Now I need books please

[lizcam]

Ok, you\'ve helped me with music and movies (you have no idea how much you\'ve helped). Now help me with books.

By way of explaination here\'s my disclaimer;

I don\'t really know what type of booksI like. I know what I\'ve read over the last almost 30 years, but those chioces were never mine. I never got to buy the books. So I\'m asking all of you to recomend some books for me to read so I can make up my mind what I, myself, and no one else, likes. Tell me where to start and what the best books and novels are in your opinion. I\'ll go read them and then buy the stuff I like. I might even let you in on what I\'ve chosen.

Again, thanks guys. Most of what I\'ve read is fantasy and scifi. I love Pratchett, that I do know. Read most of his stuff. Other than that have fun. Oh, and if you think of any movies or music you missed add that as well.

 

[Infidel Castro]

As per your location, I would read The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. What a book!

 

[uberdark]

WOW!!! now thats tough....
lets see


brian lumley necroscope series
anything ricard matheson
red mars, blue mars and green mars.
hitchhiker guide
stephen kings dark tower series....in my opinion the best series of books i have EVER read barnone.
star wars new jedi order series.
the beat writers like keroauc, william s. burroughs, and of course charles bukowski....he\'s my favorite.

choke and fight club by chuck polyaniuk. i know i spelled the name wrong.

uglies, pretties, specials, by paul westerberg.

wheel of time series.

freuds books.

anything dostoyevsky.
anything poe.
anything lovecraft.

hope this helps.

 

[wiccanpony]

Wen wouldn\'t share the books I gave you..... take her wee fan from her until she doeslol

 

[Jarrett]

Game of Thrones ( and the rest of the song of ice and fire series) - George RR Martin

Everyone I\'ve recommended it to loves it.

 

[Pelorat]

A. E. van Vogt
E. E. Smith, if you can stand steaming mounds of vapid dialogue, take all that crap out and his stories are pretty good.
Isaac Asimov
Frank Herbert
Stanislaw Lem
NEAL STEPHENSON
Raymond Feist
Tolkien
Stephen King


plus everything that\'s already been mentioned...

Avoid:
Gregory Benford
J. K. Rowling
Christopher Paolini
Kevin J. Anderson (thanks for reminding me )

 

[Bill]

Just a few...

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Old Man And The Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Regeneration trilogy by Pat Barker
Life of Pi by Yann Martel

 

[nick232]

Saga of the Seven Suns by Kevin J Anderson

 

[Avelorn]

Three great books I read/listened to in the last month:

Torgny Lindgren - The Way of a Serpent. You\'ll probably miss a lot in the translation unfortunately but anyway. Quick read.

Khaled Hosseini - The Kite Runner

Albert Camus - The Stranger (sometimes translated \"The Outsider\"). Also a quick read.

 

[supervike]

I guess it depends on what you are after.

Heavy stuff...

A Brief History in Time...Stephan Hawking. It\'s heavy. I read the \'in a nutshell\' version, and still boggled my head.

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. If you are a person of faith, this book will challenge it.

Less than Heavy, but still good...

The Lovecraft stories. Gothic, dark, and it forces you to rely on your imagination and mood moreso than being told verbatim what is happening.

The Watchmen: They\'ll be a movie soon, so you should read the story before it becomes spoiled. Actually, read it twice. Intelligent, \'realistic\' superheros.

Light Reading:

I\'m into military Sci Fi right now, and am really enjoying a series called THE LOST FLEET.

 

[johnboyjjb]

JV Jones
David Eddings
Brian Jacques
Douglas Adams

 

[DaN]

I\'ll second - Brian Lumley\'s \"Necroscope\" series, \"Choke\" by Phaliuniuk (Or whatever)

Also:

Terry Pratchett - Everything

David Eddings - \"Belgarion\" series

Dan Abnett - Anything

Whoever the guy is that wrote the Ciaphas Cain novels

\"Danté\'s inferno/Divine comedy\" - Dante Alighieri (But if you struggle with ye olde (especially as it\'s translated from ye olde Italian!) try and get a modern version)

Any of the Alien / Predator / Alien Vs Predator books - by various authors

Dark horse(?) Graphic novel - \"PREACHER\" series

\"Cujo\" - Stephen King

\"Harry Potter\" series - JK Rowling

\"Skullduggery Pleasant\" series - Can\'t remember

\"Crime and punishment\" - Fyodor Dostoyevsky

\"War and peace\" - Leo Tolstoy (I suggest you take notes AND have a French dictionary with you for this one, as they randomly speak French throughout the novel, and trying to remember all those Russian names can be difficult)

Edit: Also \"Heart of darkness\" - Joseph Conrad

 

[Kaine]

Some very good suggestions people have made.

