Books that do and don't suck

[Loves2spooge]

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

I second that.

I'd also recommend jPod and Generation X by Douglas Coupland, and although it's a bit of a cliché, but Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, it really is a wonderful book.

On the crap pile, The Informers by Bret Easton Ellis, I love most of his work, but that was the last thing I read by him; I read it twice thinking maybe I missed something the first time around, but I didn't it was just garbage. I was so appalled at how bad it was, I threw it in the bin at the train station when I finished it the second time.

 

[AmrasCalmacil]

Twilight, Oryx & Crake.

Guess which one sucks and which one doesn't.

One was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the other is about Sparkly Vampires in love.

I have no idea.

On topic: They say Orwell is innapropriate (aside from the violence and pseudo-erotica in Nineteen Eighty-Four) when Watership Down is far more depressing? Oh, those poor poor bunnies.

I don'w know many books that do suck, but as for those that don't - Anything by George MacDonald Fraser.

 

[Aschenkatza]

Lord of the Flies, it's WRONG, SO VERY WRONG!!
To Kill a Mockingbird was the only book I actually liked that I was assigned to read.

Course, all my assigned reading books had death, poverty, and angst- thus a very depressed year.

 

[Pseudonym2]

Lord of the Flies, it's WRONG, SO VERY WRONG!!

I find it interesting that the young women I know hated that book while the guys liked it. Since I have a speech impediment, I found it way too accurate.

The best book I had to read in English is probably One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It's one of my all time favorite books.

The worst book I had to read was about the Civil War from a Southerner's perspective. It was so bad the teacher apologized for making us read it. One of the plot points was that the protagonist was missing a hat so she walked outside and a someone accidentaly dropped a hat on her head from the upstairs window.

 

[Ares Tyr]

Ok, so in English Class at my school we have required reading books, pretty standard, but the books we have to read suck more than monica lewinsky.

right now we have Watership Down, the Scarlet Letter, and Autobiography of a Face.

I suggested 1984,Animal Farm, We, and a few other books, but the teachers and administration said the books were not appropriate for high schoolers.

So, fellow escapists, what required reading do you have for classes do you have that suck or doesn't suck, and what good and bad books have you read recently?

Not appropriate for high schoolers? I'd suggest you move before they have you goosestepping and burning Harry Potter books.

World War Z is my favorite book and probably one of the most important ones written in the past decade.

 

[Inarticulate_Underachiever]

You can never go wrong with Mark Twain.

 

[Kiefer13]

We did Animal Farm in English a couple of years ago, I quite enjoyed it actually. Right now though we're studying Sunset Song, which is undoubtably the most dreary book I've ever had the misfortune of being forced to endure. I would so much rather it were something like Nineteen Eighty-Four, which I've actually wanted to read for a while.

On the recreational reading front, I've recently finished reading Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett for about the seventh time, and I've now started re-reading the first Artemis Fowl novel, as I recently found the series again in a box of books that's been gathering dust under my bed for the past few months.

 

[ae86gamer]

I read a lot of good short stories when I was in Junior High, like The Call of the Wild, The Pearl, The Time Machine, and The Giver.

 

[Sonicron]

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

This. A thousand times this. Excellent reading for school, too.

'The Picture of Dorian Gray' was a fairly good read as well. I can also highly recommend 'Fahrenheit 451' and 'The Crucible'.
Finally, a mention of Ernest Callenbach's 'Ecotopia'. Even with all the hippie subtext, I found it to be a very enjoyable read... try it, if you find the time.

 

[Kellerb]

the death gate cycle books are the best fantasy ive read. definatly.

 

[Escapefromwhatever]

1. I actually enjoyed The Scarlet Letter.
2. WTF? How do people graduate high school without reading 1984?

 

[Ranooth]

"The Last Wish" by Andrzej Sapkowski

I will keep recommending this book till i die!

 

[Jedamethis]

Curse my adolescence, I read that as 'Boobs that do and don't suck'
>.<

all of these are good:
The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness
Inheritance Trilogy
The Bartimaeus Trilogy
and of course, anything by Douglas Adams

 

[Loves2spooge]

Russel Hoban - The Medusa Frequency

It has an immense amount of depth for such a short book. Also, 'To Esmé: With Love and Squalor' by JD Salinger, it's a collection of short stories, rife with symbolism, and a stark look into post-war America.

Also, if you've watched Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, you'll appreciate reading the short story 'The Laughing Man'.

 

[Liam1390]

Most of the I had to read in High School have already been listed, but here are some authors that I have been reading recently, Night Shift was assigned in my American Lit class.
Stephen Hunter- Author of the Bob Lee Swagger series.
John Le Carre- Has written some of the most popular spy books of all time, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, the George Smiley series.
Martin Cruz Smith- Author of the Arkady Renko series, first was Gorky Park which was made into a movie.
Robert Ludlum- author of the Bourne series, the books are completely different from the movies.
Other good books are The First Circle by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn about prisoners in Lubyanka, Dishwasher by Pete Jordan about his quest to work as a dishwasher in all fifty states, and On the Beach by Nevil Shute about The Aftermath of World War three

 

[ioxles]

Okay. Here goes mandatory reading list before the age of 15 /edit: well, any age/ (to help form minds):

All of Terry Pratchett (yeah I know its been touted before, but he's a master story teller so there).

All of Robert Rankin (especially the Brentford Trilogy in five parts).

Dumas (most of his popular stuff anyways).

Catch 22 (but stay away from other Heller books unless you want your eyes to explode from boredom).

All of George McDonald Fraser's Flashman series - McAuslan and Pyrates are a must.

*Conn Iggulden's Emperor series, Steven Pressfield too, as well as Manfredi's Alexander series, ah yeah - Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series. These are all action based books.*

*Umberto Eco - Name of the Rose

Hunter S. Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

What's his Face, Author of Game of Thrones Series - all of that.

Battle Royale (excellent read).

Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series.

Suetonius - The Twelve Emperors.

Mark Twain: A Conneticut Yankee in King Athur's Court. (should be valued politically alongside animal farm but strangely overlooked).

Thats all I can remember right now, but it's enough to be going on with - most of which has already been mentioned (like 1984 and brave new world) are must reads too)

Read all the above, more than once. Go. I'll wait.

You can skip the * books really.

Most of these books will shape the way you think and construct a view of the world in place with the past which will benefit you loads.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

The cartoon they made of Watership Down was the sort of film I am VERY glad I didn't see as a small and impressionable child, as I'd be having therapy for years afterward. I can't really see how 1984 is any more traumatic.

I read something in the neighborhood of 115 different novels last year

Hey! I read over 200!

I phrased that poorly: that should have read "I read something in the neighborhood of 115 new" novels last year (as so often happens, I acquire a shiny new fixation and then set about acquiring the entire back-catalog). When you factor in return trips through books I'd read before the number is more like 225 or so.

 

[poptart123]

On the horrible pile: "Who Has Seen the Wind"

On the good pile: "Farenheit 451"

Everything else kinda falls in between. I used to hate the books we had in primary school, though.. With a passion...

"The Cay", "A Wrinkle in Time", "I am David"... Gosh i despised all of those books..

"The Outsiders" was kind of okay, i guess.

Holy Crap We arre reading those now. We finished A wrinkle in time last year

 

[ioxles]

Shit, How could I forget!

Phillip K. Dick - Valis, everyone has to read the Valis. Also, Do Androids Dream of Electronic Sheep and Man is his High Castle. (his other stuff like Time out of Joint are also worth a glance).