The Ultimate RAB book list

This represents a summary of all books recommended, mostly in rec.arts.books, that I've saved the recommendation for. The list spans three years, and includes other book lists. The listings span the range from banned (or attempts made) books to those recommended for children, current bedside reading to books that changed someone's life. The only consistent feature of the books on this list is that someone posted on the net that they recommended it for some purpose. Almost all of the books present are ones I haven't read (which is probably what prompted me to save the note!) and some are books I've read and didn't like much. But, since others do, they're here. The list is somewhere over 1250 books long. You should be able to find something interesting here.

Authors A-F are here
Part 2 of the Long List
Part 3 of the Long List

Robert Grumbine bobg@radix.net
Last Modified 4 February 1996.


?                         Forresy Gump
?Paulos                   Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy
A History of Their Own, a history of European Women, Vol. 1
Abbey, Edward             Desert Solitaire 
Achebe                    Things Falls Apart
Acker, Kathy              Literal Madness 
Ackerman, Diane           A Natural History of the Senses
Ackroyd, Peter            Chatterton 
Adams, Douglas            Dirk Gently books
Adams, Douglas            Hitchhiker series
Adams, Henry              From Mt. St.Michel to Chartres
Adams, James	          Conceptual blockbusting
Agee, James               A Death in the Family
Aiken, Joan.              The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
Al-Daffa, Ali Abdullah    The Muslim Contribution to Mathematics
Alexander, Lloyd          Prydain series
Alexander, Lloyd          The Philadelphia adventure
Algren, Nelson            Somebody In Boots
Allende, Isabel           The House of the Spirits
Allison, Dorothy          Bastard Out of Carolina
Alther, Lisa              Original Sins
Amado, Jorge              Tent of Miracles
Amis, Kingsley            Lucky Jim
Anderson, James           The Affair of the Blood-stained Tea Cosy
Anderson, Poul            Tau Zero
Anderson, Poul            Fire Time
Andrews, Lynn V.          Medicine Woman
Angelou, Maya             I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Anthony, Piers            Xanth series
Appelfeld, Aharon         For every sin  
Appelfeld, Aharon         The immortal Bartfuss 
Appelfeld, Aharon         To the land of the cattails
Aristotle	              Meteorologica  PA3893, 3393
Armstrong, Sir Alexander  A Personal Narrative of the Discovery of the North-West Passage:   With Numerous Incidents of Travel and Adventure During Nearly Five Years Continuous Service in the Arctic Regions While in Search of the Expedition Under Sir John Franklin
Arthur Islas              Migrant Souls
Asimov, Isaac             Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation
Asimov, Isaac             Futuredays
Asimov, Isaac             I Robot
Atwood, Margaret          The Edible Woman 
Atwood, Margaret          The Handmaid's Tale
Auel, Jean			      Clan of the Cave Bear
Austen, Jane              Mansfield Park 
Austen, Jane              Persuasion
Austen, Jane              Pride and Prejudice 
Auster, Paul              In the Country of Last Things
Auster, Paul              The New York Trilogy
Averill, Lloyd            Religious Right, Religious Wrong 
Bach, Richard             Illusions
Bagley, Desmond           Running Blind by Desmond Bagley.
