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yeah, so... how is there not a thread on here about books? Who here likes to read? I can't be the only one!! :p
So, what are your recommendations? I just started reading Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. D.ick but haven't gotten too far in yet. I'm usually into sci-fi or fantasy sort of books. As far as what to read?... hmm, first thing that comes to mind is the Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko. I remember those being pretty fun!
Um... book? What's that? :confused:
I knew that was going to be the first reply! lol :pQuote:
Originally Posted by Doopz479
i prefer factual books to fiction. I've read "The Greatest Show on Earth" and "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins in the last few months which were both fascinating!
Though saying that, I did enjoy Harry Potter and books by Stephen King! :p
The Road by Cormac McCarthy a truly moving book, very dark and depressing so its not for the faint of heart....
not for getting the mr Men (really sinister now i think about it) and ladybird books... :)
Great fan of books right here, I'm currently reading an awsome series called "Karazan" and I'm on the last one of the quartet:p.
I highly reccomend it and the Author is V.M.Jones. My personal favourate:p.
If your interested in what it's about just reply and i will post a segment:p
I can't read.
Oh well okay if you must know I do read a lot of books. Really. 1984, Hgttg, Dirk Gently and anything with the words "Top" and/or "Gear" in the author biography is good for me. Okay well preferably both words.
LOL the Karazan quartet is a fantasy type thing so i think anyone will enjoy it:p
Robert Ludlum is my favorite author, hands down...
I think my all-time favorit book was "The Sigma Protocol" by Ludlum. If you like longer, action-adventure novels, I STRONGLY suggest you read it. There's almost no "dead spots" in the entire book! :D
maybe when i finish reading the book im reading and finish a book im writing ill read it:pQuote:
Originally Posted by piggabling
I'm a Harry Potter/Stephen King fan myself, along with JRR Tolkien. I also like to read political non-fiction.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rhys125
I just can't get into Harry Potter books. I've tried before, but I think I just get turned off by the "wizards" and the "fanticized" world of Harry Potter. I prefer more believable books.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheCountessZ
Not saying Harry Potter is bad, I just can't get into them myself.. :/
I do know for a fact that Rowling is a good author though.
@piggabling...I think the first couple were a bit lame, but once they started getting a bit more serious I really started to enjoy them.
Maybe that's what it is... I'm not sure. Maybe I'll try to read them again some time later on in my life. I may enjoy them more then! 8D
Yes I love reading. I don't have one particular genre as a favourite but my favourite author is Wilbur Smith. They are fantastic fictional adventures ( although many aspects are based on true events or people ) set mostly in South Africa and several of them feature different families through the generations so they're best if you read them chronologically. There are some stand alone ones too. He is a master storyteller and his books are the sort you literally do not want to put down until the end. I couldn't pick a favourite from all his books as they're all brilliant but if anyone wanted to sample one for starters I would probably recommend "Monsoon", a truly epic novel.
Kavalier and Clay (Michael Chabon), Carter Beats the Devil (Glen David Gold). Those are my two favorites at the moment. The latter being more lighthearted, but both of them are historical fiction. And they are marvelous.
I used to be really into straight-up fantasy stuff, but then I realized that every single thing I read felt like the plot of Star Wars with different skin. The genre can't really break free of cliche.
Oh, The Once and Future King (TH White). That's a fantasy book that I will love forever. Nothing else can top it. The best retelling of Arthurian myth since, well, ever. You just have to read it.
Night Watch series = best Vampire book series ever. That's right all, they're better than Twilight. Much better. :pQuote:
Originally Posted by koneko
Also, for people who like fantasy, the Mistborn series, by Brandon Sanderson is awesome. Great stuff and a very interesting read. It has an awesome setting, and a great magic system that the author has invented, which really lends itself to the world he's created. Go read it now!!
My favorite book series has gotta be Dune. :p I liked the originals by Frank Herbert a ton, and I found the new ones by his son Brian Herbert to be even more entertaining. Maybe that's just because they were easier reads, though.
Best vampire book I've read is I Am Legend. Forget the movie. It IS a graphic novel, but it's way text-heavy enough to hold its own on literary merit.
I'm reading D-Day by Antony Beevor.
I then have various other WW2 books to read. I like the history....
Other than that, stuff like Andy Mcnab and Chris Ryan is win.
WOW!
Sergej Lukjanenko for the win!
The Watcher saga is maybe the best contemporary sagas, and I find that addressing the saga as a vampire saga doesn't do much of a favour to the series.
I would better define it as a supernatural version of Matrix.
There's really more in it, like the socio-political analysis of the post cold war Russia, a window on a very strange world that blends a spirit of innovation with classic almost tribal roots.
Uncanny and awesome, as I said one of the better things I read recently.
Still, my favourite stuff remains Dune, that is the key of the modern day sci-fi, and is still unreachable.
