What books do you like?

[LegionOnomaMoi]

Myself:

Belgariad series
Malloreon Series
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He wrote the Belgariad 4 times (he even says as much in the Mallorean when they discover how the "prophecy" makes things repeat themselves over and over again). The Elenium and the series after it are very much like Garion's two series.

Xanth
​

Those books turned into nothing but puns. Didn't he switch publishers? The first Incarnations of Immortality was good to.

Homer

Who? Never heard of him.

Anglo-Saxon literature.

There's a translation of the Eddas by the great poet A. E. Housman dedicated to J. R. R. Tolkien, whose son produced at least one translation of a saga I have.

Orson Scott Card was fabulous

He gave a talk at a Church in Boston I attended. I got him to sign my copies of Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead.

Science
C.K Ogden
Alfred Korzybski
DeGrasse Tyson
Stephen Hawking
Richard Dawkins

Have you read Brian Greene? I find his approach to popular science to be pretty amusing and fairly decent given how non-technical it is. Also, you might enjoy Stephen Pinker's popular science work like The Blank Slate.

Douglas Adams
Jack Kerouac
William Gibson
Larry Niven

Hitchhiker's is a must read. I enjoyed Ringworld but was not a big fan of Ringworld Engineers. The Neuromancer was good. Have you read any Neal Stephenson (like Snow Crash or Cryptonomicon)?

Graham Greene, Iain Banks, Dostoyevsky.

Greene is great. I can't stand Dostoyevsky for some reason.

 

[NoraSariah]

I prefer dystopian novels of the YA genre, such as The Lunar Chronicles, Uglies, Divergent, Delirium, The Hunger Games, The Selection. Things like that.

 

[Drolefille]

I love those Nora, that and general dystopian, SF/ SpecFic/Fantasy/ScienceFantasy/ ETC.

 

[Quagmire]

I'm pretty heavy into historical novels. I love learning things while I'm being entertained.

A few of my recent favorites:

http://www.amazon.com/London-The-Novel-Edward-Rutherfurd/dp/0449002632

World Without End: Ken Follett: 9780451228376: Amazon.com: Books

The Last Jew by Noah Gordon

The Changeling: A Novel: Kate Horsley: 9781590301944: Amazon.com: Books

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Instead of listing books and authors, I'll just c+p my favorite genres from Goodreads:

Brutal and extreme horror, gothic horror, transgressive, dystopian, science fiction, crime, thrillers, erotica, psychological, historical, classic literature, almost anything to do with vampires, werewolves and zombies...

I mostly read horror novels.

 

[NoraSariah]

I love those Nora, that and general dystopian, SF/ SpecFic/Fantasy/ScienceFantasy/ ETC.

Have you read The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer? The first book is called Cinder. It's a fairytale retelling set in the future with cyborgs and aliens. It's amazing, you should read it if you haven't already.

 

[Drolefille]

Have you read The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer? The first book is called Cinder. It's a fairytale retelling set in the future with cyborgs and aliens. It's amazing, you should read it if you haven't already.

It's on my list

 

[dust1n]

I am curious as to what books and authors people like outside of religious texts.

Don Delillo
Just finished Zadie Smith's first novel.
David Foster Wallace for sure.
I've only read Roberto Bolano's 2666, but I have to say that that is very close to the best thing I've ever read.
I'm a big Camus fan as well.
Pynchon.
Marquez (as mentioned earlier) is indispensable.
Always thought Orwell was both overrated and underrated.

And then a number of non-fiction, usually philosophy or stuff about society or science.

I'm still pretty far under read, at least much more than I'd like to be. So many books on the list that it's difficult to imagine reading it all, unless I become more hermit like in my life.


But ultimately, philosophy of all kind, stuff about science and war and history and politics, and then in fiction, the great literature (which I mostly haven't read), and then very modern stuff, sort of the aftermath of postmodern North and Latin America stuff. I hope to broaden the stuff more over time. Maybe if I didn't have the internet.

 

[dust1n]

I can't stand Dostoyevsky for some reason.

For me, it's like Being and Nothingness, or Das Kapital. Ultimately, my intellect doesn't full up to the task. I always figured that the stuff, like Joyce, I'd get to read when I get older... 40's or so...

