I just finished "The Autobiography of King Henry VIII" by Margaret George. It was long, but a really, really good book, and I would recommend it to everyone.

2001: A Space Odyssey was a crazy book. It helped explain A LOT of the movie too.

I'm currently reading Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse which is amazing. Hesse was a damn good writer.

I'd like to second the earlier post on enders game, this is the first of the authors books and it has so many themes that are relevant to our everyday lives. another book along that theme would be 1984, i think everyone should read this book right now even if they've read it before.

The mention of Lolita is also an interesting one, that book demonstrates languages ability to cover any atrocity and make it sound beautiful.

I just read "the poisonwood bible", which was very awesome. It's about a american family in the 60's who go to africa to do mission work. Worth reading.

"The Devil in the White City"

A very interesting story about the building of the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893 and a serial killer who lived and worked in the area.

Posted by Drie I just read "the poisonwood bible", which was very awesome. It's about a american family in the 60's who go to africa to do mission work. Worth reading.

Wow, my girlfriend is absolutely obsessed with this book and I'm reading it right now...originally on her behalf, but I actually am really enjoying it. What a strange coincidence.

I've just finished a term paper on two books, and I would recommend them to everyone highly. The first is Kafka's "The Trial" and Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov." I'd recommend anything by Dostoevsky really, but Karamazov, Notes from the Underground, and Crime and Punishment in particular. All masterpieces.

Finally, I implore all of you to hunt down this one book and read it. I had to order it special from amazon because it was in no stores or libraries, but it was worth it. Wonderful, wonderful book...it's very trippy, and you'll think about it to no end. "The Man Who Was Thursday" by G.K. Chesterton.

White Noise, by Don DeLillo.

Underworld, by Don DeLillo.

Everything and More, by David Foster Wallace.

Posted by HairyTheTaco ...As for the last installment -Helliconia Winter, I have no idea, I cant find that book anywhere.

Try simply searching for "Helliconia." As I recall, all three books were published in a single omnibus edition by that name.

My favourite sci-fi book that I can think of right now would be Joe Haldeman's The Forever War.
Einstein's Theory of Relativity predicts that as you approach the speed of light, time slows down for you, relative to the rest of the universe. The book, which is really an allegory for the Vietnam War, tells the story of one soldier fighting a war between earth and some alien species. Because of Relativity he spends what, to him, are months fighting the aliens, while centuries pass by on an Earth that has moved on without him.
It's a reflection on the nature of conflict, and to a certain extent, society in general. On the other hand, sometimes I wonder if he couldn't have done just a little more with the whole idea.

I guess everyone's a critic...

Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear, & the Selling of American Empire.

eds. Sut Jhally and Jeremy Earp.

ISBN 1-56656-581-2

This is valuable reading for those who want to understand the motives of the Bush administration's foreign policy objectives.

Why Do Men Have Nipples? Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini

Mark Leyner & Billy Goldberg, M.D.

It's a fun read and it answers all the important questions in life like why does your pee smell after you eat asparagus? It even hits on some urban legends, e.g. did Mikey from the cereal commercial really die from an exploding stomach due to eating Pop Rocks and drinking Coke?

~Kes~

October Dreams - A celebration of Halloween
Edited by Richard Chizmar and Robert Morrish

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin is a really great dystopic novel. If you liked Nineteen Eighty-Four you'll enjoy this book. Actually, I believe that Orwell did credit this book as a great inspiration. If I remember correctly this text was written in 1921 (early twenties at any rate) in Russian.

Animal Farm Another dystopic novel that is also a pretty heavy satire. Everyone loves Orwell, and probably read this in HS, but the few hours it takes to read this novel make it well worth rereading.

The Invisibles Okay. So they're comics, but they are really good comics, better than some books that I've read. To sum the series up: these are the guys that the creators of The Matrix ripped off. ^-~

Frankenstein The remakes and cultural image of the characters in this novel really do them no justice at all. It was, in many respects, the beginning of sci-fi and it is Gothic to boot. Can't beat that.

Oryx and Crake I'm not a huge fan of Atwood, and this book really could have been done much better, but it is worth checking out if you want a fast-and-dirty read.


Some authors worth checking out would be: Philip K. Dick, Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, Orson Scott Card, and Douglas Adams.

