Let's Talk Books.

[Shock and Awe]

Thats a pretty hard one for me, but I think I'll have to go with this,

3. The Bear and the Dragon

2. Enders Game

1. Starship Troopers

Thats only if were counting fiction though.

 

[twistedmic]

'Gossamer Axe' (by Gael Baudino) and 'Starship Troopers' (by Robert Heinlein) are easily two of my favorite books.

 

[Strain42]

My favorite book is a novel called Pest Control by Bill Fitzhugh. Quick description, it's about a down on his luck New York exterminator who through a series of coincidences and mishaps finds himself gathering the attention of the world's best assassins.

The book is well written, funny, it's got a huge arsenal of clever and interesting characters. It's one of those books that no one I know has heard of, but everyone whose read it has loved it.

If you can actually find a copy, please read it.

It's also where the Strain in my user name came from which will make more sense if you read it.

 

[Xaio30]

1. Death Note
2. The Bartimaeus Triolgy
3. Hunger Games Triolgy

1. Was Death Note made into a written novel? Got to read it!
2. An "okay" series that was only made golden by Bartimaeus himself and DAT ENDING!
3. You convinced me to read them. Seems pretty awesome. Should I watch the movie first though? Would hate to ruin one or the other.

 

[dangoball]

My top 3 books would probably be:

3: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson
2: The Trial by Franz Kafka
1: Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

There's been talk of a film of Blood Meridian for along time but it's fairly unlikely to be made just because of how violent to book is, I doubt they can make a film that goes that far.

Currently I'm reading The Satanic Verses which is very good from what Ive read but I'm not that far into it so maybe it goes downhill.

Respect on having The Trial in your top 3. I personally never got much further than half that book. While I respect Kafka his style is not for me. Having one paragraph over four pages was too much for me.

Anyway my all times favorite is without contest The Dune by Frank Herbert. Sequels are also brilliant, even those by his son, there is however noticeable difference. Prequels not so much, but still good. And if I had to make a list of favorites, guess it would be like this:

The Dune by Frank Herbert
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

(Don't Panic! I've got my towel right here; seriously you've got to love that thing)

 

[Bloodastral]

Bloodstone - Karl Edward Wagner
Darkness Weaves - Karl Edward Wagner
Night Winds - Karl Edward Wagner (KANE SERIES)
Dark Crusade - Karl Edward Wagner
Death Angel's Shadow - Karl Edward Wagner

Morningstar - David Gemmell

 

[Averant]

After going away on holiday for a week, I took to reading a book series 'The Hunger Games'. I really enjoyed it, quite a riveting read.

Set in a future where the Capitol selects a boy and girl from the twelve districts to fight to the death on live television. It's bloody, it's romantic and quite frankly one of the best books I read in a while. It's going To become a movie soon and I don't know what too think of it. The Book's are very violent at times for instance, a guy getting a knife to the back of his head and spews blood on the main charcter.

It's quite frustrating that 'The hunger games' is being related to Twilight. Its not due to Twilight being seen as bad by some, it's just Twilight is not really in the same area of field as the Hunger Games. I am eager to see it thou. I reckon the violence will be downplayed but it will still be awesome.

Eurgh. The premise was excellent, but I think the author ruined it with the main characters. Katniss was the most naive character I've seen yet when it comes to war, and that romance? That wasn't romance. That was Stockholm Syndrome. I couldn't really think of it any other way when I read it.

As for making it into a movie, I personally think they will fail, just like they did with Percy Jackson. Worse, even. How will Hollywood turn a movie about death, murder, despair, and revolution, and turn it into anything remotely good without giving it an R rating? They can't. They'll dumb it down so much that it will barely resemble the book. If they can't even show the death scenes of the Hunger Games participants, which happen fast and furiously, and which is what the entire damn story is all about, how can they even hope to keep the spirit of the book?

