I finished the trilogy a while back but never went passed that.

The plot keeps getting bigger, the story keeps getting even more interesting.

I'm just amazed.

This *last* book had a really, really fascinating, cool, bizarre idea as it's climax, one I had not read anywhere else. Asimov is *such* a deep thinker. And now, the next one promises even *deeper* mysteries than the last one!

Each one builds on the last, so far.

Gosh, listen to me gush. How silly am I? But I'm hooked. I'll read thru till the end of the 1,000 years. Then I *have* to go back and read some of the other stories that relate to this last book . . .

I haven't done a lot of reading that wasn't assigned in a long time, but here's a few:

Siddhartha Guatama
The Life and Times of Michael K
The Things They Carried
Walden
For Whom the Bell Tolls, no surprise given my sig
The Black Swan
A Grain of Wheat
Our Word is Our Weapon, though I stopped reading a long time ago, it's a beautiful book
1984, interesting book, always keeping the libertarian in me awake
Oh yeah, Language in Action was pretty good, as far as influencing how one thinks and speaks

When I'm finally done with school I really want to dive into spiritual texts, like the Quran and Bible and Upanishads and so forth. And to finally finish Don Quixote.

__________________
No man is an island...
Each man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in Mankind.
And therefore, never send to know
For whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
—John Donne

I forgot about 1984. That made quite an impact on me.

On Bullshit

It's borderline one of the best, but it was so unique that I had to include it.

__________________
No man is an island...
Each man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in Mankind.
And therefore, never send to know
For whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.
—John Donne

Dune
Enders game
hyperion
earth abides
ring world
just about anything by Silverburg

__________________
The bush administration and bank lobbyists proudly killing our economic system - 2003.

I love some of Card's work, and I tried to get into the whole Ender's series, but just couldn't.

But Simmons and Hyperion? Awwww yeeeaaahhhh.....

I don't seem to have responded.

in no particular order

Steinneck
Twain
Hemingway
Vonnegut
MIlton
Shakespere
Homer
Chaucer
Agatha Christie (maybe ot great but how did she manage thei year after year ?)
Obviously there are many otrhers.

__________________
Socialism doesn't create a rising tide that lifts all boats. It drains the lake and teaches the boat riders not to help themselves by rowing.

Jesus loves you, allah wants you dead

"Every government interference in the economy consists of giving an unearned benefit, extorted by force, to some men at the expense of others."

Ayn Rand

I couldn't get past Speaker for the Dead. It was painfull lol and nothing like the first one. I have a hard time reading series books back to back because when I finish one book Im ready for something totally new.

__________________
The bush administration and bank lobbyists proudly killing our economic system - 2003.

"Best" as a singular choice is too hard because there are so many books I have found fascinating. I'll list the top few percent of what I've read.

Science books:
---------------
I read Opus 200 by Asimov where he covered some of his work in 'Asimov on Numbers', and found it absolutely fascinating.

Stephen Hawking's Brief history of time is good.

The Dancing Wu Li masters is also quite good, it puts what Einstein did into historical context to make you appreciate his brilliance, but in complete layman's terms.

Feynman's QED book is excellent. I find anything written by Feynman to be fascinating - 'Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman' is also excellent)


As far as fiction (there's a lot here, but I used to read sci-fi profusely, I've probably read at least 500 sci-fi/fantasy books):
----------------
Many of the ones other people have mentioned including Foundation, Dune, 1984.

Lots of work by Heinlein, Have Spacesuit Will Travel was one I remember a lot.

Ringworld, ringworld engineers by Niven.

Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks (a complete ripoff of Tolkien but at the time I had never read Tolkien.)

The Well of Souls series by Jack L. Chalker.

Tintin series of cartoon/books by Herge

Lord of the Rings



Other / non-fiction
-----------------
Freakanomics by Levitt and Dubner.
The Great Brain books (kid oriented - great for 8-15 year olds)

I agree with many books that have already been posted Like Graham Greene, Twain, for whom the bell tolls, on the road. Some books that have stayed with me over the years that haven't been mentioned yet.
"The Omnivore's Dilemna" by Michael Pollan - industrial food and its consequences
"A Distant Mirror" by barbara Tuchman - history of the 1300s
"The Discoverers" by Daniel Boorstin - history of human (mostly western) scientific and naturalisic discovery
"Naked Lunch" by William Burroughs - stream of conciousness novel about addiction
"Dubliners" by James Joyce - short story collection
"Battle Cry of Freedom" by James McPherson - best history of civil war ever IMO
"Memoires" by Ulysses Grant - Explains civil war from the perspective of a professional soldier - breaks battles down to who got to the strategic point first with the most and how - a unique history and very readable
"Guns Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond - history of western counquest
"Who will Tell the People" by William Greider - an examination of who owns our government
"Goedel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstatter - Artificial Intelligence and self referencing loops
"The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair - Novel about chicago meatpacking workers
"Blood Meridian" by Cormac McCarthy - novel about a band of bounty hunters in pre civil war us/mexico.

__________________
The most important political office is that of the private citizen.
Justice Louis D Brandeis

Reread Animal Farm before I went to bed last night. Great book.

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
1984 - George Orwell
The Long Walk - Richard Bachman
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
Johnny got his Gun - Dalton Trumbo
Macbeth - William Shakespeare
Last Day of Creation - Wolfgang Jeschke
The Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music - Stephen Fry
Awakenings - Oliver Sacks
Moby Dick - Hermann Melville
The Nuremberg Trials - Telford Taylor
The City of Dreaming Books - Walter Moers
13 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear - Walter Moers
Rumo and his Miraculous Adventures - Walter Moers
The Alchemaster's Apprentice - Walter Moers

Oh hell, I could go on forever. I probably forgot at least half of my favourite books.

__________________
"People try nonviolence for a week and when it doesn't work they go back to violence which hasn't worked for centuries"
Theodore Roszak