Sterling has a bit of a different approach, his works are also character driven with technology explored in what it could enable people to do and how this can re-shape society . Sterling also wrote The Hacker Crackdown a non-fiction book about the phone phreaks and hackers of the early 90’s, which is outdated but still entertaining. It is a free ebook, http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/101
Neil Stevenson is also good, Snow Crash is a great book that could be a cool movie if someone like Terry Gilliam were to direct.
T. C. Boyle is also great, The Road To Wellville is one of my favorite books.

I actually read Tom Clancy’s: Net Force series. I am also currently reading:

Culture Warrior - Bill O’Reilly

Power of Body Language - Tonya Reiman

with a few conservative books on the deck.

The Fountainhead
Atlas Shrugged

If you want to see someone get all pissy, read Atlas Shrugged in front of a socialist or staunch union supporter.

1. Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri (some of my favorite short stories, easy to read and very recent)
2. The Long Walk - Slavomir Rawicz (this isn’t strictly fiction, but reads like it, and it the most incredible true story I’ve ever read)
3. Mother Night - Kurt Vonnegut (my favorite Vonnegut book, not as widely read as Cats Cradle or Slaughterhouse 5)
4. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar And Six More - Roald Dahl (his best short stories in my opinion, easy to read)
5. Snow - Orhan Pamuk (its won a ton of awards and its very recent)
6. Adventures of Augie March - Saul Bellow (the great american novel)

Of course you’ve read Catch-22 (Heller’s other stuff isn’t as good) and 1984 (better than Brave New World IMHO). I also read the Godfather by Puzo (the movie is about as good - and thats a rare thing to say), and Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. Both good too.

Also, all the repairman Jack series by F. Paul Wilson - you can check out his books at www.repairmanjack.com Very cool…

i read Life of Pi recently. Wicked book (not to mention my sister in law did the cover art)

Wow, really? That’s awesome. Small world this. Small world.

Small-small world, I went to the same University / College as Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi.

In the technical realm, I’m working through the Definitive Guide to JavaScript, Powershell In Action, and The Old New Thing.

Did I mention I love Pterry?

In parallel me and my children currently read through the whole collection of “Asterix” comics by Uderzo+Goscinny. I like the stories most where they visit Britannica and Corsica (50 BC everyone speaks latin). This is one example where the german translation is brillant; plus I don’t speak french so good that I can understand all the puns (we did read one Asterix in french lessons and it was very hard).

This also looks like a good place to introduce Shelfari!

Cool! I haven’t seen this one. There is a dozen book related services like that but so fat none of them seemed to be the dominant one. Perhaps Shelfari will be better.

i read Life of Pi recently. Wicked book (not to mention my sister in law did the cover art)

Wow, really? That’s awesome. Small world this. Small world.

Dax said:

For the last few years I have been working on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. I recently finished up “Jingo” and have just started on “The Last Continent.” After I finish up this series, I intend to start on Ian Fleming’s James Bond books (I’m a James Bond movie nut).

I used to be a huge fan of Discworld Novels. Like you I was reading all of them one after the other. Then at one point I stopped. I think I just got a little bit tired of the setting, the recurring characters and etc…

I haven’t touched Discworld books in a while now I still remember them fondly, I just don’t feel the urge to get all the ones I didn’t read yet. Maybe I will come back to them at some later time.

I remember the use of the word ‘grok’ now but it’s funny that I had no idea what it meant when first saw it used on the web

Heh, same here - knew how to grok things way before I picked up the book.

Kidding.

The last piece of fiction I’ve read was the “The Shadow over Innsmouth” by Lovecraft of course; but that was a while ago. I’ve been a little busy to chase fiction lately though I used to be a real junky.

I remember when I read “Stranger in a Strange Land” years ago. I remember the use of the word ‘grok’ now but it’s funny that I had no idea what it meant when first saw it used on the web (the same thing that it does in the book.) I don’t know why that was.