What's the most awesomest book you've ever read?

[Hoplon]

I've just finished "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson couple of days ago. To quote tvtropes:

Possibly the best-known book by Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash is the tale of a sword-slinging hacker who teams up with an extreme skateboarder in a Post Cyber Punk disincorporated USA to fight "Snow Crash" - a computer virus for the brain. Oh, and there's a badass biker with glass knives and a nuclear bomb strapped to his motorbike, too.

Apart from its frenetic action sequences and overt use of the Rule Of Cool, the book is surprisingly deep, with a substantial portion of the plot given over to exploring metaphysical interpretations of the Tower of Babel myth. Typical for a Stephenson novel, the plot juxtaposes action sequences, lengthy humorous digressions, and extremely detailed Infodumps seemingly at random. The book is also notable for its uncanny prediction of future internet trends. While holographic web terminals have not yet come to pass, we do have heavily populated 3D virtual worlds, satellite photograph software, and a massive user-created online library, and certain real world equivalents (Second Life, Google Earth) having been inspired by the book itself.

Book (released in 1992) also mentions goggles surprisingly similar to certain Oculus Rift thingie...

It's one of the greatest books ever written.

Also Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. it's some catch that catch 22.

The Road by Cormack McCarthy, the bleakness of the style reflecting the bleakness of the world.

Consider Phlebas by Iain Banks, space opera with a bit of bite.

The Crow Road by Iain Banks, Family saga this time.

Cryptomonicron by Neil Stephenson: a fictional history of digital computers.

 

[-Dragmire-]

I can't pick a particular best one so I'm going to cop out and say the entire Malazan Book Series by Steven Erikson.

 

[Esotera]

At the moment I'd say Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds, it's simply epic and completely mind-boggling to get your head round. Although Stephen Baxter & Iain M Banks have got to come a close second/third, depending on my mood.

 

[Broderick]

"how i was spacepirate" I wrote it when I was 6 and it has a whole 4 pages in it.
It details the Author's struggles against the spacenavy, and his heroic fight against them.
It also has a dinodog called 'sock' I am honestly surprised it never won the Pulitzer prize

On a serious note, most likely the Mortal Engines series, they really sparked my imagination and love of all things mechanical and steam-ish.
Or The Wise Man's Fear, it's a lovely (for me at least, quite a few people hate it) mix of prose and charm all wrapped up in a fantasy bundle.

I love The Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear, but I can see the criticisms some people would have with it, mainly the main character being a borderline gary stu. Still loved them to death though; I got a signed copy of Wise Man's Fear when pat was visiting Seattle, on my birthday no less! Read through the thing in less than a week.

As for something other than the King Killer Chronicles, I would say the Dresden Files series. God I just love that mix of mystery and action. Harry is a pretty damn likable character too, snark and all. Hard to say what "the most awesomest book" I have ever read is though; I enjoyed The Hobbit quite a lot(a hell of a lot more than The Fellowship of the Ring), but I also enjoyed 1984 and Animal Farm as well. Eh, I guess it is hard to pick favorites with books.

 

[lionsprey]

any of the 3 books im currently reading through containing the works of H.P Lovecraft

 

[Feraswondervahnn]

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream. That book wa just so damn entertaining. I'd recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it. If you've heard Hunter S Thompson's voice before then reading it with his voice in your head is even better!

 

[Talvrae]

The Song of Ice and Fire serie
at risk to sound cliche by now, it is now my favorites books serie... prior to that it was the Cycle of Dune as written by Frank Herbert, didnt care that much for the sequels, prequels his son write trought

 

[banthro]

It's been 2 months since I read it and I am still unable to explain how much I loved World War Z. It blew my mind, The authenticity of it all is just terrifying.

 

[UrinalDook]

I'm currently reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy, and it's just... blowing me away.

Dem feels, man. It's been a long time since I associated such emotion with a book, hell any form of media for that matter. I struggle to get my head around how oppressive, cold and sad every little detail is. I can't see it ending well, but I can't stop reading either. I know the end is going to make me feel awful, but I keep reading just on the tiniest sliver of hope that they'll make it.

It's beautiful stuff.

The Road by Cormack McCarthy, the bleakness of the style reflecting the bleakness of the world.

*Nods sagely*

 

[Tallim]

House Of Leaves because it's completely messed up in all kinds of ways and open to a lot of interpretation. Plus the way it plays with spatial areas both in world and on the page is just genius.

