Recommend a book for a 23 yo guy.

[TNDemo]

He is an engineer, very liberal, very smart, likes biting intelligent humor or maybe a good novel. Said he might like a book for his birthday but fails to elaborate as he has not shopped in a long time. Ideas?

[Kutjara]

1. Accelerando by Charles Stross.

It will blow his liberal engineer's mind. I just finished it and can confirm one of the reviews: it is better than hallucinogens.

[hfojvt]

2. Ishmael

or Lightning.

[StClone]

3. "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson

Hilarious, informative, entertaining and so refreshing.

http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Woods-Rediscovering-Appalachian-Official/dp/0767902521

[bif]

54. "In a Sunburned Country" by Bryson. Actually, anything by him

They're all great. He hasn't written anything that was less than brilliant.

[skygazer]

4. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

As long as he has a sense of humor about religion - I don't mean non-belief but a sense of humor.

[Supply Side Jesus]

52. Loved that book!

was thinking of it when i saw this thread also!

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. I was 23 yo engineer once - you want to get him "Cryptonomicon"

by Neil Stephenson.

Unless he's a civil or industrial engineer - in which case he won't get it.

[Kutjara]

8. Snowcrash might be a better bet.

I found Cryptonomicon to be be overlong and a bit turgid. Snowcrash was a rollercoaster ride of ideas by comparison.

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. But Crypto really hits the thinking process of the engineer/math/scientist

guy.

After I read it, I gave copies to a few of my liberal artsy friends and said, "Here - you have always wondered how my brain works: this is it."

[Kutjara]

12. Yeah, I can see that now.

Perhaps it's my more liberal arts background that found the book a bit overwritten. Even so, I could feel the geek side of me getting into it (almost against my will).

[AllegroRondo]

36. I just finished it, excellent choice n/t

[Supply Side Jesus]

56. I'm defintley not smart enough

to be an engineer, but I really liked this book. Very intresting and funny. Those Shaftoes kill me.

[OzarkDem]

6. Any Vonnegut or JD Salinger

Its good to broaden their horizons.

[hfojvt]

23. definitely Cat's Cradle, Jailbird, or Rosewater

but not "Sirens of Titan" or "Timequake"

[StClone]

7. Nightwork: A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT

Wow I remember reading this one...great book!



http://www.amazon.com/Nightwork-History-Hacks-Pranks-MIT/dp/0262661373/sr=1-3/qid=1163981298/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/103-4484864-5117429?ie=UTF8&s=books

[Starbucks Anarchist]

9. Jennifer Government by Max Barry.

[Kutjara]

13. Seconded.

A great, funny and cynical take on the corporatization of life. I really enjoyed it.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

14. Have you read his other stuff?

I'm trying to decide which one to read next.

[Kutjara]

15. No I haven't, but I keep meaning to.

I really liked his vision in Jennifer Government, so I'm definitely going to pick up one of his other books soon.

[MrCoffee]

43. I was unimpressed with Company (LOVED Jennifer Government)

[jane_pippin]

18. I was going to say "The Company" by Max Barry!

:D

[Starbucks Anarchist]

19. I heard that one was good, too.

So you like Max Barry AND Bill Hicks? ;)

[jane_pippin]

22. Well, I haven't read Barry myself yet, but

my friend loves his work and we have similar taste. He's on the "to read" list though. Knowing how my friend went on about the book, it was the first thing that came to mind after reading the OP.

Bill Hicks though--yeah. Love him.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

24. Have you heard his Flying Saucer Tour album?

[jane_pippin]

26. No, I haven't. What's that all about?

[Starbucks Anarchist]

28. It's mainly recycled material, but with a very bad audience.

They hardly laugh at all, so Hicks starts going off course and insulting them like only he can. I recommend it.

http://www.amazon.com/Flying-Saucer-Tour-Bill-Hicks/dp/B00006LEPC/sr=1-9/qid=1163989566/ref=sr_1_9/103-5852184-8479033?ie=UTF8&s=music

[jane_pippin]

34. Oh, right. No, I haven't seen that one.

I've just seen Sane Man and the stuff that's on the Bill Hicks Live dvd. I think, (it's packed in a box so I cant' check), I think some of the Flying Saucer stuff is in his book, Love All The People though.

[terrya]

20. That's an excellent choice.

A very interesting, thought provoking book.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

21. Definitely.

:thumbsup:

It's becoming a movie, too.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0760314/

[mdmc]

11. Dress Your Family in Denim and Corduroy

David Saderais.

[Shine]

27. I haven't read that one yet, but I'm a big fan of his work. He's hilarious!!

isn't that his newest one? Is it as good as his others? :shrug:

:hi: mdmc!

[mdmc]

48. Barrel Fever is the worst

and the first.

IMHO, his work gets better and better. I found dress your family on ebay for like 2 bucks.

:hi:shine! How 'bout them Dem gains in the last election! Wildtown!

[MrCoffee]

49. Do you listen to him read?

Check out his audiobooks if you haven't already. I didn't think Me Talk Pretty One Day could get funnier, but it did.

[mdmc]

50. thanks... i'll check it out

I saw him live a couple of weeks ago...

[MrCoffee]

51. i tried to get tickets to see him in Ann Arbor a couple of years ago...

they sold out in miliseconds.

