hartleyhair
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Ok, the concept of this thread is simple - post here any good books you've read and feel deserve recognition.

I'll start with a well-known one: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy by Douglas Adams. Brilliant, brilliant books.

EDIT: Darn links aren't working! I'll fix it later.

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[Last edited by hartleyhair at 01-28-2008 06:15 PM]

Dex Stewart
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Roadside Picnic by Arkadi en Boris Strugatsky. Excellent science fiction which raises some points about modern society and opens doors to quite some philosophical discussions (if you look deep).

aztcg7
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Personally, I would suggest the Sprawl trilogy, by William Gibson. Cyberpunk at it's greatest, who would want more?

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pyr0
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I wholeheartedly offer up to our web browsing companions "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea.

Truly one of the greatest works of Literature that makes you think. That or it's a load of Rubbish. Probably both. I still try to re-read it yearly, since I first found it at the ripe age of 12.

I'll also second Gibson's and Adam's exceedingly misnamed Trilogy as well. I'll add Roadside Picnic to my To Read list.

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[Last edited by pyr0 at 01-28-2008 09:03 PM : Clarity (I hope)]

Briareos
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Speaking of Gibson - it's been a while since I read the Neuromancer trilogy so maybe I should revisit it?

Anyway, I love most of what Terry Pratchett has written. He often gets called the Douglas Adams of fantasy, but... nah. He's great in his own right.

Also, I liked most of what I read from Greg Bear, starting with Blood Music, then Eon, Eternity, The Forge Of God, Anvil Of Stars, Queen Of Angels, Slant, Moving Mars and Darwin's Radio. Darwin's Children was a bit meh, but what can you do?

And, of course, this list wouldn't be complete without Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and The Diamond Age - I haven't braved reading Cryptonomicon yet, though...

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zonhin
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To tell you the truth, I've never liked Pratchett much. He and Douglas Adams kind of bored me. Mostly, I'm the guy who still reads the kind of books you read in high school classes.

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[Last edited by zonhin at 01-28-2008 09:58 PM]

pyr0
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I thought about Chuck Palahniuk on the way home. A little dark/twisted for many, but excellent none the less.

Stephenson is an excellent writer. I really enjoyed Snow Crash (though the ending seemed more a summary of what he wanted to write than a fleshed out proper ending) and the Diamond Age. I feel Stephenson brought the Cyberpunk genre forward very well with those two. Cryptonomicon was a very enjoyable read as well. Heavy math theory and conspiacyesque. The Baroque Cycle Trilogy, however, I need to try again. I feel I need more history under my belt to fully enjoy that series. I'll probably plow through it one of these days. They are just sitting on my shelf. I may do that next after re-reading through The Dark Tower series again.

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BeefontheBone
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Richard Dawkins. Particularly Climbing Mount Improbable and The Ancestor's Tale. If you don't catch his beautifully-phrased enthusiasm for the beauty and power of natural selection (and his contempt for creationism), read them again until you do, damnit!

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Snacko
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Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Very strange but very good.

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RoboBob3000
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Snacko wrote:
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Very strange but very good.

Absolutely my favorite book. Right on.

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Syntax
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Of Mice and Men.

I haven't read many books in my life for various reasons, but this one struck me as an excellent portrayal of the senses.

Mr. Slice
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Holes by Louis Sachar is a fun story about how some kid got sent to Camp Green Lake for committing a crime he didn't commit. He must dig holes for a year and a half. Now, that's a bad punishment!

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coppro
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Mr. Slice wrote:
Holes by Louis Satchar (last name correct?)

Sachar

The Discworld series:

I heartily endorse this product and/or service.

NoahT
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I'd recommend The Tortilla Curtain by T. C. Boyle and The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, having read both of them for my English class. For those who don't know, the latter was recently made into a movie which is quite good.

-Noah

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golfrman
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NoahT suggested:
The Kite Runner

I would definitely recommend this. One of the best books I've ever read. I would also recommend his second book, A Thousand Splendid Suns, which although isn't quite as good, is still very very good.

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[Last edited by golfrman at 01-29-2008 05:57 AM]

techant
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I am a big fan of the books "The Hobbit" and The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. The movie was great but the books are better.

And while written for a younger audience the "The Chronicles Of Narnia" series by C. S. Lewis is also on my most recommended books list.

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aztcg7
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On a counterpoint to C.S. Lewis' Christian allegory The Chronicles of Narnia, I think that Richard Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is quite excellent.

I feel as though I'm tending towards trilogies. Ah well, you like what you like.

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Dex Stewart
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aztcg7 wrote:
I think that Richard Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is quite excellent.

While I did hesitate in saying it myself, now that someone else did, let it be known that I endorse this . Just DON'T touch the movie. It's bad. Very bad.

Curzon
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techant wrote:
I am a big fan of the books "The Hobbit" and The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. The movie was great but the books are better.

