Books.

[Scaramouche]

Since we have a rather successful discussion of movies, how about a discussion of favourite books?

[Scaramouche]

A few of my favourites:

• Scaramouche: Primarily because I identify somewhat with the main character, in that his life lacks any great cause or focus. Until he finds one in the queast for revenge. And, as the author states: "He was born with a gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad." http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1947
• Don Quixote: Again, I identify with the main character, in that he sticks to his ideals even when the world around him, and everyone in it, sees everything in an entirely different way. Quixote may be crazy, but in his own way he is also right, and he sticks to his guns even when every hateful, insecurity-driven peasant around him tries to pull him down into the muck with them. http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/996
• The Hyperion Cantos: Dan Simmons won awards for this, which is not surprising. It's a kick-arse science fiction story, in addition to being a sort of re-telling of the Jesus Christ story. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_Cantos
• 1984: A hard slog to get through, but an excellent book. My very favourite book. http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt
• Animal Farm: Another from Orwell. Although intended as a critique of one specific political and social system, I believe it can just as easily suit any similar system. http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100011h.html
• A Song of Ice and Fire: By George Martin. When it comes to swords and magic type books, this is the best I've read so far, particularly due to character depth and the richness of the society. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire
• The Nag Hammadi Library: I haven't read all the scriptures contained within yet, but those I've read have been extremely interesting. It's shed new light on the popular version of the Christian mythology for me. http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html
• The Religion of the Samurai: A very interesting and revealing examination of the beliefs of the samurai, from Kaiten Nukariya. http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/rosa/index.htm
• The Death of King Arthur: The author may be unknown, but it's still excellent. What I found most interesting were the concepts of that time regarding nobility and honourable behaviour, which are quite different to what we might believe today. http://www.amazon.com/Death-King-Arthur ... 0140442553
• The Last Ghost: It's actually just a short story in The Last Ghost and Other Stories, by Stephen Goldin. Great little story though. http://stephengoldin.com/
• All My Sins Remembered: A great book from Joe Haldeman, one of the bestest science fiction authors. Kind of depressing, but still great. http://www.amazon.com/All-Sins-Remember ... 0380393212
• Lone Wolf: These novels by Joe Dever were awesome when I was little. I'd mostly been put off reading by the garbage they gave us at school, crap about Jack throwing a ball to Jill. Then my sister gave me the first Lone Wolf novel, and I was through it over night. I went out and bought all the others I could find, and was reading one a day until I ran out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Lone_Wolf_media
• Tao te Ching: Lao Tzu's (maybe) groovy philosophicall text. http://www.taoteching.org/
• Unveiled Mysteries: Secrets of The Comte de Saint Germain: Some take this as a serious, factual account of the author's encounter with a supposed immortal. Some don't. Either way, it fits in tightly with most ideas in Mystery traditions, and it's a good read. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1605065064
• The Secret Teachings Of All Ages: Manly P. Hall was The Man when it came to studying and writing about Mystery traditions. He was made a 33rd degree Scottish Rite Freemason by the organisation without ever having been initiated formally, because he knew the material so well. http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/index.htm
• Armor: John Steakley's book about power-armoured combat against aliens, and some cool characters learning about a soldier who was involved in it. His English skills aren't the best, but it's just a great story. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armor_(novel)
• H. P. Lovecraft: I'm about 3/5ths of the way through the second omnibus now. Even with the constant "Oh noes! It's too scary, my hero has gone MAD! It's indescribably indescribable!", I'm still enjoying it. Omnibus 1. Omnibus 2. Omnibus 3.

