CrossFit South Brooklyn

Established 2007

Rest Day

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Always look both ways before crossing the street.  Especially when you're carrying barbells.

Last year we had tremendous support from our members providing prizes for Fight Gone Bad.  If you think you could contribute something (or know a business/person who could) please email david(at)CrossFitSouthBrooklyn.com.  All suggestions and contributions are welcome!

What is your all time favorite book?
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Giant Rat Found in Lost Volcano BBC
100 Ways to Use a Strip of Bacon Endless Simmer
Seth Godin on the Tribes we Lead TED
Brooklyn Street Photography Flickr Group

Comments

  1. Buttercup: We’ll never succeed. We may as well die here.

    Westley: No, no. We have already succeeded. I mean, what are the three terrors of the Fire Swamp? One, the flame spurt – no problem. There’s a popping sound preceding each; we can avoid that. Two, the lightning sand, which you were clever enough to discover what that looks like, so in the future we can avoid that too.

    Buttercup: Westley, what about the R.O.U.S.’s?

    Westley: Rodents Of Unusual Size? I don’t think they exist.

    [Immediately, an R.O.U.S. attacks him]

  5. The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea.

    800+ pages of non linear, LSD spiked, conspiracy theory, sci fi bliss.

    “Every view of reality that is introduced in the story is later derided in some way, whether that view is traditional or iconoclastic. The trilogy is an exercise in cognitive dissonance, with an absurdist plot built of seemingly plausible, if unprovable, components.[20] Ultimately, readers are left to form their own interpretations as to which, if any, of the numerous contradictory viewpoints presented by the characters are valid or plausible, and which are simply satirical gags and shaggy dog jokes. This style of building up a viable belief system, then tearing it down to replace it with another one, was described by Wilson as “guerrilla ontology”.

  7. Several come to mind, but one is by a contemporary writer, and since he can use the promotion more then the others, I’ll go with…

    Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

  9. david, my friend andrew that visited CF a few weeks back is trying to convince his wife to name their upcoming kid markov cheney. such a great book.

  14. Oh and I agree, History of Love is a sweet sweet book. Whimsical and sad and joyful.

    I am so bad at picking favorites, but some that have endured:The Rabbit series by John UpdikeOmnivore’s Dilemma by Michael PollanThe Pickup by Nadine GordimerHotel New Hampshire and Prayer for Owen Meaney by John IrvingThe BFG by Roald Dahl

  15. OMG! BFG! I remember doing a unit on that in elementary school and everyone had to draw their own BFG, so the classroom was covered in everyone’s versions of BFGs!

    i can has CROSSFIT BOOK CLUB?

  16. 3 books

    Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain

    Invisible Monsters – Chuck Palanhiuk

    Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance – Robert Pirsig

  17. Margie – A Prayer for Owen Meany is definitely one of my faves, too!

    Otherwise…this question takes more focus than I have right now to add anything…maybe I’ll be able to contribute later.

  18. The Blind Watchmaker – Richard DawkinsDune by Frank HerbertGates of Fire by Steven PressfieldPratical Programing for Strength Training by Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore (2nd edition is in the mail)

  19. What a Bunch of Nerds!

    A Prayer for Owen Meany was my favorite book in HS. I stayed up under the covers with a flashlight to finish that book.

    My Favorite book in college was Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexieand All God’s Children by Fox Butterfield.

    Recently Ive read 3 books I really enjoyed.All the Shah’s Men by Steven Kinzer,Kite Runner and The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

    The last 2 i slept on after the early hype train–but read them but last Spring and really enjoyed them.

  20. Damn Margie that Bison Jerky looks good but is a bit steep for me right now. Ive been eating some Buffalo Jerky from Trader Joe’s which is okay.

  21. The entire Parker Series by Richard Stark (Donald Westlake) particularly The Hunter, The Man with the Getaway Face and The Outfit.

    No Country for Old Men-Cormac McCarthy

    American Tabloid & The Cold Six Thousand-James Ellroy

    Autobiography of Malcom X-Alex Haley

    The Watchmen-Alan Moore

    Regan’s FavoriteLolita-NabakovThe Wide Sargasso Sea-Jean Rhys

  24. Cloud Atlas is f-ing brilliant; Mitchell has a gift for language and voice like no other writer alive. That book will put chains on its tires and run over your balls. And I mean that in a good way.

    However, my all-time favorite book is still The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. Cannot possibly recommend that enough.

