Need a few ideas on books to read (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: 9/24/2026 8:45:39 PM EDT
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Looking to distract my mind. Looking for I guess some historical novels the last couple of weeks I read "The Godfather" then "Shogun". I've read the Hornblower books any number of times. Scifi and post apocalyptic stuff is not for me. I used to read bunch of non fiction history - but now I'm looking for distraction. Thanks for the suggestions! |
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Originally Posted By slowitdown: East of Eden Winds of War/War and Remembrance All Quiet on the Western Front The Stand The Lord of the Rings A short list of what I have read recently and enjoyed. Everyone likes different things I know, but hope it helps. What would you recommend to others? The only other fiction books I've read over the past 20 years other than Hornblower - is Harry Potter! I've really enjoyed Ben Rich's Skunk Works and all the stuff about the Blackbird. Reada bunch about Mercury through Apollo. Really trying to branch out into fiction more! Other than the above it has all been technical manuals on computer stuff. Thanks for the suggestions already given! |
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Check out the books subforum, specifically what are you reading now? Also, look in the outdoor forum, I believe it’s subforum is titled survival or some other type fiction. You’ll know it when you see it. There are several authors here on this website. That subforum is titled essential survival guides and fiction. |
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Since you read Shogun, maybe this?: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musashi_ I read it as a kid and remember loving it. There’s a new three volume translation out now. ETA—huh, it’s linking the wrong wiki page, but it should be the Eji Yoshikawa novel. |
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Originally Posted By 1245xx: Check out the books subforum, specifically what are you reading now? Also, look in the outdoor forum, I believe it’s subforum is titled survival or some other type fiction. You’ll know it when you see it. There are several authors here on this website. That subforum is titled essential survival guides and fiction. Aw heck! Did not remember we had that! |
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Originally Posted By vtmarine: Bernard Cornwell. Yes, if you liked Hornblower, read Cornwell’s Sharpe series. Last of the Breed also excellent. Not really a western, but still L’Amour. As is Chesapeake-several good Micheners. No Tom Clancy? I was just re-reading the Jack Ryan’s in order. Shogun great, but I liked it far better than others in the Asian Saga. Game of Thrones. Great reads, but by the end you’ll be pissed like the rest of us. ETA: Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield. |
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Originally Posted By slowitdown: East of Eden Winds of War/War and Remembrance All Quiet on the Western Front The Stand The Lord of the Rings A short list of what I have read recently and enjoyed. Everyone likes different things I know, but hope it helps. What would you recommend to others? The stand is a powerful book. The movie didn’t carry that I strongly support reading it. |
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Originally Posted By dogsbody: The stand is a powerful book. The movie didn’t carry that I strongly support reading it. Originally Posted By dogsbody: Originally Posted By slowitdown: East of Eden Winds of War/War and Remembrance All Quiet on the Western Front The Stand The Lord of the Rings A short list of what I have read recently and enjoyed. Everyone likes different things I know, but hope it helps. What would you recommend to others? The stand is a powerful book. The movie didn’t carry that I strongly support reading it. I’d argue the only good movies of Stephen King writing was Shawshank and Stand by Me. Both novellas in Different seasons. Maybe misery. Books just better usually, especially with him. |
| You cant go wrong with the Aubrey series by Patrick O'Brien |
Some people think I'm over-prepared, paranoid, maybe even a little crazy. But they never met any Precambrian lifeforms, did they.
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Peter Santanello has a very interesting YouTube channel about traveling America and acting as an independent journalist, and I saw his brand new book in the library today and had to bring it home. Haven't read it yet, but it should be pretty good, easy reading. |
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London by Edward Rutherfurd. It's really good, goes from before Ceasar landed through all English history to modern times through three/four families that sometimes, through time, bump into eachother and interact. Fantastic historical fiction... the author has done several other famous and ancient cities and some not so ancient. |
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Originally Posted By nh11b: I’d argue the only good movies of Stephen King writing was Shawshank and Stand by Me. Both novellas in Different seasons. Maybe misery. Books just better usually, especially with him. Originally Posted By nh11b: Originally Posted By dogsbody: Originally Posted By slowitdown: East of Eden Winds of War/War and Remembrance All Quiet on the Western Front The Stand The Lord of the Rings A short list of what I have read recently and enjoyed. Everyone likes different things I know, but hope it helps. What would you recommend to others? The stand is a powerful book. The movie didn’t carry that I strongly support reading it. I’d argue the only good movies of Stephen King writing was Shawshank and Stand by Me. Both novellas in Different seasons. Maybe misery. Books just better usually, especially with him. Surely you just |
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The Honor Harrington series (David Weber) or the Lt. Leary series (David Drake). Both are sci-fi, but are an homage to Hornblower. Great space operas. The first Honor Harrington book is On Basilisk Station by David Weber. The first Lt. Leary book is With the Lightnings by David Drake. The Expanse books are also great space adventure but a little more hard sci-fi. |
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Originally Posted By wormgod: You cant go wrong with the Aubrey series by Patrick O'Brien This is hands-down my favorite masterwork of fiction. If you've never read it, I envy you. I try to keep 2-3 years between readings just to keep it fresh but I seem to pick up something new each time. If you've read the Hornblower books, try the Bolitho naval adventure series by Alexander Kent. Very similar and slightly better than Hornblower. Plenty of books in that one too. |
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Dungeon crawler carl. I was suckered into this series by a similar thread I made a while back. I can't even describe the book or series adequately, but it's the most fun I've had reading in a long time. I also highly recommend our very own RikWriter who has created some really epic Sci-fi space opera. I read just about his entire catalog this year. 
