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any book recommendations? i love reading and i want more books to read and more recommendations. but only recommend not jewish books since i get them out from the library and theres no jewish library where i live.
Perhaps provide a genre you’re particularly interested in? Fiction, non-fiction? Adult, YA, children? Any particular author or series you currently like?
And bear in mind that I doubt the mods will be completely comfortable with people recommending non-Jewish, unsuitable novels on this forum. Just sayin’.
Here are some books I can confirm the existence of:
Where the Wild Things Are
Liar & Spy
Is Your Mama a Llama?
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
American Dictionary of the English Language
Okay, fair enough, I suppose. Still, it would be easier to give a good recommendation if you perhaps mentioned specific genres that you found interesting. For example, I might recommend Michael Lewis, JK Rowling, Malcolm Gladwell or Terry Pratchett, to pick some at random, but it would be very difficult to say which would suitably answer your question.
I like history and am currently enjoying The Return of George Washington 1783-1789 covering the years of his life between commander of the army and President by Edward J. Larson.
<in which somebody writes that *.* is not Kosher, and Sparkley writes that you can be frum even if you read it, although one day she won’t read it anymore…>
Yekke2:
Certainly I expect that to be the case. That’s why I’d ceased posting. Not as a protest vote, simply because I couldn’t engage with many of these threads, and even the ones I could engage in tended to veer off in a manner that irritated me. So I stopped bothering.
But I decided to, at least for a short period of time, be a little more proactive and try get involved in a meaningful way. Recommending each other interesting and suitable reading material is an interesting topic. So I engaged.
You’re probably right. Recent experience tells me this promising discussion will likely soon veer off course. And when it inevitably does, I’ll sink back into the ether. But for now, I’m going to give it the benefit of the doubt…
Yekke2, are you perhaps related to A A Milne?
Your comment brought his great body of work pleasantly to mind.
Of late, it seems he’d be a good author to recommend in these pages.
Its not the philosophers stone anymore, that was the old version. its the sorcerers stone.
Sparkly – I don’t think his comment was meant to be about you in particular, although I may have missed something.
Sparkly:
All I’ve done is agree that the chances are this promising discussion, that you have done well to start, will probably fulfil Yekke2’s prediction that it will veer off course into a far less interesting one. Chances are it will end up with how insulted you or others feel, with or without just cause, or about exactly what Yekke2 said it will be about.
You could always answer my question from earlier. I’d like to know what books you already like so we can suggest you ‘good books to read’. I went against my own better judgement to engage, and I now fear I was right to absent myself temporarily, and that Yekke2 was right in his prediction.
Prove us wrong.
Sparkly, I am not sure if you should be reading goyish books altogether, and I am certainly not giving a haskama to the reading of goyish books, so my words should NOT be taken that way, BUT if you do, and if you want to try to find books that are less treif, you would be better off in general sticking to older books.
You should try to avoid books written after 1990 (or maybe even a bit earlier). There are cases where the same author wrote books in the 1970’s that were relatively not as treif as most goyish books, so people assumed their later books were also okay and found out too late that the later books were completely treif!! So don’t make assumptions about authors.
Shkoyach Sparkly on caring enough about the kashrus of what you read to start a thread about it!!!!
Pslams
Golfer – Not really. But I guess a few of his quotes could sum up the other point of view:
I guess #KTCRIM is not for everyone…
Sparkly – I don’t know; it didn’t sound like it to me. Let’s ask him:
NeutiquamErro: Was your comment about Sparkly?
I’m looking at this thread and realizing it will be really hard for anyone to follow, since many posters commented before earlier comments were posted, so it is difficult to know who is responding to who.
I hope everyone is able to figure it out!
NE: Sparkly thinks your comments were about her. This was probably not the case, but since she thinks so, please just let her know that was not the case. If it was the case, please apologize. Thank you.
Please don’t take offense at my comment. If you are offended, please let me know.
lilmod ulelamaid – Surely if NeutiquamErro’s comment was about Sparkly, it wouldn’t do any good to clarify that on an online forum.
#http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/coffeeroom/topic/caution-danger-ahead-my-response-to-barry#post-623390
I wrote a response. A pretty good one, if I say so myself. Then I deleted it. Let’s talk about books.
#amdramban
And waiting for DaasYochid to enter this into the equation…
(See if you can spot the irony, Neutiquam)
Yekke,
That is a GREAT quote!
Perhaps you’re not a relative, but I see you are a fan!
Yekke2 – You’re right, but I was assuming that it wasn’t, and that in the remote possibility that it was, he would apologize. But this conversation sounds like it’s about to go the way that many do, so I’m not sure it should be continued…
Sparkly: Good for you for being makpid on shmiras Haayin and trying to avoid it! I had forgotten about that issue – sometimes a book might be okay, but they stick inappropriate pictures on the cover, even though they are unrelated to the content.
The problem is that there can be different printings of the same book. So someone might recommend a book thinking it’s fine, and then it will turn out that the copy in your library has an inappropriate picture.
I just remembered that my friend had a listing of books and how kosher they are. It was put out by Frum people. I can try to find out how you get ahold of it, bli neder.
Sparkly – Dr. Seuss is very good quality and kosher. I saw my newly-married neighbor at the public library taking out Dr. Seuss books. I asked who they were for (she didn’t have kids yet). She said they were for herself!
lilmoid ulelamaid: Since I respect your attempts to watch out for others, I’ll give you the condensed form of the answer I deleted. I wasn’t going to respond, as per the #amdramban, but I will say this.
