Ok, here's the deal. I'm bored. I have a vast library of sci-fi, but am getting bored with the books I have.

I'd like suggestions on authors/books to read, in any category. Scifi, political, fiction, anything! (Anything but trashy Romance novels, that is.)

Thanks!

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MadQuack on Military school: Pro's: I get to shoot a gun. Con's: Everything else.
"I'm going to beat you until the laws of physics are violated!!" ! Maeve's Warcry

RIP -MaDaVentor-. You will be missed.

At last there is nothing left to say - Matthew Good.

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Yeah, how's this for odd? My parents haven't been the least bit interested in my love-life my entire life, and now that prom is soon my Dad all of a sudden seems concerned that if I don't find a date and go it will mean I'm a social failure.
I don't get it... I accepted that fact a long time ago, why is he just now realizing it?
- Correction

SCUM Manifesto.

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I have a signature.

I recommend a good Grisham legal thriller. Perhaps you'd enjoy "The Firm", "The Client." (Both of which have also been made into rather good films.)


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GhostOfYoda - General doer of stuff.

If you're in the mood for an incredibly fast-paced cheesy action-packed read with a whole lotta gunfire, explosions, hovercrafts, submarines, killer whales, and evil French dudes, check out Ice Station by Mathew Reilly. High-literature it aint, but fun to read it is.

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The Massassi-Map
There is no spoon.

Michael Crichton. Anything. But you've probably already read those.

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Do you have stairs in your house?

if you like puns and you like sci-fi, theres nothing better that the callahan's series by spider robinson. start with callahan's crosstime saloon.

also the dark tower series by stephen king. starts with The Gunslinger


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<Dormouse> there are very few things quite as comforting as smelling like a close friend.

We are only human, perfect in our imperfections. - Erin amie du Dor

<Dormouse> it's really cute in the way that a sherman tank with a fuzzy steering wheel is cute

I'll give you my current list of rented books.

The Age of Spiritual Machines - Ray Kurzweil
Artifical Life, the Quest for a New Creation - Stephen Levy
Darwin Among the Machines - George B Dyson
Leviathan, or Matter, Form and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil - Thomas Hobbes
Spirits in the Wires - Charles deLint
Quicksilver - Neal Stephenson
Stardust - Neil Gaiman
Jailbird - Kurt Vonnegut
Across the Nightingale Floor - Lian Hearn
Tales of H.P. Lovecraft
The Art of Deception - Kevin Mitnick

i think that covers it

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[Blue Mink Bifocals !] [fsck -Rf /world/usr/] [<!-- kalimonster -->] [Capite Terram]
"If I said anything which implies that I think that we didn't do what we should have done given the choices we faced at the time, I shouldn't have said that." -William Jefferson Clinton
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[This message has been edited by Dormouse (edited April 11, 2004).]

Looking great. I've already read The Firm, and Art of Deception, and a few others.

What about some non-scifi? Older books, Voltaire, Hobbs, ect.

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MadQuack on Military school: Pro's: I get to shoot a gun. Con's: Everything else.
"I'm going to beat you until the laws of physics are violated!!" ! Maeve's Warcry

RIP -MaDaVentor-. You will be missed.

Anything by Robert Heinlen (Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls) or Ray Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles, Dandelion Wine, I Sing the Body Electric!). Also, see if you can find a copy of Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. It's not Sci Fi, but it is definately worth a read. Oh, and Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson

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"I sound like angry chickens, or maybe a space robot."
-Les Claypool of Primus

Try these:

Philip K Dick: The Man in the High Castle. A Scanner Darkly. (Paranoid Sci-Fi. Worlds usually resemble ours with ONE minor or major change that changes everything . First one has a world where the Axis won the Second World War. America is occupied with the Germans on the East coast, Japanese on the West Coast. In the middle is a mysterious titular author writing a world where the Axis lost. A Scanner Darkly has some simply sublime writing where a man's perception gradually caves in on itself. It makes no sense, but it makes perfect sense. Mind expanding stuff.).

