Book Recommendations? You know the things with words...

[Smeggs]

Oh man, you liked the Hobbit? then my suggestion is more fitting than I'd hoped.

Try reading The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, and then The Wise Man's Fear, the second book in the series.

It follows the retelling of the life of a man named Kvothe from his childhood through adolescence. The "magic" in the book is called Sympathy and is more of a science than actual "Fireball, Lightning Bolt!" The story is really focused on characters and their day-to-day lives, not that there isn't enough action. I literally have never read any books I've liked that much.

 

[feebstalicious93]

I recommend the Rangers Apprentice series, The Night Angel trilogy and The Black Prism.

i second the night angel trilogy and the black prism. the blinding knife is coming out next year.

 

[KingHodor]

Best books I ever read? The "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, hands down (often referred to as the "A Game of Thrones"-series, after the title of the first book, which makes me wonder if these people also refer to StarWars:RotJ as "A New Hope, Part 3")

I also immensely enjoyed Tatsuhiko Takimoto's "Welcome to the NHK" - some call it the Japanese "Catcher in the Rye", but I found the struggles of Satou way more interesting (and even relatable) than the rather generically angsty upperclass teen Holden Caulfield.
The main character is a Hikkikomori, i.e. shut-in, trying to cure his crippling social anxiety with a cocktail of quasi-legal hallucinogens he ordered off the net and the help of his two friends, one of which is a creepy otaku and possible future sex offender, the other a girl suffering from severe borderline personality disorder trying to prove to herself that she's only the second most pathetic person on earth. (Edit: They also made an anime out of it which is much more light-hearted and avoids the numerous drug references - still enjoyable to watch though. From what I've seen, the manga version is much closer to the book, atleast regarding the graphic depictions of drug use)

Regarding Infinite Jest: It's a mess of a book, with the obvious mental health issues of the author ("Please respect me! Look at how many fancy words I know!") oozing through every page. Still, some of those 1000+ pages contain so much pure, unadulterated genius, especially the chapters on the completely-in-denial cokehead Randy Lenz:

"Except -after the maybe five total lines hoovered in a totally purposive medicinal nonrecreational spirit - [...] Lenz on the way home finds himself under huge hydrolystic compulsion [...] to share with Green or any compliant ear pretty much every experience and thought he's ever had, to give each datum of the case of R. Lenz shape and visible breath as his whole life (and then some) tear-asses across his mind's arctic horizon, trailing phosphenes".

 

[Palfreyfish]

Seeing as how no one's suggested Iain M Banks yet, and you said you like Sci Fi, go for one of his books, they're all pretty good. Unless of course you've read them In which case I recommend Dan Simmons' Endymion Omnibus. It's a rather long quadrilogy, but it is one of my all time favourite books

Oh, and if you haven't already read it, Ringworld by Larry Niven is fantastic

 

[Patrick Buck]

I'm going to be the most hated guy on the thread and suggest....

Twilight. PFFFFF.

 

[Keepeas]

snip

Avoiding Ender's Game, I know it was from before Card was all in your face about his homophobia, but it still bothers me. I mean, it's pretty bad that that's the defining thing I know about him...

I've been wanting to check out Hitchhiker's Guide for forever now, I've been avoiding the movie so I could read the book(s) first.

I had no idea Card had any homophobic tendencies/feelings.
I can see how that would sway you're opinion of him and his writing(it disturbed me a lot when I looked it up and found it to be true)....
But I can assure you that his homophobia does not(as far as I remember) show up in Ender's Game.
I'm currently reading the 4th book in the Ender Series and I haven't even seen a hint of homophobia in the series.
I still can't recommend this book enough...even if I don't agree with his view of homosexuality.

If you still can't get over the fact...Hitchhiker's Guide will not disappoint...it's a crazy fun read.

EDIT:

Spoiler: Random fact about O.S.Card

The Secret of Monkey Island - Card wrote the insults for the insult swordfighting section

 

[Christemo]

If you are into fantasy, The Tales of Malus Darkblade is definitely a good bet, as well as Gotrex and Felix. You might not like the books if you haven´t been into Warhammer, but those are just my 2 cents.

 

[Kilroy17]

Sherlock Holmes complete set. I'm about half way and they're the best books I've ever read. I really enjoy mystery mainly and it's good mystery. It gives you clues so it's possible to figure out by yourself (Generally quite difficult) without giving it away. Even if your not into mystery it's a good set of stories.

 

[Andrew Record]

If you want some good fantasy novels then i have a duty to recommend
-The Death Gate Cycle. Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman outdid themselves with this 7 novel series. Starts out a bit slow, but culminates in a wonderful ending and has some of the funniest dialogue i've read in a book in ages.
-Another good series would be The Sword of Truth novels. A bit more adult than most, but solid reads, however the books are a bit long, 1000 pages normally.
-Wheel of Time series, again, good but take time
-Xanth. Piers Anthony is a genius
-Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams is an amazing author
-Broken Sky by Chris Wooding, insanely hard to find, but were good books that i read in middle school.
-If you like Zombies, then read Brian Keene's stuff. Good books, have some adult/mature content, but it takes the zombie lore to new places. The Rising and City of The Dead.
-Star of The Guardian by Weis and Hickman are good books too. 4 in the series

Hopefully some of these hit the bulls-eye or at least landed close to it

 

[manic_depressive13]

I recently read The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny and found it quite enjoyable. If you're interested in a Classic, I'd also recommend Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. Sure, it's not fantasy, but it's amusing and surprisingly resonant. Definitely a good start if you're looking to expand your horizons.

