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Dune by Frank Herbet
The star wars novella, it's slightly different from the movie.
Hobbit and LOTR by Tolkien.
My Family and Other animals by Gerald Durrel.
The bond series by Ian Fleming.
World War Z
Machine Man and Syrup, also Corporation by Max Barry.

How To Be a Man and He died with a Falafel in His Hand John Birmingham
HP lovecraft series
Narnia Series
1984
Watership Down
Starship Troopers.

I like Jane Austen.

"Grunts" by Mary Gently....Kronk..your so going to hate me by jealosy

 Doctadeth wrote:
Dune by Frank Herbet
The star wars novella, it's slightly different from the movie.
Hobbit and LOTR by Tolkien.
My Family and Other animals by Gerald Durrel.
The bond series by Ian Fleming.
World War Z
Machine Man and Syrup, also Corporation by Max Barry.

How To Be a Man and He died with a Falafel in His Hand John Birmingham
HP lovecraft series
Narnia Series
1984
Watership Down
Starship Troopers.

That I would agree with

I forgot one.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien

The Mistborn Trilogy by Sanderson is a good read, but I think his new series, The Stormlight Archive (book one is The Way of Kings) beats the hell out of them.

It's a very unique take on fantasy, and he's trying to start his own "Wheel of Time"-esque series. Book two just came out.

I wholly admit that 1000-page books can easily become drags to read, but he keeps the inertia going throughout. Highly recommend. Nothing is cooler than what is essentially Medieval power-armor, and swords that cut through anything- even people's souls.

Collapse and Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. Guns... lays out why Western Europe ended up dominating the world for much of the 17-20th Century and Collapse talks about one of the many reasons socieities, cultures, and civilizations commit suicide (ecological devastation).

The Culture Series by Iain M. Banks. Hard Sci-Fi that just blow your socks off in it's sheer scope and vision.

The Black Company arc, by Glenn Cook is a great series about the "good" guys being quite nasty fethers.

If you're looking for a fun read, I'd suggest anything written by John Ringo. My only beef with him is he never seems capable of ending a series. He writes to a certain point, and then just gets distracted with another story line and never goes back.

The Killer Angels, by Sharra.

I Rode with Stonewall, non fiction, Henry K. Douglas.

Rats in the Walls, HP Lovecraft

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.

I have two series I recommend all the time to my friends.

Destroyermen by Taylor Anderson

163X by Eric Flint

Anything and everything by HP Lovecraft and Poe

Edit: For Lovecraft I would recommend starting with one of the following: A Shadow Over Innsmouth, Rats in the Walls, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, or Pickman's Model

All of the Sherlock Holmes short stories and novellas by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Bram Stoker's Dracula
Frankenstein
The Three Musketeers
The Thrawn Trilogy, still the best novels in the Star Wars EU IMO
The Stand
The Dark Tower Series
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
The Hobbit
Starship Troopers
The Forever War
Silent Warrior, best biography of Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock, a legendary USMC Sniper, that I have read
With The Old Breed, The Pacific is based on this novel

Out of these Lovecraft is a must read. His works have had a tremendous impact on science fiction, fantasy, and horror, but he rarely receives credit for his genius. I've seen his works referenced in everything from South Park, hip hop songs, to video games and more. Even if you dislike Stephen King, you can't deny his influence and he had the following to say about Lovecraft.

“Now that time has given us some perspective on his work,” says Stephen King, “I think it is beyond doubt that H. P. Lovecraft has yet to be surpassed as the twentieth century’s greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale.” Around 1960 a young Stephen King came across an old paperback edition of Lovecraft’s The Lurking Fear and Other Stories . It was a decisive moment for today’s pre-eminent horror writer. “Lovecraft. . . opened the way for me,” writes King, “as he had done for others before me.... it is his shadow, so long and gaunt, and his eyes, so dark and puritanical, which overlie almost all of the important horror fiction that has come since.”

 Medium of Death wrote:
I recently finished an H.P. Lovecraft collection that I thoroughly enjoyed having never read his work before it was pretty awesome.

Kilkrazy made a reference to "1984" in one of those "Britain is a fascist state" type threads which spurred me on to actually go out and read it. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'm now reading "Keep the Aspidistra Flying" by Orwell and enjoying that also.

Mate, check out 'Homage to Catalonia' and 'Down and Out in Paris and London' too. They are awesome books. My two favourites by Orwell.

Crouch End is a take on HP Lovecraft, written by Steven King.
Two masters putting their talents together is full of win.

"Orcs" series by Stan Nichols

 Jihadin wrote:
"Grunts" by Mary Gently....Kronk..your so going to hate me by jealosy

Heh. I am jealous, now.


My copy of all three books in the Dark Fleet Trilogy are signed by Timothy Zahn.

So suck it!

For a fantasy based series that has a unique perspective I'd recommend the "Age of Fire" series by E. E. Knight. They are written from the perspective of dragons.

HP Lovecraft stuff is always a good read in my opinion, think my favourite work from him is At the Mountains of Madness. Highly recommend that too!

HP Lovecraft's Call of Cthulu is a classic.

 whembly wrote:
The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind

The series just felt very formulaic after a while. That said, I have seven of his books on my shelf, but I’m kinda a glutton for punishment when it comes to seeing series through.

Same could be said for a lot of David Webber’s stuff as well. Interesting to start, but repetitive after a few books.

One of my favorite books is Startide Rising by David Brin. While I’d normally recommend anything by him (he’s probably my favorite author) his last book, Existence, felt like it was phoned in.

William Gibson is another writer who’s books I’’ll pick up whenever one hits the shelf. Start with Neuromancer, work forward from there.

Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan series is worth reading.

David Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers is classic, gritty, military sci-fi.

