Books

This thread is for people to suggest books for others to read.  This could be fiction or non-fiction.  Don't just list a bunch of books on a post though.  Suggest a single book (or small number) at a time.

Here's a start.  I think everybody should read Mr. Was by Pete Hautman.  If you haven't read it, well...read it.  It's a really good fiction book that I read in like 10th grade that deals with a paradox that I think you'll all recognize.

Theres a series called "the keys to the kingdom" written by Garth Nix in Canada, the names of the books are (sorry for posting more than one, but they all are wicked);

ones that are already out;
Mr Monday,
Arthur is not supposed to be a hero. He is, in fact, supposed to die an early death. But then his life is saved by a key shaped like the minute hand of a clock.
Arthur is safe — but his world is not. Along with the key comes a plague brought by bizarre creatures from another realm. A stranger named Mister Monday, his avenging messengers with bloodstained wings, and an army of dog-faced Fetchers will stop at nothing to get the key back —even if it means destroying Arthur and everything around him.

Desperate, Arthur ventures into a mysterious house — a house that only he can see. It is in this house that Arthur must unravel the secrets of the key — and discover his true fate.


Grim Teusday,
On the second day, there was darkness.
Arthur Penhaligon didn't think he would ever have to return to the strange house that nearly killed him on Monday — the house that contains a fantastical and sinister realm inside.

But the next day brings new challenges — in the form of an enemy named Grim Tuesday, who threatens the safety of both Arthur's family and his world. Arthur must retrieve the Second Key from Grim Tuesday in order to save everything — an adventure that will force him to steal a Sunship, survive a very weird work camp, befriend a bearlike spirit, and fight the void Nithlings. And even after all that, he will still have to venture into the scary Far Reaches for an ultimate showdown.

The stakes are high. And time is ticking.


Drowned Wednesday,
Wednesday has rolled around, and Arthur Penhaligon has an invitation to return to the House that he can't refuse. Drowned Wednesday has sent a ship to pick him up from the hospital…even though his hometown is miles from any ocean.

From hospital room to the high seas, Arthur finds himself on an adventure that will pit him against pirates, storms, explosions of Nothing-laced gunpowder, and a vast beast that eats everything it encounters. Through it all, he is drawn deeper into the central mystery of the House. Arthur must find the third part of the Will and claim the Third Key-not just for himself, but for the millions who will suffer if he doesn't.

The first step? Surviving life aboard a ship on the Border Sea.



Sir Thursday
Following their adventures in the Border Sea, Arthur and Leaf head for home. But only Leaf gets through the Front Door. Arthur is blocked because someone . . . or something . . . has assumed his identity and is taking over his life.

Before Arthur can take action, he is drafted by Sir Thursday and forced to join the Glorious Army of the Architect. While Leaf tries to banish Arthur's doppleganger on earth, Arthur must survive his basic training, avoid getting posted to the Front and work out how he can free Part Four of the Will.


Ones to come out;
Friday,
Saturday,
Sunday,



These books are the best I've ever read, they're about a boy called Arthur Penhaligon, he is the "rightful heir" to the house of the Architect and must defeat each corrupt owner of the works, with the help from Suzy Turquoise Blue and his friend Leaf, he needs to get together all of the will, and weild all the keys.
The Architect has children aswell, with the Piper, though the Architect has been lost for a long time, the Piper is still around and trying to beat Arthur and take over the house.

Dude those books sound awesome.  I'm going to read one this summer if I have the chance and if they're at the library.  And you listed them the right way I just don't want people listing a bunch of books they've read without saying anything more.

Hmmm... Keys to the Kingdom sounds pretty inventive.  I'll have to check it out.

My first recommendation is Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco.  The "heros" work for a small, corrupt publishing house in Milan.  They do some honest publishing, but mostly they swindle naive authors who write books on the occult that the publishers know nobody will ever read.

