Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi all!
Just wondering what peoples favourite books are and why?
Mine is The Malus Darkblade novel because I think it is wrote out brilliantly and the character Malus is really brutal which is really good.
Remember it doesn't have to be a Black Library book it can be anything

thanks guys.

Lord of the Rings.

- This is an easy question for me, I have no dilemma as to my choice.

The Drizzt Do'urden series. I've been reading those my entire life, and they really helped me escape reality when I most needed to.

I've also had many a hearty laughs at this ancient tome known as the Bible, very comedic.

I haven't read the bible all way through to be honest and Lord Of The Rings is a brilliant book indeed!

My current favorite book is probably anything from the Leviathan Trilogy by Scott Westerfeld.

The Wind in the Willows.
Ender's Game.
Peace Child.

Really fantastic books, for really different reasons.

Catch 22.

No friggan question.

Brave story

It's epicly awesome in so many ways

Hmmm,

The necronomician I think. Followed by LOTR, then The Redemption of Athuluthus.

For most influential, no question it would be Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstien. If you've read it, you know why.

For favorite, it would have to be my copy of Star Island by Carl Hiaasen. Funniest gak I have ever read.

Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K LeGuin

The River God by Wilbur Smith. 9/10

1. Necropolis
2. Double Eagle
3. Hereticus

I'm going to cheat and use a whole series.

"The Dresden Files" by Jim Butcher.

malfred wrote:Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K LeGuin

Yes her books are beautifully written, and I think any fan of fantasy should read them. Even though they are getting on a bit now!

Stuff I have enjoyed fairly recently and which springs to mind:
- The talented mr. ripley by Patricia Highsmith (much better than the movie)
- The years of rice and salt, by Kim Stanley Robinson
- Stranger in a Strange Land, by Robert Heinlein

With a bent appropriate to this forum:
- The Illium series by Dan Simmons
- 'The Vampire Chronicles' by Anne Rice (especially the first 3)
- Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton (although many of his books are similarly epic!)
- The Forever War by Joe Hadleman (which I have just read they are making into a movie, while excluding the writer from the process - not exactly encouraging!)
- Blood Music by Greg Bear.

Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy
The book of 1st Kings in the bible is a quite interesting insight into tactics
but undoubtably for fiction Skulduggery rules my roost, so many brilliant moments through the series so far.

Blood Meridian

By Cormac McCarthy.

Epic tale of violence as transcendence in the old west. Lots of mules driven off a cliff exploding in blood and quicksilver. The Judge is evil.

I could write pages upon pages writing about my favorite books and book series.

Ignoring the mainstream ones I'm into (Harry Potter, Artemis Fowl, and the ever more-popular Dresden Files), I'd have to go with the Midnighters trilogy by Scott Westerfeld. It's a fascinating and dark world he's created, and after all the struggles of the heroes throughout the stories, the world becomes vastly open-ended in a mixed, half-happy, half-depressing ending. The finale of Blue Noon is just chilling.

Hmm, I don't think I have any favourites. There is a lot I really love to read though. Anything by Louis Couperus, Stephen King and Terry Pratchett for example. And the Night Angel trilogy was really good too.

The Black Company by Glen Cook (the entire series really, but the Books of the North are my favorite)

Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

Ilium by Dan Simmons

The Last Centurion by John Ringo

The Books of the Swords by Fred Saberhagen

and of course, American Gods by Neil Gaiman

I don't much read single books, they're usually parts of a series, my favourite of which is The Sword of Truth by Terry Goodkind.

Chowderhead wrote:For most influential, no question it would be Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstien. If you've read it, you know why.

You beat me to it, Chowder.


Also a big fan of the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman, as well as the Hitchhikers Guide books.

Oooh, and anything by Michael Crichton.

The 12th Planet by Zecharia Sitchin,

Top 5 in no particular order:
Lucifer's Hammer (comet hits the earth)
God Knows (catch 22 meets King David)
Golden Torc (humans go back to 6MM BC)
Barbarians at the Gate (chroncile of the M&A saga of RJR Nabisco)
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Top 5....

Razzle
Readers Wives
Fat and Feisty
Asian Babes
50+


They count as books right?

Starship Troopers will always hold a special place for me. One of the first serious books I ever read, even if Heinlein was wrong on numerous things.

Ender's Game is another book I really like. Though none of Card's later work had the same flair that EG had, I think that Ender's Game is a masterpiece of writing. I've read few books that can carry the emotion of the protagonist so well to the reader.

Some people probably find it weird, but I really enjoy Kelly Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series. Contemporary Fantasy is a genre I've become very fond off. Sadly many examples are rather pathetic *glares at Twilight and shakes fist* or just not my style.

Others: Paradise Lost, The Illiad, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, Vampire Academy, Dune, and Chronicles of Narnia.

LordofHats wrote:

Ender's Game is another book I really like. Though none of Card's later work had the same flair that EG had, I think that Ender's Game is a masterpiece of writing. I've read few books that can carry the emotion of the protagonist so well to the reader.

I would argue that Speaker for the Dead is far more beautiful than
anything else he wrote, but Ender's Game certainly has more flair.

In Nevada by David Thomson.

Silmarilion
LOTR
American Gods
Barbarians by Terry Jones

Karon wrote:I've also had many a hearty laughs at this ancient tome known as the Bible, very comedic.

I smell troll...

1. Only in Death
2. Double Eagle
3. LOTR
4. Ciaphas Cain
5. World War Z