What's a good book you would recommend?

[Chip]

Recently, I've found myself not reading as much as I used to. So over my summer break these last few months, I've been reading more and more. I haven't read anything extravagant, with the longest book I read being Not Jabba's Roots of DOOM Mapping. I was also thinking of finishing To Kill a Mockingbird, but I haven't read it in months, and will probably need to start over. So, instead of searching online, "Best Books," where all the answers are the same (Don Quixote, The Great Gatsby, Jane Eyre), I thought I could ask other people who share similar interests what books are worth reading. I enjoy most books (except for Sci-fi, but you can still post Sci-fi books, this topic isn't only for me), so you can post Fiction, Non-Fiction, Comics, or any other good book (except for pornography, none of that stuff here). So, what good books have you read that you would recommend to other readers like myself?

[Doominator2]

If you like Graphic Novels, There's Watchmen which I really recommend. Also Tom Clancy novels are usually pretty exciting if your into Military/Political fiction, but his books are usually really lengthy with most of his books being 600+ pages, in case your not looking for a long book. 

[kalaeth]

I'll just start with my 3 favorite books, although one is fantasy and one is sci-fi :

- Isaac Asimov's Foundation, sci-fi BUT not the regular one, no aliens, light on the science side, hard on the sociological side

- JRR Tolkien's Sillmarilion, fantasy, but to be fair, if you haven't read Lord of The Rings it might be hard(er) to enjoy

- Fernando Pessoa's "The Book of Disquiet by Bernardo Soares", it's not really a story but a loosely connect set of small texts (from a single line to a few pages long) from the best portuguese poet, although there isn't a single poem in the book. At one point he calls it "a autobiography without facts" for the personage he invented.

 

and then.. well. There's Saramago (almost aything by him goes but my favorites where the Gospel According to Jesus Christ and Seeing (a sequel to Blindness, although it isn't necessary at all to read the first)

 

and now I'm on weekend time so I'll recommend more later.

[hybridial]

I proudly enjoy reading junk, to be honest, I like pulp stuff, I like stories that aren't too serious and tend to be based around what I generally like in terms of genre, I like mysteries, I like horror, I like sci fi and I like fantasy that's not as dry and boring as Tolkien, and I never really followed any kind of list of anything anyone thinks should be read, because I don't really care to. I love finding something completely new I've never heard of that looks and sounds cool anyway. When someone asked me what book had the most impact on my life, I will tell what my answer was.

 

A Dinosaur called Minerva, by Tessa Krailing. I remember the title and the author even though I read it when I was 5. Because it made me want to read. That's for sure an impact. 

 

One book I read not super long ago was The Axeman's Jazz by Ray Celestin, a mystery thriller set in 1918 (around then roughly anyway) in New Orleans, and is built around an actual event that it attached some pretty nice fiction to. I read it because I definitely find the city fascinating, it being the setting for much of one of my favourite movies (Angel Heart) and favourite adventure games (Gabriel Knight)

 

Kings of the Wyld and its sequel Bloody Rose by Nicholas Aemes were top tier pulp fantasy, mixing in the conceit of adventurers being like rock stars. I had a lot of fun reading them, and I don't know if he intends to do any more but the story is tied up very well by the end of Bloody Rose. 

 

Then there's Titanshade and Titan's Day by Dan Stout, which are kind of unique fantasy cop thrillers. It's kind of interesting, a bit steampunky, maybe some Lovecraft influences, but its definitely a hard bitten cop story first and foremost, I enjoyed them. 

 

The Dresden Files was pretty good, I ended up like reading all of them in the space of a few weeks, but whilst a new book has just come out finally, after a long period, I'm kinda not fussed about it as much, but eh, might get round to it at some point.

 

I've just started reading The Cleric Quintet by RA Salvatore, as I like the D&D fiction from the 90s quite a bit and I've heard good things about the series. The Dark Elf Trilogy is honestly one of my favourite fantasy stories, I always found the Drow interesting and there's a lot of world building around them in that trilogy. 

 

 

Edited August 28, 2020 by hybridial

[Aaron Blain]

I like a lot of the same stuff as other Doomers my age (Howard, Lovecraft, Burroughs, Moorcock, etc.), but for an unexpected recommendation I submit Michael Ende.

 

The Neverending Story has some of the appeal of Harry Potter, but instead of boiling down to "I guess Harry is Jesus?", it's a philosophically rich parable about how the subjective mind and objective reality create one another (like The Dark Tower, but concise and carefully-constructed), and how ego and attachment are traps for the mind that lead to sterility/suffering (very reminiscent of Daoist/Hindu/Buddhist philosophy, but not in a heavy-handed way). 

