Topic: How About Favorite Novels?

[Kernschatten]

Well, we have a thread for music and movies, how about favorite novels?

Red Storm Rising- Tom Clancy
Tolkien, Tolkien, Tolkien
Passage at Arms, The Black Company, and anything else by Glen Cook
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen- H. Beam Piper
A Princess of Mars- Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Earthsea Trilogy- Ursula K. Le Guin
Plum Island, The General's Daughter, and Up Country- Nelson Demille
The Anubis Gates, On Stranger Tides, and The Stress of Her Regards - Tim Powers
Snow Wolf - Glenn Meade
Anything by Martin Cruz Smith

[WARRIOR2006]

Well havent you asked for a big list ill put this in simple terms:


  Lord of the rings-Trilogy by J. R. Tolkien

  Every book R.A. Salvatore has ever published.  As i know of 28!  Read them all good very good!  And yes i am 17 year old who does 4 sports lol!  Just a dedicated reader!

  I have have read a few of Jones.

 And I have read a few books of Terry Brooks:
The heritage of Shannara-trilogy

ANd im working on Magic Kingdon for sale [sold]
Cant seem to get into it one of terry brooks worse books in my opinion maybe it will get betetr though otherwise ongodly slow!

  OOC: now you all know how i have the ability to be an rpger lol!  And the ability torun rpg's!  I have read a lot and most likely will read tons more.  I evan began wrtiing a book though i misplkaced when i was on page 50.  Cant find it.  Can you guess the name of it?  The Lost Unit!  A started an rpg based on it but no active members beyond konrad the loyal rpger to the end lol!

[Shotzie]

When I was young and had time to read it was Tolkien, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Robert E. Howard.  Now it is Osprey Men at Arms series when I can find the time.

Howard had some great horror and fictional history stories, beside Conan.  "Pigeons from Hell" was a great short story.  It took me many years, but I even read most of my Text books from College, not that I read them then, but you have to do something between shows

Shotzie

[Visu]

All of the Discworld Novels (except Going Postal, and the youth ones - but I'll get to them soon).
I'm surprised nobody's mentioned George R. R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice.  It's just about the best fantasy series I've ever come across.
Of course, everything by the good Professor.  I'm on Unfinished Tales now, and loving it.
J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels are phenomenal.  I'm going to reread Goblet of Fire soon.
Hm - some non-fantasy?  Well, then.
Dune, of course, for thoroughly excellent sci-fi.  The second and third are also readable.  I stopped halfway through the fourth.
Pretty much anything by Neal Stephenson is good.  I need to get The System of the World, and might with a gift certificate I just received.
I'm gonna stop there.
-Visu

[Albrecht von Hinkel]

The Master and Margarita

[FlameKnight]

The riftwar series/saga by Raymond E. Feist

[BAWTRM]

Ah, books! Too many good books, too little time to read in this lifetime.

Catch 22 - From Joseph Heller (truly a classic, such a warped picture is represented of the war, it's just incredible)

Tolkien of course

I'll second the nomination for G.R.R. Martin's 'Song of Fire and Ice series (outstandingly human characters which accurately portrays the dark sides from people, be it petty jealously, cruelty or any other vice, and all this in a great setting to boot! It's not over the top fantasy either, it's actually fairly realistic and it's the few 'magic' parts of the books that I tend to dislike)

The Dune series (the first 3 books, it goes rapidly down hill afterwards IMO) by Herbert.

The Robot novels and Foundation series by Asimov

James Clavell's 'King Rat' and 'Tai Pan' (though many rave about it I didn't find 'Shogun' that great)

Shakespeare's Dramas

Pratchett's novels, almost all of them are great, his non-Discworld novels are also very good IMO.

I'm sure I'm missing tons of good books that I've read, in this list.

[General Helstrom]

I read just about every piece of Asimov and Bear that I could get my hands on when I was a kid, too bad that was over half a decade ago and in a very different mind-set, so I hardly remember a thing from those novels :bonk:

Right now I'm going through the Dune series in the wake of my buddy - I loan his books as he finishes them Have read the first two and am eagerly looking forward to the third. He needs to hurry.

