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Dec 15, 2007 12:43:39 GMT -5
Post by Aindel on Dec 15, 2007 12:43:39 GMT -5
Okay, Trey suggested it, and Aindel has done it! A thread for all of us who can barely bring our noses out from behind those pages to even post on here. The book recommendation thread!
My picks for right now:
The Black Swan by Mercedes Lackey The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor (as an added bonus, the cover is shiny!) Winter of Fire by Sheryl Jordan The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton Anything by Gregory Maguire Anything by Robin McKinley
I can guarantee you there's more, but I can't think of them while being a couple hours away from my bookshelves.
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Dec 15, 2007 12:56:02 GMT -5
Post by alba on Dec 15, 2007 12:56:02 GMT -5
I haven't done much reading lately, other than set texts for uni, because some of those are rather time consuming and I don't have as easy access to books as I do at home. However, here are some of my all-time favourites (you know, the ones you can read ten times and still enjoy) and some that I read for English and enjoyed (either this year or in the final years of high school).
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke Lord of the Rings Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Colfer (yes, I read Artemis Fowl ...) Beloved, by Toni Morrison (very sad and depressing, such that I'd never have read it were it not necesesary for uni, but well-written on an interesting and somewhat controversial topic) Orlando, by Virginia Woolf (another one that I'm reading for uni, it's rather satirical and humourous, if you can get by the flowery language which sometimes makes it difficult to understand) The House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende
Uhh, there's definitely more on my bookshelf at home, and on the bookshelf at the library down the road from my house, but I can't remember them at the moment.
EDIT: I just remembered The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson, which is definitely the best book I've read for uni so far this year.
SECOND EDIT: I've just realised that I've read The Looking Glass Wars, and it was awesome. I didn't recognise the title at first, then looked back and realised I did in fact read it. And yes, it has a nice shiny cover.
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Dec 15, 2007 13:36:09 GMT -5
Post by misaki on Dec 15, 2007 13:36:09 GMT -5
I did like Jonathan Strange. It was a bit hard to get into (ok, I read the first hundred pages before putting it down for three years and then finally picking it back up and reading it this summer), but I quite enjoyed the ending.
I haven't been doing much reading lately (more into the writing aspect), and mostly it's been re-reading old stuff that I love, but here's what I've been reading lately:
- "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency" by Douglas Adams - "The Pinhoe Egg" by Diana Wynne Jones - "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman - "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows" by J K Rowling (yes, I am...) - "The Journals of Venn Polypheme" by ? - "Making Money" by Terry Pratchett - "Slippage" by Harlan Ellison - "The Alchemist" by Paolo Coelho
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Dec 15, 2007 14:01:20 GMT -5
Post by alba on Dec 15, 2007 14:01:20 GMT -5
I read Harry Potter, too. I didn't really like Jonathan Strange the first time through, though I finished it. It was when I decided to reread it for some reason unbeknowest to me that I really enjoyed it. I've been told to read the Alchemist, and started it but then forgot about it, and I've been meaning to read Making Money, because I quite like Terry Pratchett.
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Dec 15, 2007 15:27:10 GMT -5
Post by misaki on Dec 15, 2007 15:27:10 GMT -5
I love Terry Pratchett! Have you read "Going Postal"? That's my favorite book by him. Moist is awesome! "The Alchemist" is a terrific book, and it's the 26th best-selling book of all time! It's one of those books that people can either take at face value or find a lot of meaning in. I, personally, am one of the first; I had reading into things too much. It just makes the whole thing seem less....ah...important? Valuable? Something. It just seems like the whole thing is ruined when I pick it apart to find all the symbolism and whatnot. I took a class in high school called "World Literature," where that was basically all we did, and I hated it. I also loved the book "Demian" by Hermann Hesse, but when we tore it apart looking for symbolism in 10th grade, it was just awful (though I was really good at finding parallels to "The Inferno".)
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Dec 15, 2007 16:33:10 GMT -5
Post by Aindel on Dec 15, 2007 16:33:10 GMT -5
Terry Pratchett is amazing! I forgot, I just finished Good Omens. For anyone who has not read this book, SHAME! Read it now! And Hogfather is the most amazing of all Christmastime books. The Alchemist was a good book. A bit too inspirational for me, perhaps, but not bad (I'm one of those people who gags at Chicken Soup books....). Alba, I agree with you on Artemis Fowl. For children, yes. Freaking awesome, hell yes. I am not ashamed at how young my reading interests go. Another good teen-ish series is Diane Duane's Young Wizards series. Funny, intelligent, and so addictive! The other awesome thing about it is that it's modern magic that doesn't discount the real world (like Harry Potter does, for the most part). The only things I read for school are plays, articles about plays, and articles about general theatre that can be related to certain plays.