[Pechudin]

    Recently I also started reading again, since I neglected that love of mine and substituted it with watching inane stuff on YouTube. Hopefully I can go back somewhat. Do you like Sci-Fi? I loved Arthur C. Clarke's stuff. Of course the Odyssey trilogy is a classic, but he has plethora of other amazing books.

 

EDIT: Well nevermind, I just realized you said no Sci-Fi. Please ignore then!

[Pokemanic33]

I love The Count of Monte Cristo, despite having never actually finished it (damn attention span). Just be careful where you read it though, the Penguin Classics translation by Robin Buss is excellent but the public domain translation (AKA the version you'll find pretty much everywhere for free, including on Project Gutenberg) renders it pretty much unreadable.

[Endless]

Oh yes... ^{*cracks knuckles}

 

Fantasy

• A song of Ice and Fire (Absolute banger. Some great political/war drama with a fantasy twist add to it. Full of horror and dark shit.)
• Eragon (Yes. it's for YA but it just fun, and a good starting point into fantasy.)
• The Wheel of Time (A classic. 14 great books set in a different, magic setting.)
• The Dark Tower (If you haven't heard of the mighty, cocaine-fueled fantasy setting of Stephen King, do you even read? duh)
• Malazan (Most complex, rich, full of worldbuilding and brilliant fantasy world ever.)
• The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (This is like, the one to start it all, the one to rule them all and the one to bind them all.)

Sci-Fi

• Dune (Tastes are subjective, but I believe that sci-fi is a unique gateway to fiction. Here you have Dune, pioneer of almost all sci-fi.)
• Metro 2033 (This one is almost magical, full of apocaliptic lore and some great scenes in a not-so-far-in-the-future Russia devastated by war.)

• Leviathan Wakes (Epic space opera of massive proportions.)

• The Horus Heressy (Beware, this is the biggest shared-sci fi universe out there that I know of. Its MASSIVE yet, incredible. It's Warhammer 30k mate.)

Historical

• Don Quijote de la Mancha (Seriously mate, this is like, one of the greatest books of all time. First of his kind.)
• Crime and Punishment (The first ever psychological novel and full of depth.)
• The Pillars of Earth (Fascinating historical novel about medieval England. Raw, bloody and emotional.)
• Shogun (Do you like some samurai combate and bloody war in Japan? Here.)

Magical Realism

• 100 Years of Solitude (A travel through time, space and words in a literary sense.)
• Norwegian Wood (Japanese novel, and one of the greatest of all time. Anything done by the author is great.)

Various

• Johnny Got His Gun (Imagine returning from war without arms, legs, mouth, eyes and any perception of reality. You would want your gun too.)
• The Metamorphosis (The universe doesn't care about you. It doesnt give a fuck about your life, your body and your family. This is nihilism in words.)
• H.P Lovecraft various tales (The universe doensn't care about you. As a matter of fact, is full of madness, fear and grotesque gods of pure hatred and hunger.)
• 1984 (My personal favorite. Here, you cant think, you cant talk, you cant feel and you cant live. Remember: war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength. Big brother loves you.)
• The Stand (One of the greatest End-of-the-world novels with some great moments and perfect for the current year.)
• Masters of Doom (Do I need to say more?)

 

Edited August 28, 2020 by Endless

[Chip]

1 minute ago, Endless said:

Norwegian Wood

^{I once had a girl, or should I say, she once had me?} 

[CoyoteComrade]

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-the-conquest-of-bread

The Jungle (Unabridged Vers.) By Upton Sinclair

In Cold Blood By Truman Capote

Edited August 28, 2020 by Error-404

[Sokoro]

Elements - from Theodore Gray

Starmus - from Garik Israelian and Brian May

 

They are both science books.

[Taw Tu'lki]

Stephen Edwin King or Ray Bradbury.

[[McD] James]

Cat's Cradle.

[SilverMiner]

Harry Potter

[Chip]

I also enjoy video game novels. I just ordered GoW 1 and 2 on eBay. 

[Jello]

My personal favorites are The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy by Douglas Adams (Yes, all five books, it's still considered a trilogy for whatever fucking reason) if you enjoy comedy, sci-fi, and absolutely absurd British humor. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe being my favorite of the series. 

