Book Suggestions

[Rayku]

I come to smashboards every day, and eventually I see a lot of music/game/anime suggestions. But I've never seen a Book suggestion thread.

This'll be a thread where we all suggest our favorite books. No hate please, this is all opinion.

I'd also like to start reading more, so this will help me personally as well.

Please, no manga suggestions. I would ask that a separate thread be made for that :/

Rayku's Personal Suggestion List:
Paradise Lost
Where the Red Fern Grows
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Scarlet Pimpernel
1984
Mythology

 

[Laijin]

Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice.
Most entertaining series I've ever read.
Vampires are so homo these days. Its sad
But the vampire chronicles is pretty awesome. Pretend the movies never existed and read the books.

 

[ama(m/t)]

when i was a young lad i liked encyclopedia brown

idk i thought it was relevent

next i am going to read bluest eye

 

[gallax]

dean koontz is my favorite author. some of my fav books by him:

the taking
phantoms
whispers
the door to december
from the corner of his eye

 

[dashdancedan]

Siddhartha
House of Leaves
Unbearable Lightness of Being
Life of Pi
I Am America and So Can You
The God Delusion
Catcher in the Rye
The Man Who Was Thursday
The Stranger
Being

 

[BearsAreScary]

Twilight

bbb

 

[Masky]

..........

 

[XIF]

The God Delusion

Da Vinci Code is also legit.

Big fan of Harry Potter.

If you want an interesting book: "The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules our Lives." It gives some good insight on the difference in skill and luck.

The old highschool standby's are nice, 1984 and Catch 22 are amazing.

PS: I used to be all about some Encyclopedia Brown when I was in Elementary School. That series is soooo good.

But they're children's books.

 

[Nihongo-ookami]

If you like Fantasy, I can recommend:

-The Wheel Of Time series
-The Sword of Truth Series
-Eragon Series
-Discworld
-Artemis Fowl
-Redwall Series

Other Books I like:
-Harry Potter
-House Of The Scorpion
-Anything by Dan Brown.
-Hitch-Hiker's guide to the Galaxy
-Firebringer(There's two. One's a Fantasy series about Unicorns[blech] and the other is a fantasy story about talking Deer. Say what you want, I loved that book.)
-Ender's Game
-Beowulf(THE WHOLE THING. NOT THE THREE-FIGHTS-END-OF-STORY VERSION.)

That's all I can think of for now, although I could probably come up with at least 20 more.

 

[Player-3]

where the red fern grows i red that book in 5th grade or some ****

that book was so ****ing awesome

wheel of time is pretty good

you can always read about furry animals fighting with redwall its actually pretty good and theres like 40 of them

 

[arbustos]

notes from underground
100 years of solitude
love in the time of cholera
silmarillion
hitchhiker's guide
infinite jest
romance of the three kingdoms b/c dynasty warriors was cool
one flew over the cuckoo's nest
nightfall
gulag archipelago
coming of age in samoa
do androids dream of electric sheep?
brave new world
lies my teacher told me
things fall apart
the adventures of augie march
critique of pure reason
and of course the estimable redwall series

edit: my redwall rec was taken :'(

replace the inheritance cycle and sword of truth on that fantasy list with a song of ice and fire and mistborn trilogy

 

[FlatSoda]

Siddhartha
House of Leaves
Unbearable Lightness of Being
Life of Pi
I Am America and So Can You
The God Delusion
Catcher in the Rye
The Man Who Was Thursday
The Stranger
Being

house of leaves is legit. it's so gooooooood.
my copy got stolen, when do books get stolen. that's how yo know it's good.


i'm getting a tat of a the introduction.

 

[hungrybox]

Cat's Cradle

 

[XIF]

Artemis Fowl is pretty legit, but some that's like barely high school level, if that.

I'm probably also the only person in my High School that enjoyed Grapes of Wrath, but I think that's a solid book, with a great message.