Bair, Deirdre             Simone De Beauvoir: A Biography 
Baker, L.                 C Tools for scientists and engineers
Baker, L.	              More C Tools for scientists and engineers
Baker, Nicholson          VOX
Baker, Robert A. (ed.)    A Stress Analysis of a strapless evening gown
Baker, Russell			  Growing Up
Baldwin, James            Another Country
Banks, Russel             The Sweet Hereafter
Banks, Russell            Continental Drift
Banville, John            The Book of Evidence
Barash, David             The Hare and the Tortoise 
Baring, Maurice           Puppet Show of Memory 
Barker, Clive             The Damnation Game
Barker, Clive             The Great And Secret Show
Barker, Clive             WeaveWorld
Barker, Pat               Union Street
Barnard and Skillicorn	  Effective fortran 77 for engineers and scientists
Barnum, P. T.             Struggles and Triumphs 
Barr, William             Overland to Starvation Cove: With the Inuit in Search of Franklin
Barron, Neil, et al.      What Do I Read Next? A Reader's Guide to Current Genre Fiction
Barrow, John D.           Pi in the Sky (Counting, Thinking, and Being)
Barrow, John D.           Theories of Everything
Barry, Dave               Bad Habits
Barry, Dave               Dave Barry Talks Back
Barry, Dave               Greatest Hits
Bartusiak, Marcia         Thursday's Universe
Basri, Saul A.            A deductive theory of Space-Time
Bauer, Henry H.           Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method
Bausch, Richard           Spirits
Beadell, Len              Too Long in the Bush
Beagel, Peter S.          The Last Unicorn
Beagle, Peter             The Folk of the Air
Beattie, Owen             Frozen in Time
Becker, Ernest            The Denial of Death
Bede, The Venerable       Ecclesiastical History of English People
Beechey, Frederick W.     Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Bering's Strait, to Cooperate with the Polar Expeditions 
Bellamy, Guy              The Nudists
Bellow, Saul              Herzog
Benchley, Robert	      The Benchley reader
Bender, Sue               Plain and Simple 
Benton, Pierre            The Arctic Grail
Berger, Tom               Little Big Man
Bergson, Henri            Creative Evolution
Berman, Morris            The Reenchantment of the World 
Bernhard, Thomas          Gathering Evidence
Bester, Alfred            The Demolished Man
                          Bhagavadgita
Bharati Mukherjee         The Middleman
Bhaskar, Roy              A realist theory of science
Bhatia, Rajendra          Perturbation bounds for Matrix Eigenvalues
Bishop, Jerry E. & Michael Waldholz   Genome
Bishop, Michael           No Enemy But Time
Bishop, Michael           Who made Stevie Crye? 
Bisson, Terry             Talking Man
Black, Arthur             Arthur, Arthur!
Blatty, William Peter     The Exorcist
Blish, James              Cities in Flight (Collective title for 4 books, Earthman Come Home is the best)
Block, Lawrence           Bernie Rhodenbarr (detective)
Boden, Margaret           Artificial Intelligence and Natural Man
Bolt, Robert              A Man for All Seasons
Book-of-the-Month Club    The Well-Stocked Bookcase: Sixty Enduring Novels by Americans Published Between 1926-1986
Boorstin, Daniel          The Creators
Borges, Jorge Luis        Labyrinths
Borthwick, J. S.          Sarah Deane (detective)
Boswell, James            The Life of Johnson
Boswell, John             Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality 
Boswell, John             The Awful Truth about Publishing
Bova, Ben (ed.)           SF Hall of Fame volume IIb
Bowles, Peter             Under the Sheltering Sky
Boyer, Carl               History of Mathematics, 2nd ed.
Boyle, T. Coraghessan     Budding Prospects
Boyle, T. Coraghessan     The Road to Wellville 
Boyle, T. Coraghessan     Water Music
Boyle, Thomas			  Only the Dead Know Brooklyn
Bradbury, Malcolm         Cuts 
Bradbury, Ray             A Graveyard for Lunatics
Bradbury, Ray             Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray             Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray             most short story collections
Bradbury, Ray             Something Wicked This Way Comes
Bradbury, Ray             The Martian Chronicles
Bradley, Marion Z.        Darkover series
Bradley, Marion Zimmer    Heirs of Hammerfell 
Bradley, Marion Zimmer    The Mists of Avalon 
Braun, L. J.              The Cat Who Knew Shakespeare
Brautigan, Richard        The Hawkline Monster 
Brecht, Bertold           Galileo
Breslin, Jimmy            World Without End, Amen
Brett, Simon              Charles Paris (detective)
Bridge, Ann               Illyrian Spring 
Briggs, Jean L.           Never in Anger: Portrait of an Eskimo Family
Brin, David               Earth  
Brin, David               Startide Rising
Brin, David               The Uplift War
Bronner, Simon J.         Piled Higher and Deeper: The folklore of campus life
Bronowski, Jacob          The Ascent of Man, Little, Brown and Co., Boston, 1973
Bronte, Charlotte         Jane Eyre 
Bronte, Charlotte         Villette
Bronte, Emily             Wuthering Heights
Broughton, Richard        Parapsychology: The controversial Science
Brown, Rita Mae           Rest In Pieces 
Brown, Rita Mae           Starting from Scratch
Brown, Rita Mae           Wish You Were Here 
Bruce Chatwin             The Songlines
Brunner, John             Stand on Zanzibar
Brunner, John             The Sheep Look Up 
Bryant, Dorothy           Confessions of Madame Psyche
Bryson, Bill              The Lost Continent
Buchwald, Art             You _can_ fool all of the people all of the time
Budrys, A. (ed.)          Writers of the Future anthology, Vol 6.
