What Kinds Of Books Do You Read?

reasa · October 2003

I personaly like fantasy books, my favorite author being Terry Brooks. Hes written over 18 books, I've read almost all of them and I recommed them all to you. I also like political thirllers, I used to like Tom Clancy, but his books have become way to obiviously racist for my taste, also someone let him know the cold war is over.
I would recommend Vince Flynn, hes written four books that I have read and all of them are good. But the best book I have ever read is nether fantasy or politics related, The Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, a great book, funny, imaginative, and the most orignal book I have ever read. Well what books do you people read, or don't?

Marine0I · October 2003

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (reasa @ Oct 17 2003, 11:30 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I personaly like fantasy books, my favorite author being Terry Brooks. Hes written over 18 books, I've read almost all of them and I recommed them all to you. I also like political thirllers, I used to like Tom Clancy, but his books have become way to obiviously racist for my taste, also someone let him know the cold war is over.
I would recommend Vince Flynn, hes written four books that I have read and all of them are good. But the best book I have ever read is nether fantasy or politics related, The Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy, a great book, funny, imaginative, and the most orignal book I have ever read. Well what books do you people read, or don't?  </td></tr></table> 
I'm a little strange, but I really love Christian Apologetics, so Lee Strobel etc are my cup of tea.

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was fascinating - absolute rubbish put together so skillfully. I loved it.

Is Terry Brooks the guy who wrote Truckers/Diggers etc?

There is also an Author, I think his name is Micheal Creighton, who wrote the books Temple, Ice station, Area 57 and Contest - and they are the greatest adreneline rush ever written. Especially Ice-Station, what with the MP5's and deagles it felt like CS back in the good ol days.

Add to that Mr Tolkien, and that about sums up my reading.

reasa · October 2003

Terry Brooks wrote "Magic Kingdom for Sale...Sold" and all the Shannara books, plus others. Can't belive I forgot the LOTR books, stupid me.

Grimm · October 2003

Might wanna stay on topic with the books you like, rather than bashing an author (the Tom Clancy comments).

Anyway, I stick with sci-fi and fantasy, of course, as well as some specific fiction titles/authors.

I am up to Queen of the Damned in the Vampire Chronicles, within the first 100 pages at the moment. Interview With a Vampire and The Vampire Lestat were both very very good reads.

I absolutely love the Magic: The Gathering novels, I've recently finished Brother's War (Go Urza!), finished the Legends Cycle (Johan, Jedit, and Hazezon), as well as the entire Oddessy and Onslaught cycles (poor poor Kuberr...).

And of course Catch-22 is completely awesome, despite the way the story was told (kinda confusing, had to get used to it).

Also, rather recently I have gotten into stuff by Kurt Vonnegut. An absolutely amazing author, he uses irony and morbid humor in much of his writing to bring out the best in his stories, along with the very well-done plot twists and presentation. So far I've read Slaughterhouse 5 and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, both of which are great reads.

Teflon · October 2003

I don't read a 'kind' of book, I just read whatever's good. Mitchner, Ludlum, etc. I like them. Hmm who wrote 'Centennial'. I liked that. He DID write 'Ruska' but I couldn't get past the second chapter.

Another good one was Pillars of the Earth. I think it was by the same guy, I'm not sure. A sort of pseudo-true story about gothic archetecture in england...

Tom Clancy is a lousy hack. Read any of his books: They can be summed up using this simple guide:

Part 1: Pages 2 to 75-100 - This is the part where you learn about characters. Kick off a great action thing here to get the reader interested.

Part 2: Pages 101 to 3,600 - This is the part where he goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on about the corruption present in the inner political workings of Swaziland's waste maintenance workers, and their plot to steal an iceburg, drop it on a missile silo and cause an explosion that will suppposedly spin the earth into the sun, or something equally as useless, idiotic, and pointless. Skip this entire part. Don't worry, you won't miss a single damn thing.

Part 3: Pages 3,601 to 3,602 - This is the part where the book gets summed up. Read this.

Anyway, I *DID* like PARTS of 'The bear and the dragon', but OH MY GOD IT WAS LIKE HAVING A ROOT CANAL PERFORMED ON MY EYES half the time. That simple guide up there ^^^ basically highlights the parts that made sense, didn't bore me to death, and we're essential to the plot.

Grimm · October 2003

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Grimm @ Oct 17 2003, 10:17 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> ...stay on topic with the books you like, rather than bashing an author... </td></tr></table>
Please.