 

[Gerbil]

Harry Potter (series 7 books)
Eragon (series about 4 books I believe now)
Incarnations of Immortality (series about 8 books)
Xanth (series about 40 books)
*warning: fanboy shield* The Halo series is actually very well WRITTEN
The Adept (series about 8 books)

I'm a major fan of Xanth, Adept, and Incarnations. They're all written by my favorite author, Piers Anthony. The man is a genius at pun hilarity and being able to tell a good story with only a few pages (a few pages being roughly 400)

 

[Player-3]

@xif Im reading it now
Mad good

Shanara series was legit

 

[arbustos]

shannara was c tier

 

[Raven_Knight]

Wow, so many people with bad taste in fantasy.
Here is the truth of the matter of what's good in fantasy.
Lord of the Rings
A Song of Ice and Fire
Wheel of Time (Okay, I know Jordan can't write, but I'm still his loyal fan)
Simarillion
Mistborn trilogy
Abarat series
Monster Blood Tattoo trilogy
(the above two are little known, but both are recent good post modern fantasy series).
Artemis Fowl (Yes, I know it is for a young audience)
Piers Anthony is also win.
the list goes on forever

Here is what is bad and should be ****ed for all eternity

1st Level of Hell
Harry Potter Series (Good for children. BAD FOR ADULTS, SO STOP READING THEM!!!!)

2nd Level of Hell
Shanara (way to many of them)

3rd Level of Hell
Pern books (Do I even need a reason?)

4th Level of Hell
Da Vinci Code (Angels and Demons is a good enough book, but DA VINCE CODE IS MORONIC)

5th Level of Hell
Sword of Truth (SO BORRRING AND PREDICTABLE)

6th Level of Hell
City of Glass, City of Bones, and City of Ashes (Girly)

7th level of Hell
Anything past Ender's Shadow. (All the ones before were so good. WHY DID YOU DISAPPOINT ME????)

8th level of Hell
Authors who think they can write just because they have gotten a teenage book published

9th level of Hell
Stephanie Meyer and Christopher Paolini

 

[ama(m/t)]

Wow, so many people with bad taste in fantasy.
Here is the truth of the matter of what's good in fantasy.
Lord of th-

hahahaha opinion void

 

[XIF]

Here is what is bad and should be ****ed for all eternity

1st Level of Hell
Harry Potter Series (Good for children. BAD FOR ADULTS, SO STOP READING THEM!!!!)

4th Level of Hell
Da Vinci Code (Angels and Demons is a good enough book, but DA VINCE CODE IS MORONIC)

I completely disagree on these two. Harry Potter series starts as a children's book, but the reason why it's so good is that the story and themes mature with the characters age as the series goes on. It gives such a good account on how growing up works (I mean, 5th book Harry is a steaming pile of garbage, much like most 15 year olds, and then by the 7th book he finally matures).

I was lucky in that I grew up with the characters of harry potter, so I got to read the first books as a child, and as the story became more and more mature, I was older with it.

And having read both DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons, both have stupid leaps in logic. They're both great action packed books, but don't call DaVinci Code moronic when Angels and Demons (literally) has a part where

Spoiler

the Camerlengo to the Pope flies a Helicopter with a jar of anti-matter that is set to incinerate a couple mile radius at any minute, and then Robert Langdon jumps in with him, the Camerlengo parachutes off the helicopter, and Langdon jumps with a tarp that measures a few square feet from thousands of miles in the air, the anti-matter explodes with the Helicopter, and somehow Langdon survives without so much as a fvcking itch.

They're both moronic, but good none-the-less

 

[arbustos]

hahahaha opinion void

oh a rebel


you go after lotr instead of wot? >.>


considering its impact, when it was written, and the fact that it is actually a good re-imagining of norse myth warrants a reading.


edit: you have to suspend disbelief when reading pop fiction like rowling (tries too hard sometimes, feels like fanfiction but not as bad as twilight does), king (usually), and brown. i try to forget the masterfully crafted prose of great literature when i read them :\

 

[Rayku]

Okay guys. No debates here. This is all opinions on what your personal favorite books are, and what you would suggest to other people. Do -not- bash other people's taste in books, or give your "circle of Hell" levels. That's not what this thread is for.

Twilight can go burn, though.

 

[QDVS]

The Redwall series is one of my favorite book series (it's fantasy based with animals)!!!

 

[ama(m/t)]

oh a rebel


you go after lotr instead of wot? >.>


considering its impact, when it was written, and the fact that it is actually a good re-imagining of norse myth warrants a reading.


edit: you have to suspend disbelief when reading pop fiction like rowling (tries too hard sometimes, feels like fanfiction but not as bad as twilight does), king (usually), and brown. i try to forget the masterfully crafted prose of great literature when i read them :\

oh i forgot to add "stopped reading here" to my other post lolx

 

[Rayku]

The Redwall series is one of my favorite book series (it's fantasy based with animals)!!!

I read a few Redwall books back in 4th grade, when they were über popular. The few that I did finish, I thoroughly enjoyed. Most of the time, when I suggest the book series to people, they haven't a clue what I'm talking about.

