Books and Novels

[*Kenji Murakami]

For myself, I'm a fan of Tom Clancy's style; lots of juicy details I can sink my teeth into. I like K.A. Applegate's Animorphs series, it's strangely like Guyver in its way. In fact, I don't think I would have gotten so deep into Guyver if I hadn't started out with Animorphs.

[durendal]

Hmm.... Tom Clancy makes me sleepy. Too many details. I mostly read books by Anne Rice, and other classics like Charles Dickens (which my favorite is Great Expectations) and Jules Verne. I've recently read the "Dark Matters" Trilogy by Philip Pullman and I have to say that it is way better than the movie version The Golden Compass. Also read a few Stephen King Novels. I really liked his "The Stand" book.

[*Kenji Murakami]

Well, I guess juicy details aren't everyone's thing. I never got into Stephen King. I've heard lots of good things about Philip Pullman, but I haven't gotten into him, either.

[*Jess♥]

i hated what phil pullman did with that story. he broke it. at the very last minute he broke teh story, made th characters do something they just wouldn't do considering all they hadgone through.

when you love someone you find a way. even if it means you BOTH have a reduced time span.

other than that ending part though, i really loved the story. really powerful.

I like to pretend phil pullman decided not to end it and instead got drunk and got his estranged wife to write it, she hated him so she ruined the story.

I tried readin stephen king... he goes off on one... too much, I lost interest in it.

I read eragon. before the film was ever announced. It is a good book. if you watched the film or heard about it, pretend it doesn't exhist because it is truly appalling.

I read all the harry potter books.

I read christopher pike "The Last Vampire" series. I really enjoyed those stories.

I don't actually read much... so thats pretty much it.

apart from one I am trying to start on .. "The Sword of Shannara" by Terry Brooks.

my mum reads this series and she told me to get into it.

yeah, I have trouble readin books because of my dyslexia and also, there is so much other cool stuff i could be doing!!

[Super Existence]

I don't do much reading but I love the Dune novels I used to love reading pulp horror novels like James Herbert and Shaun Hutsons. I really like reading HG wells's stuff, still stands up today and the style he thought the future would be is a cool one.

[*Kenji Murakami]

I forgot this one on my last run-through, but I've also read Christopher Pike's The Midnight Club. I liked it, though it was really depressing.

[Cannibal]

I only read books about Chengiskhan and related. Now I reading John Man's "Genghis Khan - Life, Death and Resurrection" (2004) - cool stuff!

[Guest Ashura]

Genghis Khan was an amazing individual, I think I will look for that book, Cannibal, thanks for posting it!

The books I've read thus far and love are:

Musashi - Yoshikawa Eiji (there are english reprints of this in libraries, though may be tough to find)

Go Rin No Sho (Book of 5 Rings) - Miyamoto Musashi (If anyone is interested in reading about Musashi's teachings, compared to as the individual's "Art of War".... this site has the translation http://www.samurai.com/5rings/, the book itself is like 5 bucks on Amazon.com the last I purchased years ago)

Ninja series (Nicholas Linnear cycle) - Eric Van Lustbader

The Necroscope series - Brian Lumely

The Psychomech trilogy - Brian Lumely

The Vampire series - Anne Rice

The Widowmaker trilogy + Gathering of the Widowmakers - Mike Resnick

That's about it for me!

- Ashura

[*YoungGuyver]

Let's see.

Neil Gaiman can be excellent, or a bit boring. From him, I like:

Anansi Boys. Nothing like finding out your father is a god, and your estranged brother inherited all the powers. Lifes just not fair

NeverWhere. A young man who saves a girl, and for that he doesn't exist anymore. Except in the gritty world below London of People that everyone forgot. Being homeless has never been more exciting. Especially with Angels and Demons

StarDust. The book started out really good, but then it read like he got bored of writing it on the last two chapters. I mean a quick summary to get to the end? I like how the movie fixxed that little problem. The movie did it perfectly.

Other books from other authors:

The Paksinarion Trilogy. Damned good. Very gripping. A girl who runs away from home to become a mercenary in a sword and sorcery world. Thing is, somehow she seems to be capable of magic. But she left her dreams of being a Paladin behind long ago when she was a child, and decided to grow up and live in the real world. Paks, the old sheep farmers daughter; weilder of the really big sword. Not bad for Elizibeth Moon's first books.

The Speed of Dark. Another Elizibeth Moon book. A scifi about autism, and definetly describing it perfectly. Well, honestly I think the description of the experience feels a little like Aspergers, but its very good. Nothing like a story about a man who has to chose a cure being forced on him, being forced to change the way he thinks and percieves the world, his identity and soul. But brain surgery will do that.

