Author Topic: Most Enjoyed Books or Authors (Read 1510 times)

magnusarin · « **Reply #20 on:** April 12, 2007, 12:34:00 am »

Oh Snow Crash, that's a trippy brilliant novel. Not a huge fan of his other stuff, but he brought all his elements together for that one.

gilshem ironstone · « **Reply #21 on:** April 12, 2007, 11:19:26 am »

Pretty much all my favourite fantasy novels are up there.

I am reading "Gardens of the Moon" by Steven Erikson. Very good, based on a PnP campaign from what I heard, but also a very good storyteller.

"The Prince of Nothing" series is also very good Although you have to forgive that the author seems to have never had a meaningful relationship with a woman in his life. The books are called, "What Comes Before", "The Warrior-Prophet" and "The Thousandfold Thought".

ycleption · « **Reply #22 on:** April 12, 2007, 12:36:53 pm »

I'm just now adding books to LibraryThing | Catalog your books online It's really cool, and doesn't take personal information to create an account. Everyone else should too

[EDIT: I just made a Layonara group on LibraryThing... go join, now!

]

Also, if you're interested in graphic novels, you owe it to yourself to read Cages, by Dave McKean (directed Mirrormask, did a lot of art for Neil Gaiman, and other stuff). By far and away the best one I've ever read.

Oh! and my favorite fantasy short story of all time:
THE QUEST OF THE QUEEN'S TEARS by Lord Dunsany

lonnarin · « **Reply #23 on:** April 12, 2007, 12:48:44 pm »

Chuck Pallaniuk (sp?)
Kurt Vonnegut (RIP)
Tom Robbins: Still Life w/ Woodpecker is like my real life biography
Steven King's Dark Tower Series... a must read.
Milton, Dante, Shakespeare: I'm a sucker for a good dark story told in verse
Snorri Sturluson: the world's greatest true Skald
Beowulf: Anonymous writes some pretty heavy stuff sometimes
RA Salvatore & Tolkien: of course, I'm a nerd. Can't stomach Greenwood though, Elminster in Hell was truly a hellish experience to read; all flashbacks of Silverymoon nobles' love stories... barf!
Bukowski is hilarious, never seen anybody write about women more accurately
I hate Ayn Rand's self-important boring ego with a passion...
Micheal Parenti: I hate government too
other than that, I mostly read old rennaissance and eastern philosophy and poetry. I'm especially a sucker for haiku and feudal japanese death poems
my favorite philosopher is David Hume

When it comes to comics, I usually digest a steady supply of Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Squee, Preacher, Sandman, EVERYTHING Marvel and anything really racy and dark.

jan · « **Reply #24 on:** April 12, 2007, 12:58:05 pm »

I would say the series:
Time, Test and War of the twins by Weiss and Hickman( Dragonlance for those who didnt guess )

Everything else from these two co-writing aswell.

Tolkien:the complete works , but hold on the last one ( his son finished it and i havent read it yet)

ycleption · « **Reply #25 on:** April 12, 2007, 01:58:53 pm »

Quote from: lonnarin

Snorri Sturluson: the world's greatest true Skald

Agreed. His works, and other Icelandic texts can be found here.

Icelandic Lore

Oh, and for all you people who like Tolkien... this is the real stuff.

Mooneyes · « **Reply #26 on:** April 12, 2007, 02:27:12 pm »

These all sound good. My list is getting longer as I read this thread.

Here are a few more that I wanted to add.

The Screwtape Letters
By...C.S. Lewis

The Chronicles of Narnia
By...C.S. Lewis

Tuesdays With Morrie
By...Mitch Alborn

And this last one I had to read for a class. It can be graphic and sad but it is a true story. It brought me to tears.

A Child Called "It"
By.....David J. Pelzer

Faldred · « **Reply #27 on:** April 12, 2007, 02:59:57 pm »

Well, first and foremost, I'm a total Tolkien geek -- as in, people who read as far as The Silmarillion are just rookies.

I used to enjoy Tom Clancy, but he got WAY too formula about 3 or 4 novels ago.

I like the Ender series by Orson Scott Card, though some of the later books get a bit too preachy for my tastes.

Feist is pretty good, but again he is starting to get a little "formula".

I like Dune series, and even the "prequels".

Lord help me, I even like Harry Potter.

Mooneyes · « **Reply #28 on:** April 12, 2007, 03:03:28 pm »

I only got through the first book of Ender series. Pretty good.

ycleption · « **Reply #29 on:** April 12, 2007, 03:22:59 pm »

ooh! How could I forget!

Thirteen Clocks by James Thurber: It's a bit hard to find, but one of the best children's fantasy books you'll find. I own two copies, one for me and one to inflict one all my friends.

