What is your favorite book?

I need suggestions on some good books I should pick up. I don't read alot and I want to get more into the habit of it.

So name yours?

Ender's Game

Ender's Shadow

Those are two of my favorites... They are quite similar. Both have are about the same thing but told by different characters... If you read one, you have to read the other one also. I suggest starting with Ender's Game if you do decide to read them.

The whole ender and bean quartets.

The Last Light of the Sun by Guy Gavriel Kay.

Or, if you're looking for something a little larger, he wrote a trilogy, called 'The Fionavar Tapestry'.

The tapestry draws alot on real world mythology and combines it with his own. It's a weird twist, but I enjoyed it once I got over the initial shock.

I would've linked you to the wikipedia article on the Tapestry, but it contains spoilers.

Basically anything by Kay gets a thumbs up from me. He was the co-editor of the Silmarillion after all :P

Who whole ender and bean quartets.

I assume you meant "The" instead of "Who". Anyway, yeah, I agree. The entire series was great. Orson Scott Card is a genius...

Is there any particular genre you like more than others?

Ive read enders game 2 years in a row good book.

My favorite books are Tom Clancy's splinter cell series

http://www.amazon.com/Halo-Ghosts-Eric- ... F8&s=books

http://www.amazon.com/Pink-Floyd-Encycl ... F8&s=books

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Stories- ... F8&s=books

http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Encyc ... F8&s=books

http://www.amazon.com/Cryptozoology-Enc ... 22?ie=UTF8

Dunno, but im ordering those 5 tommorow.

Other Good books i've Read =

Alicia: a WW2 Story

The Halo Series, based on the game.

Kurt Cobains Journals

Scarlet Letter.

Misc. Shakespeare

---Currently reading "Scarlet Letter" in school.

i just read the settling accounts series by Harry Turtledove. I thought they were all really good books...

"The Case for Christ" by Lee Strobel, a very respected journalist.

It is very intelligent and full of nothing but facts, while most religious debates deviate into fiction.

The Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell, don't be intimidated by the amount of books in it, if you like one of them, you'll finish next to all of them in no time at all :D

This Present Darkness

Piercing the Darkness

The Oath

Heh, basically all Frank Peretti books.

This Present Darkness

 

Piercing the Darkness

 

The Oath

 

 

 

Heh, basically all Frank Peretti books.

Have you read "The Visitation?" I haven't read the book, but the movie was very impressive.

I didn't give you enough time to reply with what genre you would prefer, but I really just felt like posting anyways :P .

All these links are to the Internet Book List which is supposed to be like an imdb for books. I just found it, and have no idea how good it is. It didn't list any non-fiction books for my first author, so we shall see.

Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged - This is my favourite book. The people who read it either love it, hate it, or love/hate it. The love it or hate it because of the morals and political views that it is preaching. The people who love/hate it like the views but find the book to be very repetitive and boring. Definently a must read for everyone. It is kind of lengthy and can take some people a while to read. The first time I read it took eight days. The second time took four days. That is longer than all of the other books I read. For simplicity's sake (second time I said that today :D ) I will just link to Ayn Rand. Like I said above, no links for her non-fiction. It does link to the Ayn Rand Institute and you can get them off of there.

From now on I will do it by author, since almost every author has more than one book I enjoy.

Kurt Vonnegut - He is an awesome author. Best described as a satirical humoured science fiction author. Although most of the time I don't agree with the "moral" of the story because of his political or philisophical views, it doesn't affect my judgment of his books. I still love them. Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five are probably his two most famous books. Both are excellent. Player Piano is his first novel, and is pretty good. This is probably his most political one also. Mother Night is about an American in Nazi Germany during WWII. This one is one of the less popular ones, but according to this website it is rated pretty well by the few who rated it. Slapstick I thought was one of the best ones, but apperantly not to many agree. Including Kurt Vonnegut himself. While reading one of his non-fiction psuedo auto-biographies he rated the books he had written so far. He is not a modest man, gave him self A+'s for a few. However he gave himself a D- for Slapstick. Oh well, I enjoyed it.

I've typed a lot so far, and it has taken a while. I don't want to lose it, and I don't feel like doing anymore right now, so I will just edit it in later.

EDIT 1: OK, it took a little longer for me to update it than I originally thought. Here are a few more, probably have to do a few more edits. This edit will be mostly Science Fiction authors.

