Good Books

[the protege]

To james morrison, you must be a masochist to read kJV!

I would push you to read "War and Peace" by Tolstoy. It truly is a masterpiece. It shows you so much about the Russian- European world at that time. He is one of the greatest writers of all time. Not to mention, it is quite an undertaking, so when you finish, you feel as though you have really accomplished something.

There are quite a few good books out there. But Tolstoy is amongst my favorites. I still haven't read Anna Karenina.

The Obsidian Trilogy is a big thing amongst some of my friends, and they read everything, they turned me onto Tolstoy. They keep pushing me to check it out.

 

[WoW maannnn]

To james morrison, you must be a masochist to read kJV!

... its not that bad imho.

 

[Tarkus]

If you are a hunter or fisher you cant pass up Patrick F McManus. The books are collections of stories he writes for various publications.

McManus is hilarious!! They are great books to read when you are in the bathroom, because they are little short stories. My favorites books are the first 5, they are some of the first books I really wanted to read as a child, and I have read them about a thousand times. All the same characters pretty much and they are just wacky.

It seems like the book I always suggest is Dune. I love it, great book, great series, great prequels. Good all around.

 

[Guest]

To james morrison, you must be a masochist to read kJV!

It's got everything - fiction, racism, violence, religious intolerance, sexual assault, comedy and more than a few heaping shovel fulls of bullsh*t. What's not to like???

I would push you to read "War and Peace" by Tolstoy. It truly is a masterpiece. It shows you so much about the Russian- European world at that time. He is one of the greatest writers of all time. Not to mention, it is quite an undertaking, so when you finish, you feel as though you have really accomplished something.

Ah, but to appreciate Tolstoy, he really should be read as follows;

In the original Cyrillic

By candlelight

In a cold, drafty room

Wearing threadbare clothes

Starving to death

With a cataract in one eye

Back to front, mirror image, inverted, underwater, myopic and dyslexic

But once yer done -



(J/K)

ws

 

[marx2k]

Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
http://books.google.com/books?id=Ln...n&btnG=Search&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title#PPA38,M1

 

[VictoryGardener]

The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway

 

[idontgivenames]

It's got everything - fiction, racism, violence, religious intolerance, sexual assault, comedy and more than a few heaping shovel fulls of bullsh*t. What's not to like???


Ah, but to appreciate Tolstoy, he really should be read as follows;

In the original Cyrillic

By candlelight

In a cold, drafty room

Wearing threadbare clothes

Starving to death

With a cataract in one eye

Back to front, mirror image, inverted, underwater, myopic and dyslexic

But once yer done -



(J/K)

ws

don't read the bible unless it's in hebrew, aeramaeic or greek. otherwise you're going to get alot of misconceptions. but tolstoy it most likely will be, i just don't know if i can sit th roughanother 1500 page book.

 

[Guest]

don't read the bible unless it's in hebrew, aeramaeic or greek. otherwise you're going to get alot of misconceptions.

lol

That's a given - although the various typos in the latin translation are a hoot...

Those Dark Ages monks sure knew how to throw in the odd joke, too...

Ceasar to Cleo :"veni".

ws

 

[marx2k]

Heh, if it gets anyone to read "Johnny Got His Gun", Metallica's One video had clips on the movie in it (black/white movie of dude in a hospital; bed, no arms, legs etc, praying for death) - based on this short book.

Amazing anti-war book.

You can read it online from the link I posted.

 

[qwerty]

The Art of War - SunTzu

ws

'nuff said.

CwurT

 

[qwerty]

Altho, I am fixing to go get The Traveler's Gift, which I hear is very good...

 

[NserUame]

Anything by Kurt Vonnegut or Jack Kerouac. Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is a very interesting book about the return of magic to England (set during the Napoleonic Wars). Also gotta throw in my favorite novel series, The Dark Tower.

I'm sure others have said it already, but stay away from Tolstoy, believe me it doesn't live up to the hype.

 

[James Morrison]

don't read the bible unless it's in hebrew, aeramaeic or greek. otherwise you're going to get alot of misconceptions.

ummm...re-read what you typed
the old testiment was in hebrew and some aeramaeic, the new in greek

as for english versions, the kjv 1611 stands the test of time, its tried and true// it was compiled and translated by 0ver 50 of the world greatest schoolars...unlike the corrupted versions since made//allthough there are some that also have the greek and hebrew translations alongside

what is called "the Holy Bible" is actually a collection of scriptures written by over 40 authors over a 3,000 year period// it is a work of supernatural orgin and unbeliveable design
The KJV stands the test of time
.(.also if you are filled with the holy spirit, and you approach the bible with an honest open heart, and you truely and diligently seek the truth through the scripture, there will be no misconceptions.
..and that being said, I can totally understand where the masochist comment comes from/ I call it conviction

 

