Written by Vikingr on 09.01.2012 at 16:01

Written by VloRD on 08.01.2012 at 11:29

If you guys love Tolkien's work( who doesn't) then check out Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time (you may have heard of it). I am reading the third book and there are 14 released so far. There are obvious similarities to the Lord of the Rings, but the series offers much more.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

18 year old girl can do that much? Woah! This is my top 10 chronic constant reader novel in my closet. indeed, a great stuff to go through.

btw i just picked up a random novel on Italian Metal.

Just picked up Amartya Sen's "Identity and Violence The illusion Of Destiny".

My computer is still damaged. So while I wait for it to be repaired, I turn to the next best thing: Dark fantasy literature. Currently reading all of his tomes about Elric of Melniboné (Right now halfway throught The Sailor on the Seas of Fate). A shitload to read, but a really good read. One of those stories where you wish it would never end because the characters grew so much on you.

Written by Edmund Fogg on 24.04.2012 at 18:18

My computer is still damaged. So while I wait for it to be repaired, I turn to the next best thing: Dark fantasy literature. Currently reading all of his tomes about Elric of Melniboné (Right now halfway throught The Sailor on the Seas of Fate). A shitload to read, but a really good read. One of those stories where you wish it would never end because the characters grew so much on you.

Where were you able to get copies of this series?

Written by Clintagräm on 25.04.2012 at 05:54

Where were you able to get copies of this series?

At my local library. It was translated and published as one big book through Omnibus editions back in 2006. It takes the original books and puts them in chronological order (story wise). So I'll read them that way then switch for the orders they were published for my second read.

Written by Edmund Fogg on 25.04.2012 at 17:56

Written by Clintagräm on 25.04.2012 at 05:54

Where were you able to get copies of this series?

At my local library. It was translated and published as one big book through Omnibus editions back in 2006. It takes the original books and puts them in chronological order (story wise). So I'll read them that way then switch for the orders they were published for my second read.

Excellent. I have trying to find copies to read for years. I recently found out my new town's public library has the Del Rey reprints from the late 2000s. I picked up the first volume and just finished the original The Stealer of Souls (1963) collection. This volume also has the Stormbringer (1965) collection but I think I will read the original 1972 novel Elric of Melnibone next. Thanks for reminding me to look into this series again. Great sword and sorcery!

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

I just got done reading the new 007 James bond book called Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver. Yes it's an official bond book, yes it sucks without Ian Flemming.

Barns & Nobel's have been selling these "Leatherbound Classics" which are classic works of literature (sometimes more than one at a time) being put together in a book with a VERY stylized binding. They've somehow tapped into my bibliophillia nature and I'm collecting as many as I can.

As of right now, I have:
The Divine Comedy by Dante
The Complete Collection of Edgar Allen Poe
The Martian Chronicles/The Illustrated Man/The Golden Apples of the Sun by Ray Bradbury
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The illiad and The Odyssey
Alice's Adventures In Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass and other stories
Wicked/Son Of A Witch
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Five Novels by Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, and A Tale of Two Cities)
Ernest Hemmingway (The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and The Old Man and the Sea)
H.P. Lovecraft: The Complete Collection

And I bought The Holy Bible: King James version as a gift for my grandmother.

Written by Guest on 03.06.2012 at 17:10

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

nice....

I LOVE to read, i prefer classics,
right now it's plato: the republic, if you aren't familar with it, it's all of plato's works into one big book, it's the philosophy bible! i have 2 copies one, this one and one from 1959.
i adore greek litature most. i refuse to read anything older then 1960. (not printed but written)

For anyone interested in nontraditional fantasy/gory awfulness/absurd scope/fascinating characters/excellent writing I highly recommend the Steven Erikson fantasy series 'Malazan Book of the Fallen'. The first book in the series is Gardens of the Moon. It's a little hard to get into, feels like it starts in the middle of a story, but believe me its worth it. Sorcery is drawn from strange alternate dimensions, people interact with and ascend to become gods, universes warp, backstabbing, treachery, this series has it all. Literally everything. The scope is insane. I only just finished the 6th book, but man every one is a complete twist and the action never stops. Characters are rich too.

Currently I am reading 'Spartina' by John Casey. This book feels so Hemmingway and yet is seething with New England. It's about a fisherman from Rhode Island trying get enough money together to finish building a boat. Great read.

Currently reading my first book in english: Frankeinstein, or, The Modern Prometheus - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly

Words cannot describe how good that book is and the different emotions it awakes in me. Such beauty and detailed descriotions of emotions. I admit my eyes are sometimes wet when I read it. Thank you Google.

