Looking for Book Recommendations

[Kirtap]

I'd recommend something like "Dune". It's dense as all hell but if you have the time to invest in reading it then it's one of the best reads ever, If you ask me.
Other than that I recently started reading "John Dies at The End". The story is about a new mind altering street drug that sends the user across time and space and sometimes they return not-quite-human, Quite like Dune in some respect actually, isn't that an odd similarity. It's quite entertaining.

 

[William Ossiss]

My new friend, I think I have just the series for you. The books may not be the longest, but the series is currently 15 books long. It's about a wizard private detective living in modern day chicago. Hes got a mouth like spider-man, and basically spends the series slapping things that are evil and way bigger than him in the face. The first one is call Storm Front.

He deals with demons, werewolves, vampires, fairie (not the tinkerbell kind, but the kind that would rip your head off to bathe in your blood). It's a great read for those of us into that kind of thing. You know, the kind that finally paints vampires as the obvious bad guys they are supposed to be... but that's personal opinion.

Dresden also seems to find a way (his fault or not) to burn down a building XD

The books are by Jim Butcher, who also penned the 6 book Codex Alera series.. Basically, he was a member of the Delray Online Writer?s Workshop and he was challenged in the middle of a heated conversation about writing. The challenger bet that Jim Butcher could not write a good and enticing story based on a lame idea. Jim replied that off course he could. Actually, he would write a cool story based on two lame ideas of the challenger´s choosing. The lame ideas chosen were the Lost Roman Legion and Pokemon.

There's also the Forgotten Realms books about Drizzt Do'Urden the Dark Elf. 20+ long, and you can get fat books that contain about 3-4 books.

I also highly recommend the Disc World series. While the books may be short, they're hilarious fantasy novels.

The Tao of Pratchett (the author): Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.

 

[StriderShinryu]

If you want something similar to Song of Fire and Ice and don't mind some pretty well written sex scenes (with a heavy portion of BDSM), you can't go wrong with Jaqueline Carey's Kushiel series. Start with Kushiel's Dart if you want to start from the beginning.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

A good paperback series for you would be the Discworld series. There are thirty odd novels which are for the most part self contained and have several arcs from which to choose from such as the Guardsman arc which play out like detective stories, in a city where trolls, dwarves, and guilds for everything including assassins exist.

 

[TheIronRuler]

Catch-22 is a very good comedy you will enjoy reading. It'll make you laugh at night. If you're familiar with the military you'll love it even more.

Good Omens is also a very funny dark comedy I recommend heartily.

Nabokov's Lolita is one of the best love stories I've read, the author shows superb prose, dark humor and scenes which make you feel wrong and dirty when reading them.

A clockwork orange is a blast, a mixture of bizarre slang, funny logic and sadistic violence.

The Road is a post-apocalyptic novel that will make you crawl up into a ball at night and cry yourself to sleep. If you want atmosphere and a father-son journey to the unknown, this is your pick.

 

[Artina89]

I have been reading Bad Pharma and Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. It might not be to every bodies taste, but I personally really enjoyed them. I also enjoyed Periodic tales. Another good set of books is the Johannes Calbal series. There are three of them: Johannes Cabal: Necromancer, Johannes Cabal the detective and Johannes Cabal and the fear institute. They are a rolicking good read and I find myself going back to them constantly to reread them. I hope more come out soon.

 

[Axolotl]

I would recommend the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake.

It's one of the books that inspired Game of Thrones so there's that. But it's also a unique book series in it's own right. The setting is a bizarre mash up of late Imperial China with 1930's England a huge crumbling castle full of ancient rituals and twisted caricatures of human beings. It's pretty much everything Tim Burton wishes he could make.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

Thanks for the suggestions everybody. I don't think I'll have any shortage of reading material for the near future.

 

[Tanis]

The Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Night%27s_Dawn_Trilogy

<3 this series.
Though, it does take like two to three re-reads to fully 'get' the series.
And, that's not a bad thing.

 

[Vault101]

Second this too. Fantastic book. Although it's a far cry from the fantasy stuff everyone else is recommending.

