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Favorite books?

Da_Neefer

Da_Neefer

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Anyone feel like sharing some of their favorite books? I've always been a sci-fi/fantasy type and have been having issues finding quality books to read lately. Feel like sharing? Here are a few I love...

Tad Williams "Dragonbone Chair"
RA Salvatore Anything Drizzt or Forgotten Realms
Brandon Sanderson "The Stormlight Archive"
John Steakley "Armor"
Raymond E Feist anything
Michael Moorcock "Elric of Melnibone"
Orson Scott Card almost anything
Tolkien
 
If you haven't read it, the Dark Tower series by Stephen King - a sci-fi postapocalyptic future western horror series - is well worth a read.

American Gods, Anansi Boys, and the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman are all great.

I recently got into Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and I'm four books in and loving it.

If he ever publishes the third book, I'd wholeheartedly recommend The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (but given it's been 11 years since his last novel, and he's provided even less updates than GRR Martin, I'm not holding my breath).

I've been on a big horror kick lately, so - in no particular order - IT by Stephen King, World War Z by Max Brooks (with an optional read of The Zombie Survival Guide), Devolution by Max Brooks, The Living Dead by George A Romero and Daniel Kraus, Zone One by Colson Whitehead, and Rising by Brian Keene
 
Da_Neefer said:
Anyone feel like sharing some of their favorite books? I've always been a sci-fi/fantasy type and have been having issues finding quality books to read lately. Feel like sharing? Here are a few I love...

Tad Williams "Dragonbone Chair"
RA Salvatore Anything Drizzt or Forgotten Realms
Brandon Sanderson "The Stormlight Archive"
John Steakley "Armor"
Raymond E Feist anything
Michael Moorcock "Elric of Melnibone"
Orson Scott Card almost anything
Tolkien
Click to expand...
OMG the Drizzt books are just incredible. I've gone through about 6 of the audiobooks. The earlier ones are fantastic, but I think it kind of gets a bit drawn out after a few. It's a like a series that never ends. Like where his zombie dad comes around, and the constant sadness of his human friend soon to die. Or his arch-rival (I forget his name) who has such a great storyline as well. I might have to go back and relisten.

I don't have enough time to read books (aka I don't make time), so I listen while on long drives.

Some of my favorite audiobooks are:
1. Anything by Andy Weir: Project Hail Mary, The Martian, and Artemis are so fun and suspenseful. The subtle/intelligent humor is so good, and the audiobooks are very well done.
2. Ready Player One: the audio book is pretty great. I listened to Ready Player Two, and it was only fun because it had some of the old characters, but it's really not that great compared to the first
3. Dune: this was pretty great. I watched the movie first, then listened to the audiobook. I think that was a good move because the visuals in the movie are really beautiful, and just enhanced the audiobook.
4. The Power of One by Bryce Courtney: surprisingly good. kind of about race, boxing, and coming of age
5. Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow -- easy reads, pretty awesome.
6. I like Tom Clancy books too, some favorites include any of the John Clark and Jack Ryan series, like Rainbow Six, without Remorse, Debt of Honor, and some others.
7. Good mystery I like the Robert Galbraith series The Cuckoo's Calling, The Silkworm... but I think the author is actually the Harry Potter author. They're pretty good, though *kind of* typical mystery with a twist kind of thing.

Some non-fiction/business/self-helpy type of books I like:
1. The Score Takes Care of Itself - Bill Walsh
2. The Inner Ggame of Tennis
 
IOnceWasLegend said:
If he ever publishes the third book, I'd wholeheartedly recommend The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (but given it's been 11 years since his last novel, and he's provided even less updates than GRR Martin, I'm not holding my breath).
Click to expand...

----Prologue:

The Waystone Inn lay in silence, and it was a silence of three parts.

The most obvious part was a hollow, echoing quiet, made by things that were lacking. If there had been a wind it would have sighed through the trees, set the inn’s sign creaking on its hooks, and brushed the silence down the road like trailing autumn leaves. If there had been a crowd, even a handful of men inside the inn, they would have filled the silence with coversation and laughter, the clatter and clamour one expects from a drinking house during the dark hours of the night. If there had been music…but no, of course there was no music. In fact there were none of these things, and so the silence remained.

Inside the Waystone a pair of men huddled at one corner of the bar. they drank with quiet determination, avoiding serious discussions of troubling news. In doing this they added a small, sullen silence to the larger, hollow one. it made an alloy of sorts, a counterpoint.

The third silence was not an easy thing to notice. If you listened for an hour, you might begin to feel it in the wooden floor underfoot and in the rough, splintering barrels behind the bar. It was in the weight of the black stone hearth that held the heat of a long-dead fire. It was in the slow back and forth of a white linen cloth rubbing along the grain of the bar. and it was in the hands of the man who stood there, polishing a stretch of mahogany that already gleamed in the lamplight.

The man had true-red hair, red as flame. His eyes were dark and distant, and he moved with the subtle certainty that comes from knowing many things.

The Waystone was his, just as the third silence was his. This was appropriate, as it was the greatest silence of the three, wapping the other inside itself. It was deep and wide as autumn’s ending. It was heavy as a great river-smooth stone. It was the patient, cut-flower sound of a man who is waiting to die.

Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1)

----
I love this book and that intro so much. It makes me wish I was a writer.
 
richiev said:
I love this book and that intro so much. It makes me wish I was a writer.
Click to expand...
I love the book as well, and the writing in Name of the Wind is a master class.

Unfortunately, I can't really recommend it to anyone - just like I can't recommend ASOIAF - because there is zero indication we're ever going to get a resolution to the series. I would have never started it if I'd known if was incomplete and the status (or lack thereof) of the last book.