Other than that I don't get a lot of reading in these days. With all the time I spend in books to get through Uni, I find a few hours of painting or a nice dumb movie a more enjoyable diversion. I read some 40K novels on vacation this summer, not half bad, but not much depth either. I might re-read "Double Eagle" just for the biggles-factor - way cool

[Imrael]

I'm with Kernschatten on the LeGuin stuff - both her earthsea and "Proper" SF stuff.  Just a higher league writer than most in the field.

Tolkein of course - I still have a single volume paperback I bought sometime around 1974.  Apart from than I find a lot of fantasy a bit "samey", although David Eddings Belgeriad has a distinctive voice.

Currently reading 3 related biographies - Napoleon, Nelson and Wellington.  Finished Richard Holmes Wellington last night - great book, great soldier.  Also recently re-read Ernest Shackletons "South".  I cant imagine a better leader of men than Shackleton.  Makes Scott look like a complete blunderer.

[Midaski]

Enjoy the reading while you can - wait till wife and kids start demanding your time - I cannot find enough time to 'hobby' let alone read.
However in the good old days:

Asimov's Foundation Trilogy.
W.E. Johns (?) - Biggles
H.Rider Haggard
Richmal Crompton - William series
Mickey Spillane.
Robert Ludlum.

A book called 'Run for the Trees' set in Kenya, Africa, cannot remember the author, it's in the loft somewhere, along with most of my library - replaced on the book(not any more)shelves by 'ornaments'.

[BAWTRM]

Luckily my girlfriend (who would like the job of wife and I've got no objections whatsoever!) likes to read as much as I do!

[Midaski]

@BAWTRM
But just wait until you 'employ' her (following your terminology) and see how those extra 'responsibilities' change things..........

Though if she catches you referring to it as a 'job' she may have things to say!!!

[BAWTRM]

Well...............she does think books look 'cluttered' in open book cases and she tends to dislike the owning of books, she just reads them once and never again (except in rare cases).

But I'm sure these are no things to worry about right............right?

 :mellowyellow:

[Midaski]

Aghhh! That word 'cluttered' - boy are you in trouble........

My wife reads a lot too.......she also reads and passes on (out of HER house) ............bit of a pattern developing here?

Well ...........when I first got married (no kids) I had shelves everywhere, full of books - now I have about 15" and 5 books on it.

Their argument is that they are dust traps, and they make the rooms look cluttered, and they get 'sorted' for sales etc, and you have to hide the ones you want to keep.

I have learnt that generally, and I have to be careful here:

Men have a practical nature: items should be stored where they can be found and accessed easily, and 'collections' are to be proudly displayed.
The Ladies have the 'how does it look to visitors' and 'how much work cleaning does it take' syndromes. The less stuff on walls/shelves/floors the easier it is to keep clean and tidy, so they can invite their friends around for coffee mornings/afternoons.


Of course, and I'll say it before Lady A does, you could do all the cleaning!!!!

[rufus sparkfire]

In no particular order, some books I like a lot:

The Catcher in the Rye.

Slaughterhouse Five is the best anti-war book I've read. So it goes.

The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe.

The War of Don Emmanuel's nether parts and the other two parts of that trilogy by Louis de Bernieres.

The Player of Games and Use of Weapons by Iain Banks.

Robin Hobb's three trilogies.

The Earthsea trilogy.

The Dark is rising.

Lord of the Rings.

Good Omens.

Dracula.

Foundation trilogy.

[General Helstrom]

The War of Don Emmanuel's nether parts

Sounds painful :p

[Lord Etharion]

I've read bits of everyone elses lists, but I there's a noticeable absence of David Gemmell here. That needs to be fixed. He has his faults, (all his novels are the same, after all), but they're the kind you only notice after you've finished reading the book. In one sitting .

Other comments: I haven't read Don Emmanuel's, but I have read Captain Corelli's Mandolin. It was good, but it went for far too long.

And I couldn't get into dune, either. The concepts it's based on are amazing, but Herbert just can't write.