 

[The Diabolical Biz]

I'm going to recommend, as I always do in book threads, Walter Moers, and PG Wodehouse.

My two favourite authors, look em up!

 

[Grog289]

I know the world is sick of zombie stuff, but World War Z is a fantastic read. Its a retrospective story about the zombie apocalypse where the main character goes around interviewing people about their experiences during the war. Theres a lot of awesome creative stories like the one about astronauts or the one about propaganda films. Its so well researched that if you just make the leap of logic that such a virus could exist, then everything that occurs in the book makes sense, and then the writing is so good that I had to convince myself it was not real.

 

[chaosyoshimage]

I also immensely enjoyed Tatsuhiko Takimoto's "Welcome to the NHK" - some call it the Japanese "Catcher in the Rye", but I found the struggles of Satou way more interesting (and even relatable) than the rather generically angsty upperclass teen Holden Caulfield.
The main character is a Hikkikomori, i.e. shut-in, trying to cure his crippling social anxiety with a cocktail of quasi-legal hallucinogens he ordered off the net and the help of his two friends, one of which is a creepy otaku and possible future sex offender, the other a girl suffering from severe borderline personality disorder trying to prove to herself that she's only the second most pathetic person on earth. (Edit: They also made an anime out of it which is much more light-hearted and avoids the numerous drug references - still enjoyable to watch though. From what I've seen, the manga version is much closer to the book, atleast regarding the graphic depictions of drug use)

I've heard of the anime and have been wanting to check it out for quites some time. Perhaps I should read the book first?

I'm going to be the most hated guy on the thread and suggest....

Twilight. PFFFFF.

Nope, I get to be the most hated guy in the thread, since I actually read it awhile back before the movie came out and kinda liked it. Couldn't stand the movie though and never bothered with any of the sequels.

I know the world is sick of zombie stuff, but World War Z is a fantastic read. Its a retrospective story about the zombie apocalypse where the main character goes around interviewing people about their experiences during the war. Theres a lot of awesome creative stories like the one about astronauts or the one about propaganda films. Its so well researched that if you just make the leap of logic that such a virus could exist, then everything that occurs in the book makes sense, and then the writing is so good that I had to convince myself it was not real.

World War Z is already on my now freakishly long list of books to check out.

Well, I got my Kindle Fire and downloaded a bunch of public domain books and The Hunger Games since I can read that free with Amazon Prime for the time being. I only barely started on The Hunger Games since I didn't have any time with it. When I get some money I'll probably check out some more stuff.

 

[karkar]

The Hunger Games series is an absolute must. It's exciting, well-written, and thought-provoking. Plus the first movie comes out this spring

 

[ArbiterX13]

My current read is The Black Company from the 80s. Supposedly it kicked off the whole "Dark Fantasy" genre, and I guess it kind of makes sense when you realize just who it's about. It's quite good, but a bit vague about certain things at first...such as the character Silent.
If you can, get the "Chronicles" compilation. It has the whole trilogy.

 

[Montyix]

For fantasy I would recommend Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast series. Start of with "Titus groan" and go from there they are fantastically well written and different from almost anything else in the fantasy genre.

 

[HerrBobo]

The Rift War Saga by Raymond E. Feist

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Riftwar_Saga

 

[Averant]

Why would anyone have a problem with female heroines? Aren't they the only kind?

The only good kind. :3

I kid, I kid.

but seriously, Ever read Tamora Pierce's books? Wonderful heroines for most of her series. Never really got into the Circle books, though...

For a scifi, you might pick up David Weber's Honor Harrington saga. You'll have to put up with a lot of politics (about half of all the books combined, if I had to guess) but the other half is well worth the wading.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians. No, NOT the movie. Don't you dare get the movie. If you've already watched it, erase it from your mind.[footnote]not that it will matter much, I'm told the movie is a completely different plot than the first book. le sigh.[/footnote] The books are so much better. And in the most recent book, Riordan actually manages to weasel in some internet culture. Absolutely made my month.

PM me, I'll give you my bookshelf.

 

[Averant]

Also, this book will be a little easy for your literary levels but "Maximum Ride" is a pretty good book series (well 1-3, the 4th is pretty retarded). I mean you could probably bust out a book in about 3 hours if you read books usually of a higher page number I.E Harry potter, game of thrones. I advise you check it out if your into that sci-fi super hero scene.

I loved Maximum Ride. The Trilogy was a wonderful story. The fourth, I could handle. Heavy handed on the eco message, but I could handle it.

There are no others.

I said there are no others.

 

[chaosyoshimage]

-Another good series would be The Sword of Truth novels. A bit more adult than most, but solid reads, however the books are a bit long, 1000 pages normally.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that's on my list. I loved the corny TV show and want to read the real story.

So, I'm halfway through The Hunger Games right now and I'm loving it. Anything like that would be highly appreciated!