| In the coming months, some of Ryan’s
writings will be available for download and purchase here. Please
check back soon. For now, Ryan would like to share with you
some of his favorite books and authors. Please
note that all of the below links will take you to LibraryThing.com,
a favorite Web site of Ryan’s. If you are not familiar
with their site, you are encouraged to browse around a little.
It’s one of the best sites for book lovers! |
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Favorite
Fiction: |
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Little
Children by Tom Perrotta
Little Children is a 2004 novel by American
author Tom Perrotta that interweaves the darkly
comedic stories of seven main characters, all of
whom live in the same suburban Boston neighborhood
during the middle of a hot summer. |
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A
Long Way Down by Nick
Hornby
A Long Way Down is a dark comedy, playing
off the themes of suicide, angst, depression and
promiscuity. The story is written in first-person
narrative from the points of view of the four main
characters who meet on the rooftop of a building
on New Year's Eve, each with the intent of committing
suicide. Their plans for death in solitude, however,
are ruined when they meet. |
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The
Rum Diary by Hunter S.
Thompson
Begun in 1959 by a twenty-two-year-old Hunter S.
Thompson, The Rum Diary is a brilliantly
tangled love story of jealousy, treachery, and violent
alcoholic lust in the Caribbean boomtown that was
San Juan, Puerto Rico, in the late 1950s. The narrator,
freelance journalist Paul Kemp, irresistibly drawn
to a sexy, mysterious woman, is soon thrust into
a world where corruption and get-rich-quick schemes
rule and anything (including murder) is permissible.
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Animal
Farm by George Orwell
Animal Farm is an allegorical novella by
George Orwell first published in 1945. According
to Orwell, the book reflects events leading up to
and during the Stalin era before World War II. Orwell
was a critic of Joseph Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed
Stalinism. |
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Pride
and Prejudice by Jane
Austen
Pride and Prejudice was first published
in 1813. The story follows the main character, Elizabeth
Bennet, as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing,
morality, education and marriage in the society
of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England.
Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country
gentleman, living near the fictional town of Meryton
in Hertfordshire, near London. |
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Favorite
Non-Fiction: |
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Walden
by Henry David Thoreau
Walden, first published in 1854, is part
personal declaration of independence, social experiment,
voyage of spiritual discovery, satire, and manual
for self reliance. It details Thoreau's experiences
over the course of two years in a cabin he built
near Walden Pond, amidst woodland owned by his friend
and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson, near Concord, Massachusetts.
By immersing himself in nature, Thoreau hoped to
gain a more objective understanding of society through
personal introspection. Simple living and self-sufficiency
were Thoreau's other goals, and the whole project
was inspired by transcendentalist philosophy. |
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Essays
of E.B. White by E.B.
White
E.B. White is the author of twenty books of prose
and poetry and was awarded the 1970 Laura Ingalls
Wilder Medal for his children's books, Stuart Little
and Charlotte's Web.
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The
Portable Thoreau by Henry
David Thoreau (Carl Bode, Editor)
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was born in Concord,
Massachusetts. The author of Walden, among other
works, he became known for his extreme individualism,
his preference for simple, austere living, and his
revolt against the demands of society. Here, Carl
Bode brings together the best of Thoreau's works
in a comprehensive collection of the writings of
a unique and profoundly influential American thinker.
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The
Portable Dorothy Parker
by Dorothy Parker (Marion Meade, Editor)
This book is essential for any Parker fan, and an
excellent way for new readers to make her acquaintance.
It reprints her finest short stories and poems,
some later articles, and all of her excellent "Constant
Reader" book reviews from the Depression-era
glory days of the New Yorker. The poetry, always
light, has become brittle, sorry to say. But you've
only to pick any story to be reminded that no middle-distance
writer was better than Parker at her best. |
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The
Portable Jack London by
Jack London (Earle Labor, Editor)
Alfred Kazin has aptly remarked that "the greatest
story Jack London ever wrote was the story he lived."
Newsboy, factory "work beast, " gang member,
hobo, sailor, Klondike argonaut, socialist crusader,
war correspondent, utopian farmer, and world-famous
adventurer: London is the closest thing America
has had to a literary folk hero. This collection
places London, at last, securely within the American
literary pantheon. It includes the complete novel
The Call of the Wild; such famous stories
as "Love of Life, " "To Build a Fire,
" and "All Gold Canyon"; journalism,
political writings, literary criticism, and selected
letters. |
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Death
to All Sacred Cows by
David Bernstein, Beau Fraser, and Bill Schwab
Written by the owners of advertising agency The
Gate Worldwide, this book aims to take the sacred
cows of business out to pasture, showing how adages
like always trust your research, success breeds
success and the customer is always right, are not
only old and tired but may lead a business completely
astray. |
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Rework
by Jason Fried, and David Heinemeier Hansson
Most business books give you the same old advice:
Write a business plan, study the competition, seek
investors, ect. With its straightforward language
and easy-is-better approach, Rework is
the perfect playbook for anyone who’s ever
dreamed of doing it on their own. Hardcore entrepreneurs,
small-business owners, people stuck in day jobs
they hate, victims of "downsizing," and
artists who don’t want to starve anymore will
all find valuable guidance in these pages. |
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