[Lord Baldrick]

Right, good books...

Fantasy:
Tolkien's work (obviously)
G.R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire"
Terry Pratchett's work

Non Fantasy:
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (excellent!)
the Pearl Saga by Eric Van Lustbader (not Nobel Prize material, but enjoyable)

(there are others, but these are the ones I can remember right now)

As you may have noticed, I don't read much else than Fantasy novels, with the occasional SF-novel thrown in for variety

[queek]

off the beaten track abit, but I'm a big fan of C.J. Cherryh's fantasy works, anything by Tanith Lee, and Charles DeLint's urban fantasy books.  (I highly recommend "Jack of Kinrowen" if you can find it.  DeLint isn't the best writer on the block, but I like his work nonetheless.)  LeGuin's Earthsea books are a wonderful read as well, elegant little stories in a unique world.   For the Nipponophiles, Jessica Amanda Salmonson's "Tomoe Gozen" trilogy is wonderful.  

for one of the classics in High Fantasy, (and predating Tolkien to boot) check out "The Worm Ouroboros" by Eddison.

[RGB]

Only fantasy recommendations here.

For the Nipponophiles:
Kij Johnson's "Fox Woman" and "Fudoki"

For high fantasy:
Tolkien's Middle Earth things,
R.R.Martin's Ice and Fire;
The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lidgren (provided you're young/unassuming enough)
Scott Orson Card: Hart's Hope. The most amazing but merciless novel about magic and power I've ever read.

History - based fantasy:
Guy Gavriel Kay - but not the first one he's done (Fionovar Tapestry, blah) - the later ones, Song For Arbonne, Sarantium and Last Light of the Sun being the better ones.
Gene Wolf - Soldier in the Mist, Soldier of Arete
Poul Anderson - Mother Of Kings, (War of the Gods is okay but weaker than Mother of Kings.)

For various other types of Fantasy:
Gene Wolf - the Book of the New Sun
DeLint - the Newark thingummies, just not the one about the mafia.
LeGuin - the Earthsea series, the short stroy collection and the first book of the Trilogy being the best; many of her Oikomen books also qualify for fantasy.
Pullman - His Dark Materials. The most unchildlike children's book I ever chanced to read.
Pratchett - he's funny.
Peter Dickenson - the Blue Hawk. Cannot recommend enough.

General original sources for the fantasy lovers:
Ring of the Nibelungs,
Volsunga Saga,
Beowulf,
Gilgamesh,
Illiad,
Odyssey,
the Kiev cycle of the Russian Byliny.

[queek]

DeLint - the Newark thingummies, just not the one about the mafia.

Greenmantle?  That's the one that got me started on DeLint!  

[Hagen_von_Loewenstein]

"American Psycho" (not for the faint of heart)

"The Dirt" (see above)

"A Clockwork Orange" (just shows you how weak of a director Kubrick really was...)

More to follow.

[rufus sparkfire]

"American Psycho" (not for the faint of heart)

An odd combination of incredible tedium (we get to know what every character is wearing) and loathsome violence (rat bit = yuk). With a chapter about how much the main character likes Whitney Houston!

I liked it. Also liked 'less than zero', but Ellis's books are very samey.

[RGB]

DeLint - the Newark thingummies, just not the one about the mafia.

Greenmantle?  That's the one that got me started on DeLint!  

I liked the stag but I really, really didn't like the Mafia.

Although it disses Alastair Crowley, which is a good thing in my books.

I started on Ivory and Horn, personally.

[Gwaihir]

NO ONE LIKES ENDER'S GAME!?!!?!!!?!!?!!!! .lol.Seriously though, Ender's Game and all its 7 prequels and sequels are the best Sci-Fi and perhaps best books ive ever read (aside from the Lotr trilogy, but it comes very close).

And the Gotrek and Felix books are all very good.Mentioning Warhammer books I also like The Ambassador, though its sequel, Ursun's Teeth, was not at all as good as the first.

The Illiad is pretty good too, though a lot of parts bored me.