Favourite Book?

Now that you mention Terry Pratchet. I suddenly remember that Sam Vimes will return in the newest book. Now this time his wife forced him to go on a vacation, but once again, he stumbles upon a murder case.

Perhaps I should read Silmarillon again. The last time? I was twelve years old back then. Therefore, it has been awhile.

The other one that I like are Bernard Cornwell and Clark Ashton Smith.

 

I just consumed Iain Banks' 'The Wasp Factory' which was brilliant and fucked up in equal measure. When an author puts this kind of review in the front page, you know he's too cool for school: "As a piece of writing, The Wasp Factory soars to mediocrity. Maybe the crassly explicit language, the obsenity of the plot, were thought to strike an agreeable avant-garde note. Perhaps it is all a joke, meant to fool literary London into respect for rubbish." The Times.

Also Dan Simmons' 'Black Hills' which was just brilliant.

 

Jeffrey Barlough's Dark Sleeper just sprung to mind. It's written in Charles Dickens' style and was ripe with atmosphere!

 

I view this thread as a potential security risk.

If some of the more shady members of this forum were to discover my favourite book, and knew my step sister's auntie's mother's brother's son's maiden name (this is tasmania after all), they could hack into my bank account which presently holds a full half of all funding currently in the Tasmanian health system. In other words, fuck all but that is besides the point.

So, in lieu of my previous very important point I will tell you about the books I do not like. I never liked Tolkein a great deal, his writing was too dry. It was like reading a dictionary (which I have done). David Gemmel was also a moron who could barely put two words together and had to use 20-pt fonts. I tend to enjoy female authors more, though that quite obviously excludes specifics such as Joke Rollin', who is quite cleary stoopid and Janny Wurts, who is a complete slag.

Thanks, I hope my contribution was useful to this very important thread pertaining to identity theft. Please be aware that I have been taking notes on anyone who has posted in this thread.

 

I'm thinking it's more like in the movie Se7en where the protagonists track that antagonist based on some of his bizarre library borrowing habits. If Charonte were to leak that his favorite book is Mein Kampf, the Australian constabulary would be kicking his door in without so much as a how-do-you-do.
EDIT:
I just finished Perdido Street Station and I would say it's worth a read. I picked it up because I've read somewhere that it is required reading for steampunk enthusiasts. While much of the beginning of the book may have been designed to set up this steampunk setting, I didn't appreciate it; I just wanted him to "get on with it."
Once he did, the reading was a blast. This bloke mentions the emergence of a D&D adventuring party, and this is precisely the "familiar cliche" I needed to cue me into the fact I was in for an adventure. Once that point was reached, the action rarely slowed and I really enjoyed it.
Now that the adventure is over, I can look back at Mieville's setting and appreciate it for what it is. It isn't high-fantasy and while magic can achieve remarkably impossible things, it isn't that common. Magic is treated as the powerful commodity I feel it should be, and I can buy into it.
Also, it is apparent that the world Mieville has created is persistent and thoroughly fleshed out. This is emphasized by the inclusion of aspects of the world that plug in snugly with the story of Perdido Street Station while being wholy independent of it. It is clear that these aspects of the world have their own purpose and don't exist for this story alone.
If I were to reread this, I'd start about two fifths of the way into the book. I suggest that anybody reading this book for the first time could do the same, but I can't guarantee that they wouldn't be missing something in the beginning chapters.

 

This monday I bought the new Terry Pratchet book called 'Snuff'. I just started in the book and it looks very good.

I tried to read all the books of Robert Jordan. But. After a while I cannot remember who is who anymore. Because there are too many characters.

Has anyone of you had the same problem?

Edit: Has any one read the new 'Robert Jordan' books? Are they any good?

 

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel is a very nice piece of literature. I like the way Clarke captures the old fashioned english of gents like Dickens and his like. I also like the way magic is portrayed in that book.

A Song of Ice and Fire (the entire suite). Must I explain myself? These are very good books written by a very talented author.

American Psycho. Because Bateman is the man.

The Bibl-BWAAAHAHAHAHA - sorry, just kidding.

I enjoyed the earlier books of Stephen Kings The Dark Tower suite, namely The Guslinger, The Three are Drawn and The Waste Lands. The later ones became somewhat tedious, though still great books.

EDIT

Oh, I almost forgot to mention Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which is a very entertaining little book.

 

Tao Te Jing by Lao Tsu. I pick up something new every time I read through it.

The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z, both by Max Brooks. One of the shorts in World War Z was kinda cliche, but other than that it was a very solid read. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading about an undead apocalypse. My favorite aspect of this particular book were the Quislings.
The Zombie Survival Guide just has no-nonsense information* about how zombies are made, and the most effective weapons to kill them, as well as safety tips to prevent infection.

*I'd say that in all seriousness, but if there's no heartbeat, no respiration, and therefore no oxygen circulation, or even relevant transfer of nutrients to individual cells, nerve impulses won't matter and all eating will do is slow the things down. Plus, decomposition is a bitch.

 

I couldn't get into it. I read a bit, and flicked through a bit, but I don't really think I understood it the way I was supposed to. I'm not really into reading between the lines in poetry and stuff like that, though; for example, the one I can remember best is about how it's the empty part of the vase which is the useful part, and once it's full it's not useful anymore, and I thought it was nice imagery and all that, but I didn't have some kind of profound realization that I should love my neighbour or be kinder to my empty vases or something.

 

Thankyou for mentioning it Gross. My nomination for best book ever, Dao De Jing.

"with a wall all around
a clay bowl is molded
but the use of the bowl
will depend on the part
of the bowl that is void"

It's not about ethics, it's about ruling China with a minimum of effort and maximum of style.

 

Thank you kind sir, I shall read these at once. The only steampunk books I've read are the Mortal Engines series by Philip Reeves, which I enjoyed, but found to quickly become quite lacking after the first or second book.

Personally I'm a big fan of Carlos Castaneda, my favourite book being the third in the series, Journey to Ixtlan. Though, I don't subscribe to the belief of many of his "followers" that the books are actual fact - they make nice stories, with some interesting morals and lessons.

Another favourite is Be Here Now by Ram Dass (aka Richard Alpert), but I don't really know what to categorise it as - it's not really fiction or non-fiction, but if I ever had to subscribe to some belief system, I'd make sure that book was central to it. Wonderful read that agrees with my ideals and beliefs - the style is very stunning too, and really gets the mind working.

In terms of fiction, I've always been a fan of Terry Pratchet's discworld novels, and Tolkein's books, particularly The Hobbit are still some of my favourites.

Also did you mean the Tao Te Ching? Dao De Jing is another way of writing it but I've never seen it written Tao Te Jing myself. I'm a fan of the book, but I wouldn't rate it quite as highly as Be Here Now, despite its similarities.

 

I did in fact mean that, but the (2)pronunciation and the (1)romanticized spelling got mixed up when I went to write it out.

 

Ah thanks for the clarification, I was wondering if there were yet many more ways of spelling the name that I was unaware of.

On a slightly off-topic note, any writers/aspiring writers in here?

 

I'm at my best as far as writing is concerned when I have deadline. Without a specific time frame, I fall short of any aspirations I might have. Give me week to churn out a research paper or creative writing piece, however, and I'll literally mind-vomit something A worthy the night before it's due.
Still, I've come up with several ideas for children's books, and I've actually got a rough draft of one right now-though I drew it as a four page, 19 panel comic and gave it to my girlfriend as a birthday present, as well as a soapstone sculpture of an elephant I made.

 

Not really, more just an amateur writer. Does this have anything to do with NaNoWriMo?