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Recommend-A-Book
JoonasTo:
The Story of San Michele by Axel Münthe
A rather old book. I'm not sure how to describe it. There is just something that'll keep you reading it.
It is written excelently. You can see he wasn't renoved for nothing.
Really recommend for anyone who likes literature or reading in general.
A nice change from that mainstream fantasy whose writers seem like they have barely finished high school.
Onoz:
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
Algazel's Metaphysics (Paperback) by Algazel
Observations on Man, His Frame, His Duty, and His Expectations: ... by David Hartley
The Zurau Aphorisms of Franz Kafka
The Man Without Qualities Vol. 1: A Sort of Introduction and Pse... by Robert Musil
Mrs. Leicester's School And Other Writings In Prose And Verse (P... by Mary & Charles Lamb
The Wealth of Nations
Table-Talk, Essays on Men and Manners (Paperback) by William Hazlitt <<<
Gilgamesh
Berlin Alexanderplatz: The Story Of Franz Biberkopf (Continuum I... by Alfred Döblin
Go tell it on the mountain
The Analects by Confucius
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
Les Miserables
The bell jar
More "religious" text
A history of madness Michael Foucault
The blue cliff record
Tao te ching w/ "The inner chapters"
I agree about atlas shrugged, it has to be the most beautiful thing I've ever read.
I can tear through 50 pages of that before I could touch 20 of any other book.
I dont know what I'll do once I finish
Anthiena:
On religion: The Devil is a Gentleman, by J. C. Hallman.
On something completely different: The Sandman, by Neil Gaiman (graphic novel series)
Hiiragi:
hmm, I pretty much read fantasy, but I haven't done much reading lately...too much anime ^_~. i really like, mmm, I guess you could call it high fantasy...complex worlds, lots of detail, stuff like that..I also find that quartets, trilogies and duologies workout better than epics series like Robert Jordan...so I'd recommend if they haven't already been recommended:
Tad Williams' Memory Sorrow and Thorn trilogy (The Dragonbone Chair, The Stone of Farewell and To Green Angel Tower)
A description borrowed from Amazon:
"Simon is an ordinary kitchen helper who is taken under the tutelage of the magician Morgenes. When King John Presbyter dies and his son Elias ascends the throne, the way opens for a long-dormant evil to enter the realm. Elias, a pawn of the black magician Pyrates, moves to eliminate his brother Josua, and the brother-against-brother, good-versus-evil clash begins. Simon is thrown in with Josua and muddles through adventure and peril, maturing into a hero by book's end. Williams weaves all of the classic ingredients of fantasy into his tale--trolls, giants, elf-like sithi, and dragons. Simon must travel from drought-stricken lands to ice-bound peaks as he follows his far-seeing dreams."
Carol Berg's Flesh and Spirit and Breathe and Bone These are currently my favorite books.
The first book in this duology starts out:
"On my seventh birthday, my father swore, for the first of many times, that I would die face down in a cesspool. On that same occasion, my mother, with all the accompanying mystery and elevated language appropriate for a prominent diviner, turned her cards, screamed delicately, and proclaimed that my doom was written in water and blood and ice."
and from amazon:
At the start of this chilling fantasy from Berg (Daughter of Ancients), the first of a pair set in the land of Navronne, her rebellious hero, 27-year-old Valen, has been hiding from his pureblood family of sorcerers for 12 years. Valen, who's also struggling with a kind of drug addiction called "doulon sickness," possesses his grandfather's magical book, Maps of the Known World ("Legend said it could lead men to the realm of angels"). The book is Valen's passport to sanctuary with the learned monks of Gillarine Abbey, who believe he can unlock its magic. After his family discovers him, Valen becomes resolved to learn the book's power. At stake is not only the protection of an innocent boy sheltered at the abbey from greedy princes vying for control of their dead father's kingdom but also the entire world's salvation.
and any of Sean Russell's books. (The Initiate Brother and its sequel Gatherer of Clouds are set in an Asian setting and if I recall borrow heavily form the story of the 47 samurai...though I may be confusing it with another book...it had been several years since i read it, but I remember it was good. lol)
EDIT: Forgot the Coldfire Trilogy from CS Freidman, great stuff there too and one of my favorite characters...just wanted to add it, since I was discussing it in a different thread
Also, I'm really enjoying the translations for Fuyumi Ono's 12 kingdoms. The anime was really good imo and the books are a much better read than the translations for Vampire Hunter D or Ai no Kusabi, which says to me, whoever is translating 12 Kingdoms also has some real skill at creative writing. If only these were coming out faster, book four is due out in March, i think, but that will leave three more to translate...i think it is a total of 7 books, right?
Sashamaru:
+1 to Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.
I'm a big fan of Stephenson's writing. He's a master of post-cyberpunk science fiction. Another one of his that I'd recommend would be The Diamond Age. Of the three novels of his that I've read, they really are all epics unto themselves. I just got a hold of Anathem, but haven't started reading it yet. It's supposed to be epic win as well.
Another author I absolutely adore is Michael Marshall Smith. I really need to start reading more of his books. I've read two of his novels so far: Spares and Only Forward. They're both futuristic noir thrillers told in the first person with a certain amount of sardonic wit. They're absolute genius, and very fun to read. I love the talking appliances. :D I've read them both twice, and will probably end up reading them again for a third time as well. I'd link to Wikipedia, but it contains huge spoilers, Amazon as well to a lesser extent.
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