    life changing.


    Ill second that! :D Also Junky by William S Burroughs!!


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,842 ✭✭✭s8n


    Catcher in the rye by JD Salinger. Amazing read.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 856 ✭✭✭Carl Sagan


    Pookah wrote: »
    That should have read 'The Baroque Cycle'.

    I'm hoping to get that for my birthday. Can't get it in the library :(


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 8 borderline girl


    oki doki, here's my 'blew my mind' books

    non fiction - the power of now and a new earth, eckhart tolle, the infinite self, stuart wilde. great books :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 435 ✭✭Gordon Gekko


    The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Absolutely blew me away, left me feeling like I'd done 12 rounds with Mike Tyson. I always feel that I'm in the presence of true genius when I read Steinbeck.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,976 ✭✭✭profitius


    Law of attraction - Micheal Losier

    Its short and very straight forward but more importantly it worked for me. :)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 188 ✭✭Pablo_


    Bit disappointed that this is a 'whats my favourite book' thread .... and not mind blowing, really out there books that deserve such an adjective.

    Ps . i'm not trying to be a git with this post :D


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,879 ✭✭✭Coriolanus


    Pablo_ wrote: »
    Bit disappointed that this is a 'whats my favourite book' thread .... and not mind blowing, really out there books that deserve such an adjective.

    Ps . i'm not trying to be a git with this post :D
    You might look like like less of a git if you post your own suggestion. :P :pac:


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 148 ✭✭Pittybitty


    Life of Pi - Yann Martel
    The end of Mr. Y - Scarlett Thomas
    Room - Emma Donoghue
    The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
    The Gargoyle - Andrew Davidson
    Hellfire - Mia Gallagher
    Star of the Sea - Joseph O'Connor
    Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

    These are all fantastic books and very different from your usual run of the mill stories :)


  • Registered Users Posts: 850 ✭✭✭celticcrash


    Have to agree, Eckhart Tolle, The power of now.
    It can slice through all the bulls**t and get to the essence of who we truely are.


  • Registered Users Posts: 573 ✭✭✭rgt320q


    While not affecting my life in any direct, or immediately apparent, way, reading Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre and Marcus Aurelius' Meditations has had an effect on my way of thinking, particularly in how I view and perceive the external world. Both fantastic in their own ways, Nausea is one of those that I'd recommend getting your head completely into by reading in large bursts, or one sitting even if you have the time; whereas, with Meditations, I'd say take the time to just sit back and have a good think about things.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,775 ✭✭✭Fittle


    This book didn't change my life persay, but I couldn't put it down and sat up till 4am recently to finish it...One Day by David Nicholls. I just couldn't put it down...:)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,821 ✭✭✭18AD


    Tao Teh Ching by Lao Tzu
    Anything by Alan Watts. The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are.
    The Psychopath's Bible by Christopher Hyatt.
    Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson.
    The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot.
    Liber Null by Peter J. Carroll.
    Food of the Gods by Terrence McKenna.
    Anything by David Icke for the fun of it.

    Loads more. But especially these books blew my mind!

    Best.
    AD


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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,976 ✭✭✭profitius


    18AD wrote: »
    The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot.

    Brilliant book!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,791 ✭✭✭JJJJNR


    Ecstasy by Irvine Welsh blew the head off me.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,382 ✭✭✭Duffy the Vampire Slayer


    Above post reminded me of this book... E is for Ecstasy is a brilliant book on Ecstasy and its effects, its legality, and the culture surrounding it.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 564 ✭✭✭cue


    Awareness - Anthony de Mello, for cutting through all the crap we believe about ourselves.
    Tortilla Flats - John Steinbeck, hilarious account of a group of ne'er do well drinkers who inherit a house
    The Illuminatus Trilogy - Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea - a wild trip through every conspiracy you can imagine


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 746 ✭✭✭Starokan


    Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock is a great read.

    It uses evidence and powerful arguments to make you consider the possibility that there has been civilisations on earth as advanced or more advanced than we currently are.

    well worth checking this out


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7 Biker3


    The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell


  • Registered Users Posts: 15 Jackanackanory


    These were definitely life altering and, in some cases, mind blowing books for me:

    1) The Alchemist - Paolo Coelho
    2) The Holographic Universe - Michael Talbot
    3) The Divine Matrix - Gregg Braden
    4) You can heal your life - Louise L. Hay
    5) The Celestine Prophecy - James Redfield (although written in a slightly annoying fictitious style but don't let that put you off!)


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 152 ✭✭variety


    I read a book last year that blew my mind - one of those that you have no idea what's going on until the very last chapters, and then you just have to read it again immediately once you know what's going on and all the nuances in it are astonishing.

    Jasper Fforde: Shades of Grey

    I've since read all his books and he's fast becoming one of my favourite authors of all time. Mostly they're light-hearted fiction, and a great thing to fall back on when you've finished reading one of those epic 'enlightenment' and 'soul-bettering' reads that leave you pondering the purpose/value of everything.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 29 SecurityGuy


    The Age of Absurdity: Why Modern Life Makes It Hard to Be Happy by Michael Foley
    Light and profound at the same time.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,938 ✭✭✭mackg


    Stephen Hawking- A Brief History of Time. Really good book.

    Also anything by Haruki Murakami, strange stuff but really enjoyable. I will definitely read them all again.


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