Curse

subarucar · Apr 06, 2009, 04:18 AM // 04:18

If your into fast paced action novels, Matthew Reiley is an author to consider.

Shursh · May 15, 2009, 08:08 PM // 20:08

these aren't sci-fi, but amazing nonetheless:

A Confederacy of Dunces, by Robert Kennedy Toole - probably the funniest book i've ever read. i've read it multiple times, and it still makes me laugh so hard that i cry.

Sperm Wars, by Robin Baker (?) - this book completely changed the way i view EVERYTHING - society, people, cultures, and life in general. highly recommend it, although i had to order it online - the bookstores here didn't carry it due to its (arguably) explicit content.

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman - really entertaining and makes you think a little bit. It's even better if you have a friend read it too, because there's a lot of stuff in there that is great for conversation.

Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N' Roses, by Stephen Davis - GNR is my favorite band, so of course i liked this book, but he has also written a bunch of books about other bands (Zeppelin, Aerosmith, etc.), and he is VERY in-depth and thorough, so if you like rock music, i suggest picking up at least one of his books.

ok so i remembered some sci-fi stuff:

The Death Gate Cycle, by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - someone else mentioned a few of their books, but this is a seven-book series which involves two rival magicians and their quest together to figure out who split the world into four parts - earth, air, fire, and water. very entertaining with cool magic and interesting plot twists.

Qing Guang · May 16, 2009, 07:56 PM // 19:56

I'm not a huge fan of Eragon either... read it, liked it, but in retrospect (especially upon watching the film and remembering the plot) wondered what it was I'd liked about it in the first place. Never bothered to read the sequels.

I love Mercedes Lackey's stuff, and there's a ton of it. The Valdemar books are great; I've read maybe all but two or three series of it. Anne McCaffrey's Pern and Pegasus novels are good too.

I know people knock his books for being formula, but David Eddings's put out some great work. The thing is, he acknowledges that they're standardized fantasy, and since he's not busy trying to protest the ultimate originality and innovation in his works he's able to make them fun and well-written enough that one doesn't care that one's seen the elements before (and that, I believe, was my main problem with Eragon - it was cliche, but the author didn't seem to realize it, and so he presented it as if it were unique).

I love the Artemis Fowl novels, too. Ostensibly they're aimed at tweens and young teens but there's enough subtle humor in them that other people can enjoy them as well.

It's not fantasy or sci-fi (though it concerns those subjects), but I also am enjoying The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. If you can get past the foul language (I've picked up some colorful Spanish terms...) it's a great, moving book that's very nicely written. As an added bonus, reading the (genuinely interesting and often darkly funny) footnotes will teach you more about the Dominican Republic than you ever knew there was to know.

On a slightly related note, if you understand Spanish, go look around on the web for the short story "Rosa" by Angel Balzarino. I had to read it for my Spanish class, and it did not deserve to be thrown in that infantile textbook. It's very Bradbury, very Twilight Zone.

Fate Crusher · Aug 10, 2009, 11:18 AM // 11:18

The author i have been worshipping for the past 6 years or so is the late and great David Gemmell, who had died 3 years ago. He writes heroic fantasy novels that greatly portray human emotions and morality during times of war. His characters a seriously cool and you'll end up loving them (even if one of them butchered an entire city woo).
I recommend first reading Legend, his first novel, about Druss The Legend. Then divulge yourself on the books describing his early years. He was also in the middle of developing a new character just before he died, called Skilgannon The Damned, but was only able to write 2 books about him before he passed away. Then there are the books about the past and a character called Waylander, who received a bounty to kill a beloved king, forever cursing his life.
This is but one series of his books!
His famous trilogy was the Troy one, where he mixes real history and his own imagination. To the masses, these were his bestselling books. His wife had to finnish the final book for him with the huge stack of notes he left behind when he passed away.
He has other stand alone books such as Echoes of the Great Song and Morning Star, which are just as great as the Drenai Saga (the first lot of books i mentioned).

Then there is Brent Weeks, who recently came out with his first trilogy, The Night Angel. these books are seriously cool. SERIOUSLY. lol. Without giving any spoilers, the protagonist lives in the slums and dreams of becoming a wetboy (uber cool assassin). this is a world of magic, mind.
Brent Weeks' style of writing creates such vivid pictures in your mind and with a great story to boot, i nearly cried at the ending of the final book. Wonderful read.

I hope that you or others who have read this post, go ahead and read these wonderful books.

Snow Bunny · Aug 10, 2009, 04:25 PM // 16:25

You may have read a few of these through the course of your primary/secondary education.

Alexandre Dumas
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Three Musketeers

F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby

Ernest Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea
Men Without Women
For Whom the Bell Tolls

Charles Dickens
Great Expectations
A Tale of Two Cities

Dostoevsky
Crime and PunishmentDemons
The Brothers Karamazov

Oscar Wilde
A Picture of Dorian Gray

Goethe
Faust

John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath

Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness

James Joyce
Dubliners
Ulysses

Dostoevsky and Joyce are my pals <3

Malice Black · Aug 10, 2009, 04:48 PM // 16:48

The Wolf of Wall Street - Jordan Belfort

Good read, however, you need to know the basics of stock trading for it to make any sense.