One day they receive a visit from a colonel of the police force named Ardenti.  He shows them a cryptic centuries-old message which he interprets as part of a vast Plan of the Templars essentially for world domination.  The heros think nothing of it at first, but eventually they see similarities in works that their "clients" have published.  They write a computer program into which they pour all the occult nonsense works they have ever collected, and get the computer to produce more such similarities.  Eventually, they reconstruct the details of "The Plan".  However, their activities do not go unnoticed by certain shady figures, who eventually come after them for their secrets.

I think this book is a must-read for anybody who thinks about conspiracies or the scarier parts of the human/social psyche, especially the dangers of the tendency to read too much into an otherwise innocuous bit of text.

It's a fairly convoluted plot, as much of the book is flashbacks to events in faraway lands hundreds of years ago.  It's practically bursting with some pretty fascinating tidbits of European history... I highly recommended it.

-Erasmus

Yeah, they're REALLY good, I can't wait for the next one to come out, and if I didn't mesion, each one leads on from the last, so it's best to read in order (it's in order of days of the week). I like them so much, each book is about 300 pages and I read them at night, I usually can't stop until 3 AM .

Foucault's Pendulum sounds interesting, a bit like a horror story? I hope I find some interesting books here to read, I'm waiting for a new thing to read.

Yeah I've heard you talk about Foucault's Pendulum before, it's on my reading list.  When I read the description I kind of thought of The Da Vinci Code and works like that.

Since I didn't give a good description of Mr. Was, here's a short one without giving things away:

A boy moves into his deceased grandfather's house with his mom and alcoholic father.  One day he finds a door (I think in a closet).  The door, however, doesn't lead to another room in the house... it leads to the 1940s.

I can't give too much away because I'd hate to ruin it but it's cool.  I read it and loved it.  And you know those kids in high school that you'd never expect to read a book?  You know the type I'm talking about?  Well, because reading was a required thing, a guy I knew had that book and he said "Hey you ever read this?"  and I said "Yeah, that's a good book" and he said "On a scale of 1-10?" "Ten, definitely."   Well, he read the book and told me that he'd never enjoyed reading a book before that one.  So yeah, read it.  And if you don't like it, I'm sorry.  Because so far every single person that I know who has read it has loved it.

Sailing to Sarantium/Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay.
Lions of Al-Rassan also by Kay
Perdito Street Station by China Meiville
Dune (complete series) by Frank Herbert
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Those are among my facvourite boks. Enjoy
An literate
Cinlef

Stephen King - The Stand
An Unkown disease kills 99% of the world population. The survivors fight to survive in a world run rampant with criminals. The leader of the criminals is the human reincarnation of the devil and is taking refuge in Las Vegas. The end will surprise you.

Lincoln Child, Douglas Preston - Still Life With Crows
A small town in southwest america after a rash of usolved murders take place. See one girls journey from a futureless nine inch nails fan to a college grad.

two awesome horror books everyone should read. twice. and yes i wrote the descriptions myself.[/i]

"A game of thrones" by George R.R Martin.

It's the first book in the "Song of fire and ice" series.

You realise nobody will care unless you post something more than under 10 words of rough explanation?

He's right, give just a little explanation as to why we should be interested in the book so we can feel motivated to pick it up and read it sometime.  That's the reason I said it's no good to just list books that you've read and think are good.

"Illusions: Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" by Richard Bach. Contains some though-provoking and insightful ideas, as it deals with philosophical subjects such the existence of the world, philosophical anarchy as opposed to total anarchy, destiny, etc.

Quite short but well worth the read.

He's right, give just a little explanation as to why we should be interested in the book so we can feel motivated to pick it up and read it sometime.  That's the reason I said it's no good to just list books that you've read and think are good.

