Favourite Novels

[Killamangiro91]

I know some of you here must read.
What's your favourite books? And what are you currently reading?

My favourites are:
1984
Animal farm
The Stranger
Fight Club
Catcher in the Rye
Slaughterhouse 5
I am Legend

Away to start read the crying lot of 49. Heard it was good.

[Shaikoten]

I'll bite. My favorite book is Dostoyevsy's Notes from Underground.

[General Rainbow Bacon]

I second "1984".

Some other books I have really liked are:

"Between a Rock and a Hard Place" by Aron Ralston
-the book "127 Hours" was based on.

"The Shining" by Stephen King
"Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson
"Lathe of Heaven" by Ursula K. Le Guin

If we're gonna talk short stories too, anything by Lovecraft, Poe, and the usual suspects who turn up in that sector.

I don't do much poetry.

[Scripten]

I just filled my Kindle with a nice collection of Battletech books, as well as some really interesting science fiction.

My favorite novels/series are made up of:

Terry Pratchett's Discworld Series
William Gibson's Sprawl Series
Larry Niven's... well, everything he's written
Dan Simmons Hyperion Cantos

There's also a lot of short stories that are pretty good, but I didn't list them since well... they're not novels.

Oh, and I almost forgot about Lovecraft. Great stuff.

[Whoo]

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Anthem by Ayn Rand
White Fang by Jack London
Call of the Wild by Jack London
Mass Effect Revelation by Drew Karpyshyn
Night by Elie Wiesel
Bag of Bones by Stephen King
Doom: Knee Deep in the Dead by Dafydd ab Hugh & Brad Linaweaver

[Kira]

Greg Egan is a god.

[Memfis]

My favorite novel is Solzhenitsyn's "In the First Circle". It is just so deep.

[HavoX]

I don't read that many novels like my dad does. I guess I'm not getting into the trend. :\

[dew]

Foucault's Pendulum and The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Amber series by Roger Zelazny
A Song of Ice and Fire series by G. R. R. Martin
Neuromancer by William Gibson
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
Dune by Frank Herbert
And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave
All People Become Brothers by Johannes M. Simmel
The Running Man by Stephen King
Protected Men by Robert Merle
...and a long list of novels by P. K. Dick (A Scanner Darkly; Flow My Tears, Said the Policeman; The Man in the High Castle; Ubik; Deus Irae, etc.)

EDIT: oh, and my personal quirk is that i hate orwell's 1984. i just can't enjoy the pure dystopic approach and orwell is not exactly an entertaining writer.

[Seeker_of_Truth]

I have quite a few actually. I've done quite a bit of reading over the past few years (though none recently unfortunately).

My top two favorite series are The Lord of the Rings and The Sword of Truth (hence my username). I couldn't tell you which I like better, so I'll leave it at that.

I also like (in no real order):
A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin
The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
Stardust and Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (Though I liked Stardust better I think)
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R. Donaldson
Pretty much any of the Expanded Universe Star Wars books

There's more, but it's all I can think of off the top of my head. I'll add more when I remember.

As a side note, I'll probably get trolled to hell for this, but I thought the Twilight books were a decent read at least. It was entertaining enough to read all 4 of them.

Edit: I started reading Dune, but I haven't read enough to know whether I'll like it or not.

[Phobus]

I'm quite a big reader of novels myself, but I tend to get hooked on certain authors for extended periods of time. Especially when they release a new novel every year or so to continue their series. Consequently I'd have a hard time listing specific favourite books. Series though:

-Discworld series by Terry Pratchett (very funny, but quite good action too)
-Nick Stone novels by Andy McNab ("gritty" and "realistic" with quite a bit of soldiery humour thrown on top of the pure testosterone)
-Alastair Reynolds' novels and short stories (the "Revelation Space" stuff was pretty complex when I first read it, but the technical detail and grand concept sci-fi did pull me in)
-Jack Reacher novels by Lee Child (badass detective stories, basically)


Basically, if you can sum it up as manly action, humourous, technlogy porn or all of the above, I'll probably enjoy it. Very similar to my taste in films, TV and games actually - so horror is also a nice thing on occaission. I will concede that I'm quite a "Lowest Common Denominator" with my tastes in entertainment, despite being very capable of understanding and enjoying intelligent works.

[purist]

My top 5:

1. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh
2. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
3. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
4. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
5. the Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

Of the ones already mentioned I'll agree that 1984 and Catcher in the Rye were both good reads. I'd recommend Catch 22 and the Lord of the Flies to anyone who enjoyed those books.