I'm in the middle of "Dreamcatcher" by Stephen King. Great stuff.

Written by Sangre Sani on 16.09.2012 at 21:44

I'm in the middle of "Dreamcatcher" by Stephen King. Great stuff.

All Stephen King's books are great. You should read "Salem's Lot " by King. This is good one, also

"How To Piss In Public" by Gavin McInnes.



fucking hilarious.

i had friends tell me a couple years ago i should write down all my crazy stories as i have some amusing ones. fuck that. i'm total fucking amateur compared to him.

Written by Sumentaa on 06.12.2012 at 20:59

Written by Sangre Sani on 16.09.2012 at 21:44

I'm in the middle of "Dreamcatcher" by Stephen King. Great stuff.

All Stephen King's books are great. You should read "Salem's Lot " by King. This is good one, also

I read it a while ago. Great book.

Recently I finished "Manitou" by Graham Masterton. AMAZING

Written by Sangre Sani on 14.12.2012 at 23:44

Written by Sumentaa on 06.12.2012 at 20:59

Written by Sangre Sani on 16.09.2012 at 21:44

I'm in the middle of "Dreamcatcher" by Stephen King. Great stuff.

All Stephen King's books are great. You should read "Salem's Lot " by King. This is good one, also

I read it a while ago. Great book.

Recently I finished "Manitou" by Graham Masterton. AMAZING

If I find it, I'll read it. Thank you for your recommendation

Written by helofloki on 16.07.2012 at 16:01

For anyone interested in nontraditional fantasy/gory awfulness/absurd scope/fascinating characters/excellent writing I highly recommend the Steven Erikson fantasy series 'Malazan Book of the Fallen'. The first book in the series is Gardens of the Moon. It's a little hard to get into, feels like it starts in the middle of a story, but believe me its worth it. Sorcery is drawn from strange alternate dimensions, people interact with and ascend to become gods, universes warp, backstabbing, treachery, this series has it all. Literally everything. The scope is insane. I only just finished the 6th book, but man every one is a complete twist and the action never stops. Characters are rich too.

Currently I am reading 'Spartina' by John Casey. This book feels so Hemmingway and yet is seething with New England. It's about a fisherman from Rhode Island trying get enough money together to finish building a boat. Great read.

If you liked 'Malazan Book of the Fallen' you probably will like and "A song of Ice and Fire" by George R. R. Martin, this is also a great fantasy book. There is a serial movie based by this book, which is not bad, but the book is a hundred times better. I'm sure you've been watched some series of it ( "Game of thrones"). The book is a story about kings and queens, warriors and sorceress who lives in times of dark omens.

Written by Sumentaa on 15.12.2012 at 16:24

Written by helofloki on 16.07.2012 at 16:01

For anyone interested in nontraditional fantasy/gory awfulness/absurd scope/fascinating characters/excellent writing I highly recommend the Steven Erikson fantasy series 'Malazan Book of the Fallen'. The first book in the series is Gardens of the Moon. It's a little hard to get into, feels like it starts in the middle of a story, but believe me its worth it. Sorcery is drawn from strange alternate dimensions, people interact with and ascend to become gods, universes warp, backstabbing, treachery, this series has it all. Literally everything. The scope is insane. I only just finished the 6th book, but man every one is a complete twist and the action never stops. Characters are rich too.

Currently I am reading 'Spartina' by John Casey. This book feels so Hemmingway and yet is seething with New England. It's about a fisherman from Rhode Island trying get enough money together to finish building a boat. Great read.

If you liked 'Malazan Book of the Fallen' you probably will like and "A song of Ice and Fire" by George R. R. Martin, this is also a great fantasy book. There is a serial movie based by this book, which is not bad, but the book is a hundred times better. I'm sure you've been watched some series of it ( "Game of thrones"). The book is a story about kings and queens, warriors and sorceress who lives in times of dark omens.

Oh yeah, I was a big Martin fan way before I found Erikson. They both are great, but definitely in different ways. GRRM is more down to earth, more medieval with hints of magic and an exaggerated reality. What makes him so great is his characters. Really even the timely plot twists are driven by how much depth his characters have, truly each one is so complex that you could imagine hanging out with one.

Erikson on the other hand excels in scope, but I think this takes away from the characters a little bit. Some are really good, but many you just kind of know by name and reputation, not by their deepest everything. At the same time he does give them great personalities, his characters all seem to express unique philosophies of the world, which is a really cool angle to take.

Anyway, yeah, well written fantasy is pretty amazing.

