 | Snow Crash. by Neal Stephenson
Buy used from: $18.15 First book I read by one of my favorite authors. Cyberpunk classic. Great introduction to the 21st century.
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 | Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Buy new: $8.99 / Used from: $0.75 Cool historical fiction/cyberpunk. The followup to the awesome Snow Crash.
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 | Without Remorse by Tom Clancy
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $0.01 See my review. If you enjoy Tom Clancy and Thomas Harris this is a good one.
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 | Out of the Silent Planet (Space Trilogy, Book One) by C.S. Lewis
Buy new: $9.36 / Used from: $2.85 This is a rare find for sci-fi buffs. C.S. Lewis in space, imagine that. Actually about a man named Ransom (yes, allegory abounds). The first two books, Out of The Silent Planet and Perelandra, are spectacular and should get the movie treatment like Narnia.
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 | Perelandra (Space Trilogy, Book 2) by C.S. Lewis
Buy new: $9.36 / Used from: $3.90 Sci-Fi meets God, or Satan to be more accurate. 2nd book of C.S. Lewis' space trilogy. Probably the best book of the trilogy.
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 | That Hideous Strength (Space Trilogy, Book 3) by C.S. Lewis
Buy new: $11.52 / Used from: $7.48 Last book in C.S. Lewis' space trilogy. Doesn't really seem connected very well to the first two books (nothing to do with space really - maybe some time travel if I recall), but it is the final book so no use leaving it out. Wasn't as fun as the other two and was a bit long-winded but might satisfy the academic, or fans of Merlin or older Harry Potter fans maybe.
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 | Survivor: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk
Buy new: $10.04 / Used from: $3.51 Fight Club introduced a generation to this author and this book satisfies the thirst for more of the wild imagination that brought it to us.
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 | Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk
Buy new: $10.04 / Used from: $4.08 Another good one by Chuck. Way out there with a very intriguing premise.
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 | The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
Buy used from: $0.01 Couldn't put it down.
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 | Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition (Dune Chronicles, Book 1) by Frank Herbert
Buy new: $11.56 / Used from: $4.46 Maybe my favorite sci-fi book ever. Quite relevant to today's world events actually. (Here's a clue: The spice = oil and/or heroin)
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 | Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
Buy new: $6.99 / Used from: $0.01 The first book I ever read. Such a tear-jerker of an ending. Not a bad first lesson for kids in personal finance either - save some coins, mail-order some coon-huntin' hounds, and enter some competitions.
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 | Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Buy new: $10.17 / Used from: $4.49 One of the best. Take your Soma like a good citizen. So scary how relevant this one has become. Prophecy fulfilled.
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 | Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
Buy new: $9.35 / Used from: $2.95 A high school favorite. Though a nuclear attack hasn't happened in the U.S., the scenarios seem all too real after some of the natural catastrophes the world has seen over the last few years.
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 | Of Mice and Men (Steinbeck Centennial Edition) by John Steinbeck
Buy new: $10.08 / Used from: $3.99 Duuh... whadda 'bout the rabbits George?! A look into a rough life.
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 | The Testament by John Grisham
Buy new: $10.20 / Used from: $1.82 First Grisham book I ever read. Easy read and a good morality tale. Greed isn't good. This is where Gordon Gekko would have wound up in life if he didn't go to prison. Still shows how some of the worst are worthy of mercy.
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 | Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Buy new: $9.32 / Used from: $0.60 Awesome story. Very heartbreaking though.
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 | Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
Buy new: $10.08 / Used from: $3.15 Blade Runner. Enough said.
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 | Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential by Joel Osteen
Buy new: $10.07 / Used from: $0.59 We all need some inspiration when life doesn't go the way we think it should. Here's a good one that provides some hopeful examples that there is a bigger reason we got that flat tire, didn't get that job, or missed that flight. Nothing's as it seems thankfully.
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 | Shogun by James Clavell
Buy new: $8.99 / Used from: $0.01 Excellent story about the clash of two very different cultures during an interesting period in history. If you liked The Last Samurai this will not disappoint you.
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 | The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
Buy new: $10.07 / Used from: $3.99 Stereotypical favorite from high school. Takes on a more sinister edge after seeing Jared Leto's movie Chapter 27 about the murder of John Lennon.
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 | Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1) by Neal Stephenson
Buy new: $10.87 / Used from: $0.11 Still working on this series of books, but plan on finishing all three. If you like any of Stephenson's other books, this is worth your time.
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 | Diary: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk
Buy new: $10.04 / Used from: $2.92 Every artist should read this one.
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 | Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War by Mark Bowden
Buy new: $7.99 / Used from: $0.01 Read this before the movie came out. Fascinating look into the life of American soldiers in action. Some of the best non-fiction I've read.
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 | Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
Buy new: $10.04 / Used from: $2.20 Pushing your limits for the sake of pushing your limits is not all it's cracked up to be. Sad account of an adventurous soul who gets in over his head in pursuit of absolute freedom and a connection to the wild. The movie of the same name does a good job of capturing the feel of this book too.
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 | The Political Zoo by Michael Savage
Buy new: $10.19 / Used from: $3.97 This was my first Savage book and it is quite humorous as it takes some jabs at the nonsense of a good cross-section of the outlandish political figures and celebrities of the day. Kind of like the bumper sticker I once saw said, 'If you're not upset, you're not paying attention.' Quite so.
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 | Star Wars: The Truce at Bakura by Kathy Tyers
Buy new: $6.99 / Used from: $0.01 Before this book I think I only read when I had to for classes, so I owe a lot to this book. There are a lot more fun reads after this for the fan of the Star Wars world, but I've since given up on keeping up. There's just too many and I've realized how much else is out there I need to read! But, if you're into it like I was, this is a great place to start for adventures beyond Return of the Jedi.
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 | Lord of the Flies (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) by William Golding
Buy new: $9.75 / Used from: $1.89 Most of us probably read this in school or will have to soon. Kind of like Survivor minus Jeff Probst. How quickly man (in this case children) can revert to savagery under stress and while isolated from civilization.
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 | The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Buy used from: $6.50 Some of the best reading you'll ever do here. Took me a while to get to it but got hooked with The Hobbit and the three Lord of the Rings books blew me away.
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