Favourite Book?

The Book of Fantasy, edited by Jorge Luis Borges, Sylvina Ocampo, and A. Bioy Casares. It's a collection of fantasy stories, some written by the given editors. The stories date from the late 1800's to the 1960's, are all entertaining. I'm currently in the middle of it now, but if you can find a copy, I'd read it. It has stories from around the world, so a great variety in fantasy perspective is given.

 

The Stand by Stephen King
everything by Ray Bradbury I have read so far

 

Fuck yes! Took me a good year or two once I got out of school to enjoy reading for pleasure again.

That said, anything by L. E. Modesitt Jr. Specifically The Parafaith War is possibly my favorite book ever.

 

Favorite book? Damn, that is a hard choice to make.

There are just too many good books that I have read that I love.

 

Well if you can't pick one magikot make a list, I'm sure no-one would mind and if you have a lot of favourities I'd be interested to hear. I have two as I said.

 

Well if you can't pick one magikot make a list, I'm sure no-one would mind and if you have a lot of favourities I'd be interested to hear. I have two as I said.

I'd vouch for Flowers For Algernon.

I read Something Wicked This Way Comes (ZOMG quote by Gary in V:tM - B) and found it thoroughly disappointing - makes me want to watch Freaks though which I have yet to see. If you reccommend more Ray Bradbury titles I'll give them a look.

 

I enjoyed Ender's Shadow and several other books by Orson Scott Card when I was a kid, although its been perhaps 8 years since I've read anything by him so my memory is not all that fresh.

As for serious recommendations, I'm a fan of a few Steven Pressfield novels. Probably his best known is "Gates of Fire", a historical retelling of ancient Spartan culture and the Battle of Thermopylae (of recent "300" fame.. although this came before that craze, and lacks the over the top machismo they're so well known for).

To quote wikipedia...

"Steven Pressfield is an American novelist and author of screenplays, principally of military historical fiction set in classical antiquity. His historical fiction is well-researched, but for the sake of dramatic flow, Pressfield may alter some details, like the sequence of events, or make use of jarring contemporary terms and place names, his stated aim being an attempt to capture the spirit of the times.

His epic novel Gates of Fire is on the Commandant of the Marine Corps' Reading list. It is taught at U.S. Military Academy and United States Naval Academy and at the Marine Corps Basic School at Quantico[1] , and according to the L.A. Times, "has achieved cult status among Marines."

 

Some personal favourites:

• "Hyperion" by Dan Simmons
  The best ideas and mental images put into a book I've experienced so far, period.
  
• "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman
  Anything by Neil Gaiman is good, but this is probably the best.
  Enjoyable characters and story and just the right amount of characteristic humor. I wanted it to go forever.
  
• "Coraline" also by Neil Gaiman
  A book that starts like a story for kids and transforms into nightmare fuel? What's not to like.
  
• "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson
  Not all classics survive the trial of time, but this one certainly does.
  
• "Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang" by Kate Wilhelm
  I seem to have a thing for disturbing visions of the future of mankind.

 

My favorite books are:

•The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
•Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
•Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
•The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth
•The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
•The Sportswriter by Richard Ford
•The Spy Who Came in From the Cold by John le Carre

 

As promised, I deliver. I have several favorite books, for different reason. But in truth, there is no end to the list.


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I believe I read the sequel to American Gods. As I recall it was OK, but nothing I'd recommend. I also read Neverwhere and was very much impressed by the stories and characters.
Presently I'm readying Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. Recently a friend of mine expressed that he cannot get through Mieveille's works because they are so slow. I'd have to agree that this yarn starts slowly, but not so slowly that I had to give it up. In any case, it has just gotten exciting and has picked up very fast. I am enjoying it a great deal now that I see some familiar cliches taking form.
This book has a feel that is comparable to Neverwhere so I'd suggest giving it a shot if you are a fan of Gaiman.

 

Post up what you thought about it overall when you've finished, I'd be interested to hear because as I said on the previous page I read The City and The City and it was pretty good so I'm wondering if anything else by Mieville is decent. Then again I probably shouldn't buy anymore books for the time being; I just bought a load more the other day that I probably won't get round to reading til terms finished.

 

Books are jerks.

 

Nice insight wayne, very detailed and thought out.

 

I might as well post something while I'm here -

The Hobbit & Lord of the Rings, The Pern series by Anne McCaffrey, Thieves World and the M.Y.T.H. series by Robert Asprin.

 

The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings in my mind are undisputed classics. The Silmarillion however I thought read like a drab history book, though this might just be me.

 

I loved The Hobbit but couldn't slug through the series. I loved the Pern books growing up and appreciate them even more now that I'm more of a science fiction fan and not fixated on dragonsdragonsdragons.

 

Well The Silmarillion wasn't really written by Tolkien as book, it was put together by his son. Tolkien had written a ton of short stories and notes on what had happened in the world and whatnot (background history bitches, you can probably trace Bilbos family back 300 years with his notes) so Christopher just gathered them and give them out. This resulted in 6 or 7 books about the middle earth, The Silmarillion being the first.

 

Dan Simmons is the best. The Hyperion Cantos is awesome. Anything else he does is brilliant too.

Illium and Olympos* make another cool future scifi invention with some unprecedented ideas. Hard Case is a brilliant detective thriller, and the latest I read, Drood, is a masterpiece, a macabre mystery story focussing on the final years of Charles Dickens. It really brings gaslight London to life... eww!

Terry Pratchett and Iain M. Banks are two others on the Read All They Write List.

*edit

 

Robert Anson Heinlein.

All of his books - but most especially his later, slower and more thoughtful works.