Books - Book Recommendations

[billyloner]

I'm guessing theres quite a few book-readers here, so would anyone like to recommend any good books for us? fiction or non.

I'll start off with "a rumor of war" by philip caputo, amazing book written by a us marine who was among the first marines to land in vietnam. details the descent from optimism and confidence. Very thought provoking, I recommend anyone with an interest in vietnam, the armed forces, or the effects of war to give it a go. Dead easy to read too, its written like a novel (the author got a degree in literature before joining the marines).

[korky8097]

well i enjoy leary, i really recomend high preist, its alot of his trip
reports, they link together like, we did this and this, then the next
chapter will be about the next time he did a drug, i really like it.

[drwoo]

"Forces of Habit: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Word" By David Courtwright. I am currently reading it. It is basically about how / why some psychoactive compounds both licit and illicit have become global commodities. he also talks about the ones which haven't become commodities. Here is a quick synopsis from amazon:

Historian Courtwright (Violent Land) ranges widely across more than four centuries and the world to chart the "psychoactive revolution" that made ever more potent drugs available to all classes of people and redefined the meaning and means of consciousness, and even social conscience. As pleasure came to matter more, drugs of all kinds found ready takers. Courtwright gathers up historical, scientific, literary, artistic, and public policy references on psychoactive substances, legal and illegal, to show how drug usage was as much an outgrowth of market forces as cultural habits. Drugs were commerce and currency and moved from geographically limited areas of cultivation to worldwide consumption, with ever more efficient means of production and supply driving down prices and thereby opening markets to the poorest. Efforts by governments over the past century to outlaw particular drugs, while regulating others, have proved uneven and erratic. Always intelligent and informed, witty and wise, Courtwright's book is the best way to get a fix on why getting drugs out of our systems would require more than abstinence; it would take another revolution in handling social and personal pain. An essential acquisition.DRandall M. Miller, Saint Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

[billyloner]

sound good. i was thinking of reading something by leary, ive heard hes meant to be good. and ive just got a job so i should have plenty of disposable income to spend on stuff like this.

[asystole]

There's a book called "Ecstacy: The Complete Guide - A Comprehensive Look at the Risks and Benefits of MDMA" edited by Julie Holland, M.D. and has contributions by many people, including an interview with Ann and Alexander Shulgin. It is an EXCELLENT book, and explains everything you could ever want to know about MDMA... and they explain it in a way that you actually understand and remember. They designed it for a totally lay person, so the beginning explains basic pharmokinetics, and that's something that can be applied to every drug out there.

[enquirewithin]

"Psychedelics Encyclopedia</span>" (3rd edition) by
Peter Satfford is very informative. It gives good readable histories of
LSD, Psilocybian mushrooms, short-acting tryptamines, MDMA and the
psychedelic amphetamines, cannabis, etc.


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...-/0914171518/q
id=1115464177/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/103-6696147-4135823?v=glanc
e&s=books&n=507846



Jonathan Ott's "Pharmacotheon</span>"
is am amazing compendium of information about drugs and their plant
sources. Ott's scholarship is very deep. Its out of print but avaibale
from second hand book dealers on the net.


Edited by: enquirewithin

[FryDay]

DMT: Spirit Molecule is enough to melt your face. Also I am reading Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, and if you are into that area I would suggest it.

[motorhead]

If you havent read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, you must. It was written in the thirties and i think it is amazingly prophetic for its time. We can now clone living things, 'feelies' remind me of virtual reality. Soma=Prozac???? .


Im old school in a way when it comes to literature. Anything by Ernest Hemmingway is awesome, especially For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms, and the short stories. John Steinbeck, Stephen Crane have some good stuff.


More modern stuff-Neuromancer by William Gibson, and anything by Kurt Vonnegut is really cool.

[Nicaine]

"Burn Down the Night" by Craig Kee Strete. It's drug/party fiction with an edge, seriously a fast & fun read. Long out of print, but there should still be copies around.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg.../-/0446370711/

The book is a fictional account of Jim Morrison (of the Doors) and this half-Indian friend he parties with. Damn if it ain't actually poetic and moving, very reminiscent of some of Morrison's poetry and lyrics. Strete's an excellent author. It's freakin' criminal that this book is out of print.

