what are your favourite novels you would suggest I read?, i'm not picky about genre.
my personal favourites include Captain Corelli's Mandolin and 1984
my personal favourites include Captain Corelli's Mandolin and 1984
Books to read before you die
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Dune, easily my most favourite work of literature ever. It's oh-so very atmospheric and it's a true linguistical delight.
Then there's The Dresden Files, urban fantasy detective novels with a good helping of black humour with an awesome main character.
And of course Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. The same type of writers, the former writing the hilarious Discworld novels (especially the Watch and Death series are recommended) and the former writing the brilliant Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (though the last 2 books aren't that good compared to the first 2).
I also still want to read all the Lord of the Rings novels, and especially The Hobbit. Might do that next.
There's of course a ton more, but those come to mind.
Then there's The Dresden Files, urban fantasy detective novels with a good helping of black humour with an awesome main character.
And of course Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. The same type of writers, the former writing the hilarious Discworld novels (especially the Watch and Death series are recommended) and the former writing the brilliant Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (though the last 2 books aren't that good compared to the first 2).
I also still want to read all the Lord of the Rings novels, and especially The Hobbit. Might do that next.
There's of course a ton more, but those come to mind.
Fight Club. Yes there is a book of that movie and the book was made before the movie. Seriously this a good book and hard to get bored reading because it cuts out most if not all the travel between places that drag a lot of books down, so it is mainly event, event, event. The only bad thing about the book is the ending makes a lot less sense and is a bit to very confusing depending on the reader.
Well, it's not really something I think everybody should read, but it's the book I want to read before I die. A Memory of Light. Last book in the Wheel of Time. The books that made me interested in reading, and a series that has followed me since I was 12 (now 19).
some pretty diverse suggestions im definately going to research some of these... while I would like to read books such as One flew over the cuckoo's nest, fight club and shawshank redemption I feel they have already been kind of spoilt for me by the films. Not that the films are bad it just kind of takes away your own attachment to the characters after they have been portrayed by actors (strange I know)
Actually its here in front of me on my desk. Together with oxford's advanced learners dictionary and a dictionary for medieval middle-german, it lifts my monitor to the perfect height.Bobic said:
Ender's game, and Madame Bovary. The first is my favourite book, like ever. The second is fucking amazing.
Atlas Shrugged, hands down. It is my favorite book ever, I've read it at least 4 or 5 times, it is a little text heavy with difficult philosophical monologues appearing fairly often, but I love the progression of the story as well as the morals it espouses. It can be a little bit difficult to get into but once you past the first few chapters of exposition it becomes deeply engaging.
Definitely something to read, regardless of whether you agree with the philosophy behind it or not, because hey, it never hurts to be informed about the views you disagree with, and if you agree with the philosophy then the whole book completely reaffirms your belief in it.
Definitely something to read, regardless of whether you agree with the philosophy behind it or not, because hey, it never hurts to be informed about the views you disagree with, and if you agree with the philosophy then the whole book completely reaffirms your belief in it.
- Read all stuff from shakespeare. If you don't want it all, narrow it down to Hamlet and Macbeth.
- Read the bible. Just to it. I know the first part blows, but it's amazing to see what stuff actually sill is in there.
- I always wanted to read the Koran, to see what all that huff is about.
- Read Dracula, Frankenstein and Doktor Jekyll&Mister Hyde, the original books are quite funny in contrast to the pop culture products.
- Read Faust. But I have no idea how you can pull that off without knowledge of german language. If any translation from german to english will only suck half as bad as any translation from english to german, Faust in english will suck horribly.
- Jospeh Conrad wrote a lot of fun stuff, all of it is good
- Read the bible. Just to it. I know the first part blows, but it's amazing to see what stuff actually sill is in there.
- I always wanted to read the Koran, to see what all that huff is about.
- Read Dracula, Frankenstein and Doktor Jekyll&Mister Hyde, the original books are quite funny in contrast to the pop culture products.
- Read Faust. But I have no idea how you can pull that off without knowledge of german language. If any translation from german to english will only suck half as bad as any translation from english to german, Faust in english will suck horribly.
- Jospeh Conrad wrote a lot of fun stuff, all of it is good
Dune's great, but Herbert can get pretty wordy. God Emperor was my favorite of the series.Cowabungaa said:
If you'd like something a bit lighter, but still just as smart, the original Foundation trilogy by Asimov is amazing. The last pages of Second Foundation had me kicking myself for days.
