Here you can post great books that you have read and want to recommend to other members on metalstorm.

Please Dont just post the name of book, by add who wrote the book and a genre of the book as well as a short description on it and your opinion.
A picture would be nice too.
Thx.

Il start with a book im reading now
"Life of Pi" by Yann Martel.

[img=http://img1.imageshack.us/img1/4913/lifeofpiex1kl.th.jpg]

A preposterous but utterly enchanting story about a young Indian boy adrift in a lifeboat with his good friend, a Bengal tiger, and some other zoo animals.
A story about survival, and as one charecter claims, it can make you belive in god.
Thewirting is this fisction book simple and excellent.
The book is funny and smart (and youl also find a few metal band names there )


Enjoy.

....Well, I don't have anything I am currently reading that I could recommend to Metalstormers. But this is a great thread!

I will suggest then a favorite book of mine, which I read years ago; its themes and thoughts sticking with me since then:

"Life Is Elsewhere" by Milian Kundera

The author intially intended to call this novel, The Lyrical Age. The lyrical age, according to Kundera, is youth, and this novel, above all, is an epic of adolescence; an ironic epic that tenderly erodes scarosanct values: childhood, motherhood, revolution, and even poetry. Jaromil, perhaps our main character, is in fact a poet. His mother made him a poet and accompanies him (figuratively) to his love bed and (literally) to his deathbed. A ridiculous and touching character, horrifying and totally innocent, Jaromil is at the same time a true poet. He's no creep. He, or what makes him he, is also the character Rimbaud, a man entrapped by the communist revolution, entrapped in a somber, dreamlike farce.

"If on a Winter's Night A Traveler" by Italo Calvino.

Fascinating is the word that best suits this book. It's nothing more than a story that deals with reality and fiction, and how fiction can drink of reality to recreate the most surreal situations, and how reality is sometimes more surreal than the most fantastic of the fictions. Truth? Lie? Which is the inner nature of Literature? Why is it so addictive? And why its inner coherence is sometimes more appealing than reality's?

In one word: a masterpiece. A masterpiece as a novel, as a short story (or as thousands of them), as an essay, as a description of Literature... You cannot miss it!

The Sword of Truth Series by Terry Goodind. Genre: Fantasy
This series is about a normal man who lives in a small area known as Westland. He is soon to discover that he is a wizard that is more powerful than any that have been born in several centuries. His adventures carry him off to another section of the continent and he soon becomes the ruler. The series then continues with the telling of how he maintains his position and thwarts enemies of varying degrees of confusion. Also in the plot is a love story. Very well written and with each book (9 so far) being over 700 pages long, it is rather long but is a very good read and is very captivating. I couldn't put them down when I read them.

Kushiel's Legacy Trilogy by Jacqueline Carey. Genre: Fantasy
This is a story of a young woman who starts as a simple courtesan and ends up being the Queen's friend and confidante, a countess, and the most famous courtesan in the realm. Her adventures are a maze of plot twists and it's a very psychological book that will make you think about any possibility.

Wayfarer Redemption Trilogy by Sara Douglass (Last three books of the Axis Starman series for the USA publications) Genre: Fantasy
This is a very interesting series with quite a few different species and everything is just so well written. This is a story about a boy who had his powers stripped from him at birth and soon gets them back in order to save his world from a swarm of demons.

Written by FlareHeart on 24.05.2006 at 07:08

Wayfarer Redemption Trilogy by Sara Douglass (Last three books of the Axis Starman series for the USA publications) Genre: Fantasy
This is a very interesting series with quite a few different species and everything is just so well written. This is a story about a boy who had his powers stripped from him at birth and soon gets them back in order to save his world from a swarm of demons.

If by "soon" you mean fourty years.

@ Nasi2 I´ve read "If on a winter´s night a traveller" and I liked it. Many interesting starts of stories and then they just don´t continue...

I truly recommend any book from Jostein Gaarder. For example "Sofia´s world" (not sure if that´s the official translation) is like a journey to the history of philosophy. It made me think about so many things that I´ve never even thought about before. Who am I actually? What does the world consist of? Maybe a little hard one to read, if one hasn´t studied philosophy before, but still it gives a whole new perspective to world.

Well... I don't read enough books - I'm usually too busy with other things, and the only thing I usually end up reading each week is The Economist... and when I do read a book, it's usually a political treatise of some sort.

However, I will recommend an epic series of alternate-history books by Harry Turtledove. Mr. Turtledove often writes fiction books about "What if aliens landed in WWII" or "What if magic and dragons existed in the U.S. Civil War." However, he has a series of books that resonate with the history major inside of me. Currently, he has a series of texts covering about nine books (the thenth comes out this July) encompassing an alternative history of "What would happen if the U.S. won the Civil War?" It starts with a prologue, followed by three Great War books, three American Empire books, and three Settling Accounts books. I've only read the American Empire series and they were quite good.