Rumor has it this book may be posted a chapter per week on the Web, one of my friends OCR'd/typed the whole damn thing in from scratch since it's OOP and getting rare. I'll keep the forum updated.Edited by: Nicaine

[transit]

<i style="">The
Illuminatus Trilogy</span>[/i] by Robert Anton Wilson and
Robert Shea – A wonderful conspiracy fantasy sci-fi novel with lots of
marajuana, lsd, and sex.</span>


Also by Robert Anton Wilson – <i style="">Cosmic Trigger – [/i]nonfiction
autobiographical, very much including his explorations with marijuana and lsd. </span>Lots of useful angles on ‘reality.’</span>


To give you a flavour of him, here is a link
to an article he wrote on the 60^th anniversary of Albert Hoffman’s
discovery of lsd, entitled <i style="">LSD, Dogs and
Me[/i] – http://www.deepleafproductions.com/w...ry/texts/raw-L SDogs.html
</span>

[daeron]

Cyberia by D.Rushkoff-great documentary like book-everything about us as a community from the computers to the DMT and smart drugs.You can find it here: hxxp://project.cyberpunk.ru/lib/(fill the x`s with t`s,so that no one can trace you back to this site,ok im paranoid so what?)


on the same site there are cult cyberpunk classics like neuromanser,one of the best books i had the pleasure of reading.

[Creeping Death]

I'm reading The hitchikers guide to the galaxy and One fled the cuckoos nest now. Both are really great books.

[uqlfy]

Diary of a Drug Fiend by Aleister Crowley is a very good read.
Also Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King
is pretty cool.

The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker is another Id recomend.

[billyloner]

Originally Posted by uqlfy

The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King

bought book 6 a couple of weeks ago! gotta get round to reading it though...

Originally Posted by motorhead

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

and that is in my amazon shopping basket! along with 'island' too.


looks like theres plenty for me to check out anyway, cheers and thanks for that link daeron!

[enquirewithin]

Originally Posted by transit

<i style="">The
Illuminatus Trilogy</span>[/i] by Robert Anton Wilson and
Robert Shea � A wonderful conspiracy fantasy sci-fi novel with lots of
marajuana, lsd, and sex.</span>


Also by Robert Anton Wilson � <i style="">Cosmic Trigger � [/i]nonfiction
autobiographical, very much including his explorations with marijuana and lsd. </span>Lots of useful angles on �reality.�</span>


To give you a flavour of him, here is a link
to an article he wrote on the 60^th anniversary of Albert Hoffman�s
discovery of lsd, entitled <i style="">LSD, Dogs and
Me[/i] � http://www.deepleafproductions.com/w...ry/texts/raw-L SDogs.html
</span>

-I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions.

</span></font>



These are excellent books. They really challenge your belief systems (BS) in a very amusing and even painful way.



Others books by RAW which are well worth reading are:



The Schrodingers Cat</span> Trilogy which concentrates on quantum mechanics in the from of fiction.



Cosmic Trigger </span>II and III
which do talk about marijuana and LSD amonst other interesting topics,
like Leary, Crowley, Orson Welles, Joyce, Pound, E-prime and more.



His book Sex, Drugs and Magick</span>,
whilst interesting to RAW fans, is surprisingly poorly informed about
drugs (he doesn't appear to have read PHIKAL). It was his second book
and not much revised for the new edition.

[uqlfy]

Originally Posted by billyloner

bought book 6 a couple of weeks ago! gotta get round to reading it though...

and that is in my amazon shopping basket! along with 'island' too.


looks like theres plenty for me to check out anyway, cheers and thanks for that link daeron!

If your gonna read the Dark Tower Series, stop reading book 6 or dont
start it yet. At least read books one(The Gunslinger) and two(The
Drawing of Three) first.Other wise you'll be confused and not really
enjoy it. As you read through the books youll notice ,if your an avid
king fan, that hes tied in almost every other story hes written into
this series. It really fits the defintion of Magnum Opus.

[daeron]

King is a great author,and the more books you read you see that he inserts some little info about his other works,so you get this sorta world of stephen king...





one thing though,have you noticed that he often gets way...how to say...err graphic when he describes some sex-related scenes,i dontwant to use the word pedophilia but it does popup in my mind when i read some of his books..