[idontgivenames]

ummm...re-read what you typed
the old testiment was in hebrew and some aeramaeic, the new in greek

as for english versions, the kjv 1611 stands the test of time, its tried and true// it was compiled and translated by 0ver 50 of the world greatest schoolars...unlike the corrupted versions since made//allthough there are some that also have the greek and hebrew translations alongside

what is called "the Holy Bible" is actually a collection of scriptures written by over 40 authors over a 3,000 year period// it is a work of supernatural orgin and unbeliveable design
The KJV stands the test of time
.(.also if you are filled with the holy spirit, and you approach the bible with an honest open heart, and you truely and diligently seek the truth through the scripture, there will be no misconceptions.
..and that being said, I can totally understand where the masochist comment comes from/ I call it conviction

lol, i see evangelicals talking in tongues claiming they truely understand the bible. if they understood anything, they'd know 80 books were cut out by the catholics so technically if you're reading the new testament it's hard to know everything the bible was supposed to say. not only that, but it is very hard to translate hebrew to english. the language has no letter vowels and often enough words are misinterpreted. take satan for example, in old hebrew means "the accused." that certainly changes alot, so it should be read in hebrew. not only that, but all copies of the torah written in hebrew were copied exactly as the previous and if they were even one letter off they were destroyed.

 

[James Morrison]

lol, i see evangelicals talking in tongues claiming they truely understand the bible. if they understood anything, they'd know 80 books were cut out by the catholics so technically if you're reading the new testament it's hard to know everything the bible was supposed to say. not only that, but it is very hard to translate hebrew to english. the language has no letter vowels and often enough words are misinterpreted. take satan for example, in old hebrew means "the accused." that certainly changes alot, so it should be read in hebrew. not only that, but all copies of the torah written in hebrew were copied exactly as the previous and if they were even one letter off they were destroyed.

I agree that if you are following corrupt translations written in the past 100 years or so and letting mans doctorine guide you then unfortunate missunderstandings and confusion festers its ugly head, hence like a wierdo claiming you are speaking the tongues of angels and other divisions that take people away from the true gospel of Jesus Christ

Im sorry friend but you are completely misinformed...the "catholics"??? lol 80 books? Now..catholics and their bible and thier entire ever changing doctorine for that matter are a totally different subject...literally,

as for the "Holy BIBLE"..lets have a quick history lesson

the Authorized King James Version was translated at a time when the english language was at its peak in complexity, think about it...shakespear man!

it was translated by the worlds best and brightest, handpicked, some spoke 15 languages, brilliant schollars. They based what they called the "holy bible" off of theire agreed translations of ancient Hebrew and ancient Greek (Greek being VERY straight forward BTW) based off the "the Septuagint"... or the "Koine Greek version of the Old Testament" translated in stages between the 3rd to 1st century BC in Alexandria. It is the oldest and most respected of several ancient translations of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. The name means "seventy" in Latin and derives from a tradition that seventy-two Jewish scholars (LXX being the nearest round number) translated the Pentateuch (or Torah) from Hebrew into Greek for one of the Ptolemaic kings, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, 285-246 before Christ. As the work of translation went on gradually, and new books were added to the collection, the compass of the Greek Bible came to be somewhat indefinite. The Pentateuch always maintained its pre-eminence as the basis of the canon; but the prophetic collection changed its aspect by having various hagiographa incorporated into it. Some of the newer works, those called anagignoskomena in Greek, are not included in the Hebrew canon. Among these books are Maccabees and the Wisdom of Ben Sira. Also, the Septuagint version of some works, like Daniel and Esther, are longer than the Hebrew. Several of the later books apparently were composed in Greek.
The Septuagint was held with great respect in ancient times; Philo and Josephus ascribed divine inspiration to its authors. It formed the basis of the Old Latin versions and is still used intact within Eastern Orthodoxy. Besides the Old Latin versions, Septuagint is also the basis for Gothic, Slavonic, old Syriac, old Armenian, and Coptic versions of the Old Testament. Of significance for all Christians and for bible scholars, the Septuagint is quoted by the Christian New Testament and by the Apostolic Fathers. While Jews have not used the Septuagint in worship or religious study since the second century AD, recent scholarship has brought renewed interest in it in Judaic Studies. Some of the Dead Sea scrolls attest to Hebrew texts other than those on which the Masoretic Text was based; amazingly, these newly found texts accord with the Septuagint version. The oldest surviving codices of Septuagint date to the fourth century AD...

