Favorite books

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foehammer111

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Anyone here read novels? I think BO does, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, I was looking to read some new books, and wondered if you guys had any suggestions. I prefure fantasy and science-fiction, but I'll read just about anything.

Here's a few of my favorite books to give you an idea of what I like:

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Neuromancer by William Gibson

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Any suggestions? What are some of your favorite books?
 
You are right, I am always reading something. I don't, however, read much science fiction type stuff. About as close as I get to that is Robert Ludlum. He wrote the Jason Bourne series: Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremecy, etc. that they made the series about. Although now that I think about it, I really liked The Dangerous Days Of Daniel X. That was a good, although kind of short, science fiction book. The Dangerous Days of Daniel X is a novel by the bestselling author, James Patterson and co-author Michael Ledwidge. Written in the same vein as his Maximum Ride series, James Patterson returned to the realm of science fiction in this novel. Patterson wrote The Dangerous Days of Daniel X for his son, Jack, because he wouldn't read, so when Patterson wrote this, he specially designed it for Jack.

I read a lot of crime dramas, legal thrillers and the like. I am writing a crime drama novel right now.

Some of my favorite authors include, in no particular order:

James Patterson
Michael Connelly
Lisa Scottoline
David Baldacci
Sandra Brown
Reid Arvin
Peter Abrahams

There are a lot more I read, but these are the first to come to mind.
 
Benevolent One said:
About as close as I get to that is Robert Ludlum. He wrote the Jason Bourne series: Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremecy, etc.
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I haven't read any of his works, but I've seen the first two movies. How do you think they stack up against Tom Clancy's books?

I've read quite a few Clancy books including: Sum of All Fears, Rainbow Six, and Without Remorse. Coming from a Clancy background, I viewed the Bourne movies as sort of "Clancy-lite." How are the books in comparision?

I've also read some non-fiction military books like "Rogue Warrior".

I haven't heard of the Daniel X books, so I'll have to look into them.
 
If you like historical fiction then I can recommend Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman. It is a trilogy of Welsh history and King John (Robin Hood's King John) of England. The main characters and events are correct. The fiction comes in that she made assumptions of conversations that would have taken place for the historical events to occur. And she added other characters to flesh out the story.
At the back of the book she lists the leniences she took in writing the story.
 
Oh, my word --- do I read books. Almost any genre you want to name -- except horror/thrillers. I'm not much into romance, either.

I love fantasy, sci-fi, biography/autobiography, history, light mysteries.

I've read most of Clancy's books -- Rainbow Six is my fav. Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels. Lawrence Sanders's Arch McNally novels.

Fantasy --- Robert Silverberg, Mercedes Lackey, Terry Brooks, David/Leigh Eddings, Raymond Feist, Frank Herbert
 
barelypure said:
If you like historical fiction then I can recommend Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman. It is a trilogy of Welsh history and King John (Robin Hood's King John) of England. The main characters and events are correct. The fiction comes in that she made assumptions of conversations that would have taken place for the historical events to occur. And she added other characters to flesh out the story.
At the back of the book she lists the leniences she took in writing the story.
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So kind of how like Michael Crichton based "Eaters of the Dead" off of the journal entries of Ahmad ibn Fadlan, and combined it with elements of Beowulf?
 
foehammer111 said:
So kind of how like Michael Crichton based "Eaters of the Dead" off of the journal entries of Ahmad ibn Fadlan, and combined it with elements of Beowulf?
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I haven't read that book but from your description I'd say no. Beowulf is a mythological tale. The main characters in Penman's book actually existed. The made up parts are the characters that would have surrounded them, maids, gardners, soldiers, etc. You know they had them just they weren't important enough in history to have a fleshed out character.
 
barelypure said:
I haven't read that book but from your description I'd say no. Beowulf is a mythological tale. The main characters in Penman's book actually existed. The made up parts are the characters that would have surrounded them, maids, gardners, soldiers, etc. You know they had them just they weren't important enough in history to have a fleshed out character.
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Actually, that sounds just the same as how Eaters of the Dead is structered.

Eaters of the Dead is based off the jourinal entries of Ahmad ibn Fadlan who was a real person. He was an arab that traveled north to observe and document the Vikings. That part of the book is non-fiction, but what the author added to it was what he found there. It's partly inspired by Beowulf, but with no mystical creatures, etc. Just structured like it.