I recommend everyone reads this book called 'Manuscript found in Zaragoza' by Jan Potocki, well the book was actually, as explained in the title, a manuscript found in Zaragoza, Spain, Jan Potocki was the one to put it together and stuff, it's an adventures novel that deals with ghosts, thieves, beautiful women and living corpses, the only bad part about this book is that it has no beginning and no ending, so you only get to read the middle of the story, and is still totally worth it, one of my favorite books of all time!

I would recommend 'Prey' by Michael Crichton. About nanotechnology. Very well written and the story, to me, haven't got any loose ends. It only took me 2 days to read, 'cause it was so intriguing that I just couldn't stop reading

I just fhinisht 'Life of Pi' Great book on survival !

Now im reading 'the old man and the see'

Another great book (or books) must be 'The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide To The Universe' by Douglas Adams...funny, wierd and a great time killer

I read ''Lullaby'' by Chuck Palahniuk not so long ago.. It's about a reporter who gets told (by his job) to go find out why babies are suddently dying for no reason.. He then finds out it's because of a poem in a kids book.. So he and 2 friends go on a roadtrip around the world to destroy all the poem books they could find.


I hope I made sense.

I recommend all the "Moomin" books by Tove Jansson. Many people know these big white creatures and think that the books are just for kids, but actually the books are really philosophical and contain both scary and funny moments. I´ve written down the best lines that always make me laugh or put me think about them. For example one quote from the book "Moomin and the comet": "If one flies hundreds and hundreds of kilometers up in the air, sky isn´t blue anymore. Up there it´s completely black. Even in daytime."

I recommend "The Wheel of Time" by Robert Jordan, an epic fantasy story. This series contains 9 books, so you'll have a lot to read.
As always in fantasy, we're at the time when the "bad guys" are going to arrive and the propheties tell someone will stop him. Here, 3 boys are main characters, and a lot of people are involved. There are also lots of problems of will of power in the different lands. A lot more but too much too tell on a forum.

The best book I've ever read is without doubt "The da Vinci Code" but is feels kinda silly to recommend it since everybody knows it.

David Morrell - Creepers
A great book I've read last weekend - a thriller about a group of urban explorers entering a long-abandoned hotel owned by some wacko at the beginning of XX century. I won't tell you anymore because it would ruin some awesome plot twists in the book. Is the story good? Let me put it this way - it's so captivating that if during my reading sessions someone came and eviscerated me, I wouldn't notice.

Written by GT on 22.06.2006 at 01:33

Another great book (or books) must be 'The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide To The Universe' by Douglas Adams...funny, wierd and a great time killer

I like your taste.
Even I read Prey by Crichton around a week back and I thoroughly loved it. And Hitchhiker's Guide is my all-time favourite book

Just finished Michael Crichton's Sphere again for the 2nd time. It's an OK book. He's written many better ones I feel.

Written by CrypticMyth on 28.06.2006 at 12:00

Written by GT on 22.06.2006 at 01:33

Another great book (or books) must be 'The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide To The Universe' by Douglas Adams...funny, wierd and a great time killer

I like your taste.
Even I read Prey by Crichton around a week back and I thoroughly loved it. And Hitchhiker's Guide is my all-time favourite book

Just finished Michael Crichton's Sphere again for the 2nd time. It's an OK book. He's written many better ones I feel.

Nope it's not his best, but it's still good though...I'm currently reading State Of Fear by MC...it's really good, so I'll recommend it if you like his writting-style

I just finished reading Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town by Cory Doctorow.

I actually came by it on accident; I work at a bookstore and it was in a bin to be sent back to the warehouse. I snatched it right up and read it in about three days. It's very...weird. I mean, it's about a guy (known as Alan, Adam, Arnold, A___) whose father is a mountain and mother is a washing machine, and (some of) his brothers are Russian nesting dolls.

Basically the story takes place in Toronto, Canada, and Alan meets a punk who is trying to blanket the city with wireless internet access. So Alan decides to help him. But his evil brother comes back from the dead and threatens to sabotage his "normal" life...

I would highly recommend this book to anyone; it's VERY original and interesting, and although the ending is a little weak, the rest of it is great.

And guess what? You can download the whole thing for free.

http://craphound.com/someone/download.php

Okay, I not long ago finished reading the story of Daphnis and Chloe, it is unbelievable, it is sweet and simple, and daaamn old, but it's so totally worth it, read it!

My favorite books are those from Tolkien, I just think he was a genius and a very good writer, his work amazes me. I also recommend "Heart of Darkness" by Joseph Conrad. It´s a really great book that just catches and gets to you, about a journey through the river in the jungle of Congo during the Leopold II era.
I also recommend a book I´m currently reading from a Colombian author called Jorge Franco. The book is Melodrama, I don´t know and I really don´t think it can be found out there, probably just in latin america, but for those of you who can, I really recommend it, for me it´s his best until now.

I recommend an excellent book called "The Magic Mountain" by the german writer Thomas Mann
Excellent story, the book was writen between 1911 and 1923 and in 1929 it won the literature Nobel Prize.

