In desperate need of great reads

closetfreak

Experimental Member
Verified
Gold
Joined
Jan 18, 2010
Posts
216
Media
4
Likes
6
Points
153
Location
formerly DC
Verification
View
Sexuality
100% Straight, 0% Gay
Gender
Male
No, i just go through phases in reading. Ill read non-stop for months and then quit for a year or two. At the time I was reading the series the last two werent written so when I put the series down I just didnt pick it back up.
 
7

798686

Guest
The Power of One, by Bryce Courtenay.
Schindler's Ark - Thomas Keneally.
Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown.

If all else fails - Harry Potter & Deathly Hallows. :p
 

ManlyBanisters

Sexy Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Posts
12,253
Media
0
Likes
58
Points
183
Iain M Banks's sci-fi is dark - maybe not scary - but darker than most. His non sci-fi are pretty good too (published as Iain Banks, no M). In his sci-fi I recommend Against a Dark Background, Use of Weapons and the more recent Matter.

I just read a Dan Simmons book, Ilium - I didn't love it, but it wasn't bad. I hear good things about Hyperion and Ilium hasn't put me off.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchel is stunning - I read it too quickly but couldn't help it.

When I've just finished reading something that grabbed me, especially a series, I try to switch to something very different, or to return to an old favourite. I re-read Catch 22 every few years due to that.

If you are feeling a little adventurous in the stream of consciousness direction, you might try some of Jeanette Winterson's offerings - Sexing the Cherry and the Passion are a good jumping off point and Written on the Body is a work of art.
 

D_Tim McGnaw

Account Disabled
Joined
Aug 30, 2009
Posts
5,420
Media
0
Likes
110
Points
133
Birds Without Wings is a novel by Louis de Bernières. - "Man is a bird without wings, and a bird is a man without sorrows."


Also by Bernières, Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord is a great read.

If you have not read One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, you should. It's one of the great novels of the 20th century.




These are excellent recommendations, especially One Hundred Years of Solitude and Birds without Wings.


I'd add "The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet" by David Mitchell (actually anything by David Mitchell) and if you're looking for something more thriller-ish I'm currently relaxing my mind with the Shardlake novels by C.J. Sansom, "Revelation" is particularly scary and the rest are excellent too.
 
Last edited:

MickeyLee

Mythical Member
Staff
Moderator
Gold
Platinum Gold
Joined
Nov 3, 2008
Posts
34,557
Media
8
Likes
50,201
Points
618
Location
neverhood
Sexuality
90% Gay, 10% Straight
*scribbling down titles to pick up*

ya can always go the books my favorite movies were based on.

Requiem for a Dream - Hubert Selby Jr.
Fear and Loathing - Hunter S. Thompson

both awesome reads.
 

Intrigue

Experimental Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2011
Posts
1,423
Media
12
Likes
9
Points
73
Location
Florida
Sexuality
No Response
Gender
Male
Iain M Banks's sci-fi is dark - maybe not scary - but darker than most. His non sci-fi are pretty good too (published as Iain Banks, no M). In his sci-fi I recommend Against a Dark Background, Use of Weapons and the more recent Matter.

I just read a Dan Simmons book, Ilium - I didn't love it, but it wasn't bad. I hear good things about Hyperion and Ilium hasn't put me off.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchel is stunning - I read it too quickly but couldn't help it.

When I've just finished reading something that grabbed me, especially a series, I try to switch to something very different, or to return to an old favourite. I re-read Catch 22 every few years due to that.

If you are feeling a little adventurous in the stream of consciousness direction, you might try some of Jeanette Winterson's offerings - Sexing the Cherry and the Passion are a good jumping off point and Written on the Body is a work of art.


Dan Simmons is a fav of mine. As is Isaac Asimov. I highly recommend the Hyperion series books. One of my all time favs. And anything Asimov actually. For some reason I've been reading H.P. Lovecraft lately. I just love his style and the dark nature of some of them. My fav is call of cthulu. * Makes mental note to check book collection* I know of another good one called Digital Fortress but I can't recall the author at the moment.
 

Intrigue

Experimental Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2011
Posts
1,423
Media
12
Likes
9
Points
73
Location
Florida
Sexuality
No Response
Gender
Male
Not sure if your into star wars nerdery but the old republic series including "Rule of Two" or anything involving Bane is actually quite good. If your into that.
 

