Good books?
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Infiltrator
Member # 1220
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written Saturday, July 3 2004 07:11
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Whats a book I get me smarts from the history channel. Posts: 484 | Registered: Monday, May 27 2002 07:00 |
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Guardian
Member # 3521
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written Saturday, July 3 2004 07:52
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Although I haven't read a book for pleasure in several years now, some books still stand out in my mind from my voracious reading years in grade school, junior high, and early high school. During the majority of that time, my favorite author was probably Brian Jacques, but when I look back at his novels nowadays, I see finely-wrought tales and blazing heroism, but a glaring lack of character development or emotional depth. C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia stand, in my mind, as being the finest fantasy series I have ever read through. However, like many of you, I feel that the finest novels are not to be found in the fantasy genre. My favorite novel of all time, oddly enough, is one that seems to be almost universally despised by my peers. However, I found John Knowles's A Separate Peace to be magnificent, a deeply disturbing and yet thoroughly entertaining work, with a protagonist with whom I felt quite a strong association. Other favorites of mine are Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, Richard Adams's Watership Down, Michael Shaara's Killer Angels, and Agatha Christie's Curtain, featuring that most engaging of sleuths, Hercule Poirot. -------------------- Stughalf "Delusion arises from anger. The mind is bewildered by delusion. Reasoning is destroyed when the mind is bewildered. One falls down when reasoning is destroyed."- The Bhagavad Gita. Posts: 1798 | Registered: Sunday, October 5 2003 07:00 |
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Infiltrator
Member # 1220
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written Saturday, July 3 2004 08:03
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Only Half Stultified are you my teacher? Watership down is like his favorite book and he loves Tale of two cities. He also loves Lord of the Rings and small boys. Did I say small boys I ment puppies yeah... puppies. Posts: 484 | Registered: Monday, May 27 2002 07:00 |
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Law Bringer
Member # 335
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written Saturday, July 3 2004 08:58
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Dolney, please. Carl Hiaasen is hilarious. He's not enlightening, uplifting, or eddifying, but he is definitely entertaining. His books are murder mysteries in the way that Terry Pratchett's books are fantasy. Oh, and pick up a few of Pratchett's books too, while you're at it. Read something by Ayn Rand as well. It will be creepy and you may feel soiled by the end, but it's definitely an experience. —Alorael, who will bring back SF/F with Roger Zelazny. His books can get repetitive if you read too many at once, but they're definitely good reading. Try the first few books of the Amber series and you'll know whether you love his style or hate it. Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00 |
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Infiltrator
Member # 1220
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written Saturday, July 3 2004 09:57
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I'm not much for novels but I do like a short story and poem from time to time. I like Edger Allen Poe and other dark twisted poems. [ Saturday, July 03, 2004 10:04: Message edited by: A guy with pretty good grammar ] Posts: 484 | Registered: Monday, May 27 2002 07:00 |
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Agent
Member # 2210
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written Saturday, July 3 2004 15:39
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Are we talking real literature or trash I love trash. For real literature try Nicholas Mosley -- Hopeful Monsters, or The Brothers Karamazov by Theodore Doestoevsky. Some really good fantasy. Liam Hearn-- Across the Nightingale Floor, Guy Gavriel Kay-- The Last Light of the Sun. The best reviews for fantasy and science fiction are on http://www.locusmag.com -- this is the trade magazine for the science fiction industry. You can also try http://www.sfsite.com -------------------- Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh. Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight. Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00 |
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Infiltrator
Member # 1220
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written Saturday, July 3 2004 17:41
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Well if your looking for some good reading I recommend Saunders Own The Guy by the Canal. Don’t let the beginning sway you it gets very addicting after a while. Its a good two hour plus reading. Posts: 484 | Registered: Monday, May 27 2002 07:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 3276