Orson Scott Card - As already mentioned (a few times) his novel Ender's Game is awesome. The whole series following it is also awesome. The parrallel to it is Ender's Shadow, which is equally as awesome. I actually read Ender's Shadow first, and I really had no idea what to expect. I can't even remember why I chose to read it, but I am glad I did. Most people read Ender's Game first, and I think most people like it more. I think if you read it first you probably will. Since i did it backwards I like them equally. Both are spectacular. As for the sequels to the books I enjoyed the ones following Ender's Game a lot more. When reading those books I wanted Science Fiction. When you read the Shadow storyline it is more about politics. I love political books, but for some reason these just didn't seem as good. I haven't read any other Orson Scott Card, so I can't comment on it.

Arthur C. Clarke - All I really need to say is 2001: A Space Odyssey. This is in my opinion the absolute best Science Fiction novel, and also it is my favourite. You could argue it is not the best, but not to me because I will simply ignore anything not saying this is the best. :D . It was actually the screenplay first, written by Clarke and Stanley Kubrick, and then Clarke made a novel out of it. If you plan on seeing the movie I actually suggest reading the novel first, makes certain parts less confusing. There are actually three sequals, which are pretty good. For some reason I read them expecting them to be pretty lame compared to the first one, but they are decent. Clarke didn't just write those books though, he has some other good ones. Rendezvous with Rama is really good too, and actually according to iblist it is rated better than 2001. I thought it was pretty good, and apperantly there is also a series continuing after it too. I might try and pick those up sometime, definently would continue reading it.

H. G. Wells - Like Clarke, can be best described by naming his best book: War of the Worlds. For a Science Fiction novel wrote in 1898 this is better than awesome. Well, I can't really think of much to say except its great, even though it is kind of slow. All of Wells other novels are great too. These are probably the first science fiction novels I ever read, and after re-reading them all last summer I am suprised I liked them so much as a kid. They aren't too difficult to read, but more-so than most books. They all are a little slow like War of the Worlds, so it astonishes me that I liked them so much. Now they all seem really good, just not the style for everyone.

Ray Bradbury - You all know about Fahrenheit 451, right? Well, it is required reading in high school around here, not sure about other places. It is a great book, the only one Bradbury is really known for. It is a Dystopia/Utopia genre of book according to iblist, which is under the Science Fiction genre. I guess it does have some sci-fi in it, I find it to be more of just a political book though. Definently a must read for everyone. The only other Bradbury I have read was The Martian Chronicles, which is really science fictiony, for lack of a better explanation. It was pretty good too, but I probably wouldn't list it in a top 20 list. Just thought I would mention it here to point out that Bradbury does have other books. Apperantly a lot of them...

George Orwell - I said I was just doing sci-fi, but apperantly the dystopian books are considered sci-fi, so I guess I will do it now. Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm. I'm not going to write anything about these since you can find other reviews in this topic and if it continues for a while you will most likely see more. Quick review: Awesome, and both are a must read.

Brave New World - This is a book, obviously not an author :P . This is the only book by the author, Aldous Huxley, that I have read. This is another dystopian society political book, with some sci-fi elements to it. Written in 1931 so it was right at the beginning of the Great Depression. Since that was blamed on the capitalist economic system (no comment on that so I don't go off topic) it was a perfect time to write a book about the "tyranny" of capitalism. I can't say I didn't like that it was anti-capitalist because I just now found out. I didn't think it had anything to do with it at all, it seemed like it was all about class struggles, or more correctly the lack of them even though there were classes. I will read it again soon and see how much of the point of the book I actually missed.

Alas, Babylon - This time I had to post the book, seeing as how Pat Frank only has one book. Anyways, this book is great. Like a lot of the ones above it was required reading in highschool. Unlike the other ones above, I did not actually read this one until it was assigned. All the other ones I had already read once when they were assigned. After school on the first day that I was assigned it I started, and finished it. One reading session. I couldn't put the book down. I'm sure you've heard that phrase before, but it was literal this time. I sat down and read the entire book before getting back up. I have mentioned it before in the movie threads that the post-apocalyptic scenerio was one of my favourites. This book is probably the biggest reason for it.

Well, that is all for tonight. I don't include fantasy fiction under sci-fi even though it normally is included there. I'll do fantasy fiction next, which will pretty much cover most of my favourites. Last will probably be just general fiction.

Thanks for the link indy.

Guy Gavriel Kay.

I would have to agree with one of the commenters - that he is criminally under-read.

Mmm, good list so far, indy500fan :) While I'm not actually a huge fan of Vonnegut, I respect him as an author. I'm sort of the opposite about Ayn Rand - I find her books fascinating, almost a guilty pleasure. Her characters are hazardously attractive and her politics truly interesting and kind of brilliant. Nevertheless, her rambling epic style of writing - while fun - isn't as respectable as that of some other authors.

The greatest genius writer I can think of is Hermann Hesse. He takes his strange blend of fascinating philosophy and spins new worlds with it, fairly existentialist. I recommend Steppenwolf, which I consider to be his masterpiece.