[Little Wing]

16. Cryptonomicon or SnowCrash

[BlueIris]

17. Gun, With Occasional Music, by Jonathan Lethem.

Screamingly funny plot and prose for smarty pants.

[mikebl]

25. one you probaly never heard of

'Temple of Gold' by Wm. Goldman

[Scout1071]

29. Harry Potter series.

Seriously. Harry is great for all ages and I've known several 20-somethings that have read the whole series. That is, if your friend hasn't already read them.

[gmoney]

30. "Money" by Martin Amis

Savagely funny, and just smutty enough to keep things interesting. He'll love it, especially if he can deal with British writing.

[hsher]

31. These are the eight I'm reading (non-fiction)

TITLE: 50+: IGNITING A REVOLUTION TO REINVENT AMERICA
AUTHOR: BILL NOVELLI

TITLE: THE CULTURE OF NARCISSISM
AUTHOR: CHRISTOPHER LASCH

TITLE: THE REVOLT OF THE ELITES
AUTHOR: CHRISTOPHER LASCH

TITLE: THE FOURTH TURNING
AUTHOR: WILLIAM STRAUSS & NEIL HOWE

TITLE: SHUTTING OUT THE SUN
AUTHOR: MICHAEL ZIELENEIGER

TITLE: SCREWED: THE UNDECLARED WAR AGAINST THE MIDDLE CLASS
AUTHOR: THOM HARTMANN

TITLE: CULTURE JAM
AUTHOR: KALLE LASH

TITLE: BOHEMIAN MANIFESTO
AUTHOR: LAREN STOVER

[hfojvt]

42. with so much Lasch

you might want to check out Paul Wachtel's "The Poverty of Affluence" esp. chapter 10 - "Misunderstanding Narcissism" where he discusses Lasch's book.

[Bossy Monkey]

32. The new Carl Hiaasen is out, or so they say

or "Native Tongue" if you'd rather go paperback.

[Jean Louise Finch]

33. Another Roadside Attraction

by Tom Robbins, or Skinny Legs and All by the same author. Hilarious, completely over-the-top way of telling a story. I'm less a fan of the other books he's written, but those two are hilarious and complete treasures in fiction.

[Lyric]

35. American Gods by Neil Gaiman

It's just entertainment-fiction, but it's good.

[Blue_Tires]

37. "The Best of Letters to Penthouse Forum"

can't go wrong with that!:silly:

[JVS]

38. Group Portrait with Lady, by Heinrich Boell

[BreweryYardRat]

39. George R.R. Martin's "A Game of Thrones."

That's the first book in the best series of novels out there.

[YankeyMCC]

40. Ken MacLeod,

Specifically Newton's Wake - Really fun, funny and intelligent. Hard SF aspects but basically just a good smart funny story.

"Learning the World" is also very good, a bit more - I guess thought provoking is the word - but still loads of fun.

[Lochloosa]

41. SciFi? The Foundation Trilogy Isaac Asimov: N/T

[Deja Q]

44. 'The Keep It Simple Series Guide to the Kama Sutra'?

:shrug:

[Flaxbee]

45. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Here's a review from Amazon:

"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974." And so begins Middlesex, the mesmerizing saga of a near-mythic Greek American family and the "roller-coaster ride of a single gene through time." The odd but utterly believable story of Cal Stephanides, and how this 41-year-old hermaphrodite was raised as Calliope, is at the tender heart of this long-awaited second novel from Jeffrey Eugenides, whose elegant and haunting 1993 debut, The Virgin Suicides, remains one of the finest first novels of recent memory.

Eugenides weaves together a kaleidoscopic narrative spanning 80 years of a stained family history, from a fateful incestuous union in a small town in early 1920s Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit; from the early days of Ford Motors to the heated 1967 race riots; from the tony suburbs of Grosse Pointe and a confusing, aching adolescent love story to modern-day Berlin. Eugenides's command of the narrative is astonishing. He balances Cal/Callie's shifting voices convincingly, spinning this strange and often unsettling story with intelligence, insight, and generous amounts of humor:

"Emotions, in my experience aren't covered by single words. I don't believe in "sadness," "joy," or "regret." … I'd like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic traincar constructions like, say, "the happiness that attends disaster." Or: "the disappointment of sleeping with one's fantasy." ... I'd like to have a word for "the sadness inspired by failing restaurants" as well as for "the excitement of getting a room with a minibar." I've never had the right words to describe my life, and now that I've entered my story, I need them more than ever."


When you get to the end of this splendorous book, when you suddenly realize that after hundreds of pages you have only a few more left to turn over, you'll experience a quick pang of regret knowing that your time with Cal is coming to a close, and you may even resist finishing it--putting it aside for an hour or two, or maybe overnight--just so that this wondrous, magical novel might never end. --Brad Thomas Parsons --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

[mokawanis]

46. A Prayer for Owen Meany

Terriffic novel by John Irving. I read it many years ago and couldn't put it down, which is saying something because I almost never read fiction. For intelligent humor there's always David Sedaris.

[Elidor]

47. Catch-22

You can't go wrong with a classic.

[bif]

53. "Shadow of the Wind" Carlos Ruiz Zafon and...

"Extremely Close & Incredibly Loud" Jonathan Safran. They're both page turners. Very well written. I couldn't put either book down Especially "Shadow." You just have to find out how it turns out.

[montanto]

55. Fight Club, Survivor, or Choke, by Chuck Palaniuk, or

just about any Vonnegut.