Books?
polycounter lvl 18
I'm sure that you've all read a book at some point in your life, and I'm suggesting that you start sharing good ones with all your lovely polycount friends!
Personally, I haven't read too many books, especially not lately, the ones I can remember reading, however, are these
1984
Do androids dream of electric sheep
Alice in Wonderland (Both books)
and that's about all I can remember, but I can also recommend them.
Umm, if anyone can share books that are cool with me? Uhhh.. looking for something to read, preferably fiction. I'm kinda looking for books that deal with isolation, knightly stuff, and space (I'm working on some kind of story of my own, dealing in some way with all 3.)
So I need inspiration, and must have stuff to read.
Personally, I haven't read too many books, especially not lately, the ones I can remember reading, however, are these
1984
Do androids dream of electric sheep
Alice in Wonderland (Both books)
and that's about all I can remember, but I can also recommend them.
Umm, if anyone can share books that are cool with me? Uhhh.. looking for something to read, preferably fiction. I'm kinda looking for books that deal with isolation, knightly stuff, and space (I'm working on some kind of story of my own, dealing in some way with all 3.)
So I need inspiration, and must have stuff to read.
Replies
Though I warn that they're not for the faint of heart, very graphic and very brutal.
Hoorah, I enjoy brutal descriptions.
I mean, i'm not a violent person but I love descriptive violence in novels, although vague descriptions can be just as effective if done properly
I'm not even going to try listing all the famous stuff, obviously anything fairly well known has something good to say, but I would definitely recommend Steven King's On Writing if you're interested in writing. Even if you don't like King's stuff he is amazingly prolific and does really well sales-wise, so it would be silly to not take a look at what he has to say. (Personally I really enjoyed reading it for entertainment alone, not to mention a lot of great tips)
Ugh, it's hard not to get too crazy talking about reading, I love to read, so just send me a PM if you want to chat about it sometime
*Boy Scout Handbook
*Riftwar Series (Magician: Apprentice, Magician: Master, Silverthorn, etc) by Raymond E. Feist
*Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
*An Inconvenient Book: Real Solutions to the World's Biggest Problems by Glenn Beck
Demian - Hermann Hesse
The Dragon Never Sleeps - Glen Cook
The Official Report on Earth by High Commander Dick Solomon - Terry Turner
Running with Scissors - Augustus Burroughs
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Choke - Chuck Palahniuk
Less than Zero - Bret Easton Ellis
Trainspotting - Irvine Welsh
Halo Series (except The Flood) - Many Authors
1984 was a great read too.
Some of my all time favorites, copied straight from my website
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
Deathlands by Jack Adrian
The World is Not Enough by Zoe Oldenbourg
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
The Thief of Always by Clive Barker
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Ghost Story by Peter Straub
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (the granddaddy of 1984)
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
The Talisman by Stephen King & Peter Straub
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll
...and A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, which I am currently on my third read through, simply the most amazing book and well worth picking up!
-DK >^..^<
Sorted by age (recent at the top), some threads are for novels some graphic novels.
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=51716
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=45589
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=40633
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=39188
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=37331
http://boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=35745
Enjoy
-caseyjones
Favorites here would be:
Dark Tower Series
American Gods
Eyes of The Dragon
The Hobbit
Dark Elf Trilogy ( if you can stomach past all the D&D lingo)
Stainless Steel Rat
Almost forgot about Barker...The Great and Secret Show is one of my all time favorites
I'm also a dark tower nut. Love those books by Stephen King. Although the last 2 were kinda low in quality compared to the previous books. Glad he actually finished the serious though and didn't die before they were done like some authors.
I'm also a big Grisham fan. Most of his books are a bit predictable but good fun reads. I have read a few tom clancy books but most are REALLY hard to get through.
no list would be complete without the Lord of the Rings trillogy either. But my favorite book of all time has to be Contact by Carl Sagan. I've probably read that book like 20 times. The movie really doesn't do the book justice.
[Autobiography of the singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers]
No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs by John Lydon
[Autobiography of Johnny Rotten, singer of The Sex Pistols]
As you can see I've been following a pattern here with the last two books. My dad lent them to me and they were both awesome. Scar Tissue was CRAZY. I recommend that one the most.
JPod and Microserfs by Douglas Coupland (Computer geek novels. watch the jpod tv series people if you have not)
If you haven't, read this. Now.
Also...
A Theory of Fun by Raph Koster
Anything by Terry Pratchett
Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter.
The Celestine series by James Redfield
Illusions by Richard Bach
as for "Space" stuff Tales of the Star Wolf by David Gerrold should be a good read, especially for those who like Star Trek: The Next Generation. Gerrold is the guy who wrote the origianl Tribbles episode of the original Star Trek and used some ideas from several scripts he wrote for TNG but were rejected by FOX because they included homosexual characters and a disease resembling AIDS.
