What's the most awesomest book you've ever read?

[Bobic]

So, given we now have an 11 page thread of books people really dislike, I feel it's time for a bit of positivity from the book loving portion of the escapist. So, what would be your favourite book(s) Mr/Ms escapist?

Now, my first mention pays special attention to the way I phrased that question, as Roadwork by Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman) is one of my favourites, but I'd hesitate to call it one of the best. Basically, it's about a man dealing with depression, lashing out at a rather neutral party who have never-the-less placed the straw that broke the camel's back, they're building a highway right through the house he calls home. In this book Stephen King created a protagonist that I have connected to more than any other book I've ever read (having gone through the whole depression thing myself), and thus it will always be special to me.

Second mention: Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, no other book I have ever read has packed so many ideas into such a small package (my edition is less than 200 pages). It's also damned funny, which is a great way to get me to listen to your ideas. And, as the icing on the cake, the last paragraph is the best final paragraph I have ever read, it perfectly encapsulated the themes of the book whilst making me laugh like a buffoon. Excellent.

So, time to show off your favourite books, and tell everyone how awesome they are.

(Also, anyone who says Lord of the Rings gets an extra special bonus point, because I really liked that series, but it's taking one hell of a pounding in that other thread. (though, not without reason, it is definitely a slow book))

 

[Terraniux]

While it isn't the best book I've ever read, Doom: Knee Deep in the Dead is probably the "awesomest." This book has nearly everything you could ever want from a Doom novel. Constant action. Action-hero like main character with a sense of humor. Blood, gore. Pinkie demon. Sex. Demon-cock levers, and of course, the BFG-9000. I think the only thing it's missing is the protagonist's dead rabbit, but hey, can't have everything. Shame the other ones sucked.

 

[Jolly Co-operator]

Memories of Ice, from the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. It's usually hard for me to pick a favorite fantasy series, and even more so for specific books from those series, but not in this case. Memories of Ice is the definition of "epic". This one book feels like it could make up its own trilogy. The events spanned in the book feel big, I loved the characters introduced (especially Itkovian), and it had a lot of emotional moments. The Malazan Book of the Fallen as a whole is great, but Memories of Ice definitely stands out.

 

[ohnoitsabear]

To Be or not to Be by Ryan North. It's a choose your own adventure version of Hamlet, and it is probably the funniest book I have ever read. Definitely the most awesomest book I've ever read.

 

[Stinovitch]

I'm not that much of a reader, but as a huge star wars fan I really liked the Darth Bane trilogy by Drew Karpyshyn? (don't know if the name is correct) mainly because it contained a lot of references to kotor and it gave an interesting explanation for the fact there were only two sith instead of a full legion.

 

[Funyahns]

A lot of Discworld stuff, Going Postal an Men at Arms are high on my list from Pratchett. Jim Butchers Dresden Files has a few of my favorite books too. Changes, Death Masks. Also Stephen Kings Dark Tower series. Has the Gunslinger and Drawing of the Three.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Blood Meridian was quite literally awesome, in the awe-inspiring sense of the word.
Anything by Philip K. Dick tends to be surprisingly awesome as well. I would say Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, but the book was more or less spoiled by the fact I had already seen Blade Runner quite a lot of times. Ubik, on the other hand, I read not knowing ANYTHING about it. What am I saying? I CONSUMED the book in one big gulp. Highly recommend it to anyone wanting to get into the man and his work.

 

[Malty Milk Whistle]

"how i was spacepirate" I wrote it when I was 6 and it has a whole 4 pages in it.
It details the Author's struggles against the spacenavy, and his heroic fight against them.
It also has a dinodog called 'sock' I am honestly surprised it never won the Pulitzer prize

On a serious note, most likely the Mortal Engines series, they really sparked my imagination and love of all things mechanical and steam-ish.
Or The Wise Man's Fear, it's a lovely (for me at least, quite a few people hate it) mix of prose and charm all wrapped up in a fantasy bundle.

 

[Dimitriov]

Lord of the Rings is by far my favourite book. I have actually read it more times than I can track (20-25? somewhere in that sort of range). It is completely baffling to me that anyone could not like it, and it is very difficult for me to not view that as a serious character defect. I shall, however, try to keep in my mind the old saying "there's no accounting for taste" and leave it at that.

Additionally, I actually really enjoyed War and Peace, however, that was definitely hard to get going (the first time I tried reading it I didn't make it very far).

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is also, of course, a fantastic book.