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written Saturday, July 3 2004 17:45
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Good Books, Star Trek:Chain of Attack Life, the Universe, and Everything(Douglas Adams) Posts: 249 | Registered: Saturday, July 26 2003 07:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 3073
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written Saturday, July 3 2004 19:16
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Dante's Inferno is my suggested "good book". -------------------- I am the way into the doleful city I am the way into eternal grief, I am the way to a foresaken race. Justice it was that moved my great creator; Divine omnipotence created me, And highest wisdom joined with primal love. Before me nothing but eternal things Were made, and I shall last eternally Abandon all hope, all you who enter. Posts: 383 | Registered: Friday, June 6 2003 07:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 4484
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written Saturday, July 3 2004 19:25
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Terry Pratchett (DiskWorld), Michael Moorcock (all), Dante. -------------------- "Il est interdit de se battre sur le Champ du Massacre; dit-il avant de marquer une pause, le temps de reflechir a la logique de ses propos." Discworld, The Colour of Magic Posts: 178 | Registered: Monday, June 7 2004 07:00 |
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Agent
Member # 2210
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written Sunday, July 4 2004 07:06
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This is also an excellent place to pick out a good science fiction or fantasy book. The first on the list has a new title coming out-- A Feast of Crows-- George R.R. Martin coming in August. http://www.gurge.com/amd/top100/ -------------------- Wasting your time and mine looking for a good laugh. Star Bright, Star Light, Oh I Wish I May, I Wish Might, Wish For One Star Tonight. Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 4445
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written Sunday, July 4 2004 08:55
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For a good SF read, try anything by William Gibson, Neuromancer in particular is good, also any of his short story collections. My favorite book of all time is Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace. I cannot stress how incredibly good it is. Read it. Don't read his other books, though. They do not compare. If you can make it past the first couple chapters, you won't be able to put it down. I can't really say what genre it is, but it certainly isn't SF/F. Posts: 293 | Registered: Saturday, May 29 2004 07:00 |
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Agent
Member # 1934
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written Monday, July 5 2004 14:16
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I really like all of Martha Wells books. The Death of the Necromancer is a fantastic novel. I highly recomend it. By the way, can someone answer my question regarding At the Gallows in the BoE forum? -------------------- http://www.geocities.com/clownstaples/swf/ballonstring.html Delierious? Posts: 1169 | Registered: Monday, September 23 2002 07:00 |
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Post Navel Trauma ^_^
Member # 67
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written Wednesday, July 7 2004 11:56
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Frank Herbert's Dune series. Start at the beginning and read them until you get to a book you don't like. Don't bother with the later ones in the series, you'll like them even less (except perhaps if you are TM). The prequels should be taken out and shot. Greg Bear and Philip Dick are two good (and very different) SF authors. The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman are not books but should still be read. -------------------- Barcoorah: I even did it to a big dorset ram. desperance.net - Don't follow this link Posts: 1798 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00 |
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Warrior
Member # 4583
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written Wednesday, July 7 2004 19:27
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Mercedes Lackey is a wonderful fantasy author. Ann Ryhn's Anthem is pretty good. Bram Stoker's Dracula if you haven't. -------------------- "Fall in CHAOS!!!" Dark Archon. Posts: 74 | Registered: Saturday, June 19 2004 07:00 |
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Babelicious
Member # 3149
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written Wednesday, July 7 2004 19:53
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I plan on inventing a time machine so I can go back in time and throw Ayn Rand off a dam so she never has a chance to inspire hundreds of thousands of slobbery objectivist imbeciles. Also, it's all about the Asimov. -------------------- I've got a pyg in a poke. Posts: 999 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00 |
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...b10010b...
Member # 869
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written Wednesday, July 7 2004 20:08
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Djur, if he cannot even remember her name, he is obviously not a fanatical Objectivist. Posts: 9973 | Registered: Saturday, March 30 2002 08:00 |
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Bob's Big Date
Member # 3151
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written Thursday, July 8 2004 00:39
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Ayn Rand is only a good author if you're really heavily into objectivism or superhero fiction. If the latter is the case, I get the feeling a graphic novel or two are what you're looking for, and that's an entirely different subject. If the former is the case, eww. No children for you, please. -------------------- The biggest, the baddest, and the fattest. Posts: 2367 | Registered: Friday, June 27 2003 07:00 |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Thursday, July 8 2004 06:44
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Not a fan of Ayn Rand myself - read "The Fountainhead" back in high school and thought it was pretty cool, but now it just seems like a bit backward. Still, it does touch a bit on Realism, which for the moment I'm buying. Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
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Lifecrafter
Member # 4682
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written Thursday, July 8 2004 06:55
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I particularly like the works of Garth Nix, Diana Wynne Jones, Phillip Pullman, Terry Prachett and Lloyd Alexander. Read their children's books too. Sabriel is very good. You should also read The Prophecy of the Stones. It's not by any of the authors I mentioned above, it's by Flavia Bujor, but it's good(and I just met the author a few days ago :D ). Small Gods is hilarious. I think that's enough for now, but I'll probably recommend some others. -------------------- If anyone ever asks you why you did something, say "Because I could". Posts: 834 | Registered: Thursday, July 8 2004 07:00 |
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Lifecrafter
Member # 4682
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written Thursday, July 8 2004 07:11
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The Myth-Adventures of Aahz and Skeeve series is really good. They're by Robert Asprin. It all starts when Skeeve's(main character) magik teacher gets killed by an assasin right after he summoned a demon(his drinking partner) as a practical joke. Aahz(the demon) takes Skeeve as his apprentice and the rest is history. The first book is Another Fine Myth. -------------------- If anyone ever asks you why you did something, say "Because I could". Posts: 834 | Registered: Thursday, July 8 2004 07:00 |
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By Committee
Member # 4233
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written Thursday, July 8 2004 07:27
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Hey man - FYI: it's generally considered impolite to double-post on this forum. If you have more to add, just edit it in! :) Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00 |
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Shock Trooper
Member # 4445
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written Thursday, July 8 2004 17:22
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For a good laugh at Ayn Rand's expense, see the South Park episode in which the illiterate cop learns to read, and waxes lyrical about the wonders of reading, but then is given "Atlas Shrugged" and forsakes reading forever, because of "this piece of crap." This is all the recommendation I need never to touch an Ayn Rand book. Posts: 293 | Registered: Saturday, May 29 2004 07:00 |
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Infiltrator
Member # 4592
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written Saturday, July 10 2004 22:21
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Hey! Anything by Jack Vance. If you like fantasy: the two Cugel books: "Eyes of the Overworld" and "Cugel's Saga" are Brilliant! Neal Stephenson: Cryptonomicon and the rest from the series (Quicksilver, Confusion, soon System of the World) The George R. R. Martin Song of Fire and Ice (bloody good!) Flashman! Specially the first, Flashman, The Great Game, Flash for Freedom! Flashman and the Red Skins, etc. By Fraser too: McAuslen trilogy, you can find an omnibus for those. Jolly good read! A Series of Unfortunate Events is funny, but expensive. His Dark Materials is also a good trilogy. Alt. History (sort of) a series by William Forstchen, the Lost Regiment. If you like Burroughs, there's a Vance series called Planet of Adventure (4 books, available in omnibus format) which has a bit of a Burroughesque flavor to them. If you like Lovecraft: Strange Eons by Robert Bloch. On the same subject, there is a series of four books by Bryan Lumley that take place in the Dreamlands which is fun. His Titus Crow series is also good. A quartet by J. Gregory Keyes called Age of Unreason is, though not perfect by far, a fun read. The Alienist and to a lesser extend The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr are good. Two difficult to find but rather worth series/authors: Avram Davidson. He is a genius (for me, anyway) Any book by him is good. You sometimes can find him in used bookstores. A shamefully forgotten author. Kim Newman: his trilogy (so far, unless there's a fourth one that slipped my radar) about Dracula is really GOOD. The first one is Anno Dracula and it mixes different characters from real life and fiction from the time of Bram Stroker's book. The story deals with Jack the Ripper under a new light. Anything by Robert Anton Wilson (but that's a different thing completely) Oh, and anything by Rabelais. I'll stop now. Edit: Lenght. [ Saturday, July 10, 2004 22:27: Message edited by: Blind Samurai Clown ] -------------------- quote:Random Jack Vance Quote Manual Generator Apparatus (Cugel's Saga) Posts: 604 | Registered: Sunday, June 20 2004 07:00 |
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Lifecrafter
Member # 4682
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written Sunday, July 11 2004 13:29
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quote:Sorry, forgot about that. -------------------- If anyone ever asks you why you did something, say "Because I could". Posts: 834 | Registered: Thursday, July 8 2004 07:00 |