The New Testament portion of the Holy Bible, the 1611 scholars used as the basis for their version was the "Textus Receptus" which was originally collated by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam and later improved by Sturnica, Robert Stephens, the Elzivirs and Beza's editions. The Renaissance of Europe produced the giant intellect and scholar, Erasmus. His crowning work was the New Testament in Greek. The first printed edition of the Greek New Testament in 1516 was completed by Erasmus and published by Johann Froben of Basel on March 1, 1516. Erasmus based his work on hundreds of manuscripts and only one of which was not of the Byzantine text-type. Six verses that were not witnessed in any of these souces, he back-translated from the Latin Vulgate, and he also introduced many readings from the Vulgate and Church Fathers. This text came to be known as the
"Textus Receptus" or "received text" after being thus termed by Bonaventura Elzevir, an enterprising publisher from the Netherlands, in his 1633 edition of Erasmus' text. The New Testament of the King James Version of the Bible was translated from selected editions of what was to eventually become the Textus Receptus.
Moreover, the text Erasmus chose had such an outstanding and rich history in the Greek, the Syrian, and the Waldensian Churches, the original churches, that it constituted an irresistible argument for, and proof of, God's Providence...
In all actuallity, the Textus Receptus, the Alexandrian text-type and the Byzantine text-type (which were actually found 600 years later and used by Wesscott and Hort in the late 1800's and has been the used text for all of the later new age Bible version (you know the bibles the tongue speakers use? lol) minus the castolic bible of course...) are still as much as 95% identical (that is, of the variations that occur in any manuscript, only 5% actually differ between these three)...but lets not get into wesscott and hort versions...after all the Bible says a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump

The KJV is as good as it gets, tried and true it has and will stand the test of time just like God said his word would....it was the first book ever mass produced and continues to be the most copied, distributed, sold and even read book in the entire world every year for a reason!!!!
AMEN!

 

[idontgivenames]

I agree that if you are following corrupt translations written in the past 100 years or so and letting mans doctorine guide you then unfortunate missunderstandings and confusion festers its ugly head, hence like a wierdo claiming you are speaking the tongues of angels and other divisions that take people away from the true gospel of Jesus Christ

Im sorry friend but you are completely misinformed...the "catholics"??? lol 80 books? Now..catholics and their bible and thier entire ever changing doctorine for that matter are a totally different subject...literally,

as for the "Holy BIBLE"..lets have a quick history lesson

the Authorized King James Version was translated at a time when the english language was at its peak in complexity, think about it...shakespear man!

it was translated by the worlds best and brightest, handpicked, some spoke 15 languages, brilliant schollars. They based what they called the "holy bible" off of theire agreed translations of ancient Hebrew and ancient Greek (Greek being VERY straight forward BTW) based off the "the Septuagint"... or the "Koine Greek version of the Old Testament" translated in stages between the 3rd to 1st century BC in Alexandria. It is the oldest and most respected of several ancient translations of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. The name means "seventy" in Latin and derives from a tradition that seventy-two Jewish scholars (LXX being the nearest round number) translated the Pentateuch (or Torah) from Hebrew into Greek for one of the Ptolemaic kings, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, 285-246 before Christ. As the work of translation went on gradually, and new books were added to the collection, the compass of the Greek Bible came to be somewhat indefinite. The Pentateuch always maintained its pre-eminence as the basis of the canon; but the prophetic collection changed its aspect by having various hagiographa incorporated into it. Some of the newer works, those called anagignoskomena in Greek, are not included in the Hebrew canon. Among these books are Maccabees and the Wisdom of Ben Sira. Also, the Septuagint version of some works, like Daniel and Esther, are longer than the Hebrew. Several of the later books apparently were composed in Greek.
The Septuagint was held with great respect in ancient times; Philo and Josephus ascribed divine inspiration to its authors. It formed the basis of the Old Latin versions and is still used intact within Eastern Orthodoxy. Besides the Old Latin versions, Septuagint is also the basis for Gothic, Slavonic, old Syriac, old Armenian, and Coptic versions of the Old Testament. Of significance for all Christians and for bible scholars, the Septuagint is quoted by the Christian New Testament and by the Apostolic Fathers. While Jews have not used the Septuagint in worship or religious study since the second century AD, recent scholarship has brought renewed interest in it in Judaic Studies. Some of the Dead Sea scrolls attest to Hebrew texts other than those on which the Masoretic Text was based; amazingly, these newly found texts accord with the Septuagint version. The oldest surviving codices of Septuagint date to the fourth century AD...