 

[Raistlin]

Anything by Stephen King!!!

I had to read On Writing in 11th grade, and it was so good I had to read some of his other stuff. And it was a non-fiction book!! If you do nothing else before you die, read "The Stand." "It," and "'Salem's Lot" are also particularly amazing.

I'm reading Dracula right now, the mofukin' original by Bram Stoker, and it's actually really good. So read that. Frankenstein is another good classic.

The Thrawn Trilogy by Timothy Zahn is incredible, especially if you like Star Wars. The Redwall series is really good for like the first 10 or so books, then the guy realized he didn't have to try anymore to sell them, so they started to suck.

Artemis Fowl, Harry Potter, The Hobbit (but not the LotR trilogy) are all good.

And finally, two series by a guy named Jim Butcher. The Dresden Files and the Codex Alera are both very good series, and since Dresden's got like 11 books so far and Codex has 6 or so, they'll last you a while. You gotta read those, they are fantastic.

 

[NES n00b]

The Redwall series is one of my favorite book series (it's fantasy based with animals)!!!

LOL I read that **** so much in elementary. xD

Who's idea was it to make a 1000 page fantasy books for children? I still read a lot of the books, though.

 

[Raven_Knight]

As long as we are recommending children books (like Dan Brown's books), I recommend Animorphs.
I was Animorphs fiend in elementary school.
I recommend Last Apprentice Series as well.

 

[BearsAreScary]

how come nobody listens to me!!!!!

twilight twilight twilight read it

 

[Rayku]

The absolute BEST Children's book author is Roald Dahl.

Wrote Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, Matilda, etc...

My -favorite- children's book author. Pure brilliance.

 

[Daysoo]

S Tier
I've read these MULTIPLE times, and I'm still not tired of them. My favorite books.
-----
The Sword of Truth (Series) - Working on my 11th reading now, before I read "The Law of Nines".
Terry Goodkind

The Dresden Files (Series) - Read through four times.
James Butcher


A Tier
Solid books. These are worth at least one read.
-----
Codex Alera (Series)
James Butcher

The Lost Years of Merlin (Series)
T.A. Barron

(Select Books By)
John Grisham


B Tier
Books that are fairly enjoyable to read.
-----
The Night Angel (Series)
Brent Weeks

His Dark Materials (Series)
Philip Pullman

The Lord of the Rings (Series)
J.R.R. Tolkien


C Tier
I read these growing up. They're just OK, but not nearly as enjoyable as they were when I was younger.
-----
Redwall ("Series")
Brian Jacques

Animorphs (Long F*cking Series)
K.A. Applegate

Harry Potter (Overrated Series)
J.K. Rowling


D Tier
Books I found to be mediocre and unremarkable.
-----
Shannara (Series)
Terry Brooks

Diablo (Series)
Richard A. Knaak

The Jackle Of Nar
John Marco

Kingmaker Kingbreaker (Series)
Karen Miller

Dragonlance (Series)
Margaret Weis, Laura and Tracy Hickman


F Tier
Books I just did not like.
-----
The Wheel Of Time (Bad Series)
Robert Jordan


FFFFFF Tier
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
-----
Lord of the Flies
William Golding

 

[Raistlin]

The absolute BEST Children's book author is Roald Dahl.

Wrote Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The BFG, Matilda, etc...

My -favorite- children's book author. Pure brilliance.

That ****** hated children. Think about it, so much ****ty stuff happens to kids in his books.

Spoiler

In The BFG they get eaten!

 

[Raistlin]

S Tier
I've read these MULTIPLE times, and I'm still not tired of them. My favorite books.
-----
The Sword of Truth (Series) - Read through ten times, working on number eleven now before I read "Law of Nines". (I'm not f*cking kidding.)
Terry Goodkind

The Dresden Files (Series) - Read through four times.
James Butcher


A Tier
Solid books. These are worth at least one read.
-----
Codex Alera (Series)
James Butcher

The Lost Years of Merlin (Series)
T.A. Barron

(Select Books By)
John Grisham


B Tier
Books that are fairly enjoyable to read.
-----
The Night Angel (Series)
Brent Weeks

His Dark Materials (Series)
Philip Pullman

The Lord of the Rings (Series)
J.R.R. Tolkien


C Tier
I read these growing up. They're just OK, but not nearly as enjoyable as they were when I was younger.
-----
Redwall ("Series")
Brian Jacques

