tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2611246600506031692.post493732404163417912..comments2020-09-25T17:27:01.868-07:00Comments on Denzil Pugh's blog: Thoughts of a BooksellerDenzil Pughhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17545765853762072166noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2611246600506031692.post-42880639392685043082013-04-02T07:29:34.247-07:002013-04-02T07:29:34.247-07:00Excellent Non-Fiction books I would heartily recom...Excellent Non-Fiction books I would heartily recommend... <br /><br />Dove by Robin Lee Graham: An account of the author's sailing around the world, to find adventure, love, and God.<br /><br />The Architecture of Happiness by Alain De Boton. A soothing and informative account of modern architecture and how it effects our emotions. <br /><br />The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman: A history of telecommunications and how it effects the world's economy. Sometimes he lets his liberal point of view come out, but usually is a balanced and brilliant look at how fiber-optic lines, Indian Call centers, and the Internet has made the world a much smaller place.<br /><br />I always recommend anything by Neil Postman, an essayist who deals with how we communicate, how we think, and how technology has changed all that. <br /><br />If you can find them in used bookstores, pick up any of the many science collections by Isaac Asimov. Wonderful depictions of science in layman's terms.<br /><br />Speaking of adventure, pick up David Grann's The Lost City of Z. It's an account of Col. Fawcett's trip in the early 1900's into the depths of the Amazon to find a lost civilization. One of the last explorers to go where no man had gone before. <br /><br />For something really challenging, get the Audiobook (cause if you get the actual book, you'll not make it) of Brian Greene's The Elegant Universe. Quantum Physics, String Theory, and folding universes, all in a manner that anyone can understand. The Nova Special he did with his book is also very good. <br /><br />And for those who hate the dreaded misused apostrophe, Lynn Truss' Eats Shoots & Leaves is amazing, along with her treatise on manners, Talk to the Hand. <br /><br />Course, you can't go wrong with Thoreau's Walden or looking through and of Jung's psychology works (I've got a compendium of his best writings, The Jung Reader). <br /><br />Finally, there's those books that are non-fiction wrapped in a fictional framework. Gaardner's Sophie's World is a study of philosophers from Antiquity to Modern day, which is great if you can get past the framework of a young girl sneaking off to have philosophical discussions with an old man. My favorite (and I have an extra copy if you want to borrow it) is Neal Stephenson's Anathem. Take Plato, put him in a science-fiction parallel universe, add some aliens, and you never want the conversations to end, as long as the plot stays in the background. Also, look for Daniel Quinn's Ishmael, a way of looking at the world through the teachings of a talking Gorilla. All these books sound strange, even insulting, but they are all enthralling reads, with the last two being in my top favorite books. Denzil Pughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17545765853762072166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2611246600506031692.post-69487550887616839492013-04-01T17:10:29.208-07:002013-04-01T17:10:29.208-07:00Hey Denzil!
I love to read but I dislike reading r...Hey Denzil!<br />I love to read but I dislike reading reviews of books. I want to find out about the book for myself!<br />My joke is that I just want to tell people, "Here is a good book, READ IT!" without giving any information away about the book!<br />My husband got an advanced reading copy of the book "Frozen In Time" by Mitchell Zuckoff and it was excellent! Don't read any reviews of it, it will spoil the surprise of it!<br />(I TRULY only like to read non-fiction books. Tell me your favorite non-fiction, if you have any!)Kay G.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07228498846814735537noreply@blogger.com