 

[TheIceQueen]

1) Anything Rick Riordan does with Percy Jackson. As a kid, Greek mythology was a huge outlet for me. I was so deeply fascinated by it. It was engaging, exciting, and quite a bit of it was about heroes! Heroes, heroes, heroes! Of course, most of those heroes had a sad fate, but... but shut up! Also, Age of Mythology remains one of my favorite games to date. Oh, uh, anyways. Percy Jackson. Yeah. When those books started rolling out, the roleplayer in me was instantly dragged into this idea of Greek mythology still existing in this very day and age. It was written in a fast-paced, humorous (though sometimes very groan-worthy), and fun way that had me caring quite a bit about the characters with its storylines (except for the Pan part. Urgh.) that also had an ending that took me quite by surprise - only to find out that more was coming and this time it was interweaving the Roman aspects as well! It did take Riordan a while to get used to the new writing style, though.

2) Harry Potter. HARRY POTTER GENERATION. 'nuff said.

3) A Song of Ice and Fire. Man, and to think that I gushed over Riordan's Percy Jackson for being so engaging. This one's just, wow, but really, I don't need to gush over this.

 

[Kakarot89]

A Clockwork Orange is my favorite book. I don't really care for the movie but I absolutely love the book. It's become one of the few books I can pick up and read time and time and time again.

 

[S1leNt RIP]

To the Far Blue Mountains. By Louie L'Amour.
A really good adventure story with great, well rounded characters and an awesome plot. It's set in the 1600's and is about a man's journey to America while being chased by the Crown for crimes he didn't commit. My favorite book period. Also it's super wise, with tons of little things for people to learn.

 

[Mr F.]

Cloud Atlas.

Its just...

Fucking read it. I have not watched the film as of yet but that book is one of the most stunning things I have ever read. And I am honestly uncertain if it is even possible to come close to capturing that in film form.

 

[gunny1993]

This is a hard question, so i shall just give you my favourite book i've read in the last month

That limits it down to about 15 or so books, but still.

The stars my destination by Alfred Bester. An extremely well written and original SciFi with one of the best anti heroes.

 

[Trunkage]

Memories of Ice is great, but so is Deadhouse Gates and Midnight Tides
Night Watch and Lord of Chaos (Robert Jordan) are incredible too.

 

[Hawkeye21]

I've just finished "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson couple of days ago. To quote tvtropes:

Possibly the best-known book by Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash is the tale of a sword-slinging hacker who teams up with an extreme skateboarder in a Post Cyber Punk disincorporated USA to fight "Snow Crash" - a computer virus for the brain. Oh, and there's a badass biker with glass knives and a nuclear bomb strapped to his motorbike, too.

Apart from its frenetic action sequences and overt use of the Rule Of Cool, the book is surprisingly deep, with a substantial portion of the plot given over to exploring metaphysical interpretations of the Tower of Babel myth. Typical for a Stephenson novel, the plot juxtaposes action sequences, lengthy humorous digressions, and extremely detailed Infodumps seemingly at random. The book is also notable for its uncanny prediction of future internet trends. While holographic web terminals have not yet come to pass, we do have heavily populated 3D virtual worlds, satellite photograph software, and a massive user-created online library, and certain real world equivalents (Second Life, Google Earth) having been inspired by the book itself.

Book (released in 1992) also mentions goggles surprisingly similar to certain Oculus Rift thingie...

 

[ShipofFools]

My favourite book is hard to pick, haha.
But the most intense reading experience I've had was when I bought World War Z by Max Brooks, and started reading... it eventually devolved into an all night, energy drink fueled binge that kind of shook my sanity. I finished reading at the crack of dawn, and had no time for sleep.
Fucked up day after that, but fun!

 

[Floppertje]

ooh, tricky. I've read David Eddings' The Belgariad and the Malloreon about... 15? times. The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham is great, even if it is a little short. the 'most interesting' award goes to Anarchy Evolution by Greg Graffin. I'd recommend that to anyone with a brain.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

My top 3 are (in no particular order):

The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks - A fantastic yet mildly disturbing look at the life of a troubled youth in a remote area in Scotland, whose life was more complicated than he originally thought!

Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - This, and it's successor are still my favourite stories I read as a child, and due to their very short length, I still reread them every now and again.

The complete Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - No... I cannot choose any particular story... and yes... my sign in name does make it obvious that this would be on the list!

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Ohhh, that's hard.

I like David Webber's work but I also know that it's an acquired taste, LOTR have really aged over the decades and Harry Potter was ok.

My three books would be:

The Edge Chronicles: Freeglader

The amount of blood and guts in this so called 'children's novel' was a complete surprise to my younger self who subsequently devoured every Edge book he could find. The amazing illustrations are the icing on the cake.

Terry Prachett's Discword series: Feet Of Clay

It was a hard decision, but this edged out Lords and Ladies as my favorite Discworld novel. Dorlf words at the end of the battle were on the shortlist for my tattoo at one point.

World War Z

For a book about the Zombie apocalypse it's remarkably human. From the last member of the ISS to the celebrity fortress being overrun, it doesn't hold back anything. Shame about the Movie.