 

[Sha'irullah]

HLA Hart The Concept of Law

al-Ghazali Tahafut al-Fulsifa

I primarily just like reading legal, philosophy and theology essays. Not a fan of fiction and primarily just like research

 

[dust1n]

HLA Hart The Concept of Law

al-Ghazali Tahafut al-Fulsifa

I primarily just like reading legal, philosophy and theology essays. Not a fan of fiction and primarily just like research

There are some fictional works that are like philosophical texts. When I read fiction, it's the stuff that's trying to say things that are more expansive than trying to plainly state what can be said. So, I didn't recommend 2666 to ya. Or David Foster Wallace... it's philosophy written into literature.

That "The Concept of Law" sounds awesome though.

 

[sun rise]

Science fiction and fantasy - many but not always all of the works of the following authors:

Zenna Henderson (People stories)
Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff
Gordon R. Dickson
Anne McCaffrey
Lois McMaster Bujold
Christopher Anvil
Vernor Vinge
Larry Niven
Cordwainer Smith
J. K. Rowling
Eric Frank Russell
H. Beam Piper

Some selected books:
Man-Kzin Wars shared universe stories
Neon Lotus (Buddhist science fiction)
Nightwings
some others on the far reaches of my bookshelf

 

[Sha'irullah]

There are some fictional works that are like philosophical texts. When I read fiction, it's the stuff that's trying to say things that are more expansive than trying to plainly state what can be said. So, I didn't recommend 2666 to ya. Or David Foster Wallace... it's philosophy written into literature.

That "The Concept of Law" sounds awesome though.

Haha I feel like a loser for saying this but. I can spend hours on end in the legal section of a library looking up case material. I am a total dork for not only that but that fact that this is my only amusement and made me stop playing video games. No 20 year old should ever say this but tis true

 

[ScuzManiac]

I read just about anything but...

Some of my recent favorites:

The Lost City of Z
Doctor Sleep
A Dark Matter
Mein Kampf
The Bible: New International Version (I'm not religious though)
Pharmacon
To Kill A Mockingbird
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Dune
Inferno

Those are just a few that I've read in the past year or so...

 

[samosasauce]

I love all kinds of books, unfortunately I may be looked down upon because of the authors I like

I mean, my absolute favorite author is Kate DiCamillo, followed by Paulo Coelho. Other than that I love reading as many books as I can about many, many subjects

 

[sun rise]

I love all kinds of books, unfortunately I may be looked down upon because of the authors I like

I mean, my absolute favorite author is Kate DiCamillo, followed by Paulo Coelho. Other than that I love reading as many books as I can about many, many subjects

I've heard of Paulo Coelho and he has a great reputation but I've never read any of his works. I'm not familiar with Kate DiCamillo.

 

[Heim]

Some of my favorite books:

At Swim, Two Boys by Jamie O'Neill
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Mystiek Lichaam by Frans Kellendonk

 

[oldbadger]

The Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'brian.
Brilliantly clear descriptions of Naval and Marine life in the 18th century with humour that causes mostly anybody to roar with laughter.

 

[DayRaven]

Non-fiction:

Greek history (Classical and Hellenistic).
ancient historians (I can read Attic and Koine Greek enough to plough slowly with a grammar)
Late Roman and early medieval history c.AD300-1000.
Practical philosophy as opposed to overly academic: Nietzsche, Owen Barfield, Roger Scruton, Thomas Nagel, the Stoics.

Fiction:

pre-Tolkienian fantasy writers (Lord Dunsany, William Morris, Robert Howard)
Gothic fiction (particularly Lovecraft)
Charles Dickens (Tale of Two Cities is a particular favourite)
Some of Shakespeare's tragedies and histories.
Old English poetry and Icelandic sagas.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I recently developed a fascination with Chuck Palahniuk.
Stephen King novels I either really like them or I don't like them.
Frankenstein is one of my favorite books.
Ann Rice's Vampire Chronicles is probably my favorite book series.
I love The Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost.
Octavia Butler's Lilith's Brood/Xenogensis is a fantastic read.
C.C. Humphrey's Vlad: The Last Confession is a great, historically based story about Vlad Dracul III, who provided some inspiration for Bram Stocker's Dracula.
Stephen Colbert's two books are hilarious.
I also really like the Opposing Viewpoints series, and other similar books
I have an assortment of religious texts and philosophy books.
My favorite authors include:
H.P. Lovecraft
J.R.R. Tolkien
Edgar Allen Poe
Mark Twain
Aristophanes

Peirs Anthony tops

I used to like reading him in high school. I got into the Incarnations of Immortality series, read all of them except the ones about Gaia and God, and I've been trying to get into the mood to reread them all them and then read the one about Nox, which wasn't around when I was in high school but I haven't managed to make it through the first book yet. And there's part of those books that are really funny too.