Book movies in general suck, because they have to ditch an extremely large portion of the book to shrink the movie down to a decent size. This includes characters, character development, and plot, all of which can be very important and necessary. Sure, there are exceptions (e.g. LotR), but for the most part, books should stay books.

The bartimaeus trilogy was excellent, though. My own favorites are as follows:

1.Percy Jackson and the Olympians, by Rick Riordan
2.The Provost Guard trilogy, by Tamora Pierce
3.The Honor Harrington series, by David Weber

Absolute favorite book would be either Terrier or A Beautiful Friendship.

 

[Necron_warrior]

Ah, hunger games, reading that at the moment as well

I can't pick a book, can I pick a series?

1.Discworld Series
2.The Edge Series (that was the SHIT in my childhood, forget pokemon )
3.Warhammer 40k(Eisenhorn and the Cain series)

 

[BloatedGuppy]

3. You convinced me to read them. Seems pretty awesome. Should I watch the movie first though? Would hate to ruin one or the other.

Always the book first. Always always always always the book first.

Unless the book was written based on the film. Then you can watch the film first.

Eurgh. The premise was excellent, but I think the author ruined it with the main characters. Katniss was the most naive character I've seen yet when it comes to war, and that romance? That wasn't romance. That was Stockholm Syndrome. I couldn't really think of it any other way when I read it.

It was definitely not a traditional romance, but I felt that was in its favor. Katniss is such a fundamentally cynical and selfish character it makes for believably human interactions. The resolution of it was fairly crap, but there were some strong moments.

 

[boxes]

1. Wheel Of Time
2. A Song Of Ice And Fire
3. The Bartimaeus Triolgy
I only judge the series instead of the individuel book. I don't trust books to movies anymore, but with alot of my fav series would look pretty spectacular. Just finished re-reading Wheel Of Time.

 

[spartan231490]

I'm going to do series because I don't read single books. I'm also gonna do a bottom 3 cuz I'm bored.
Top:
1) Sword of Truth Terry Goodkind
2) Kingkiller Chronicle Patrick Rothfuss
3) Attikus Kodiak Greg Rucka

Bottom:
1) Last Night at The Lobster (not a series, this was assigned as freshman reading at my college. DON'T EVER READ IT. THE FACT THAT THE AUTHOR COULD WRITE IT WITHOUT REALIZING HOW MUCH IT SUCKED IS A MIRACLE. It was so bad, I burned it. I consider burning books worse than burning people, but this book deserved it)
2) The Awakening. Kate Chopin. Awful. Painful to read. Assigned in High School. First assigned book I ever didn't finish. The only other one being Great Gatsby, which doesn't make this list because it wasn't that bad, just boring as all hell. This one though, awful, never thought I would read one worse, until number one.
3) A Song of Ice and Fire. George R.R. Martin. What can I say? Book one promised me a great fantasy series. The other books delivered a bottom of the barrel soap opera with a cast more annoying than Jersey Shore.

 

[Hoplon]

Favourite books...

Catch 22 - Joseph Heller. Possibly the greatest book ever written.

The Road - Cormac McCarthy. a real eye opener as to how simple writing can be so very effective.

Snowcrash - Neil Stephenson. Speculative fiction with a powerful idea at the core.

Other books I have enjoyed a lot.

The first Law trilogy - Joe Abercrombie. Great characters and a plot that doesn't drag it's feet.

The old man and the sea - Ernest Hemingway. more of a novella that a full novel, but a great story.

1984 - George Orwell. Surveillance society and fascism all mixed together in a really very clever way.

Watchman - Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Superheroes as real people. Never bettered, the film was terrible and so are you for liking it.

Crytonomicron - Neil Stephenson. Potted history of early computers, family saga and thriller all rolled together

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

As I'm doing an English degree I read pretty obsessively, which makes this rather difficult. However:

Top three books:
+ Wuthering Heights
+ The Master and Margarita
+ The Man in the High Castle

Most recent book: The Heart of a Dog

Other things: don't really think Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" was anything special, and similarly unconvinced by Neil Gaiman.

