List your Top 10 Books!

[Brill Weave]

In what way?

Also don't lump Ender's Game with Ender's Shadow, they may be two sides of the same coin but they tell very different stories.

Honestly I found the book to be extremely long winded and boring. I didn't find it entertaining in the least. The characters were bland, there was no real antagonist save a few bullies and the "system" itself and the Formics seemed to be thrown in as an afterthought. The peripheral characters were mediocre and added very little to the story except for maybe Bean. It felt like Card had spent so long focusing on making a sci-fi epic that he forgot to make it entertaining.

But this is only my opinion. Most people I know who have read Ender's Game love it and look at me like I'm crazy. Which is fine. Admittedly the plot itself is an extremely creative one. I just don't feel it was written well and came up short in pretty much every aspect. The follow through didn't match the ambition of the idea. But as I said, that's just my opinion.

[Caiyuo]

For those of you BGers who actually read alot. Post your top 10 books. Doesn't have to be in any particular order.

These are some of my top. These were what I was able to think of at the moment. I used to get read Where the Wild Things Are as a kid and its one of my favorites.

1. The Fuck-Up - Arthur Nersesian
2. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
3. Your Inner Fish - Neil Shubin
4. Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendack
5. Rant: The oral history of Rant Casey - Chuck Palanuik
6. The Drunkards Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives - Leanord Mlodinow
7. Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
8. The Fountainhead - Ayn Rand
9. The Freud/Jung Letters - Signmund Freud/Carl Jung
10. The Giver - Lois Lowry

Neat, I coincidentally have Slaughterhouse-Five, The Giver and The Fuck-Up all on my desk at the moment. lol

Interested in reading Ender's Game and Crazy for God (Frank Schaeffer) currently.

[Dense]

I haven't read Cat's Cradle yet, I plan on reading it now though lol. I do like Slaughterhouse Five, Breakfast of Champions and Mother Night as well but I just love the way Vonnegut trivializes the whole point of human existence in Sirens.

Cat's Cradle will become your favourite, in that case. He does that and more. Pokes good fun at all religion and science at the same time, and generally just lets his characters' flaws drive a completely ridiculous story (like always)...

And you'd probably love Galapagos as well, even though I don't rate it with the rest of Vonnegut, it's still in that same style and feeling...

[Byrthnoth]

Half you guys are naming school books and the other half are naming science fiction novels, but ALL of you are apparently forgetting the greatest literary genius of our generation:

http://www.britfilms.tv/images/news/tom%20clancy.jpg
This author has ascended to another level. There are no words to describe his intentionally poorly written, but technically accurate, pieces of fiction. His characterization style is minimalist, descriptive style is tedious yet precise, and plot lines are long with at least one plot-reviving random turn per book. He is the uncultured Picasso of writing.

Sir Tom Clancy, I salute you!

[Brill Weave]

No, I think it's just because most of us associate Tom Clancy with books our fathers read I mean really though has Jack Ryan ascended into godhood yet? Same with Dirk Pitt from the Clive Cussler series. How do you name your son after your made up successful book character? Dirk Cussler? Someone needs to slap that ego in the dirt.

[Dense]

Half you guys are naming school books and the other half are naming science fiction novels, but ALL of you are apparently forgetting the greatest literary genius of our generation:

http://www.britfilms.tv/images/news/tom%20clancy.jpg
This author has ascended to another level. There are no words to describe his intentionally poorly written, but technically accurate, pieces of fiction. His characterization style is minimalist, descriptive style is tedious yet precise, and plot lines are long with at least one plot-reviving random turn per book. He is the uncultured Picasso of writing.

Sir Tom Clancy, I salute you!

diaf.

[Moridam]

I haven't had an awful lot of opportunity for free-time reading the past few years, but David Foster Wallace has been almost all I've read during that time. Specifically, Infinite Jest, Oblivion, A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, and Consider the Lobster.

