If you like history, try the following.

The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. Utterly fascinating and extremely well written. It reads almost like a novel.

Peter the Great and Dreadnought by Robert Massie. Both excellent.

Citizens is a jaw-dropping revisionist history of the French Revolution by Simon Schama.

Night Soldiers is a superb "historical spy" novel set in Europe before and during WWII. This novel by Furst is credited with reinventing and reinvigorating the espionage genre. Think Graham Greene crossed with John le Carré.

If you like science fiction, try Hyperion by Dan Simmons. A mind-bending book that, at its core and rather incongruously, is a retelling of Canterbury Tales.

Sticking with science fiction, try anything by Iain M Banks; especially his Culture novels. You could start with Consider Phlebas, or Use of Weapons.


I have many many more suggestions if you want.


You may also like LibraryThing, a great social networking site for those who love books and like to catalogue and discuss their personal libraries. Look me up if you want. I'm "omaca" there too.

Here are some books I have and what I think of them...

The Connoisseur's Book of the Cigar by Zino Davidoff. Fun to read, lots of interesting info and thoughts. Also looks pretty cool.

The Tobacconist Handbook is probably the best informational book out there, at least that I've seen. It doesn't really look 'manly', but it's kinda cool IMO (editor's note: I have no idea what cool is).

Cigars 2-book set. Looks good on a coffee table, nice pictures. Info is hit-or-miss for quality.

The Cigar Companion. I picked this up cheap at a used book store. Got about what I paid for. Coffee table book? Not awful, not great. Source of info? Ehhh not great. Might fit the bill for your 'cheap' category though.

The Cigar Collection: Two Centuries of Cigar Writing is a very short book filled with poems and short essays/odes to cigars. It's not informational, but there is good writing in there. I enjoy it. It looks pretty cheap and isn't the highest-quality book.

I have no idea why the secondary market looks so crazy on these books on Amazon. I didn't pay anywhere near any of those prices for these books. Used book stores have been pretty good to me in terms of finding a couple very cheap - think the bargain bins.

Want to look really baller and have something cool to boot? Check out The Cigar Legend. It's a leather-bound book where you can document the cigars you've smoked and info about your cigar journey. It's super-pimp. /u/CigarNoise got me one, and it's classing up my library.

You guys! It's not novel, but I drew and published a coloring book.


Murderino: The Coloring Book for Fans of the My Favorite Murder Pocast ($11.99 on amazon prime ), is my first book.


It's filled with flowers, wreathes, skulls, and lots (and lots) of swear words. It's 40 quotes from the podcast and some additional images on informational pages.
This is, without doubt, the most fun I've had doing anything in ages.


You can see practically the whole book on amazons "look inside" feature and choosing "random page," or here's a short imgur post .


In addition to this shameless self-promotion, I'd love any advice you can give me. It's a niche, and the specific audience is making it hard for me market. I'd love thoughts, impressions, suggestions...anything, really.


Thanks! And as a murderino would say: stay sexy and don't get murdered!

My two favorite books about the Beatles are Peter Brown's The Love You Make and Roy Carr and Tony Tyler's The Beatles: An Illustrated Record (sorry, no copy on Powells.com). Brown's book has a bit more detail, but the Carr/Tyler volume is surprisingly well-written and goes pretty deep, plus it has full-size reproductions of all the album sleeves and a wealth of additional pictorial material as well. Definitely worth checking out.

The Bob Spitz Beatles bio is extraordinarily well-researched and offers numerous background facts I've never seen elsewhere, but may be a bit too detailed for someone who hasn't read that much about the band before.

Hope this helps!

Great series of books. You do not need to read them in order; I read book 4 first, and it spoils nothing.

Supposedly, Amazon Prime wants to do a miniseries of this, or at least the first book, to the level of quality of Game of Thrones. I'll... believe it when I see it.

Anyway here are Amazon/Audible links! (Or hit up your local library, etc.)

1. Consider Phlebas paperback / Audible
   
   
2. The Player of Games paperback / Audible
   
   
3. Use of Weapons paperback / Audible
   
   
4. The State of the Art (collection of short stories) paperback / Audible
   
   
5. Excession (I read this one first, it's great) paperback / Audible
   
   
6. Inversions (sort-of a Culture book) paperback / Audible
   
   
7. Look to Windward paperback / Audible
   
   
8. Matter paperback / Audible
   
   
9. Surface Detail paperback / Audible
   
   
10. The Hydrogen Sonata (my favorite - Vyr Cossont is my hero) paperback / Audible
    
    I really like this stuff as space opera type stuff. It's usually not "hard" sci-fi like Asimov or even Philip K. Dick or anything, but I rather hope humanity heads in the direction of the Federation, and then ultimately to The Culture.
    
    Fun fact!! Elon Musk named the autonomous drone barge ships (the ones that SpaceX rockets land on) after some Culture ships. Namely the Of Course I Still Love You, and the Just Read The Instructions. I also rather like the full name of the ship Mistake Not… (Don't Google it! It's a spoiler!!!)