I could list more books, but I’m getting tired running back and forth between my bookshelves and my computer.

 snurl wrote:
The Killer Angels, by Sharra.

I Rode with Stonewall, non fiction, Henry K. Douglas.

Rats in the Walls, HP Lovecraft

Good ones
Also:
Enemy At The Gates
The Shining
Ghost Story
Book of Five Rings (Musashi)
The Prince
Das Kapital (read what all the fun is about)
Mein Kampf (again, the ravings of the untty that started the John Deere Lowenbrau World Domination Bowl)
The Golden Torc (Julian May)
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Chemistry for Dummies
The Prize (Yergin)
Anything by: John Locke, Voltaire, Descartes, Adam Smith
Lord Foul's Bane
The collected works of HG Wells - especially War of the Worlds and Island of Doctor Moreau
Jules Verne
Lucifer's Hammer

Anything Vonnegut. Classic writer, wonderful storytelling.

With Zeal and with Bayonets only by Matthew H Spring.

One of the best military history books I've ever read, and it's about the British army during the American Revolution. You will never look at the revolutionary war the same way again.

Apparently, the British didn't march around in columns getting shot at. They were highly adaptable, and used their skirmishing experience from the 7 years' war to adapt to the American terrain and win most of the battles.

In fact, it was that damn American terrain that stopped a British victory, because it was unsuitable for cavalry and fleeing American troops would have been run down if it had been Europe. Instead, those pesky Americans escaped and came back later!

Reading about how effective the British were, only makes the American victory more remarkable. Tips hat to Americans.

Foccault's Pendulum. Umberto Eco

 Frazzled wrote:

 snurl wrote:
The Killer Angels, by Sharra.

I Rode with Stonewall, non fiction, Henry K. Douglas.

Rats in the Walls, HP Lovecraft

The collected works of HG Wells - especially War of the Worlds and Island of Doctor Moreau

How could I forget The Island of Doctor Moreau?! That was an excellent read. Also, A Song of Fire and Ice series. Odds are you'll be able to read all five of the novels before the sixth one is released...

Oh, so many books, so little time. Also, happy World Book Day everyone!

My recommendations:

- Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness. A perfect blend of sci-fi, fantasy, morality and originality with some of the greatest characters in modern literature. Without a doubt, the best books of the last 10 years or more. Also check out More Than This or A Monster Calls by Ness for something a little more philosophical.

- His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman. Much like Chaos Walking, these novels take a huge amount of originality and weave it into a similar-but-different world. They are absolutely amazing as simple fantasy/sci-fi/adventure novels, but also raise a lot of good questions about the nature of reality, religion, and ethics.

- The Icemark Trilogy by Stuart Hill. This trilogy is, for me, the last word in modern fantasy writing, easily up there with Tolkein and C.S. Lewis. Featuring a great cast of characters and some of the best (and largest) battle scenes I've read, they are certainly worth a read. Also, they have PROPER tear-your-throat-out vampires, talking Snow Leopards and the fantasy/industrial setting will appeal to any Warhammer fans.

- The Edge Chronicles, by Paul Stewart. These may be 'kid's books' (although I remain convinced there's no such thing), they are possibly the most thorough and well-developed fantasy setting since Middle Earth, with literally dozens of species and cultures and a history spanning hundreds of years. There are 3 sub-trilogies that can be read in any order, and then a finale which ties up all the loose ends. A great work of imagination, and the illustrations are stunning.

- Gone by Michael Grant. Centring on a bunch of teenagers trapped trapped within a force field, some of which develop mutated powers, these books are anything but children's stories. There's plenty of awesome action scenes and hugely well-developed characters. Not for the faint-hearted, but well worth reading. Think X-men meets Lord of the Flies.

There are also the obvious ones:
Lord of the Rings
Narnia
1984
Dickens
Shakespeare

Honourable mentions:

Harry Potter, simple and overhyped, but enjoyable nonetheless. Everyone should read them at least once.
Skulduggery Pleasant, for all your fireball-throwing, wisecracking, revolver-shooting skeleton detective needs.
Time Riders series, a time-travel based series that throws up some very interesting alternative histories.

Hope that inspires you.

 Jihadin wrote:
Paratwa Saga

Loved those books (except the ending ... )

I've recently read and enjoyed Peter Clines' Ex- ... series, about superheroes fighting zombies in post-apocalyptic Hollywood. Start with 'Ex-patriots' and go from there.

'Stalingrad' by Antony Beevor's a great read, too, although obviously in a different vein.

I echo the shout-outs to 'Watership Down' and 'Ender's Game'.

Good thread

 Necroagogo wrote:


'Stalingrad' by Antony Beevor's a great read, too, although obviously in a different vein.

Yeah, I'm doing a research project on Stalingrad/The Eastern Front at the moment and Beevor is one of the better books I've read. If you're into that period, I'd suggest also John Erickson's 'The Road to Stalingrad' for a hugely comprehensive coverage of the whole Eastern Front, or Robert Kirchubel's 'Operation Barbarossa' for a less-detailed but (in my opinion) more accessible (it's got loads of maps/diagrams/stats).

For anyone into military history, anything by Max Hastings is generally a safe bet.

Just off the top of my head:

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy.
Dan Simmons' Hyperion series.
Ben Bova's Titan.
Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, Diamond Age and Reamde (lighter stuff this one, but a good read regardless).
The Culture series by Iain M. Banks.
Leviathan Wakes by S. A. Corey.
Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds.

 Agent_Tremolo wrote:
Just off the top of my head:

Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, Diamond Age and Reamde (lighter stuff this one, but a good read regardless).

I’d add Snow Crash to the list of his works. In general I prefer his earlier stuff.

Stephen King's Dark Tower series.

The Winds of Altair by Ben Bova.

It pre-dates Avatar by 25 years...