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DeltaV and Critical Mass, by Daniel Suarez: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2DKVXR6?binding=kindle_edition&searchxofy=true&ref_=dbs_s_aps_series_rwt_tkin&qid=1790315805&sr=8-1 Also by Suarez, Daemon and FreedomTM, which is very timely for it's discussion of AI and Augmented Reality: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074CDHK46?tag=arfcom00-20 |
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Originally Posted By digitalebola: Looking to distract my mind. Looking for I guess some historical novels the last couple of weeks I read "The Godfather" then "Shogun". I've read the Hornblower books any number of times. Scifi and post apocalyptic stuff is not for me. I used to read bunch of non fiction history - but now I'm looking for distraction. Thanks for the suggestions! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Company The White Company is a historical adventure novel by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle, set during the Hundred Years' War.[1] The story is set in England, France and Spain, in the years 1366 and 1367, against the background of the campaign of Edward the Black Prince, to restore Peter of Castile to the throne of the Kingdom of Castile. The climax of the book occurs before the Battle of Nájera. Doyle became inspired to write the novel after attending a lecture on the Middle Ages in 1889. After extensive research, The White Company was published in serialised form in 1891 in The Cornhill Magazine. Additionally, the book is considered a companion to Doyle's 1905–06 Sir Nigel, which explores the early campaigns of Sir Nigel Loring and Samkin Aylward. The novel is relatively unknown today, though it was very popular up through the Second World War. In fact, Doyle himself regarded this and his other historical novels more highly than the Sherlock Holmes adventures for which he is mainly remembered. This used to be one of my favorite reads. Thanks for posting op. Now I'm not going to be content until I read it again.  |
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Read the The d'Artagnan Romances: The Three Musketeers, Twenty Years After and The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later and The Man in the Iron Mask. Several thousand pages will keep you occupied for a while All the major characters are based on real people. But sort of like Stormin Norman leading Davy Crockett, Alvin York and John Wayne on a secret mission to kill Hittler. Still rollicking good reading. |
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Originally Posted By wormgod: You cant go wrong with the Aubrey series by Patrick O'Brien Absolutely. The series Master and Commander was taken from. And from the historical side, Jack Aubrey is based (loosely) on Thomas Cochrane, and the chap who did some things so wildly impossible the folks who made the movie had to change it up a bit because they figured viewers wouldn't believe the real story. If memory serves, in the movie Aubrey takes a 28 gun frigate with about 200 men against a French 44 gun ship with 3-400 men aboard and wins, capturing the French ship. In reality Commander Cochrane took a 14 gun sloop with 54 men against a Spanish frigate of 32 guns and 320 men, and captured it. During the final action Cochrane called out in Spanish to his ship (then manned by exactly 1 man, the ship's surgeon) "send another 50 men over!" while pulling down the Spanish Ensign, causing the Spanish to surrender. |
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"Yes, Minister" is required viewing. Seriously, watch it. Along with "Yes, Prime Minister." They are not fiction.
"Yes, Minister" is required viewing. Seriously, watch it. Along with "Yes, Prime Minister." They are not fiction.
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Shibumi by trevanian If you like the sort of stories that come out of the 1970s, trevanian is one of the best authors. Clint Eastwood made some movies out of his books like _the eiger sanction_ and _the loo sanction_ but Shibumi is by far his best work. One of the characters in the book is memorable for colorful blasphemous swearing, often swearing by the stony balls of Peter, or the four balls of Joseph Mary and Jesus, or the vaporous balls of the Holy Ghost, etc etc. Most of his main chars are exceptionally competent in dozens of areas, from rappelling and spelunking and speaking 5 languages and marksmanship, politics, theology, martial arts, science etc etc. very 1970s |
Need a few ideas on books to read (Page 1 of 2)
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