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Dec 15, 2007 16:47:06 GMT -5
Post by bubbles on Dec 15, 2007 16:47:06 GMT -5
"Fight Club"
"His Dark Material" trilogy
"Des Nouvelles de la Ville" (lol french)
"The Little Prince" (better in french. <.<)
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Dec 15, 2007 17:32:37 GMT -5
Post by The Star Fox on Dec 15, 2007 17:32:37 GMT -5
Actually one of my favourite books recently is "Flu" By Gina Kolata. It is non-fiction, but is told in a very creative way. Yeah I know it only makes sense I would like a book like that.
"Kite Runner" was good.
"Choke" and "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs" were interesting to say the least, same author as "Fight Club"
I Really like Stephen King's collection of short stories books.
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Dec 15, 2007 18:59:39 GMT -5
Post by misaki on Dec 15, 2007 18:59:39 GMT -5
Aindel: Good Omens, hells yeah! And Artemis Fowl, lol! I liked the first three books and then after that...not so much. My reading interests go pretty young, too. Who's read Spiderwick and is excited about the movie? ^^ @choke+Fight Club: I love Chuck Palanuik, but it seriously freaks me out how messed up that guy's writing is. I think "Survivor" was my favorite. @stephen King: Personally, I'm no great fan of Stephen King. I first read "Skeleton Crew" when I was in fourth grade and thought it interesting (That's the collection that has "The Mist" in it), but I think that most of his ideas are pretty idiotic and not frightening at all. Just a personal opinion.
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Dec 15, 2007 19:12:22 GMT -5
Post by The Star Fox on Dec 15, 2007 19:12:22 GMT -5
Oh I agree. But they are entertaining to say the least. I thought the dark tower sequence wasn't too bad.
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Dec 15, 2007 20:07:08 GMT -5
Post by Clover on Dec 15, 2007 20:07:08 GMT -5
Hrm. I have a strange taste in books: I veer between non-fiction and fiction. So here's a couple, and authors are included if I remember them:
Non-Fiction: 'The End of Gay' 'The Rape of the A.P.E' 'Pornified' 'Geisha' --Leslie Downer 'American Theocracy: Rise of the Religious Right'
Fiction: "Good Omens" --Terry Pratchett "Memoirs of a Geisha" --Arthur Golden "Kushiel's Chosen" trilogy <--Masochistic protagonist? Why, yheeees. "The Liveship Traders" trilogy "The Neandertal Parallax" "The Hot Zone" --Richard Preston <--Ebola outbreak, based on fact "His Dark Materials" trilogy --Phillip Pullman "Morrighan's Cross" trilogy --Nora Roberts "The Portrait of Dorian Grey" --Oscar Wilde "The Divine Comedy" --Dante Alighieri "In The Time of the Butterflies" "Love in the Time of Cholera" "Cien AƱos de Soledad" --Gabriel Garcia Marquez "The Dragon Chronicles" --Sarah Fletcher <--read that trilogy when I was eleven and spent the next seven years looking for them. My guilty pleasure. >XD
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Dec 15, 2007 20:27:24 GMT -5
Post by Aindel on Dec 15, 2007 20:27:24 GMT -5
I'm not much of a non-fiction person outside of my textbooks (and let's face it, I'm not particularly fond of those, either). But I really liked "The Lodger: The Arrest and Escape of Jack the Ripper." It's a really plausible theory on the identity of the mysterious murderer.
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Dec 15, 2007 20:29:45 GMT -5
Post by misaki on Dec 15, 2007 20:29:45 GMT -5
I like non-fiction when it's like ghosts and stuff. Joe Citro is one of my favorites; he's a Vermont author who writes about Vermont and New England ghosts. I also liked....I think it was...."1421"? It was about China discovering America before Columbus. It was pretty interesting!
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Dec 15, 2007 21:33:40 GMT -5
Post by alba on Dec 15, 2007 21:33:40 GMT -5
@misaki: I haven't read that book yet
@ Aindel: I love the Young Wizards books; I can't believe i forgot them!
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Dec 16, 2007 3:24:56 GMT -5
Post by bats on Dec 16, 2007 3:24:56 GMT -5
I haven't read anything new in while, but my one favorites is The Grimmest of Grim.
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