The New Testament portion of the Holy Bible, the 1611 scholars used as the basis for their version was the "Textus Receptus" which was originally collated by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam and later improved by Sturnica, Robert Stephens, the Elzivirs and Beza's editions. The Renaissance of Europe produced the giant intellect and scholar, Erasmus. His crowning work was the New Testament in Greek. The first printed edition of the Greek New Testament in 1516 was completed by Erasmus and published by Johann Froben of Basel on March 1, 1516. Erasmus based his work on hundreds of manuscripts and only one of which was not of the Byzantine text-type. Six verses that were not witnessed in any of these souces, he back-translated from the Latin Vulgate, and he also introduced many readings from the Vulgate and Church Fathers. This text came to be known as the
"Textus Receptus" or "received text" after being thus termed by Bonaventura Elzevir, an enterprising publisher from the Netherlands, in his 1633 edition of Erasmus' text. The New Testament of the King James Version of the Bible was translated from selected editions of what was to eventually become the Textus Receptus.
Moreover, the text Erasmus chose had such an outstanding and rich history in the Greek, the Syrian, and the Waldensian Churches, the original churches, that it constituted an irresistible argument for, and proof of, God's Providence...
In all actuallity, the Textus Receptus, the Alexandrian text-type and the Byzantine text-type (which were actually found 600 years later and used by Wesscott and Hort in the late 1800's and has been the used text for all of the later new age Bible version (you know the bibles the tongue speakers use? lol) minus the castolic bible of course...) are still as much as 95% identical (that is, of the variations that occur in any manuscript, only 5% actually differ between these three)...but lets not get into wesscott and hort versions...after all the Bible says a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump

The KJV is as good as it gets, tried and true it has and will stand the test of time just like God said his word would....it was the first book ever mass produced and continues to be the most copied, distributed, sold and even read book in the entire world every year for a reason!!!!
AMEN!

interesting, didnt know allof that. you seem to have done some reading it would seem. well, kjv was translated in the 1600's. i still doubt a hebrew to english translation of any text so critical. words like we sometimes come out as "us" (which at times can be very critical, and with christian scholars, expect it to be more likely biased) and some how i think if the kjv were exact word from the hebrew and greek texts, christianity would be non exsistant. I say this because Jesus was a Jew. Not only a Jew, but a rabbi. With proper interpretation, there would be no christian religions. But, as I was saying - the catholics also destroyed some 80 books describing a bunch of documents that leaned more towards gnosticism and were pretty anti-catholic. I'm pretty sure actually, they wereall destroyed specifically so they wouldnt be in KJV. My history is probably a little off, but I see no sense in an English bible, based on the Jewish religion, then used for the Christian religion, translated from Hebrew to english, and that it has been interpreted differently by some different scholars of today. There's too much static on the legitamacy of the translations.

Anyways, you still seem more knowledgable than myself in written research. But I hold my doubts and would take everything translated by idolatrists with a grain of salt. The message in the bible *any bible really* is still clear though and can be sort of "imbue the light". Just show love, look out for the scum bags of the world, praise the lord, and try never to do wrong to others. Think of it though, how can there be more than one version of one book based on one monotheistic religion (Judaism) to explain everything? If you ask me, the only proper one is the original. KJV, is not the original. It's the Christian bible.

 

[ngakpa]

Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain - my favourite

Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams

Bill Hicks on reading (particular skit starts about 3.30 mins in)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Moqet9YDq0Q
very rude - very, very funny




A list of great books
http://www.amazon.co.uk/A-Brief-Lis...cm_lm_byauthor_title_full/026-4825070-1969264

 

[fari]

The Bible is a path thru your life, you don't have to understand everything, you pick up what you need, and you will start to live...

 

[James Morrison]

Very sorry to hijack the thread with Bible studies 101

The giant thing most are unfortunately ignorant about today idontgivenames is the simple fact that the Old Test is the New Test concealed, and the New is the Old revealed. Meaning the entire Bible, all of it points to Christ, every single page, points to the messiah, the one to come, the innocent sinless lamb to be slain to accomlish something beyond human understanding...the savior for ALL human kind, Jews and Gentiles alike, through all history forever past, present, and future. "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ the Bible says." All the Old was a picture of the New. All the sacrifices and feast and tabernacles and wars even were pictures of things to come, was pictures of the Messiah, so things would happen how they did. Jesus himself was the most un-religious person that ever lived!
He showed the Jews their errors while explaining the law and truth according to their own scripture...yet they knew not their own scripture! They knew not what they did when they shed his blood...yet it ALL had to happen the way it did ALL according to scripture. They had to reject the messiah WHEN they did, WHERE they did, even HOW they did all according to scripture. Jesus fullfilled over 55 prophecies including bloodline and the very day he died!!! He was in control. If Jesus isnt the messiah then there never wil be one for reasons I wont get into here...but there was Praise God.
I tell you friend, The Jews missed their messiah, but they had to.

Its all an amazing plan of design and precision that is beyond matter and this physical universe...and our linear minds are limited in our capacity for knowledge and understanding, there are limits to what we can understand. God made it that way.

See' more went on at the cross then just some nails and some wood. It was the most complex, topical, controversial event in all history. Things went on in other places, other spaces, dimensions if you will, we will never comprehend it...it was the very climax of Gods ultimate plan of redemption for his children, ...a love-letter written in blood on a cross on a hill in Judea 2,000 years ago.