Must Reads - Literature Suggestions

[Kaura117]

I started this thread up not ten minutes after finishing Cory Doctorow's latest release, "Little Brother." It's got flaws- the first few chapters are kind of awkward, given that it's an early-era GenXer emulating the lingo of the post-millennia, social net generation. He gets the terminology right, but not quite the flow.

Then I kept reading.

Then I got really goddamn pissed.

If you're the least bit literary-inclined whatsoever, I'm sure you're familiar with the feeling of running across a book you know everybody else should be reading. Maybe it's just plain awesome. Maybe it really stirs up your sentimentality. Or maybe, like with 1984 and "Little Brother," it riles you up while opening your eyes- makes clear some things you had wondered about, and changes the way you look at the world.

So list some of them. Toss out a book rec in this thread. My job's slow, the work load's light, and the accountant doesn't mind me reading  on the job. And the rest of you probably aren't even college-level yet, so your summer's free. There's no excuse not to bring a bit more enlightenment into your own life- and no excuse for me not to do the same.

So, yes. My own list of "necessary reads."

1. The Bible - not an odd choice, despite my religious inclinations (or lack thereof). Nothing else has impacted Western literature quite so thoroughly- nothing ever will. Regardless of whether or not you believe- and I'm not just agnostic but outright atheist- if you speak and read the English language, this is required reading.
2. Fahrenheit 451 - yeah, you probably read it at school. Probably skimmed through it just enough to get the essay crammed out. Read it again. Bradbury's writing style isn't my all-time favorite, but his message is quite clear and frighteningly relevant.
3. 1984 - Orwell's (edit: ORWELL DAMMIT. ORWELL. HUXLEY, GO AWAY) writing style is also not amongst my favorite. But this one's probably even more important than 451.
4. Little Brother - Cory Doctorow's spiritual successor to 1984. Modern day, modern tech, too believable. Neil Gaiman gives it his wholehearted recommendation, and I'm quite inclined to be as enthusiastic. You can grab a free ebook of it too, over here. Then buy the book- you're going to want to reread it, and wood pulp's easier on the eyes than laptop screens.
5. American Gods - Speaking of Neil Gaiman... This is a beautifully dark book. And it tends to be divisive. People either love it fervently, or hate it absolutely. Not too many in-betweens. It is, however, a strong critique of western culture, and well-worth your time.
6. The Illuminatus! Trilogy - Because I want to fuck with your head.
7. Schroedinger's Cat - Because Robert Anton Wilson loves fucking with your head. And because it's actually a stronger trilogy than Illuminatus!, but not nearly as awesome without it. Read both. You'll come out of it a... different person, if only slightly. And be far less willing to take... anything at face value.
8. Transmetropolitan - Warren Ellis's infamous graphic novel series. It starts off a bit shallow, and not a little masturbatory. Then it shoots you with its bowel disruptor, and screams at you to wake up and smell the shit around you. Spider Jerusalem's monologue on the Monoculture is classic.
9. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas will NOT be on this list, as Las Vegas was an entertaining exercise in gonzo journalism, but nothing more. THIS is definitive Hunter S. Thompson. This is what the beast that is the US political system actually looks like. And this is the secret of gonzo journalism. A lot of it's outdated. The Democratic nomination system is no longer as described in the book. But the visceral reality of our political landscape- all the underlying poison and bile and terrible insanity- is, unfortunately, still there. And festering. And nobody but Hunter described it as accurately.

More will, of course, come when they occur to me.

So, toss me your recs.

[Lactose]

Catch 22- Joseph (K)eller? might be Heller.

The English Patient- Michael Ondaatje --my all time FAVORITE book.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest- i dont remember the author, but incredible book.

A Clockwork Orange- Anthony Burgess -- my second favorite book of all time

and for some lighter reading, Fight Club and Survivor, by Chuck Palahnuik, are easy, good, quick reads.

[Kazuko]

Ken Keesy is the guy who wrote one flew over the cuckoos nest
I love that book along with Jane Eyre, Memoirs of a Geisha, Animal Farm, 1984, Lolita, The great gatsby, Battle Royale, Life of Pi, Eat pray love, go ask alice, the taming of the shrew, Odessyus, Enders game and One Pill makes you smaller

:d I enjoy reading too much

[soakrates`]

3. 1984 - Huxley's writing style is also not amongst my favorite. But this one's probably even more important than 451.

Except that 1984 is an Orwell novell. :P

My pick is Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground. If you're a metal fan, this book is required reading. If not, it's still highly recommended.