I'm reading through this thread to look for good recommendations, I'd rather not wade through post after post of "This author sux0rz!!1!1".

Everyone has their own taste in books and authors, its never always equal. Like Catcher In the Rye by J.D. Salinger (as well as many other books he's written); you either love 'em or you hate 'em. It all depends on the person.

BlackMage · October 2003

clancy

Teflon · October 2003

Good reccomendation: Stay away from Tom Clancy? You said yourself, you either like em or you hate em. My opinion, good or bad, is worth the exact same thing. Saying I like book X is no different then saying author X blows.

Grimm · October 2003

Posotive reviews please.

As in "I like so-and-so/such-and-such book because..."

Its very simple.

Teflon · October 2003

Okay maybe I should back my statement up with some treats to go along with it, instead of saying 'OMG DIE CLANCY!'

The Bear and The Dragon - This book hit off with a stupendous bang, a mystery bothced assassination. Whodunit? (As if the book title isn't any clue as to what the whole damn book is about). Anyway, Clancy goes off on this bizarre tangent with *gasp* the ever-cliche ex-KGB agent-gone-mercenary. How many movies have we heard THIS one in? Still retaining my interest, I continued to flip through this massive 2 pound tome. The POV switches between the Chinese, who are **** that Taiwan is.. well... being Taiwan, and the Russians have just found a big thing of oil (or coal, or something). Anyway, the Chinese are in a big slump and want that oil, tensions are mounting between US and China, and of course, US wants the oil as well, or at least want the ruskies to have it.

Now the book goes downhill. Rather then tie up the loose ends and proceed full speed ahead, Clancy decided it was a great move to KEEP those loose ends open, and have politicians bicker over what their coffee tastes like. If I told a stenographer to make note of a filibuster in the Senate, and read that.. it'd probably be a lot more relevant to ANYTHING then HALF the crap in this book.

Anyway, after I skipped a fist.ful (I like how it censored 'S.T.F.U out of that word. GG forums) of pages (400 or something), it picks up again, to a fantastic finish involving big guns and nukes. Wooo woo. And skipping those 400 pages didn't miss me a DAMN THING! There was nothing in the end that was even marginally relevant to the rest of the story.

One thing: Tom Clancy is downright TERRIBLE with descriptions. He's describing a tank invasion and the clearest mental image I got was something out of Battlezone (You know, the old wireframe one with massive rectangles and pyramids all over... it was pretty bad).

Book two

Shadow Watch - Starts off the same way: Great action. He's describing some neato new variable-strength guns, all sorts of crap like that. It's a huge massive invasion of some sort. I want to say it was Columbians or something that invaded. Anyway, that's about all I can tell you. Once again the book talespun and crashed. At about halfway through the book, I literally had to reread the beginning just to make sure I was reading the same book. I had absolutely no clue as to what was going on, no clue as to what was SUPPOSED to be going on, no clue as to why the hell what was going on was going on, and no clue how this idiot gets paid so much to pretty much copy a Yiddish dictionary into a book and sell it.

I never finished this book. As I recall it's the first book I've used to start a fire.

Xiile · October 2003

I don't read books unless im forced to (usually by school -_-).

Well, I do read PCGamer...

Teflon · October 2003

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (XeroSlayer @ Oct 18 2003, 12:40 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I don't read books unless im forced to (usually by school -_-).

Well, I do read PCGamer... </td></tr></table>
Read more. People that don't read come off as dumb. Not a flame, a fact. TV teaches you nothing, PCGamer teaches you less <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'> One of my friends was like that. Didn't read a single thing. I don't even know if he COULD read. Needless to say, I could never EVER hold a halfway decent conversation with him, and he had a vocabulary the size of a pinhead.

Read more you won't regret it.

Grimm · October 2003

I don't have anything for or against Clancy, I've never read his books, nor do I intend to read any as the stile is not my usual fare. However, I am still open to other genres that are similar to what I normally read.

I enjoy sci-fi, fantasy, and fiction books that deal with morbid/gothic situations and lots of irony. Stuff that helps me deal with/laugh at life and death, an escape from reality if you will.

Due to circumstances I don't understand, I am rather obsessed with the fact that I am going to die someday, which is why I like those escapes. And it is also why I am Grimm.

Posotive reviews on books (or magazines, now that I've seen XeroSlayer's post) you like, please.

