Nothing Like a Good Book!

Who here likes a good book? I do.

What genre do you prefer?

Some books I’ve read lately:

The Art of Fielding
Moby Dick
The Brethren
Life of Pi

What is something else I should pick up? I may start reading The Scarlet Letter

Science fiction mostly.
Just finished reading/re-reading the entire Asimov Foundation series including prequels and sequels. Probably the robot series is next.

Good non-fiction:

  • We Were Soldiers Once… And Young
  • A Bright Shining Lie

I have been reading pretty much non-stop since I could read. I liked the Percy Jackson series, Ender’s game, the Lord of the Rings, the Inheritance series, and the Hunger Games. I had to read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for school, and A Christmas Carol. I loved those books.

Adventures Beyond the Body -William Buhlman
Journey of Souls -Michael Newton, PH.D.

Awesome!

I forgot that I read:

Twilight
Killjoy

And something by Stephen King and John Grisham… Can’t remember the names.

A lot of stuff by Robin Cook, and if anyone is looking for a recommendation for their children who might not be avid readers: Alcatraz vs the evil librarians. Not as childish as the name sounds, but extremely hilarious

Anything by Terry Pratchett.

Also just finished re-reading the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde.

favorite genre(s):
sci-fi/
fantasy

I’ve not read anything like that. What book would you recommend to check it out for the first time?

I’m a fan of fiction stories. Last book I read was speak by Laurie Anderson. I love harry potter series, hunger game series, divergent and insurgent. Some of my favorites i can name off the top of my head

The Hannibal lecter series by Thomas Harris is such a great modern horror classic

Hunger Games and The Last Apprentice series are some great reads

The last book that I’ve read that really stands out is Ender’s Game. I can’t recommend it highly enough to those interested in scifi, even though most have already read it.

Ender’s game really was good!

Man… I’ve read so much great stuff… a tonne of the English Lit Canon as an English major… juvenile lit both older (Chronicles of Prydain series) and newer (the usual Harry Potter, Series of Unfortunate Events, Percy Jackson, Hunger Games stuff).

Horror, a bit less, though I’ve read some King and Koontz.

If I had to pick some favourites, they would either be science fiction (William Gibson is awesome; in a totally different style so is Charles de Lint) or humourists. If you’re not familiar with the humour genre, it doesn’t mean “jokes and stuff,” it’s more about heartfelt characters and a quirky perspective on our world. Tom Robbins is a good example, but my favourite hands down is Paul Quarrington. Whale Music was long my favourite book, but I think his skills improved over time (as skills should!) and The Spirit Cabinet or Civilization were ultimately more satisfying works of literature.

What else?

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore was great speculative fiction… a neurotic man becomes a Grim Reaper… hilarity ensues…

Hard to ignore the A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones) stuff. Really entertaining, particularly as well-narrated audio book… not sure I’d like his sometimes overly descriptive writing if I sat down and read the printed page.

The Rivers of London books by Ben Aaronovitch really hit the right spot between “fluff entertainment” and “works of imaginative power”.

Lev Grossman’s The Magicians was a somewhat dark and imaginative take on a “Harry Potter meets Narnia” kind of world in which “wizard school” is just as crappy as real school can sometimes be, and in which we see what happens when school is over.

I like biographies and travelogue sometimes, too. Shakey (Neil Young) was a good one. The Tropic of Hockey by Dave Bidini…

Too many good books. :wink:

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Shakey was good. I’m a big James Taylor fan, so his biography was excellent, aside from the fact of course that he’s had quite the interesting life.

As far as fiction goes, my faves would be
Anne Rice - Really anything with Marius in it. I would love to experience the things his character has.
Iain Banks - Just incredible, and warped fiction. I love things that are dark and so these really suit me. Unfortunately he has terminal cancer and so his next book will be his last.
When I’m feeling trashy anything fantasy in as many books as possible floats my boat.

And then the best of all:
Umberto Eco - Just stunning. Truly magnificent works of art. They are sooo much more than stories, they are the very essence of literary genius.

As far as individual literature goes, Fermat’s Last Theorum and The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail are terrific reads.

I am a big fan of modern action adventure books.

Anything by Clive Cussler or Dan Brown.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Lord of the Rings, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, etc.

As you can see, my tastes are varied.

EDIT: I’ve actually read the Harry Potter series about 6 times and Percy Jackson about 3.

I just finished reading Ringworld, really good book. Been reading a lot of sic-fi recently: Rendezvous with Rama, The Moat in Gods Eye. Might start reading the Dune series next.

I have a lot of reference books and read mainly for information - but some fiction titles I have enjoyed fairly recently include:

Frightened Boy - Scott Kelly
[sic] - Scott Kelly
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Wilt - Tom Sharpe
The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien

The inheritance series is forever my favorite it seems.

Game of Thrones
Lord of the Rings
The Hobbit
Diablo series

I’m dating myself here, Conan the Barbarian, series.