Favorite Writers / Books ?

[SluttyShemaleAnna]

Kurt Vonnegutt - Best writer ever, his best books are slaughterhouse 5 and Mother Night. Mother night is particularly dark and twisted.

Phillip K Dick - Brilliant sci-fi author, some of his short stories are the best. of course the brilliant A Scanner Darkly is one of the best.

Terry Pratchtt - YAY!! Everyone loves PTerry! keep fighting that Altzheimers TP. All his discworld books are wickedly funny, pick any and just read. It's usually best to pick one near the beginning of a story arc, but there's no need to know what happened in the last ones. Also, his 2 scifi books 'dark side of he sun' and 'Strata' are very good too. If you've read Ringworld, you should totally read Strata, it totaly nails RW if you know what I mean, very funny.


I used to like Michael Crichton's books. Jurrassic Park and Lost World were great, so was Congo but his new stuff is a bit shit. Especially State Of Fear. it's bloody awfull, disparate elements, shit characters, shit plot, it held together about as well as the story I wrote in year 8 English.



Oh my! I totally forgot, You Must By Law or you will be Beaten With Sticks go and read the His Dark Materials trillogy, by Phillip Pullman.

Best fantasy series ever. Go read Northern Lights (Golden Compass for you unfortunate yanks), it totally rules. If only they hadn'y fucked up the film damn christian-appeasment.

[lopey]

Originally Posted by SluttyShemaleAnna

Kurt Vonnegutt - Best writer ever, his best books are slaughterhouse 5 and Mother Night. Mother night is particularly dark and twisted.

Tiger gotta hunt, bird gotta fly, man gotta sit and wonder:

"why, why, why?"

Tiger gotta sleep, bird gotta land, man gotta say:

"I understand"

[sesame]

Ian M. Banks (Superb Sc Fi and amazingly complex)

Consider Phlebas
The Player of Games

T. H. White (King Arthur and Merlin Mythology)

The once and the future King
The sword in the stone

Joanne K. Rowling(Woohooo Harry Potter!! Magic!)

All the Harry Potter books.

Carlos Castaneda (Philosophy, Nagual and Don Juan)the Best

Fire from within
Art of Dreaming
Journey to Ixtlan
2nd ring of Power

[sesame]

SluttyShemaleAnna,
I like your article about authors. Its very detailed.
May be I will read 'Dark side of he sun' and 'Strata' by Terry Pratchtt , as you have mentioned. I'm pretty much into sci-fi.

[Bionca]

seems to be a common thread...

Lots of sci-Fi fantasy here... hmmmm

[barbecue7]

hey bionca, i love robert jordan too, he is who really got me into fantasy, i also like terry goodkind and terry brooks and a number of others, have any other favs?

[SluttyShemaleAnna]

Originally Posted by lopey

Tiger gotta hunt, bird gotta fly, man gotta sit and wonder:

"why, why, why?"

Tiger gotta sleep, bird gotta land, man gotta say:

"I understand"

Of course, how could I have forgotten cat's cradle? Bokonism is the best religion after Pastafarianism.

[marlowe]

1) "The Talented Mr Ripley", Patricia Highsmith. Great novel about identity. The Matt Damon film version is crap, the French version "Plein Soleil" with Alain Delon is better.
2) "The New York Trilogy", Paul Auster. Good elusive stories.
3) "What Am I Doing Here", Bruce Chatwin. Stories and travelogues of the beautiful and bizarre.
4) " Martin Beck series", Sjowall and Wahloo. If you're into detective fiction this series of 10 novels is the best.
5) "Have Mercy on Us All", Fred Vargas. Whacky detective stuff in Paris.
6) "Contempt", Alberto Moravia. Novel about the precarious nature of love.
7) "Let it Come Down", Paul Bowles. Novel about continual rain and other things.
8) "From the Holy Mountain", William Dalrymple. Good book if you're interested in Byzantine history and eastern christianity.
9) "Winnie-the-Pooh", A.A.Milne. Taoist philosophy from a bear, a piglet, and a donkey.
10) "Foxy Dreamy, Yes Indeedy", Stephanie Gabrielle Talbot. Kids stuff for grown-ups.

[fionahavelock]

The Monogamy Myth, a personal handbook for dealing with affairs by Peggy Vaughn.... whooaaa...

[sesame]

Dan Brown- Da Vinci Code
( This book displays the uncanny power of good writing and research to make bullshit palatable.)

