best book you've read

[barnflatwyngarde]

"The Demon Haunted World" by Carl Sagan.

Very few books have the power to change the way you perceive the world, this one certainly does.

Sagan tilts against the windmills of ignorance and pseudoscience with a clear eye and devastating logic.

The following quote relating to claims of miracles at Lourdes sums up his approach admirably.

"The spontaneous remission rates of all cancers lumped together, is estimated to be one in ten thousand and one in a hundred thousand. If no more than 5% of those who come to Lourdes were there to treat their cancers, there should have been something between 50-100 "miraculous" cures of cancer alone. Since only 3 of the attested 65 cures are of cancer, the rate of spontaneous remission at Lourdes seems to be lower than if the victims had just stayed at home.
Of course if you are one of the 65 it is going to be be very hard to convince you that your trip to Lourdes wasn't the cause of the remission of your disease.
Post Hoc, ergo propter hoc>"

(The Demon-Haunted World. 1977, P/B Edition, Pge 221)

[Robert]

"Murder By Decree," a book which argues that Kelly et al were killed by a tribe of Native Americans.

[Mayerling]

I finally completed reading David Gibbs' biography on Ben Jonson (1989). Interesting account of a literary/stage career that shows (to me) the vagaries for writers seeking patronage from ruler and court in the late Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Carolingian periods. Well written too.

[GUT]

I finally completed reading David Gibbs' biography on Ben Jonson (1989). Interesting account of a literary/stage career that shows (to me) the vagaries for writers seeking patronage from ruler and court in the late Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Carolingian periods. Well written too.

What's the name of that one Jeff.

[Mayerling]

What's the name of that one Jeff.

G'day GUT,

First I have to apologize to everyone - I gave the wrong name for the book's author. I can only say I have been feeling poorly in my right leg and side all week, and my concentration wasn't as good as it should have been.

The author is (correctly), David RIGGS, and the book is "Ben Jonson: A Life" I have a trade paperback. The book's bibliographic citation would be (Cambridge, Mass., London, England: Harvard University Press, c. 1989). The date for this edition is not given, but should be from the last ten years I'd imagine (I bought it in a Barnes & Noble about two years back). It is well illustrated. It's ISBN # is 0 - 674 - 06626 - X. It has a large section of footnotes in the back, and an index. It is 399 pages long. The price on the back cover is $14.95.

Currently I am rereading a smaller but equally interesting book I first read in the 1980s, "Great Explorations Hoaxes" by David Roberts (Modern Library: Exploration - Jon Krakauer, senior editor) (New York: Modern Library, c. 1982, 2001), illustrated and updated, with Introduction by Jan Morris, and index (225 pages). It is a first rate book dealing with questionable exploration claims going back to Sebastian Cabot in the 16th Century, but including Father Hennepin (who claimed he found spots found by La Salle and other explorers, Captain Samuel Adams (who insisted on his achieving equal results to John Wesley Powell in exploring the Colorado River - he didn't), Dr. Frederick Cook and Commander Robert Peary and the North Pole issue, similarly Richard Byrd's claims that he flew to the Pole and back in 1926, and finally Donald Crowhurst's odd and ultimately tragic attempt to lie his way to winning a global solitary yachting prize in the 1969. There is also an account of one true explorer who was not believed: James "Abyssinia" Bruce, who was the first European to write of present day Ethiopia and the Blue Nile's source in the 18th Century - but was so honest in his account nobody would accept it as true! It's price was $14.95 in the U.S., and $22.95 in Canada. It's ISBN # is 0 - 679 - 78324 - 5.

Jeff

[GUT]

G'day GUT,

First I have to apologize to everyone - I gave the wrong name for the book's author. I can only say I have been feeling poorly in my right leg and side all week, and my concentration wasn't as good as it should have been.

The author is (correctly), David RIGGS, and the book is "Ben Jonson: A Life" I have a trade paperback. The book's bibliographic citation would be (Cambridge, Mass., London, England: Harvard University Press, c. 1989). The date for this edition is not given, but should be from the last ten years I'd imagine (I bought it in a Barnes & Noble about two years back). It is well illustrated. It's ISBN # is 0 - 674 - 06626 - X. It has a large section of footnotes in the back, and an index. It is 399 pages long. The price on the back cover is $14.95.

Currently I am rereading a smaller but equally interesting book I first read in the 1980s, "Great Explorations Hoaxes" by David Roberts (Modern Library: Exploration - Jon Krakauer, senior editor) (New York: Modern Library, c. 1982, 2001), illustrated and updated, with Introduction by Jan Morris, and index (225 pages). It is a first rate book dealing with questionable exploration claims going back to Sebastian Cabot in the 16th Century, but including Father Hennepin (who claimed he found spots found by La Salle and other explorers, Captain Samuel Adams (who insisted on his achieving equal results to John Wesley Powell in exploring the Colorado River - he didn't), Dr. Frederick Cook and Commander Robert Peary and the North Pole issue, similarly Richard Byrd's claims that he flew to the Pole and back in 1926, and finally Donald Crowhurst's odd and ultimately tragic attempt to lie his way to winning a global solitary yachting prize in the 1969. There is also an account of one true explorer who was not believed: James "Abyssinia" Bruce, who was the first European to write of present day Ethiopia and the Blue Nile's source in the 18th Century - but was so honest in his account nobody would accept it as true! It's price was $14.95 in the U.S., and $22.95 in Canada. It's ISBN # is 0 - 679 - 78324 - 5.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff.

My famly had dealings with Ben, [bought a property off him back when and then sold it back to hm at the same price when he was financial again].

[c.d.]

Not necessarily the best book I ever read but one that I really enjoyed and which was an absolutely remarkable (and true) story is "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah. It involved civil war in an African country (can't remember which one) in the 1980s. To make a long story short, Beah was a completely normal kid who by incredible circumstances was given an AK47 a few days after his 13th birthday and forced to become a soldier. He becomes a blood thirsty killer almost overnight before being rescued by the United Nations. An amazing story.

Also "The Floor of Heaven" by Howard Bloom. A true story about the Alaskan Gold Rush in the late 1890s. It is as they say a rip roaring yarn. Very entertaining but again not falling into the best book ever read category.

c.d.

[Rosemary]

Çest bonne, sha

Kermit Lynch Wine Pamplet July 2015

[alkuluku]

Just finished the Black Hole War by Leonard Susskind and have to add it's easily a top 5 book for me. Besides being extremely interesting science book, it's also really funny.

[Sam Flynn]

Oliver Twist is an enduring favourite; one of the few works of fiction to which I often return. I'm more of a non-fiction reader, in which category two "best books I've read" come to mind: Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett, and The Destruction of the European Jews by Raul Hilberg [unabridged 3-vol edition]. Both immensely moving works, but for very different reasons.

[jason_c]

Another Dickens here Pickwick Papers. Almost 200 years after publishing and it's still extremely funny.

An honorable mention to Jonathon Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.