Hunter S Thompson: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Trippy druggy Americana excess. Hilarious. Great movie too.)

William Gibson: Idoru (Good introduction into William Gibsons sci-fi world. Neural implants, cyberspace, neon-lit metropolises, media manipulation, neo-tokyo, computer generated celebrities)

James Elroy: White Jazz (Violent, remorseless, grim L.A. detective tale that avoids the pitfall of copying the typical hard-boiled Raymond Chandler "bourbon and dames" monologue clique. Unique lyrical style with plenty of 50's lingo, hepcat, y'dig? Like much of Elroy's repertoire it's not for the weak-stomached (shootings, hard-handed pugilism, references to incest, bigoted corrupt police, monstrous characters), You'll feel quite unclean and will need a shower after reading it. Cracking story though.)

Jennifer Government
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
The Shadow Club
The Dark Side of Nowhere
The Giver

Those are my favorite books of all time.

The Giver is #1, The Dark Side of Nowhere is a very close #2

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I’m not going to die, I’m going to see if I was ever alive. - Spike
It's not your right to decide whether they live or die. They deserve a chance! - Vash
[This message has been edited by EvanC (edited April 10, 2004).]

[This message has been edited by SAJN_Master (edited April 11, 2004).]

Anything by Phillip K Dick, especially: The Man in the High Castle, A Scanner Darkly, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, The Minority Report, Flow My Tears the Policeman Said.

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And everything under the sun is in tune, but the sun is eclipsed by the moon...
DSettahr's Homepage | Cantina Cloud | Rally NY

I heard from a friend that The Forge of God by Greg Bear is really really good, and i plan on reading it soon.

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WOOSH|-----@%

Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews

You'll be ever so sorry you did.

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"Blind Cave Frog - They evolved blindness as a protective mechanism ot ensure continuation of the species as cave frogs are made violently ill by the sight of other cave frogs. The males are red and the females are green, but, of course, blind caves frogs do not know this."
-Instruction manual for Captain Comic

bwahaha.. Dick is my hero. I'm actually in the middle of a term paper on Man in the High Castle.

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MadQuack on Military school: Pro's: I get to shoot a gun. Con's: Everything else.
"I'm going to beat you until the laws of physics are violated!!" ! Maeve's Warcry

RIP -MaDaVentor-. You will be missed.

Read War and Peace five times.

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Run Away!!

gcc -O2 -Wall -I. -I. I../include -c reading_list.c

Oh wrong compile. I would also consider the short stories done by Ray Bradbury. At least read "The City."

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat.

I've always been a big fan of William Faulkner, and of his books, The Sound and the Fury and As I Lay Dying are my favorite, but they require a lot of patients (or CliffNotes) to figure out.

If you haven't read LotR, they're worth taking a look at. If you've got a lot of time, the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan was another fantasy series I enjoyed. Since you say you have a lot of SciFi, I assume you've read most of the Ender books by Orson Scott Card, but if you haven't, I'd definitely reccomend them, too.

[This message has been edited by Vornskr (edited April 11, 2004).]

-Catcher in the Rye
-Confederacy of the Dunces



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Snail racing: (500 posts per line)

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Required reading before anything else (Except LOTR, but its a given that you've already read that.)

ANYTHING (Perferrably the Star Wars books first) by TIMOTHY ZAHN.

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"The future is not determined by a throw of the dice, but is determined by the conscious decisions of you and me."
I am addicted to ellipses!!! AHHH!!! ...
Make Sorrowind Worthwhile... join it! http://sorrowind.net

LotR- Read.
Thrawn Fivolgy- Read.
Ender's Game- Read.
Four other Ender books- Started, but didn't like. Half-read.
War and Peace(Five times)- That's funny. Really. Though I might give it /a/ read.