I agree with you on the reading more, Teflon, its very very true. I wouldn't be as intelligent as I am today if I had not read a lot throughout my life.

Teflon · October 2003

You've never read his books? Try one. Some people do like them (Some people also like pain <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>), but don't say I didn't warn you. No one warned me and that's the reason the first book was turned to ash.

BTW: It's better to go into things with a lower attitude of it. You may be pleasently surprised. Better then someone hyping the hell out of it and you end up maddeningly dissapointed.

Smoke_Nova · October 2003

Orson Scott Card - Ender Series (Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide, Children Of The Mind), Bean Series (Ender's Shadow, Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets)

Frank Herbert - Voidship Series (Destination: Void, the Jesus Incident, The Lazarus Effect, The Ascenscion Factor) the Dune Series (Dune, Dune Messiah, Children of Dune, God Emperor of Dune, Heretics of Dune, Chapterhouse: Dune)

Sarah Douglas - The Wayfarer Redemption Series (The Wayfarer Redemption, Enchanter, StarMan)

George R. R. Martin - A Song of Fire & Ice Series (A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows)

Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials series (Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass)

Anne Rice - The Vampire Chronicles (Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the Body Thief, Memnoch The Devil, The Vampire Armand), The New Vampire Legacy (Pandora: New Tales of the Vampire, Vittorio the Vampire: New Tales of the Vampire, Merrick), Vampire books (Blood & Gold {The tale of Marius})

J.R.R. Tolkien - The Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King), The "Ring" world books (The Hobbit, the Similarillion)

Excuse me if I forget something good , these are all books (except for Tale of Body thief and up) books I own and have read. And since i'm at college, I can't go to my private library to check them.

Teflon · October 2003

Ender's Game was pretty original (I won't say it's the greatest book I've read), but I know I'm not alone when I say the trilogy that followed sucked. Even one of my friends, whose mom happens to be Card's publisher, and who loves the man himself, thinks they were rubbish.

Anyway, if you really want thought-provoking books...

Ishmael

And for one of the best-written, most intriguing books I've EVER read:

Atlas Shrugged

Once you read this 1,600 page monstrosity, even if you didn't like it, you CANNOT deny that it has a meaning so deep it's almost frightning. I've read it twice, and reading it in today's day and age is just downright spooky. Even though it was written 60 years ago, it feels like your'e reading a prophecy for the future. You might have to do some skimming (At one point, a guy makes a speech that is probably in excess of 50 pages, and at about 4,000 words a page... yeah...). This is by a great many, and many MANY literary scholars, considered the Holy Grail of writing. They have scholarships you can win for writing an essay on it.

Mullet · October 2003

Tom Clancy is teh pwnz0r! Without remorse is one of my favorite books...

I don't know if this will sound stupid, but, I think the Harry Potter series is one of my favorites....I read all 5 books within a mater of 2 weeks....GG fantasy books..

Smoke_Nova · October 2003

ON TOPIC PLEASE! STOP THE DISCUSSION OF CLANCY!

Thought of another couple:

Orson Scott Card - The Sons of Alavin Maker series (can't list)

J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter (Sorcerer's Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azakaban, Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix

you want Fantasy/Sci-Fi stuff right?

Thanks to marine for reminding me.

Marine0I · October 2003

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Mullet @ Oct 18 2003, 01:18 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Tom Clancy is teh pwnz0r! Without remorse is one of my favorite books...

I don't know if this will sound stupid, but, I think the Harry Potter series is one of my favorites....I read all 5 books within a mater of 2 weeks....GG fantasy books..  </td></tr></table> 
HP is alright, but its not a patch on Tolkien. And that last book of Rowlings - if I wanted unending hours of teenage angst and whining I could go play cs....

Teflon · October 2003

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Marine01 @ Oct 18 2003, 01:27 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> HP is alright, but its not a patch on Tolkien. And that last book of Rowlings - if I wanted unending hours of teenage angst and whining I could go play cs....  </td></tr></table> 
Or have kids and watch them go through puberty <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'>

MedHead · October 2003

1. Any Star Trek novel I can find.
---Favorites:
a. "INVASION!" series
b. "The Q Continuum" series

2. John Saul.
---Favorite: The Blackstone Chronicles.

sk84zer0 · October 2003

books are the devil <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'>

Melatonin · October 2003

not counting books i read in highschool

ive not read alot at all, somthing I intend to change.

