Mysterio wrote:

Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) wrote:

And the book was a piece of crap, I couldn't get through more than the first 30 pages myself.

what do you think are the six best books you've ever read

1. "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand - I've read the whole book, all 1066+ pages, at least six times and probably skimmed it another dozen or more.


2. "Starship Troopers" by Robert A. Heinlein - "When you vote you exercise force, and force, my friends, is violence, the supreme authority from which all other authority is derived."


3. * "The Psychology of Computer Programming" by Gerald Weinberg - Weinberg discusses a number of interesting issues regarding how people who work on software development think and what they think about and their habits and interactions, including programmer addiction, people who become addicted to programming because it is so much fun and you can do so much with it. These are great people to get when you need something really hard developed, but they have a high probability of burning out young.


4. "Nevada" by Clint McCollough - The (fictional) story of Meade Slaughter, who rises from penniless orphan to become one of the most successful casino owners in the state


5. * "Something to Believe in: Is Kurt Vonnegut the Exorcist of Jesus Christ Superstar?" by Robert L. Short. Short argues about religion and how it's been essentially bastardized into something that the original Apostles wouldn't even recognize, that those who claim people go to Hell for eternal damnation are misreading the Bible; that everyone gets to go to heaven when they die because it would make no sense: eternal punishment in torture and the love of Jesus Christ are incompatible; and that by making God into a horrible monster who punishes sinners instead of what he is (as Short sees it), a God of love and charity, mainstream churches are more likely driving people away from religion and more likely into atheism.


6. "In the Matter of: Instrument of God" by Paul Robinson, it's the story of the life of Supervisor 246, oh, no, that's not right, 246 is actually dead, so it's the story of the afterlife of Supervisor 246 and the strange world he lives in with about nine billion people who are dead, know they are, and live in a civilization after they've died where anyone basically can have virtually unlimited quantities of anything they want. The book is available to read free as a 750 page, 3 megabyte PDF at this link. Hey, you didn't say I couldn't include my own book!