 

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is another one of my favorites. You've probably heard the term "Catch-22" at some point in your life, it's damned if you do, damned if you don't; basically you're damned. Basic definition from the book: To get out of flying bombing missions, you have to be declared insane. To be declared insane, you have to admit that you're insane. But flying bombing missions is insane; so only a sane person would try to get out of flying them. So if you claim you're insane to get out of flying missions, you're obviously sane, therefore you have to do it. It's very dark humor, but it's extremely well written.

 

As far as serious novels, Fyodor Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" and "The Idiot" are extremely well written, and I would recommend them to anyone. They are a bit long, but he was paid by the word, so it's understandable that there's some padding to them. But they're still excellent books. Crime and Punishment is probably the better, and more well known of the two, but The Idiot is a great book as well.

 

Update: I'd also agree with Endless on 1984; and Coming up for Air was another great novel of George Orwell's; and I'll also add Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.

Edited August 28, 2020 by Jello

[P41R47]

oh, Lil, where to start!

First of all, i want to tell you, that its impressive that you like to read and play games like our Doom.

Second, thanks you for the poetry contest you made, and your poetry piece was really good, not much little guys, or people in general, like to read poetry and thats a sin. Poetry breathes meaning and passion in a way that is really different to a novel or a short story.

 

Now to the topic:

But before that i would recommend you my method of reading.

Before starting a book, i usually read a little biography like the ones that are on wikipedia, of the author i'm about to read. For example i completed Umberto Eco's ''The island of the day before'' today, but before starting it i take an hour to read again about his life and doings.

When you read a book, is necessary to know a little about the times the author lived. Just to know the context in where the book was writed.

Usually authors vision or message are easier to understand if you know what was happening in the world and in his life when he/she wrote it.

 

-From what you say, To Kill a Mockingbird is a good book you could try to end. i heard is a book that schools from northamerica have on their reading schedule. So its a book that most northamerican people read at least one time on their life.

Its amazing that every damn page from that books resonates so wildly on this days.

Sad!

I recommend you that aside from reading it now, read it again when you get around your twenty years old.

 

-Same with Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Marvelous book that most people don't understand, they just start the fire because Huck said nigger all the time.

Twain wrote good books that still hold up to this days pretty good.

His last unfinished work, The Mysterious Stranger, will punch you in the gut really damn hard if you go into it unprepared. I had in my collection a translation of the first release, controversely, finished and changed by Twain's editor melding it with the three different sketches Twain wrote. Basically, the editor, create a cohesive narrative that connects the three drafts and not much, the rest was what Mark Twain itself wrote.

Powerful read!

 

You northamericans are lucky people. You have really a lot of great writers from your country. From Edgar Allan Poe to David Foster Wallace, there are a lot of writers that wrote wonderful books.
-Edgar Allan Poe only novel really inspired me.

Poe whent with a simple story that combines almost all the usual tropes of his short stories. Great book, and underrated as most people prefer his short stories. I love them too, but i also love ''The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym''. Last pages are awe inspiring, although fairly inacurrated for the time they were writen.

 

-Leaves of Grass, enough say.

You don't read a book of poetry, you read a man made of poetry.

 

-Moby Dick, or to be fair, all what Herman Melville wrote is amazing.

 

-Nathaniel Hawthorne is a personal favorite of mine. His work were powerful at hist time, even Poe admired it, but now they are not appreciated that much. Just the Scarlet Letter is still readed by today. But he wrote really good short stories and compelling novels.

 

-Thomas Pynchon is considered controversial. I readed his short stories compiled on the book ''Slow Learner'' and they really are interesting. His short novel ''The crying of lot 49'' is fun and entertaining. But as the main exponent of what is called postmodernism, just understanding what he try to say, or grasping at least what he meant, becomes a challenge itself. His books are dense and complex, dragging inspiration from reality, history and meta-fiction, ranging the 600+ page much of them, and even his shorter works like the ones i mentioned before are challenging. His magnum opus is ''Gravity's Rainbow'' a behemoth of collosal proportions that, if you understand most of it whackyness, it will destroy you... Well, at least, the extreme viewpoint and the ending of all that mess destroyed me.

 

-Thomas Tryon is a man that unfortunatelly disappeared from the social imaginary, but his book ''The Other'' is a great book that not only becomes a best seller, it is also a highlly and deep metaphorical critic of his times. Really good book.

 

-John Steinbeck's ''The Pearl'', short, easy, powerful. Great writer. Also his satirical novel ''The Short Reign of Pippin IV: A Fabrication'' is a fun read.

