Now I need books please

[Infidel Castro]

Originally posted by Spacemunkie
Catch 22* - Joseph Heller
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegutt
Animal Farm* (preferably the Steadman illustrated edition...) & 1984* - George Orwell
Lord of the Flies* - William Golding
Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Farenheit 451* - Ray Bradbury
Deliverance - James Dickey
The Colour Purple - Alice Walker
The Collector - John Fowles
Watership Down* - Richard Adams

Having read six of those bad boys (*) I have to say that I concur! Throw in The Dice Man for laughs as well. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis is also another very funny book. One Flew Over the Cuckoo\'s Nest wouldn\'t hurt, either. It\'s amazing in fact. The Outsider, Albert Camus is also way up the list, as is Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad (as someone else mnetioned above). Another interesting book is A Wild Sheep Chase by some Japanese dude called Murakami (translated of course!) and one of the very best ever: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (like the bloke above wrote!). Honestly, that book is just untouchable.

For something unique, try The Inheritors by William Golding. It\'s about neanderthals. Weird but very good. If you like it then also go for Pincher Martin by the same author. Grim but fascinating. Aldous Huxley\'s Brave New World goes without saying - dystopian future in a very different direction to the feller Orwell.

And Gulliver\'s Travels. Amazing.

Books = amazing. That\'s mathematics that is!

 

[evil tendencies]

Raymond Chandler:
- Trouble is my Business (Short stories, including \"Red Wind\", which is my fave).
- The Big Sleep
- The Lady in the Lake
- The High Window

Dashiell Hammett
- The Maltese Falcon
- The Thin Man
- Any of his short stories (Library of America has the best collection of his short stories)

C.S. Lewis
- Chronicles of Narnia
- The Great Divorce (if you\'re into/ curious about Christian Theology)

Chick Fantasy (good, solid fantasy that is by and/or about women):
- Anything by Tamora Pierce; My fave is \"Beka Cooper.\"
- Alison Croggon; check out her Books of Pelinor (I haven\'t read them, but my wife speaks of the very highly)

Other Good Stuff:
- Philip K. Dick (Bladerunner was inspired by his \"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep\" novel; Minority Report is also a good one)
- D.M. Cornish (Monster Blood Tattoo Series)
- Patrick O\'Brien (the movie \"Master and Commander\" was based off his his Jack Aubrey/ Stephen Maturin series, which is about 20 books long).

 

[evil tendencies]

Originally posted by Spacemunkie
Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress - Robert A. Heinlein
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegutt
Animal Farm (preferably the Steadman illustrated edition...) & 1984 - George Orwell
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Farenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Deliverance - James Dickey
The Colour Purple - Alice Walker
The Collector - John Fowles
Watership Down - Richard Adams

Wow, I\'m impressed (seriously). You swim in deep waters my friend.

@Liz - I\'d second any of these selections.

 

[Zora]

Liz, I would also recommend the short story anthologies starting with the title \"Chicks in Chainmail\". There\'s about 4 books in all, and pretty humorous.

 

[jerry kurl]

One thing I would say - if its a warhammer or 40k novel you will read it in a day and fell very unsatisfied - there not bad for filling a bit of time or for back ground fluff but as jaw dropping master pieces come im sorry but i dont think so.

If its fantasy your into, apart from the obviouse lord of the rings and to some extent harry potter I would reccomend Raymond E feist so far nearly all of his books are linked i the same story line (its around 14 books so far, might be more!) he is an increadible writer and the characters really are deep.

Now with sci-fi I recomend simon r green and the death stalker series of books - very enjoyable

The BEST sci-fi writer I have found to date is Peter Hamilton he writes monster space opera its amazing convuluted leading indepth world shaking sci-fi for a truley great reads he has short novels about near future (greg mandel series) and then the far future with the two distinctly different series of novels both of which are awsome to the extreme.

I would definatly recomend Peter Hamilton

Chris

 

[airhead]

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards

 

[Gilvan Blight]

One author I haven\'t seen yet:

Charles DeLint.

Not sure if I missed William Gibson from the above either.

Re: Ender\'s Game, I just finished Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and was about to pick up a Lovecraft book when the Wife tossed Ender\'s Game at me and said \"It\'s just wrong that you haven\'t read this and if you don\'t read it next we are getting divorced\".