Swami Yogananda- Autobiography of a Yogi
(Great writing, but also a bit biased at certain places)

Swami Rama- Living with the Himalayan masters
(Superb, Top notch, un-put-downable
It describes the lifestyle of Yogis living in the Himalayas)

Paul Brunton- A search in secret Egypt
(Its a very interesting research work; never vexing at any point.
It also describes some really wierd things.)

[ila]

Originally Posted by sesame

Dan Brown- Da Vinci Code
( This book displays the uncanny power of good writing and research to make bullshit palatable.)

That is so very true although I didn't find the bullshit all that palatable. It made me start to gag after a while.

[jimnaseum]

Originally Posted by marlowe

"The Talented Mr Ripley", Patricia Highsmith. Great novel about identity. The Matt Damon film version is crap

I KNEW there was a great book behind that movie, Hollywood has to dumb it down for a bigger box office.

Honorable mention: LeCarre- Smiley's People
Book I've bought like 4 times: Hesse- Glass Bead Game
Nicest surprise in High School: Fitzgerald- Great Gatsby

In college I took a test and it had the weirdest question- "Who is the best writer in Western Civilization?" I shook my head and wrote William Shakespeare, and kept on working. A few minutes later, a student raised his hand in the middle of the test and said "What kind of stupid question is this, doesn't it depend on interpretation and personal taste who's the best writer?"
The Professor answered "There is one writer who is so head and shoulders above all the others that 10 out of 10 literary experts agree that he is the best writer"
At least I got one right.

[TheSkronkDonkey]

Fiction:
Contact - Carl Sagan
2001: A Space Odyssey - Arthur C Clarke
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Snow Falling On Cedars - David Guterson
A Passage To India - E M Forster

Some Non-Fiction:
Cosmos - Carl Sagan
The God Delusion - Richard Dawkins
Moab Is My Washpot - Stephen Fry
Last Train To Memphis: The Rise Of Elvis Presley - Peter Guralnick

[CreativeMind]

One of my all-time favorite lines about books was from Steve Martin who said in a comedy routine (as I recall the line): "Oh yeah, I love to read! There's nothing like sitting down and enjoying a great book! And let me tell you, MOBY DICK was fantastic. At the end...when Ahab's rope gets tangled and he's tied to the whale...and the camera pans over to Gregory Peck as they sink into the sea...man, that's just great writing."

Personally, my all-time favorite would be Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan and John Carter of Mars among other things or someone like E.E. "Doc" Smith and his intergalactic Lensmen series. I just have a soft spot for old school pulp adventures because back in the Thirties and Forties it was adventure on a more innocent and grand scale of exuberance, a time where anything seemed possible both then or for the future.

For horror, Clive Barker...For fantasy, like everyone else, Tolkien or Lewis or Rowling...I loved early Crichton when he blurred science more with a fantastical note (Jurassic Park seems to have been his high point). And then there are always case by case books -- like "A Tale of Two Cities" -- which are classic in nature and you just have to love or something silly like "Meg" about a 200 foot shark on the loose which just makes for fun, doofy reading plopped on the couch.

Originally Posted by SluttyShemaleAnna

Of course, how could I have forgotten cat's cradle? Bokonism is the best religion after Pastafarianism.

pastafarianism is that a spelling mistake or some sort of pasta based religion

[nmlss]

I love Edgar Allan Poe's short terror tales and Neil Gaiman. I'm searching for Coraline after the movie premiere, because I wanna read the book first.

[FoxySarah]

I'm a fan of H.P. Lovecraft, and other authors who contributed to the Mythos.

David Farland is another favorite for his "Runelords" series of fantasy novels.

Michael Crichton is a favorite fiction/science fiction author, as is Douglas Adams

And to further prove how much of a geek I am: I enjoy reading Marvel Comics.

[Ogryn1313]

Frank Herbert's Dune, and the later Dune books.

H.P Lovecraft. Though in small doses as his use of language could be a bit troublesome at times.

Robert Howard, the creator of Conan the Barbarian. Excellent adventure tales.

Military history texts:

Field Marshall Rommel and His Art of War. Very good book written by Rommel himself. The lessons in it can be applied to beyond the battlefield.

Steel Inferno, the Battle History of the 1st SS Panzer Division

Band of Brothers, it was a book too. Excellent read.

Various military field manuals.

Last of the Mohicans

Schindler's List

Star Wars Novels

Ranger Rick's Dinosaur Book...a childhood favorite

Space Station 7th Grade...another childhood favorite