Recommend a good book, get money

[Rollos]

I say either Dune or the Hobbit.

[nick604]

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The Master and Margarita by Bulgakov

Very fast read for being a classic Russian novel.

Amazon Link

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Winnar! Ship this guy the moneys - one of the greatest books ever written. I swear you won't be disappointed.

[The.Accountant]

Palue blue dot , card sagan
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In a tour of our solar system, galaxy and beyond, Cornell astronomer Sagan meshes a history of astronomical discovery, a cogent brief for space exploration and an overview of life-from its origins in the oceans to humanity's first emergence to a projected future where humans "terraform" and settle other planets and asteroids, Earth having long been swallowed by the sun. Maintaining that such relocation is inevitable, the author further argues that planetary science is of practical utility, fostering an interdisciplinary approach to looming environmental catastrophes such as "nuclear winter" (lethal cooling of Earth after a nuclear war, a widely accepted prediction first calculated by Sagan in 1982). His exploration of our place in the universe is illustrated with photographs, relief maps and paintings, including high-resolution images made by Voyager 1 and 2, as well as photos taken by the Galileo spacecraft, the Hubble Space Telescope and satellites orbiting Earth, which show our planet as a pale blue dot. A worthy sequel to Sagan's Cosmos. Author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist
Sagan's great appeal as a popular-science writer, beyond his prodigious knowledge, is his optimism and sense of wonder. A visualizer and a visionary, he fires our imagination and turns science into high drama. After writing about our origins in Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1992), Sagan turns his attention to outer space and takes up where Cosmos left off 14 years ago. An astonishing amount of information was amassed during that productive era, and Sagan, of course, is up on all of it. A passionate and eloquent advocate of space exploration, he believes that the urge to wander, and the need for a frontier, is intrinsic to our nature, and that this trait is linked to our survival as a species. Throughout this beautifully illustrated, revelatory, and compelling volume, Sagan returns again and again to our need for journeys and quests as well as our unending curiosity about our place in the universe. Such philosophical musings are interwoven with precise and enthusiastic accounts of the triumphs of interplanetary exploration, from the Apollo moon landings to the spectacular findings of robotic missions, especially the Voyager spacecraft. Sagan describes one exciting discovery after another regarding the four giants--Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune--and their many moons, mysterious and exquisite rings, and volatile atmospheres. He argues, convincingly, that planetary exploration is of immense value. It not only teaches us about our celestial neighbors, but helps us understand and protect Earth. Yes, we have seemingly insurmountable problems on this pale blue dot, but we have always reached for the stars, and we mustn't stop now. Donna Seaman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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[nescience]

Definitely American Gods by Neil Gaiman, if you haven't read it yet. It might satisfy your sci-fi/fantasy craving without being either sci-fi or high fantasy (as Martin is). Won both the Hugo and Nebula award in 2002, and a pretty easy read.

Perdido Street Station, The Scar, or Iron Council by China Mieville might be good too, but they're slightly harder to read, if all you're looking for is something easy.

[Requiem1010]

"On the Beach" Nevil Shute, about an impending apocalyptic mass of post-nuclear war fallout approaching, with no hope of escape.

[ruken]

Forgot to post the wiki link for Star Maker:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Maker



Edit: By the way, you guys who aren't shipping out money for this, I recommend it to you too. I pretty much try to get everyone I know to read this book.

[tcleberg]

Choke - Chuck Palahniuk
- Young Nihilist works at a Medieval Fair during the day and does things like going to sex addict meetings to get laid at night.
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
- Entertaining read that attempts to disprove god.
The Dumas Club - Arturo Perez-Reverte
- Dan Brown-like mystery that involves most of the french romantic writers and gets deeply into the occult, as well as the underside of the book trade.
Dirk Gently's Holisitic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams
- Douglas Adams' best book, that involves a ghost, an impossible couch, and the end of the world.

[pookvis]

My Life in Heavy Metal by Steve Almond.

Its short stories and its not sci-fi but its very very good. It has nothing to do with the title really, its mostly about life and sex. Read one story in the store and you'll buy the book.

[Supp Bro]

Bro, if you're a fan of fantasy/sci-fi then I'm assuming you've already read "The Lies of Locke Lamora"

But if not, then THAT'S your book. Trussss me.




"From Publishers Weekly
Life imitates art and art scams life in Lynch's debut, a picaresque fantasy that chronicles the career of Locke Lamora—orphan, thief and leader of the Gentlemen Bastards—from the time the Thiefmaker sells Locke to the faking Eyeless Priest up to Locke's latest con of the nobility of the land of Camorr. As in any good caper novel, the plot is littered with obvious and not-so-obvious obstacles, including the secret police of Camorr's legendary Spider and the mysterious assassinations of gang leaders by the newly arrived Gray King. Locke's resilience and wit give the book the tragicomic air of a traditional picaresque, rubbery ethics and all. The villain holds the best moral justification of any of the players. Lynch provides plenty of historical and cultural information reminiscent of new weirdists Steven Erikson and China Miéville, if not quite as outré. The only drawback is that the realistic fullness of the background tends to accentuate the unreality of the melodramatic foreground. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.



From Booklist
*Starred Review* On a distant world, orphan Locke Lamora is sold into a crew of thieves and con artists. Soon his natural gifts make him an underworld celebrity, leader of the flamboyantly larcenous Gentleman Bandits. But there is someone who covets Locke's talents, his success, his very life, forcing him to put everything on the line to protect himself. With a world so vividly realized that it's positively tactile, and characters so richly drawn that they threaten to walk right off the page, this is one of those novels that reaches out and grabs readers, pulling us into the middle of the action. With this debut novel, Lynch immediately establishes himself as a gifted and fearless storyteller, unafraid of comparisons to Silverberg and Jordan, not to mention David Liss and even Dickens (the parallels to Oliver Twist offer an appealing extra dimension to the story, although the novel is no mere reimagining of that Victorian classic). Fans of lavishly appointed fantasy will be in seventh heaven here, but it will be nearly as popular with readers of literary crime fiction. This is a true genre bender, at home on almost any kind of fiction shelf. Expect it to be among the year's most impressive debuts. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association."

[nescience]

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Choke - Chuck Palahniuk
- Young Nihilist works at a Medieval Fair during the day and does things like going to sex addict meetings to get laid at night.

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Seconded. Fun read.

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Dirk Gently's Holisitic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams
- Douglas Adams' best book, that involves a ghost, an impossible couch, and the end of the world.

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Agreed. Best Douglas Adams book by far. Essential to fully understand the interconnectedness of all things.