Ok so not sure how helpful this will be but you mentioned your dad liked salt. Have you thought about buying him some truffle salt?

https://www.amazon.com/4oz-Glass-Shaker-Black-Truffle/dp/B00V3XWYFC/ref=sr_1_2?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1480628945&sr=1-2-spons&keywords=truffle+salt&psc=1

also my dad is a huge beatles fan as well. I got him a book about the beatles a few years ago. I cant find the exact one I got him but I found this on amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Beatles-Lyrics-Stories-Including-Handwritten/dp/0316247170/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1480629062&sr=1-1&keywords=beatles

Brother in law #1 - Maybe Firefly box set? It's a rad series.

https://www.amazon.com/Firefly-Complete-Nathan-Fillion/dp/B0000AQS0F/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1480629178&sr=1-1&keywords=firefly+dvd

For brother in law #2 maybe a year subscription to an audio book service like audible or something?

Consider Phlebas, The Player of Games, and Use of Weapons

These three were written by Iain M. Banks and they're all sci-fi novels set in a far off future Earth where we live in a post-scarcity, stateless, classless, communist paradise. Banks uses the alien societies we encounter in the future as a means of criticing our actual, modern society today.

I absolutely love those novels. The Culture (what we now call the united humans of earth + their colonies) is fascinating. I won't spoil it for you. But go for it. Read until your eyes bleed.

Also, if you're looking for something fun and innocent. You can't go wrong with The Smurfs. I shit you not, I grew up on these so don't any of you dare insult them >.>

You'll want the comics, of course, not the cartoons.

Hi guys! I made a My Favorite Murder Coloring Book and a True Crime Coloring/Activity book. They're both available on Amazon Prime.


Murderino Coloring Book on amazon prime


Premeditated True Crime Activity Book on amazon prime
The 'look inside' feature isn't up yet, but you can see more, if you're interested, here


SSDGM and happy Saturday! :-)

Dune! Mainly Frank Herbert's original works not the add-ons. Try some Neal Stephenson. Anathem was a great read. The Culture Series was great too.

Oooh, so pretty! That's the kind of blending I'm always too lazy to get lol — you've definitely sold me on them. I can justify it when I think of 60 colors for $70 vs 7 pan pastels for the same price lol. Plus, I just got Pop Manga Mermaids, and these would look so good with that.

What do you use to sharpen yours with btw? I've seen some people say pencil sharpeners work and others say that you should stick with sandpaper. Also, do you remember if you paid around $70 for yours? Sometimes Amazon bumps the price up and down, don't want to pay more than I have to. :)

These are favorites of mine that I don't expect will make it on other lists:

The Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelazny

Blindsight by Peter Watts

The 1st Chronicles of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson

• Lord Foul's Bane
  
  
• The Illearth War
  
  
• The Power That Preserves
  
  The 2nd Chronicles of Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson
  
  
• The Wounded Land
  
  
• The One Tree
  
  
• White Gold Wielder
  
  The Culture Saga by Iain M. Banks
  
  
• Consider Phlebas
  
  
• The Player Of Games
  
  
• Use Of Weapons
  
  
• Excession
  
  
• Look To Windward
  
  
• Matter
  
  
• Surface Detail
  
  The Takeshi Kovacs series by Richard K. Morgan
  
  
• Altered Carbon
  
  
• Broken Angels
  
  
• Woken Furies

• utopian elements fairly shallow
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture_(series)
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culture
  
  
  ---
  
  '09
  
  2000 4.3 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19819475-the-player-of-games
  
  
  400 4.5 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002WM3HC2
  
  
  
  '10
  
  900 4.2 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9605137-surface-detail
  
  
  250 4.5 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0046A9NLC/
  
  
  
  ----
  
  
  
  
  '12
  
  
  1000 4.2 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16060768-the-hydrogen-sonata
  
  400 4.3 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0081BU42O
  
  
  
• society in which humans have been reduced to pets all watched over by machines of loving grace,
  
  '08
  
  3500 3.8 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/535073.Consider_Phlebas
  
  
  600 3.7 https://www.amazon.com/Consider-Phlebas-Culture-Iain-Banks/dp/031600538X
  
  
  
  ----
  
  
  
  '01
  
  
  600 4.2 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8123046-look-to-windward
  
  
  150 4.6 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001D20270

Better link

The Culture books by Iain M Banks.
Many books, various points in time in the "history" of The Culture.
Warning: sci-fi

Some of the best writing ever.

Book is called Two Knotty Boys and I highly recommend it. Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/Steven-Universe-Adult-Coloring-Book/dp/1506707963.

Another user found this link to get it cheaper than I got it 😅

Dang it, I searched for it a long time ago. That would make sense. I found it when reading the book. After searching some terms, here is the book:
https://www.amazon.com/Number-Freak-Language-Numbers-Revealed/dp/0399534598
It never mentions them directly, but iirc on number 50 the subtitle below the number contained 50 = (10-5)(10-0)

Number Freak: From 1 to 200- The Hidden Language of Numbers Revealed


A Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form

Arithmetricks: 50 Easy Ways to Add, Subtract, Multiply, and Divide Without a Calculator (Hey, you said light!)

