10 Great Books. Nicholas Chudolij Recommended Books
I’ve read so many books over the years that it’s impossible for me to choose my favorites. In fact, at the moment, many of my favorites don’t even come to mind at all. Many of my favorite books are technical in nature and thus are no appropriate for recommending to others on a general “recommended reading” list like this. However, I’ll list my top 10 books that immediately come to mind that I can recommend to the average reader. Whether or not they are my absolute “favorites”, they stand out immediately in my mind, they must have made some sort of impression!
If you’ve ever wanted to read a book by a classic author but didn’t feel like reading a “War and Peace” type novel, perhaps you’ll consider “The Gambler”, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. This quick read written in 1887 describes a man struggling with a gambling addiction. Dostoyevsky himself struggled with a gambling addiction, so the impulses described in the book are perhaps similar to first-hand accounts more than they were figments of his imagination. I’m a Jim Cramer fan, and although I don’t much watch television these days, some 12 years ago I recall him mentioning on his show “Mad Money” that this was one of his favorite books.
Written in 1988, Neal Stephenson’s “Zodiac” is a must-read for any environmentalist with who enjoys incorporating their passions for environmentalism into abstract works of the imagination. The main plot of this book is uncovering a conspiracy having to do with polluters and Boston Harbor. Young people will no doubt find “Sangamon’s principle” rather amusing…I won’t go into detail here!
“The Last Mission” by Harry Mazer, written in 1981, stands out to me as one of the more memorable books I read as a child. I was maybe 12 years old when I read this book. It is a work of fiction that details an underage Jack Raab that lies about his age to enlist in the Air Force during World War II. Though it is a work of fiction, it does draw on the author’s personal experience of his enlisting in the Army Air Corps during the second world war.
Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” is a story written in 1838 that details a fictional tale of characters comprised of a young boy’s toy chest. One such character is a tin soldier that was created with insufficient tin to make him whole; as a result, he is missing a leg. He falls in love with a paper ballerina, with whom through sad tragedy he eventually joins in eternal union.
Margery William’s 1922 book “The Velveteen Rabbit” details the desire of a stuffed toy rabbit to become real. The rabbit’s owner, a young boy, becomes sick with scarlet fever. The boy’s doctor recommends his belongings be sterilized and certain things burned, to include the velveteen rabbit. Before the rabbit is burned, awaiting his fate in a sack in the yard, a fairy finds him; she finds that because the boy loved him so much that he indeed deserves to become a real rabbit. After he is transformed into a real rabbit the boy sees him in the yard and finds some resemblance to an old toy he once had…
Stephen Hawking’s 1998 book “A Brief History of Time” describes phenomena that comprise the universe as we know it, to include cosmic events that created the universe, how time flows and what time is, if there are limits to how large the universe actually is and other such interesting items. It is truly awe inspiring (awesome!) that Stephen Hawking was able to achieve this sort of genius despite his physical limitations caused by Lou Gehrig’s disease.
When I was a first-year university student, I had an instructor who I remember was quite interesting and engaging. I rather liked his assigned textbook, although I am not sure if it was the subject material or if it was the personality of the instructor that made it so enjoyable. At the time, I was a political science major, something I have long abandoned as an academic pursuit. In any case, the assigned textbook for this class was “Governing America”. This is a very basic textbook. The instructor himself, Peter Schutz, is the author and originally published in 1997.
While we are on the subject of civics books, I should mention another related book that is written in response to what the author sees as a dissolution of the Republic and its surrounding principles. The book is named “The Once and Future King: The Rise of Crown Government in America” and is written by F.H. Buckley.
There was a book wholesaler not far from my home as a child which I would often frequent. At the time there were many books from the “Endworld” series by David Robbins that I thought were rather exciting. These stories are based in a post-apocalyptic world after a nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union. The stories are filled with shoot-em-up action, complete with mutants and dictators and warriors. I’m not sure what value they would give me now but as a teenager without cell phones, internet and an analog over-the-air television, they provided many hours of enjoyment.
“Entertaining with the Sopranos” (2006) is a book I enjoy, although, like many of the other books I enjoy these days, is not a storybook. I wish I had the time to read story books for pleasure these days. In any case, this is probably the most interesting cookbook that I can remember reading. It is based around the TV Series “The Sopranos”, in that it carries with it anecdotes from the show with related characters. It is Italian cooking at its finest, and since I generally despise cooking, this book makes the process a bit more interesting. I imagine most people reading this might want a copy, as I see it being useful in most kitchens, particularly if you’re a fan of the series it is themed around.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nicholas Chudolij is graduate student within American Public University's Space Studies faculty, Astronomy track. Nicholas loves traveling, fishing, competitive marksmanship and playing the flute.