Anyone have some suggestions for reading? I've just begun to read The Bourne Identity after finding a copy printed in 1980 on our bookshelf here. Seems like a pretty well written book. Anyway I should have this book finished reasonably soon so anyone have any other titles? I find most of the newer books cater to the LCD (if there is such a thing in the literary world), whereas the older 20th century titles tend to be somewhat more intelligent.

yup
i got two books for you
moldavia
and
phaic tan

both by working dog (tommy gleisner, rob sitch and santo cilaro(sp))

fake travel guides and they are hi-larious

friends put me onto phaic tan (i thought it was a genuine travel guide at first coz of the title and how the book looked)
but ive never lol'ed as much from a book in my life

GET TO YOUR LOCAL LIBRAY AND GET THEM BOTH OUT NOW

ps very much along the lines of the warrick todd diary series by tommy g
with a pinch of russel coight stlye laughs as well

funnier than both


last edited by Spook at 22:51:39 14/Feb/05

three men in a raft - ben kozel
5 months in a leaky boat - ben kozel
between a rock and a hard place - aaron rolston

Any of my posts.

^^ I'm guessing trog isn't your favourite editor then?

Patricia D Cornwell. I have all her books if you want to borrow them. No on second thoughts, you can't!

driving for dummies

hitchhikers guide to the galaxy - awsome

If you're after something that's an easy read & fairly well paced, I'd recommend most of Matthew Reilly's novels - he's an aussie author who specialises in action, but dabbles some scifi & conspiracy stuff into the mix from time to time.. I'd recommend starting with Ice Station (his 3rd novel) and going from there. Definantly not brain challenging stuff, but very entertaining none-the-less.

If Reilly isn't your thing, you could always give in to the commercial juggernaught of the Da-Vinci Code, just so you can say "I've read it". It's decently paced, has lots of conspiracy stuff in it and even gives you stuff to think about. Ignore the hype & you'll find it enjoyable enough to read through. I've heard that the rest of Dan Brown's books aren't so great tho. Of course, if you're really bored there's always the Harry Potter books or maybe even The Lord of the Rings :) Delving into the realm of licensed works, the Battletech novels aren't half bad.. providing you can find them. Later efforts like the Jade Falcon trilogy, can be picked up in Borders, however the earlier novels - the Blood of Kerensky Trilogy & so forth - are very hard to find, unless you're willing to throw money at amazon.com's marketplace..

fudge it - take a trip into the city & spend an hour or so walking around borders.. I'm sure you'll find something to whet your interests there.. Even if it's a copy of "the Real Ultimate Power" :D

Terry Brooks

All of the Shanara series and I highly recommend the Landover novels as well...more so than the Shanara ones. Well, that's if you like fantasy stuff.

The Tales of The Otori Across the nightingale floor and Grass for his pillow. f***ing awsome read , props to deathwalker.

Dr Zeus for the win!!!

adult novels are always fun..........for the intelectual pr0n addict that is


last edited by smashingpumpkin at 02:31:42 15/Feb/05

Mills & Boon??

I was thinking books with chapters such as.....'the milk man delivers his full cream'

Ok, here's teh most important list of reading ever, ranked in order:

Ian Irvine- The View from the Mirror (starts with 'A shadow on the glass')
The Well of Echoes (^follow up to that series^)

Robin Hobb- The farseer trilogy
The Tawny Man trilogy

Then anything done by Dan Brown, Matthew reilly. Also, The Chronicles of Narnia make a good read.

If you haven't read all the david eddings and ramond e feist books should read them imo

I'm reading The Kill Artist by Daniel Silva at the moment and it's shaping up really well. Seems like a really good book.

Left Behind by Tim LaHaye & Jerry Jenkins is also not-too-bad. I mean, realistically, it's a christian book that was given to me as a Christmas present but it's not preachy and s*** (I'm not christian at all btw) it's all about the rapture and whatnot so it's quite interesting and you learn a little at the same time. :P

I just started reading 'Collapse - How Societies choose to fail or survive' by Jared Diamond. Seems very promising thus far, reads a bit like a text book at times though.

13^th Valley
Chicken Hawk
The Racist Mind

Those are my 3 picks over the last few months.

Read "Angel & Demons" first then "Da Vinci Code" - both by Dan Brown.

The Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien:D

Hyperion by Dan simmons... any thing him for the win

or only forward by michael marshall smith

asimov on astronomy

fiction...
david gemmel books... all are good.

loved angels and demons and the da vinci code, but as said before, very commercial.


anything by peter f hamilton, the nights dawn trilogy are awesome, as is his collection of short stories A second Chance at Eden.

and finally, the dude that wrote american psycho, he also wrote glamorama, one of my girlfriends favourite books, very bizarre and zany, in an american psycho sort of stead. oh and one more, michael marshall smith, one of the best modern writers ive read.

if you want contemporary, orwell, huxley, bradbury, dostoevsky, ...

All of the Shanara series

I read about 8 Shannara books in highschool (First King rocked!)... I enjoyed them immensely, but they were extremely repetitive.

Since then I read the first 8 books in the Wheel of Time (Robert Jordan), which I enjoyed for a while. The only downside is that for me and most people I know who were into the series ... you have to re-read the entire series everytime he releases a new book, since you can't remember s*** from before. Very time-consuming since he probably has 11+ books now in the series.

Based off the Da Vinci code, I conclude that Dan Brown is the worst writer I've ever read and if you must read any of his books, please don't contribute any more to the fact that 4 of his books are already in the top 10 book sales lists and have been for months. He's a rank amateur at writing.

