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I know that this question will probably bring me more information than I would know what to do with, but I'm looking to kind of expand my horizons and hope y'all will help.
When I go to the library I find myself in a rut, always looking in the same sections. I don't have a lot of time to just browse titles because I usually have my little ones with me. I need to have specific picks to look for when I walk in the door.
Aside from OSC and excluding anything in the horror genre, what is your favorite book? It's okay if you say one someone else says. Repeats will mean it really is good. Also, I'm not into anything explicit, so keep that in mind.
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There's other threads like this. You might try the search function. But I don't have any problem saying my favorite again: "A Tale of Two Cities". Also "The Count of Monte Cristo". Those are my favoritest, but there are others, I just don't feel like thinking of them right now.
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Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle Koontz - Velocity Grisham - The Broker Greg Bear - Eon (a little long winded but decent) Brown - Digital Fortress and Deception Point Ludlum - The Lazarus Vendetta
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Brust - the Jherg series (go by publication date, starting with Jherg) Narayan - Malgawli Days Octavia Butler - absolutely anything by her
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"The Talisman" by Stephen King and Peter Staub
"The Magic Kingdom" by Stanley Elkin I had to read this book for a Modern World Fiction class. It's absurdly funny, strange, and heartbreaking. Try it...you might hate it, but you'll certainly remember it.
"Watership Down" by Richard Adams It's about rabbits. That's all I'm telling you. Posts: 3852 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Connie Willis, To Say Nothing of the Dog. SF Farce Also by Willis: Passage and Bellwether (books on how science is done), The Doomsday Book (black plague).
Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat. Farce.
The Egyptian.
Rumpole books by John Mortimer. Funny short mysteries featuring the barrister Rumpole, his wife She Who Must Be Obeyed, and others.
Agatha Christie.
Islands in the Net, Bruce Sterling. Cyberpunk; best character novel I can think of.
L. P. Davies. Strange stuff.
Carson McCullers, Member of the Wedding.
Flannery O'Connor's short stories -- funny and violent. "The Life You Save May Be Your Own," "Good Country People," "A Good Man Is Hard to Find."
Posts: 1877 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I must be in a humor mood. The last books I read were Hoka Hoka Hoka! by Poul Anderson and Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul by Douglas Adams.
The Hokas are fuzzy teddy bear aliens with overactive imaginations. Dirk is a private detective who takes a holistic approach to his investigations and gets into all kinds of weirdness along the way. I liked Tea Time better becuase I found the ending more satisfying. Apparently, you have to know the story of how the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner got written to get the ending in Holistic Detective Agency. I don't, so I didn't.
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Well, leaving out all my OSC, here are my most-revisited titles:
George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series. Man, if you like fantasy, even a little bit, this series will blow your mind. Possibly some of the best character development and the most simplistically gorgeous writing I've ever read. George understands pacing, plot, and character like NOBODY else! They're long books, but they whiz by, they're so dang good.
"Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov. Kind of disturbing, but Nabokov was such a freakish genius with language, it's worth reading if only for the masterful use of English. And other languages, too.
"The Minister's Daughter" (known in its native country of England as "The Merrybegot") by Julie Hearn. It's technically a young adult book, which I didn't realize until after I'd read it and started learning more about its author. Fantastic, half-historic, half-fantasy novel about the witch trials of Britain.
"Watership Down" by Richard Adams. A classic.
"Maia" by Richard Adams. LOOOONG and out of print, but not too hard to find - and unique in that it's technically a fantasy, but has no real standard elements of the fantasy genre...but it sort of does...but it doesn't. Hard to describe, other than that it's a great book. It reads like a historic fiction, but of no place that anybody on Earth would ever know the history of! Due to being written by Richard Adams, it gets awfully verbose sometimes and entire chapters are given over to pointless exposition or description. Still, though, you can easily skim through those parts and be totally delighted with the story parts of the book. Great story.
"Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry. Another classic.
That's all from me for now.
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The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien The Silmarillion - JRR Tolkien War and Peace - Tolstoy Wizard of Earthsea - LeGuin Dune - Herbert Tripod Trilogy - Christopher Foundation - Asimov
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quote:Originally posted by Javert: Oh yeah...and "Les Miserables". It's a very, very, VERY long read, but worth it.
Javert recommends Les Miserables? I'm shocked!
I'm surprised I didn't mention it on my first passing!
I also suggest "The Forever War" and "On the Beach"...I forget their authors, but both are incredible books for very different reasons.
Also, the "Roma Sub Rosa" series by Steven Saylor. The first is "Roman Blood". They're a great, realistic look at ancient Rome told through clever, whodunnit mysteries.
And, I always liked the "Rama" series by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee.
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Arthur C. Clarke - Childhood's End Clarke - 2001: A Space Odyssey Brandon Sanderson - Elantris James Carlos Blake - In The Rogue Blood
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quote: "Lonesome Dove" by Larry McMurtry. Another classic.
I'll second that. Easily in my top 10 favorite books, and likely to remain there. The sequel and prequels are also pretty good, though not quite in the league of Lonesome Dove.
