30 Very Funny Books--Seriously It's a dreary day, so I thought I'd indulge myself and come up with a list of my favorite comedies. A caveat, however: this is not a fancy English-professor-y list of the finest, most exquisitely crafted, most erudite or intellectually sophisticated works on paper in the language. This is a list of the books that make me laugh until my mascara starts to run. These are books to read over your first cup of coffee or just before you go to sleep . Remember: a day you've laughed is day you haven't wasted--even if you didn't get out of bed. Some days you need a jump-start to get to the funny parts of life. You've probably heard of most of these titles, and maybe you've already read several of them. You ready? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. And of course this is just the beginning.
40 Places for College Students to Find Free Unabridged Books Online Jul 11, 2011 The cost of books can add up quickly for college students. Fortunately, there are a lot of great sites that offer free unabridged books online. Here are 40 of the best places to find free textbooks, audio books and full-text works of fiction and nonfiction. Bartleby - Bartleby has one of the best collections of literature, verse and reference books that can be accessed online for no charge. Where to Find Free Audio Books Online The following websites offer free audio books online. Audio Literature Odyssey - Complete and unabridged novels, poems, short stories and literary podcasts read by voice actor Nikolle Doolin.
15 Books You Should Have Read in 2010 - Culture - GOOD - StumbleUpon Image by Jane Mount, Courtesy 20x200 Yes, we read Freedom this year and yes, it was good. As Esquire put it, it “was one great slab of a book, at a time when most books have given up on greatness.” 1. Author: Stephen King Recommended by: Ben Jervey, Environment Editor Why read? 2. Author: George R.R. Recommended by: Morgan Clendaniel, Deputy Editor, GOOD Why read? 3. Author: Jan Gehl Recommended by: Alissa Walker, Contributing Editor, GOOD Why read? 4. Author: Tom Rachman Recommended by: Zach Frechette, Editor in Chief, GOOD Why read? 5. Author: Walter Van Tillburg Clark Recommended by: Cord Jefferson, Culture Editor, GOOD Why Read? 6. Author: Colum McCann Recommended by: Nicola Twilley, Food Editor, GOOD Why read? 7. Author: Diane Ravitch Recommended by: Liz Dwyer, Education Editor, GOOD Why read? 8. Author: Matthew B. Recommended by: Allan Chochinov, Editor in chief, Core77 Why read? 9. Author: Robert Caro Recommended by: Alex Marshall, Senior Fellow, The Regional Plan Association Why read? 10. 11.
The 13 scariest books of all time NOT written by Stephen King Yes, we all know King is the Sultan of Scare, and that books like The Shining, Salem's Lot, and It will make you quake in your fuzzy slippers. But here are 13 books that'll start the shivers while spreading the wealth. SILENCE OF THE LAMBS Thomas Harris This isn't the first time we'd meet the psychopathic Hannibal Lecter—that'd be Red Dragon—but it was the most eerie. And what's more, he wasn't the only serial baddie at work: Buffalo Bill took his share of trophies as Silence of the Lambs worked its way into the public's collective cerebral cortex. GHOST STORY Peter Straub Four men, comfortable in their middle-agedness, never speak of the young woman they killed 50 years before and buried in a watery grave. THE ROAD Cormac McCarthy DRACULA Bram Stoker It may be an oldie—one of the oldie-est, actually—but Stoker's Dracula is the fount from which incarnation of the modern vampire draws power. THE EXORCIST William Peter Blatty THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE Shirley Jackson THE CIPHER Kathe Koja
Your Favorites: 100 Best-Ever Teen Novels It's almost a cliche at this point to say that teen fiction isn't just for teens anymore. Just last year, the Association of American Publishers ranked Children's/Young Adult books as the single fastest-growing publishing category. Which is why we were only a little surprised to see the tremendous response that came in for this summer's Best-Ever Teen Fiction poll. A whopping 75,220 of you voted for your favorite young adult novels, blasting past the total for last year's science fiction and fantasy poll at, dare we say it, warp speed. And now, the final results are in. Selecting a manageable voting roster from among the more than 1,200 nominations that came in from readers wasn't easy, and we were happy to be able to rely on such an experienced panel of judges. Summer, like youth, is fleeting.
'One Day' chronicles a perfect connection between imperfect people - Baltimore Dating The recent release of the movie adaptation of the international bestseller One Day by David Nicholls was subject to reviews which by in large lamented that the motion picture failed to do the novel justice. Many critics accused the film of glossing over crucial chapters and trading the novel’s deft intertwining of humor and heartbreak for an uneven tone and well-meaning yet lackluster portrayals by Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess. The negative press is a bit disheartening given the film’s trailer provided snippets of what appeared to be an elegantly fluid representation of the book, likely to have piqued moviegoers’ interest. The novel chronicles twenty years of a relationship between two best friends who could also be soul mates. “You barely know me,” he says at one point. “I know the type,” she retorts. “The type?” “I’ve seen you, hanging round Modern Languages, braying at each other, throwing black-tie dinner parties …Yachting your way around the Med in the long hols, ra ra ra…”
Top Ten Best Novels You've Never Heard Of Or perhaps you have. Yet the following list, laid out in no particular order (with the exception of Number 1), is relatively obscure: Nothing is as it seems under the sharp western sun. 10. Published in 1995, this is James Salter’s fourth novel — a novel as real, as poetic, and as heartbreakingly beautiful as anything I’ve ever read. 9. By Fydor Dostoevsky. 8. Tom Drury’s fourth novel, published in 2006, is intelligent, endearing, funny — though perhaps a little too farcical — and contains an exceptionally likable hero named Pierre Hunter. The final novel by Chilean novelist Roberto Bolaño, who, in 2004, died somewhat mysteriously at the young age of fifty. 2666 is a strange and sprawling novel — not quite one thousand pages — which depicts, among many other things, the unsolved murders of over 300 young, poverty-stricken, uneducated Mexican women in Ciudad Juárez. 6. 5. 4. Many regard Truman Capote as America’s finest stylist, and I think there’s a good reason why. 3. 2. 1.
The Staff Recommends: The Lover’s Dictionary Recommended by John Warner I have to be honest. This book had two strikes against it. One, it looked gimmicky, a novel told as a series of dictionary entries written by one lover addressed to another. Very clever, but I’d seen clever before, and clever, by itself, is not so interesting. Two, it was described in the press materials as “romantic.” I’m still waiting. Point being, there’s reasons for the skepticism. But The Lover’s Dictionary won me over completely. One reason is the structure, which is no gimmick, but instead allows a strategy of oblique storytelling to emerge, where we come at incident slantwise, like an Emily Dickinson poem. Under the entry for “balk” we learn of a big step in the relationship: “I was the one who said we should live together. Also, the prose. And last, the romance. I started reading the book as a cynic. John Warner is the editor of The Staff Recommends and the author of Fondling Your Muse: Infallible Advice From a Published Author to the Writerly Aspirant.