Any of the Shannara novels by Terry Brooks (fantasy), or anything by William Gibson (cyberpunk)

Karlsson's favourite books

Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
What's Inside? -The Alphabet Book (picture book) by Kitamura Satoshi
the Moomin stories by Tove Jansson, esp. the ones written after WW2
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Sandman (comic) by Neil Gaiman & various illustrators
The Eddas
Blade of the Immortal (comic) by Samura Hiroaki
.:Whew:. wanted to get that off my chest for ages.

Posted by Karlsson on the Roof Karlsson's favourite books Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami What's Inside? -The Alphabet Book (picture book) by Kitamura Satoshi the Moomin stories by Tove Jansson, esp. the ones written after WW2 The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce Macbeth by William Shakespeare Sandman (comic) by Neil Gaiman & various illustrators The Eddas Blade of the Immortal (comic) by Samura Hiroaki .:Whew:. wanted to get that off my chest for ages.

I just finished Kafka on the Shore!
Yay for Murakami!!!!

I just finished Kafka on the Shore! Yay for Murakami!!!!

Murakami kicks ass! Read Norwegian Wood and After the Quake.
Norwegian Wood is probably his best, it's less bizarre than the others.

anyone read the collector? I thought the first and the last sections were good, i found the middle to be hard to read because of its randomness and repeating lots of the first part over again.

Reading The Stand right now, pretty excellent book, its long, but really good so far.

Oh boy! I love books. Here's a few of my favorites:

Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins. Easily one of the best books I have ever read. Anything by Tom is going to be a great read. I also recommend Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates

Anything by Douglas Coupland. He's amazing, AND Canadian. If you haven't read anything with Coupland, start with Generation X, or any of the others that have been recommended here already.

Mordecai Richler. I recommend Joshua Then and Now or Barney's Version

Carl Hiaasen. He's hilarious, and yet his writing has a sharp political edge. A lot of fun to read. His most famous work is probably Strip Tease (yes, as in the movie with Demi Moore), but I also loved Skin Tight and Sick Puppy. For non-fiction, there's also a very short book called Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World, a diatribe denouncing the evils of the Disney Corporation. Very good read. You may not like Disney too much when you're done with it, though.

If you ignore the hype and read Salman Rushdie, his work is very, very good. I thoroughly enjoyed The Satanic Verses

Irvine Welsh is the genius who brought us Trainspotting, if you can get past his peculiar writing style (he spells his dialogue the way its pronounced, with a strong Leith accent). The Sequel to Trainspotting is Porno, and its very good. I also liked Glue, and Filth

I'm also a HUGE fan of John Irving. Everything I read by him blows me away. A Widow for One Year is another of best books I've ever read. I was also floored by A Prayer for Owen Meany. I find that his books are the kind you are still thinking about months after you've finished them.

Sorry, I'm going a little nuts here. There's just so many great authors out there! One more:

A Japanese writer called Yukio Mishima, who was a very interesting fellow. You can read his biography here. I really liked The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea, and Forbidden Colors

Okay, I'm done now. All those books are really good, though. They were to me, at least.

KBasa--If you mean The Collector by John Fowles, yes I've read it. You are right the first and last parts of the book from his viewpoint are much better than the middle one from hers. Good creepy ending though. Enjoy the Stand, it's King's best work. H.P. Lovecraft is probably my favorite horror author, he wrote his stuff in the 20's and 30's and it still holds up today. Micheal Slade writes very good tear-the-living-skin-off-your-screaming-face horror, set mostly up in Canada. Clive Barker's Books of Blood are good reading, too before Clive went Hollywood later on. In sci fi, read John Steakley's Armor or anything by Gibson--I like both his trilogies for different reasons. Roger Zelazny's Amber series is good too. Jon Krakauer's "Into thin air" and "Into the wild" are good real world reads. For the hunters/treehuggers out there in the audience I have something totally different, read Peter H. Capstick's "Death in the Long Grass" you'll find out what that black stuff between the elephant's toes really is and why they call "Dangerous Game" just that. In graphic novels, Mike Mignolia's "Hellboy" is good stuff. Forget that bad movie, it's crap even if Perlman's FX were good. Warren Ellis' "Planetary" series is great too as is his "Transmetropolitan" series.

Ashley

ps. everyone keeps talking about "Snow Crash" I'll have to snag a copy.