This book has different and really interesting issues, like medicin, botany, philosophy, religion, history, politics, death, the society of Europe in the 19th century and their costumes, love, etc. Once you start to read this excellent book you don't want to stop

The story is developed in Switzerland in a very famous sanatorium, where people from many countries of the world go. A guy from Germany went there in summer vacations to visit a cousin who was there since a few months ago and to rest for three weeks, but three weeks wasn't too much to see the life the people carried there and besides that, he got a sickness, so, he stayed more than three weeks, and in this point the story starts with all these interesting issues.
This is my first recommendation, a book that you won't regret to read

im not sure if anyone has said it but i especially liked the book "The hobbit" and would reccomend it to others to read if they like fantasy books and/or the lord of the rings films/books.

My Very favorite Book series is the Dark Tower series by Stephen King, It's about the adventures of a Gunslinger, named Roland Deschain, Who was born into a noble family after the fall of Civilization, he seeks Vengance on those who destroyed his way of life and he wishes to reach the top of the Dark tower. IT'S AWSOME!!

Then there's The Book SHOGUN, By James Clavell. It's about an englishmen Named John Blackthorn, Who is a captain of a boat Called the Erasmus during the 1500's. They Get Beached on the shores of Japan and he has to learn to adapt to and embrace the ways of Fuedal Japan, My favorite book ever.

and lastly, we Have BARD, Odyssey of the Irish, By Morgan Llelwyn. This is the story of an actual Historical figure(but still fiction Keep in mind) named Amergin, of the Melisian clan. It tells of how the celts moved from the Iberian Penesylla(Spain) to moddern Ireland, their war with the Tuatha de Dannan, and the war over the Division of land between the brothers of the Clanhold of Milesians, it makes me proud of My Celtic Herritage.

I suggest you people should read "Oryx And Crake" by Margaret Atwood.

It's an interesting and amazing book that is hard to describe without giving too much of the story away. What I can tell you about it is that we are dealing with apocalyptic visions, which means the world is going to end again. So we have a combination of science fiction and fantasy, and the story may be a bit similar to "the Stand" by Stephen King, but with much fewer characters. However, no matter how I compare them to each other I think this book is even better than the Stand.

What happens here is seen through the view of the only survivor called Jimmy. We are told about his young life before and after the apocalypse. The plot is built in about the same way as on the tv show "Lost", which is by flashbacks, both in the past and the present. In the beginning of the book, Jimmy's name is Snowman and he is all alone in a destroyed land. Every so often the narration returns to his thoughts and that's how we discover more each time, what are the things that had led the world we knew into the death of everyone and everything. We are also introduced to Jimmy's best friend Crake and girlfriend Oryx, and what their important roles are in the tragic events and how they met their own destinies in the end.

You should absolutely pick up Oryx And Crake, this book is a wonderful story about scientific theories, growing older, youth drama and apocalyptic destruction all in a sweet mix of pure written greatness. The characters won't drown into nothingness, instead they will haunt your mind in the rest of your days. Most books can't make me feel emotional attachements towards their storylines, but this one did. Some parts were extremely moving, others also pretty shocking, even though there is nothing about it that makes it a horror story of some sort. This is also quite a fresh read, it was written and published in 2003. It's a future classic.

i don't usually read like that, but i have read a few autobiographies and liked them:

"Mein Kampf" by Adolf Hitler
"It's Not About The Bike, My Journey Back To Life" - Lance Armstrong

The Hitler one is self-explanitory, but the Lance Armstrong one, well let's just say it's hihgly inspiring. It deals with a tragic 3 year period in Cyclist, Lance Armstrong's life in which he was almost stricken down by Testicular Cancer. But he overcame it and won Tour De France in 1999.

I recommend everything about H.P. Lovecraft, (my favourite are all the chtullu stories) he was an incredible writer of Horror tales, that inspired a lot for the "modern-horror", for his badluck he was not understanded at his time (end of '800, first of '900) and no one noticed him...

So, I really don't know if this book is traducted is English, but well, I'll recommend anyway, and if the book is only available in French, those here who know French will be able to read it:)
The book is called 5150, Rue des Ormes by Patrick Sénécal(So in English, it would be something like "5150, Des Ormes' Street"). It's the story of a young man that has a bicycle accident in some quiet street. He just go to a house to be able to call a taxi, and he will discover a thing in this house that he shouldn't have discovered...
Sounds weird, but that book is really fantastic, I mean, it's a mix between psycology, horror and fear... If you have the chance to read that book, don't let it go..
Image there: http://www.gallimardmontreal.com/gallim/site/livre.jsp?pEAN13=9782920340923&pRayonID=5&pPreviousPageID=9&pNOPRESERVECurrentPageNumber=1

One of the most influencial books I have ever read is a book called

"Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand

It is a novel written by a young woman who grew up is Soviet Russia and moved to the U.S.

The novel is about a society where govt becomes to controling and all the "great men of the mind" start to disappear.

My all time favorite books have been written by Michael Connelly. So far I've read The Poet and the sequel The Narrows and I'm currently reading his first 3 books in 1 The Black Echo/The Black Ice/The Concrete Blonde and I his style just drags me into his books and then sucks me into another one right after I've finished a previous one. Worth checking out, great author IMO.
Hail Michael Connelly