Intrigue

Experimental Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2011
Posts
1,423
Media
12
Likes
9
Points
73
Location
Florida
Sexuality
No Response
Gender
Male
Orson Scott Card. He is a great author. His method of story telling just works for me. His books on "The tales of Alvin Maker" are fantastic. I highly recommend him. (I leave out my all time fav author Tolkien only because I'm not sure if that is your thing and some find him tedious due to his very precise descriptions. I love him for the fact that it was my fist childhood book and his love and creation of his own languages)
 

Sklar

Superior Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2006
Posts
1,647
Media
25
Likes
3,618
Points
368
Location
Everett, Washington, US
Sexuality
100% Gay, 0% Straight
Gender
Male
I'll throw my hat into the ring with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. There's no way on God's green Earth that you can finish THIS series in under two months and catch all the little things he's put into this.

This series is, hands own, the best character driven series you will ever read.

My only complaint is that too many different characters have names way to similar and that gets slightly confusing in the beginning.

Sklar
 

B_subgirrl

Sexy Member
Joined
May 15, 2010
Posts
5,547
Media
0
Likes
34
Points
73
Location
NSW, Australia
Sexuality
99% Straight, 1% Gay
Gender
Female
No, i just go through phases in reading. Ill read non-stop for months and then quit for a year or two. At the time I was reading the series the last two werent written so when I put the series down I just didnt pick it back up.

Next time you go through a reading stage you should read the rest!


How does Ms. Moxie feel about Dean Koontz? The Husband snatches the reader up by the seat of her pants, and drags her down a very dark, exciting road.

My mum loves Dean Koontz. He has more shelf space than Robert Jordan.


Another recommendation:

Peter F. Hamilton - sci-fi writer, great characters, the Night's Dawn trilogy is the best of his work.
 

NCbear

Superior Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2006
Posts
1,978
Media
0
Likes
2,622
Points
343
Location
Greensboro (North Carolina, United States)
Sexuality
99% Gay, 1% Straight
Gender
Male
Anything by David Weber. His books are in the sci-fi section. I haven't read his Armageddon Reef series, but I've read everything else he's written. His Honor Harrington and Dahak series are excellent, while his Path of the Fury stand-alone (and its expansion, In Fury Born) are perhaps the most exciting science fiction books I've ever read.

Elizabeth Moon is a wonderful author. Read her Vatta's War and Serrano series, as well as her stand-alone Remnant Population.

Military science fiction (David Drake) and time-travel stories (Eric Flint) are good, and classic science fiction (Heinlein, Asimov, etc.) are always good. And Orson Scott Card is always good (Tales of Alvin Maker, Ender's Game, etc.), if a bit formulaic in his later years (e.g., Empire).

Do you like British humor? Try Good Omens.

Historical romance? Jennifer Wilde, Julia Quinn, Carla Kelly, Jude Devereaux, Beatrice Small, or Johanna Lindsey are good for historical detail in their stories.

Westerns? Zane Gray or Louis L'Amour, hands down.

Southern Gothic? Pat Conroy, hands down.

Children's books? Anything by Elizabeth Enright, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Robert Lawson, E. B. White, or Robert McCloskey is good.

Books from the golden age of American literature? Anything by Edna Ferber, hands down. Also Louisa May Alcott, interestingly enough.

NCbear (who's also hastily scribbling down authors and titles to go find in rapidly emptying Borders stores)
 

atlclgurl

Just Browsing
Joined
May 20, 2011
Posts
271
Media
1
Likes
0
Points
101
Sexuality
No Response
Gender
Female
Janet Evanovich:
The Stephanie Plum series


^ These are laugh out loud funny!

If you like snarky wit, then Elmore Leonard is your man. All of his stuff is good. ("Get Shorty" was made into a movie with Travolta.)

Michael Connelly if you like cop/legal dramas. (The recent McConaughey flick "The Lincoln Lawyer" is his book into movie deal). He has a character "Harry Bosch" who is smart, gritty but melancholy at the same time... love him!

"Love in the time of Cholera" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is good.

If you are looking for stories related to family dynamics, then most of what Jodi Picoult writes would resonate with you. One of her books, "My Sister's keeper" was a Cameron Diaz film, but it wasn't very well done, and what could have been a great movie exploring medical ethics and "growing a baby" to save a sick child just got turned into a mawkish mess. The books is so much better than the movie.

That's all I got for now.. :tongue: