Books: What are you reading and what would you recommend?

[Foras]

To fill my MMO void of late I’ve been devouring books faster than I can make it to the library. I’m trying to compile a list of books from various groups of people so free to add a book or three and as time permits I will try and keep this thread semi-updated.

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Currently reading:
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Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need by Andrew Tobias
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Books I would recommend:
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The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien (needs no explanation)
The Hobbit by Tolkien (I enjoyed this on a different level from LOTR)
Dune by Frank Herbert (one of my favorite books, but it's not for everyone)
Animal Farm by George Orwell (classic)
1984 by George Orwell (classic)
A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin (one of the most challenging and rewarding reads I have ever experienced (not for the black and white, archetype lovers))
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov (I’m just starting on this author, he has an entire library just by himself)
Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (no idea how I forgot about this one, great book)
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (stream of consciousness, horror book)
The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King (this series is permanently embedded in my mind)
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Children’s / Young Adult:
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Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling (full of hype, but surprisingly fun and well written)
Inkworld Trilogy by Cornelia Funke (quick and easy read, carries some dark overtones)
The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer
His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini (Harry Potter meets LOTR)
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NF, Education, Philosophy, and Theology:
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Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Enchiridion by Epictetus
The Code of the Warrior: Exploring Warrior Values Past & Present by Shannon French
Stoic Warriors: The Ancient Philosophy behind the Military Mind by Nancy Sherman
Warrior Politics: Why Leadership Demands a Pagan Ethos by Robert Kaplan
The Paradox of American Power by Joseph Nye Jr.
Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
Cisco Certified Network Associate (sixth edition) by Todd Lammle
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And these are currently on my list to read (thoughts?):
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Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson
The Prince of Nothing by Scott Bakker
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
The Novels of the Discworld by Terry Pratchett
The Black Company Chronicles by Glen Cook
The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
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BlueGartr Fiction:
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Heroes Die by Matthew Stover
The Women of the Other World series by Kelly Armstrong
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas, Pere
The Picture/Portrait of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Neuromancer by William Gibson
A Man of His World by Dave Duncan
Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
Bourne Identity series by Robert Ludlum
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie
The Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss
The Gap Cycle by Stephen Donaldson
A Sound Of Thunder by Ray Bradbury
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Redwall series by Brian Jacques
Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line by Ben Hamper
Mitch Rapp Series by Vince Flynn
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Jennifer Government by Max Barry
Codex Alera series by Jim Butcher
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Adam Bede by George Eliot
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk
One Hand Clapping by Anthony Burgess
Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton
Native Son by Richard Wright
The Exultant trilogy, Ring, Flux, Evolution, Anti-Ice, Manifold series by Stephen Baxter
The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Hitchhiker's series by Douglas Adams
Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
Divine Comedy by Giovanni Boccaccio
Juveniles by Robert Heinlein
Mote in the Eye of God by Jerry Eugene Pournelle
Ringworld by Larry Niven
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
Dragonlance series
Mort by Terry Pratchett
Portrait of a Man Drowning was written by Charles Perry
Executive Power by Vince Flynn
48 Laws of Power by Greene
Shogun James Clavell
Rant by Chuck Palahniuk
The Contortionist's Handbook by Craig Clevenger
The Vampire Huntress series by L.A. Banks
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
The Business by Iain Banks
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynn Jones
The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan
Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Life Of Pi by Yann Martel
The Year of Our War by Steph Swainston
Symphony of The Ages series by Elizabeth Hayden
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BlueGartr Children’s / Young Adult:
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Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey
The Claidi Chronicles by Tanith Lee
Circle of Magic by Tamora Pierce
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson
A Series of Unfortunate Events by Daniel Handler
Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer
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BlueGartr NF, Education, Philosophy, and Theology:
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The Art of War by Sun Tzu
Freakonomics by Steven Levitt
The Trouble with Physics by Lee Smolin
Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle
Che by Jon Lee Anderson
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs
Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
The Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Longing for the Harmonies by Frank Wilczek
A Brief History of Everything by Ken Wilber
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
The Way Things Are: The De Rerum Natura of Titus Lucretius Carus by Lucretius and Rolfe Humphries
Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel C. Dennet
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time by Michael Schermer
How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life by Thomas Gilovich
The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine
Cosmos by Carl Sagan
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan
In Search of Schrödinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality by John Gribbin
The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question? by Leon Lederman and Dick Teresi
Beneath The Underdog by Charles Mingus
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[Tyche]

How did "The Art of War" elude your philosophy list?

[MayorBee]

I would suggest The Women of the Other World series Kelly Armstrong. Each book focuses on a magical race or beings. For example the first book is about werewolves, the second carries the same characters over where they find out that witches, shamans, demons, etc all exist and it's a really fun series. She is a very sarcastic writer and constantly pokes fun of the genre she writes in, I guess that's what makes the characters so much fun, they aren't what you'd expect them to be like.

[Neuro]

From the books on your to read list, Hyperion, as well as The Fall of Hyperion are really good. They need to be read together though as Hyperion just kind of ends without any real closure.
American Gods and Neil Gaiman's other books and the various comics he has written are awesome. The Discworld novels are great as well. If you like either author, check out Good Omens, which they wrote together.
I've not read that specific Neal Stephenson book, but based on how good Snow Crash and The Diamond Age are, I'll probably pick it up soon.

[Shinryusan]

I highly recommend the R. Scott Bakker book on your list, and in fact I'd encourage you to pick up the whole Prince of Nothing trilogy. Not only is it a great fantasy read, Bakker throws a great deal of his personal philosophy into it, kind of in the vein of (although I'm not directly comparing the two) Plato'sSymposium and Pheadrus, inasmuch as it's philosophy garbed in fiction.