Sorry, it was late and I was tired when I put it up so I didn't bother to write anything. And if you don't mind horribly much, I will continue being lazy and just quote one of the reviews on amazon.com, since it sums it up pretty nicely:

"The plot avoids all the usual traps and cliches of fantasy. We are in a medieval world that seems almost real and which is untainted by an over proliferation of magic. All the way through you are face to face with a gritty tale that tastes more like an unforgiving medieval Europe more than a fantasy world. The plot twists and turns surprisingly and shakes up the fnasty genre by dooming many of it's characters, heroes and anti-heroes, to die before the end. It is not a predictable tale that spares you from reality and horrors, it is filled with death, betrayal, violence, incest. Here at last is a plot that focuses on the political wars of the high nobility instead of on the struggles of some worthy peasant boy. The lords and ladies are both the "hereos" and the "villains". Do not however expect for the division of "good" and "evil" to be that well defined. Just when you think you fully loathe a character the author surprises you and turns it around. The characters are three dimensional and wonderfully intense. The "heroes" are not always brave and good and perfect and brilliant, and the "villains" are truly evil, they do not just rule a kingdom wickedly as they would in most fantasy series, they are horrbly twistedly cruel sometimes in a way "softer" fantasy has never made them.

As for the actual plot of the this book, "A game of Thrones" is set in the seven kingdoms for the most part known as Westeros, fourteen years after the war known as "Robert's Rebellion" when the new king slew prince Rheagar Targaryen on the Trident for the love of a woman. Now, the wolves, the Starks of Winterfell sit in the North, King Robert sits the Iron throne surrounded by the Lions of Lannister. There political intrigue begins to stir as mena nad women make their own plans for power and the Starks are called to court. But far in the north of the seven kingdoms, beyond the icy Wall, something darker than simple political intrigue is stirring. Across the narrow sea, in the territories of the free cities, hides Daenerys Stormborn of the Targaryen line born even as her family saw it's demise, dreaming of dragons."

"Illusions: Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" by Richard Bach. Contains some though-provoking and insightful ideas, as it deals with philosophical subjects such the existence of the world, philosophical anarchy as opposed to total anarchy, destiny, etc.

Seconded.  I read it many years ago and found it fairly compelling -- I especially like the analogy about the fish going with the stream.

However I read it at a time in my life when I was inexcusably undercritical.  I'd be interested to read it again to see if it's still as good as I remember.... oh look, there it is on my bookshelf.

-Erasmus

Seconded.  I read it many years ago and found it fairly compelling -- I especially like the analogy about the fish going with the stream.

However I read it at a time in my life when I was inexcusably undercritical.  I'd be interested to read it again to see if it's still as good as I remember.... oh look, there it is on my bookshelf.

-Erasmus

Aye, the fish analogy was good but I quite liked the vampire one -  brilliant counter to philosophical anarchy.

I command ye to read it again, perhaps we can start a thread on it to discuss it's merit

I command ye to read it again, perhaps we can start a thread on it to discuss it's merit :)

I started it again last night.  Some guy on the train noticed me reading it so we had a discussion about it -- he lives his life according to the last quote, apparently.  Anyway, I should be done with it today, if I get a chance to read it; tomorrow otherwise.

So far it's feeling: that's a sweet idea, too bad it turns out that real life isn't a movie after all.

-Erasmus

So far it's feeling: that's a sweet idea, too bad it turns out that real life isn't a movie after all.

Agreed. But how do you know it's not a movie? Maybe you're the fish clinging to the sea bed?

Also, what was the last quote again? "Everything in this book may be false"? I think that's it, I can't actually remember....

Agreed. But how do you know it's not a movie? Maybe you're the fish clinging to the sea bed? :D

Maybe somebody else's life a movie, but mine isn't, for reasons that just aren't appropriate material for discussion on a forum.

Also, what was the last quote again? "Everything in this book may be false"? I think that's it, I can't actually remember....

Yeah, that's it.  I like the penultimate one better: "What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the Master calls a butterfly."

So are you starting a thread about this book, or what?

-Erasmus