Favourite Book/Story

[Garrett]

Just a little question about your favourite book. I am so indecisive that I don't just have one, but one of mine is called 'The Learning Curve' and it's by Melissa Nathan. It the last book she published before dying of cancer at 37. It's a romantic comedy in a book, it would probably make a pretty decent movie.

We could sort of make this like a book-club type thing, but without the tea parties and the "I didn't agree with that book". I was more thinking like sharing titles so that others who don't have any idea of what to read (such as myself), and people can have discussions about their take on the book.

[Madge]

Ooooh, books I enjoy!

I don't read nearly as much as I should but I just recently finished re-reading "The Lost World" by Michael Crichton. Great read, that and "Jurassic Park". They're long books but definitely worthwhile particularly if you're like me and enjoy science-y stuff. Or if you liked the movies. The books are much better than the movie and far more graphic if you would enjoy reading some slightly more detailed accounts of how the dinosaurs maul everyone.

I'm currently reading "Death From The Skies!" by Phil Plait, a book that's recently come out in paperback. It's non-fiction and full of stuff about how the universe is trying to kill us - from asteroids to aliens to gamma ray bursts to the heat death of the universe. It's a little heavy in places though but it's all very interesting.

A book I read in highschool lit was "The Handmaid's Tale". It was awesome - I couldn't stop reading it! I started reading at 11pm before bed, and couldn't stop even after I saw the sky getting light the next morning. It's written in a really engrossing style and is about the US getting taken over, basically, by really odd right-wing religious conservatives who instill all sorts of odd customs and subjugation of women. Normally I hate feminist-style books but this one was awesome and really didn't have any overt feminist themes in it - just so happened that the brand of wacko christians that took over the US was bad to chicks.

Finally, my brother read for his english class this year a book called "Damage Done" by some guy who was a cocaine smuggler and had to spend all this time in a Bangkok prison. He really really enjoyed it, I haven't read it but probably should.

Also I seem to remember a thread about this recently?

[Mistress Morbid]

Such a hard topic to post in! Haha, I've been an avid reader since I first learned how to make sense of letters.

I'd have to say that there are a couple that stand out to me as being some of my favourite novels of all time. I tend to be very fond of the fantasy genre, and the two best series I've ever read fall into that category. I also like horror/mystery books, and of course well-written books involving vampires and such (no, I don't count Twilight in there...I'll admit I've read them, and I didn't mind them really, but I consider them more as chocolate or candy - just a treat to have and in no ways beneficial or anything. They'd never be ranked with my favourites or even as good writing).

So, for now I'll put my two favourites:

The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind.
I honestly love these books so much. There's 11 of them in total and I've re-read them 4-6 times. A friend of mine lent me the first one years ago after highly recommending it, and I had it sitting on a shelf forever waiting to be read. The cover had looked rather blah and cheesy (it was a very old cover with retro-looking fantasy characters) and I kept putting it off. Well, shame on me for not thinking of the old proverb. By the time I picked it up one day after I was desperate for something new to read, I was hooked. I absolutely love the characters, the themes, the plots...everything.

and

A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin.
These are probably the most epic fantasy books you will ever read. Hell, I'll even go so far as to say they're the best books you could ever read. I'm not even kidding, this author is phenomenal. If that's your type of thing, and you haven't read these, then go buy them. Right now. You could never be even remotely disappointed. The only thing that worries me is that the author is freaking old and he's not even like halfway finished. I'm terrified he'll die before gracing us with the concluding books. ;_;

More honorable mentions go to Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Silverwing, the Vampire Chroncles, Stephen King books....and millions more that I can't possibly try to list. xD

[Seerow]

MM, I now love you. I've never met anyone else who has read or even heard of Silverwing. You are my hero.

Mercedes Thompson series by Patricia Briggs is one of my favorite series of all times. If you like werewolves, vampires, fairys, and folk lore, you'll love these.

Women of the Underworld series by Kelley Armstrong. This series has regrettably gotten a bit worse as they've gone on, but the first half still remains some of my favorite books.

You also can't go wrong with Amelia At-Water Rhodes earlier books. The later half of her Hawksong series leaves a lot to be desired though.

Some other notable mentions go out to: Pigs Don't Fly by Mary Brown, The Elvenbane by Mercedes Lackey, The Secret of Dragonhome by John Peel, Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly, and Blink by Ted Dekker.

