Happy Atheist Forum

I am currently near the end of the God Delusion and need to read something else when finished. I am interested in your favorites/ suggestions for reading anything from topics on atheism to science fiction novels to Physics......anything you loved reading. Just leave out the books promoting God...I have read too many

I like Ishmael and The Story of B.  They are are part of a 3 part series, the last being My Ishmael (which was good but not my favorite of the 3).  They are basically a criticism of the current state of society and the environment and prompt the reader to decide on his or her own what the solution should be.  Basically, the author, Daniel Quinn http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Quinn, really likes the Socratic method.

If you just want to read one, both Ishamel and The Story of B can be read without reading the other.  My Ishmael doesn't make as much sense if you haven't read Ishmael.

Oh, but there are so many...

However, Erich Fromm is the first brilliant (and atheist) genius that comes to my mind. Read Escape From Freedom, if you ever get the chance. Fromm tells how once man gains freedom he doesn't know what to do with it, and consequently ends up giving it away somehow, whether it be to society or whathaveyou. Very profound stuff...

Ooo, check out The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster by Bobby Henderson or I Am America (and You Can, Too!) by Stephen Colbert.

Some of my other favorites, which are totally unrelated, are:
Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri

Here follows a small list of some my favorite SciFi Books:

Brian W. Aldiss, Helliconia
Neal Asher, The Skinner
Isaac Asimov, The End of Eternity & The original Foundation Trilogy
Iain M. Banks, Consider Phlebas
Stephen Baxter, Timelike Infinity
Barrington J. Bayley, The Garments of Caean
Greg Bear, Eon &  Songs of Earth & Power
Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles & R Is for Rocket
David Brin, Earth, Glory Season & The Practice Effect
Fredric Brown, From These Ashes (short stories)
Philip K. Dick, "Flow my Tears, the Policeman Said"
Neil Gaiman, Neverwhere
Joe Haldeman, The Forever War
Harry Harrison, The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat & The Deathworld Triology
Robert A. Heinlein, The Door into Summer & Have Space Suit - Will Travel
James P. Hogan, Bug Park, The Giant Series, The Code of the Lifemaker & Voyage From Yesteryear
R.A. Lafferty, Nine Hundred Grandmothers
Fritz Leiber, Gather, Darkness!
Ira Levin, This Perfect Day
L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Adiamante
Grant Naylor, Red Dwarf Omnibus
Larry Niven, Neutron Star, Ringworld
Larry Niven & Steven Barnes, The Barsoom Project, The California Voodoo Game & Dream Park
Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle, The Mote in God's Eye
Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle & Steven Barnes, The Legacy of Heorot
Audrey Nyffenegger, The Time Traveller's Wife
Eric Frank Russell, The Great Explosion & Major Ingredients
Robert Sheckley, All his short stories "Citizen in Space, The People Trap and Other Pitfalls, Shards of Space, Untouched By Human Hands"
Robert Silverberg, The Time Hoppers &, Up the Line
Clifford D. Simak, The Cosmic Engineers, Our Children's Children & Way Station
Dan Simmons, Hyperion
Walter Tevis, The Man Who Fell to Earth & Mockingbird
Jack Vance, Big Planet, Emphyrio, The Eyes of the Overworld & The Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph
A.E. van Vogt, Null-A Trilogy
John Wyndham, The Midwich Cuckoos
Roger Zelazny, Frost & Fire, The Amber Series I and II

so many that i have to open my amazon list and remember them
lesse...
Little People in the City: The Street Art of Slinkachu - this is a photography book
A Practical Guide to Dragons
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
The Green Mile    The Green Mile by Stephen King
It - stephen king
Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body - Atheist Universe: The Thinking Atheist Universe: The Thinking Person's Answer to Christian Fundamentalism by David Mills by Neil Shubin
Astrophotography for the Amateur by Michael A. Covington
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M. Homes
Crime & Punishment (Konemann Classics) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
1984  by george orwel
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories by Isaac Asimov
Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break: A Novel    by Steven Sherrill
The Children Of Men    The Children Of Men by P.D. James
The Draconomicon  by Andy Collins
The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a trilogy of four by Douglas Adams


sorry for the long list,  but these are my fav. books
no particular order

Quote from: "4DeepThought2"I am currently near the end of the God Delusion and need to read something else when finished. I am interested in your favorites/ suggestions for reading anything from topics on atheism to science fiction novels to Physics......anything you loved reading. Just leave out the books promoting God...I have read too many

I Never read TGD all the way through.

Fiction:
Slaughterhouse-5 by Kurt Vonnegut
or anything else by Vonnegut
The Bible (see what all the fuss is about, hmm?)