But more than Frank Herbert (and his son to a certain extent) I love the works of Michael Moorcock, his vision of the multiverse, his creation of the tormented anti-heroes.
Elric of Melnibone is the perfect character, and the coolest emissions of the Eternal Champion.
I love Michael, too bad in Italy it's very hard to find his stuff and I've yet to read the adventures of Corum, that have never been published, so I'll have to rely on the English version one day or another.
Anyone here interested in writing a book? I am.
I'm writing a book about the LBP series I'm making "The Legend of Hydrin":p
I'm more into making the series on LBP first, because i never have time to write it.
My mom goes on Laptop a lot XD
My favourite author is Philip Reeve: The author of the Mortal Engines Quartet. I have never read such an epic collection of books in my life. In the words of antpostteller "May cause chest hair growth"! ;)
Also, the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness. A really pacey, thought provoking series.
On a further note, I believe that the writer of the Twilight Saga has no more talent than the mole on my belly. Ahem.
I love to read fiction. My favorite book ever would have to be The House of the Scorpion, by Nancy Farmer. A few other books that I liked was Al'Capone does my Shirts, Eragon, Eldest, and Brisingr.
I like reading... I'm reading The Hobbit now...and Little Lulu:D
I'm a big reader, anyone reading is a good thing in my book. If there are kids out there that have never read a thing but suddenly started picking up books like the Twilight saga, this is a good thing to me. Lots of people start with low level escapist candy, find it's fun, and then discover, after reading "literature", that there are authors out there who can do wonderful and incredible things with language and storytelling and make those "candy" novels seem... well, like candy. So I don't scoff at anyone reading Twilight. If it's getting people to read, it's a plus in my book. If they read Twilight, maybe they'll read Harry Potter. If they read Harry Potter maybe they'll read Philip Pullman, Tolkien, maybe eventually Austen and Dickens.
I tend to mix up what I'm reading among fiction and non fiction and usually have around 3 books going at once. Right now it's Live From New York, a hilarious history of Saturday Night Live told by the staff and cast over the years, and Band of Brothers by Ambrose. The fiction book I just cracked open is a short collection called Orsinian Tales by Ursula Guin. Never read Guin before, but pretty interesting so far.
I just want to recommend a couple. I recommend everyone try Dickens - he's my favorite author, and while he takes some getting used to when you first start reading, once you get into the flow of a Dickens novel, there's absolutely nothing else like it. Hilarious, moving, rewarding.
If you can stomach something on the harrowing side, The Road by Cormac McCarthy was absolutely unforgettable. Haunting in the best possible way. Will make you appreciate the world and realize your love for family and friends for weeks after finishing it.
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I honestly think this book is a boon to humanity and to all who read it. It's a bit slow starting out and is really like 2 novels in one, but this is the kind of book that can actually have the effect of expanding your horizons, opening your mind, giving you something of great sociological importance to consider in an honest way. In this case it's gender and sexual orientation. The narrator is a hermaphrodite, born with hybrid genitalia. She lives until a teenager as a girl, and then from 15 on as a male. Besides being the best kind of book (it makes you think and might permanently affect your worldview), it's also extremely well written with some fantastic passages on adolescent awkwardness, urban decay, immigration and race issues in America - let's just say it's very much worth anyone's time.
I read books all the time, which marked me as different in high school. I just marked my high school as sad and went about my business. ^^
As for what I read, I'm a great fan of fiction, particularly fantasy literature. I went a bit backwards, though, as I started my love of fantasy with Tolkein, instead of him being the end result. From there, I worked backwards through fantasy series such as the Inheritance Cycle and eventually to books based on DnD campaigns like Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms. Because of this, R.A. Salvatore is currently my favorite author, but I've got a Discworld novel on my desk just waiting to be read, which might change some things. I've heard very good things about Discworld.
Also, when I'm in the mood for it, I love reading horror novels like what Stephen King writes (or wrote). 'Salems Lot and The Shining were the first two of his books I read and I absolutely loved them, especially the former. Well, I did read the first Dark Tower book years earlier, but I don't count that since I never got farther in the series and was only half paying attention to what was going on anyway.
Oh...Philip Pullman...I always say to myself that I must read his "Queste Oscure Materie" book (should be something along Dark Matters in English)
I'm not into classic literature stuff a lot, since I suffer the "Uncanny Valley disease", I am in touch with hundreds o people everyday at work and I need stuff that detaches from reality a lot...Palahniuk comes handy for this...LOL
I read Hard Times and Oliver Twist for my English course when I was at the University, some millennia ago...and I enjoyed them, but not as much as Wuthering Heights, that is a book that I frankly love, since I found it really visceral, and yes, I'm the kind of guy that sheds tears when reading some stuff like that :blush:
I can't find a way to like Tolkien, neither in Italian nor in English, he enslaves the fantasy of the reader and chains it in his world permeated by this rooted happyness and good happy endings; I found his books unbearably sticky, honeish and boring; thus I would love to read some Marvyn Peake stuff...