Neal Stephenson also, great author.

[Elesirdur]

I've been on a bit of a classics kick of late. My last two major reads have been "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexander Dumas, Pere (in a recent translation by Penguin Classics, not the shitty and bowlderized 1860s translation), and "The Picture/Portrait of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde.

I absolutely loved "The Count of Monte Cristo" and the new translation is very lively while being faithful to the original text. Wilde's work is more literary fancy than grand story, but the witicism and social commentary is the real meat here.

[wintersquall]

heroes die and blade of tyshalle by matthew woodring stover. the third act of caine will be coming out very soon, and these books are quite a ride.



also, lotta incredible books on that list, but i don't see Neuromancer (William Gibson) on there...

[Obev]

Currently reading Philip K. Dick's Martian Time-Slip, which is uh, okay, I guess. A bit too heavy on the exposition of "OKAY GUYS WE'RE ON MARS AND THERE'S CANALS AND SHIT," but I'm hoping that it'll pick up in a few chapters.

[Shade]

I've been sitting on 3/4 books of Dave Duncan's "A Man of His Word" series for years, waiting to stumble across the first one. I finally got it, so I devoured all 4 of them early this week. Quite good, which is normal for Duncan. Mm! Kind of sad now, because this means I've read pretty much everything he's written.

Picked up Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler at the library today, and I'd recommend pretty much anything by her as well. Her work feels so contemporary, but then you read the inner flap and find out it was all written in the 70s, hah. I guess post apocalyptic sci-fi will always be relevant. If you like your scifi with sociological introspection, her and Ursula K. LeGuin are worth adding to your list.

[-Zer0-]

April 2009 (if we're lucky!) for Dance with Dragons orz

[Ruiner]

Catch-22, by Joseph Heller. Best book I've ever read.

[Aerin]

I swear to god I'm going to be up to date in The Wheel of Time series before the final book comes out. RIP Robert Jordan

[pohibaba]

Read the book that nearly changed America as we know it:

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p...baba/k8388.gif

[Silenka]

I read a lot of young teen fantasy books. >.> If you don't like them, don't read!

The Claidi Chronicles (Wolf Tower, Wolf Star, Wolf Queen) are written in a rare style, sort of matter-of-fact yet honestly engaging, I can hardly put it down.

Tamora Pierce's books are usually quartets - The Winding Circle, The Circle Opens, Alanna the Lioness, The Immortals, and Protector of the Small. She is one of my favorite authors for her amazing characters. I really recommend them if you haven't read any!

Recently I've been checking out a long series about cats called The Warriors, it's pretty good for a one-time read. These cats live the lives of warriors protecting their clans and boundaries in the wild. The unique setting and the way the cats view things like humans, 'kittypets' and deforestation is very interesting. Kind of makes you wonder what sort of grand dreams your own cat might have XD

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As far as fantasy that are for older teens/adults:

The Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey and recently her son Todd McCaffrey are true classics. They're actually a mix of sci-fi and fantasy, great for people who love dragons but also people who like to peer into the social, agricultural, and technological structure of a completely different planet that has been colonized by wayfarers from Earth. If you don't particularly like the dragons, there are books focusing on the harper's guild, or the miners, or the rogues who have been cast out of their holdings for their crimes. One of my favorite stories told of a dragonrider who did everything she could to stop a pandemic - almost like an alternate-universe Balto XD

I doubt anyone has heard of them, but the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (the Unbeliever) are sooo good... I can't even begin to explain the style and story, just that the main character is a leper and through his otherworldy adventures he comes to grips with his misery and feeling of self-worth. They are definitely worth a read.

Finally, my favorite books, by my favorite author:
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, and all the books that follow it.

I can't believe there are people who still haven't read this masterpiece of genius. It's actually become required reading in my school system (long after I've graduated, of course)... I really don't think masterpiece of genius even does it justice. Just go read, go read, you'll thank me later!

[Lavik]

Read House of Leaves

[Darkhearted]

Freakonomics

[Maguspk]

The Bourne Identity/Supremacy/Ultimatum. They are unparalleled, absolutely amazing reads.

[Bweigelt]

I found the Malazan series a little off-putting. It has some amazing moments, but in between you just end up following a bunch of characters who are clones of each other, and much like WoT, the later books have really lost focus.

Prince of Nothing is a good series, but again it's really heavy reading and all the philosophy he throws in their makes the books drag a bit.

I would definitely second the recommendation for ASOIAF though.

Some others I would recommend:

The Lies of Locke Lamora + Red Seas under Red Skies by Scott Lynch - Both are awesome although, some people didn't like the second as much as the first, I loved it.

The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie - A relatively new, but terrific series. The third book might now be available in the US yet though.

In the Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss - Really different sort of Fantasy. Wrote in a first person perspective, but it really grows on you as the novel goes on. First book in the series second should be released in 2009.

The Gap Cycle by Stephen Donaldson - Very dark book that can be disturbing at parts, but a really great Sci-Fi book.

I've also heard David Gemmel's Troy trilogy and Daniel Abraham's first two books in his series (First is called A shadow in Summer I believe) are both supposed to be terrific although I haven't read either.

[Sigi]

Divine Comedy by Dante
Most of Shakespeare's works are good reads
Edgar Allen Poe's good for some reading
Robert Heinlein's Juveniles (Have Spacesuit, Will Travel; etc), Job, Glory Road, The Cat that Walked Through Walls
Niven- Ringworld
Pournelle- Mote in the Eye of God
Andre Norton - any of her books are intriguing to read

[Nuketwig]

Catch-22, by Joseph Heller. Best book I've ever read.

God dammit thank you, I can not convince anyone to read this. Hell, even if you have read it read it again, it makes more sense the second time.