Book recommendations

[Phoenix_lostarr]

So, I got a Kindle for Christmas. Yay me~

Can anyone recommend any truly great books to get for it?

Decided against a discworld one, because you can't have one without them all and they're like ?5 each, so about ?300 for all of them D:

[theshirn]

Undecide that right now.

At the very least grab Guards! Guards! and Men at Arms.

What are you looking for?  It's hard to recommend anything if we don't know what you're interested in.

[Phoenix_lostarr]

I do quite like science fiction and science fantasy, and I have an interest in victorian literature (English A-level :V)

My objection to Discworld is more that I'll end up buying more and more of them, and money could become an issue...  :ohdear:

But yeah, I'll pick up a few.

[theshirn]

Well, if you're interested in fantasy, you could do a lot worse than picking up some Brandon Sanderson.  Grab the Mistborn trilogy.  It is good stuff.

[Phoenix_lostarr]

Oh, I also quite enjoy classic novels. 

Not sure exactly how broad that genre is, or even if I haven't just made it up. :V

[Tamer Anode/Cathode]

I highly recommend Douglas Adams; the first three Hitchhiker's Guide books at the least, and maybe the rest of the series or Dirk Gently if you're not sufficiently satisfied.

[Reddyne]

Michael Crichton's got a couple good sci fi novels in Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park. I'd tack on a few Stephen King novels, but I dunno if you're into the more horror-related stuff. I'd also recommend a historical fiction series, but that might be too different.

Man, I'm really not nearly as much of a reader like I used to be.

[Tengukami]

Shame you're not looking for literary fiction, because I have loads of recommendations where that's concerned.

As far as fantasy goes, I very highly recommend The Mists of Avalon. Re-tells the King Arthur legend from the point of view of the women, and is stunningly written.

[Suikama]

Re-tells the King Arthur legend from the point of view of the women, and is stunningly written.

You mean Fate/Stay Ni*shot*

[Phoenix_lostarr]

Hey, I'll read pretty much anything someone thinks is good, so long as it's not too expensive.

[Phlegeth]

All three things I could think of off the top of my head have already been said: Hitchhiker's, Mists of Avalon, and Mistborn.  They're all really good.

[Moerin]

Toss that technological whatsit in the trash and buy a real book

Um, hmmm... Ack, the stuff I'd suggest is already long, uh, suggested... Seeing how you mentioned both classic literature and sci-fi, I would have recommended Frankenstein, but chances are you've probably already read it.  Um, hmmm...

[Hello Purvis]

Brandon Sanderson

Okay. It's time to put up or shut up with this guy.

A good friend of mine read his Infinity Blade book, a friend with very good tastes in reading, usually. And this book turned out to be awful on many, many levels.  Establish that this guy is usually better than that, because Infinite Blade was horrible trash.

Onto things that are unambiguously good: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, by Suzanna Clark.

[Tengukami]

Hey, I'll read pretty much anything someone thinks is good, so long as it's not too expensive.

Oh ho ho. In that case, off the top of my head  ...

The Diving Pool, Yoko Ogawa

Cities of the Red Night, The Place of Dead Roads, and The Western Lands, William S. Burroughs

The Things They Carried, Tim O' Brien

The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

Two Girls Fat And Thin and Bad Behavior, Mary Gaitskill

Sputnik Sweetheart, After Dark, South of the Border, West of the Sun and Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, Haruki Murakami

The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea, Yukio Mishima

One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Gangster We Are All Looking For, l? thi diem th?y

Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

The Garden State, Gary Krist

The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath

[theshirn]

Okay. It's time to put up or shut up with this guy.

A good friend of mine read his Infinity Blade book, a friend with very good tastes in reading, usually. And this book turned out to be awful on many, many levels.  Establish that this guy is usually better than that, because Infinite Blade was horrible trash.

Onto things that are unambiguously good: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, by Suzanna Clark.

I have not read this Infinity Blade novella nor do I know anything about it.  I will stand by my recommendation of Mistborn, as well as Elantris and others.

[Reddyne]

Suit yourself!

The entire Sharpe's series by Bernard Cornwell. It's about a soldier that starts as a lowly private at the start of the Napoleonic wars as he works his way up through the many battles that follows. I read like 10-12 books of the series.

Also by Stephen King, there's The Stand, It, The Shining, Carrie, and The Long Walk.

[I have no name]

The Hunger Games.  Just got them, they're really good books.  I definitely suggest them.

[Hello Purvis]

I have not read this Infinity Blade novella nor do I know anything about it.  I will stand by my recommendation of Mistborn, as well as Elantris and others.

Why? What's good about it?

Are the characters believable or interesting? Is there any attempt to flesh them out beyond their roles? Is there a dearth of "lol penis" jokes? These are some of the many problems that Infinity blade had. Please establish this guy is worth reading.

Edit: In fact, have an article on why it's bad.  How much of this garbage happens in his earlier works?

