Doomworld Book Club - Discuss your favorite authors and books

[Count651]

Discuss your favorite books and authors. Recommend books. Discuss anything book related!

Recently read books I'd recommend.

Child 44



A murder mystery set in post World War 2 Soviet Russia. A pretty good look into the life of a soviet party member, although the oppression towards the citizens may be a bit over exaggerated. Nonetheless it was a good book and it kept me interested the whole time.

The Terrorists of Irustan



A scifi novel that takes place on the planet of Irustan, a remote mining planet dominated by a religion identical to that of Islam. Features a lot of gender politics and mistreatment of women by Islamic religions. Good book so far, although the first quarter can be a bit slow.

[raymoohawk]

i really like childhood's end and rendezvous with rama

[Voros]

I like reading "old" books.

I recommend "Crime and Punishment", the story of a person who commits murder and theft and then goes through... paranoia? I forgot the details, but damn what a good read.

Edit: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_and_Punishment

Now I remember the all the details.

[Remilia Scarlet]

I'm not a big reading fan, and thus you'll rarely ever find me reading a book. But, I do have a few favorites. The Third Policeman is pretty cool, and I love it because of how weird and trippy it is. The inclusion of crazy footnotes referencing works by a fictional philosopher, de Selby, is just icing on the cake. I can never ride a bike without thinking of it these days.

Another one is The Adversary, which is a non-fiction crime story. It's about Jean-Claude Romand, who was this French guy who somehow posed as a doctor for 18 years before killing his family.

[purist]

My favourite authors are Irvine Welsh, Nick Hornby and Chuck Pahlaniuk. Their best books are Trainspotting, Filth, Secret Lives of the Masterchefs, High Fidelity, About a Boy, Fever Pitch, Fight Club, Haunted, Choke.

Most of them have been adapted to film so you will probably have an idea of what they are like whilst the others are in a similar enough style to recommend if you like their other works. I do like some other books by these authors but those are the best in my opinion.

Other books I'd recommend are classics like Catch 22, 1984, Lord of the Flies, American Psycho and A Clockwork Orange - all of which absolutely live up to their reputations.

[Voros]

purist said:

Lord of the Flies.

That book was so wrong, it was good.

[MFG38]

I've been reading H.P. Lovecraft and H.G. Wells lately, and they're both great writers. I can definitely see why their works are regarded as classics, if not essential reading by some. Wells' "The Time Traveller" was the tits.

[june gloom]

Lovecraft is honestly a terrible writer. He cribbed too much from Poe, badly, and a lot of his prose is honestly stuff first-year creative writing classes spend hours trying to hammer out of potential writers. He also tends to write his protagonists all very much the same -- they're usually scholars or antiquarians or something of the sort, as opposed to every-day people like cops (or even detectives!) or, say, an insurance adjuster. His characterization tends to be quite thin, and he very seldom introduces any meaningful sort of antagonist beyond an ephemeral ~*unknown*~.

All this of course is leaving aside his other problems such as his incredibly bleak worldview and his xenophobia, extreme even for his day.

Where Lovecraft succeeds, however, is his world building and his skill in creating atmosphere; it's these two virtues that have persisted in cosmic horror fiction long after his death.

[Clonehunter]

My sister got me "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" for Christmas, and as such I plan on reading that when I finally finish the last few chapters of the intriguing "Raptor Red," which I've been waiting to do since Christmas. Was also planning on reading Will Gibson's "Virtual Light."

As for old favorites, I've been a long time fan of Michael Crichton, with my favorite of his, and novels in general, being "Sphere." I don't know why I keep coming back to this book again and again, but something about the story captivates me. But while not being a nautical person myself, I seem naturally drawn to stories set out at sea (Like a lot of Peter Benchley's novels). I suppose it has to do with that fact that even today, the ocean has much deep down that we do not know about. It's a strange, dangerous place. As such, I suppose I've always felt that the danger in such sea-faring novels to be much more real than stories of terrorists, monsters, or dinosaurs.

dethtoll said:

Lovecraft is honestly a terrible writer. He cribbed too much from Poe, badly, and a lot of his prose is honestly stuff first-year creative writing classes spend hours trying to hammer out of potential writers.

Heh, back in High School we had to write a short story in the vein of Poe. Most people wrote spook stories, but I took it to heart to and hammered out something that sort of fit the style. More recently, I found some website that can supposedly determine what historical writer you write like, and after putting a few paragraphs into that thing, it came out as Lovecraft. I was a hack after all! :P

[Programme]

Recently finished The Revenant. If you're interested in the Old West, survival, or revenge, you will love that book.

I'm also reading Catch 22, which is by far the funniest book I have ever read. If you haven't read it, you're a Communist.

[Ashstrodamus]

Not a big reader, but I did really enjoy Thompson's Fear and Loathing. I read Fellowship of the Rings. Let's say I didn't read anymore Tolkien after that. I found it more tedious than anything.

[Decay]

I never really picked authors as favourites, just go on a book-by-book basis. Excluding all my methods/theoretical texts, if I were to say certain books were my favourite...

Tolkien's "The Silmarillion"
Depending on how you like your books, more conversation filled or less, I have read this book countless times and find it far superior to the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit in every way.

Dumas "The Count of Monte Cristo"
Not for the faint of heart. Very long. But also very good. Like the Silmarillion, it is very descriptive.

Shelley's "Frankenstein" (1818 edition)
Allegedly there is a difference between this edition and later editions but I wouldn't know. A lot of people read this in high school, I did not. I found it to be a great short read, on par with "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" which is also worth buzzing through.