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MadQuack on Military school: Pro's: I get to shoot a gun. Con's: Everything else.
"I'm going to beat you until the laws of physics are violated!!" ! Maeve's Warcry

RIP -MaDaVentor-. You will be missed.

Bear. /nightmares

Ok, seriously, read the Dark Elf books by R.A. Salvatore. They are insanely good.

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Eat the pudding.

A Void by Georges Perec is an odd one.

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Steal my dreams and sell them back to me.....

House of Leaves - Mark Z Danielewski [you will /never/ be the same]
Timequake - Kurt Vonnegut [whence blue mink bifocals incidentally]
Cat's Cradle - Kurt Vonnegut.. ah hell, anything by him.

I did rather enjoy Zahn's Conquerer trilogy back in the day.

*looks around room*

Aha!
Memory Sorrow and Thorn trilogy - Tad Williams
Otherland quartet - Tad Williams

Star of the Guardians trilogy - Margaret Weis

Farseer trilogy - Robin Hobb
The Positronic Man - Isaac Asimov

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert M Pirsig
Lila - Robert M Pirsig

mmmm. the Silmarillion.. must re-read that sometime myself.

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[Blue Mink Bifocals !] [fsck -Rf /world/usr/] [<!-- kalimonster -->] [Capite Terram]
"If I said anything which implies that I think that we didn't do what we should have done given the choices we faced at the time, I shouldn't have said that." -William Jefferson Clinton
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Terry Pratchett > * for sci-fi fantasy.

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"Apples rule. If it weren't for a conspiracy on the part of fruit manufacturers we'd all have apples."

Dracula

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"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity."

-Albert Einstein

Some of these have already been said, But i'll state them anyway:

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Trilogy, Long Dark Teatime of the Soul, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency- Douglas Adams

Although I seriously doubt you haven't read these, i put them here in case. And i'm not sure about that last one. the actual title might be different.

Night Watch, Monstorous Regiment, Sourcery, The Truth, Thief of Time, The Last Hero- Terry Pratchett

Although any of his books are massively entertaining, these are some of my favorites. Extreamly satiracle(sp?) fantasy, incredibly funny. Like Douglas Adams, only with fantasy.

Dragonriders of Pern series, Freedom series, Pegasus Series- Anne McCaffrey

Some lite Sci-Fi Fantasy, although she does her reserch, so there are no broaches of natural laws (unless in the case of the pegasus series, which involves psychics). Some of the best books for the Dragonrider series, since it has become huge, are 'Dragonflight', 'Renegades of Pern', and 'Skies of Pern', in that order. They are some of the best, and give you the best glimpse of the overall story.

Manifold Series, Evolution, Most other books- Steven Baxter

Pretty hard SF, but worth it if you like that style. Evolution is extreamly heavy, though, and i would only suggest it if you are actually interested in evolution. It took me several weeks to get through, and i normally go through books like water. Also, the manifold Series isn't really a series, jsut involves most of the same characters in 'parallel universes', so to speak, so you can read any of them in any order.

Revelation Space, Redemption Ark- Alastair Renolds

Some more very hard SF, very far future. Good reads, but very long.

Timeline- Michael Chriton

Other people i have seen recomend all his books, but this is the only one i've read so far, so that is all i will recommend.

Dilbert Future- Scott Adams

Its a good book, but only if you like Dilbert.

Watership Down- Richard Adams

Itsa about.. well, rabbits, but down be put off by that. it's a deceptively good book. One of the only two books i ever liked that i had to read for school.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn- Betty Smith

The other book i liked that i had to read for school. Long, and rather depressing at several parts, but a fantasticly good book, all in all. One of my top five.

A Knight's Tail

... What?

That's all i have for now, but i may chime in later after i take anouther look at my library.

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"No good can ever come from staying with normal people"
-Outlaw Star
"Some people play tennis. I erode the human soul"
-Tycho, Penny Arcade
"I'm a Cannabal-Vegitarian. I will BBQ an employee if there is no veggie option"
-DX:IW

[This message has been edited by Noble Outlaw (edited April 11, 2004).]