 

-Truman Capote's '' In Cold Blood'' is one of the first book of novelized non-fiction. Entertaining and interesting.

 

 

-----------------------------------------------

 

 

Well now i will recommend you the books that are my favorites:

 

-Sadegh Hedayat's ''The Blind Owl''. Iranian author, translator of Poe and Kafka.

 

-Roland Topor's ''The Tenant''. French artist that also wrote a book. Amazing.

 

-John Fowles's ''The Collector'', ''The Magus'', ''The French Lieutenant's Woman'', ''A Maggot''. All his books are amazing. One of my favorite authors.

 

-Gustav Meyrink's ''The Golem'' is his most popular work, but all his books are marvelous.

 

-Richard Adams's ''Watership Down''. Some might find it silly, but just reading it blow my mind. Never seen anybody create something soo epic without trying it.

 

-James Joyce, all his books, specially ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man'' and ''Ulysses''.

 

-T.S. Elliot. Powerful and insightful poetry.

 

-Juan Rulfo's complete work. Don't be frightnened by complete work, its just around 400+ pages long, or even less. Absolutely miraculous writing.

 

-Patrick Susskind's ''The Perfume''. Amazing book.

 

-Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer's ''Rhymes & Legends''. Lovely book and still pretty fun.

 

-Rabelais's ''Gargantua & Pantagruel''. My favorite book. Never get old, even when it was writen on 1532-1567 as five separate books. Satirical and fun, never LOLed soo much reading a book before this one.

 

-Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol's ''Complete Works''. Most people only know his only novel. But he also wrote insanely fun theatre pieces and really amazing short stories.

 

-Thomas Carlyle's ''Sartor Resartus''. Philosophy? essay? review of a book? that and much more.

 

-Arthur Machen's ''The Hill of Dreams'' and ''The Secret Glory''. Machen is amazing and need to be readed more.

 

-Lord Dunsany's ''Deamer's Tales'', ''Don Rodriguez'', ''The King of Elfland's Daughter''. Charming and lovely books of fantasy, way before fantasy was a thing. But for me his materpiece is ''Guerrilla'', a pretty late work by him that is nearly forgotten by most people.

 

-E.T.A. Hoffmann's complete works. Short story genious, marvelous novelist. ''The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr'' is one of my favorite books ever.

 

-Paul Valery's Poetry. Beautiful and enlightening.

 

-Ambrose Bierce, all his writing are marevelous.

 

-Alasdair Gray's ''Lanark: a life in Four Books''. Life changing book for me. This author, along John Fowles are what changed me from the pretentious intelectual teenager i was to the self conscious satiric laugh lover adult that i am.

 

-Terry Pratchett's ''The Nome Trilogy'' is an underrated serie from a really magnificent author. Unfortunately, his books are really pricey in my country, and are hard to find.

 

-Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman ''Death Gate Cycle''. This authors are known for their Dragonlance serie, but the Death Gate Cycle is considered their masterpiece. Seven books that tolds a really epic fantasy/sci-fi story.

 

-Willian Beckford's ''Vathek''. In the same vein as the ''One Thousand And one Nights'', but condensed. Insane piece of work.

 

-Umberto Eco's ''The Name of the Rose''. The best mystery/crime novel ever writen, and going far beyond that genre.

 

-Caitlin R. Kiernan's ''The Drowned Girl''. Really awesome and unconventional novel.

 

-Miguel de Unamuno's ''La niebla'', ''San Manuel Bueno, martir''. The best humanist writer in spanish language. This two works are just the peak of a giant iceberg.

 

-Alain-Fournier's ''Le Grand Meaulnes''. Just WOW!

 

-Albert Camus's ''The plague''. Redundant work on this times, but i read it around four years ago and it blowed my mind. Camus was a great writer.

 

-Irving Washington's ''Tales from the Alhambra''. Absolutely charming mix of short stories and little essays. Amazing.

 

-Carl Sagan's ''Contact''. Read this before watching the movie. They scapped the full message Sagan meant for this book. His only novel. A must!

 

-Edmond Rostand's ''Cyrano de Bergerac''. Read this play or watch the movie with  Gérard Depardieu as Cyrano. One of his best roles, and surely his more fitting.

 

-John Franklin Bardin's ''The Deadly Percheron'', ''The Last of Phillip Banter'', ''Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly''. This are the most impressive mystery novels i ever read.