Despite its somewhat sensationalist title, it's an impeccably researched and fairly well-written account of the circumstances that gave rise to the now-notorious worldwide black metal scene; starting with the origins of the genre and its ideological roots in Scandinavian folklore, and then taking us through the evolution of black metal (specifically in Norway) and its many headline-grabbing controversies.

It sometimes veers off-topic and some conclusions may seem a little reaching, but it's still a great read for anyone interested in one of the most important and intriguing countercultural movements of the last 20 years.

[Kaura117]

3. 1984 - Huxley's writing style is also not amongst my favorite. But this one's probably even more important than 451.

Except that 1984 is an Orwell novell. :P

My pick is Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground. If you're a metal fan, this book is required reading. If not, it's still highly recommended.

Despite its somewhat sensationalist title, it's an impeccably researched and fairly well-written account of the circumstances that gave rise to the now-notorious worldwide black metal scene; starting with the origins of the genre and its ideological roots in Scandinavian folklore, and then taking us through the evolution of black metal (specifically in Norway) and its many headline-grabbing controversies.

It sometimes veers off-topic and some conclusions may seem a little reaching, but it's still a great read for anyone interested in one of the most important and intriguing countercultural movements of the last 20 years.

...FUCK. How the hell did Huxley slip in there?! Sorry, I definitely meant Orwell, but my mental train cross-linked A Brave New World on me while I was typing.

[Mordyan]

Wow some great choices so far!

Here's a short list of some of my favorites:

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson - One of my all time favorite cyberpunk novels.
Orphans of Chaos (The Chronicles of Chaos trilogy) - John C Wright - I haven't picked up the last book yet.
Anansi Boys- Neil Gaiman - Great book. I have also read Neverwhere and enjoyed it as well.
Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card - This books kicks so much ass. I didn't really like the sequel
Storm Front (The Dresden Files) - Jim Butcher - I like its film noir flavor.
The Stainless Steel Rat - Harry Harrison - My all time favorite criminal. Old school SciFi.

This is a tiny fraction of what I like. My book shelf is cluttered with too many to list easily and I am doing this off the top of my head from work.

[mDuo13]

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson - One of my all time favorite cyberpunk novels.

Awesome, I was totally recommending that book to people recently! It's one of the best books I've read in recent memory, along with Pattern Recognition by William Gibson.

[BrightHeart76]

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card - This books kicks so much ass. I didn't really like the sequel

Which sequel?  There are two different paths to follow.  You can follow Ender or you can follow Bean.  The Ender books get weird...really weird.  The Bean books are OK to start off.  Ender's Shadow tells the story from Bean's point of view, not as good as Ender's Game, but still not bad.  There are a lot of books that follow Bean from there and tell you what happened on Earth after the first book was done. 

[Kaura117]

Really, the only great Ender sequel was "Ender's Shadow." The rest of the Bean spinoff's not worth it.

The Speaker of the Dead trilogy... actually, I read the whole thing through, and I kind of liked it. It's trying to be a spiritual allegory in the trappings of science fiction- and the two genres have never really mixed all that well. But it mostly works, and some of the concepts and ideas it brings up remain highly relevant. More so, perhaps, given certain branches of our emergent technologies.

[BrightHeart76]

Honestly I didn't even like Ender's Shadow that much.  Bean just never grew on me.  I'm just saying that it's better then Speaker for the Dead...that's just a weird book. 

[Mordyan]

Ender's Game - Orson Scott Card - This books kicks so much ass. I didn't really like the sequel

Which sequel?  There are two different paths to follow.  You can follow Ender or you can follow Bean.  The Ender books get weird...really weird.  The Bean books are OK to start off.  Ender's Shadow tells the story from Bean's point of view, not as good as Ender's Game, but still not bad.  There are a lot of books that follow Bean from there and tell you what happened on Earth after the first book was done. 

Yeah I meant Speaker for the Dead. I could not get into it as much. In fact I remember reading it, but not much else. Whereas "Ender's Game" I can still recall in good detail. Hmmmm, might be time to re-read it and all the associated books. I have never read any of the Ender's Shadow books.

[Mordyan]

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson - One of my all time favorite cyberpunk novels.

Awesome, I was totally recommending that book to people recently! It's one of the best books I've read in recent memory, along with Pattern Recognition by William Gibson.

Snow Crash is one of those books that I always recommend to people when they are looking for a new book.

I need to read more William Gibson!

[JorgeRPG077]

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson - One of my all time favorite cyberpunk novels.