"Beloved" by Toni Morrison is brilliant, but probably not worth attempting on your own, and not in a class; you need to discuss it in order to make sense of it. Really.

"Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston is a great read, and utterly beautiful. The best thing I've encountered from the "Harlem Renaissance" genre/period :D

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a must-read. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is poetic in its scope; it's one of the most beautiful pieces of work I've ever read.

If you like philosophical and you like Vonnegut and you like Eastern Europe, I recommend anything by Milan Kundera. He's a lot more intellectual and "westernized" than other Czech writers, which in some sense is sad, but in another makes its appeal more accessible.

If you're looking for less philosophical, here are some more suggestions:

Sci-fi and Fantasy:

- the His Dark Materials is the most brilliant piece of fantasy fiction I've encountered :D The characters are great and lovable, the worlds are fantastic, and the undertones about the flaws of Christianity and particularly the Catholic Church are interesting.

- Orson Scott Card is best known for his Ender series, but he has some other great books out there. I particularly enjoyed "Songmaster" and "Enchantment"

Non-fiction:

- Next of Kin by Roger Fouts. It talks about Fouts' experiences with chimpanzees, and in particular, Washoe - the first chimpanzee to speak in sign language with humans :D

Just fun bestsellers:

- the Clan of the Cave Bear and its sequels are really fun to read. They're about this girl, Ayla, who is raised by Neanderthals... it's highly anthropologically accurate, but it's just... yeah :D It's fun to read.

- Wicked!! What a fantastic book. The character development is beautiful, and it really builds on the Wizard of Oz world in unexpected ways. It's a quick, fun read... but ALSO well-done and deserving of the word "literature"

I might post again some other time with more of my favourites... but that's all for now :D

This Present Darkness

 

Piercing the Darkness

 

The Oath

 

 

 

Heh, basically all Frank Peretti books.

 

 

 

Have you read "The Visitation?" I haven't read the book, but the movie was very impressive.

Haven't yet read the book or seen the movie. This makes me want to do both! :D

Hmm, for a look at the complete english myth legend dealing with the life before, during and after with all the tales as they were originally told, read "The Arthur Trilogy"

Also, for a good pleasurable read, the Pendragon series, i got hooked on them

and finally for classic, The Sword of Shannara Series By Terry Brooks, exciting, do not let size intimadate you

Hobby-[garden tool]

(i did a quick count, i have over 400 books on my bookshelf and 127 more downstairs in my basement, no wonder my mom says i can't get anymore for awhile , oh and also, i think it is fun to re-re-read books becuase there are so many clues that become obvious afterwards \ , of course this doesn't make me a nerd :XD: or anything)

The entire Dune Chronicles is good.. up to halfway through the second-to-last book, where Herbert's son starts to help, and then eventually takes over.

That means the first 4.5 books are fantastic.. the last 1.5 books are good, but not nearly so, and I've heard so many bad things and read the last 1.5 books that I won't even touch the books his son did all by himself. The characters aren't nearly as good, the plot stales quickly, they're just all-around not as good.

Obviously the Lord of the Rings is fantastic..

If you don't mind a fairly younger read, the Redwall series was good.

Fahrenheit 451 and The Clockwork Orange were good..

The Power of One - Bryce Courtenay

I envy you bookworms. I seem incapable of sitting down and enjoying a good book. I really love literature, however, novels I've never been able to appreciate. Which is a real shame, because I know how beautiful books can be. You only need to look at some of the greatest films ever made to realise the power of books.

The only one I managed to muster was "To kill a mocking bird". So naturally, I recommend that :P

I can't sit around and read a normal book. I find it really boring, but I can read manga for hours and not get bored..

I don't know if I could name a favorite but I'll put a few down:

If you like your stories surreal then I can thoroughly endorse Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and other novels/short stories by the same author.

For sci-fi I'd go for the Iain M. Banks novels (not Ian Banks - very different), probably start with Player of Games or Use Of Weapons

If you liked the DaVinci Code (which I hope you didn't) then Umberto Eco's Name of the Rose is a much more literate book dealing with similar themes as it Foucalt's Pendulum (INOR is more accesible though).

For a more traditional read try Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (sp?).

One last one if you like geeky computer/cryptography then definitely read Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, which you'll probably want to follow up with The Code Book by Simon Sharma.

My most favourite book of all times, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Admittedly I don't spend much time reading... I really should.

My favorite would be "The Wheel of Time" books by Robert Jordan. :oops: (Im on book 8 atm.)

I also enjoyed "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy", before I saw the movie atleast. Not sure if I could stand reading it again. :(