If I must suggest a book just for everyone, well my pick would surely be "The hitchhiker guide to the Galaxy", a contemporary masterpiece by Douglas Adams.
Harry Potter to Pullman is feasible. Tolkien following that is not. He just doesn't know when to shut up oh my god. It took all I had to struggle through the Silmarillion. I love Dickens but Austen is a hack. She basically just wrote fancy romance novels.Quote:
Originally Posted by Teebonesy
Anyone? a little Percy Jackson, maybe? Chasing Vermeer, The Wright Three, and The Calder Game (three books in a series) are some good books.
Oh... what about Diary of a Wimpy Kid?
Or better...
Encyclopedia...
of Immaturity...:p
I think that the Silmarillion is much better stuff than the Lord Of The Rings, it has a cosmogony section that I fairly enjoyed. Nothing Earth shattering, but good stuff nonetheless.Quote:
Originally Posted by monstahr
For people who likes anti heroic stuff, and stuff that is not happy I really suggest Wayne Barlowe's GOD'S DEMON
Did someone read James Patterson's "MAXIMUM RIDE"?
If you like fantasy books read Mark Robson's books
I dont read alot of books but im gonne read some tom clancy book's in the summer.
completely useless edit: Im listning to Cant touch this from Mchammer :P
Really? I couldn't stand it, it was worse than LotR for me. Tolkien believes that everyone else ought to be as interested in his imaginary world as he is. I found it dull. Maybe its worth another try.Quote:
Originally Posted by OmegaSlayer
And I've read Maximum Ride, and its sequel I believe. My sister had them picked out for a car ride I think. I cringed a lot while reading those. I feel like the writer ought to be able to have more sophistication in his language use, even in children's stories, considering that he's written many books before. Not really a fan.
This year I've actually grown to not only like but admire Shakespeare. What he's done is absolutely fantastic. Reading through all the footnotes and everything in the extended text is fascinating, he weaves this words and ideas together with art that hasn't been seen since or before..
I think what turned me off of him before was being forced to read Romeo and Juliet freshman year. It's written as fantastically as his other work, sure, but the characters are horrible. They clearly deserved their deaths. And it's not the Bard's fault, but the story has basically become a cliched parody of itself.
I LOVE reading!!
I would definately recommend the Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness
I would also recommend the Harry Potter series to anyone who has not yet read them. (I'm a fanboy :3 )
I like the Harry Potter books, The Hobbit and The Lord of the RIngs by Tolkien. As mrv says, Wilbur Smith writes some amazing books, but at the moment I'm working my way through Kathy Reichs books, which inspired the 'Bones' tv series about a forensic anthropologist.
@plasmavore
Yay! Chaos Walking! I might make an LBP level on those...
A little unknown title that i have really trying to promote is the GONE series by Micheal Grant. Great sci-fi and fiction element. And come on. How about The Hunger Games, Catching Fire of Mocking Jay ( Due to be released) by Susanne Collins
Okay here are all the books on my book shelf (some of them)
The Demon King
GONE
HUNGER
LIES
Here, There be Dragons
The serch for the red dragon
The indigo king
The shadow dragon
The escape
Eagle day
Secret army
The recruit
Class A
Maxium Security
The killing
Divine madness
Mam vs Beast
The fall
Mad dogs
The sleepwalker
The general
the Brigands M.C.
The knife of never letting go
The Ask and the Answer
Firestorm
Whirlwind
Timelock
The hunger games
Catching fire
...and (i counted) about 327 more. i like to read.
Another great book series that people should check out is 'The Dark Tower' series, by Stephen King. They're awesome novels, and are more along the lines of a dark Sci-Fi or Fantasy series than a horror series, which is what people generally attribute Stephen King to. Its an awesome series that's like a western, in a post apocalyptic setting. Very interesting to read. Go read them! Do it now!
Reading is one of those things I wish I had more time to do, but it's just second to gaming :(
I have two novels I appreciate above others.
-The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (for its tense story)
-Lord of the Flies by William Golding (for its symbolism)
Good thread! I love to read. I'm almost never found on the bus, at the DMV, or in the head with out a book. I love used book stores, but I have to keep away from them lest I leave with half the sci-fi/fantasy section, and not rent money :P.
I'm currently Making my way through the Devine Comedy again, Because frankly, I didn't get most of it the first time. lol
since alot of my old faves have gone, (Vonnegut, Asimov, Tolken, Adams, etc. I miss you all bitterly.) I'm finding some new ones that I like (Salvatore, Donaldson, Zahn, Cherrah, Dickson)
Luckily, Piers Anthony just keeps churning out books like a man possesed.