Impact Parameter by Geoffry A Landis. if I remember right he used to work for NASA so that should give some unique insights to space and space travel.
these two i own but haven't read yet:
Timelike Diplomacy by Charles Stross (who has been getting lots of praise for his novels in the last 2-3 years.)
Heavy Planet by Hal Clement (a classic series)
hmm..... and I've just realized that I don't seem to read much Sci-Fi outside of Star Wars novels... and those vary greatly in quality...
modelling and sculpting the human figure by edouard lanteri, think it's the only book on art technique i've managed to read all the way through. Full of lots of sculptural techniques i'd never heard of before.
for isolation - steppenwolf
for knights - The War Hound and the World's Pain
for space - anything by iain m banks
American Psycho
A lot of redwall books when I was younger
Arabat (Abarat?)
Some of the hitchicker's guide to the galaxy books
And now I have a lot of books to read, and have considered getting even before this topic
Fight Club
Grendel (Beowulf from the monster's view)
More Bret Easton Ellis
Trainspotting (prolly pretty good)
Ratman's Notebooks
penthouse
His Majesty's Starship ("The Ark" in the US) by Ben Jeapes - Really aimed at "teens" but it's got some cool ideas on space tech, combat and aliens. I guess it kind of deals with isolation and knightly behavour a bit, too.
Excession by Iain M Banks - Some very cool space related stuff. Teeming with neat tech and ideas about space/future.
The Dark Side of the Sun by Terry Pratchett - One of his older books. Quite lighthearted but again, some fun (and big) theories on space and the universe as a whole. Strata is also worth a read if you liked that.
Generally good books...
His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman - It's entirely possible that these are the best books ever written. Definitely deals with your isolation topic. (Trlogy consists of Northern Lights - or The Golden Compass in the US, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass).
American Gods by Neil Gaiman - It's just a flat-out awesome book. If I hadn't read the above, this would be my favourite book ever. Try and get the re-edited one ("author's preferred text"). Neverwhere is also worth a read... as is anything else by him.
Neuromancer by William Gibson - The daddy of cyberpunk. Also worth reading are Mona Lisa Overdrive and Count Zero.
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson - Fantastic cyberpunk novel. Furiously paced, the plot hits the ground running and doesn't let up. Cool stuff.
Anything by Terry Pratchett. My favourites being the later Night Watch books (The Fifth Elephant, Night Watch, Thud)... Sam Vimes is great. He might fit into your "isolation" and "knightly" stuff, actually.
Anything by Christopher Brookmyre. My favourites being Be My Enemy, The Sacred Art of Stealing, One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night and A Big Boy Did it and Ran Away.
I, Lucifer by Glen Duncan - God gives Satan a second chance to get back into heaven, provided he an live out a clean mortal life. Satan asks for a 40 day trial, which is what the book covers.
This could be a lot, I just realised I've been typing for a while...
Jennifer Government
Syrup
Company
all great but i think i like Syrup the most. They are all about the advertising world as that is what he got his degree in. They are all amazingly funny too. Syrup is about a guy who comes up with a cola named FUKK and forgets to patent it, so his roommate steals the idea.
Apparently all 3 of his books have been optioned by different movie studios. Might be seeing some movies soon.
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Sick Puppy - Carl Hiaasen
Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Villa Incognito - Tom Robbins
Skinny Legs and All - Tom Robbins
The Sex Lives of Cannibals - J. Maarten Troost
I'm not big into reading sci-fi. I like the fun fiction reads. Quirky adventure, intelligent dialogue, good characters, etc.
Some books I read lately that I thought were good:
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Cradle-to-cradle - William McDonough & Michael Braungart (not a novel, and for designers, but I guess it might be interesting for others too)
too true -- if he finishes the series as well as he started, martin is likely to have the best fantasy series ever written under his belt.
the Martin books are 'brutal' simply because of how realistically dark the world is. No one is a superpure good knight, and there are no flawless maidens or downright superevil badguys. Everyone is a 'shade of gray', and a lot of the plot reflects that.
House of Leaves-Mark Z. Danielewksi(i think his last name is spelled right, this book is AMAZING)
Flyboys/Flags of our Fathers-James Bradley
Survivor-Chuck Palahnuk
Inferno-Dante Alighieri
Only Revolutions-Mark Z. Danielewski
Against All Odds-Can't remember the author, but its about the men of the USS Indianapolis...powerful
Baltimore, or the steadfast tin soldier and the vampire bat-Mike Mignola
The Prince-Machiavelli
War and Peace-the longest damn book EVER, but he fleshes out the characters better than any other writer I've read
The Universe in a Nutshell-Stephen Hawking
The Theory of Relativity-Einstein
The Art of War-Sun Tzu(cliche I know, but its truly an incredible wealth of tactical knowledge)
The Tao Te Ching-Lao Tzu
The Dhammapadda
The Ramayana
The Mahabarata
The Bhagivad Gita
I could probably keep going for far too long, so I'll stop here. Great thread by the way, I've been in need of a new book.