[Mistress Morbid]

*hugs* I love Silverwing! In Grade 5 we read it in class and I remember just how amazing it was. I still enjoy it to this day, I also own all 3 of the other books as well. ^^

I've always been a fan of those books told from the eyes of animals. Silverwing, Watership Down, Tailchaser's Song....I really like those type of novels.

[TCStarwind]

Did someone say Silverwing? My rabid obsession with bats is partially due to that book (but mostly Beast Machines, which I was introduced to at grade 4). Good series. I lent the series to my friend, who loved Darkwing but couldn't get into Silverwing. Watership Down (and Tales from Watership Down) and Tailchaser's Song are wonderful books as well. And I do love the Mercy Thompson series.

I found a fantasy trilogy by Hilari Bell that was pretty good (it still counts as fantasy if there are no dragons, right?). Starts with Fall of a Kingdom.

I wish I had more. I used to read all the time, but I've become too much of a book snob. I have a hard time finding anything I'm really interested in. Although, I'm currantly reading a band biography of Motley Crue called The Dirt, which has so far proved to be interesting.

[Jessi]

I second TCStarwind on Watership Down. Thanks to Rah making me read that, it has become one of my favorite books ever. It's one of few books that actually made me cry at the end, heh.

Mercedes Lackey is one of my favorite authors, although I only enjoy her Valdemar-based books. The Last Herald-Mage Trilogy I still think is her opus and the best of the Valdemar books, although I really enjoy Exile's Honor/Exiles Valor, too, but that's because I love Alberich, heh. If you're into fantasy, she does it well enough without shoving a bunch of stereotypical fantasy-type things down your throat.

Bastard out of Carolina by Dorothy Alison is one of the greatest books I have ever read, hands-down, but it IS very violent and sexual. It's an absolutely amazing read, however. I got into it in my Creative Writing class in high school, where we read the first page of a novel and had to pick which one gripped us the most. I picked that one, and have been in love with it ever since. Highly, highly recommended.

I also like some really stereotypically popular books, like Memoirs of a Geisha which is just excellent and I'd recommend it to anyone, heh.

[Joey]

On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers. It's about pirates. And magic. It's literally my favorite book ever, my treasure is a signed first edition hardcover copy of this book. I'm a big fan of Tim Powers in general. I sold him a hat once. His only other book I've read is Last Call which is about poker. And magic. At some point I've got Anubis Gates to read, but that'll be awhile.

... Mainly because I'm currently absorbed in The Song of Ice and Fire Series xD I'm not quite finished with the first book, but I find I'm having a hard time putting it down, and have wasted valuable studying hours this week while reading it. I think it's actually really dense, I gave up half way through the first time I tried reading Game of Thrones. It's better the second time, since I have a better grasp on who's who.

Also by George R. R. Martin is an excellent vampire book called Fevre Dream. It's not one of those romantic vampire stories that are so popular with the teens these days, it's about vampires in pre-civil war America and riverboats on the Mississippi river. Really fantastic, and highly recommended if you're sick of the recent sparklepire trends and want real vampires.

I'll also throw in His Dark Materials Trilogy, by Phillip Pullman. Very excellent, I couldn't put them down when I was reading them. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede is another old favorite of mine. For something more science fictiony, I really loved Startide Rising by David Brin. It's about a crew of dolphins on a space ship who get into a crapton of intergalactic trouble, without being anywhere near as silly as I make it sound. Never finished the trilogy that continues that one though, only the first book. Another on my to-read list.

[Mistress Morbid]

Yeah, A Song of Ice and Fire can be a lot to chew the first time. Tons of characters, lots going on...but I found that the more you read the more absorbed you get. It's the type of book you can re-read dozens of times and never get sick of because each time you find more little details that you may have missed initially.

Ooh, I'll have to check out Fevre Dream. I hadn't heard of it, but I already know what a fantastic author George R. R. Martin is. Sounds right up my alley. =D

[AngharadTy]

Probably not a huge shock, but I'm going to toss in something specific of Stephen King's--the Dark Tower series. It's really nothing like his horror novels, and yet it ties them all together, ultimately. Definitely his opus; he's called it that himself. As a warning, he's a character in the last books, and some people have really disliked that. I think that, how he wrote them, it became necessary, so I understand it and enjoy it.