  26. Margie, please add two packs to your order. Many thanks!

    One of my favorite when it comes to books: “The Mother Tongue” by Bill Bryson

    “Before, prior to. There is no difference between these two except length and a certain affectedness on the part of ‘prior to.’ To paraphrase Bernstein, if you would use ‘posterior to’ instead of ‘after,’ then by all means use ‘prior to’ instead of ‘before.'”

  29. 2 fav books that comes to mind is Catcher in the Rye – J. D. Salinge and Into the Wild – Jon Krakauer. Movie was good but the book is so much better.

  32. I can’t do favorite books. It is state dependent. I’m an inveterate re-reader too. My favorite authors in terms of the frequency with which I find that I re-read them, in no sensible order are probably:

    AustenTove JanssenTolkienNabokovDianna Wynne JonesWoolfRowling

    in terms of specific books that I love but have only re-read a few times (i.e. less than 10 – Malcolm is horrified by my capacity to re-read):

    “We have always lived in the Castle” by Shirley Jackson.

    “Housekeeping” by Marilynne Robinson

    “I Capture the Castle” by Dodie Smith (they made an awful movie out of it.)

  34. I dislike naming just one of anything:

    I just finished and enjoyed “Kafka on the Shore” by Murakami

    —- otherwise —-

    “the last samurai” helen dewitt

    “zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance” robert persig

    “tropic of cancer” henry miller

    “perks of being a wallflower” stephen chobsky

    “poetics of space” bachelard

    there are so many more!

  35. this is an impossible question to answer. and it saddens me that the last few years have been filled with textbooks and manuals. i’ll just throw out some that come to mind and yes its filled with cliche titles but ehh.

    catcher in the rye-Salingerthings fall apart-Achebe1984, animal farm-Orwellthe prince-Machiavellithe prophet-gibranthe autobiography of malcolm x-Haleynative son-Wrightsiddartha-Hesseone flew over the cuckoos nest-Kesseythe bluest eye-Morrisoni know why caged birds sing-angelougreat gatsby-fitzgeraldanything Hemingway, Dickens, Verne

    recently read and enjoyed were:the limits of power-Bacevichgod is not great-Hitchens

    a few that i want to get to:endless enemies-kwitnyThe New American Militarism-bacevichguns germs and steel-diamondlosing ground: american social policy-murraytipping point, blink-gladwellthe black swan-talebthe philosophy and opinions of marcus garvey-garvey

    i know im gonna read this and get upset that i forgot something.

  36. As I Lay Dying is best all time, but the best in the last couple years is World War Z by Max Brooks (Mel’s kid) the smartest zombie book ever!

  38. This is such a great topic…so many wonderful books already named. But I have to add..

    The Feast of Love…or anything by Charles BaxterWhat is the WhatA Tree Grows in BrooklynThe Sun Also RisesPride & PrejudicePersuasionThe Glass Castle

  42. Old favorites:The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael ChabonAnimal Farm, George OrwellConquering Horse, Frederick ManfredThe Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway

    Recent favorites:The Savage Detectives, Roberto BolanoThe Forever War, Dexter FilkinsThe Last Samurai (not at all related to the Tom Cruise movie), Helen DeWittThe Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan

  43. if you liked Siddhartha, Narcissus and Goldmund is a jewel.

    by nationality, moving eastward:The Journal of Albion Moonlight for the brain***k.The Tropic of Capricorn, for what is says about America.The Plague, for what is says about life.The Tin Drum, for the vision.The Trial, for the darkness.Master and Margarita, for the satire.Confessions of a Mask (Sun and Steel might interest Crossfitters), for what it says about Japan.and maybe Love and Death in the Time of Cholera.

  44. I loved Jonathan Ames’ autobiographical graphic novel “The Alcoholic” and loved the previews for the new HBO show before I knew they sprung from the same mind. Unintentional consistency rules.

  45. David – there is so much wonderful material in the world to read that none of us are well read the way we’d like to be. The only think you can do is keep reading!

  47. I frequently fantasize about having a study with a bookcase in it, where I only put books that have drastically changed the way I view the world.

    A subset of what would currently be on the shelf:

    Starting Strength – RippetoeSix Easy Pieces – FeynmanThe Principles of Political Economy – MillAutobiography of John Stuart Mill – MillThe Worldly Philosophers – HeilbronerThe Black Swan – Nasim TalebTe Tao Ching – Laozi

    And to go by Laurel’s definition of most reread, then it would probably have to be the Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy.

  48. Nobody mentioned Jonathan Lethem? I love every book he’s ever written. But Motherless Brooklyn would have to be required reading for all of us.

  49. Yeah, Siddartha’s great. It’s my goal to acquire a Hesse-like book for the YA market. His books are perfect intellectual coming of age stories.

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