Recommend me some books

[I Have No Idea]

So here's the deal: it's the summer vacation before my first year in college. I have no job, even after looking and applying for weeks, and I'm bored. So I desperately need something to read. Like, now.

Preferences: no romance novels, please. I'm open to sci-fi, fantasy, and realistic fiction. Plus, I'm a guy, if that sways your choices. Thanks!

 

[Eclipse Dragon]

Some Fantasy recommendations.

The Pern series by Anne McCaffrey is nice, and should keep you busy for a long while.

The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks has some good action in it, he also just started a new trilogy called "The Lightbringer" if you wanna get in on the ground floor.

Any series by Raymond Feist if you like the whole "brothers in arms" kinda thing.



The Night Angel Trilogy is probably the best in your case. The series is only three books long, it's easier to get into.

 

[straymatter]

What have you read and liked?

 

[Aurgelmir]

The Horus Heresy Series.

Yes it is a tie in novel series to Warhammer 40 000 but some of the books are really good, and post some interesting dilemmas.

 

[twistedmic]

If you like Fantasy, you should give the 'Malazan Book of the Fallen', by Steven Erikson, series a try. There are ten books (not counting a few side-story novels) in the series, and each one is fairly long (the shortest one has around five hundred pages).

Also, 'The Hobbit' and the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien is almost required reading for fantasy fans.

 

[Quaxar]

The Great Oxford Dictionary. Can't go wrong there, it's a timeless classic. Plus you learn a ton from it. But never buy the new edition expecting a different story, I made this mistake once and all they did was correct spelling.

anything by Terry Pratchett.

if you don't want to jump into the (39) Discworld books try Nation or Good Omens.

Also, what he said.

 

[The Floating Nose]

I am recommending you The Diary Of A Wimpy Kid books. They are really funny, the situations do not feel exagerrated it was all written with an attention for things that happens in a kid's life (i could totally relate to some of the stuff in the books).

 

[TakeshiLive]

For something like you've never read before, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. A very enjoyable light read but crammed with nifty science theories and ideas if you look for it. This is especially recommended if you love Monty Python style sense of humor.

Something a little more serious, V for Vendetta or The Watchmen for some great graphic novel intrigue. Both by Alan Moore.

Ps. RIP Douglas Adams

 

[MrTub]

well I personally think Ender's Game is a great book.

 

[Flamezdudes]

I'm just gonna go ahead and recommend the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. It isn't finished yet, there are still two books to go but it's an amazing medieval fantasy series.

I shall also recommend World War Z by Max Brooks which is a delightfully entertaining Zombie novel, told from many perspectives and lives accounting World War Z.

 

[hermes]

I'm just gonna go ahead and recommend the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. It isn't finished yet, there are still two books to go but it's an amazing medieval fantasy series.

I shall also recommend World War Z by Max Brooks which is a delightfully entertaining Zombie novel, told from many perspectives and lives accounting World War Z.

Those are some pretty good recomendations. Also...

Science fiction: Ender's Game by Scott Card, Childhood's End by Clark and the Foundation series by Asimov (the first trilogy is the best).

For political fiction, Animal Farm and 1984 by Orwell and Brave New World by Huxley are timeless classics.

And, of course, most of the books of the recently lost Ray Bradbury are highly recommendable...

 

[Scarim Coral]

Since you said no job, you're looking for book to borrow from the library or you do got some cash to spend it on?
Either way I highly recommend Yatzee book Mogworld as it is hilarious to read! You may however have a hard time getting of it though.

 

[Smithburg]

The Hunger Games
Underworld by Neil Gaimen

Also "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss was one of the best books I've read

 

[Sean Hollyman]

Metro 2033, the book which inspired a game.

'The year is 2033. The world has been reduced to rubble. Humanity is nearly extinct. The half-destroyed cities have become uninhabitable through radiation. Beyond their boundaries, they say, lie endless burned-out deserts and the remains of splintered forests. Survivors still remember the past greatness of humankind. But the last remains of civilisation have already become a distant memory, the stuff of myth and legend. More than 20 years have passed since the last plane took off from the earth. Rusted railways lead into emptiness. The ether is void and the airwaves echo to a soulless howling where previously the frequencies were full of news from Tokyo, New York, Buenos Aires. Man has handed over stewardship of the earth to new life-forms. Mutated by radiation, they are better adapted to the new world. Man's time is over. A few score thousand survivors live on, not knowing whether they are the only ones left on earth. They live in the Moscow Metro - the biggest air-raid shelter ever built. It is humanity's last refuge. Stations have become mini-statelets, their people uniting around ideas, religions, water-filters - or the simple need to repulse an enemy incursion.It is a world without a tomorrow, with no room for dreams, plans, hopes. Feelings have given way to instinct - the most important of which is survival. Survival at any price. VDNKh is the northernmost inhabited station on its line. It was one of the Metro's best stations and still remains secure. But now a new and terrible threat has appeared. Artyom, a young man living in VDNKh, is given the task of penetrating to the heart of the Metro, to the legendary Polis, to alert everyone to the awful danger and to get help. He holds the future of his native station in his hands, the whole Metro - and maybe the whole of humanity.'

I'm not far into it, but it's cool.

 

[Flamezdudes]

I'm just gonna go ahead and recommend the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin. It isn't finished yet, there are still two books to go but it's an amazing medieval fantasy series.

I shall also recommend World War Z by Max Brooks which is a delightfully entertaining Zombie novel, told from many perspectives and lives accounting World War Z.

These two, for sure. A Song and Ice of Fire is absolutely enthralling for the first three books. Stalls a bit with the fourth book but it's still a fantastic read. World War Z is one of the most interesting and unique takes on zombie fiction I've ever read, alongside Max Brook's first book The Zombie Survival Guide. The audiobook for World War Z is also great.

I'll also put forth a few of my own picks -


Let the Right One In

Horror vampire fiction set in Sweden. Bittersweet, beautiful and all kinds of messed up.

I love you for recommending Let The Right One In. It's one of my most favourite books ever and the film is absolutely brilliant aswell. Did you know the epilogue story to it is being released later this year (in the UK atleast)? It's called Let The Old Dreams Die and it's got a ton of other short stories in the novel aswell by John Ajvide Lindqvist.

- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Let-Dreams-John-Ajvide-Lindqvist/dp/0857385496

His other books are awesome, Little Star in particular.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Roget's Thesaurus - expand your vocabulary!

OK, proper suggestion now, most stuff by Raymond E Feist, David Gemmell and China Mieville. That'll keep you occupied for a good bit...

 

[DoPo]

The Dresden Files - meet Harry Dresden, wizard-slash-private-detective. Look him up, he's in the Chicago yellow pages. Under "wizard". The only entry there, too. Oh, and he's awesome, as well, over the course of the series, he has faced werewolves, zombies, evil wizards, demons, fae, ghosts and a bunch of other stuff. It's pretty good, in fact, I'm planning on rereading all of it pretty soon.

John Dies at the End - OK, this might not exactly be your thing, but I feel compelled to plug it. It's written by David Wong, yes, the same from Cracked. That was a selling point from me right there, but you may have another opinion. If you need more plot, it's about David Wong and John Cheese doing drugs and fighting demons. That should either get you hooked or not. Also, it's a comedy horror that somehow manages to mix both while still keeping them distinct.