 

[Lev The Red]

my all-time favorite book is Brave New World. if you haven't read it, you need to fix that. like, now.

a few months ago, i read the first two Dexter books. they were good, but the tv show is beter and more worth your time.

right now, i'm about three fourths of the way done with A Game of Thrones, the first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. to put it simply, it's fantastic. it was confusing at first because it kept changing perspective, but a few chapters in i couldn't stop reading it. i've forgot to go to more than a few classes because i got distracted reading it. definitely worth your time.

 

[mrjoe94]

Hmm, see i'm of the generation that really doesn't like reading unless it's a comic book/graphic novel. I mainly think that's because of some of the boring crap schools force young kids to read but that's for another day. It takes something special for me to read a book, let alone a series but i'm loving the Dresden Files right now. Thanks to a friend who suggested the first book to me. The most recent book I've read is Grave Peril Book 3 of the before-mentioned series.

Edit: forgot about the top 3

1) Dresden Files
2) Harry Potter
3) I'll say LoTR but i really only read The Hobbit, and Fellowship and some of the Two Towers.

 

[Fijiman]

I've read too many great books over the years to remember them all so I'll just list a couple.

The Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix (which I still need to finish)
Anything by Tamora Peirce is good.
The Darkangel trilogy by Meredith Ann Pierce.
The King's Shadow by Elizabeth Adler.
And I'm currently reading Hatteras Blue by D.C. Poyer.

 

[Korenith]

My top 3 books would probably be:

3: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson
2: The Trial by Franz Kafka
1: Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy

There's been talk of a film of Blood Meridian for along time but it's fairly unlikely to be made just because of how violent to book is, I doubt they can make a film that goes that far.

Currently I'm reading The Satanic Verses which is very good from what Ive read but I'm not that far into it so maybe it goes downhill.

Hell no Satanic Verses doesn't go downhill! I mean, it's utterly crazy but entirely in a good way and I'd say it even gets better.

OT: I think three top books is tough but right now I'm thinking:

Alasdair Gray- Lanark
Salman Rushdie- Midnight's Children
Iain Banks- The Bridge

Though tbh I could list off loads of books I might put in those spots in a different mood.

Right now I'm reading Sophie's Choice which so far is pretty good though I'm just under halfway.

And movie adaptations are 90% awful, The Road, Lord of the Rings and High Fidelity being a few exceptions but I've never seen a book bettered by its film. And the film adaptations that piss me off most in the entire world are I am Legend and American Psycho, one because it completely lost the point of the book which makes the title mean nothing and the other because trying to make it into a film is like trying to capture the smell and taste of something on an MP3, the medium makes it impossible.

 

[Flamezdudes]

Right now my favourite book series is A Song of Ice and Fire. Some of my other favourite books are...

. Let The Right One In
. 1984
. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

At the moment i'm planning to try and get the Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy series of books, The Wheel Of Time series and some more Philip K Dick books to read.

 

[Valorik]

Really enjoyed the Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher somewhat recently, very easy enjoyable read, if not quite the deepest of stories. Also enjoyed the Nassauntico cycle by SL Farrell, is sort of George R.R. Martin-esque, but less strung out.

 

[Korenith]

As I'm doing an English degree I read pretty obsessively, which makes this rather difficult. However:

Top three books:
+ Wuthering Heights
+ The Master and Margarita
+ The Man in the High Castle

Most recent book: The Heart of a Dog

Other things: don't really think Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" was anything special, and similarly unconvinced by Neil Gaiman.

You didn't think The Road was good? Not even from a "not my thing but technically very clever" standpoint? The sparseness of the prose, the stripped down dialogue, patterned language dealing in disease and decay and sterility all creating a terrifyingly emotive post-appocalyptic wasteland? I mean hey, not enjoying it I can understand. I thought it certainly deserves a healthy amount of respect though. What put you off if you don't mind me asking?