I heard about it because you mentioned it here actually

I havent finished it yet

[spoiler/]but damn the father is just monstrous (at least from the perspective we get) and Adah...I like Adah she's nuts. it saddens me that the father doesn't believe in education, I hope its not Adah that dies..I think its going ot be leah or Rose May[/spoiler]

but yeah, I like to keep my reading varied, and I can only read pulpy stuff if it has a female protagonist...

 

[Fox12]

*Cracks Knuckles*

Alright.

Fantasy:
Tolkien (The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, and the Silamarillion)
Modern translation of Iliad/Odyssey
Berserk(it's a comic, and it may not be the most easily transportable work, but it's just so damn good!)

Sci-Fi:
Dune (If you like Game of Thrones, you'll love this)
The Foundation Trilogy (interesting sci-fi)
Lovecraft (perfect for creepy summer nights)
Neil Gaimans work (he's like a not terrible version of Tim Burton)

Lord of the Flies (because it's my favorite book).

 

[Callate]

Snow Crash and Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson. The first was one of the last great books of the cyberpunk boom; the second explored nanotechnology, among other things. Both are full of memorable characters and sudden breaks to discuss tangentially related subjects to what is occurring within the main story. It's sort of like listening to a wild-haired genius go off on a tear.

Any of Neil Gaiman's short story collections- I liked both Smoke and Mirrors and Fragile Things.

I'll put in another vote for Rothfuss' novels The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man's Fear. They're frustrating at times, in particular because they find contrived reasons for their brilliant main character to do awesomely stupid things the few time it's required by the plot, but most of what's in them is so well written and so thoughtfully and clearly laid out that it's hard to hold it against them. I think the first (Wind) is better than the second (Fear), mostly for feeling like a more coherent whole; hopefully that isn't a pattern that will carry into the third.

Any of David Sedaris' story/essay collections; as I recall, When You are Engulfed in Flames and Me Talk Pretty One Day were particularly funny.

 

[Zhukov]

Second this too. Fantastic book. Although it's a far cry from the fantasy stuff everyone else is recommending.

I heard about it because you mentioned it here actually

I know. Hence the smiley face.

Glad to hear you're enjoying it.

I havent finished it yet

[spoiler/]but damn the father is just monstrous (at least from the perspective we get) and Adah...I like Adah she's nuts. it saddens me that the father doesn't believe in education, I hope its not Adah that dies..I think its going ot be leah or Rose May[/spoiler]

but yeah, I like to keep my reading varied, and I can only read pulpy stuff if it has a female protagonist...

*Ruth May

Yeah, everyone I know who's read it (which, admittedly, it only like three people) loves Adah.

Feel free to throw me a PM when you finish it. Would be interested to know what you make of it.

 

[Trunkage]

If you want some heroic fantasy full of adventure and characters that end up feeling like friends try The Belgariad by David & Leigh Eddings. It's not the best fantasy out there but it's easy to read, full of action and really enjoyable. If you like the first cycle there is a sequel called the Mallorean and two prequel (Begarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress), but you have to know that if you like the Belgariad you will read everything, that's what everybody does and this is 12 books, fortunately it's normal size book not the backbreaking tome like the Wheel of Time or a Song of Ice and Fire. From the same authors there is also Elenium and The Tamuli 2 trilogies, again heroic fantasy. Again easy to read and really enjoyable.

I think those 2 series are perfect for a good summer read because they are just fun adventures full of action and good characters. Sadly the other 2 series (The dreamers and The Redemption of Althalus are not as interesting).

I've just started Garden of the Moon by Steven Erikson, it's the first book in the Malazan Book of the Fallen and I love it so far.

There is also the Wheel of Time but for this serie of book it's kind of hit or miss for most readers. If you likeit it's very good otherwise it's a slow and boring read. I loved it but there is some books that feel unnecessary.