I think I've kinda ODed on fantasy fiction... read Tolkien when I was young, devoured David Eddings, Terry Brooks, Wies and Hickman, etc when I was in my early teens, and slowly progressed to a little bit more "literate" fantasy. when I was in college, I tended to binge read on anything in the library's fantasy section when I had a break, and now I think I need a break for a couple years.

(Sooo many favorite books... it's taking all my willpower not to write a 50 page essay praising all of them. I'll try to restrain myself)

Nyralotep · « **Reply #30 on:** April 12, 2007, 03:46:53 pm »

HP Lovecraft for horror
The Dark Tower, very engrossing
RA Salvatore
Tolkien
Harold Coyle and Tom Clancy because I love a good military novel.
Eric Van Lustbader
Stephen King

that's what comes to my mind right now. Hornorable mention would be the first horror novel I ever read in elementary by William Peter Blatty - The Exorcist

deagle · « **Reply #31 on:** April 14, 2007, 12:07:35 am »

Wow..so many good reads above..brings back memories of many of the books I have read.
Tolkien, Feist, Eddings, Bradley, Lackey, Anthony, Brooks, Donaldson...more and more...

The Deathgate Cycle...good series...

The Deryni stories...Katherine Kurtz...as well as her Adept series

Tanith Lee ...Tales from the Flat Earth

Sanctuary Series of Tales...Robert Lynn Asprin

The Sun-Runners series ...Melanie Rawn

Gord the Rogue....Gary Gygax

Elric of Melinibone....Michael Moorcock...one of my favorites

Annals of the Black Company...Glen Cook...another favorite

...hmm...actually they all are I guess

I can go on naming many more within my library/collection...but all have been enjoyable to read and spike the imagination...and I constantly look for more to read.

Lets not forget some of the other classics that have produced great stories...Twain, Melville, Dickens, Swift....and more

Great stories like...Moby , Huckleberry Finn, Gulliver's Travels, Great Expectations.

Guess I like to read...didn't really realize how many books I have read over the years until I started listing just a few above.

Imagination is a great thing to have and nothing like a great story to spark it.

stolen · « **Reply #32 on:** April 14, 2007, 01:01:34 am »

Neil Stephenson- snow crash, cryptonomicon
Dan Simmons- everything
Enders Saga- orsen scott card
Neil Gaiman- the sandman comics
The Preacher comics -Garth Ennis

CHAzz · « **Reply #33 on:** April 15, 2007, 05:30:51 pm »

Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos novels. I must admit I haven't read any of his other stuff yet.

Tolkien, Lovecraft, Howard, von Voight, Asimov, Clark, Niven, Bradbury.....etc etc, ad nauseum...

Voltaire (the comedian)

must mention that "The Children of Húrin" comes out this week, in case there was a Tolkien fan somewhere that hadn't heard of it yet

Lareth · « **Reply #34 on:** April 15, 2007, 06:34:29 pm »

I'm rediscovering some books by Peter Moorwood, The Horselord, Demonlord etc. Old but still a great read.

Otherwise for non fantasy works I'm plowing into the Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama which is proving quite enthralling. Unfortunately much of my spare time for reading is taken up by work related subjects

so I miss out on quite a lot that I would otherwise like to read.

Skywatcher · « **Reply #35 on:** April 15, 2007, 06:54:11 pm »

Ender's game is my favorite scifi

Harry Potter

The circle trilogy by Ted Dekker is really good too

Polak76 · « **Reply #36 on:** April 16, 2007, 02:43:49 am »

Quote from: ycleption

So many to choose from...A FEWof my favorite books are:
White Teeth, by Zadie Smith
Collected Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges
The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss
Haroun and the Sea of Stories, by Salmon Rushdie
Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston
(I could keep going for a long time....)

HAHahaha...the Lorax! Now thats an absolute Gem!
God that brings back memories. I can still picture the old book, tattered and smeared as my grimy childhood fingers scoured the pages with keen interest.

Thanks for the nostalgia.
Polak76

Nibor21 · « **Reply #37 on:** April 16, 2007, 04:13:16 am »

Ok Terry Pratchett is something I can read any time (I own every book he has published to date!)

If you want dark and funny look at Neil Gaiman (He wrote Good Omens with Terry Pratchett, the Sandman Graphic Novel series but his best two are Neverwhere and American Gods - both fantastic examples that you can writing stunning fantasy set right here on modern earth)

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever Series By Stephen R. Donaldson - the only series of books I have ever enjoyed where I have despised the main character. These books are really dark, but great.

oh and of course anything by Enid Blyton!

Laldiien · « **Reply #38 on:** April 16, 2007, 10:05:46 am »

While not fantasy, David Weber's "Honor Harrington" series is fantastic.

You will hate Pavel.

gilshem ironstone · « **Reply #39 on:** April 16, 2007, 11:29:40 am »

Wait.. non-fantasy authors... I love Tom Robbins! Smart, funny, weird and insightful.