Non Fiction:
Anything else by Richard Dawkins (He has a new one coming out in February '09)
Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris (although I haven't gotten it yet, I've heard great things about it.)
Charles Darwin (Voyage of the Beagle, Origin of Species, Descent of Man, The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals)

Quote from: "MariaEvri"so many that i have to open my amazon list and remember them
lesse...
Little People in the City: The Street Art of Slinkachu - this is a photography book
A Practical Guide to Dragons
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
The Green Mile    The Green Mile by Stephen King
It - stephen king
Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body - Atheist Universe: The Thinking Atheist Universe: The Thinking Person's Answer to Christian Fundamentalism by David Mills by Neil Shubin
Astrophotography for the Amateur by Michael A. Covington
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
This Book Will Save Your Life by A.M. Homes
Crime & Punishment (Konemann Classics) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
1984  by george orwel
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories by Isaac Asimov
Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break: A Novel    by Steven Sherrill
The Children Of Men    The Children Of Men by P.D. James
The Draconomicon  by Andy Collins
The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a trilogy of four by Douglas Adams


sorry for the long list,  but these are my fav. books :) Thank you for everyone's suggestions! Whoever mentioned I am Legend I loved that book. Such a brutal study on human emotion and psychology when alone and isolated.......much better than the movie which was great.

My favorite book, written by my favorite author, is Kokoro, by Natsume Soseki.

It involves a young university student who meets a mysterious professor. They form a strong friendship, though strangely, the student seems to be the only friend the professor has. And then there's the fact that he never talks about his past. It is only when the young student's father is on the brink of death that he must decide whether to pay his respects to his father at the hour of his death or learn of the secret of Sensei's past. And then there's the ending, which... well. heheh.

Good literature. The setting takes place after the meijii era and before world war II. Hope you like it!

Oh, you guys clearly have great taste. ;)  which is interesting just to open at random every so often - Clark also provides his own detailed analysis of each one, with references for further reading should anything really catch your attention)
Glen Duncan's I, Lucifer
The Classic Fairy Tales edited by Maria Tatar, published by W. W. Norton & Comany inc. (it feels really odd reading a Fairy Tale anthology published for academics but it's interesting - reading The Bloody Chamber put me up to buying this)
McSweeney's Enchanted Chamber of Astonishing Stories (haha. Yeah, I like this. some of the stories in it are very intelligent and experimental, I think)

Oh dear, this is where I expose myself as the shallow and illiterate individual I am :)

Kyu

QuoteI like your taste in books. I have probably read about a third of them and am glad to see other H2G2 fans on here Thank you for everyone's suggestions! Whoever mentioned I am Legend I loved that book. Such a brutal study on human emotion and psychology when alone and isolated.......much better than the movie which was great.

danke
from all my family and friends, I am the only one who likes to read books that arent romantic and love stories.

I discovered Michael Connolley's Harry Bosch novels this year and have been enjoying them not least for the things one learns about Los Angeles. I also enjoy Ian Rankin's rebus novels.

Daphne DuMaurier is another favourite of mine.

I work in a library. I was an English education major.

Must... not... flood... thread...  

Hey, Curio, how did you get a job in the library?

I'm addicted to the printed page.  I'll read anything, even instructions and cereal boxes if there's nothing else.

I've read lots of things that everyone else has posted here, so I'm just going to add one item.

A Book Dragon by Donn Kushner.  This is a charming little fairy tale that is one of the most delightful books I've ever read.  It is out of print and relatively rare, although there are several used copies on Amazon.com.  If you want a good read that will leave you with a really nice feeling, it's well worth the effort to find and buy.  Ironically, it's about a dragon and a bible, but don't let that stop you.  I'm actually going to buy a couple more copies of this book.  Mine is dog-eared, old, falling apart, and held together with a rubber band, which is why I won't lend it out anymore.

[derail]

Quote from: "Wechtlein Uns"Hey, Curio, how did you get a job in the library?

My freshman year of college I got a Federal Work-Study position in the library. Stayed there my entire undergrad and part of my Master's. One of the supervisory positions came open and I snatched it right up. Fairly boring story, actually.  

[/derail]

Come on Curio, don't hold out on us. A really juicy book list is the finest of gifts, and the solstice approaches...

Quote from: "Wraitchel"Come on Curio, don't hold out on us. A really juicy book list is the finest of gifts, and the solstice approaches...

I'll put something together. I'll try to keep it in the double digits.  

Anyone else read The Dogma of Christ?

Quote from: "Sophus"Anyone else read The Dogma of Christ?

Nope, I've never heard of it.  Right now I'm trying to read books that at least aren't directly related to religion.  I get more than my fill from the forum.

Wow, you have a broad range of acceptable topics, very good!

A couple that were interesting to me:

We Wish to Inform that Tomorrow we will be killed with our families (Philip Gourevitch)
Bitter Winds (Harry Wu)


Memoirs of Cleopatra (Margaret George)

I saw someone mention Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris, that's a good one, takes about 45 minutes to read but is interestingly put and a good read.

The Stranger by Albert Camus is also a good one, several ways to look at the book.