Animorphs (Long F*cking Series)
K.A. Applegate

Harry Potter (Overrated Series)
J.K. Rowling


D Tier
Books I found to be mediocre and unremarkable.
-----
Shannara (Series)
Terry Brooks

Diablo (Series)
Richard A. Knaak

The Jackle Of Nar
John Marco

Kingmaker Kingbreaker (Series)
Karen Miller

Dragonlance (Series)
Margaret Weis, Laura and Tracy Hickman


F Tier
Books I just did not like.
-----
The Wheel Of Time (Bad Series)
Robert Jordan


FFFFFF Tier
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
-----
Lord of the Flies
William Golding

Minus the Dragonlance and Harry Potter parts, you are my hero.

 

[Daysoo]

Minus the Dragonlance and Harry Potter parts, you are my hero.

Harry Potter wasn't a BAD series, but I personally didn't enjoy it as much as all of my friends seemed to.
It seems like I should like it more since it's contemporary fantasy, which is awesome, but I really didn't get into it that much.
I found the movie "Wizard People, Dear Reader" to be far superior in all aspects of Harry Potterdom.
It's been a year or two since I've read any of the books, though.
To be fair, it could possibly squeak into B tier. Maybe.

Dragonlance just wasn't my thing.
The books never really sucked me into their universe.
I finished them, but I don't really remember them.
*shrug*

 

[Raven_Knight]

Sword of Truth is worse than Wheeloftime and Martin and Tolkein.
My first proof is I've read all 4 of the series. So I should know.
My second proof is...

http://www.bestfantasybooks.com/top25-fantasy-books.php
I like the above site alot.
I pretty much agree with everything they say about fantasy.

http://www.squidoo.com/fantasybooks (hate this site, it only pseudo agrees with me. I was member at one time, but I left ).

http://www.bestfantasybooks.net/

http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/fantasy100/lists_books.html (Love this site, found quite a bit of fantasy that I've read here).

http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/top-100-fantasy-books/
This site hates Robert Jordan #77 and likes Sword of Truth, # 40 something, but otherwise agrees with me (Like about Martin and Tolkein). But the site is british so they're bound to make mistakes.

 

[Raven_Knight]

Oh, and i forgot to mention...
You are probably just angsty about Lord of the Flies because your teacher made you read it in class. It is a great book

 

[Daysoo]

Sword of Truth is worse than Wheeloftime and Martin and Tolkein.
My first proof is I've read all 4 of the series. So I should know.
My second proof is...

http://www.bestfantasybooks.com/top25-fantasy-books.php
I like the above site alot.
I pretty much agree with everything they say about fantasy.

http://www.squidoo.com/fantasybooks (hate this site, it only pseudo agrees with me. I was member at one time, but I left ).

http://www.bestfantasybooks.net/

http://home.austarnet.com.au/petersykes/fantasy100/lists_books.html (Love this site, found quite a bit of fantasy that I've read here).

http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/top-100-fantasy-books/
This site hates Robert Jordan #77 and likes Sword of Truth, # 40 something, but otherwise agrees with me (Like about Martin and Tolkein). But the site is british so they're bound to make mistakes.

I wasn't aware that preferences required proof, or that my opinion had to be aligned with someone else's to have merit.
I must be getting old.

 

[Raven_Knight]

Of course, opinions have to be aligned with someone else's to have merit. That goes with out saying.

If I say something is good, People are like 'who cares what you think?'. But if I say something's good, and then Jesus comes up and says that he agrees with me, People will give my opinion more of hearing.

It's not fair, but it's how the world rollzz.

 

[Rayku]

This guy doing out of his way to specifically ignore the thread holder's request

Man. I've already said that these were all opinions, and no one needed to lash out against each other because they thought the other person's taste was poor.

That was completely and seriously unnecessary.

 

[Raven_Knight]

Man. I've already said that these were all opinions, and no one needed to lash out against each other because they thought the other person's taste was poor.

That was completely and seriously unnecessary.

But what is the point of a book recommendation thread if there isn't any interplay between people with different opinions. If someone thinks that I'm wrong, and have bad tastes in books, I want to know. Maybe I'll be influenced by them, and change my opinion and be better for it.

Anyway, I'm not the only one ignoring the thread holder's request.
How is the tier list of Raitlen's any different from my levels of Hell system? I used my level system to tell what books I thought were bad. He used his tier system to tell which books he thought were bad.

VIEW MY INTESE RAGE!! ummm... not really. If I got angry over books, I'd have stopped reading eons ago.