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the most amazing book i have ever read; discuss and suggest your own "finds"
Topic Started: Jan 17 2010, 05:27 PM (300 Views)
supertrainer
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ok so normally i read fiction. usually horror, thriller or fantasy fiction. just recently i've decided to "spread my literary wings" a little and read books that i wouldn't have even given a second glance before. as a result i recently got a copy of The Time Machine by H.G.Wells which i am currently reading and Jas bought me War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy for Christmas which i will attempt to read soon. the purpose of this thread though isn't about any of the aforementioned books.

as a family we got a gift card for a local bookstore as a Christmas present. off we went and once in the store went our separate ways. i had my usual look down the fantasy fiction aisle but didn't spot anything that piqued my interest. then, totally out of character, i went down the biography aisle. these books generally look quite dour with a picture of the subject sat smiling out at you. but one in particular caught my eye. it had a relatively bright cover as it was green, and the picture was a child carrying a gun. i read the title without actually picking it up. i was curious but left it there to wander further down the aisle looking for something more "interesting". my mind kept wandering about this first book i spotted but i still kept looking elsewhere. eventually Jas and kiddo came back as they had picked theirs out but i was still looking. i even left that aisle and went down the history section but something brought me back. eventually i picked up this book and read the blurb on the back...my interest increased but i was worried and i shall explain why:

A Long Way Gone - Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. i was worried that it could be one of two things...an account that was glorifying war and killing, or something that was going to be "preachy" against war. i took a gamble and purchased the book and i am VERY glad that i did.

Ishmael was born and lived in Sierra Leone. the book is his true life account of his life as his country deteriorated into the most dreadful civil war. yes it is gruesome and difficult to read in places, but he doesn't tell it in a gloating way nor in a preachy way. he basically tells it how it was. he covers a lot about his thoughts and what he was feeling inside, how he was basically brainwashed into being a killer at 13 years old. he also goes into the rehabilitation process for him to re-enter a society although how he managed to do that after what he did, saw and lived through i don't know. the strength of that young man's character is amazing especially when, after his rehabilitation, he was once again almost sucked back into the life of a killer but he resisted the "easy path". he now lives in the USA ( Brooklyn NY )and is a member of the Human Rights Watch Children's Rights Division Advisory Committee and has also spoken before the United Nations and many other international bodies about how children are affected by war.

at this moment in my life, if i could recommend just one book to people that they should read then this would be it. be warned though, i'm no "wimp" and i'm not ashamed to admit that this book brought me to tears on more than one occasion.

Andy B-)
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feldo
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this has peaked my Interested and im not a big reader but
im going to see if i can order it online because i dont think i can get it in the netherlands
If you keep one eye on the past you are blind in one eye, But if you forget your past your blind in both eyes.
Do not live your life regretting, Live to regret nothing
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feldo
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ok i just orderd it after reading some review altough you gave me a pretty good review ^^
ill have it 5 to 7 days im looking forward to reading it and i will be posting my opinion about it here ^^
Edited by feldo, Jan 17 2010, 08:22 PM.
If you keep one eye on the past you are blind in one eye, But if you forget your past your blind in both eyes.
Do not live your life regretting, Live to regret nothing
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supertrainer
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wow!!!

i am very excited but also nervous that my suggestion for a book on an internet forum has actually resulted in someone buying it. i hope that once you read it you feel the same way about the book as i do and not that you wasted your money. incidentally, the first chapter is something of a shock to the system...i had to put it down and when describing it to Jas started crying. it's powerful stuff in that first chapter especially when you consider he was only 12 years old when those things happened.

maybe in about 6 months time, when ive finished reading the whole 1500+ pages of it lol, i'll give a review of War and Peace and see how many of you rush out to buy it hehehe. by the way, the 1500+ pages is a paperback and the font size in it is smaller than usual for a paperback!!!!

Andy B-)
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AzonicZeniths
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Co-Leader
The Republic - Plato
Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
The Mysterious Stranger - Mark Twain
and the His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman - Note: I was quite young when I read this
Edited by AzonicZeniths, Feb 18 2010, 11:14 PM.
Why are numbers beautiful? It's like asking why is Beethoven's Ninth Symphony beautiful. If you don't see why, someone can't tell you.

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volfan53
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Vagabond
Well my vote for the most amazing book I have ever read has to be the Bible. It changed my life forever. It has been an upward journey ever since.
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feldo
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the book has arrived and i will start reading it tonight ^^
If you keep one eye on the past you are blind in one eye, But if you forget your past your blind in both eyes.
Do not live your life regretting, Live to regret nothing
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feldo
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so i finished reading a long way gone
when i read the first chapters my mind could not grasp that this really happend
i was thinking that it must be fiction it was to horrible but after i started reading the first few chapters sunk in and i got mad at the world that these kind of things still happen

a long way gone has left an impression on me and i will never forgot what horrors are described in the book it is to insane that a 12 year old had to go trough such horrible things
my final conclusion is : it is a very good book but it is not for the faint of heart
If you keep one eye on the past you are blind in one eye, But if you forget your past your blind in both eyes.
Do not live your life regretting, Live to regret nothing
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volfan53
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Vagabond
Another very good book to read is "I Don't have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist" by Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek. Lots of scientific facts on why there has to have been a God to create the universe and also touches on some other subjects of biblical nature.

Very interesting read.
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Fergs
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The Way of Shadows
Shadow's Edge
Beyond the Shadows

are a trilogy by Brent Weeks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night_Angel_Trilogy

If you could imagine Assassin's Creed (the video game), mixed with fantasy, magic and some very descriptive, intelligent, suspenseful writing, you're almost there.

I was put on to these by a work colleague and i have to say i was sceptical at first, having never heard of either the trilogy or it's author. It was described to me as a book about assassin's, magic and the struggle to make it from an underprivileged start to life. I'm currently about a third into Shadow's Edge but im hooked! The page on Wikipedia is very detailed, explaining the main characters and objects in the story. All i can say is you really, really, need to get these books if fantasy is even remotely near your cup of tea.



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Waggery
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I had not read books in a very long time, but when I did it was Purge by Sofi Oksanen. I was shocked, horrified, disgusted, and I could not put the book down.

A synopsis of the book on Sofi's site: Sofi Oksanen: Books: Purge (2008)
Read the book, if you can 8)
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Jasmine
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I'm not usually one for reading books set in historical times, but I may consider adding this one to my ever growing list of books to read.
Yes, I'm a girl and I OGame. Gotta problem with it?! :P
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