De-stressing books??

[Jade]

I know a lot of us are avid readers (including myself of course!)

I am not trying to completely escape from reality or anything, but if anyone has any suggestions as to a great "get your mind off of the monotony of life" sort of book then I would love it if you would share?

Oh, and PLEASE don't recommend The Celestine Prophecy or I will have to cause you great bodily harm!

 

[Xander]

Jade.
What kinda books do you want?? Romance, thrill, horror, Drama, Historical, Fiction, Non-fiction??

I''m more of an Stephen King, Anne Rice, Clive Barker kinda ready.
Currently I'm excaping reality in the world of Anne Rice's Mayfair Witch trilogy. great work if you into that kinda stuff.

 

[insideShiraz]

A Jade Thread...

Lust for Life-Irving Stone

Demian-Herman Hesse

Delta of Venus-Anais Nin

Moby Dick-Herman Melville(kidding)

Candy-Terry Southern(Good grief!)

Catcher in the Rye-J.D. Salinger

(Stuff you've probably already read, huh?)...

The Best stuff of H.P. Lovecraft...

The Ninth Configuration-William Peter Blatty...

The Pearl...

666...

The Dark...

Calvin and Hobbes...

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

I assume you're not looking for a damn good novel, but a "How To Improve My Outlook" type book. May I suggest the Bible?

Just kidding.

They're corny, but some of the "Positive Thinking" books have some interesting insights and exercises that are immediately effective. Norman Vincent Peal's the guru here, with "The Power of Positive Thinking", and there are others (most have religious undertones, though).

And, of course, Shakespeare, for a myrriad number of introspections into the human soul and psyche.

 

[Expertise]

Hi cutie

I have been reading some Sir Richard Burton lately.
No not Liz Taylors squeeze.

I highly recommend "The Perfumed Garden" and "A Personal Narrative Of A Pilgrimage to Al-Medinah & Mecca"

This guy was an 1800's version of Indiana Jones. Translated the Kamma Sutra and The Arabian Nights. Very escapist.Some of it is pretty erotic to boot.

I really recommend it.

 

[Cheri]

Tom Robbins! I love him! Reading one of his books is like a cross between eating cotton candy and broccoli, it's good for you (just trying skimming one of his meaty complex books) but yet an utter delight! Might I suggest my favorite, Jitterbug Perfume (isn't that a great title?).

 

[insideShiraz]

Ooooooh,...De-Stressing Books...

Jonathan Livingston Seagull-

The Prophet-by Gibran

Calvin and Hobbes...

Candy-Terry Southern...

Leviticus-The Bible

 

[Latina]

To wash away stress, I love P.G. Wodehouse. Silly, charming, bumbling British aristocrats. Especially the series with fuzzy-minded Lord Emsworth and the Empress of Blandings (the empress is Lord Emsworth's prize-winning pet pig, so that should give you a clue what these books are like). I don't care as much for Wodehouse's most famous character, Jeeves (the butler to golf-nut Bertie Wooster), although the Jeeves books are ALSO funny and charming in their own way.

Wodehouse's great romantic advice for ladies, in the Emsworth books: bash the guy over the head with a lamp or a pot (enough to knock him out, but not so much as to actually hurt him), and be the one leaning over him and kissing him when he revives. Makes him fall in love with her every time, or so these books say.

And then there's Gallahad Threepwood, Lord Emsworth's rascally brother. He and the British aristocracy got up to all sorts of mischief as young men, and members of the House of Lords are forever trying to stop Sir Gallahad from publishing his memoirs about them. Usually he agrees, in return for some nobleman's son agreeing to marry some pathetic young lady who is madly infatuated with him.

These books are set in the Roaring Twenties/Art Deco era, and very much have that era's feel to them.

You can't be stressed after reading these books!

-- Latina

 

[Dragonlady]

MY favorite authors are....Joanne Lindsey-Romance.....Dean Kootz-Horror.....These are my favorites so far but then these are what I'm into for now.Ilove to be romanced and scared its fun and it takes all the stress away too. MIght aswell laugh at your self too...



Happy Reading
DL
http://smilecwm.tripod.com/asian3/pmimioja.gif

 

[Weird Harold]

The North and South trilogy by John Jakes is a riveting read that always takes me away from current stresses.

The Earth's Children series by Jane Auel (Clan of the cave bear, Valley of horses, Mammoth Hunters, and Plains of Passage) is another good read to make you forget the present.

If you can find a copy, Dance of the Tiger by Bjorn Kurten is an interesting hypothosis on the demise of Neandertal man disguised as a good story.

(Bet you thought I was going to recommend some Fantasy or SF. )

 

[CelestialBody]

 

[RonG]

Erleichda

I am another Tom Robbins fan for mind candy. Others in no particular order
Fractured Fairy Tales by A.J. Jacobs from the old Bullwinkle show
Anything by Richard Brautigan, especially Trout Fishing In America (I have always wanted to purchase a trout stream by the foot)
Short stories by Bret Harte or Mark Twain
But the best work I have ever found to take me out of my reality is Cane by Jean Toomer. A sample of poetry from "November Cotton Flower"
" . . .Such was the season when the flower bloomed
Old folks were startled, and it soon assumed
Significance. Superstition saw
Something it had never seen before:
Brown eyes that loved without a trace of fear,
Beauty so sudden for that time of year."

 

[Samuari]

Right now I'm rereading Spider Robinson's Callahan anthologies. Brilliant writing and funny as well. Admeral Bob is always good to escape with, as well.

 

[Svedish_Chef]

Contact by Carl Sagan
Dark rivers of the heart by Dean Koontz

 

[April]

One of my favorite topics, Jade. Too bad I haven't been reading much lately. Try the series by Janet Evanovich. Mystery mixed with some sex, and you will LYAO! They will definitely make you feel better about your life.

One For The Money
Two For The Dough
Three To Get Deadly
Four To Score
High Five
Hot Six

 

[Cheri]

I knew there was something about you I liked!

So Ron, what do you think? Does Sirius C exist and can a monkey be born again? I've got to get my mitts on Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates!

 

[Countess DeWinter]

MY favorite authors are....Joanne Lindsey-Romance.....Dean Kootz-Horror.....


I have every book both of those talented authors have ever written and often re-read them (I tend to let the story develop after I knew who killed who or who sleeps with whom )
I also love early Robin Cook and Jonathan Kellerman is to-die-for, but that may be just because I'm currently a psychology student...still, he's a damn good writer.
I also love history, especially medieval english history. I can read about William the Conqueror or Eleanor of Aquitaine or Henry VIII all night *sigh* But maybe that's just me
But for sheer escapism -- I hop over to the amateur story submissions right here and let my fingers do the walking...some are pretty good, some are downright masterpieces!

 

[CreamyLady]

In This House of Brede and An Episode of Sparrows, both by Rumer Godden.

 

[insideShiraz]

Okay, from the Vault for Jade...

Knulp, by...well ask Ron

Beneath the Wheel-by Soupy Sales

Frankenstein-Mary Shelley

Ecclesiastes: I've done Everything under the Sun, but it's all just striving after the Wind...by the wisest man in the World, after Life wuz fading...