Read a good book lately?

[Kickaha]

Following on from Life the Universe and Everything it appears we have a few people who like to do a bit of reading.

What books have you read lately and what's your favourites books and writers
My general preference would be for scifi/fantasy, with my personal favourite being "A Mote in Gods Eye" by Niven and Pournelle about mans first contact with aliens.

I'm also a big fan of the discworld series with any book that features Sam Vimes and the City Watch or Rincewind the Wizzard and his Luggage.

The Riftwar books by Raymond E Feist would also be high up in my list along with the Dark Tower books by Stephen King,these are unlike any of his usual writing combining a western with scifi and magic and I'm just waiting for the 5th one to come out in paperback to grab it.

Other Authors I enjoy Jack Higgins,Issac Asimov,Robert Heinlen,David Drake,Louis L'Armour,Sven Hassell,Clive Cussler,Alistar McClean,Fritz Lieber,
Frank Herbert,Gordon R Dickson and a heap more.


My personal library has a few hundred books in it and the only thing that stops it getting bigger is a lack of funds,so I've finally joined the local library,I just hate having to give them back though!

[James Deuce]

Looking at that list of authors, you'd like John Ringo too.

Try the "March" series for some rousing space opera, and the books about the Posleen - alien invasion of Earth at it's best.

S.M. Stirling's Island in the sea of time series is great too.

[Ms Piggy]

I love reading too but my problem is I'm quite a slow reader, so I would never get a book finished by the time it's due back at the Library.

The last book I read that really impressed me was one I had as a text for Uni:
'The Treaty of Waitangi' by Claudia Orange. Not intellectual at all and very real. Before that I had read the autobiography of Maya Angelou - a black American poet.

Oh yeah and I do like sci-fi/fantasy novels, although I find it staggering how expensive books are! Yay for a good lot of 2nd hand book stores in Wellington.

[Motu]

I'm a compulsive reader and I must say this computer stuff cuts into my reading big time.Si/Fi is my favorite too - I just found a complete set of Phillip Jose Farmers Riverworld series in a s/h bookshop,that was a good one,Harry Harrison did some good Si/Fi,and the idiotic Stainless Steel Rat,nothing like spoofing your own genre eh!,but he has also done some historic novels as well,always a good read no matter what he's doing.Piers Anthony was one of the first Si/Fi authers I read (Macroscope) and I followed him for years,but his trip into fantasy land has lost me,any stand alone novel of his is worth a read though.

Of course Lord of the Rings was the first fantasy I read,then along came Terry Brooks with the Shanara series - but then came the deluge and I just can't be bothered going into the countless worlds of dragons and wizards - but a few stand out.Anne Mc Caffery of course,read them from the start,David Eddings has been one the whole family has read and we are picking up books as we go along.

I will read anything,historic novels,crime,horror,workshop manuals,biographies,cereal packets and the instructions on a tube of glue,if it's writting it has my undivided attention.As you'd expect my whole family reads - like,they have a choice?! My eldest daughter suprised a few people when as a 4 yr old she read The Hobbit - ''oh,she's not reading that'' yeah right.They always get a bedtime story and I was reading her John Steinbeck when she was 16.My younger boys are just finishing the complete David Eddings works - my wife reads them that morning and night.

Uh....do you get the idea we like books?

[Ghost Lemur]

Among the authors I have read and enjoyed (no particular order) -

Adams, Douglas - Burroughs, William S. - Kerouac, Jack - Doestovsky, Feydor - Baudelaire, Charles - Rimbaud, Arthur - Crevel, Rene - Rushkoff, Douglas - Eric Idle - Elton, Ben - Poe, Edgar Allen - Aligieri, Dante - Welsh, Irvine - Astimov, Issac - Prachett, Terry - Orwell, George - Hemmingway, Ernest - Morrison, James - Rollins, Henry - Clarke, Arthur C - Capote, Truman - Shields, Bill - Cave, Nick - Thomas, Dylan - Burgess, Anthony - Huxley, Aldous - etc - etc- etc

I'll pretty much read anything... except for romantic drivel.

[sAsLEX]

Ludlum, Hawking, older clancy are some good reads

[wkid_one]

Sci Fi - If you like David Eddings & Raymond E Feist try Stephen Lawhead & Sara Douglass ( The Axis Trilogy (well 9 books) is fantastic).

Others - Lee Child (Reacher Novels) & Stephen Leather.

[Skyryder]

For Sci Fi fans try 'The Sparrow' by Mary Doria Russell

In 2019, humanity finally finds proof of extraterrestrial life when a listening post in Puerto Rico picks up exquisite singing from a planet which will come to be known as Rakhat. While United Nations diplomats endlessly debate a possible first contact mission, the Society of Jesus quietly organizes an eight-person scientific expedition of its own. What the Jesuits find is a world so beyond comprehension that it will lead them to question the meaning of being "human." When the lone survivor of the expedition, Emilio Sandoz, returns to Earth in 2059, he will try to explain what went wrong... Words like "provocative" and "compelling" will come to mind as you read this shocking novel about first contact with a race that creates music akin to both poetry and prayer. --Not a fast read but different.

I'm not a great Sci Fi fan but this was a little different. The sequal is 'The Children of God.' Have not read this.

