Recommended Reading

[Strafe Mcgee]

Having recently finished Stephen Fry's autobiography 'Moab Is My Washpot" I've found myself with nothing to read but my old copies of the Discworld books. I love Discworld but they do start to lose their shine after the fourth or fifth reading... So does anyone have any books that they would recommend me or anyone else to read?

I enjoy Sci-Fi, Comedy, Fantasy, Satire... or anything that's good. My favorite books are the His Dark Materials trilogy, Hitchhikers Guide 1-4, 1984, Brave New World (Aldous Huxley), The Sacred Art Of Stealing (Christopher Brookmyre, fantastic writer) and the Discworld books.

If I was to recommend a book It'd be Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. It's a sci-fi satire similar to 1984, but with a far more disturbing ending and with an even more rigidly controlled population that has been genetically engineered to fit into certain roles in society. Disturbing, entertaining and full of sharp insight of the modern world, it's well worth a read.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

the night watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko it is translated into english, the movies (night watch and day watch) are based on the night watch book not the corresponding books

i am legend - Richard Matheson
the dresden series - jim butcher
stardust - neil gaiman, ok well most anything he writes would do

dark elf series - ra salvatore, if you haven't already done so
avatar trilogy and the 2 follow up cyric books - again if you haven't already
anything by tolkien if you haven't and if you haven't shame on you

a clockwork orange - anthony burgess - get the british version, it has an extra chapter that's REALLY important to the book
dexter series - jeff lindsay

some of the conan books are good too

i can also recommend some good non-ficiton too which is always nice to have to go with fiction

 

[sammyfreak]

If you want to broaden your horisons i highly suggest Fyodor Dovstoevskies "The Brothers Karamazov". Probably the best novel ever written.

 

[the_tralfalmadorian]

Dune. It might just be the greatest sci-fi book of all time.

 

[Zombie Badger]

Mortal Engines
Predator's Gold
Infernal Devices
A Darkling Plain.

All by Philip Reeve. You have to read them in order though.

 

[Scolar Visari]

Try Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Its a great short story if a little hard to find.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Flight [http://www.flightcomics.com/], (pick any one of the four) a collection of fantastic adventure comic shorts by various artists, using various mediums. They are very creative and fun to read.

 

[Watershed]

Stardust or American Gods by Neil Gaiman
I am Legend by Richard Matheson
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

That all I can think of right now that aren't Discworld books.

 

[Meliz]

The BARRY TROTTER trilogy (Shameless Parody, Unneccesary Sequel and Dead Horse)
American Psycho
Rik Mayal's book.
Bruce Campbell's books.
the Bible - hey, you like fiction? this has all kinds of freaky shit.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

actually if you're looking for some non-fiction stuff

the art of war - sun-tzu
the prince - machiavelli (really helps you with civlizations if you play that)
the elegant universe - brian greene

lao tzu my words are very easy to understand - Cheng Man Ch'Ing and Tam Gibbs (written by an actual speaker of chinese and translated directly from his mouth)
anything by Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki sometimes just D.T. Suzuki
the book of 5 rings miyamoto musashi
hakugare - Tsunetomo Yamamoto
the unfettered mind - Takuan Soho

invisible college or freemasonry and the birth of modern science by robert lomas is also very good, both are the same book just different titles
uriel's machine by robert lomas and christopher knight is also good too

their other book are more theories on the origins of the freemasons and not really of interest to those not interested in the mason, tho their book second messiah is brilliant

 

[HannesPascal]

The wheel of time. By Robert Jordan great book series but I must warn you the author died before he finished the series so it's unclear if the last book will come out

 

[Meliz]

Dune. It might just be the greatest sci-fi book of all time.

Aw, man... no offense but... jeezes effing christ Dune is such a load of boring never ending sneezy piece of noise.

I read the first half because i thought "so many people like this book, it must start being awesome in a couple of pages."

The last half I read because I was already so far in it but God damn i hated reading that piece of excretion.

no offence.

 

[tooktook]

If you want fantasy go for the Banned and the Banished series by James Clemens.

 

[mshcherbatskaya]

Flight [http://www.flightcomics.com/], (pick any one of the four) a collection of fantastic adventure comic shorts by various artists, using various mediums. They are very creative and fun to read.

Those are great comics. If I were going to recommend a graphic novel, heavy on the novel, it would be Cages [http://www.zozolala.com/Top100_Cages_ENG.html] by Dave McKean.

For a good read, check out Prince of Foxes [http://www.amazon.com/Prince-Foxes-Best-Selling-Historial-Epic/dp/1882593650] or Captain from Castile [http://www.amazon.com/Captain-Castile-Best-Selling-Historical-Epic/dp/1882593626] by Samuel Shellabarger. Both were written in the late 1940s and are set in the 1500s, the first in Renaissance Italy, the second in colonial Spain. They were best sellers in their day, and are exactly what I look for in swashbuckling historical fiction.

 

[end_boss]

The Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
Animal Farm by George Orwell
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery (sp?)
Alice in Wonderland by Carroll Lewis

And, of course, anything by Douglas Adams

 

[Fire Daemon]

The Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell is good if you like anything to do with Red Coats.

If you want good sci-fi then I recomend reading Ian M Banks' novels. Just make sure you start with his early works and read your way up.

 

[werepossum]

David Weber's "Honor Harrington" series for space opera, Tanya Huff for good futuristic combat and light modern fantasy, Charles de Lint for original modern fantasy with strong mythological roots (varied quality, but "Someplace to be Flying" is perhaps the best book I've read), Elizabeth Moon's "Deed of Paksenarrian" for excellent fantasy military adventure, Jordan's "Wheel of Time series" (the rumor that he would just continue writing it until he died turned out to be factual, and supposedly now his wife and I think his brother or his agent are going to finish it to his original intent as related before his death), and pretty much anything by Tad Williams, Lois McMaster Bujold, or Steven Brust.

 

[ReepNeep]

If you love 1984, I would highly recommend Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Its nearly as dark and subversive as 1984 but deals heavily with the horrors of dumbing down society which is something I think most of us here can relate to.

 

[ThaBenMan]

Probably the best series of books I've read is A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. It takes place in a "low magic" medieval fantasy world ravaged by a war of succession. There's a huge cast of incredibly well-imagined characters that aren't just good or evil but many shades of gray. An absolute must-read. They are, in order:

A Game of Thrones
A Clash of Kings
A Storm of Swords
A Feast for Crows

He's working on the fifth, A Dance with Dragons, right now, and I'm going crazy waiting for it!

And I'll agree with other posters about Neil Gaiman and the Flight comics.