And some that just didn't work for me:

• Magician: I know everyone calls it a classic. I know it's incredibly popular. But I suspect people were initially just impressed with the size of the book, and the fame snowballed from there. It just didn't grab me. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magician_(novel)
• Battlefield Earth: Another book considered a classic by many. Again, it just didn't grab me. Primarily, in this case, due to the author's writing style. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlefield_Earth_(novel)
• The Shiva Option: My older brother is a big fan of military sci-fi in particular, and recommended this book to me. I couldn't get even a quarter of the way into it. It's just a huge load of patriotic, jingo-slinging nonsense. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shiva_Option

[Scaramouche]

It was strange that nobody has thought about books yet. My list of favourite books is quite long, almost as long as my list of favourite films. Here it goes:
Favourite of all times: Dracula. The first time I read it was when I was 11, and I've read it every year since that age, 2 or 3 times a year. However, I read it in Spanish most of the times (awful translation, by the way).
I also love The Lord of The Rings. I've read them a lot of times, although not so much as Dracula. But never in English (only some parts). I tried to read The Silmarillion in English, but it was too much.
A Clockwork Orange! Love the book and also the film (I forgot to mention it in the movies thread. Shame on me!)
I also like the Harry Potter series.
And horror and mistery books in general: Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie. Conan Doyle I also like. Etc, etc.

Dracula was good. I found it interesting that the story was presented as a series of letters. Never read a book done like that before.

I have everything by Poe, and all the Sherlock Holmes stories, and I really enjoy them both.

[Scaramouche]

I couldn't finish Don Quixote.

I haven't finished it either yet. It's kind of long.

[Bear]

Terry Pratchett.... Enough said. Anything by him is brilliant in my opinion, be it his numerous Discworld Novels, His none Discworld books such as Nation, the 'Truckers' trilogy, Strata etc, or even his colaberations like Good Omens... Mr Pratchett is THE BEST living British author, and probably one of the greatest ever too.

Neil Gaimans American Gods. One of the best and most enjoyable books I read for a long time. I couldn't put it down. An interesting take on how the Gods of our world have evolved to new situations and times and how they might behave. A great concept that carried over to more of his works such as The Anansi Boys.

Also, Stardust and Neverwhere. Two brilliant books by Mr Gaimen creating truely brilliant and inspired fantasy worlds at a tangeant to our own.

Lord of the Rings... enough said. The grandfather novel of practically all modern fantasy since.

As for George RR Martins Song of Ice and Fire, I read the first two in the series then got sick of how he kept killing off characters he'd made you get an attachment to, or placed others into situations that the personality he'd built for them would just never happen in a normal reality. That and I found his 'epic' to be far too epic and long winded after a while and despite wanting to know, I just stopped caring what would happen in the end of the series.

[Scaramouche]

Lord of the Rings... enough said. The grandfather novel of practically all modern fantasy since.

It is interesting to see how his work is essentially copied in so many other works.

[Bear]

Well its not really copied, more inspired by. We'd not have Orcs and Elves and Dwarfs as we known them without Tolkein ad LOTR though.

Reminds me though.. the Stan Nicholls 'Orcs' series. A great flipsided veiw on Orcs as a species and their lives. Essentially, a series of novels told from the Orcs point of veiw.

[Retiarius]

Ye gods, I’ve read so damn many books—most of the old science fiction authors, such as Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, Frederick Pohl, Keith Laumer, ad infinitum, ad naseum. If you thought my post on The Silver Screen forum was long (just for a few movies!), to actually go into favorite books here would take the rest of my life.

I agree that Terry Pratchett is a tremendous author in terms of quality and quantity. Despite the silliness of doing so, our guild in the Star Wars Galaxies MMORPG is named Unseen University, and my Bothan Spy there is named Gasp Chien-de-Merveille (a very loose French translation of Gaspode the Wonder Dog).

I’ll have to come back to this topic later, if ever, there’s just too much to even narrow the list.

[Tenjen]

I've read The Lovely Bones, The Dark Tower volumes, lots of other Stephen King stuff. Ive read up my lotr and harry potter as well [before they were the "in-thing". And not just the "main" lotr books but everything else like the simmilirilian and the "lost" chapters book.

I've read trashy romantic novels which ranged from holding hands to the type which talks about "his steel like pole of joy went past her cinamon ring and plunged into the depths of her hot dutch oven" to trashy spy novels.