[Cesaria]

I don't read nearly as much as I used to/should do and lots of what I read is kind of popular sciencey-type stuff for some reason these days. Can never do a top-10 type thing but books I've enjoyed that I can think of off the top of my head (bookcases are upstairs and I can't be arsed to go look):

Terry Pratchett - Reaper Man and The Hogfather (basically any of the books where Death features prominently - and no one ever fucking gets the reference to Death of Rats when they see my mule GrimSqueaker around)
Jung Chang - Wild Swans
Memoirs of a Geisha (shame the fucking film ruined it)
The final Harry Potter whose name escapes me at the moment
The whole of His Dark Materials (yes I know that's three books and I'm cheating - yes, in a way it's a kids book but it's still a cracking good story over the course of the series)

Yes, I do read a fair few kids' books - inevitable in my line of work really. I'm also an utter sucker for good quality picture books - buy tonnes of them to use for work but do appreciate the time and work that goes into them. Also read a lot of chick-lit trashy stuff - but none of that's exactly earth shatteringly wonderful really, and some political stuff - but lots less than I used to read during my degree of that.

[Electro]

Any of you that grew up in the 90's I recommend reading Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman. That book made me laugh a lot at the obvious. My favorite chapter was "Being Zack Morris." lol

[Brill Weave]

Ha. The Hogfather was awesome. I actually picked up the British movie version of it for my wife. She loved Death. I mean, who didn't? He was awesome.

[Max™]

Better question: Who has never touched a Harry Potter book besides me?

I had someone toss me a box of them to haul upstairs for him.

I dodged, I want nothing to do with that, thanks.


If I want War, I want it on intergalactic scales, against foes we can barely even comprehend, but done in a realistic manner.

Think if Asimov and Clancy made babies, the kid would come out with a love of super intricate and accurate descriptions of physics and science... and an appreciation for a good War story.

[Brill Weave]

The Math is a lie Max.

[Ishido]

Predictably Irrational - Dan Ariely

A bunch of other stuff already mentioned.

[Tyche]

Never read a single Harry Potter book or watched even a minute of a single movie.

[noblemountain]

Never read a single Harry Potter book or watched even a minute of a single movie.

Same here. I had an ex who was obsessed with them and I just never let her talk me into reading them or watching the movies. Max, you're making me want to read a lot of my Asimov stuff again...when I was a young lad, I wrote a lot of Asimov-style stories. Basically it was fan-fiction before I knew what that was. I love the worlds he created in his stories and his vision of the future was so spot on in some instances it is creepy.

[Mizango]

Never read a single Harry Potter book or watched even a minute of a single movie.

^

[Miroku_Asura]

No particular order, but these are some of my favs:

After Dark- Haruki Murakami
The Great Gatsby-F. Scott Fitzgerald
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- J.K. Rowling
Holidays on Ice- David Sedaris
Aliens in America- Sandra Tsing Loh
Brave New World-Aldous Huxley
Falling Up- Shel Silverstein
The Illiad- Homer
Lost Japan- Alex Kerr
The Te of Piglet and the Tao of Pooh- Benjamin Hoff

[Max™]

Wanna know how to find great new Sci Fi writers?

Go grab The Years Best Sci-Fi compilations.

Any one, I've got five or six around the house I thumb through on occasion, my big hardbound copy of 18 is my favorite right now.

[Brill Weave]

I like most sci-fi but I tend to steer more towards the fantasy settings by choice. I like almost anything written by Deborah Chester, Jim Butcher, R.A. Salvatore, and Dave Duncan.

[Max™]

I'm too logical, I get accused of lacking an imagination because I know with absolute certainty that there is nothing supernatural in the Universe... it's in the definition of the word.

Fantastical settings are fun to roleplay in with some stoned friends, Palladium Fantasy RPG being my fave, but for fiction, I like it to be realistic.

You don't need fairies to be whimsical, and you don't need dragons to be scary.

I could go into variously posited sci fi explanations for why we don't see a sky full of little green men, ranging from ancient aliens who may as well be Cthluhu, to binary star collisions which go off periodically, sterilizing their galaxies on megayear timers.