And while written for a younger audience the "The Chronicles Of Narnia" series by C. S. Lewis is also on my most recommended books list.

Absolutely! Why are these listed so late?

And something completely different:
Gödel Escher Bach by Douglas Hofstadter

I hope many of you have read it.

mrimer
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I've read it!

I could't quite tell when I was done, though, with those fake endings and all...

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Snacko
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I would also recommend some of Vonnegut's other books.

Another one of my favorite authors is Douglas Adams. I would specifically recommend the rather long The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Life, the Universe and Everything, So Long and Thanks for all the Fish and Mostly Harmless) as well as Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, perhaps the most confusing novel ever written.

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DiMono
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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Agora: Ancient Greek and Roman Humour

As far as I know, the only book on the subject. There's a free sample of the first 3 chapters available from the linked page, and you can buy it on Amazon from one of the links on the page.

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Hikari
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Can't read it, but it seems relevant somehow.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sweetjuniper/2050168942/in/set-72157603302647339/


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Garlonuss
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Okay, I absolutely have to put in a plug for Brandon Sanderson (and not just because he teaches at my college).

Elantris is a stand-alone fantasy that ends with you definitely wanting to know more about the world he created.

I never thought he could improve on that one, but then he came out with the Mistborn series. It is currently just comprised of The Final Empire and The Well of Ascension, but The Hero of Ages (which is supposedly going to finish off the story) is scheduled to be released in October or September 2008.


Of course, he has also been chosen to finish the Wheel of Time series, but that's something else.

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[Last edited by Garlonuss at 01-31-2008 06:16 PM]

jbluestein
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Here are a couple of plugs:

Bad Monkeys, by Matt Ruff. I'm a fan of his work, and this one is unlike all of his other books...just like all of his other books. He doesn't follow a formula, and he's a lot of fun to read.

Firefly Rain, by Richard Dansky. This is written by an old college pal of mine, his first published novel. Really good stuff.

(Both of these books contain language that some may find objectionable.)

Josh

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lakibuk
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Snacko wrote:
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Very strange but very good.

Hm, video game nerds seem to like Vonnegut.
I recently read "The Sirans of Titan" and found it quite good. "Welcome to the Monkey House" was good, too (short stories). "Cat's Cradle" is often voted the best one by his fans, so maybe i should read it some day.
Last book i read was "The Cocka Hola company"/Matias Faldbakken. It was a total blast.

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Znirk
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There's a frightening amount of ... well, canon in this thread When I turn around in my computing seat, I can see:

a Vonnegut book (Galápagos, recommended)

Neuromancer-and-the-other-two (plotted on the basis of "popcorn logic", but hey, it's nice popcorn)

a Strugatsky book (Град оьеченный if I'm copying that right. Highly recommended. I don't know what the English translation, if any, is called -- my copy is in German.)

Snow crash (I'm kind of put off by Stephenson's moralizingly didactic moments. Ne'ertheless, Cryptonomicon is also somewhere, hidden from plain view on a deeper level of the shelf ...)

But enough of the "hey, I know that one": lemme give this post some independent reason to exist by adding a new recommendation.

Ummm, what to choose ...

OK. Keeping with the themes of "popular author" and "moralizingly didactic" (except it's done well in this case): Bröderna Lejonhjärta by Astrid Lindgren. I recently reread this, remembering not much more than that it had impressed me when I was smaller, and I found that it still has quite an impact. It's heroic, dramatic, touching ... to me at least, who as I said first encountered it as a child. I guess there's a real risk that an adult who comes to it without prejudice will react with the same feeling of "meh" that I have towards such popular classics as the Narnia stack, The wind in the willows, or Carroll's Alice novels, all of which I first read at 25 or so. Still, give it a try -- it gets from me at least.

BDR
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Three more suggestions: The Otherland series by Tad Williams, Into the Looking Glass by John Ringo, and Last Call by Tim Powers.

NoahT
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Another recommendation: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon. I read it in the eighth grade, and it has a very complex protagonist.

-Noah

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vinheim
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A book I remember from the past was like a game book, near the front of the page is your inventory and stats which you use a pencil and rubber to change as you go through the game. What happens is that you read paragraph labelled '1'. Read the story, at the end of the paragraph, it'll say something like 'If you want to chase down that fag go to paragraph 27. If you want to thoroughly explore this building go to paragraph 136. If you want to pretend you're on drugs and jump off the building change your HP to 0, close the book and ask yourself why you started reading it.' You go through the book this way fighting using a stat reduction system 'You see a 1-headed goblin, every turn you spend fighting it, it takes 2HP off your life' and may utilize the use of a dice. After a while, if you're lucky, you'll reach the end of the game, alive. The book I was reading with this was mythical so it was interesting and I enjoyed it. If anyone knows the books, please tell me.