Buechner, Georg           Complete works
Bujold, Lois M.           Borders of infinity, Miles Vorkosigian series
Bujold, Lois M.           Brothers in Arms, Miles Vorkosigian series 
Bujold, Lois M.           Shards of Honor (op) Miles Vorkosigian series 
Bujold, Lois M.           The Vor Game Miles Vorkosigian series
Bujold, Lois M.           The Warrior Apprentice, Miles Vorkosigian series
Bukowski, Charles         Ham on Rye 
Bull, Emma                Falcon
Burgess, Anthony          A Clockwork Orange
Burgess, Anthony          The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby's End
Burgess, Anthony          The Kingdom of the Wicked 
Burnford, Shiela          One Woman's Arctic
Burroughs, William        Naked Lunch
Bush, Vannevar            Pieces of My Mind...
Buzan, T.                 Make the most of your mind
Buzan, T.                 Use Both sides of your brain
Byatt, A.S.               Possession
Cadigan, Pat              Fools 
Cahill, Tim               A wolverine is eating my leg
Calasso, Roberto          The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony
Calder, N.                Time Scale
Caldwell, Joseph          The Uncle from Rome
Callenbach, Ernst         Ecotopia
Calvin, William H.        The Ascent of Mind: Ice Age Climates and the Evolution of Intelligence
Calvino, Italo            If On A Winter's Night A Traveller 
Campbell, Joseph          Myths to Live By
Campbell, Joseph          The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Campbell, Joseph          The Masks of God: Creative Mythology
Campbell, Ramsey          The Doll Who Ate His Mother
Camus, Albert             The Plague
Camus, Albert             The Stranger
Camuti, L. J.             All of my patients are under the bed
Cantor, Norman            Medieval Lives 
Capote, Truman			  In Cold Blood
Card, Orson Scott         Alvin Maker series
Card, Orson Scott         Ender's Game
Card, Orson Scott         Songmaster
Card, Orson Scott         The Folk of the Fringe
Carlyle, Thomas           The French Revolution vols. 1 & 2 
Carrier, Roch             La Guerre
Carrier, Roch             Yes Sir!
Carroll, Jonathan         The Land of Laughs, Bones of the Moon
Carroll, Lewis            Alice in Wonderland 
Carroll, Lewis            Through the Looking Glass
Carson, Clarence          Basic History of the United States
Carson, Rachel	          The sense of wonder
Carter, Angela            Wise Children 
Carter, Stephen L.        The Culture of Disbelief
Cartwright, Nancy         How the laws of physics lie
Carvic, Heron             Odds on Miss Seeton
Carvic, Heron             Picture Miss Seeton 
Cary, Lorene	          Black Ice
Castenatos, Carlos        The Teachings of Don Juan, A Yaqui Way of Knowledge
Cather, Willa             My Antonia
Caunitz, Thomas J.        One Police Plaza
Cervantes                 Don Quixote
Chabon, Michael           The Mysteries of Pittsburg
Chalmers, Alan            Science and its fabrication
Chalmers, Alan            What is this thing called Science
Charnas, Suzy M.          Walk to the End of the World & The Vampire ??
Charnas, Suzy McKee       The golden thread
Charnas, Suzy McKee       The Vampire Tapestry
Chatwin, Bruce            On the Black Hill 
Cheney, D. L. and R. M. Seyfarth  How Monkeys See the World
Cherryh, C. J.            Downbelow Station
Cherryh, C. J.            The Faded Sun
Chomsky, Noam             Language and Politics
Chrichton, Michael        The Andromeda Strain
Churchill, Winston        Marlborough: his life and times
Cisneros, Sandra          The House on Mango Street 
Cisneros, Sandra          Woman Hollering Creek & Other Stories
Clancy, Tom               Clear and Present Danger
Clancy, Tom               The Hunt for Red October
Clark, Mary Higgins       A Stranger is Watching
Clarke, Arthur C.         Astounding Days
Clarke, Arthur C.         Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.         Rendezvous with Rama 
Claster, Jill             The Medieval Experience 
Clavell, James            Gai-Jin 
Clavell, James            Shogun
                          Climate and History	
Codrescu, Andrei (ed.)    Up Late: American Poetry Since 1970
Coe, Michael              Breaking the Maya Code
Coleman and Van Loan	  Handbook for Matrix computations
Coles, Robert             Children of Crisis  Vol. I
Colette                   The Vagabond
Collea, Beth Ann          A selected bibliography on native American astronomy 
Collins, Jackie	          Hollywood Wives
Collins, Larry and Dominique Lapierre  Is Paris Burning?