I've read Dune and I Am Legend, which have also been mentioned. Dune, I gave up with because I didn't like all of the new terminology to learn - I just don't think Fantasy/Sci-Fi novels are really my thing. I Am Legend I quite liked but wouldn't hold it with the same esteem as the novels mentioned above.

[Doom_Dude]

Membrain said:

Larry Niven's... well, everything he's written

I just read Larry Niven's World of Ptavvs. I have a lot of Niven yet to read as I've only read a few things like The Integral Trees.

As for favorite books... there's so many it's hard to choose. I used to read a LOT and then slowed down over the last several years... but recently have been getting back into it, thanks to an ereader @ X-mas. I also dug out all my paper books and sorted things out. I saved so many books it a bit crazy. :p

Icerigger Trilogy - Alan Dean Foster. Also things like Nor Crystal Tears and For Love Of Mother-Not, The Tar-Aiym Krang and Bloodhype. I just bought Phylogenesis the other day and will read that soon.

Anything by David Gemmell, especially Legend, The King Beyond The Gate, Waylander, Lion Of Macedon, Waylander II: In the Realm of the Wolf, The First Chronicles of Druss the Legend, Morningstar, The Legend Of Deathwalker.. I've read most of his stuff. I have about 6 books that I'm kinda saving to read later..

Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind. I've read so far into that series and stopped, tho I have the books on my shelf and will get back to it sometime.

I've thoroughly enjoyed the Shanarra series by Terry Brooks over the years.

Sheepfarmer's Daughter, Divided Allegiance and Oath Of Gold by Elizabeth Moon. Also Surrender None and Liars Oath.

The Stainless Steel Rat series by Harry Harrison. I have about 2 books there that I haven't read yet.

The Darwath Trilogy (The Time Of The Dark, The Walls Of Air, The Armies Of Daylight) by Barbara Hambly.

The Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

The Conan novels by Robert E. Howard. I read them so long ago. I want to reread some of those. Red Nails I certainly want to read again.

The Shattered World and The Burning Realm by Michael Reaves.

The Sunset Warrior Cycle by Eric Van Lustbader.

Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series by Tad Williams.

The Parafaith War by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. I just noticed he wrote another book in the same universe.. gotta grab that somewhere. Oh yeah, also liked the first few Recluce books but there's a bunch there I never read.

The Belgariad and The Malloreon and The Elenium and The Tamuli series by David Eddings.

Bio of a Space Tyrant series by Piers Anthony. Also liked the Apprentice Adept series. The Xanth stuff seemed to be hit and miss and I only read so many of those, which was ages ago it seems.

I'm probably not thinking of a bunch of stuff I'd like to mention on here. :p

As of right now I'm reading Arrows Of The Queen by Mercedes Lackey and Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. I usually don't read more than one thing at a time but I ended up with a Kobo, so my paper novel (Warbreaker) is waiting for me to get back to it after messing with the whole ereader thing. Hell, I have about 40 books (just counted and it's 52 lol) on a shelf that are piling up and I need to get to... some David Gemmell, R. A. Salvatore, Raymond E. Feist and assorted things.

[GooberMan]

Shaikoten said:

I'll bite. My favorite book is Dostoyevsy's Notes from Underground.

+1. Freaking amazing.

Fantasy, my vote goes to American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

Sci-fi, Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is also all kinds of amazing.

I enjoyed Chuck Palahniuk's Survivor more than I enjoyed Fight Club.

[Snakes]

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller: Never grows old to me no matter how many times I read it. I've, for the length of my entire life, been trying to learn how to make a profit the way Milo does. Failed thus far.

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut: My favorite book from my favorite author. Viciously comic... I strive to be a perfect Bokonist. Alas, I still identify with granfallons.

1984 by George Orwell: What with SOPA and NDAA and PIPA flying all around the place right now, it resonates with me on a rather haunting level at the moment. Once I even found myself in a state of grim optimism. Scary stuff.

The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami: Am I allowed to cheat? It's actually a collection of short stories. His other works are all fantastic and he's the only author that comes close to Vonnegut for me. This collection just contains so many great moments and brilliant passages that I can't even begin to describe my appreciation for it.

It by Stephen King: Haven't read it in a while, but at the time, it spooked the hell out of me. Perhaps if I read it again, it wouldn't resonate as much, but why ruin the experience?