[uqlfy]

Originally Posted by daeron

King is a great author,and the more books you read
you see that he inserts some little info about his other works,so you
get this sorta world of stephen king...

<>one thing though,have you noticed that he often gets way...how to
say...err graphic when he describes some sex-related scenes,i
dontwant to use the word pedophilia but it does popup in my
mind when i read some of his books..</>

Yeah maybe a bit. But then Nabukov is widely considered to be great
literature when I found it smutty. And with some of his books the
characters are teens and preteens. I think it unfair to characterize
some content as pedo, when an author is trying to establish character.
I mean whos gonna relate to a teenage boy who isnt sexual

in some way?

As always obscene is in the eye of the beholder. Now for truly racy
authors try Robert Heinlien. Stranger in a Strange Land or maybe To
Sail Beyond the Sunset. These are full of incest, pedophilic content
and alternative lifestyles. Yet these are great books. Now if they were
illustrated theyd be restricted from minors, but any minor can go
into the library and check one out. Any thoughts on that?

[daeron]

absolutely,its all in the eye of the beholder.IMHO i think that past the age of 13-15 anyone should read what they would like to.


btw i rather like literature with smut elements,as long they serve the purpoce of bringing you closer to the story.im not a moral majority type of person,but when i read books with too much slutty shit,it just bores me;it looks to me like the author wanted public attention.


now what i enjoy the most about king is his way of narration,i can open any of his books at a random page and just enjoy the ride..but sometimes his outbursts of ..well i wouldnt call it slutty,but just weird writting confuses me.Its now the thing that is written its the way it is written that lead me to that pseudo-pedo conclusion...remember that scene from the book "It"?and im wouldnt call it pedophilia,cos it isnt but it made me feel a bit weird since i believe that good writers such as king often project personal ideas,thoughts,etc through their writing.after all thats is what makes their works so good.

[MrJim]

The Quiet American - by Grahame Greene - An opium addled british reporter has his vietnamese girlfriend taken form him by an idealistic younger American. Great story about war and drugs and people in the middle of it.


Cannabis - A History - Martin Booth - A true historian tells the true history of the weed in a very neutral way. Anyone who wants to know the real Mary Jane.





There; I put in my two cents - Peace.

[uqlfy]

Yes Daeron I do believe I know one of parts in "IT" your
talking about. Was it the one in the sewer or was it in the gravelpit
with the two boys?



I agree that after 13 or so people should allow free access to books to
their kids. I am a product of just such an enviroment. I only wish that
my parents had maybe read some of those books themselves and presented
some guidance. Some of the ideas and topics presented can be a bit much
to place in a proper context with an adolescent mentality.



I once heard that any real art should make you eithier bleed or cum.

That for me is kinda my definition of a good book. It can make you
happy or it can make you cry but it sure as hell better make you feel
something.

[jrock0069]

My favorite book is called "fire". I read it years ago when I was locked up but, I didn't think to memorize the authors name. It's pretty much about the apocalyps. A chemist discovers a chemical that brings the dead back to life and keeps them alive. It has the beast from revelations. It's an awsome book and I would recommend it to anybody, but unfortunately I can't find it anywhere and since I don't know the authors name, I guess I'm just s-o-l.


Has anyone else read this book?

[daeron]

yeah i was talking about the sewer scene.


ive grew up in a environment where you could read/watch/and drink whatever you want&whenever you want.And i must say that im thankful for the support of my parents,they have introduced me into the world of self-education.....but although they would gladly buy me a book about hard drug using,or whatever they never suspected that i do drugs,and i guess im toolate to confess now


@jrock0069-could you find the authors name,it sounds interesting

[jrock0069]

I've checked tons of book stores and searched on ebay and amazon but, I have had no luck. Since I only know the title, it makes it a lot harder to find it. When I type it in I just get lots of pages to scroll through.

[uqlfy]

At the risk of sounding pop culture ish with the movies out and
all but how about "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Or any of Terry
Brooks work. I sometimes enjoy a good escape as opposed to something
that makes me have to think.