Probably the best book I've read in the past couple of years is Shantaram. It's about a man who arrives in Bombay in the early 80s, after escaping from an Australian prison. As he progresses through stranger and more exciting occupations, his backstory is slowly revealed, as the two plots come together. Though it is a novel, the book is largely autobiographical. Gregory David Roberts lived all of the key events that take place over the course of the story. I've recommended this book a few times on Hatrack, but I haven't seen anyone else mention it yet. Maybe people will be more likely to check it out with the knowledge that Johnny Depp bought the film rights and plans to star in the movie adaptation.
Anything by Robin Hobb is great. The Assassin trilogy, the Liveship Traders trilogy, and the Tawny Man trilogy are all fantastic. George Martin and OSC have both recommended Robin Hobb on a regular basis, so if you trust their opinions, I'm sure you'll enjoy Hobb's work.
Neal Stephenson has also written a few of my favorite books from the last few years. I'm not a huge fan of his earlier stuff, but I'd definitely recommend Cryptonomicon and his recent Baroque Cycle trilogy. All of these are great if you enjoy history, mathematics, and science.
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I also really like the book IT by Stephen King. But I guess it's kind of a horror novel.
His book Eyes of the Dragon is more of a fantasy novel. It's pretty good too.
I like the book Time Cat by Llyod Alexander too. It's more of a young adult novel though.
Edit:
Another good series of young adult fantasy novels is the Young Wizards series written by Diane Duane. The first volume in the series is So, You Want to Be a Wizard?
I also enjoy the Chronicles of Chrestomanci by Diana Wynne Jones.
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"Guns of the South" and the "Worldwar" series by Harry Turtledove.
They're both alternate histories: "Guns" seeing what would happen if the Confederacy gained access to futuristic (to them) guns during the Civil War. "Worldwar" seeing how the world would react if we were invaded by aliens during World War II.
Both deal with large casts of both real and fictional characters, and I found them both extremely enjoyable.
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Anything by Gene Wolfe, especially any of his Sun novels (3 interlocked series.)
Greg Bear has been mentioned in this thread, but not his two best books, IMO, Moving Mars and Blood Music.
Moving Mars involves an awesome technology that allows humans to manipulate particles and energy at a distance. What could possibly go wrong? The same tech is used in his Forge of God.
quote:Originally posted by Will B: Connie Willis, To Say Nothing of the Dog. SF Farce Also by Willis: Passage and Bellwether (books on how science is done), The Doomsday Book (black plague).
Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat. Farce.
Islands in the Net, Bruce Sterling. Cyberpunk; best character novel I can think of.
Willis has become one of my favorite writers as well in the last few years. She has a gift for characters and for adsurdist humour that seems to flow naturally--very hard to write well. The McGuffin in To Say Nothing of the Dog makes me giggle just thinking about it.
I've read To Say Nothing, Passages, and Bellweather several times each, and it's hard to pick a favorite. Maybe To Say Nothing, which is inspired by Three Men in a Boat and now I need to read that. The Domesday Book was well written and researched, but the Plauge subject matter was too depressing for me to reread.
Islands is good, but Sterling's Heavy Weather is better. Also, his Schismatrix is very good.
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If you want a series that will last you a good long while, you can't miss with the "Wheel of Time" series by Robert Jordan, the first book of which is "The Eye of the World". The first few chapters aren't the most exciting in the world... but the farther into it you get, the better it gets. I'm on book 5 now and I can't stop!
Another good series that I came across recently is the "Vampire Earth" series by E.E. Knight, the first book of which is "Way of the Wolf". Don't let the name of the series fool you though, it isn't the classic Dracula/Anne Rice-esque Vampires. This series actually takes place on post-apocalyptic Earth. I've recently finished book 3 of 4 and I am very much looking forward to the next. (as far as I know, it is a relatively new series, which means it will likely have many more additions to come)
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I should point out that I was an English Lit major in college, so a lot of what are considered "classics" I have read. I have read many of what has been mentioned and agree that some of them are truly great. But what a wealth of books I have not read! I'd better get started.
"A Tale of Two Cities" and "The Count of Monte Cristo" are some of my faves as well, Dr. SL.
Jhai, LOVE Octavia Butler.
Javert, I own Les Mis and LOVE it. (unabridged, of course) It is so rich. Of all the books I had to read in college it was my favorite.
Telperion, LOVE "The Lord of the Rings." I admire Tolstoy, but would have to be REALLY bored to read "War and Peace" again. You can't be a member of my family and not love "Dune."
Sylvrdragon, I read "The Eye of the World" a while back, not realizing it was the beginning of a series. I really liked it, but was disappointed to find that I had read so much more to read to get the conflicts resolved. I've got two small kids, so huge series aren't in the cards right now. But I think I will try to read it in a few years.
There are many here that I have wanted to read before and then forgot about.
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Chaim Potok, especially The Chosen and The Promise.
I'll second, third, fourth, or whatever the Song of Ice and Fire recommendations.
The Once and Future King by T.H. White.
The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.
edited to add: I just noticed your comment about huge series not being in the cards right now; that might rule out Song of Ice and Fire. I also re-read your request not to include anything explicit. I'm not sure that SoI&F qualifies, but he doesn't hold back on describing some rather horrifying scenes in vivid detail.
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I really like Arthur C. Clarke's Rama series, which should be read in order. (Rendezvous with Rama, Rama II, The Garden of Rama, Rama Revealed.)
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