Recommend a read

[H]

I always thought comic books acted more like magazines than books, really. But then again, I'm a college drop-out.

Not like anybody cares what I read, but Everything is Illuminated, by Jonathan Safran Foer, is some good stuff. I believe the movie must have done a stupendous job at tightening the script and removing all the excess dialogue, because there was a lot of unnecessary stuff in the novel. But it's still wickedly funny, so I'll stop complaining.

 

[Ⓐaron]

Not like anybody cares what I read

bullshit. thanks for the recommendation.

 

[Max Payne]

I always thought comic books acted more like magazines than books, really. But then again, I'm a college drop-out.

Aren't you thinking of japanese comics? Like Jump? Aren't Japanese books usually released in compilation books with other manga, then released in volumes?

And Comics are more like paperback books.

Not like anybody cares what I read,

also bullshit.

 

[H]

You're both clearly insane, but you know how to make a girl happy. *sniffs*

Aren't you thinking of japanese comics? Like Jump? Aren't Japanese books usually released in compilation books with other manga, then released in volumes?

I believe that's what I must have been thinking of. I also presumed American/British comics came out in issues, or something. Sort of like self-contained magazines. You know how little I know about American/British comics (read: blatantly ignorant)

 

[Max Payne]

You're both clearly insane, but you know how to make a girl happy. *sniffs*



I believe that's what I must have been thinking of. I also presumed American/British comics came out in issues, or something. Sort of like self-contained magazines. You know how little I know about American/British comics (read: blatantly ignorant)

Pretty much the only thing comics have in common with magazines is that they use adverts to help pay for them They come out in issues, but they're eventually compiled into large books. But hey, they're still books aren't magazines considered books too anyway?

i miss u btw

 

[Ⓐaron]

Just finished China Miéville's The City & the City. Like all of his other stuff I've read, it's superb and I'd strongly recommend it.

 

[A]

I read Night again by Elie Wiesel. It never ceases to make me teary eyed. What a moving novel.

 

[invisiblestories]

Just finished reading "Lilith's Brood", and the graphic novel "The Discworld: The Colour of Magic & The Light Fantastic". Been reading them at slow steps.

Lilith's Brood it's simply marvelous, I don't remember reading that much of science fiction books that actually made me think of life and certain aspects of it, they generally opt for pure entertainment other than introspection, imho.

The story is definitely big. But it's probably one of the best science fiction books I've ever read, up 'till now. Highly recommended, yes.

Discworld, wasn't neither good or bad, for me. The art is pretty cool actually, but yet again I've seen better things. The story for being the adaptation of a book kinda lacks sometimes, a bit confusing, and looking closely they couldn't really shove everything there.

 

[tangerine]

Two books: the first one is a memoir I read a long time ago titled A Long Way Gone. The story follows the author's--Ishmael Beah's--life in Sierra Leone as a Boy Soldier. In my eyes it's an extremely important and powerful war story. It's easy to spoil anything beyond this point, so I'll leave it at my recommendation, which is high, and the description of the book. It's definitely one of my favorite reads.

The second book I'll recommend is The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, the book that won the 2008 Man Booker Prize. (So you know it's good.) Too often lately has the trend been that the most popular and best-selling books are adventure stories which all follow the same formats, either fantasy adventure or I-know-science-and-history-stuff adventure. Quite honestly, the mold is starting to crack. The White Tiger is a fresh release back to what literature should be: moral-inspired and deeply human. The story takes place over the course of seven nights in modern India; it's the telling of the rise to success of an Entrepreneur from what was, literally, rags. It isn't some typical rags-to-riches story, though; it's an extremely dark tale set in today's corrupt socialist India. I don't want to reveal too much, so you'll have to read it yourself if you want to know the intensity of the book. It's definitely well worth the money you'll spend buying it.

 

[MistaRob]

The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan is actually a decent Vampire novel. more aligned with Bram Stoker and Stephen King than Anne Rice and Stephany Meyer. The plot is about how a viral outbreak in Manhattan is turning people into vampire/zombie/monsters and it's up to A CDC worker, an exterminator, and a holocaust survivor to confront and kill what's causing the plague.

 

[Max Payne]

The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan is actually a decent Vampire novel. more aligned with Bram Stoker and Stephen King than Anne Rice and Stephany Meyer. The plot is about how a viral outbreak in Manhattan is turning people into vampire/zombie/monsters and it's up to A CDC worker, an exterminator, and a holocaust survivor to confront and kill what's causing the plague.

That sounds like a fucking awesome book.

 

[MistaRob]

it's also relatively new. having come out only a few months ago and is part of a trilogy. The next book won't be out for a year though and the final won't be out till 2011

Also some more awesome readings if they haven't been mentioned. One is My Tank is Fight! it's about real deranged inventions of WW2. Some that would actually see the light of day like UV sigts on rifles and unmanned aircraft to the absolute zany such as the heavy Lankkrueser and the Mouse a tank so massive it couldn't travel across most bridges and waterways. Another book that's coming out tomorrow by the same author of My Tank is Fight!, Your Next Door Neighbor is A Dragon. It's about all the weird subcultures scattered about the internet from Furries, to truthers and what not. it's by Zack Parsons who writes for SomethingAwful.

 

[KissTheRain]

I read Night again by Elie Wiesel. It never ceases to make me teary eyed. What a moving novel.