Also, while the movie was good, reading A Clockwork Orange is even better.
Here we go, in no particular order;
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams (the first two only, IMO)
1984 - George Orwell (Which depending on where you live, can be downloaded for free. I live in Canada and the copyright has expired here as far as I know... I won't link to it just in case [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_novel#Copyright_status], though)
War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells
The Time Machine - H.G. Wells
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
God's Debris - Scott Adams (if you take it as intended - a thought experiment - it's really interesting. Don't be put off by the fact it's written by the same guy who does the Dilbert comics. You can get it absoloutely free and legal from here [http://www.andrewsmcmeel.com/godsdebris/].)
Little Brother - Cory Doctrow (which you can also get for free, [and legally] from here [http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/])
The Watchmen - Alan Moore (if graphic novels count)
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - (I'm unsure of the author offhand) The author has a whole series of these, I haven't read any of the others though.
The Hobbit + Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkein
Stiff, The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers - Mary Roach
An Anthropologist on Mars - Oliver Sacks
Many of the books in the Halo series. They're actually really good sci-fi. This goes for Larry Niven's Ringworld as well, although I've only read the first two.
A good chunk of Chuck Palahniuk's books too. Specifically Fight Club, Lullaby and Survivor.
I'm sure I've forgotten a whole bunch and I'll kick myself later. But that should keep you busy for a while .
I hope you enjoy a few of them. And if you read Little Brother or God's Debris for free, maybe you could consider going out and purchasing some other books by the author? It's great they let us have these for free, but if they go bankrupt and can no longer write, we all lose.
Oh, and sorry for the wall o'text. I like to read, haha.
.[hr]
Edited to clean up the formatting a bit. I know it's still kind of a mess, but oh well. Also, I found a better link to God's Debris, and fixed a typo on "Stiff: The Curious lives..."
More alterations: As dt61 pointed out [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/18.245142.8952313], War of the Worlds is written by H.G. Wells. Orson Wells did the radio play that caused quite a bit of panic.
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams (the first two only, IMO)
1984 - George Orwell (Which depending on where you live, can be downloaded for free. I live in Canada and the copyright has expired here as far as I know... I won't link to it just in case [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_novel#Copyright_status], though)
War of the Worlds - H.G. Wells
The Time Machine - H.G. Wells
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
God's Debris - Scott Adams (if you take it as intended - a thought experiment - it's really interesting. Don't be put off by the fact it's written by the same guy who does the Dilbert comics. You can get it absoloutely free and legal from here [http://www.andrewsmcmeel.com/godsdebris/].)
Little Brother - Cory Doctrow (which you can also get for free, [and legally] from here [http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/])
The Watchmen - Alan Moore (if graphic novels count)
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - (I'm unsure of the author offhand) The author has a whole series of these, I haven't read any of the others though.
The Hobbit + Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkein
Stiff, The Curious Lives Of Human Cadavers - Mary Roach
An Anthropologist on Mars - Oliver Sacks
Many of the books in the Halo series. They're actually really good sci-fi. This goes for Larry Niven's Ringworld as well, although I've only read the first two.
A good chunk of Chuck Palahniuk's books too. Specifically Fight Club, Lullaby and Survivor.
I'm sure I've forgotten a whole bunch and I'll kick myself later. But that should keep you busy for a while
.I hope you enjoy a few of them. And if you read Little Brother or God's Debris for free, maybe you could consider going out and purchasing some other books by the author? It's great they let us have these for free, but if they go bankrupt and can no longer write, we all lose.
Oh, and sorry for the wall o'text. I like to read, haha.
.[hr]
Edited to clean up the formatting a bit. I know it's still kind of a mess, but oh well. Also, I found a better link to God's Debris, and fixed a typo on "Stiff: The Curious lives..."
More alterations: As dt61 pointed out [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/18.245142.8952313], War of the Worlds is written by H.G. Wells. Orson Wells did the radio play that caused quite a bit of panic.
I just bought that yesterday I'm really excited to get it started. I bought The Fountainhead a few months ago, but my brother took it with him to college. He wanted to read it really bad because it appearently inspired Neil Peart to write 2112.Laxman9292 said:
I would say anything written by Mark Twain, Shakespear, Upton Sinclar, Ayn Rand, Greorge Orwell, Kafka, Poe, Oscar Wilde, Neil Gaiman just to name a few.
EDIT: If you loved Bioshock, then you'll love Ayn Rand because a lot of Bioshock's themes were inspired from Rand's books.