Collins, Nancy            Sunglasses after Dark
Collins, W.               The Moonstone & The Woman in White 
Comnena, Anna 	          The Alexiad
Connell, Evan             Son of the Morning Star
Conrad, Joseph            Heart of Darkness
Conrad, Joseph            The Secret Sharer
                          Conversations with Goethe  
Cooper, Susan             The Dark Is Rising series
Copass, Jake              It Don't Hurt to Laugh 
Corbett, Scott            The Lemonade Trick, etc. 
Coren, Alan               Speeches of President Amin
Crichton, Michael         Jurassic Park
Crichton, Robert          The Secret of Santa Vittoria
Crispin, Edmund           Gervase Fen (detective)
Crosby, Alfred	          Biological Expansion of Europe 900-1900
Cross, Amanda             The Theban Mysteries 
Crossan, John Dominic     The Historical Jesus
Crowley, John             Little, Big
Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly  Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Culbertson, Eli           Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying
cummings, e. e.           Poems 1923-1954  
Cuppy, Will               How to Attract a Wombat
Cuppy, Will               How to become extinct
Curtis, Richard           Beyond the Bestseller
Dahl, Roald               Switch Bitch 
Daitch, Susan             The Colorist 
Dalley, Stephanie         Myths from Mesopotamia: Creation, The Flood, Gilgamesh and Others_
Daly, Herman E.           Steady State Economics
Daniels, Peter            The Incas
Dante                     Purgatory
Darwin, Charles           The Origin of Species
Darwin, Charles           The Voyage of the Beagle
Davenport, Guy            Tatlin 
Davie, George             The Crisis in the Democratic Intellect
Davie, George             The Democratic Intellect
Davies, Robertson         Fifth Business 
Davies, Robertson         The Lyre of Orpheus
Davies, Robertson         Tempest Tost
Davies, Robertson         The Deptford Trilogy  
Davies, Robertson         World of Wonders
Davis & Hersh             The Mathematical Experience
Davis, Miles              Miles: Autobiography
Davis, N. Z.              The Return of Martin Guerre 
Davis, Wade               The Serpent and the Rainbow
Dawkins, Richard          Blind Watchmaker
Dawkins, Richard          Extended Phenotype
Dawkins, Richard          Selfish Gene
De Mille, James           A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder
de Chardin, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin - The Phenomenon of Man
Debin, David              Nice Guys Finish Dead  
Deighton, Len             Spy Hook
Del Rey, Lester           Nerves
Delaney                   4 novels set in Neveryon 
Delaney, Samuel R.        The Motion of Light in Water 
Delillo, Don              White Noise
DeMille, Nelson	          Gold Coast
Dennett, Daniel           Consciousness Explained
DeVries, Peter            Chick Swallow novels
Dexter, Colin             The Way Through the Woods
Diamond, Sara             Spiritual Warfare: The politics of the Christian Right
Dick, Philip K.           Solar Lottery
Dick, Philip K.           The World Jones Made
Dick, Philip K.           The Man in the High Castle  
Dickens, Charles          A Tale of Two Cities
Dickens, Charles          Bleak House
Dickens, Charles          Great Expectations
Dickey, James             Anthelum (sic)
Dickson, Carter           Sir Henry Merrivale (detective)
Dillard, Annie            Holy The Firm 
Dinesen, Isak             Anecdotes of Destiny
Diop, Cheikh Anta         The African Origin of Civilization: myth or reality
Diski, Jenny              Nothing Natural
Doctorow, E. L.           Billy Bathgate
Doctorow, E. L.           Ragtime
Dodge, Jim                Stone Junction  
Doerr, Harriet            Stones for Ibarra
Donaldson, Stephen R.     The Mirror of Her Dreams
Donaldson, Stephen        Lord Foul's Bane
Donaldson, Stephen R.     Thomas Covenant - series 1
Dorris, Michael           A Yellow Raft in Blue Water
Dorris, Michael		      The Broken Cord
Dostoevsky                The Idiot
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor       Crime and Punishment 
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor       Notes from Underground