However, none top The Magician by Raymond Feist

For some reason in America its split into two books rather than one, no idea why.

http://www.amazon.com/Magician-Apprentice-Riftwar-Raymond-Feist/dp/0553564943/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220374581&sr=1-7

 

[Thecadian]

Originally posted by Avelorn

Khaled Hosseini - The Kite Runner

He wrote another book called 1000 splendid suns. I prefered it to the kiterunner. it was more emotional and i felt that it was more believable and authentic.

 

[Amazon warrior]

I second George RR Martin\'s Song of Ice and Fire series, and also really recommend his other stuff- he\'s brought out two anthologies, Deamsongs 1 and 2, which chart his writing career and are interesting mixtures of allsorts. I\'ve also read his Fevre Dream. The Mississippi, steamboats and vampires, d\'you want more?

World War Z- scary zombie plague is coming to a town near you, soon!

Anything by Neil Gaiman. (Edit: Er, \"Anything\" is not a book title! I wrote it, then reread it later and realised that it could be quite misleading! I mean any of Neil Gaiman\'s books. Particularly the Sandman graphic novels and Fragile Things )

Iain M. Banks does an interesting and highly imaginative line in dark space opera stuff. I am especially fond of Player of Games.

China Mieville- I\' ve read King Rat (his first novel), The Scar and Perdido Street Station. King Rat is an entertaining modern-day read, the other two are gritty fantasy with weird steampunkish science.

Lindsey Davis- She\'s written a fun detective series set in ancient Rome. The Silver Pigs is the first one, but there are loads now. She also wrote The Course of Honour, which is a fictionalised version of the life of Roman Emporer Vespasian- lots of skulduggery, tragedy and romance.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime is a book written from the point of view of a boy with Asperger\'s Syndrome, and reputedly one of the most convincing.

Flowers for Algernon is the tale of a man and a mouse who have their intelligence raised by scientists, and what heppens to them both. It\'s good but very sad.

 

[Jarrett]

Originally posted by Amazon warrior
World War Z- scary zombie plague is coming to a town near you, soon!

Yes, yes, yes!

This was so good I kept checking how much I had left to read because I didn\'t want the book to end.

 

[Roger Bunting]

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, and you may as well add other stuff by both authors, including temps and Euro temps which Gaiman co-edited.

The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks.

The Quantity Theory of Insanity by Will Self.

Red Dwarf by Grant Naylor.

 

[Amazon warrior]

Ooh, Jane Austen is good too.

 

[Einion]

Mostly I\'d recommend individual books or series rather than a blanket recommendation of the author, but there are definite exceptions IMO:
Iain M. Banks (Iain Banks is the same guy, different genres - with the M = sci fi)
Robert B. Parker (Spenser books, try to read in order)
John D. MacDonald
Ed McBain\'s 87th precinct novels (try to read in order)
Richard Stark (Parker novels)

Dragon\'s Egg, Robert L. Forward
The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlien
The Diamond Age, Neal Stephenson
Ringworld, Larry Niven
Skeleton Crew (collection) by Stephen King
A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born, Harry Harrison
Berserker (collection) by Fred Saberhagen
Dr. No, Ian Fleming
Shapes, Steve Vance
Lacey And His Friends (collection) by David Drake
Neuromancer, William Gibson
A Matter For Men, David Gerrold
Axiomatic (collection) by Greg Egan
The Practice Effect, David Brin

Einion

 

[laurence]

Ink and paper.

To read a book is to go on a journey and live a special and personal experience through your imagination. Very amazing if you ask me.

Please read: J. D. Salinger\'s \"The Catcher in the Rye\".

Kurt Vonnegut\'s, \"Slaughter House Five\" & \"Breakfast of Champions\".

Georges Simenon\'s \"Maigret\" series. And his novels are beautiful and touching. Try, \"The Stranger in the House\" & \"The Man Who Watched The Trains Go By\".

Voltaire\'s \"Candide\" is one of the best books I\'ve ever read. Highly recommend it!

I could go on for ages suggesting good reads but, if you buy some of these books, I promise you wont be disappointed.

A good way to purchase books is online through \"Better World Books\". These guys donate a percentage of what you pay to the World Literacy Fund which helps provide educational resources to struggling countries like Africa etc. A very worthy cause! And their selection of books is awesome, and very light on the pocket. Here\'s a link: http://www.betterworldbooks.com/

Happy reading and painting!