There is nothing in that post that I need to apologise for.
And now, can we please just talk about books.
yekke2: Irony duly noted.
golfer: I found a particularly pertinent one with regard to my earlier posts about engaging with the CR. It should be approved momentarily on the KTCRIM thread.
#InfestedWithNargles
Sparkly: I’m impressed that you want to find suitable material to read. I’m going to kick off by saying that, whatever your age, Harry Potter is a masterpiece. I’m sure you’ve already read it, but on the off chance you haven’t, I cannot recommend a series more highly.
What books are currently reading? It would be easier to suggest good books if we had a little more information about what kind of books you’re looking for. There is an enormous range out there, after all.
NE: I didn’t think there was. That was my point. I just wanted to make sure that Sparkly realized that. Since she hasn’t said anything, I assume she does, so great, “let’s talk about books”.
NeutiquamErro – Granted, Harry Potter is a masterpiece. However, you may want to take into account that not everything you consider Kosher would be considered kosher by all. I know for certain that a couple of posters here feel that the Harry Potter series isn’t kosher at all (specifically Order of the Phoenix and Half Blood Prince). That said, I somehow doubt Sparkly would consider it unkosher.
If you did like Harry Potter, you may want to try Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus, Artemis Fowl.
You’re right. When I wrote that I was aware that Harry Potter is by no means perfect when it comes to suitability. I mentioned it as a touchstone, something to kick the discussion of with, and nothing more suitable came to mind. And to that list I’ll add anything by Anthony Horowitz.
The Anne of Green Gables series is good and relatively kosher (to the extent that one call a goyish book kosher), and might be something you’d like, Sparkly. I know a Rebbetzin who used to read it.
This is a really old book and I haven’t seen it in YEARS, but there was an excellent book I read as a kid called “The family nobody wanted.”.
It was a true story about a religious family (so no pritzus) who couldn’t have kids so they decided to adopt a kid. He then wanted a brother, so they adopted another kid. That kid wasn’t the same age as him, so they decided to adopt another kid… well read the rest of the book. Good old-fashioned values and good lessons and interesting reading, from what I recall.
Sparkly Try the garden of amuna ””””’
Sparkly, what about getting a subscription to a Jewish magazine or newspaper such as Mishpacha, Bina or the Yated? (and please, fellow-Posters, don’t start discussing the relative merits or chesronos of any of these, so my post will not turn into avak loshon hora. I am just giving possible examples of Jewish publications).
“Yekke2, are you perhaps related to A A Milne?
Your comment brought his great body of work pleasantly to mind.
Of late, it seems he’d be a good author to recommend in these pages.”
I may just be a silly old bear, but I agree totally. Anyone have any honey?
If you want books written before ’80s-90’s, try Dickens or Austen.
I loved Anne of Green Gables when I was 11 or 12. Presumably, Sparkly is looking for adult reading, although I myself love reading the old children’s classics.
Sparkly, with your new really difficult classes and all this recommended reading, when are you going to have time for the CR?
“Presumably, Sparkly is looking for adult reading, although I myself love reading the old children’s classics.”
She said she wanted Kosher….
And many adults like reading these books.
I can’t imagine she wants to read Dickens! Is Austen kosher? Don’t know enough about it, but I wasn’t sure. I’m also not sure if it’s up Sparkly’s alley.
I haven’t read them in a long time, but I loved the “Little House” books, and I remember them being pretty clean. You might wnat to skip “These Happy Golden Years” (I think that is the right one) which includes Laura’s courtship phase, as that was not conducted, ahem, as we do in the frum world.
I also loved the Anne of Green Gables series. Not completely frum, but better than most of what you’ll find out there….so I second the motion.
Anthony Horowitz is more for young teenagers (not older than 14, IMHO) than the other series mentioned so far, which at least has potential for adult enjoyment.
I’m reading the Little house books to my kids now at bedtime. I wanted them to realize that the “olden days” is not just when Mommy was little. There are some great lessons there for kids-and adults- like being satisfied with what you have and grateful for the extras (like candy). Even the non-Jewish things- like how Sunday is described, was a springboard to show how different and beautiful our true shabbos is.
mild edit
But although I love kids’ books, there are adult books out there that are Kosher. I mentioned Austen because even though her books usually involve some female heroine and her romantic hopes, they were written in a time when morals were quite different, and they are sweet and innocent.
I also really liked E.Nesbit’s books when I was a kid, and I think I would still enjoy them today. Good, wholesome, and old-fashioned, but interesting at the same time. I don’t think there were any pritzus issues.
Anthony Horowitz’s books do mostly aim at younger readers, but his work, taken as a whole, aims as old if not older than the Artemis Fowl series, or indeed Percy Jackson. And some of his other books, such as The Switch, are excellent at any age. And whilst we’re talking about Artemis Fowl, Oein Colfer is a superb author, and some of his other books are definitely worth checking out. Airman is excellent, I cannot recommend it highly enough. Involving, interesting and very suitable.
The road to serfdom by Friedrich von Hayek. It does much to explain modern society.
P.S. One can use Inter-Library Loan for any book from anywhere. Ask the Reference librarian at you local library.
Harry Potter is a total favourite with me, I can read them again and again without getting bored…
I also like the children’s classics, especially the Anne of Green Gables series, and LU: Dickens isn’t that unimaginable!
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