 

-Clive Gifford's ''Mindmaster''. The first novel i ever read. Short and easy, but for a kid like i was, in love with games, this was an outstanding read.

 

-Selma Lagerlöf's ''Nils Holgersson's wonderful journey across Sweden''. Amazing work by a Nobel winner.

 

UFFF, sorry for this wall of text.

I started writing this message at 6:13 pm, now its 8:48 pm.
Sorry, i had a good time writing this and remembeering all this amazing books.

[Doom_Dude]

Most of what I've read over the years is Fantasy and Sci-Fi. Not gonna mention the already mentioned, Wheel of Time, Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones books (all excellent of course).... See if I can dig up some stuff not mentioned. Some of this stuff is probably out of print... ebooks should be possible tho.

 

Legend ~ David Gemmell. A gritty, veteran, axe wielding, warrior gets pulled out of retirement to command the forces at a besieged, undermanned fortress that is the only thing keeping the nomadic barbarians from invading the Drenai lands. One of my all time favorite books.

 

Red Nails ~ Robert E. Howard. Conan teams up with Valeria and they adventure to a lost city where two factions of the same tribe are feuding. All the Conan stories Howard wrote are worth reading IMHO. A few years back I picked up a copy of The Complete Chronicles of Conan in hard cover, which have the stories printed in the order they were published. Crom!

 

Lion of Macedon ~ David Gemmell.  It's what I'd call Historical Fantasy. The book is set in ancient Greece and has elements of fantasy and of course mythology. The main character, Parmenion grows up to become a military genius and eventually enters the service of Philip of Macedon. Like most fantasy novels, there's sequels another novel in the series. At least this one is readable as a stand-alone. Thoroughly enjoy reading Gemmell. I have a few novels yet to read from this author... too bad he died several years ago.

 

The Elenium Series ~ David Eddings. A trilogy featuring a bad-ass knight who goes on a quest to save his poisoned queen along with some other knights, a thief and a mysterious girl. I read it all ages ago and there's a lot I don't remember but it was a fun read the first time around. Also The Belgariad series is good... tho I read that way earlier than this and thus is more foggy and mainly I recall enjoying reading it.

 

Dragondoom ~ Dennis L. McKiernan. A dwarf and a warrior maiden join forces on a quest for a legendary warhammer. Cursed treasure, a long journey, an evil black dragon named Kalgalath and an evil wizard all make for one of the best dragon themed novels I've read and it's considered one of McKiernan's best.

 

Green Rider Series ~ Kristen Britain. A young girl gets kicked out of school for fighting and on her way home, comes across a dying rider with a message for the king. She in turn, takes the message and ends up being pursued by assassins. That's how it starts and I read through to book 4 and need to find myself books 5 and 6.

 

Drowning World ~ Alan Dean Foster. This prospector guy crashes in the jungle of a overly wet planet. Then these two aliens (two different species) crash trying to find him. They have to team up to survive getting out of the jungle, swamp hellhole. Lots of action, good characters with an interesting setting. After I read this one I went right into Foster's Phylogenesis (A Human criminal and a Thranx poet end up on an adventure and they end up changing one another...) and then read Dirge (A human colony is destroyed by mysterious executioners. The chapters unfold the story from the point of view of different characters.) and then Diuturnity's Dawn (A Human/Thranx fair is threatened by zealots on both sides..) Good stuff.

 

Sargasso Of Space - Andre Norton. It's ancient sci-fi that I read in 2018. I grew up reading these kinds of olde sci-fi novels, so every now and then I find some olde, musty tome to pour through for olde times sake.. This one was a fun read. A young recruit joins a trade ship and ends up on a mysterious charred planet.

 

I need sleep.

[joepallai]

Anubus Gates by Tim Powers--hellava book...just a page turner (like most of his stuff)

[CAM-7EA]

If you’re looking for something Doom related I recommend:

 

Doom: A Hacker’s Guide 

Doom: Construction Kit

 

very entertaining books that takes you back to the 90s and when modding Doom was still fairly new.

 

otherwise, I recommend these books:

The Morning of the Magicians, 1960

The Manna Machine, 1978
 

whether you believe the material or not, I found both of these books to be fascinating. 

 

[[McD] James]

https://www.amazon.com/Oz-Madonald-Ampersand-Babaglaba-Journal-ebook/dp/B07SVCKP87

Edited January 20, 2021 by [McD]James

[Murdoch]

Mindhunter by John Douglas  

[Taw Tu'lki]

Dune by Frank Herbert