Quick summary:

Lots of cash
Drugs
Hookers
Underhand deals
etc

Based on the authors days as a broker on Wall Street (surprise surprise!!)

Winterclaw · Aug 10, 2009, 06:06 PM // 18:06

Eargon was bad. Couldn't be bothered to buy or read the 3rd book. I'd also suggest avoiding the star wars books... bad they were, the new jedi order books kinda killed the setting for me for the most part.

I've just started the 5000 Year Leap, the idea of it is the author wanted a simple reference that people could read about the constitution of the US.

ser, Elminster > Rastlin

Some I'd suggest are:
If you are a Christian, there's the bible if you haven't read it in whole.

First two discworld books - Rincewind is a unique main character however he isn't the focus off all the series.

Lord of the rings and the hobbit - classics

The conan collections - someone took the magazine stories and combined them into a couple of books.

Band of Four Novels (by Ed Greenwood) - interesting magic system and healers can put themselves at risk to heal others.

Liberal Fascism is good if you want to see how scary the US is becoming (but you'd have to be of an open mind to read it)

Art of War: a military classic. One version has the original text and the original text with collected notes from other generals and military experts.

awesome sauce · Aug 10, 2009, 07:06 PM // 19:06

Right now I'm reading A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. It has some bad things to say about the Roman Catholic church and the state of mideival society. It doesn't directly carry much criticism into the present, but you can easily infer it. This was written in 1890, and Mark Twain effectively predicted the fall of communism before it even got its momentum, truly a genius.

Next will be The Remains of the Day.

*Darcy* · Aug 10, 2009, 07:42 PM // 19:42

Try publisher Baen's website for free download of great sff books. Most of their authors have at least the first book of a series in the library.
http://www.baen.com/library/defaultTitles.htm

My other favorites are:

C.H. Cherryh for life from the alien's viewpoint. Her Foreigner series is the current one.
Lois McMaster Bujold for humorous space opera.
Michelle West - her The Sun Sword series, with prequels and sequels.
Dorothy Sayers - Lord Peter mystery series
Patricia James - Adam Dalgliesh mystery series

Read any book on a "classics" list. They make you think along with the entertainment.

Vilaptca · Aug 10, 2009, 08:05 PM // 20:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by ser

Camulod Chronicles - Jack Whyte
Hey, a non-fantasy book series! A retelling of the Arthur legends with some pretty good battles. My favourite book was Uther.

OMG! I thought nobody but me had ever read these books. If you can find them anywhere, this is an excellent series to read.

To add to the thread, my favorite author is Glen Cook. The Black Company series is an great read, and is what hooked me onto him. He also has the Dread Empire series and The Tyranny of the Night series. These three are very similar, almost like they could be taking place in the same world. All very good, the type of books that you'd stay up at night under your blankets with a flashlight to keep reading them.

Glen Cook also has a series about a detective, but it takes place in a fantasy setting. These books are more comedic though, and completely different than anything else he writes.

Omgopolis · Aug 10, 2009, 09:49 PM // 21:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheodenKing

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams.

This. I picked up all 5 books in one collection for about $20 a couple of months ago. Douglas Adams also wrote a couple of mystery type books, that were very good. The Hobbit is pretty cool too.

Halmyr · Aug 10, 2009, 11:00 PM // 23:00

R.A Salvator - The spear weilders trilogy.

yeah, I know drizzt is overated, but the stuff not about drizzt is pretty awomse.
This particular one I loved, I mean who can not lot a gang that is composed of a human, a dwarf, an elf, a leprecaune and a talking spear! What I most loved about it is that it leaves a lot to the imagination.

Rocky Raccoon · Aug 10, 2009, 11:30 PM // 23:30

The Brian Lumley Series of the Necroscope and the Wamphyri, if you like vampires

glacialphoenix · Aug 10, 2009, 11:32 PM // 23:32

Science-fiction/Fantasy:

Anything by Douglas Adams. Anything.

Whoever said the Chronicles of Amber, seconded.

Quote:

First two discworld books - Rincewind is a unique main character however he isn't the focus off all the series.

Sod first two. Read the whole lot. Check out the Vimes books if you don't want to read the whole lot. If you're intending on buying them, do it slowly or you'll go broke.

Philip K. Dick's short stories.

I also like Tamora Pierce and Mercedes Lackey, but I don't think they're to everyone's tastes.

Graphic novels:

V For Vendetta.
Watchmen.
The entire Sandman series except quite possibly A Game of You, which is worthwhile reading anyway.
Oh, and I like the Fables series' take on fairy tales.