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby: As it turns out, ever great line I took from the film happened to be written well ahead of time. A great read for me.


That's all I have off the top of my head. I hadn't read anything I really wanted to in a long time, but now that I take the bus to and from work, I have two free hours to just kick back and focus. Kind of refreshing, really. Has me writing again :)

[Shaikoten]

Also a +1 on the Barsoom series. Edgar Rice Burroughs was the dude who wrote Tarzan. Check out A Princess of Mars, it is ridiculous pulp trash from the 1920s or so and it's SO incredibly fun to read.

Also, as someone mentioned Fight Club, I just last week read a third or fourth-hand copy of the book annotated by a teenage girl, with such insightful comments in the margin as "OH WOW!" and "Marla is so cute..." It was really rather... I don't know what the word would be. Not really ironic. Kind of... meta? It was definitely a surreal experience, like, why is this kid reading this book, and did she really get anything out of it?

[Xaser]

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

[molten_]

I don't read as many books as I used too, but when I was a kid I mostly enjoyed fantasy. Some of my favorites-

Wheel of Time Series
The Hobbit
Chronicles of Narnia
Harry Potter

I'm sure there's plenty more, but I'm having trouble remembering.

[Vordakk]

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.

Incidentally, did anyone hear that they're planning on doing a remake of the cult movie from 2000??? Hollywood really has run out of good ideas.

[The Lag]

i love the classics ofc, but i really like hyper-stylized writing:

1. Vurt followed by Pollen by Jeff Noon

2. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

3. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewsky

i highly recommend to you guys Ready Player One for its homage to 80's, 90's, 00's gaming, music, movies, tv, etc. Reading it is kinda like playing 3 decades of videogames while watching anime and cheesy 80's movies and listening to cheesy 80's music...in virtual reality. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. Cline also does a shout-out to Quake in it.

Seed by Rob Ziegler and Embassytown by China Mieville are on my to-read list.

[wildweasel]

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, Big Trouble by Dave Barry, but most of all, The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler.

[kmxexii]

The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

[DoOmEr4LiFe]

Jurassic Park (My absolute favorite)
Lord of the Rings
The Hobbit
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Things They Carried

I have a ton of books on my, "want to read" list but these are the ones that I truly enjoyed out of the many in and out of school.

[DoomUK]

Considering I've read less than twenty novels in my lifetime, I don't want to pick a list of favourites. I much prefer reading non-fiction.

Still, I read The Dice Man a couple of years ago after a friend recommended it. That was a thoroughly awesome read and I've recommended it to everyone else since.

[Killamangiro91]

Decided not to read the crying lot of 49 but to reread Catcher in the Rye cause it's so good. It's a book I can reread over and over and not get bored.

[Scripten]

Killamangiro91 said:

Decided not to read the crying lot of 49 but to reread Catcher in the Rye cause it's so good. It's a book I can reread over and over and not get bored.

I never really understood the appeal of that book. The protagonist is nothing if not unlikable, and it really never felt like I could relate to anything he was feeling. Insofar as the story was concerned, there wasn't really anything there if you can't quite relate to Holden.

[exp(x)]

Galápagos by Vonnegut is probably my favorite.

[Sharessa]

My favorite author of all time is probably Douglas Adams. Mostly Harmless is probably my favorite of the Hitchhiker's series, and both Dirk Gently books are really good, as well. I also like anything by Terry Pratchett, Arthur Conan Doyle, John Steinbeck, Philip K. Dick, Frank Herbert, Ray Bradbury, and Robert Heinlein. Some other favorites include:

Survivor, by Chuck Palahniuk
Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
Stardust, by Neil Gaiman
The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Chronicles of Narnia series, by C.S. Lewis

I'm in the middle of a long reading lull right now, and I have quite backlog due to working at a bookstore for over a year and buying books about once a week or so. Right now I'm slowly working through the second Ciaphus Cain omnibus, and have been for the last several months. The first one was pretty awesome, and I recommend it to anyone who knows the 40k setting, especially if you're someone like me who doesn't really care for the grimdark setting that much.

[Daiyu_Xiaoxiang]

My favourite novels are all chinese novels. The authors included Zhang Ailing, Chiung Yao, Lu Xun, Cao Xueqin, Lin Huiyin, Ba Jin and Jin Yong etc. As for the novels names, I don't know its translated English name.

I always think that Western novels are boring..........

[Vordakk]

Danarchy said:

Robert Heinlein.

+1, Heinlein rules!