Recommend me some books.

Harley Q

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Oct 11, 2009
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thejackyl said:
I just got a kindle for Christmas, but I'm not much of a book person. Recommend me some good books.

I enjoy pretty much any setting as long as it's interesting.
Is it the e-reader or kindle fire?
 

Kyber

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Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Nietzsche is a brilliant and timeless classic of philosophy.
I recommend it dearly.
 

rcs619

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thejackyl said:
I just got a kindle for Christmas, but I'm not much of a book person. Recommend me some good books.

I enjoy pretty much any setting as long as it's interesting.
Hmm, I've seen Game of Thrones recommended already, and it really is great if you like a more grounded type of fantasy.

Let's see. Do you like sci-fi? If so, I feel like I need to recommend the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. It's a more realistic sci-fi setting (although still quite stylized in ways), with some great characters, some really interesting technology and military action, and lots of space-politics.

The Baen publishing company actually has the first two books in the series up online, in full, for free. They even have a bunch of different downloads, for kindles and a bunch of other e-reader formats if you don't feel like reading it on your web browser.

http://www.baenebooks.com/p-304-on-basilisk-station.aspx There you go, the first book in the series.
 

timeformime

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Mine is a bit out of left field, I'm sure, compared to most others, because I like the classics mostly. But this is one almost any reader can enjoy - The Count of Monte Cristo. It got a new translation this decade, and you can get it for $4.70 on Kindle. New translations of old classics are rarely so cheap, and this one in particular is a great modernization compared to the old, musty 19th century translation from French. The archaic translation is the one you find in 99% of its editions because it's open source and absolutely free to publish.

But the Penguin translation really restores it to present day English. In short, pick this up if you want to read a story that was good enough to stay on top of the literary heap for 100+ years, but one that doesn't carry any esoteric literary baggage at all (no metaphors, no allusions, or social commentary, somewhat rare for 19th C. literature). The best of Dumas' works are all incredibly entertaining and hard to put down, and this one rivals The Three Musketeers as his best work.

Whatever you decide to buy, Merry Christmas, and enjoy your Kindle. I'm personally too attached to physical books, so I usually buy an edition on Kindle to match my physical copies and use it when I'm on the go. Either way, it's pretty handy.
 
Dec 3, 2011
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A Song of Ice and Fire, Cloud Atlas, Blood Meridian, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, A Visit from the Goon Squad, the classics (Brave New World, Catch-22, The Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, The Great Gatsby), even more classical classics (Shakespeare, Goethe, Iliad and Odyssey) and I really like I, Claudius.

There are a lot of good books out there. Go to the library and take a shot.
 

Get_A_Grip_

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Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and 1984 by George Orwell are my two favourite books of all time. Fahrenheit is the easier of the two books to read, but both are brilliant.
 

sextus the crazy

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Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. It's one of the funniest books I've read.

Kaputt by Curzio Malaparte. It's his autobiography of being an italian ambassador to various axis nations during WWII was written in 1943. It's a masterpiece with some beautiful prose.
 

SmileyBat

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I'm a fan of the fantasy genre, among which the books that feature Drizzt by R.A. Salvatore are exceptional. There are around 30 of them now. Personally I had hopped in during the Hunter's Blades trilogy and went back to find the rest afterward; any book is a fine starting point as long as it is book I of its particular arc but Homeland is the very beginning.

Also hugely praiseworthy is the Night Angel trilogy by Brent Weeks. These were penned pretty recently and Mr. Weeks has shot up tremendously in the literary world because of it.

For something other than fantasy I have to recommend reading Cyrano de Bergerac, my favorite play. If at all possible I'd go into that one not knowing anything about it. Just do it, it's short but great. Actually i googled it and found the full text right here :D

>> http://www.scribd.com/doc/22637704/Cyrano-de-Bergerac-FULL-BOOK <<
 

bleys2487

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Oct 28, 2010
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The Great Book of Amber by Roger Zelazny (trust me. All time favorite book. I literally cannot explain it to you. You're just going to have to trust me.)

School's Out Forever by Scott Andrews (title makes it sound not so great, but I'm reading it right now. It's a post-apocalypse series, no zombies though :p Definitely interesting and fast paced)
 

thejackyl

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Harley Q said:
Kindle Fire HD to be precise.

EDIT: Holy crap, I'm going to have a huge backlog before I even start reading some of these. That is if I get all of them.

I am interested in some of H.P. Lovecraft's works, and will probably get the collection for $3, where's a good place to start there?
 

LiberalSquirrel

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Jan 3, 2010
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CrazyJew said:
"Good Omens"
So much this. That book is made of awesome.

Also, if you don't mind a bit of hilarious blasphemy in your humor, go for "Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal" by Christopher Moore. Rather hilarious - and surprisingly well-researched for a comedy.

For more serious books - try the "A Land Fit For Heroes" series by Richard K. Morgan (dark fantasy, apparently in a similar vein to "A Game of Thrones," though I haven't read the series). And, of course, as many other people have already said, you can't forget the classics: in addition to many fine classic authors that people have mentioned, I like Christopher Marlowe's works.
 

afroebob

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My personal favorite book would be Lord of the Flies. Yes, I know its almost cliche with how popular it has become but it is an extremely interesting and, while I might not fully agree with the points Golding (the author) was trying to make about the human condition, they are all extremely valid. For a more low key novel, get Haroun and the Sea of Stories. The first 50-60 pages or so SUCK but once you get past that its insanely fun. It kind of reminds me of The Hobbit style of fantasy in that it was originally aimed at children but it is so well written that anyone with imagination can enjoy it.
 

Velociferocks

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Jul 20, 2009
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The Name of the Wind & A Wise Man's Fear By Patrick Rothfuss
Probably the best fantasy books I've read since Lord of the Rings, I'm just desperately waiting for the third book in the series(The Doors of Stone). The story is a framed narrative with the main character telling the story from his humble Childhood to how he became the most notorious man the world has ever heard of.
 
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I have to fourth Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire. Such a great read, if you enjoy fantasy.

Also if you like fantasy and don't mind a more juvenile read (not that they aren't well-written, obviously. But they are primarily aimed at teens), I would also recommend the Artemis Fowl series. They really got me into fantasy.