Book Therapy: Suggestions Wanted!

[Carillon]

In six hours, I will be writing my final exam for Comparative Vertebrate Biology. This will quickly be followed by my History of the English Language final, and then American Modernist Noir Literature on Tuesday, which will be followed by ...

FREEDOM!

Assuming I do not die of a massive nervous breakdown or accidentally impale myself on an overly-sharpened 2B pencil before then, I will be in serious, serious need of something to recharge my batteries. Normally Layonara would fill this niche nicely, but due to feeling burned out from some recent RP I'm thinking of taking a short break and curling up with some good books over the next few days/weeks instead. (Don't worry, I'm sure I won't be able to stay away long.)

And this is where you come in! I invite you to make suggestions on what I should read over my holidays, and assuming I can get my hands on a copy I will give it my best shot.

As a helpful starting point, and to prove my taste is pretty diverse and I'll try almost anything (I will literally read the side of the cereal box in the morning if I can't find a newspaper, and try to never be without at least one or two books in my purse when going out), some books I have read in the last couple of months:

(note: a couple of these are rereads)

The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger (500 pages in one sitting. Fun, but not generally a good idea. So worth it though--one of my favourite books)
Tigana, Guy Gavriel Kay
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J. K. Rowling (Caved to peer pressure)
Murphy, Samuel Beckett
In Memoriam, Alfred Lord Tennyson
Fear of Flying, Erica Jong
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. [Edit: Oh dear, last name being censored! D i c k]
Morvern Callar, Alan Warner
Christie Malry's Own Double Entry, B. S. Johnson
Autobiography, John Stuart Mill (Victorian lit reading list. A little dry for my taste)
The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card. Also, Speaker for the Dead.
The Ig Nobel Prizes
The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan
Grave Secrets, Kathy Reichs
A Year in Provence, Peter Mayle (craved French food for a week)
Lady Slings the Booze, Spider Robinson
The Loop, Nicholas Evans
At Swim-Two-Birds, Flann O'Brien
A Book of Common Prayer, Joan Didion (Brilliant example of the female elegiacal romance)
Freakonomics, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubnar
Aurora Leigh, Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Red Harvest, Dashiell Hammett
The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler (My first Chandler, and I loved it)
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
The Prelude, William Wordsworth
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Light in August, William Faulkner
Regenesis, Julia Ecklar
Pendennis, William Makepeace Thackeray (1200 pages ... course reading)
Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
Carnivorous Plants of the United States and Canada, Donald Schnell (plant geek. So sue me.)
Various poetry of Christina Rossetti (e.g. Goblin Market)

Currently Reading: Rilke

Okay, that list is still probably incomplete, but those were the books not yet reshelved, returned to the library, sitting on my bedside table, or stashed somewhere else in my apartment that I could find.

Seriously though, all suggestions welcome!

And having successfully wasted at least fifteen minutes with that, back to studying!

p.s. If you guys don't make any suggestions, I will be forced to finally tackle Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce. And no one wants to see that happen.

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

Kushiel's Dart, by [SIZE=-1]Jacqueline Carey.

And it's sequels.
[/SIZE]

[Hellblazer]

Well don't know if you are into this, but I got a book for a friend birthday that I read before sending it to her, from the author Anne rice. She has quite a collection as what I have seen too. A bit noir, vampires, fantasy etc.

[Carillon]

Well don't know if you are into this, but I got a book for a friend birthday that I read before sending it to her, from the author Anne rice. She has quite a collection as what I have seen too.

Title, please?

Also, As a further incentive, I have decided that anyone making a reasonable suggestion will receive one complimentary thanks!

Okay, okay, now really going back to studying ...

*looks around for another suitable distraction*

[Hellblazer]

Well here are a couple.

Interview with the Vampire
The Vampire Lestat
The Queen of the Damned
The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty

[Honora]

The Honor Harrington series, by David Weber.  The first book is titled On Basilisk Station.

Bonus:  Unlike too many other sci-fi books and television series, they actually STRAP IN before they go into combat!  Imagine that!  Restraints to keep them from flying across the bridge and hitting their heads on a jutting piece of equipment, thus forcing some underutilized redshirt to step up and get a "guest starring" credit!

Sorry *coughs*.  Wee pet peeve of mine.  Anyway, there are 11 books that deal directly with Honor Harrington and a further 5 books that are based in that universe.  Enjoy!

[Mooneyes]

Two series that I absolutely enjoyed are "The Chronicles of Thomas Coventant the Unbeliever" By Stephen R. Donaldson  Overview of the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever


AND

The Circle Trilogy, "Black", "Red" "White" By Ted Dekker

I couldn't put them down and will read them again and again

[Rowana]

Childe Cycle Gordon R. Dickson... First book is titled "Dorsai!"

Don't thank me, if you read them you might hate me as it's an unfinished series thus far...

~row

[DMOE]

Bitten by Kelley Armstrong

[ycleption]

Thirteen clocks by James Thurber - lighthearted but profound and lyrically written children's book.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith - Postmodern epic, very funny and insightful.

