Book Recommendation Thread
 

I haven't seen one of these threads in a while. I have been very bad in keeping up with leisurely reading for the past few months, and I have a gift certificate to Amazon.com. Throw out your recommendations for good books/authors you have read recently, as well as bad ones if you like.

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

This has been done many times, but I'll offer these favorites:

Breakfast of Champions - Kurt Vonnegut

Duncan Delaney and the Cadillac of Doom - Haskett

Just a Couple of Days - Tony Vigorito

Fool on a Hill - Matt Ruff (2p2er)

Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates - Tom Robbins

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon

Anything by Philip K. Dick

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

I recently got into Orson Scot Card's Ender's Game, and all its follow-up books (Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, etc.). They were fantastic, and very easy reads. If you like science fiction you'll love these.

If you liked Lord of the Rings at all, or think you might enjoy fantasy novels, Terry Brook's The Sword of Shannara is great, and there are several series(es?) that follow that are also great.

Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, starting with [/i]Interview with the Vampire[/i] is great. It's a bit of a slower paced read, but the characters are fantastic and as you get into the third book and beyond some very interesting philosophical ideas are discussed.

I'm currently re-reading Jurassic Park, and it's very good. (Does it count as re-reading if you were in 4th grade when you originally read it, and remember mostly just the movie?) I like Crichton more than the average joe, though.

Harry Potter, if you haven't read it yet, is tremendous. If you've seen and understand the movies, you might want to start out with the 4th book, The Goblet of Fire. It's the first book that will seem new at all to you if you know the movies. (It gets really good starting in book five.)

That's all fiction I've been reading recently. (I just realized that it's all science fiction, huh.) I've been reading more at night recently, instead of falling asleep to movies, and I like it a lot. I love reading, though.

Cheers

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

Apathy and other small victories by Paul Neilan - very funny book with the type of humor I suspect OOT would love

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

A Wild Sheep Chase - Murakami
Infinite Jest - David foster Wallace
The Illiad and the Odessey (followed by the Aeneid)
The Thomas Covenant series - Stephen R. Donaldson
Moby Dick - Herman Melville
Amazing Adventures of cavalier and Clay (seconded from above)
The Prestige - Christopher Priest (esp. for anyone who liked The Amazing Adventures..)
Anything by Nobokov

Lots and lots more...

Onnel

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

[ QUOTE ]
The Illiad and the Odessey (followed by the Aeneid)

[/ QUOTE ]
Really? I bought these last year and started to read The Iliad, but couldn't get 20 pages into it.

A lot of really old books are that way for me: I love the story, but just can't read the book. I actually made it through Les Miserables, but don't think I would have had I not known and loved the story so much. The Count of Monte Cristo and The Iliad I couldn't get into at all, even though I'm familiar enough with the storylines to know that I really like them.

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

Right now I am reading Love in the Time of Cholera, it's one of the best books I've ever read.

NT

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

[ QUOTE ]
Infinite Jest - David foster Wallace

[/ QUOTE ]

This is my favorite novel ever.

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

Green Grace Grace. To lazy to look up the writer. It's good for some light reading. Very entertaining story about a kid growing up in a Philadelphia neighborhood.

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Most definitely the funniest thing you will ever read.

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

the crying of lot 49 - thomas pynchon

On Top of the World: The Remarkable Story of Howard Lutnick, Cantor Fitzgerald, and the Twin Towers Attack - Thomas Barbash

and i'll second the dude's recommendation of the harry potter books, though if you've actually been keeping up to the movies, they cover book 4 at this point*, so start with 5.

* yeah, i know the 4th movie left out a lot of stuff, but so did 3, and reading the 4th book will seem like mainly a repeat to anyone who's seen the movie, even if they are missing some of the details that make things in the later books make sense.

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

MUST READ - Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurty

Others I like:
Game, Set, Match - Hook, Line, Sinker - Faith, Hope, Charity, all by Len Deighton

The Spy who Came in From the Cold - John LeCarre

The Day Before Midnight - Stephen Hunter

Shogun - James Clavell
Tai Pan - James Clavell
Noble House - James Clavell

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

Do you want to learn or be entertained?

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

Could you be a bit less specific please? We only have every book ever written to chose from. Couldn't you ask for reccomendations of "good or bad things" instead, so we have a bit more material to work with?

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

Native Son by Richard Wright (very compelling book about race, poverty, and class politics that is especially interesting because the protagonist is not at all a sympathetic character, and several of the antagonists are- in my opinion a great novel and some of the most intelligent writing about race in America that I've read)

Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges (lots of good mind-[censored])

anything by Kurt Vonnegut (BoC is good but not my favorite)

The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham (highly recommended for anyone at a 'what-am-I-going-to-do?' phase of your life, ie just graduated high school/college, etc)

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (a quick, highly enjoyable read, despite the heavy content- don't be turned off if the first few pages read like gibberish to you)

Chaos by James Gleick (I suck at science and found this a pretty manageable overview of a very interesting and complex field, it's pretty dated though so there might be something better and more recent that someone can recommend)

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs - Chuck Klosterman
The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell
Fast Food Nation - Eric Schlosser (sp?)

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

[ QUOTE ]
Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Most definitely the funniest thing you will ever read.

[/ QUOTE ]

AMEN!

Onnel

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

DONT READ ENDERS GAME. The ending is such a cop out. It is almost as bad as when a movie ends with the whole thing being a dream. Read "The Alchemist". It will change your life perspective forever.

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

Perfume - Patrick Suskind. I never know how widely known this book is, but if you haven't read it you should.

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

The Dark Tower series by Steven King. I'd heard a lot about this series so I figured I'd give it a read. I'm nearly done with it (started it this summer) and I haven't been able to put it down. It's really good, very easy reading too.

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

[ QUOTE ]
DONT READ ENDERS GAME. The ending is such a cop out. It is almost as bad as when a movie ends with the whole thing being a dream. Read "The Alchemist". It will change your life perspective forever.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is absolutely not the case. It is still very entertaining to read. When the rest is done really well the ending only marginally matters...at least for me. That is why I liked Stay.

onnel,

I can't believe you would recommend Moby Dick to someone who wasn't showing interest. While I loved it, I haven't talked to anyone else (except a couple from 2p2) that liked it. It is long, it is slow, and most people just can't do that. It is the exact opposite of something like Ender's Game in my mind.

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

Read "this is paradise!" by Hyok Kang. Its a biography of his childhood in North Korea, very interesting and frightening.

if you want something lighter i recommend "lunar park" by Bret Easton Ellis.

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

Just finished Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson and I highly recommend it.

Can anyone recommend which Stephenson book I should read next?

Re: Book Recommendation Thread
 

A Game of Thrones- George R.R. Martin...Amazing book, the first two in the series knocked my 2 favorites of all time down the list. Somewhat fantasy oriented, but more like medieval intrigue.

Pillars of The Earth- Ken Follet My ex-favorite book, much better than most of his other work.

Point of Impact - Stephen Hunter A simply great thriller.

Eyes of Prey - John Sanford Any of the Prey series will do, the earlier the better. Good cop vs. serial killer stuff.

Interview with a Vampire - Anne Rice Great series although it tapers off in the last few books.

Any novel by Tim Dorsey, very funny stuff, in the vein of Carl Hiasson, but much funnier in my opinion.