For Tolkien buffs the 'Silmarilion.' Deals with the events of prior to the Third Age

Alistair McMclean. 'Circus.' Set just after the end of the American Civil War about a sharp shooter who joins a circus. Big read. Good story.

'Pillars of the Earth' by Ken Follet. Set 60 years after the Norman invasion. About a mason and the building of a Catherderal. Big read but once started you will not be able to put down.

Len Deighton 'Winter.' A Berlin Family 1899-1945. One of his best.

'The Far Pavilions' by M M Kaye When The Far Pavilions was first published nineteen years ago, it moved the critic Edmund Fuller to write this: "Were Miss Kaye to produce no other book, The Far Pavilions might stand as a lasting accomplishment in a single work comparable to Margaret Mitchell's achievement in Gond With the Wind."

From its beginning in the foothills of the towering Himalayas, M.M. Kaye's masterwork is a vast, rich and vibrant tapestry of love and war that ranks with the greatest panoramic sagas of modern fiction.

The Far Pavilions is itself a Himalayan achievement, a book we hate to see come to an end. it is a passionate, triumphant story that excites us, fills us with joy, move us to tears, satisfies us deeply, and helps us remember just what it is we want most from a novel.
Big read but an unstoppable read. Basicly a love story set in the time of the British Raj. Do not let the love fool you.

Could go on and on on this one.

At the moment I am reading Bram Stoker's 'Dracula.'

Skyryder

[menace]

I just got thorugh the wilbourn smith trilogy... The egiptian one...

Give it 4/5 for the whole trilogy...

[Satan]

I can recommend the following:

A pact with the devil - John Allee
Avoiding Evangilism - Lillee Allee
Heaven and Hell - Richard Arbib
Is there a soul - Christopher Henderson
The Black Book of Satan - Conrod Robury (has all me bitches numbers in it)

[Posh Tourer :P]

I used to read almost constantly, and have tailed off dramatically since the computer came along. I read almost exclusively fantasy, starting with tolkein (LOTR was read to me at age 7 or so) and apart from reading that many times and it's related books including the silmarillion, hobbit, and unfinished tales and skim through the biography of J.R.R., I also enjoyed all of Piers Anthony's Xanth series, the Margaret Weis/Tracy Hickman series whose name I cant remember, Anne McCaffery, David Eddings and Terry Pratchett, as well as HHGGTTG (Douglas Adams). Essentially any fantasy with more than one book. This also includes Robert E. Margoff and Piers Anthony's series, Piers Anthony's Mode and Adept series and some L.E.Modesitt. I sort of ran out of long fantasy series after all that, as there was nothing else at the libraries. The only ones I think I have missed are Raymond E Fiest's series. I'm trying to broaden my reading to other things, like histories and non-fiction, as I dont really enjoy Scifi, or romance. However, at the moment I dont really have the time... :S Kiwibiker is sucking all free time out of me...

[erik]

I go through spells of reading and not reading. I love reading books, but I guess I'm more addicted to the internet than I am to reading novels, so haven't found the time to read a book in ages.
I've read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and a fair few of Terry Pratchet's discworld novels. Also Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman was a good read, although I don't know if religious types would like it.
No-one has mentioned Orson Scott Card, I really liked Ender's Game by him, and the books that followed.
I thought the Foundation books by Isaac Asimov were really good too.

One author that I didn't like was Tom Holt. I picked up one of his books ("Here comes the sun" iirc) from the library once and tried reading it. But it pretty much seemed like a not-so-skilled author trying to copy Terry Pratchett. But perhaps his other books are better.

[Motu]

I can recommend the following:

A pact with the devil - John Allee
Avoiding Evangilism - Lillee Allee
Heaven and Hell - Richard Arbib
Is there a soul - Christopher Henderson
The Black Book of Satan - Conrod Robury (has all me bitches numbers in it)

No Alister Crowley?

Oh yes P/T,Orson Scott Card for sure - Return to Earth was a good series from him too.David Gemmel writes some good stuff too,but I'm kinda lost in who,when,where with his books.I really like good old Si/Fi - like new planets and meeting aliens,but it's hard to find now,but recently read some new author doing that,a refreshing change.

What's on my table at the moment?....still getting through the John Britten bio,the thick one by Tim Hanna,but it's borrowed so better return it soon.Have been reading Tamora Pierce's Alanna series,my daughters are giving them to me as they finish their libary copies.Also in the middle of reading Juan Manuel Fangio's autobiography ''My Twenty Years of Racing'',I found that in the Hard To Find Bookshop when I picked up the Riverworld series,which I will read again next.

Home schooling 4 kids we have amased a fair collection - it's huge...uh,no...in the middle of shifting seeing how many books we have is scary,I have no idea where they will go,boxes and boxes andboxes and boxes..........

[matthewt]

A lot of the authors I read have already been mentioned. I quite like Greg Bear's books as well.

[What?]

For fiction, I pretty-well start and stop with Dean Koontz and Richard Laymon, with a bit of fantasy from Douglas Adams.
More into bikes and bio's. One of the best books I have ever read was Jupiters Travels by Ted Simon. A tale of a bloke who rode around the world on a 500 Triumph twin. Also Lucy Irvine's Castaway was a good read.
And for the sake of difference, I have read most of what Mr Crowley wrote, as well as most of the bible. Don't have a lot of time for either any more...