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor       The Brothers Karamazov
Doyle, Arthur Conan       Sherlock Holmes stories
Dozois, G. (ed.)          The Year's Best Science Fiction (1989)
Drescher, Gary            Made-up minds 
Drieser, Theodore         Sister Carrie
Duane, Diane              Doctor's orders
Duane, Diane              Wizardry series
Dubus, Andre              Selected Stories 
Duncan, David James       The River Why
Dunnett, Dorothy          The Unicorn Hunt 
Durrell, Lawrence (?)     Tunc 
Dyson, Freeman            Infinite in all directions
Eargle                    Handbook of Recording Engineering
Eco, Umberto              Focault's Pendulum 
Eco, Umberto              Name of the Rose
Eddings, David            The Belgariad
Eddison, E.R.             The Worm Ouroboros
Edgerton, Clyde           Walking Across Egypt
Egan, Timothy             The Good Rain
Elgin	                  The last word on the gentle art of verbal self defense
Eliot, George             Adam Bede
Eliot, George             Middlemarch
Eliot, George             Silas Marner
Ellison, Harlan (ed.)     Again Dangerous Visions 
Ellison, Harlan (ed.)     Dangerous Visions
Ellison, Harlan           Angry Candy (anthology)
Ellison, Harlan           Deathbird stories
Ellison, Harlan           most short story collections
Ellison, Ralph            Invisible Man
Ellman, Richard           Oscar Wilde
Ellroy, James             White Jazz
Elroy, James              The Big Nowhere
Engh, M.C.                Arslan
Erdrich, Louise	          Love Medicine
Erdrich, Louise           The Beet Queen
Esquivez                  Como agua para chocolate  (ie, Like Water for Chocolate)
                          Explaining Science_: A Cognitive Approach
Fadiman, C.               The Lifetime Reading Plan
Fairbank, John            The Great Chinese Revolution (1800-1980) 1985
Falk, Deane               Braindance
Farina, Richard           Been Down So Long, It Looks Like Up To Me
Faulkner, William         Intruder in the Dust
Faulkner, William         Light in August 
Fergusson, Bruce          The mace of souls 
Fergusson, Bruce          The shadow of his wings 
Ferris, T.                Coming of Age in the Milky Wa
Feyerabend, Paul          Against Method
Feyerabend, Paul          Farewell to Reason
Feynman, Richard          QED (Quantum Electrodynamics)
Feynman, Richard          The character of Physical Law
Feynman, Richard          What do you care what other people think?
Fiedel, Stuart J.         Prehistory of the Americas
Fielding, Henry           Tom Jones
Findlay, Timothy          Famous Last Words
Finney, Jack              The Body-Snatchers
Fish, Robert L            Death Cuts the Deck
Fisher, M. F. K.          Consider the Oyster 
Fisher, M. F. K.          The Art of Eating, omnibus of five books
Fitzgerald, F. Scott      The Great Gatsby
Flaubert, Gustave         The Letters of Gustav Flaubert
Flaubert, Gustave         The Temptation of St Anthony
Fleming, J. R.            Guide to Historical Resources in meteorology. NCAR Tech. Note 327, Jan 1989
Flesch, Rudolf            The art of readable writing
Flynn, Michael            In the Country of the Blind
Foner, Eric & John Garraty  The Reader's Companion to American History
Forster, E. M.            A Passage to India
Forster, E. M.            A Room with a Veiw
Forster, E. M.            Aspects of the Novel
Foster, Alan Dean         Maori
Fowles, John              The French Lieutenant's Woman
Fowles, John              The Magus
Francis, DIck             Proof
Francis, Dick             Bolt
Francis, Richard          Swansong 
Frank, Milo	              How to get your point across in 30 seconds or less
Frankowski                Lord Conrad's Lady
Frazier, Ken              Paranormal Borderlands of Science
Freeberg, Stan            It Only hurts when I laugh
Freedman, Samuel	      Small Victories	
Friedman, Bonnie          Writing Past Dark
Friedman, Kinky           Elvis, Jesus and Coca-cola
Friedman, Thomas L.       From Beirut to Jerusalem  
Froissart, Jean           The Chronicles
Frost, Robert             North of Boston
Frye, Northrop            The Bush Garden 
Futuyma, Douglas J.       Science on Trial: The Case for Evolution

Part 2 of the Long List
Part 3 of the Long List
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