If you like the Lord of the Rings, there's a book called The Iron Tower by Dennis L. McKiernan. It's pretty similar, almost an alternate version of The Lord of the Rings, so much so that you could almost consider it a ripoff. The thing is, The Lord of the Rings is far from being a compelling read. It's definitely epic and interesting, but even J.R.R. Tolkien disliked The Lord of the Rings. That trilogy was the result of directionless writing. He has admitted in the past that he pretty much just winged that book, and that's why much of the time the story doesn't seem to know where it's going. Many times I had a hard time getting through a section, because Tolkien would spend twenty pages describing a hill in Rohan rather than continue with the story.

The Iron Tower is what happens if you completely change around every aspect of the Lord of the Rings whilst maintaining the same spirit of fantasy and the, give it similar species and kingdoms, give it similar events (that happen in a different order and for different reasons), and make it a great order of magnitude more interesting and fun to read than The Lord of the Rings.

Of course, if you like J.R.R. Tolkien, you must have read The Hobbit. If any of you haven't yet, do so at once. While I had a hard time getting through The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit was a fun, interesting compelling read. From the time I first read it as a 10-year-old boy, all the way to the present day, it remains a very fun fantasy tale. I went to go see the first movie out of Peter Jackon's new trilogy recently, and even though it was great, it still doesn't do the book justice.

Of course, now that I'm older, I've shied away from Fantasy a bit and have become more intrigued with science fiction. To that end, there is one science fiction novel that you absolutely MUST read if you haven't already.

Dune. Definitely a classic, and hailed as one of the best sci-fi novels of all time. This doesn't just deal with the technology of humanity's far future, but with politics, culture, philosophy, economy, ecology, the nature of power, and so many other things. Frank Herbert was inspired by many of the best philosophers, including people like Freud, Jung, Nietzsche, and even Buddha, and he has become a great philosopher himself.

Dune takes place in a universe where humanity has rejected thinking technology. After a hard fought war with A.I. machines that controlled every aspect of human life, called the Butlerian Jihad, computing technology has become taboo. Humans must think for themselves; there are no more artificial intelligences, no computers, not even calculators. Technology may be an engine, a plane, a measuring instrument, etc. But there is nothing that can calculate for humans.

This makes space flight, which was previously guided by computers, extremely dangerous. But there is a drug that allows prescience, or foreknowledge of future events, that can make space-flight possible. It is Melange, also called Spice, found only on the planet Arrakis, known as Dune, and one of the most precious substances in the human universe. It can give you foresight, it can lengthen your life. And, if you get addicted to it, discontinuing its use will cause horrible withdrawal that ends in death.

Mining the spice isn't easy, for Arrakis is dangerous; it is deadly. The entire planet is one big desert. Water is more precious than gold and diamonds. Lose moisture, and you've just lost a bit of life; life that is precious to all things on the dry world. Besides the lack of water, there are also the monstrous sandworms. Some of the medium-sized ones can swallow an entire ship. Make too much motion on the sand, and a worm will be attracted to you. This means mining the spice, which is found in big patches on the sand, will always attract a worm. The miners must get in and mine as much spice as they can, then get out before the worm comes.

In absence of thinking machines, humanity has evolved new capabilities for the mind. There are different groups: the Mentats are trained from youths to become excellent at logic. They are "human computers" which can compute mathematical equations in the blink of an eye, and even advise a political leader on the most logical, rational course for political action; the Guild are the spacers, addicted to the spice-drug and the pilots of spacecraft. Only through them can you hope to trade with other planets and maintain paths of travel through space. Upset them, and they can refuse to let you travel in their ships; the Bene Gesserit are an all-female group that can use their mind to see their own genetic memory down the line of their mothers. They can see the past of their evolution, and predict it's future by doing so. They guide evolution by selective breeding of good specimens.

The protagonist, Paul, is part of the result of the Bene Gesserit's breeding program. They are trying to breed a super-being that will change the course of humanity. They work, through generations, towards the pinnacle of human evolution. His father is a Duke, Duke Leto Atreides, who has enemies with the Harkonnen family.

The Harkonnen family has occupied Arrakis for a long time, but the Emperor has handed the rights to the planet to the Atreides family. Is this a gift, or a trap to lead the Atreides into the hands of the Harkonnens, who are reluctant to leave the ever-precious spice-drug in the hands of their enemy? Thus is the stage set, the board layed out, the pieces and the players set and readied.

Alongside Dune Messiah, this tale of Paul Atreides is one of the best written works that has ever graced my eyes. Definitely recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Oh, and by the way, NEVER watch the David Lynch movie from the 80's. It'll ruin everything good about it forever.

Dune is classic. Frank Herbert has a great understanding of history.