 

[Hawkeye21]

The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks - A fantastic yet mildly disturbing look at the life of a troubled youth in a remote area in Scotland, whose life was more complicated than he originally thought!

If you think its MILDLY disturbing, you are very peculiar individual. I am hard pressed to think of a book more disturbing, and I've read Lovecraft, Polanik, King and many others, including very fucked up creepypastas from interwebs.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks - A fantastic yet mildly disturbing look at the life of a troubled youth in a remote area in Scotland, whose life was more complicated than he originally thought!

If you think its MILDLY disturbing, you are very peculiar individual. I am hard pressed to think of a book more disturbing, and I've read Lovecraft, Polanik, King and many others, including very fucked up creepypastas from interwebs.

Well... I didn't really want to admit to reading psychotically disturbing books, and then saying I like them! XD

God... the bit in the hospital still gives me the heeby-jeebies! The look of content on the babies face! D:

 

[WittyName]

I'm torn between the Complete Sherlock Holmes works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, or The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

 

[Subscriptism]

I loved The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's fear by Patrick Rothfuss. I know the main character is by the end of the second book fucking amazing at everything and has very few weaknesses or flaws but I still love it.

 

[Daggedawg]

While I don't think it's the best in the series, The Colour of Magic is the book that introduced me to the wonderful Discworld, a place I often revisit with joy.

 

[Laevateinn]

For me it's a tie between Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, and The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester.

 

[Milanezi]

The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It's pretty hard to choose between that book and No Country for Old Men though, but I guess I'll stick with The Road, the raw horror within its pages got me totally by surprise. It was the single book that actually made me cry, and, at a certain point, almost throw up.

I have the Escapist to thank for The Road lol; I saw the review of the MOVIE and the review was pretty bad BUT it feel like the movie was being punished for being a post-apocalyptic movie that came too close to "reality": a very slow paced drama. I live in Brazil and the movie was nowhere near being screened back then (down here), so I bought the book later in the year when I went to California. And it just hit me the way no book ever had (the movie was also an awesome experience).

For those with no clue about what The Road is all about: it's a post-apocalyptic drama. It never really tells you what happened to the world, but it has a few hints near the end (or not, depends on your interpretation), but most of all, it's a terrifying tale of love between a father and a son left to survive in a world of scarcity and fear. It's VERY depressing and I've known people who quit the book, or even stopped the movie not because they didn't like it, but because it was too heavy, too hard and cruel to the audience, most of those people are father themselves, so the author does know how to "hit where it hurts".

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

I could list many different series, or anthology of short stories but if I had to pick one out as a standalone book I'd pick The Grand Design by John Marco.

It may be the 2nd book in a trilogy, but unlike some others it is far and away the best of the three.

Also, most of my books are packed away so its the best one out of the ones I have immediately on hand to recall.

Another good one is Taran Wanderer by Llyod Alexander. Being book 4 of 5 it nonetheless is my favorite by a wide margin. It taught me quite a bit when I was younger about wisdom and life in general. It is also why I pick wanderer as my starting class in Souls games.

I've pretty much been re-re-re-re-re-re-reading my H.P. Lovecraft books for the last several years waiting for various authors such as Elizabeth Haydon (presumed dead by her fans), Brent Weeks, and C.S. Friedman to write more books.

Weeks' Night Angel Trilogy is pretty good, but his current Lightbringer series is very awesome. Friedman has many awesome (I'm tired of this word already) books. Foremost for me personally is This Alien Shore. I'm mot a huge fan of sci-fi but that book is...awesomest.

I haven't gotten caught up on Robin Hobb or Terry Goodkind's last few books for lack of money. Hence reading HPL for the 30+time.

 

[TwiZtah]

Lord of the Rings is by far my favourite book. I have actually read it more times than I can track (20-25? somewhere in that sort of range). It is completely baffling to me that anyone could not like it, and it is very difficult for me to not view that as a serious character defect. I shall, however, try to keep in my mind the old saying "there's no accounting for taste" and leave it at that.

Additionally, I actually really enjoyed War and Peace, however, that was definitely hard to get going (the first time I tried reading it I didn't make it very far).

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is also, of course, a fantastic book.

In the first Lord of the Rings book, they prance around in The Shire and then prance some more in the woods and then they speak to Tom Bombadil, all this in only 150 pages! DDDD

It took me awhile to get through that shit.

 

[ViridianV6]

Brave New World and the accompanying Brave New World: Revisited by Aldous Huxley

Remarkable on how the book is so accurate in it's portrayal of the modern world given that it was written in 1932.