The first Malazan book is the most boring compared to the others. Still pretty awesome though. You have to be prepared to not know what's going on, and he doesn't make clear links between characters. Sometimes their in disguise and you have to be diligent to match personas. They always feel epic, earth-shattering and costly for the characters involved

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Over the course of this summer, I plan on doing a bunch of reading. Basically, I'm going to be spending a lot of time camping this summer, and I want something to read during any downtime. Unfortunately, I'm not normally too much of a bookworm, and as such don't really know where to start in terms of finding good books. I'm pretty much open to any genre, although my favorite would probably be fantasy (I read through a Song of Ice and Fire last summer, to give you context). A few things I'm looking for:

Longer books are preferred. I'm not going to write off shorter books, but I would prefer each book to be able to last me a week or more.

It needs to be available in paperback. Space is at a premium, and I don't want to be lugging around a big hardcover book. Also, ebooks are just not a possibility.

Thank you for your help.

I actually just picked up Yahtzee's book JAM from Barns & Noble. I'm like halfway through, and he did a great job crafting a really scary and really funny horror-comedy. It reminds me of the movie Tremors almost.

also Do Android's Dream Of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick, I just read that a month ago. It reads exactly as it should, a bounty hunter in the ruins of post apocalyptic future hunting down androids.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Anyway I recently finished a book called Ready Player One, cracking read that's really easy to pick up and get into, especially if your a gamer and a fan of sci-fi, anime and nerd culture. I read it after finishing one of the Ice and Fire books so I found it's change tone and ease of reading very refreshing.

Ready Player One was a ripping yarn, but I found the wildly unrealistic depiction of a near future MMO infuriating. It kept pulling me out of the narrative. Reamde did a little better in that regard, and the author clearly did a LOT more homework in terms of how those games actually work, but even that was prone to flights of fancy (not to mention completely dumping the MMO as a narrative element less than halfway through).

My new friend, I think I have just the series for you.

Speaking of Dresden Files, when is the next one coming out? I kind of assumed he was cranking these out non-stop due to the ludicrous number of them, but I finished the series up like a year ago and to the best of my knowledge no new ones have come out.

 

[dragonet111]

If you want some heroic fantasy full of adventure and characters that end up feeling like friends try The Belgariad by David & Leigh Eddings. It's not the best fantasy out there but it's easy to read, full of action and really enjoyable. If you like the first cycle there is a sequel called the Mallorean and two prequel (Begarath the Sorcerer and Polgara the Sorceress), but you have to know that if you like the Belgariad you will read everything, that's what everybody does and this is 12 books, fortunately it's normal size book not the backbreaking tome like the Wheel of Time or a Song of Ice and Fire. From the same authors there is also Elenium and The Tamuli 2 trilogies, again heroic fantasy. Again easy to read and really enjoyable.

I think those 2 series are perfect for a good summer read because they are just fun adventures full of action and good characters. Sadly the other 2 series (The dreamers and The Redemption of Althalus are not as interesting).

I've just started Garden of the Moon by Steven Erikson, it's the first book in the Malazan Book of the Fallen and I love it so far.

There is also the Wheel of Time but for this serie of book it's kind of hit or miss for most readers. If you likeit it's very good otherwise it's a slow and boring read. I loved it but there is some books that feel unnecessary.

The first Malazan book is the most boring compared to the others. Still pretty awesome though. You have to be prepared to not know what's going on, and he doesn't make clear links between characters. Sometimes their in disguise and you have to be diligent to match personas. They always feel epic, earth-shattering and costly for the characters involved

Thankfully there is a dramatis personae at the start of the book to sort out all the characters. I'm not very far in I just started the Darujhistan part. Seems like the kind of fantasy I like.

On topic OP if you have never read anything from the Warhammer 40K universe you should try Gaunt's Ghost. Really cool serie where humans (not the genetically enhanced warmachines type) fight the worst horrors of the galaxy. Very militaristic stuff (remember 40K motto IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE FAR FUTURE THERE IS ONLY WAR). They suffer from the same flaw as D&D books they are for fans. If you have little interest in those worlds they are kind of subpart.

PS: if you start 40K books stay away from the Blood Angels novels they stinks. I would recommend also to ignore the Horus Heresy until you know more about the 40K universe.