From Carl Sagan to Stephen Hawking.

This is just what i remember off the top of my head.

I'd have to say The Dark Tower is my most beloved though.

[Peppercat]

However, I read it in Spanish most of the times (awful translation, by the way).

It's true, that's why I like reading in the book's original language (when I can). Translations don't work well for me.
Thus, I read books both in English and Spanish (books in French are a bit too much for me) all the time.
My favourite book is La Casa de los Espiritus by Isabel Allende. I think she's awesome! Gabriel García Marquez too... I mean, he's THE master of LA literature, in my opinion. Cesar Vallejo and Pablo Neruda (ahhh.... poetry) and Julio Ramon Ribeyro are at the top of my list too

I also like the Harry Potter series.
And horror and mistery books in general: Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie. Conan Doyle I also like. Etc, etc.

Poe, Christie, Doyle! I love mistery! I'm a big Agatha Christie fan. Poe's stories are amazing, always captivate me, over and over again

Harry Potter! I got into the series somtime before the fourth book came out and I've been a big fan since :geek: :mrgreen: But I don't like harcore fans... young ones mostly, they get into fights way too often with people who don't like the series (at least here) Anyways, I just love the books and am cool with anyone who doesn't <3

LotR is Supreme.

I'm also a big fan of Garth Nix (fantasy fans must know who he is?) the Abhorsen trilogy is, in my opinion, his best work (necromancers! yaaay!) and Phillip Pullman.

I've loved all the Phillip Pullman books I've ever read. And there are only a few I haven't laid my hands on.

I love classic lit also, but I prefer to watch movies inspired by Austen books than actually read them. Pride and Prejudice bored me awfully but I loved the movie... weird.

[stephaielikes]

Hm... I'd be wary of taking Cervantes seriously enough to identify with Quixote. When we find ourselves 'fighting windmills', it probably means we need to re-examine our views and intents- the work is, after all, satire.
I won't start listing books here; I'd be going for a while.

[Peppercat]

Have you read "Del Amor y Otros Demonios" T2B?
That's my fave by him

This thread scares me a bit, stephaie likes, I could also talk about books endlessly.

I'm a bookworm As bookwormy as they come :mrgreen:

[Arantor]

For me, The Redemption of Althalus and Regina's Song by David & Leigh Eddings. Everything else I've seen of theirs (and his, solo) is pretty dull and uninspiring, but these two are gems.

Also, Contest and Ice Station from Matthew Reilly are pretty good. He's good if you like action with incredulity and easy reading. I find these best for when I can't be bothered to keep my braing ticking through programming, it's light (if outrageous) escapism.

LOTR is great, must read that again sometime.

I must say I have a fairly eclectic mix though; the one book I do have that I love, though I don't read it often is a large hard-back, illustrated edition of The Divine Comedies of Dante.

[Aren]

I stopped reading new books for pleasure a handful of years ago. Same with watching movies.

When authors actually start writing books which have plots that I'm not able to predict within the first thirty to fifty pages, maybe I'll start reading again.

I especially hate authors who attempt to write to the lowest common denominator and dumb shit down so that the 'average' person can understand what's going on, as I find that to be pointless repetition and/or unnecessary exposition. It's especially painful in books which are actually supposed to have some suspense, as the authors do all but actually tell us what's going to happen.

The last book I've read for pleasure was Nimisha's Ship by Anne McCaffrey (but only because I find it to be sweet and cute), and the last movie I watched was The Burning Man (because my dad was sitting down, watching it).

[Pneumonica]

Well its not really copied, more inspired by. We'd not have Orcs and Elves and Dwarfs as we known them without Tolkein ad LOTR though.

Reminds me though.. the Stan Nicholls 'Orcs' series. A great flipsided veiw on Orcs as a species and their lives. Essentially, a series of novels told from the Orcs point of veiw.

Both really. The good ones were inspired by. The bad ones just copied.