Fleming's "From Russia With Love" and "You Only Live Twice"
Two very different books from the same series. Both evoke very different imagery (pre and post James Bond movies) but certainly worth taking a gander at, even if you aren't a fan of Bond.

[Count651]

Decay said:

I never really picked authors as favourites, just go on a book-by-book basis.

This is pretty much exactly how I am. I usually just head into the book store and pick up whatever looks cool, usually books I've never even heard of.

[Prologue-9]

As a writer I don't read (books) nearly as often as I should (blame Doom), but in recent memory these stood out to me. Think I'll go ahead and copy the OP's template here,

Bedlam


Sci-fi where following a routine test the lead character wakes up in a universe of video games. A nice mix between adventure and world-building here, with plenty of twists and implications to keep you hooked. The author's a long-time gamer too, so expect a lot of nostalgia. Slow start, though.

Pandaemonium


Almost two stories in one until the last bit, half follows a group of teens on a field trip after the death of a classmate, the other a familiar story about scientists messing with portals and unfortunate consequences. Memorable characters and a real thrill after the climax, plus some science vs. religion study.

Hal, Hannac


Not usually my taste, but it's medieval realistic fiction/romance about a hard-headed duellist. Once I picked the first one up, I couldn't stop until I finished them both. Wonderful storytelling and pacing here.

[Li'l devil]

VonHootie02 said:

Recently finished The Revenant. If you're interested in the Old West, survival, or revenge, you will love that book.

Not sure what Doom monster has to do with Old West.. heh

Anyway, my favourite book is "Monday Begins on Saturday" by Strugatsky brothers. It's a sciense fantasy comedy about how a programmer became an employee of the institute of magic research, which is full of crazy things going on. The book is really funny and it's really cool how the book merges sciense with stuff from fairy tales. I also like how this book predates certain aspects from Harry Potter series (the book was written in 1965). Unfortunately for English readers, as far as i know translations to English are not great, since many jokes are difficult to translate from Russian properly, so in English the book is probably much less humorous. Add the fact that the book is full of Soviet humour which is hard to understand to foreign readers.
Anyway, gotta say that Strugatsky brothers are great writers, they also wrote "Roadside Picnic", which i also recommend, even though it's not really humorous. In fact it's quite scary actually. It's also the book on which Stalker games are loosely based on.

Also, since there's a talk about Lovecraft, i have to say that i really like his works, even though i haven't read much of them. I agree that his books have some noticable flaws, like the fact that almost every single character by the end of any book goes crazy, which kind of stupid, imo. But there're two books by him that i really liked: it's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" and "The Colour Out of Space". Both of those a really interesting and genuinely frightening.

[Programme]

ChekaAgent said:

Not sure what Doom monster has to do with Old West.. heh

"As the illegitimate child of Jack Skellington, the Revenant lives a brutal life on the hellish frontier (read: Doom 2 maps 21-30). But after being on the wrong end of a super shotgun and getting his missile launchers stolen, the Revenant must fight space marines, fellow demons, and Bethesda executives to get revenge on the marine that robbed him.

Based on a true Doom story, the Revenant will make you want shoulder mounted rocket launchers too."

[Guest]

[purist]

VonHootie02 said:

I'm also reading Catch 22, which is by far the funniest book I have ever read. If you haven't read it, you're a Communist.

It is excellent. And immediately after finishing you'll be tempted to go back to the start and read again with better appreciation of the characters.

Also Slaughterhouse 5 is a good one if you enjoyed Catch 22. Similar dry but absurd humour and somewhat war related too.

[Programme]

purist said:

It is excellent. And immediately after finishing you'll be tempted to go back to the start and read again with better appreciation of the characters.

Also Slaughterhouse 5 is a good one if you enjoyed Catch 22. Similar dry but absurd humour and somewhat war related too.

I have heard a bit about Slaughterhouse Five, though I've got tons of books to read (and write!). I will get it eventually.

[Aquanet]

Gulag Archipelago

I didn't expect this three-part monster to be as fun and readable as it turned out to be. It's an amazing work of nonfiction about the soviet labor camp system, interrogations, and their effects on Russian society.

[Protester]

was reading crime and punishment and decided to start a book thread, but thankfully found one before i became a dingus...

The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sajer is pretty much burned into my brain, i can never not remember it. It is a WW2 memoir of a Frenchman in the German army on the eastern front, and it truly shows the war at its worst. Its one of the most visceral and brutal books I've ever read. I hate to admit it but i nearly cried after finishing it! if there was ever a most important anti-war book this would be it. For nonfiction it is certainly the most terrifying and dramatic (also traumatic) book to date.

Roadside Picnic holds a special place in my heart as well. The story, the atmosphere and the ending were all very real to me somehow. Maybe its because i'm such a big fan of the s.t.a.l.k.e.r series.

Storming Intrepid is a pretty unknown book, known today as a "technothriller" where an undercover soviet steals the space shuttle (holding the integral piece of an american "star wars" system) and kills the crew. Unfortunately, his plan to land it in Baikonur is derailed when he discovers that a dying crewmember purposely destroyed the RCS control chip, leaving the Russians and the Americans to a deadly race to capture an adrift spacecraft. I really, really enjoyed this book. For a late 80's cheapo novel i was blown away by it. If anyone ever spots a copy of this, give it a go. Perhaps i should check out the authors newer works...

[Tracer]

I started reading Secret Soldiers by Phillip Gerard the other day. It's about the decoy armies used by the allies in World War II. Not a bad read, so far.

I actually picked this one up by chance. My girlfriend wanted to go to the library to find a new book, and I have been wanting to check out The Exorcist. Exorcist was checked out, so I went to the World War II section and found Secret Soldiers.

Has anybody here read The Exorcist? If so, what did you think of it?