Suggestions on Books to Read

[Siro]

Lol, wut?

What? It's a poorly written series. No real sense of threat. The main characters are teenage bumpkins. Entire books can be skipped with a 2 paragraph summary. Aside from the richness of the world, which is still overstated, the series has little going for it. If you haven't read a lot, and you mostly read fantasy, then maybe it's for you. I don't know. But I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[Hekate]

What? It's a poorly written series. No real sense of threat. The main characters are teenage bumpkins. Entire books can be skipped with a 2 paragraph summary. Aside from the richness of the world, which is still overstated, the series has little going for it. If you haven't read a lot, and you mostly read fantasy, then maybe it's for you. I don't know. But I wouldn't recommend it.

I don't know if I have read a lot but I always have some books I have to read. And I have read more than just fantasy.

I don't think the worldbuilding is overrated. It's richer than any I have read except anything Tolkien. It's long and tedious at times I guess especially books 7-10 but even in the 10th book which is considered the most boring and slow, I found things that I enjoy reading about.

May be I am just too focused on worldbuilding that I don't give the same importance to other aspects of it. And the journey of characters is enough for me. I don't know, I wouldn't recommend it to everyone as well, it just wouldn't be on the basis of it being bad written.

 

[Eminence]

My favorites are everything Vonnegut, Galapagos being my very favorite. Another favorite author is John Updike, the Rabbit series is great, and I liked both Witches and Widows as well. Another alltime favorite book is Johnny Got His Gun.

On the WOT: I really enjoyed it in junior high/early high school, and it's pretty solid for fantasy, but I'm a bit low on the genre as a whole recently. World building is it's strength, but doesn't match Tolkien in that regard (The Silmarillion is actually my favorite Tolkien).

Some of my favorite fantasy/sci-fi types are:
Stranger in A Strange Land
American Gods (Gaiman's Sandman comics were great too)
The Dispossessed
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

 

[gandalfe]

My favorites are everything Vonnegut, Galapagos being my very favorite. Another favorite author is John Updike, the Rabbit series is great, and I liked both Witches and Widows as well. Another alltime favorite book is Johnny Got His Gun.

On the WOT: I really enjoyed it in junior high/early high school, and it's pretty solid for fantasy, but I'm a bit low on the genre as a whole recently. World building is it's strength, but doesn't match Tolkien in that regard (The Silmarillion is actually my favorite Tolkien).

Some of my favorite fantasy/sci-fi types are:
Stranger in A Strange Land
American Gods (Gaiman's Sandman comics were great too)
The Dispossessed
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. You can easily skip the first 3 books, he was really feeling it out at that point, and it's not really a sequential narrative.

http://i.imgur.com/apCXh4h.jpg

 

[Miggs]

Anyone ever read McCarthy's Blood Meridian? It's generally considered his masterpiece, an infinitely tougher read than the simple The Road and No Country for Old Men, and is begging to be made into an 8-12 episode mini-series on HBO.

 

[Hekate]

I think the most captivating fiction I have read lately is The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder. Got hooked from the first page.

 

[Eminence]

Anyone ever read McCarthy's Blood Meridian? It's generally considered his masterpiece, an infinitely tougher read than the simple The Road and No Country for Old Men, and is begging to be made into an 8-12 episode mini-series on HBO.

I'm not a huge fan. I did find the writing to be a bit of a slog, and I'm not a huge fan of stories that try to stay ambiguous to the end (though that's kind of McCarthy's thing). It is a pretty dang good book, but I'm just not sure it was worth the effort (Pynchon makes me feel similarly - good to great books, but I always wind up feeling I could have done something better with my time).

And on a different note, I enjoy almost anything by Heller as well (I'm sure everyone remembers Catch-22 from high school english).

 

[Siro]

Some of my favorite fantasy/sci-fi types are:
Stranger in A Strange Land
American Gods (Gaiman's Sandman comics were great too)
The Dispossessed
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Stranger in a Strange Land is one of those books I read as a kid and really loved. Same with Asimov's work. Lots of innovative ideas that I look upon fondly since they were my entry into the genre. But really, all of the ideas in them have since been explored more deeply and with more nuance. Nowadays, I'd much rather read, say, Banks' Culture series, over something like Foundation.

The Dispossessed is great. The book imagines an interesting society, for sure. Some kind of highly automated Marxist-anarchist civilization? Really cool.

American Gods was okay for me. I heard so much about it, and when I finally decided to read it, it felt a bit underwhelming. There is nothing specifically wrong with it. Just that I was never sold on its mythos, so it was hard to get into. Enjoyed some of the reflection on American culture.

Hitchhiker's is hilarious.

 

[gandalfe]

Stranger in a Strange Land is one of those books I read as a kid and really loved. Same with Asimov's work. Lots of innovative ideas that I look upon fondly since they were my entry into the genre. But really, all of the ideas in them have since been explored more deeply and with more nuance. Nowadays, I'd much rather read, say, Banks' Culture series, over something like Foundation.

Heinlein's benevolent misogyny is a bit hard to get over, now.

Asimov had great IDEAS, and was magnificently prolific, but both his style and characterization were minimal to the point of being spartan.

 

[JazzGal]

As far as personal growth and non-fiction books go, these are ones I've read this year that I recommend:

"Make Your bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World" by Admiral William H McRaven, former Navy Seal
This is a short book (less than 150 pages), but if you have any interest in the life of a Navy Seal and the lessons learned from that experience, I highly recommend this one. Sadly, he didn't convince me to make my bed every morning.

"Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy" by Sheryl Sandberg. I'm only a few chapters in, but if you are looking to find a new way to get through a tough time, this one's worth your time.

"The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For" by David McCullough. This is a collection of speeches he has given, mostly at university graduations. While some aren't so great, there are many gems in here about the history of our country, our presidents, our symbols.

"Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates. This book helped me understand a bit more about being black in America. There are phrases in it that keep running through my mind whenever I hear people talking about what they do not understand.

"Gratitude" by Oliver Sacks. Quick read but profound thoughts. I've written one phrase down that I'm insisting be included in my funeral.

 

[JazzGal]

As far as fiction goes, I've been on a binge of Fredrik Backman books ("A Man Called Ove" being my favorite) and Liane Moriarty books (four of her books are tied for my favorite, but would probably recommend "Big Little Lies" to start).

 

[fishonjazz]

What? It's a poorly written series. No real sense of threat. The main characters are teenage bumpkins. Entire books can be skipped with a 2 paragraph summary. Aside from the richness of the world, which is still overstated, the series has little going for it. If you haven't read a lot, and you mostly read fantasy, then maybe it's for you. I don't know. But I wouldn't recommend it.

I agree 100%
It's very very rare that I start a book or book series and don't finish it. I got to like book 5 or 6 and couldn't take it anymore.
Everything was so cliche and predictable and inside the box and sexist...... I hated those books so bad despite liking quite a few things about them at the same time lol.