MEMBER & GUEST INTERACTION SECTION > BOOKS and AUDIOBOOKS

Since there is now a book category

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bigbearomaha:
I would like to ask of peoples favorite book.

At this point,  I would say it is the "Complete Collection of Edgar Allen Poe stories and Poems"

in particular, my favorite poem from it being "Ulalume": (If you check around the internet, you might be able to find an mp3 copy of this poem as hauntingly read by Jeff Buckley)


--- Quote ---The skies they were ashen and sober;
The leaves they were crisped and sere -
The leaves they were withering and sere;
It was night in the lonesome October
Of my most immemorial year:
It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,
In the misty mid region of Weir -
It was down by the dank tarn of Auber,
In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

Here once, through and alley Titanic,
Of cypress, I roamed with my Soul -
Of cypress, with Psyche, my Soul.
These were days when my heart was volcanic
As the scoriac rivers that roll -
As the lavas that restlessly roll
Their sulphurous currents down Yaanek
In the ultimate climes of the pole -
That groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek
In the realms of the boreal pole.

Our talk had been serious and sober,
But our thoughts they were palsied and sere -
Our memories were treacherous and sere, -
For we knew not the month was October,
And we marked not the night of the year
(Ah, night of all nights in the year!) -
We noted not the dim lake of Auber
(Though once we had journeyed down here) -
Remembered not the dank tarn of Auber,
Nor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

And now, as the night was senescent
And star-dials pointed to morn -
As the star-dials hinted of morn -
At the end of our path a liquescent
And nebulous lustre was born,
Out of which a miraculous crescent
Arose with a duplicate horn -
Astarte's bediamonded crescent
Distinct with its duplicate horn.

And I said: "She is warmer than Dian;
She rolls through an ether of sighs -
She revels in a region of sighs:
She has seen that the tears are not dry on
These cheeks, where the worm never dies,
And has come past the stars of the Lion
To point us the path to the skies -
To the Lethean peace of the skies -
Come up, in despite of the Lion,
To shine on us with her bright eyes -
Come up through the lair of the Lion,
With love in her luminous eyes."

But Psyche, uplifting her finger,
Said: "Sadly this star I mistrust -
Her pallor I strangely mistrust:
Ah, hasten! -ah, let us not linger!
Ah, fly! -let us fly! -for we must."
In terror she spoke, letting sink her
Wings until they trailed in the dust -
In agony sobbed, letting sink her
Plumes till they trailed in the dust -
Till they sorrowfully trailed in the dust.

I replied: "This is nothing but dreaming:
Let us on by this tremulous light!
Let us bathe in this crystalline light!
Its Sybilic splendour is beaming
With Hope and in Beauty tonight! -
See! -it flickers up the sky through the night!
Ah, we safely may trust to its gleaming,
And be sure it will lead us aright -
We safely may trust to a gleaming,
That cannot but guide us aright,
Since it flickers up to Heaven through the night."

Thus I pacified Psyche and kissed her,
And tempted her out of her gloom -
And conquered her scruples and gloom;
And we passed to the end of the vista,
But were stopped by the door of a tomb -
By the door of a legended tomb;
And I said: "What is written, sweet sister,
On the door of this legended tomb?"
She replied: "Ulalume -Ulalume -
'Tis the vault of thy lost Ulalume!"

Then my heart it grew ashen and sober
As the leaves that were crisped and sere -
As the leaves that were withering and sere;
And I cried: "It was surely October
On this very night of last year
That I journeyed -I journeyed down here! -
That I brought a dread burden down here -
On this night of all nights in the year,
Ah, what demon hath tempted me here?
Well I know, now, this dim lake of Auber -
This misty mid region of Weir -
Well I know, now, this dank tarn of Auber,
This ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir."
--- End quote ---

tecumseh:
oh the list would be seriously long...

various categories of favorite would be necessary..

as far as serious books that have changed how I look at the world three come to mind..

'you shall be as god'  (Alan Watts I think)
Betrand Russell 'A History of Western Philisophy'
and Eric Hoffer's 'The True Believer' (as well as just about anything else he wrote).

Kathyp:
this is as hard as your horror movie question.  i couldn't answer that one because there are so many i love.  the more B the better.  book are the same (except the B part).  i read constantly and there are so many that i have loved over the years. 

bigbearomaha:
I know, it's hard for me too kathy.  That's why  I am more prone to discuss what is standing out to my attention at a given point in time for me.  There is so much to choose from after you have read so many.  

That's also why I like to ask these questions.  To get people to really think about what strikes them.

I also happen to be a huge fan of the "Sword Of Truth" books by Terry Goodkind

One of my all time  favorite technical books is "Linux Street Smarts" by Roderick W Smith.  "Linux Server Cookbook" by Carla Schroeder is one of my newest favorites.

in terms of beekeeping, "Beekeeping For All" by Abbe Warre and "Advanced Bee Culture" by W.Z. Hutchinson are in my top favorites as well.

a Lee Martinez has numerous books in recent history that  I find all of them to be about equal in terms of favorites"In The Company of Ogres" and "Monster" coming to mind first.

yes, it is very hard to pick and choose.

Big Bear

Kathyp:

--- Quote ---I also happen to be a huge fan of the "Sword Of Truth" books by Terry Goodkind
--- End quote ---

me too.  also, Wheel Of Time series.  i was so disappointed that Robert Jordan died before finishing the last book.  guess his son is going to take a crack at it because the outline and much of the story was done before Jordan died.  also a movie in the works for next year.

i also like history.  when i start on a subject i like to start with stuff that was written at the time of the events and move forward to current writings.  it's amazing how perceptions change over time....and how the basic story can get screwed up over time.

right now i'm doing Shackleton's South not to far into it, but it's interesting.

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