That book is a beautiful horror tale of the holocaust, but linking off of it i'll recommend Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl which is a pyschological view of the holocaust rather than a drama like one. (:

Also I'm reading again The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan which is indeed for a "chick book", but still a deep, sensitive, powerful, and fun read. I recommend it or the movie if you are lazy to anyone. :3

 

[Ⓐaron]

I wanted the ARC of The Strain that came into work, but someone else nabbed it before I could ask about it I'll just wait for the paperback, but yeah, as soon as I heard Guillermo del Toro wrote a book I wanted to read it. I just don't want to pay for a hardcover

Actually now that I think about it, it's probably for the best that I wait until the whole trilogy is out. It's bad enough having to wait for the new season of Lost/The Kingkiller's Chronicle/Wheel of Time/over 9000 other fantasy series. And it's even worse waiting for new installments of ASoIaF, which I suspect anything Guillermo del Toro writes would rival.

 

[Bex]

Saturday - Ian McEwan.

Simple idea, yet fantastically executed.
When you take the book at face value, it barely covers anything. But McEwan's use of language, the way he can flesh out the tiniest detail and craft it into something beautiful and thematic, the manner in which he humanises his seemingly simplistic characters - each flaw sophisticatedly presented with incredible empathy.

You must read this book. No recent author can write as well as McEwan.

 

[Sublime]

The Dark Tower series by Stephen King

The Culture Novels by Iain M. Banks

Both are epic and amazing.

 

[Pucca_ness]

^ Oh my Goodness, I am just about to recommend the Dark Tower series aswell.

I'm upto Wizard and Glass... To be honest i'm scared to read the end =P Because i know i will cry.

Just to clarify, this is not like King's usual horror writing, it is an adventure, his own version of lord of the rings (stated by himself to be vital inspiration for the series).
It follows Roland of Gilead in his journey to the Dark Tower. It's not like the usual adventure story, there's alot of mental stuff aswell such as drug addiction, lonliness and Schizophrenia. Each character goes through their own journey along with Roland's.

Of course there's still some of King's brilliant horror and suspense making within these books.

I may only be on the fourth volume but i can definately vouch for this series as the books i have read so far have been addictive as hell.

If you're a fan of fantasy/comedy then The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett is great.http://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/...13978292&adurl=http://www.earthhouse.org&nm=9

 

[Rumpelstiltskin]

I'm upto Wizard and Glass... To be honest i'm scared to read the end =P Because i know i will cry.

The last book is by far the most disapointing, the whole build up from the tower and his son are greatly overlooked and with classic king style he manages to mindfuck you into eternity.

Currently finishing off Angelology, really weird book that was reccomended by a friend. Its a fiction dealing with an imaginary war between humanity and nephilim and deals alot on morality and religion basing its entire plot behind actual scripts from the bible.
Really good thriller tbh and the religious aspects of the book arent OTT but rather quite nicely used spinning religions own contradictions upon itself during an imaginary war.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Hellstrom's Hive by Frank Herbert.

I'm about halfway through, and it's SUPER interesting & quite intense for a book that starts with about 30 pages of a dude staring at a farm. My buddy who recommneded it to me said that it's his favorite of Frank Herbert's books, and so far, I'd absolutely agree with him.

(Upon finishing it, I'd say it's a must read. It's one of the few books where I had NO guesses as to how everything would turn out).


X

 

[Lumina]

Why didn't I see this earlier?

Percy Jackson Franchise:
Most of you have seen the movie, but the books are something different. They are narrated by Jackson himself and it has that narration of sarcasm mixed with Wittyness. For those of you who haven't seen the movie it makes a lot of references to the Greek Gods. Percy is sent to a camp where, like himself, tons of kids whose father/mother are a God, train in order to survive in the normal world.

Oscar Wilde - Short Stories:
A compilation of Oscar Wilde's short stories for kids. THough I would actually recommend each and every book of Oscar. He's writing contain satyr, and mockery of society. They are very complicated at first but really worth the shot.

 

[Ryushikaze]

Why didn't I see this earlier?

Percy Jackson Franchise:
Most of you have seen the movie, but the books are something different. They are narrated by Jackson himself and it has that narration of sarcasm mixed with Wittyness. For those of you who haven't seen the movie it makes a lot of references to the Greek Gods. Percy is sent to a camp where, like himself, tons of kids whose father/mother are a God, train in order to survive in the normal world.

He's also 11 in the lightning thief. Shit's REALLY different. Also, life sucks for halfbloods. Fog immune humans have a much better deal.

Oscar Wilde - Short Stories:
A compilation of Oscar Wilde's short stories for kids. THough I would actually recommend each and every book of Oscar. He's writing contain satyr, and mockery of society. They are very complicated at first but really worth the shot.

I do not remember many goat legged men in his works. Satire is the word you want.

 

[Lumina]

I do not remember many goat legged men in his works. Satire is the word you want.

Lol yes...Thanks!!! Blame me and my stupid english

 

[Ryushikaze]

Lol yes...Thanks!!! Blame me and my stupid english

In retrospect, I missed a perfect joke about not realizing Oscar wrote the first drafts of the Percy Jackson books.

 

[Ghost X]

Do not read anything on physics for at least 8 months =P.

 

[Ite]

The Dark Tower derails itself worse than Charlie the Choo-Choo, falling into a pit of self-parody and contrivances worthy of fanfiction.net. I would swear that the pit was bottomless, if the explosion at the bottom hadn't been as disastrously loud or blindingly obnoxious.

The whiplash makes it hard to look back on those first few books fondly. I do have a soft spot for those first three, but reading them is kind of like playing FFVII knowing that DoC exists.

Read The Stand please. If you already have, read it again. It's far and away King's masterpiece.