Good Books

[1v0ry_k1ng]

Ive got about £40 on paypal that I want to use to buy some new novels,

What are your guys favourite books? Like, a top 5; I'll buy all the top choices that sound good, then work down until I run out of money.

Mine (I'm cheating, this is more than 5):

Rage - Richard Bachman
The Long Walk - Richard Bachman
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Roadwork - Richard Bachman
Night Watch -Terry Pratchett
Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham

[Gota]

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus - Ludwig Wittgenstein
enjoy.

[1v0ry_k1ng]

Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus - Ludwig Wittgenstein
enjoy.

wiki:
'Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus is the only book-length philosophical work published by the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein during his lifetime. It is an ambitious project to identify the relationship between language and reality and to define the limits of science.'

that wasnt quite what I had in mind >__>

[Gota]

Well,maybe you should consider it anyway.

[knorke]

Richard Bachman = smurf of Stephen King
so based on your list i would obviously recommend his "Dark Tower" books. First book in english is called "The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger"
It is an epic post-apocalyptic science fiction horror western.
If you already know some of his books, you will pick up lots of references etc.

[knorke]

Oh, also for something different "The Tin Drum" (ger: "Die Blechtrommel") by G├╝nther Wilhelm Grass.
Grass has won like one million prizes (nobel prize too) and I never even thought about reading his work thinking it was boring political stuff (well, its political but at least this one is not boring)
Its "Nachkriegsliteratur" (texts written after WW2, usually about the nazi time) so I dont know how important or interessting it is for other people.
But imo the writing style (very overboarding, not sure how good it translates) and the surreal characters are interessting nonetheless.

[SirArtturi]

Hmm... novels eh?
maybe One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Dunno exactly what kind of literature you like, Richard Bachman doesn't say anything to me. (Oh, wiki says he is Stephen King :) fight club however in that list rings a bell to me, but I've only seen the movie, which however was one the best movies I've ever seen...

What comes to philosophical literature, Wittgenstein might not be the "easiest" things to read. I would suggest Daniel Quinn's Ishmael, which I found as a light philosophical text, but yet very intriguing and enlightening.

[rattle]

best book ever: savings book

alright...
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0806531444/
http://www.amazon.com/dp/033048477X/

[SinbadEV]

Terry Pratchett - Anything he's written at all
Tim Butcher's - "Harry Dresden" Series
Neal Stephenson - The Diamond Age or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (or pretty much any of his books, though I've only read that one)
Robert A. Heinlein - Starship Troopers, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (at least, haven't read the rest of his stuff)
If your are into Vampires the series that "True Blood" is based on, "The Southern Vampire Mysteries" by Charlaine Harris
Neil Gaiman - Neverwhere
I'd also recommend the "A Series of Unfortunate Events" books... they are geared to children but still worth reading.

My taste in books is weird though... so yeah.

[Auswaschbar]

Some of my favorites:

• Orwell - 1984 (everyone should have read it)
• Huxley - Brave new world (I liked 1984 more, but its still good)
• Asimov - Foundation (I never read the se/prequel cause I heard they were bad)
• Classical: Niebelungenlied (thought it might suck in english)

[rattle]

...and a few million young women would recommend you to buy all Twilight books.

[Mav]

Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series. This is a bit tricky, because the first book in the series, Ender's Game, was very fun and tactical and interesting. The other three books in the series are slower paced, philosophical books that were generally less fun to read. Then, Card published a second, parallel series, Ender's Shadow, that is about a character from the original series. This series returns to the feel of the first book. So, boiling down the list, I'd get Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow. If you like those, then feel free to explore the rest of the series.

I'm a bit of a nerd-series fan, so my other recommendation would be The Wheel of Time series. Fantastic writing by Robert Jordan. The sad thing is he spent many years writing the first 11 books of the series despite being terminally ill. His planned final book (12) was partially written, with comprehensive notes about the unwritten parts. He promised many times that there would be only 12 books, and that even if the 12th book had to be extremely long it would be the last. He passed away before finishing. His wife and publisher picked out another author to finish the series, and that bastard decided to split the 12th book into 3 books now. The first of the three recently came out, and is only in hardback. Argh....
Anyways, try the first book, and if you like it, you'd like the rest of the series. He really is a fantastic writer.

[SteveZissou]

to kill a mocking bird - harper lee
the forever war - joe haldeman
a game of thrones - george r. r. martin
the pleasure of my company - steve martin (yeah he can write too)

[Gertkane]

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Philip K. Dick
Hyperion - Dan Simmons
Dune - Frank Herbert

and for fifth ill just say one of the few books from school that actually was really good:
All Quiet on the Western Front - Remarque.

[1v0ry_k1ng]

[quote="knorke"]Richard Bachman = smurf of Stephen King
so based on your list i would obviously recommend his "Dark Tower" books. First book in english is called "The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger"
It is an epic post-apocalyptic science fiction horror western.
If you already know some of his books, you will pick up lots of references etc.[/quote]

Yeah I read the series, didnt really like it much.

Bachman is Kings alias for writing dark, gritty and contraversial books (I heard Rage is banned in some American states after allergations that it provoked a number of school shootings o_O). The style is fairly diffrent to that of the books written under his name (and much better imo).

[quote="rattle"]best book ever: savings book

alright...
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0806531444/
http://www.amazon.com/dp/033048477X/[/quote]

Already own them both, certainly agree that they are worthy

If your are into Vampires,

the only vampires I am into are the ones dying on the end of Blades sword

Robert A. Heinlein - Starship Troopers,

* Orwell - 1984 (everyone should have read it)
* Huxley - Brave new world (I liked 1984 more, but its still good)

<3
but already own

[Gota]

So how do you release a book under a different name but make sure people know its actually you..

[PicassoCT]

i have walls filled with books, most of them could be recommended- if you read as much as you can, you will see most of the intersting ones just by following booklists like thoose regulary poasted on r9k

http://www.amazon.ca/All-Men-Are-Mortal ... 852&sr=8-1

I would recomend this, but beware it busts some dreambubbles

Also Diamond Age

[PicassoCT]

...and a few million young women would recommend you to buy all Twilight books.

... a few thousand dead young couples in europe would recommend "the Sorrows of Young Werther". Worked for them, made them skelettons!

[Wombat]

king + jeremy clarkson

[KaiserJ]

i'll have to +1 diamond age as well... thats three votes for diamond age.

oh yeah and hyperion is a great book too... good call gertkane. i dont own that one but i probably should. i really enjoyed the part about the cruciform parasite; the detectives tale was good too. so thats two for hyperion.

also i got another neal stephenson back the other day from my friend, im going to have to give it a go again... its called "cryptonomicon" and its about spies and crazy shit in ww2. if you like what stephen king does in books like "it" (showing the whole story broken apart into many different perspectives) then you'd probably enjoy it a lot.

my favourite series of books i would have to say is ringworld. if alien orgies dont turn you off a book series, then i would say grabbing the first book at least is worth your while. those ones are by larry niven.

not sure if you guys read it but "the scar" by china mieville... fantasy novel; i really like the guys style and ideas... normally when i read fantasy novels it's all wizards and elves and crystals of lame power. this book in particular was not.

also im very, very proud of all of you. nobody said "omg did you read davinci code its best omg."