The "His Dark Materials" trilogy, by Philip Pullman is a fantastic series of novels, with an atheistic, anti-theist worldview. Billed as books for young people, these novels are as challenging and fascinating as any novels written for adults. Also "Spin" or any other sf novel by Robert Charles Wilson would be a good choice. Wilson talks about his atheism openly on his website.

I just read The Dumb House by John Burnside. I'd reccommend it to anyone interested in philosophies of language, as well those with a taste for the gothic macabre

I just finished the Time Traveller's Wife.

I highly recommend that book to anyone who hasn't yet read it. It blew my socks off!  

Quote from: "Sophus"Anyone else read The Dogma of Christ?

No. What did you think of it? Worth the read?


A book I finished recently is, The Terror, by Dan Simmonds. It is a fictional accounting of a real-life tragedy - the ill-fated Franklin Expedition to map the Northwest Passage in 1845-1849. Two specially outfitted ships, HMS Terror, and HMS Erebus, were sent to map the last remaining part of the Northwest Passage, and both ships were frozen in the ice, then lost. No one survived, but later expeditions found remnants of ships, camps, bones of the crew, etc.

Rather than try to describe it all, here is the link to the Amazon.com page: http://www.amazon.com/Terror-Novel-Dan- ... 0316017442 (http://www.amazon.com/Terror-Novel-Dan-Simmons/dp/0316017442)


Let me say that this is the finest novel I can recall reading. It mixes historical accounts with gothic horror, Inuit mythology, and the isolation of the arctic perfectly. It will teach you and it will scare the shit out of you! It's REALLY long, but I'd read it again in a heartbeat.

I was just checking out Dan Simmon's list of works - several of his looked interesting. I might pick up one at the library on my lunch break. McQ have you (or anyone else reading this thread) read anything else by him?

Quote from: "McQ"

Quote from: "Sophus"Anyone else read The Dogma of Christ?

No. What did you think of it? Worth the read?


A book I finished recently is, The Terror, by Dan Simmonds. It is a fictional accounting of a real-life tragedy - the ill-fated Franklin Expedition to map the Northwest Passage in 1845-1849. Two specially outfitted ships, HMS Terror, and HMS Erebus, were sent to map the last remaining part of the Northwest Passage, and both ships were frozen in the ice, then lost. No one survived, but later expeditions found remnants of ships, camps, bones of the crew, etc.

Rather than try to describe it all, here is the link to the Amazon.com page: http://www.amazon.com/Terror-Novel-Dan- ... 0316017442 (http://www.amazon.com/Terror-Novel-Dan-Simmons/dp/0316017442)


Let me say that this is the finest novel I can recall reading. It mixes historical accounts with gothic horror, Inuit mythology, and the isolation of the arctic perfectly. It will teach you and it will scare the shit out of you! It's REALLY long, but I'd read it again in a heartbeat.

Awesome. That and The Diamond Age are next on my 'to read' list then.

Quote from: "BadPoison"I was just checking out Dan Simmon's list of works - several of his looked interesting. I might pick up one at the library on my lunch break. McQ have you (or anyone else reading this thread) read anything else by him?

Funny thing is, I had never heard of him before I read that book. I came upon that book while looking for books to add to my Kindle2, on Amazon's site. Since I had just read, Who Goes There?, by John Campbell, and Terminal Freeze by Lincoln Child, Amazon automatically recommended Terror. It had great reviews, and when I read a sample I thought, "Man, THIS is literature at its finest!"

I was not disappointed. Freaking great book!

Quote from: "McQ"

Quote from: "BadPoison"I was just checking out Dan Simmon's list of works - several of his looked interesting. I might pick up one at the library on my lunch break. McQ have you (or anyone else reading this thread) read anything else by him?

Funny thing is, I had never heard of him before I read that book. I came upon that book while looking for books to add to my Kindle2, on Amazon's site. Since I had just read, Who Goes There?, by John Campbell, and Terminal Freeze by Lincoln Child, Amazon automatically recommended Terror. It had great reviews, and when I read a sample I thought, "Man, THIS is literature at its finest!"

I was not disappointed. Freaking great book!

I picked Terror up at the local library today (along with some Stephen Hawking.) I'm looking forward to diving in.
 

Quote from: "BadPoison"

Quote from: "McQ"

Quote from: "BadPoison"I was just checking out Dan Simmon's list of works - several of his looked interesting. I might pick up one at the library on my lunch break. McQ have you (or anyone else reading this thread) read anything else by him?

Funny thing is, I had never heard of him before I read that book. I came upon that book while looking for books to add to my Kindle2, on Amazon's site. Since I had just read, Who Goes There?, by John Campbell, and Terminal Freeze by Lincoln Child, Amazon automatically recommended Terror. It had great reviews, and when I read a sample I thought, "Man, THIS is literature at its finest!"

I was not disappointed. Freaking great book!

I picked Terror up at the local library today (along with some Stephen Hawking.) I'm looking forward to diving in.
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