Awesome, I was totally recommending that book to people recently! It's one of the best books I've read in recent memory, along with Pattern Recognition by William Gibson.

Snow Crash is one of those books that I always recommend to people when they are looking for a new book.

I need to read more William Gibson!

Start reading Neuromancer. That book is so goood. then go with the Bridge Trilogy. XD

My list:

Neuromancer-William Gibson
The Stand-Stephen King
Count of Monte Cristo-Alexander Dumas(watched Gankutsuou-The Count of Monte Cristo, the anime before reading the book. It actually made me want to read the original work which i'm glad I did).
This might be Children's Lit, but I loved The Island of Blue Dolphins by Scott O' Dell cause of the historical aspect and it was a fine story by itself.
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami is another one. The book outdoes the movie 10 to 1 and if you read Lord of The Flies, this is Lord of The Flies to the extreme.
2001 by Arthur C. Clarke is another one that I loved and i read it after seeing the movie. I think those are the ones that i can name at the top of my head at the moment.

[BrightHeart76]

Count of Monte Cristo-Alexander Dumas(watched Gankutsuou-The Count of Monte Cristo, the anime before reading the book. It actually made me want to read the original work which i'm glad I did).

I once got a job because I listed Alexander Dumas as my favorite author.  Count of Monte Cristo is good, but Three Musketeers is better.  I read those books something like 3 times each in High School.  The Man in the Iron Mask really tore me up. (STILL need to watch Gankutsuou, never got around to that one).

I enjoy some newer books, but I've always been a fan of the classics.  Dumas, Doyle, Austen, Shakespeare, Montgomery, Alcott. 

[Runewitt]

War and Peace, infact i read it about three times each year.

Earth Abides - think of all those plauge movies where its "last group of people on earth"

they're the ones i read the most often, though i've got about three hundred books on th shelves

[Sunara Ishi]

Anansi Boys- Neil Gaiman - Great book. I have also read Neverwhere and enjoyed it as well.

That was good. So was American Gods.

My recommendations:

Good Omens: Also a Neil Gaiman book. Its starts somewhat as a comedy. A witch predicts the end of the world due to the Devil's son. But a fast-loving demon and his angel friend, who owns a bookstore, are not ready for the world to end. So they set out to destroy the devil's son. Unfortunately, the boy is really a nice kid... and he's been misplaced.

Twilight: By Stephenie Meyer. 1st book in the series. A teenage girl returns to live with her father in a small town named Forks. There, she meets a vampire at her high school and falls in love with him. Its a love story with a good chunk of adventure.... Its really, really good.


Poison Study (1st of three books in the Study series): By Maria V. Snyder. A girl is in prison for murder. About to be executed, she's given the choice to die or become the food-taster for the country's commander. Choosing to become the food-taster, she's fed a poison called Butterfly's Kiss. Unfortunately, she starts to develop magical powers, which is illegal in the country. And many people are out to kill her. Not only that but there is a plot against the commander.

The Elves on the Road universe by Mercedes Lackey are really good. Especially the Bedlam Bard and Serrated Edge series. They are about Bards and Elves living in modern times. Race car driving elves... Yeah~

[G.I.R]

Day One: Before Hiroshima and After by Peter Wyden (1984)

The story behind the development of the atomic bombs, and the people involved

[Sunara Ishi]

Day One: Before Hiroshima and After by Peter Wyden (1984)

The story behind the development of the atomic bombs, and the people involved

Some of those books are really interesting. I once read a book about Nikola Tesla. It was probably one of the driest books I have read but some of the stuff in it were pretty cool. I love cool inventions~

[G.I.R]

I remember reading a book about Tesla several years ago that was quite good, but  can't remember the title or author.

[Steve.Young]

Books:
Dune (The books)
Brave New World
Woman Warrior
Odyssey
Ender's Game
Honor Harrington (the entire series)
Digital Fortress
Angels and Demons
The Da Vinci Code
Fahrenheit 451
On Justice Power and Human Nature by Thucydides.
The shinning


Authors to read:
Orson Scott Card
Harry Turtledove
Dan Brown

I've read the bible, probably more of it than most religious nuts do. I had to study it for my humanities classes...gah the agony. It's kinda cool to know that the bible we have now is not even close to the bibles that were floating around in ancient times. Gotta love the Nicene Creed and the massive canonization/shrinkage of the bible. Fascinating things you learn about the history of religion. Heh

Harry Turtledove has some wicked Sci-Fi. You guys need to read him. Sooooo gooood.