My favorite book of all time is probably out of print. Fine Prey by Scott Westerfeld; it's about learning an alien language and deciding who you are, with bioengineering and sex and drugs on the side. I also love Scott Westerfeld's Evolution's Darling, which is about AI and humanity, with some sex on the side again. Scott Westerfeld has become pretty famous for his Uglies trilogy, which I like, but I like his adult fiction a thousand times more than his YA. It has a completely different feel, very structured and poetic yet real. But I'm afraid that because his YA is so popular, he'll never finish the adult-fiction series that only has two books out.

Another enduring favorite for me that no one seems to have heard of is the Crossroads trilogy by Nick O'Donohoe. It's about vet students who visit a fantasy world and treat unicorns, griffins, rocs, etc. etc. I named two of my Subeta pets after the trilogy, hehe.

[mellaka]

I have trouble pinpointing my favorites, but if I had to pick one, I guess it would be Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. It was the first Murakami book I ever read, for a modern lit class in college, and I just loved it. It's two stories told in alternating chapters - one set in a slightly futuristic Tokyo and another in a rustic, unfamiliar society. And, well, I suck at explaining plots but it was a fun read.

I've read most of Murakami's fiction and have enjoyed them for the most part, though they do start to seem a bit similar to one another after a while.

I went through a phase where I read and re-read everything I could find by Jack Kerouac. Though, now that it's been a while since I've read anything by him, I'm not sure how I feel about it anymore.

And, I still re-read the Lord of the Rings trilogy (and sometimes The Hobbit or The Silmarillion) every 18 months or so. I also like the Earthsea books by Ursula LeGuin.

Right now I'm reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I know a lot of people are annoyed by books like this, but I'm enjoying it so far. It's been a long time since I read the original though.

[Silver Link]

The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind.
I honestly love these books so much. There's 11 of them in total and I've re-read them 4-6 times. A friend of mine lent me the first one years ago after highly recommending it, and I had it sitting on a shelf forever waiting to be read. The cover had looked rather blah and cheesy (it was a very old cover with retro-looking fantasy characters) and I kept putting it off. Well, shame on me for not thinking of the old proverb. By the time I picked it up one day after I was desperate for something new to read, I was hooked. I absolutely love the characters, the themes, the plots...everything.

My boyfriend and I read the whole series and I agree, it was great. It was well written with great action and good plots. The only thing I didn't like about the series was that later on, he spent a lot of time explaining why Jagang's thinking was wrong and poisonous and if magic was destroyed the whole world would go into a dark age, etc.


I don't have a favorite book but I love anything written by Jasper Fforde. His books are funny, unique, and very easy to read. Start with "The Eyre Affair" and I dare you not to be sucked in

[AngharadTy]

I really need to read The Eyre Affair, since I have it and keep meaning to start it. It's good to get other thumbs-up at it. Maybe sometime I'll actually start it.

I loved The Sword of Truth series when I was younger, and I still think it's enjoyable fantasy. I stopped reading them when

Spoiler: open/close

Kahlan disappeared and I flipped forward and found out that she wasn't back by the end of that book. Major plots/characters being forgotten is a huuuuuuuuuge pet peeve of mine. I did a quick scan of the book after Chainfire and I didn't see her come back in that one, either. I really don't want to put up with an open-ended version of a plot twist I loathe.

On the other hand, Kahlan was super-extreme hot in the tv series. Kind of makes up for my disappointment in the series. ;D

[Mistress Morbid]

I agree that later on in the Sword of Truth a couple of the books get a bit bogged down by Terry's views, however I find the rest of the books strong enough to make up for those hiccups.

And Ty:

Spoiler: open/close

She doesn't disappear forever, so don't let that discourage you. It's just that the final 3 books are like a climactic trilogy or something, so it's one big plot put together. I quite liked the ending.

Ugh, don't get me started on the TV series though. =/ I refuse to watch it. I read reviews and saw clips and it's safe to say that they butchered it. If it was a stand-alone show it would probably be fine, but they altered/removed/changed so much of the book that it was hardly recognizable. Plus I don't think I liked any of the actors. I have much higher hopes for the Song of Ice and Fire TV series that will be coming in the future.

[Madge]

Also Ty, the non-sword of truth books you mentioned sound really really awesome. I should check if my local liberry has them! Science + sex = sexance! or possible Sciex!

In any event, they sound awesome.

I should input something.

Oh! My boyfriend Paul mentioned to me that the Neverending Story book is awesome, and also Ringworld. I haven't read either but I am sure you can trust him. Well, maybe not. He DOES have a mullet.