 

[Legacy Account]

Originally posted by evil tendencies

Wow, I\'m impressed (seriously). You swim in deep waters my friend.

I read a fair selection of lightweight, throwaway tripe as well!

This is just the stuff that having read, has really burnt images into my memory for one reason or another. It\'s the stuff I remember, whilst most of the junk I read is forgotten almost as soon as the covers close. Which I find incredibly frustrating. Endings are another major gripe of mine.....

 

[Infidel Castro]

It makes re-reading a viable option though - I\'m very much in the same boat. The sort of folk who remember EVERYTHING in a book or film get on my wick.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by reverend
It makes re-reading a viable option though - I\'m very much in the same boat. The sort of folk who remember EVERYTHING in a book or film get on my wick.

Ooops
That\'s me told off. lol

 

[Zora]

Originally posted by Gilvan Blight
Re: Ender\'s Game, I just finished Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and was about to pick up a Lovecraft book when the Wife tossed Ender\'s Game at me and said \"It\'s just wrong that you haven\'t read this and if you don\'t read it next we are getting divorced\".

Good for her! You\'ll like it.

Does she have a sister?lol

 

[azcrwr]

Oh, and for some good laughs, Jasper Fforde\'s Nursery Crimes Division books...The Big Over Easy (who killed Humpty Dumpty???) and The Fourth Bear (Just Say \"No\" to Porridge!).

I don\'t care much for his Thursday Next series, but there are quite a few and you might like them.

He is coming out with a new NCD book about the Tortoise and the Hare next!

 

[jerry kurl]

Originally posted by reverend
It makes re-reading a viable option though - I\'m very much in the same boat. The sort of folk who remember EVERYTHING in a book or film get on my wick.

hey dont blame us its genetic I remeber nearly everything about everybook I have read as soon as I pick it up again (I have about 300+ books and novels) but I still re read them, i think iv read the raymond E feist series of books about 9 times from start to current finish now and I still love reading them, its all about what you enjoy.

Chris

 

[Infidel Castro]

My apologies to all those who can remember everything. I hope you remember this apology as well

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by reverend
My apologies to all those who can remember everything. I hope you remember this apology as well

Remember what? lol

 

[matty1001]

The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks.

And one I have just read, A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.
Everyone should read that, its fantastic.
A link to a review for lazy types: http://www.curledup.com/dunces.htm

Peace and love...

 

[Legacy Account]

Wasp Factory is a good \'un for sure.

I\'m gonna hunt down that Dunces book on Amazon now. The last four books I\'ve picked up have been discarded after about ten pages....

 

[Undave]

I rather enjoyed this one. It\'s a bit heavy on the science and it proposes a few wild theories like those \"Pyramid conspiracy\" books but it makes for an entertaining read. Oddly enough even though it\'s not comedy it was written by the same guy who wrote 51st state which was a hilarious film

 

[Fizl]

Non fiction - Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir

Dune - FRank Herbert
The book thief
The glass book of the dream eaters
Any asterix book
The matchmaker of Perigord (very funny )
Mists of avelon
the winter king
The shadow of the wind
The tale of Murasaki
Across the nightingale floor
Here be dragons (is historical not fantasy)
Bridget Jones diary
Cavern of black ice/fortress of grey ice
Farseer trilogy
Stonehenge (Bernard Cornwell)
The pillars of the earth (Ken Follett)

My favorite book though, is the chronicles of the world, a book that i was given when i was given when i was about 16 that gives all the major events in history in short newspaper style format. Very dificult to get hold of these days, but if you find one, buy it

Shaz

 

[War Griffon]

Any of the books by Raymond Feist, David Eddings All are an excellent read.
Also:
Eagle in the Sky by Wilbur Smith
Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (much better than Davinci Code)
Emperor (series of 4 books) by Conn Iggulden, also his plaines series about Ghengis Khan is very good)
Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield (about the battle of Thermopylae which 300 was based on but the book hasn\'t been exagerated by hollywood)

Or if you want a history book that will open your eyes, shock and leave you in tears try \"Auschwitz\" The Nazis & The Final Solution\" by Laurence Rees its a BBC book and really is worth the read even if it has been taken out of the UK schools curiculum because the muslims say it never happened.