I swear all the really well written general books on math were written before 1980! Check out Mathematics, Its Magic and Mastery.

https://www.amazon.com/Hillary-Coloring-Book-Valentin-Ramon/dp/1612433693

Unsurprisingly, the kindle version is more expensive on Amazon. Not sure how it works for a coloring book though. 1D chess marketing strategy. Might have to provide feedback.

they make a book of these that you can fill in yourself! they’re called spiroglyphics!

Spiroglyphics: Animals

Spiroglyphics: Music Icons

Spiroglyphics: Cities

I think they are referring to spiroglyphics: Spiroglyphics

Picture book vol 1

Picture book vol 2

I ain't OP but this is the book
https://www.amazon.com/Steven-Universe-Adult-Coloring-Book/dp/1506707963

Heres one in stock :D

https://www.amazon.com/Color-Me-Pepe-Themed-Coloring/dp/154104861X/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1484090316&sr=8-6&keywords=pepe+meme

you should read the culture series of novels by Ian Banks ...

I have the Cigar Companion 2nd edition It's a bit dated now as we have so many new cigars and brands but it's something I can look through and get some know how from

Vietnam Zippos: American Soldiers' Engravings and Stories (1965-1973) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0953783960/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_zNfdBbWMNWAKJ

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1506707963/

Quick google....

https://www.amazon.com/Pepe-Frog-Coloring-Book-Ozman/dp/1540360903

Those look to be from the books: Art of the Song of Ice and Fire. Either volume 1 or volume 2

> Also, Hyrule Historia is called Hyrule Graphics in Japan. I had no idea.

Are you sure?

I think that JAP Hyrule Graphics is USA/EU Arts & Artifacts but it is green. Hyrule Historia has the same name but it is brown. WTF Nintendo

I made a list based on where you can purchase them if you want to edit it onto your post:

This Month's Book

• The Woman in the Dunes by Kobe Abe
  
  

  January:
  

  
  

• [Consider Phlebas
  by Iain Banks]
  (https://www.amazon.com/Consider-Phlebas-Culture-Iain-Banks/dp/031600538X)
  
  
• [Brave New World
  by Aldous Huxley]
  (https://www.amazon.com/Brave-New-World-Aldous-Huxley/dp/0060850523)
  
  
• Fahrenheit 451
  by Ray Bradbury
  
  
  
• The Picture of Dorian Gray
  by Oscar Wilde
  
  
• Children of Time
  by Adrian Tchaikovsky
  
  
• [12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos
  by Jordan B. Peterson]
  (https://www.amazon.com/12-Rules-Life-Antidote-Chaos/dp/B0797Y87JC)
  
  
  

  February:
  

  
  

• I Am Legend
  by Richard Matheson
  
  
• Dune
  by Frank Herbert
  
  
• Kafka on the Shore
  by Haruki Murakami
  
  
• American Psycho
  by Bret Easton Ellis
  
  
• Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
  by Max Tegmark
  
  
• Beyond Good and Evil
  by Friedrich Nietzsche
  
  

  March:
  

  
  

• The Old Man and The Sea
  by Ernest Hemingway
  
  
• Moby Dick
  by Herman Melville
  
  
• Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
  
  
• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
  
  
• The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
  
  
• The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima
  
  
• The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima
  
  
• The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi
  
  
• Bushido: The Soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe
  
  

  April:
  

  
  

• [The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart]
  (https://www.amazon.com/Dice-Man-Luke-Rhinehart/dp/0879518642)
  
  
• [Stoner by John Williams](
  https://www.amazon.com/Stoner-York-Review-Books-Classics/dp/1590171993)
  
  
• [Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky]
  (https://www.amazon.com/Crime-Punishment-Fyodor-Dostoyevsky/dp/0486415872)
  
  
• [No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai](
  https://www.amazon.com/No-Longer-Human-Osamu-Dazai/dp/0811204812)
  
  
• Sun and Steel by Yukio Mishima
  
  

  May:
  

  
  

• [Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima](
  https://www.amazon.com/Spring-Snow-Sea-Fertility-1/dp/0679722416)
  
  
• [Runaway Horses by Yukio Mishima]
  (https://www.amazon.com/Runaway-Horses-Sea-Fertility-2/dp/0679722408)
  
  
• Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
  
  
• In the Buddha's Words: An Anthology of Discourses from the Pali Canon by Bhikkhu Bodhi
  
  
• Mythos by Stephen Fry
  
  
• Inferno by August Strindberg
  
  

  November
  

  
  

• The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
  
  
• Japanese Death Poems: Written by Zen Monks and Haiku Poets on the Verge of Death by Yoel Hoffmann
  
  
• Don Quixote by Miguel De Cervantes
  
  
• Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
  
  

  Books Pewds suggested but hasn't talked about in any of the episodes yet:
  

  
  

• The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima
  
  
• Tony Takitani by Haruki Murakami
  
  
• The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
  
  linking pewds to see this u/pewpewpewPEWdie