The Midnight Blue Trilogy. A VERY gritty book series about a vampire who hunts other vampires, and all mystical beings that hunt humanity. A good delve into the psychic realm, which humans seem to not notice. That homeless man you ignore, is actually a gnome. The big bruiser following the rich entrepreneur, he's a troll bodygaurd for the elite vampire. The woman in the mental hospital, a last remnant of humanities psychic ability that comes off as really crazy because she sees all of thise. And Blue, she woke up with no memory, and was forced into prostitution, until she realized what she was. She was, needless to say, not happy. Not even when she got her memory back. Gritty, but good.

Batman: The ultimate evil. Bruce Wayne attends another gala event, where he meets an interesting woman, a social worker. The woman seems torn up, not really getting into the party. She's too absorbed into her work. But after spending day after day trying to pull sexually abused children out of their homes with no legal success, who could blame her. Needless to say, someone decides to investigate, outside the normal realms of the law. A good expose, presented well.

Eragon, Eldest. I liked it. I want to read the third one, whenever it comes out. The movie REALLY sucked.

I think I'm going to stop listing there. I have books I like, and books I don't like. No real favorates among the ones I like

[Wiedergänger]

The book's I've read are:

The Inheritance Books - the first two, anyway and I'm eagerly awaiting the 20th of this month for the next one!.

The Vampire Plague books.

The Twilight Cycle - I really don't recommend this one. I didn't find it terribly interesting; it was far too predictable, and too full of romance for my tastes.

Protector of the Small Quartet, books one through three.

Pieces of Moby Dick

Some Sherlock Holmes.

The Cask of the Amountillado <- I know I didn't spell that correctly^^

The entire Harry Potter book series.

Shadowmancer.

The Prince of Darkness.

A ton of old classics, for example: The Grapes of Wrath, Beowulf, The Canterberry Tales, and a few stories concerning King Author.

The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and the Two Towers.

That's my list^^

[durendal]

Well, I'm currently reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. I didn't even know what this book is until a female colleague of mine recommended it to me a few days ago. And seems like there'll be a movie coming out in November. Great, another way to spoil the movie for me.

[Larz Zahn]

i read all of the starwars books up until the new jedi order fiasco happened.... to me it killed the spirit or mood of the previous books.

i also read the Battletech series... basically... they ripped off robotech and kept the warring between regular humans across the stars. they do introduce a human based race later on, but thats a ways later and its practically a mini zendtradi race. all warriors. but i love it so its cool. so says me.

i read most books just cause im bored.... i was the kid who read the entire lit book in math class just cause i dont get math and they had some really good stories in those text books!!

[Hyper_Guyvantic]

Godzilla Returns, Godzilla 2000, and other Godzilla novels Marc Cerasini wrote.

Lets see, the only Stephen King book I have read from cover to cover is the screen play rendition of Storm of the Century. I tried reading the Green Mile and Dragon Eyes, or is it Eye, and couldnt get into it.

Last book I really read was Underworld Evolution. I got through that book in 2-3 days flat. Tried reading X-Men: The Last Stand and Superman Returns but couldn't get into them.

The current book I am reading is Stephanie Meyers' The Host. Its pretty interesting. One of the reviews say its a hybrid of Stephen King and Issac Asimov. But my mother who is also reading it, agrees with me that it is more Asimov with King's descriptiveness.

[Hellspawn28]

I don't read books unless there graphic novels but i like to read are:

Space Odyssey series

I Am Legend

Childhood End

Lord of the Rings

Halo:The Fall of Reach

1408

At the Mountains of Madness

The Mist

Imperial Earth

The Hobbit

To Kill a Mockingbird

Aliens Earth Hive

Of Mice and Men

The Call of Cthulhu

[durendal]

Hey, to kill a mockingbird. Read that one. One of the very intelligent books I've read.

Also, I'm finished reading "Twilight" and I'm half way in the second book "New Moon". First Vampires, now Werewolves?

[Guest OrangeCow]

Check out Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. An amazing book, it gives some great perspective.

[*V Guyver]

The I've read a ton of Star wars novels, they are all pretty good with the exception of the first few in the late 70's early 80's. I love X-Wing's "Wraith Squadron" and "Iron Fist" by Aaron Allston the most. One of the few star wars novels to make me cry and also make me laugh hard enough to wake up people at night. The most alluring things are the blend of humor and tragedy of some characters. All the characters except for Wedge can be considered "defective" people, one is a traumatised form squad leader who's entire squad was killed in an ambush. We got one who's Jedi flunky. A former imperial child actor who was used to as propaganda and later horrified of the truth in the empires actions as well as the results of his work. One is a man who's lost the ability to live life to the fullest because he finds himself losing his humanity over time due to his injuries (No longer able to attract women, incapable of having children, and unable to continue his career) and tons more.

Anything by John Dos Passos is pretty good. He was on par if not better then Hemingway, and not to mention has gained the highest literature awards around at his time. I love both his historical, and fictional works.