Princess Bride by William Goldman - if you thought the movie was good... (also one of the most interesting uses of postmodern metafiction around)

Cages by Dave McKean - The best graphic novel ever written.

Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie - fantasy written by a master writer.

If you want more I can go dig out a list I once wrote, but that should give you a starting point.

(BTW, I hear you on the reading the cereal box thing)

[Carillon]

Childe Cycle Gordon R. Dickson... First book is titled "Dorsai!"

Don't thank me, if you read them you might hate me as it's an unfinished series thus far...

~row

Rowana, I much prefer unfinished series of living authors to the finished (or worse, unfinished) series of deceased authors! Even if one gets frustrated waiting, it is so much better anticipating future enjoyment than knowing that the brilliant author in question will never write anything more.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions so far! Having reached the midpoint in the December final marathon, I can only look at them with anticipation for now, but come the finish line I am going straight to the library/bookstore!

Also, Ycleption, of course I have read The Princess Bride! The Goldman, of course, not the Morgenstern. (I don't know anyone who has read the Morgenstern, and it certainly doesn't sound as much fun as the Goldman version.) It is definitely worth a reread though, and the rest of your reading suggestions are new to me, though I have heard good things about one or two of them.

[Fatherchaos]

Two books that have stood out to me from the TSR camp (aside from some of the Drizzt based novels)

The Black Wing (very good book about the characterization of a dragon,  from the dragon's view, very very good)
The Prince of Lies (rather dark book, deals with betrayal and gods of death, still good).

One that I would highly recommend, even though it is from an unlikely source, is the fan book adaptation of "Planescape: Torment" this is not the book published by TSR but is instead a word doc that was made from the video game. Hands down, I think this is by far one of my favorite reads (having played the psychological trip of a game and read the equally enthralling book!). Familiarity with Planescape helps, but is not a requirement to enjoy this item.

found the link: Planescape: Torment - Novelization, Rhyss Hess

[Pseudonym]

A free thanks huh?

Hmmmm, okay.

I have just finished Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything which I enjoyed. Next on my list to read is David & Stella Gemmell's Fall of Kings - book 3 of his series on the fall of Troy. This one is my guilty pleasure, love(d) David Gemmell but I am told he writes (wrote) from a very 'male' PoV. Don't know if that might be a deterrent for you.

Before Bill Bryson's book I read Life of Pi by a Canadian (which should earn him some points in your book!) author Yann Martel which I also really liked.

[jrizz]

A winters tale
Mark Helprin

Amazon.com: Winter's Tale: Books: Mark Helprin

[EdTheKet]

Without a doubt, the Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson. It's an ongoing series, and it's at 7 novels now (will be 10). The first is called Gardens of the Moon.

Harlas recommended them to me last year summer and after I read the first one I was hooked and bought the others that were available as well.

Usually with a lot of fantasy novels, you can already more or less guess how things will turn out, not with these and that's what makes them so good. You always want more and it has cost me a lot of sleep "Just one more chapter and then I'll really go to bed...."  

[Falonthas]

dragon prince, star scroll and sunrunners fire in order by melanie rawn

anne mccaffrey said she is a great writer and i agree, and if the dragonlady gives you props you cant have gone wrong

[Carillon]

Before Bill Bryson's book I read Life of Pi by a Canadian (which should earn him some points in your book!) author Yann Martel which I also really liked.

You're right--this does earn him some points in my books. I fear CBC has had its way with me, and I am now firmly brainwashed with respect to the merits of Canadian content! (Though actually this book has been somewhere on my reading list since it was published, Canadian or no. I can't believe I keep forgetting it!)

Without a doubt, the Malazan Book of the Fallen series by Steven Erikson. It's an ongoing series, and it's at 7 novels now (will be 10). The first is called Gardens of the Moon.

Harlas recommended them to me last year summer and after I read the first one I was hooked and bought the others that were available as well.

Usually with a lot of fantasy novels, you can already more or less guess how things will turn out, not with these and that's what makes them so good. You always want more and it has cost me a lot of sleep "Just one more chapter and then I'll really go to bed...."  

Or maybe it's not CBC mindwashing, and Canadian authors are just really good!  Thank you for the suggestion, Ed (and I suppose by proxy, Harlas). I've actually heard very good things about this series, but never got around to picking it up!

Thank you to everyone else who has replied so far as well. Your suggestions thus far should keep me busy well into the new year!

[miltonyorkcastle]

For one of the grittiest, non-heroic fantasy novels out there: The Monument (I'm blanking on the author, but he's British)

For new sci-fi: Old Man's War (this will start you into a trilogy, but it's an easy read, and fun.)

[egoober]

How about some old school "hard" SF?
  "The Forever War": J[SIZE=-1]oe Haldeman
              - So, just what are the ramifications of relativity in an Interstellar war?
Day of the Triffids- John Wyndham
              - good, old fashioned End of the World stuff

On the fantasy side, try the Taltos books by Stephen Brust
[/SIZE](Jhereg, Yendi, Teckla, Taltos, Phoenix, Athyra, Orca, Dragon, Issola, Dzur) -