...Read any good books lately?

[redxiiii]

With the cliche forum title out of the way, i'm currently making my way through Dante's Inferno and i should be finished soon so i was wondering if anyone had read anything they could reccommend? if its not to much to ask just give me a title and a short plot summary, thanks.

P.S NO Twilight or Potter books please.:eep:

[krissy]

if you liked dante's inferno, you should check out His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman (Golden Compass, Subtle Knife, Amber Spyglass)

edit: nevermind i think i mean if you liked paradise lost. whatever though, check them out.

[Raistlin]

I haven't been doing any personal reading lately, but over the summer I was very impressed with Neal Stephenson's Anathem. Not a quick or easy read, but an amazing book. It's basically about a futuristic/alternate reality world where there are monks who study knowledge and science. Very nerdy fun, and Stephenson's humor is excellent.

[redxiiii]

I haven't been doing any personal reading lately, but over the summer I was very impressed with Neal Stephenson's Anathem. Not a quick or easy read, but an amazing book. It's basically about a futuristic/alternate reality world where there are monks who study knowledge and science. Very nerdy fun, and Stephenson's humor is excellent.

Nerdy fun does sound my thing *goes to further investigate*

[NorthernChaosGod]

If any of you are into high fantasy, then I suggest checking out George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.

I was turned onto the series two summers ago when a friend bought me the first two books for my birthday. I didn't get into the first book at first, but once I got passed the first 1/3 I absolutely devoured it.

[rubah]

just make sure you get the paperback or a wrist brace if you read A Song of Fire and Ice.

[Jessweeee♪]

I'm about halfway through Wicked. I wanted to read it before I saw the musical (and I think there's a movie, too). It's really good so far and I highly recommend it.

[VexNet]

Janet Evanavich's book "One for the Money", It's a bit chicky but I'm thoroughly enjoying the slice of life thrown in with crime/detective story.

Really reminds me of a girl's pov version of Phoenix Wright xD

[Raistlin]

If any of you are into high fantasy, then I suggest checking out George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Very overrated, in my opinion -- roughly on par with Wheel of Time (another well-known yet overrated series I am not very fond of). If fantasy is your thing, then Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman is an amazing series.

[supergame123]

I haven't been doing any personal reading lately, but over the summer I was very impressed with Neal Stephenson's Anathem. Not a quick or easy read, but an amazing book. It's basically about a futuristic/alternate reality world where there are monks who study knowledge and science. Very nerdy fun, and Stephenson's humor is excellent.
this book i have knew from my friend,she said this book is very interesting as you said ,i am planning to see it.

[Rye]

Read Nabokov. If not Lolita, then Invitation to a Beheading. I insist.

Handmaiden's Tale by Margaret Atwood was astonishing. Instant top 10 favorites for me.

Quite loving Farewell to Arms by Hemingway as well.

Not much of a play lover usually, but Euripides: Medea is hot stuff as well. Just wrote a whole paper on it and I'm still keen on it. If you're into ancient greece, I'd go for it.

Battle Royale, for a fun read, if you like dystopian novels. I think half of the ones I mentioned are dystopian though, so if you dislike them then I'd go with just Hemingway and Euripdes.

[NorthernChaosGod]

If any of you are into high fantasy, then I suggest checking out George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Very overrated, in my opinion -- roughly on par with Wheel of Time (another well-known yet overrated series I am not very fond of). If fantasy is your thing, then Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman is an amazing series.

Blasphemy.

But I'll check that out.

[Rye]

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, as well. One of the best books I've ever read. One of those books that grows up with you.

[rubah]

The LIST
East of Eden - Steinbeck: 601 pp
Chronicles of the Witch World - Norton: 522 pp
<del>A Game of Thrones - Martin: 704 pp
Deathly Hallows - Rowling: 784 pp</del>
Hyperion Cantos - Simmons: 936 pp

[Breine]

Not much of a play lover usually, but Euripides: Medea is hot stuff as well. Just wrote a whole paper on it and I'm still keen on it. If you're into ancient greece, I'd go for it.


Medea is one of the more enjoyable Greek tragedies in my opinion. That and Oedipus are must reads.

Another good and classic tragedy is The Hunchback of Notre Dame. A very good book, actually.

[Boney King]

With the cliche forum title out of the way, i'm currently making my way through Dante's Inferno and i should be finished soon so i was wondering if anyone had read anything they could reccommend? if its not to much to ask just give me a title and a short plot summary, thanks.

P.S NO Twilight or Potter books please.:eep:
I would suggest reading the other two parts of Dante's Divine Comedy.

[I Took the Red Pill]

Not much of a play lover usually, but Euripides: Medea is hot stuff as well. Just wrote a whole paper on it and I'm still keen on it. If you're into ancient greece, I'd go for it.
Euripides is the smurfing man. I recommend The Bacchae if you haven't read it yet. Easily, easily the best Greek tragedy I've read, and I've read a metric :bou::bou::bou::bou:e ton.

[The Man]

Martin is a hundred times the writer Jordan was. And I like Jordan (well, except for that pile of utter dog:bou::bou::bou::bou:e Crossroads of Twilight). Martin needs to hurry the smurf up though. I'm going to forget half the plot by the time Dance comes out.

DGC definitely isn't anywhere near being better than ASoIaF, though it's definitely better than Wheel of Time, and probably one of the better fantasy sequences all things told. My biggest complaint is that it falls into the common fantasy trap of having most characters being obviously good or obviously evil, when most people in real life are shades of grey. At least it didn't divide them up into good and evil based purely on what side they were fighting for.

As for recommendations, if you're up for reading a book where you'll have to look up a lot of references, I'd strongly recommend Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. There are several excellent online concordances for it, and Steven Weisenburger has an excellent companion (though I wouldn't recommend reading that alongside the book since he gives away one of the most shocking and disturbing plot twists in the introduction, which greatly diminishes the impact of the book's ending in my opinion). Pynchon has perhaps encapsulated Smedley Butler's aphorism that war is a racket better than any other writer of fiction I've ever read, and in doing so he has managed to capture the flavour of history in all its complexity. If you're not up for starting an unknown author with a doorstop-sized tome, then The Crying of Lot 49 or Inherent Vice or even Vineland will do nicely by way of introduction. Note also that Gravity's Rainbow richly repays re-reading; the first time around, due to the sheer complexity of the plot and the fact that the full significance of many details is far from obvious, the dominant feeling is one of confusion and paranoia, but the full implication of the plotting and counter-plotting becomes obvious on subsequent readings and one grasps the full extent of the machinations in all their sinister dominance.

For something a bit more humorous, I recommend 3xCarlin: An Orgy of George, a compilation of three titles by the famed comedian. Barnes & Noble has it for $13, I believe. His memoirs are out now as well; I'm reading them as we speak, and I'm quite enthralled with them, though they probably won't be of interest to anyone who's not interested in stand-up comedy or Carlin in particular.