I read a few of the Alien books, and a couple of Alien vs Predator.
I started reading Rogue States about 4 months back, im still roughly half way through, I have to keep re-reading sentances to make sure i understand what is being said, im finding it quite heavy going, but its quite rewarding (and slightly paranoia inducing).

I read 1984 last week, thats a great book. I found it dragged slightly in the middle section, its descriptions of the 'proles' seemed kind of at odds with party members, they came off as if they werent really bothered by the system, maybe that was the intent, but it did seem to undermine the systems authority.
The first and last sections were great though, quite some food for thought in the last one particularly.

BadKarma · October 2003

I read a lot of King. Like, probably too much. Im also getting a bit into some philosophy, Nietzhe right now. Its kinda good i geuss, my brain hurts.

CommunistWithAGun · October 2003

My favorite book is 1984, orwell is a genious. I also like a little clancy and some grisham

Xodlike · October 2003

I don't read.
I get F's in 4 subjects.
I play NS.

Repeat.

Geminosity · October 2003

I've read alot, even outside of all the books english used to pile on me ^^;

uh... lesee... I really like anything fantasy/horror/sci-fi

Terry Pratchett: author of the Discworld novels and a good giggle ^^

Stephen King: not so impressed by his newest stuff but I was always an avid fan, especially after I found out he once wrote under a nom de plume of 'Richard Bachman' some titles of which include stuff like Running Man (which later got turned into an arnie film <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'> )

James Herbert: He wrote the 'Rats' trilogy and it's a great read. He's also done a heck of a lot of other stuff like fluke, the fog, spear, etc though I definitely recommend 'the Ghosts of Sleath' and all 3 books from the Rats series (the first one 'Rats' and the 3rd one 'Domain' are the best, 'Lair' is good but outshadowed by the other 2).

Robert Jordan: Wheel of time series, great stuff and engrossing as heck <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>

There's lots more but those are the few that stick in my mind other than those already mentioned =3

CaLFiN · October 2003

I'm reading "Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain" at the moment, before that I read "Fast Food Nation."

I can't say that I have read many books since I left school. The Internet makes up for this tho', lot's of reading here <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>

MrMojo · October 2003

Real books? Or Fantasy ! ( Ba da tshhhh)

Read anything by Kafka, really good stuff.

Kurt Vonnegut's books are great

I second Ishmael

Commie, if you like 1984, read Brave New World, and especially "We" by Zamyatin.

Don Quixote is a great book.

moultano · October 2003

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Teflon @ Oct 18 2003, 01:03 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Atlas Shrugged

Once you read this 1,600 page monstrosity, even if you didn't like it, you CANNOT deny that it has a meaning so deep it's almost frightning. I've read it twice, and reading it in today's day and age is just downright spooky. Even though it was written 60 years ago, it feels like your'e reading a prophecy for the future. You might have to do some skimming (At one point, a guy makes a speech that is probably in excess of 50 pages, and at about 4,000 words a page... yeah...). This is by a great many, and many MANY literary scholars, considered the Holy Grail of writing. They have scholarships you can win for writing an essay on it.  </td></tr></table> 
Oh god. I'm 3/4 through this book, and I think it is the worst book I've ever read. I'm going to finish it as a matter of principle, but I've hated every step of it. I started out optimistic, but as I got further in I just couldn't convince myself anymore. It's just pathetic. You can't go 20 pages in it without reading a description of the heros as blonde Aryan dieties. And its the same words every time. Hitler couldn't have done it better. As far as I'm concerned that book is incompetently written. There isn't one iota of grace or subtlety in the entire thing. If you are going to read an Ayn Rand book, read the fountainhead. It's shorter, so you'll waste less of your time.

Fantasmo · October 2003

<table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Teflon @ Oct 18 2003, 01:03 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Anyway, if you really want thought-provoking books...

Ishmael

</td></tr></table>
Agree with you there.

A few books I recently finished reading (or rereading) and recommends,

Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse

A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking

2001 and 2010 - Arthur C. Clarke

And if you like satirical, off-the-wall kind of humor,

Bill, the Galactic Hero
Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Robot Slaves
Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Bottled Brains
Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Tasteless Pleasure
Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Zombie Vampires
Bill, the Galactic Hero on the Planet of Ten Thousand Bars
Bill, the Galactic Hero: The Final Incoherent Adventure

- Harry Harrison

They are all short and hilarious reads. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>

What Kinds Of Books Do You Read?

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