[theshirn]

Why? What's good about it?

Are the characters believable or interesting? Is there any attempt to flesh them out beyond their roles? Is there a dearth of "lol penis" jokes? These are some of the many problems that Infinity blade had. Please establish this guy is worth reading.

The characters are fleshed out and solid, especially the core main characters.  A good chunk of backstory accompanies each one and it's borne out in the execution of the character.  The storyline deconstructs a good deal of modern accepted trends - examining a rebellion from within, as well as what comes after the good guys win (hint: more trouble).  I can't recall a penis joke off the top of my head, not one, and these usually stick in my memory because they irritate me.  Sanderson also does a superb job planning ahead - his works are internally consistent, his magic systems fully worked out ahead of time, and he drops just enough clever hints that at the moment things all come together there's a perfect moment of "OHHHHHHHH".

I will say that he has some slight problems with pacing (which seems to have gotten a little out of control since he assumed the mantle of the last Wheel of Time books and The Way of Kings) but I still find his stories to be interesting, his characters richly written and his worlds and magics explored.  He's not perfect, but no author is, and his books are genuinely enjoyable to read.

[andrewv42]

If you can get it, I recommend Middlemarch by George Elliot. It's an unending 600+ page thrill ride, from start to finish, that I can assure you.

ghehe

[Hello Purvis]

The characters are fleshed out and solid, especially the core main characters.  A good chunk of backstory accompanies each one and it's borne out in the execution of the character.  The storyline deconstructs a good deal of modern accepted trends - examining a rebellion from within, as well as what comes after the good guys win (hint: more trouble).  I can't recall a penis joke off the top of my head, not one, and these usually stick in my memory because they irritate me.  Sanderson also does a superb job planning ahead - his works are internally consistent, his magic systems fully worked out ahead of time, and he drops just enough clever hints that at the moment things all come together there's a perfect moment of "OHHHHHHHH".

I will say that he has some slight problems with pacing (which seems to have gotten a little out of control since he assumed the mantle of the last Wheel of Time books and The Way of Kings) but I still find his stories to be interesting, his characters richly written and his worlds and magics explored.  He's not perfect, but no author is, and his books are genuinely enjoyable to read.

This is what I was looking for, thanks Shim!

[Mеа]

I highly recommend Enders Game. Especially if you're interested in Sci-Fi, you'll appreciate it a whole lot more. If you liked it, then read Enders Shadow afterwards, it's basically the same story told from a different point of view. The main character of Enders Game is Ender, and Enders Shadow's is Bean, but the author does a really good job of 'filtering' the story through the lenses of the eyes of the main characters. The two characters notice different things, react to the same situations differently, etc. He calls it a 'Parallel Novel', and it fits perfectly.
Enders Game is more action packed, but if you're into more of the conceptual stuff, then go read the sequels too.

Also, Touhou is what pushed me to read it but... read And Then There Were None. Yeah, I know, but its a really good suspense/paranoia/mystery book. My 2nd favorite, in fact.

[Fetch()tirade]

Enders Game

I approve of this post. I loved that book and its related works (the sequels Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, as well as the parallel works). You don't have to read all of them, just try the first one and see if it's to your tastes.

[Nietz]

I do quite like science fiction and science fantasy, and I have an interest in victorian literature (English A-level :V)

I would recommend the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson. It's historical fiction set in (and documenting) the beginning of the modern era, but it reads a lot like science fiction.

I approve of this post. I loved that book and its related works (the sequels Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children of the Mind, as well as the parallel works). You don't have to read all of them, just try the first one and see if it's to your tastes.

I would say Ender's Game itself has a very different tone that its sequels. They are all great reads though. I am just a little wary of some of the morality Card tries to push in it.

[Paul Debrion]

Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
It's an anti-conspiracy theory story of sorts. Instead of being about some kind of "Dan Brown"-like conspiracy theory, it's a story about people who make such conspiracy theories (Templars and Freemasons oh my!) and it portrays such conspiracy theories in a very negative, twisted, and tragic way. It's really interesting even though it suffers from annoyingly awkward wording and obscure vocabulary at times, though I've heard this is partly due to flaws in the Italian to English translation.

[♛ Apher-Forte]

1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (probably will stink as a movie)
2. The Last King of Scotland (probably as good as the movie)
3. Memoirs of a Geisha (the book too)
4. Troy (the book, not the movie)
5. any selection of Lovecraftian horror (thank god for the lack of movies)

[Hello Purvis]

Ender's Game disappointed me, because the resolution I imagined for it was so much better than what happened. This is what happens when you read 1984 right before it =[

[[Y]oukai [J]esus]

5. any selection of Lovecraftian horror (thank god for the lack of movies)

Cthulhu approves.

[Kilgamayan]

My standard two recommendations are Watership Down by Richard Adams and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell.

[Angelfire]

The first three Maximum Ride books. Don't bother with the ones after Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports, they all suck.