Various versions of Kind Arthur's legends and his knights. At age 8 I read a 12,000 page 3 inch thick book, I don't remember who wrote it, but I believed it was titled "King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table" possibly by Roger Lancelyn Green. That book was a to read...

Animal Farm. Probably one of the most enjoyable books I read, it's so incredibly funny with it's horribly dark morbid humor.

Any of the Darwin Award books, good for a laugh, or just go to the website.

As well as dozens upon dozens of historical books like "Europe and Our Nation", "Army of the Potomac", and "Great People of the Bible and How They Lived".

One of my favorites is Plotting Hitler's death. Real life stories about how the German resistance and many others plotted to kill Hitler. Hitler survived over 56 assassination attempts and over 200 plots. The book offers a great deal of detail and an inside view of Germany that most people aren't aware of.

Finally, I suggest you guys read a couple of foreign books. "The Art of War" Sūn Zǐ Bīng Fǎ and "Pack Of Wolves" by Vasil Bykov

I was about ot wrap this up when I remembered more good books. Let's see In "My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer" by Irene Gut Opdyke is one of the most tragic and horrifying books I read. She lost a lot of things, including being raped by a Nazi to save the lives of the Jews she saved, as well as escaping her own persecution from Russians and others, and loosing her first love.

"Summer of my German Soldier" another great read. About a young American girl under an abusive father who houses and protects a German POW in the USA.

"Bully: A True Story of High School Revenge" a real life murder carried out in California by a bunch of teens with such horrible brutality and insane circumstances that you'd think it was a low budget B movie.

"Call of the wild" a must read classic

[Hellspawn28]

I also like some of the Alien novels, i thought Aliens hive was very good.

[*Kenji Murakami]

I've read a couple books by Ayn Rand, and I find myself completely unable to stomach that much willful stupidity. Note to Rand: Human beings do not work that way!

[*V Guyver]

I never got a chance to read her books, but as a kid I had one teacher who used to mention her name. I looked her up later and found some of her ideas to be ahead of her time and usually attempting to do good, but some things lacked the logical consequences of disrupting societies as they are. Also... her umm fetish's... are a little creepy, this coming from a guy who has researched rape in general of psychology.

I will try and get her books someday, if I remember that is.

By the way, anyone ever read Mein Kampf (My Struggle) by Adolf Hitler? I found the book a bit of a mess to read, but it shows just how disillusioned he was with society. Also how he seemed to want sympathy for his actions... or rather his future actions. Interestingly enough, you can tell he wasn't a real monster when he wrote this, just a horribly misguided human being filled with too much anger and hatred towards people. I don't think he truly became the monster he was later pictured as until after his doctor started to dope him, and he surrounded himself with men even more vile and insane then 10 Hitlers combined. He was however obsessed with glory and war, and wanted to be a hero. He unfortunately was not the type of hero we wanted, and is now remembered mostly as a villain.

Edited September 18, 2008 by V Guyver

[Guest Inu Youkai Liz]

I'm interested in books that have horror (like ghost stories) or murder mysteries, adventure, or something with vampires (or wolves XD)

But when I go to the library I'm very picky about what kind of book I check out

[durendal]

Have you read the Vampire Chronicles of Anne Rice. There's a lot of book in the chronicles in the following order:

Books that feature Lestat prominently:

I. Interview with the Vampire

II. The Vampire Lestat

III. Queen of the Damned (if you've seen the movie and find that it sucks, read this, and The Vampire Lestat, you'd be very surprised at how things turned out. The movie amalgated the two books into one sucky movie)

IV. Tale of the Body Thief

V. Memnoch the Devil.

Books that were written in the point of view of other vampires:

The Vampire Armand

Merrick

Blood and Gold

Blackwood Farm

Blood Canticle

New tales of the Vampire

Pandora

Vittorio the Vampire

Also, Merrck, Blackwood Farm and Blood Canticle is a cross over with the other series of Anne Rice, the Lives of the Mayfair Witches.

I have all her books (Except cry to heaven, which really turned me off because it has the first chapter describing castration)

[Larz Zahn]

ew ew ew ew ew.....

[durendal]

Rather than creating a new topic, I might as well revive an old one.

Since the movie Twilight came out, I was wondering how many of you guys watched it. And how many of you guys read the book before watching the movie and how many of you guys read the book after watching the movie.

I came to ask this questions because recently when I've been browsing on the local bookstore, I noticed that the Twilight series was completely out of stock, unlike before the movie came out, there were bundles in the front shelves of the book store. Even tried looking at other stores and can't seem to even find the fourth book "Breaking Dawn". Well, I was one of those people who read the book first before the movie came out, so I don't have the dilemma of hunting the book. What about you guys?

[*Kenji Murakami]

I've heard that those books suck large quantities of crud through a hose; this assessment comes from some people I've gotten to know very well, so I tend to trust it.