Best book I've read in the 'LOTR ripoff' style (essentially all of 70's and 80's fantasy) is Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson. The main character Thomas Covenant is from our contemporary world. However, he has leprosy and it has made him bitter. His senses are slowly diminishing. During a car accident he gets transported into a LOTR type parallel universe where his senses have returned. They are even stronger now, he can feel the emotions of the wind and so on. However, he forces himself not to believe it's real for the sake of his sanity, so that when he ultimately does return to our world, his spirit isn't utterly crushed. So he is called 'the unbeliever'.

The language in this is lush and great. Excellent book, I highly recommend it.

I think I've said it before in this thread, but I always read two books at the same time. One of them always being a Stephen King book (my goal is to get through all of his works). But that's not what I wanna talk about. Lately I've been in such a "classic books" phase, just reading the "fine" stuff. A lot of swedish classics, some James Joyce (Ulysses, love it but hellish to read from time to time), Oscar Wilde, Dante (for the second time, I'm such a nerd) and such.
As I am studying to be a teacher, and one of my subjects being Swedish, I need to get through a lot of litterature courses. Which I love. We're currently reading "Frankenstein", which I've read before. Doesn't matter though. Great stuff and as someone stated above, impressive that a teenage woman in he 19th century wrote it!

I've read about 20 books since September, and I can't remember them all from the top of my head. I don't feel like writing much, and I can't post pics, but here goes:

The Hellbound Heart - Clive Barker
This is the book that Hellraiser is based on. It's alright, but I'm not a fan of Barker's style. He tends to ramble on about things that I don't care about, and is overly descriptive. Not scary at all, but interesting

The Great and Secret Show - Clive Barker
Holy crap, this book and writer is not for me. The book drags and my lack of imagination couldn't picture the odd things he tried to describe.

Sphere - Michael Crichton
This might be my favorite book of all time. Obviously better than the movie, and with a better ending, Sphere is not only gripping, but intelligent. He might be my favorite author atm. This is definitely a thriller and a book that I couldn't put down.

The Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton
Another great one with believable science, but the ending seemed like an easy copout.

The Talisman - Stephen King
This one reminded me of The Great and Secret Show, but much better. I was more interested in the plot, and King's style of writing flows much better.

The Stand - Stephen King
This is another really good one, but I don't think it lived up to it's hype. It's a little too religious for me, and not scary in any way. Still enjoyable though!

The Bourne Betrayal - forget the author
This is one of the few (only?) Bourne books that isn't a movie. Very entertaining and reads fast, but unfortunately it's a little too unrealistic to become a movie

Inca Gold - Clive Cussler
Similar to the Bourne series, but not as good. Some parts were corny and there are a lot of easy copouts that Jason Bourne couldn't even do. I still had fun reading this, however

Heart of Darkness - can't remember the author for some reason
I was excited for this, but I suppose I didn't give it a proper reading because I didn't find this interesting at all. I'll pick it up again later

All 3 Girl with the Dragon Tattoo books
I really wasn't interested in these, but a coworker gave them to me, so I felt guilted into reading them. Turns out they're not bad... definitely better than the movies. The first one is the best

Damn, I can't remember the others!

I'm currently reading Dune by Frank Herbert, Debt of Honor by Tom Clancy (BORING, probably won't finish it), and one of the newer Dawkins books. I just got Ringworld and Ender's Game in the mail, which I can't wait to read.

Written by Dangerboner on 10.01.2013 at 07:43

The Bourne Betrayal - forget the author
This is one of the few (only?) Bourne books that isn't a movie. Very entertaining and reads fast, but unfortunately it's a little too unrealistic to become a movie

Aren't all the Bourne books by Ludlum?

Just got into The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy by Douglas Adams... I'm getting through the 2nd book right now. It seems like great stuff. It's an easy, light, funny, and entertaining read while still having good storyline and not being stupid or mindless.

Written by Thrashette on 19.01.2013 at 03:44

Just got into The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy by Douglas Adams... I'm getting through the 2nd book right now. It seems like great stuff. It's an easy, light, funny, and entertaining read while still having good storyline and not being stupid or mindless.

welcome to the club. sadly the books are less funny the more the go on.

I still read the first two annually.

I'd recommend Douglas Adams other works as well... Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul.

Written by BitterCOld on 19.01.2013 at 04:39

welcome to the club. sadly the books are less funny the more the go on.

I still read the first two annually.

I'd recommend Douglas Adams other works as well... Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul.

Aww, guess I'll lower my expectations for the other books in the series then...
But thanks for the recommendations. I'll add them to my reading list

Try this one. I'm pretty sure Anal Cunt wrote it:

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8131491-the-vagina-ass-of-lucifer-niggerbastard