Eaters of the Dead was later renamed to "The 13th Warrior" when the movie came out. I liked the old title better.
 
foehammer111 said:
Anyone here read novels? I think BO does, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, I was looking to read some new books, and wondered if you guys had any suggestions. I prefure fantasy and science-fiction, but I'll read just about anything.

Here's a few of my favorite books to give you an idea of what I like:

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Neuromancer by William Gibson

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. Any suggestions? What are some of your favorite books?
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If you like the Dark Tower series, and haven't read them yet, you need to read The Talisman and The Black House (in that order) by Stephen King and Peter Straub. The Talisman book cam out a looong time ago, and the Black House was written just before the last book of DT. Both have really strong ties the the series, especially Black House, which was great lead-in the book 7.

An easy read, but I'd aso recommend King's Eyes of the Dragon, which is more of a fantasy, but also has strong ties into DT (as does a lot of King's stuff, if you're looking for them...)

All things serve the beam....
 
Cormac McCarthy, Cormac McCarthy, Cormac McCarthy. Don't stop with the Road. I have read all of his stuff.

Stephen King.....the Dark Tower Series was very good. However, IMHO, his best was "The Stand".

One of my favorite authors is James Lee Burke. His series on Dave Robicheaux will knock your socks off. I have read all his books.

My favorite author though is John Steinbeck. again, I read all his books.

The Lord of the Rings wa excellent, but then, you have read that series. Have you tried the Harry Potter books. They aren't only for kids, believe me.
 
I've read most of the Harry Potter books, but they never really captured my interest, so I stopped reading after the 4th book. I may go back and pick them up again later.

I've read most of Stephen King's books, but a few have slipped past me. Eyes of the Dragon and The Stand are some of my favorite non-Tower books he has written. But then again, I guess you could say that EVERY book he has written has really been about the Dark Tower. Didn't he write a book about Vietnam? It's mentioned once in DT series, but I can't remember the name of it.

Cormac McCarthy I'm a little heasitent about. The first time I read The Road, I hated it. It had too much deus ex machina for my tastes. But once I read it a 3rd and 4th time (it's not very long compared to other books) I appreciated it more. I'm still not a huge fan of the ending, but I think I understand what McCarthy was trying to get at.

In any case, WTF happened to the film version of The Road? It's been pushed back so many times that I'm not even sure if it's still being released. Viggo Mortensen is a perfect choice to play The Father.

The_Road_movie_poster.jpg
 
http://www.amazon.com/Jamestown-Buri...4269410&sr=1-1

Bill Kelso is the Head Archaelogist on the Jamestown Project. He and his wife are also friends of ours, not close friends, but friends none the less. We have been out to dinner with them 4 or 5 times and have also spent a few other evenings together.

Anyhow, my little story. Bill wrote a book (link above) on his work at Jamestown. About 3 or 4 months ago Bill was in the New Dominion book shop (great little shop) in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia to promote the book. John Grisham (who lives in Charlottesville) walks up to Bill and asks Bill to autograph the book for him. Bill was flabbergasted that an author of Grisham's fame would ask him for his autograph.
 
muggle not said:
http://www.amazon.com/Jamestown-Buri...4269410&sr=1-1

Bill Kelso is the Head Archaelogist on the Jamestown Project. He and his wife are also friends of ours, not close friends, but friends none the less. We have been out to dinner with them 4 or 5 times and have also spent a few other evenings together.

Anyhow, my little story. Bill wrote a book (link above) on his work at Jamestown. About 3 or 4 months ago Bill was in the New Dominion book shop (great little shop) in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia to promote the book. John Grisham (who lives in Charlottesville) walks up to Bill and asks Bill to autograph the book for him. Bill was flabbergasted that an author of Grisham's fame would ask him for his autograph.
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I love stories like that. I'm not big fan of Grisham's books myself, but I like him more now after hearing this. I'll check out another one of his books after reading this. The few of his books I've read, and own, have been similar in that they seemed to be stretched out a bit too much. The Broker and The Rainmaker were both good books, but seemed to have too much fluff in the middle. They both seemed like they could have been better stories if they were about 50-100 pages shorter. I love to read, but even a good book loses me if it doesn't move along.
 
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