Other books I'd recommend off the top of my head include World War Z by Max Brooks, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, American Gods and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, The Stand by Stephen King, Night Watch by Terry Pratchett, and about a billion others that aren't on my bookshelf in front of me so I can't recall them now
also the books of "the sword of truth" series by Terry Goodkind. they are entertaining, gross and very very cool
Scar Night by Alan Campbell
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
Deadhouse Gate by Steven Erikkson
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Yes indeed, the characters are awesome, and while it does get a bit slow now and then, the end is great and there are some really outstanding sections.
For sci-fi/fantasy, I am a big fan of anything by Isaac Asimov (his short stories are amazing, some really cool ideas in them), Terry Pratchett and Alistair Reynolds.
Reading "Innumeracy" by John Allen Paulos at the moment, it's a bit of an older book about how people don't really understand maths, and how this affects their lives and decisions (usually negatively) ... some very interesting logic puzzles and statistical analyses, and a bunch of fun facts.
Also I recently read Derren Brown's "Tricks of the Mind", I wasn't expecting it to be all that great, but it's actually quite hilarious, and contains some very interesting information. He's a bloody good writer, IMHO.
The Name of The Rose by Umberto Eco
The Stars My Destination (aka Tiger, Tiger) by Alfred Bester
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
i just finished the first three of those novellas. They're over-the-top, super-heist-filled-silly fun. Harrison's writing is pretty easy to read and enjoyable, though you never do feel like de-gritz is in any real danger. Fun stuff.
Omg thank you yes... so amazing. Took me so long to recover from reading this one, but in a good way... uh, I think :P
You might want to try the Dan Brown books Angels & Demons, and The Da Vinci Code. Not my favourite books ever, but a lot of people really enjoy them and they're a definite page turner that keeps you on your toes :P
If you want to check out fantasy, other than the great stuff mentioned already, I'm a big fan of the Wheel of Time series. The earlier books are the best, but it's interesting all through. The last book should come out soon, but was delayed due to the sad death of the author
Oh man, Da Vinci Code was awful. It's a book written for idiots to make them think they're intelligent. Digital Fortress, too. I've not read Angels & Demons, but I can't see it being much better
The Da Vinci Code was great while I was reading it, but as soon as I was finished and put it down I got one of those, "oh wait, what the hell was that about?" moments.
Right now I'm enjoying Fritz Leiber's stories about Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Some really great, enjoyable fantasy that doesn't try to overcomplicate things, and brings me back to the days when I used to geek out at pen and paper RPG's around a table with my friends
EDIT: Oh, it should be mentioned that Leiber wrote the first story about Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser in 1939. So if you want to go back to the origins of todays modern fantasy stories, here is where you want to go.
Oh it will motivate you to do whatever ur goal is.. my goal was to get into the games industry...
I dig Dean Koontz myself when it comes to horror/thriller stuff. Fear Nothing, Odd Thomas, Watchers, Cold Fire, all good books.
Yeah. It's called Paulo Coelho. He's a brazilian writer. Never read any of his books. Infact the last book i read was about a jornalist who infiltrates the spanish nazi movement and then wrote about it. Dont remembver the name.
Another book that i read and that i enjoyed was Ishamel by Daniel Quin. I think. it was a long time ago, i only know that i loved the fucking book. It was the book that made me question my faith and since then im a non beliver.
At this point in time, i'm reading the book Grendel, which is actually extremely entertaining for some reason.
Maybe it's when the monster tips an invisible hat towards the trees, or gives a cloud the finger.
Not sure, but i'm 5 chapters in and enjoying it immensely.
Yeah... right after I finished reading it I picked up the Chronicles of Narnia. Um... BAD IDEA, since I never read it as a child, which is when I think it has to be read. I think that series aged really poorly. But maybe it's just me, and not the blatant racism and forced values of needing to be a good Christian or not go to heaven and suffer in hell and all.
lol and after HDM... um... well, you can see why a book not-too-subtely preaching Christianity is a pretty harsh contrast :P
Angels & Demons is better, but you probably won't like it much more than the others.
lol And I so agree with you East... after I was done, I was like, uh-huh, sure, I believe that plot-twist ending...
I suggested them because they're the type of reads you breeze right through :P
1984 - George Orwell
Valis - Philip K. Dick
William Burroughs - I enjoy his less "cut up" stuff the best - Naked Lunch is one of my favourite books ever although I can understand why some people might not be into it.
Philip K Dick - Went from being a fairly generic pulp sci-fi writer to producing Valis - a rumination on the nature of reality, God, identityand paranoia among a myriad of other subjects after he believes a laser beam was beamed onto his head imparting secret and mystical information - the sense of very detached and logical glances into his personal confusion makes his books still seem all the more real and fresh today.
Chuck Palahniuk - Best known for Fight Club. Sure his characters and themes may be pretty similar from book to book but I don't know of anybody else who writes books like him.