EDIT: though in regards to wanting to be a writer - go for it! Being a writer =/= being a novelist. I highly recommend Janet Burroway's book, "Writing Fiction" as a starting point. It does a good job covering a lot of the mechanics of creative writing and giving you a toolkit to improve your own writing.

The Writing Prompts subreddit is pretty good for stretching creative muscles, too. People post a prompt, and you respond. It helps you come up with stuff that works, stuff that doesn't, and it's fun getting feedback and ideas you never would've got otherwise. I'm currently about 4,000 words into either a novella or a novel that sprung out of a short response to a prompt.

Adam Savage said the difference between science and messing around is writing it down. That's really the difference between being a writer and a daydreamer: writing it down. After all,

Language has its power,
there's a magic within words
that blends the fiction and the fact,
reality it blurs

Small miracles upon the page
spinning worlds to life
that are soft as children's laughter
and as wicked as a knife
 
Last edited:
Da_Neefer said:
Anyone feel like sharing some of their favorite books? I've always been a sci-fi/fantasy type and have been having issues finding quality books to read lately. Feel like sharing? Here are a few I love...

Tad Williams "Dragonbone Chair"
RA Salvatore Anything Drizzt or Forgotten Realms
Brandon Sanderson "The Stormlight Archive"
John Steakley "Armor"
Raymond E Feist anything
Michael Moorcock "Elric of Melnibone"
Orson Scott Card almost anything
Tolkien
Click to expand...
One of the best series I have read in a while is the three body problem by cixian liu. Translated from Chinese and a totally different take on “aliens”.

Wool by Hugh Howey-
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis - time travel

Ready player one. Ernest cline. The book was awesome. Movie sucked I thought.


I can think of a few others if need be
 
L/B Block said:
One of the best series I have read in a while is the three body problem by cixian liu. Translated from Chinese and a totally different take on “aliens”.

Wool by Hugh Howey-
Doomsday Book by Connie Willis - time travel

Ready player one. Ernest cline. The book was awesome. Movie sucked I thought.


I can think of a few others if need be
Click to expand...
By the way the three body problem and doomsday book are both Hugo sci-fi winners
 
IOnceWasLegend said:
I love the book as well, and the writing in Name of the Wind is a master class.

Unfortunately, I can't really recommend it to anyone - just like I can't recommend ASOIAF - because there is zero indication we're ever going to get a resolution to the series. I would have never started it if I'd known if was incomplete and the status (or lack thereof) of the last book.

EDIT: though in regards to wanting to be a writer - go for it! Being a writer =/= being a novelist. I highly recommend Janet Burroway's book, "Writing Fiction" as a starting point. It does a good job covering a lot of the mechanics of creative writing and giving you a toolkit to improve your own writing.

The Writing Prompts subreddit is pretty good for stretching creative muscles, too. People post a prompt, and you respond. It helps you come up with stuff that works, stuff that doesn't, and it's fun getting feedback and ideas you never would've got otherwise. I'm currently about 4,000 words into either a novella or a novel that sprung out of a short response to a prompt.

Adam Savage said the difference between science and messing around is writing it down. That's really the difference between being a writer and a daydreamer: writing it down. After all,

Language has its power,
there's a magic within words
that blends the fiction and the fact,
reality it blurs

Small miracles upon the page
spinning worlds to life
that are soft as children's laughter
and as wicked as a knife
Click to expand...
As an alternative view, the lack of a third book doesn't bother me. I think the two existing ones are great reads regardless, and the main reason I'd like to have the third is to be able to read another one.

Fair view though.
 
IOnceWasLegend said:
If you haven't read it, the Dark Tower series by Stephen King - a sci-fi postapocalyptic future western horror series - is well worth a read.

American Gods, Anansi Boys, and the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman are all great.

I recently got into Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and I'm four books in and loving it.

If he ever publishes the third book, I'd wholeheartedly recommend The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (but given it's been 11 years since his last novel, and he's provided even less updates than GRR Martin, I'm not holding my breath).

I've been on a big horror kick lately, so - in no particular order - IT by Stephen King, World War Z by Max Brooks (with an optional read of The Zombie Survival Guide), Devolution by Max Brooks, The Living Dead by George A Romero and Daniel Kraus, Zone One by Colson Whitehead, and Rising by Brian Keene
Click to expand...

If you can track these down they'll fit the theme of unfinished works :) Very unusual sci-fi from the 70's I think some say the drugs were pure back then..
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I just read a great nonfiction book that I think this crowd would like- An Immense World by Ed Yong. It is all about how different animals‘ senses define their different realities. Educational and entertaining. His previous book on the microbiome across the animal kingdom called I Contain Multitudes is also great.

For SciFi I’ve read and enjoyed so many but the past couple years I’ve been enjoying Neal Stephenson’s books. Most good books have one great idea they work into a story. Each of his has so many different great ideas.

I hate trying to give “my favorite” of whatever category since I don’t mentally rank them and it implies a finality that doesn’t exist. But happy to share some I’ve liked.
 
JVU said:
I just read a great nonfiction book that I think this crowd would like- An Immense World by Ed Yong. It is all about how different animals‘ senses define their different realities. Educational and entertaining.
Click to expand...
Like how mantis shrimp can see 12 colors including one that detects cancer?
 
Vernor Vinge....true names, the beginning of the 'internet' and a precursor to neuromancer, etc.

Also, hard sci-fi by Vinge, "A fire upon the deep" and "a deepness in the sky".

+1 for the three body problem as well.
 
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