Omq.. i so forgot:

Sphere - Michael Crichton
The Abyss - Orson Scott Card

*uberheart*

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[Blue Mink Bifocals !] [fsck -Rf /world/usr/] [<!-- kalimonster -->] [Capite Terram]
"If I said anything which implies that I think that we didn't do what we should have done given the choices we faced at the time, I shouldn't have said that." -William Jefferson Clinton
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Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
This is an absolute "must-read." Probably my favorite book. Hilarious, clever, witty, cynical, yet still manages to drive home some really dramatic moments.

Other good books:
Gun, with Occasional Music - Jonathan Lethem
1984 - George Orwell
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card

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"I am downright amazed at what I can destroy with just a hammer."
-Atom and His Package

[This message has been edited by Wuss (edited April 11, 2004).]

If you read any book, read "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt. It's fun.

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free mp3 ~Jump - Young America

new album comes out April 20th

Isaac Asimov's complete Foundation Series is about 14 books and it very good.

John Marsden has good books that are kindov for teens. I would definately recomment the Tomorow Series.

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"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke

"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right." -Isaac Asimov

I just finished Captain Corelli's Mandolin. I cried. Haven't seen the film, but the book is beautiful.

ooh, also just read a couple of Bill Brysons. Notes from a Small Island and Notes from a Big Country. The former is a tour of him going around Britain for the final time before moving back to the States after 20 years or something. Possibly not so amusing to non-Brits, but I got alot of weird looks from laughing on the tube when reading it. The latter is a compilation of articles that he wrote about America after returning there, I didn't find it as entertaining, because of the bitty layout I suppose, but as far as newspaper columns go, it's still very amusing.

I would look over at my bookshelf to see if anything catches my eye to recommend, but the cupboard door is in the way and I am that lazy.

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/end boob rant

Oh, almost forgot one:

Lord of the Flies- William Golding

Its about a group of schoolboys who are stranded on an island for a few weeks. gets very dark and deals alot with the 'natural inclination towards evil' which Golding believes in, but its a very good book, all the same.

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"No good can ever come from staying with normal people"
-Outlaw Star
"Some people play tennis. I erode the human soul"
-Tycho, Penny Arcade
"I'm a Cannabal-Vegitarian. I will BBQ an employee if there is no veggie option"
-DX:IW

The Original Foundation Trilogy was by far the best. The other ones were ok.. but it declined pretty fast. And the one book with Gaia.. just.. weird. Didn't like it at all.

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MadQuack on Military school: Pro's: I get to shoot a gun. Con's: Everything else.
"I'm going to beat you until the laws of physics are violated!!" ! Maeve's Warcry

RIP -MaDaVentor-. You will be missed.

Yes. Ellroy rules! The LA Quartet (The Black Dahlia, The Big Nowhere, LA Confidential, White Jazz) are all awesome.

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The Massassi-Map
There is no spoon.

Lies My Teacher Told Me is a truly great one, that you must read if you have ever been a student of American History.

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Steal my dreams and sell them back to me.....

The Giver

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I’m not going to die, I’m going to see if I was ever alive. - Spike
It's not your right to decide whether they live or die. They deserve a chance! - Vash
Originally posted by Elana14: i would love a dong like that!

C.S. Lewis - Out of the Silent Planet
Perelandra
???

Frank Herbert - The Chronicles of Dune (6 I believe, that you've probably read)

Madeline L'Engle - A Wrinkle in Time
A Wind in the Door
A Swiftly Tilting Planet

The Dinotopia Books are Fantastic!!!


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~ Vader's Corner ~ The place to submit your poetical works!

The Giver.

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I’m not going to die, I’m going to see if I was ever alive. - Spike
It's not your right to decide whether they live or die. They deserve a chance! - Vash
Originally posted by Elana14: i would love a dong like that!