Other stuff:

I'm a rabid Sherlock Holmes fan, but this is one of those 'mileage may vary' things. Oh, heck. I like most things by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, anyway.

To Kill A Mockingbird. (It still makes me cry.)

If you're a poetry person, poems by Pablo Neruda. While we're on the subject, I'm actually quite fond of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, although I never want to write on it for an essay again.

...actually, I've got a pretty soft spot for The Odyssey and Ovid's Metamorphoses, too, but those two need a good translation.

Oh, and Edgar Allan Poe, although I like his short stories more than his poems.

Quote:

Dostoevsky and Joyce are my pals <3

I'm ambivalent about Dostoevsky, but I never want to touch Joyce again. He's one of those 'your mileage may vary' writers, I think.

Gigashadow · Aug 11, 2009, 01:56 AM // 01:56

I recently started reading Iain M. Banks's Culture novels, and he has become my favorite sci-fi author. Although the books have no particular order, I recommend starting with Consider Phlebas. Excession was also really good.

The setting is in a galactic society, and the Culture is a futuristic somewhat utopian society where humanoids (not actually us; Earth is never mentioned) have more or less let Minds (AIs) run everything. The meat of the stories centers about a division called Special Circumstances, a secret subsection of the Contact section, which secretly interferes in other cultures, starting or ending wars and other such things for "the greater good".

I think if I lived in that universe, I would spend all day talking to the Minds running the spaceships. They have quite entertaining personalities.

Eskimoz · Aug 11, 2009, 03:56 AM // 03:56

Books....I bought books for college today.

my wallet hurts.

pumpkin pie · Aug 11, 2009, 03:58 AM // 03:58

I think it is good that books still exist, but they do make me sleepy. Frank Zappa (1940 - 1993)
I read part of it all the way through. Samuel Goldwyn (1882 - 1974)
Never judge a book by its movie. J. W. Eagan

You guys should join Shelfari! Its your online database of what books you own, have read, plan to read, and discuss those book with other members who have read the same books and such. Your account has a virtual book shelf, you can add books you own, date you purchase, write a review/comment, you are able to add the exact edition you own, with the exact same cover! I owned 73 books only so far, most of which I am in the middle of reading

I don't read a lot of books, am trying to make it a habit! Am enjoying
Edward Trencom's Nose: A Novel of History, Dark Intrigue and Cheese (2007) by Giles Milton at the moment, and I think i am going to get his latest novel, According to Arnold: A Novel of Love and Mushrooms (2009) I love cheese and Mushrooms.

My love affairs with books! Lets see, I love books, not the reading part, I cannot concentrate very long reading books without falling asleep, not that they are not good, although some are, I am just a really slow reader! Like these books I've been reading forever "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostovo and "One Big Damn Puzzler" by John Harding. I absolutely love books with beautiful covers! I love to get them in Hard Cover if my wallet permits me. Always try to keep them in mint condition. First book I ever finished reading was "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck. Was a very good book! absolutely fasinated by the author's biography! She even have a very nice Chinese name 赛珍珠. I love books that talks about foods and cooking (not cookbooks, although I do like cookbooks, with step by step instruction and nice pictures of utensils, but that is another case all together

), for instant "Like Water for Chocolate" by Laura Esquivel and "Fried Green Tomatoes" by Fanny Flagg (wonderful touching movie, by the way)!

my shelf http://www.shelfari.com/o1517930678/shelf

ZenRgy · Aug 11, 2009, 04:04 AM // 04:04

Just finished "The Rules of Attraction" by Bret Easton Ellis.

Short, but really good.

Glamorama was good, but incredibly long and to describe it, it's pace is fairly slow and in the last 100 pages or so it picks up incredibly and everything changes.

http://www.shelfari.com/o1514655103/shelf

Kerwyn Nasilan · Aug 11, 2009, 04:16 AM // 04:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by Halmyr

R.A Salvator - The spear weilders trilogy.

yeah, I know drizzt is overated, but the stuff not about drizzt is pretty awomse.
This particular one I loved, I mean who can not lot a gang that is composed of a human, a dwarf, an elf, a leprecaune and a talking spear! What I most loved about it is that it leaves a lot to the imagination.

I also suggest something not about that RED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GORED ENGINE GOer drizzt= The Sellswords Trilogy
Servant of the Shard
The Promise of the Witch King
Road of the Patriarch
Really good if you like DnD and even though I hate Forgotten Realms this is a very good series and a great take on evil.

Artemis+Jarlaxel>>>>>>>Elminster and all those other overpowered idiots in Greenwoods little ejaculation.

headgear56 · Aug 13, 2009, 01:53 AM // 01:53

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson is a great book. Read it multiple times.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shursh

these aren't sci-fi, but amazing nonetheless:

A Confederacy of Dunces, by Robert Kennedy Toole - probably the funniest book i've ever read. i've read it multiple times, and it still makes me laugh so hard that i cry.

I have to agree with this. Very funny.