^ the ian "dicko" dickson of the literature world possibly?

as far as with angels and da vinci, basing the fiction off fact was what i enjoyed most. reading through the illustrated version and seeing the little nuances in the different art works was great, and what i enjoyed most about it.

as far as a writer goes, hes on par with most modern writing which i dont care much for, as i said im more contemporary based

read a book on how not to be gay hunter


/maddest derail

dan brown - davinci code, etc, they're not a bad read, but very fast paced.
matthew riley is much the same, it's all "go go go!"

tom clancy for the win. better build up and motives.

for fantasy, there's the favourites, raymond E fiest, david eddings, robert jordan.

i tried to read clancy, but i just kept getting annoyed, i dont know why.

I'm currently reading The Sillmarillian, I'm actually quite surprised how most people who have read the LOTR trilogy have not even read it, let alone heard about it. It's pretty good so far, i'm about half way... it basically goes on about how everything in existence during those times (middle earth) was created... so needless to say, there is a LOT of s*** being introduced, and at the start of the book, its hard to get your head around everything that is going on.

tung, u gotta read the right one's to get you started. try something like rainbow 6 to get you interested, then go back and read them in chronological order

I was wondering how long for the first "DA VINCI CODE" post. I wasn't dissappointed.

My Suggestions :

Sci-Fi
- The Mote in God's Eye

- Peter F Hamilton, Night's Dawn trilogy

non Sci-Fi, I like James Patterson's crime series ( Alex Cross )

s***loads of others that I can't think of at the moment.

I enjoyed the Silmarillion but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone but massive LOTR fans 'cause it is such a hard and sometimes painfull read.

If you enjoyed The Bourne Identity, the next one The Bourne Supremacy is awesome, but in the last one, the Bourne Ultimatum, Ludlum kinda loses the plot.

Catch 22 is an awesome and hilarious war satire.

The Matt Reilly books are pretty awesome for action, if you can check your mind at the door, alot of fun.

Bram Stoker's Dracula is an awesome read, interestingly the whole story is made up of diary entries and letters.

BTW Tung, contemporary means, modern or of our time/age, most of those dudes are long dead :)

Good replies so far guys.

I agree with Tung in regards to the older titles... I prefer them to the newer ones for a variety of reasons, though I agree with Steele in that I wouldn't use the word contemporary to describe them. I believe I have Catch 22 the novel somewhere here on the shelf (or possibly in storage in our shed), and I enjoyed the movie (Art Garfunkel had a role iirc?).

I've also been meaning to read books written by authors such as Huxley, but I haven't gotten around to it. Hell, I haven't set foot in a public library for a long, long time. I guess this thread then leads me to another question: What bookshops do you suggest I find these in (I no longer have a library card)?

last edited by sikfalcon at 12:44:26 15/Feb/05

i dunno about the boonies on teh northside, but on the southside we have librarys in every suburb

they are awesome, go join your local

books are too expensive to buy, read and then have sitting in your shelf for years

much easier to read and return, if u love it, then go buy it if u fancy reading it again;

It was recommended to me that I read sections of the Silmarillion that interested me first, and that will get you interested in reading other parts. it worked but made me damned confused at times (so many people of note and races etc to keep track of)....

If you want to read Tom Clancy go the old stuff, Hunt for red October, Patriot games, Cardinal of the Kremlin, Red storm rising.

Larry Bond (I think) is also good, co-wrote Red Storm Rising and has some of his own novels, Cauldren, Red Phoenix.

Dale Brown flight of the old dog is good also, but everything else he wrote is utter crap.

Comedy, Hitchhikers guide the galaxy = win.

For fantasy i must say David Gemmel and Daved Eddings are the way to go.....i have all their books and re-read them every few months.

anything by douglas adams is good

the holistic detectives are good

probably not a bad idea to re-read hitchhikers with the moofie coming up

noooo! not david eddings :(

I remember when it dawned on me that he'd just written the same story 4 times over and even made lame excuses in the plots to explain away the fact. then he wrote a bunch of books that in places completely contradicted parts of the originals.

then he wrote some gay book about some f***** thief and his dagger which showed that david eddings should probably just stick to rewriting the same story over and over again.

Those working dog fake travel guides are too hard to read. Normally travel guides are humouress anyway, so to me it just read as a travel guide of a place i'll never visit, which was boring.

As far as comedic fake-things goes, i recently enjoyed The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction. Didn't read it cover-to-cover but you can open it anywhere and get some chuckles.

Carl Hiaasen writes a lot of very funny dark comedy/crime books, which are set in Miami. I'd recommend all of them. One of them was made in to the movie Striptease, starring Demi Moore, which sucked balls.

I enjoyed the Silmarillion but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone but massive LOTR fans 'cause it is such a hard and sometimes painfull read.

I don't know about that. I'd only seen the first two movies before I started reading the Silmarillion, I hadn't even read the LoTR books. Its true it is a bit bewildering at first with so many names, but after you've read it a few times it all comes together and makes sense and its fantastic. I was hooked ever since I first read it, was always curious about the history behind LoTR which is dabbled in the movies - numenor and aragorn (whats with the long life span), history and fued of the elves and dwarves, why sauron was so big and powerful, and lastly and most importantly, the balrog. Of course I've read it a dozen times now so I know everything off my head, yet I'm not huge on LoTR.

David Gemmell is great for fantasy novels. He's about the only fantasy author I still read, well him and Terry Pratchett.

Clive Barker - Abarat and Abarat 2 + just about anything else he's written.

Joe R Lansdale - a must read! Writes crime/westerns/thrillers/horror/weird uncategorisable/etc He's great!

If you like Matthew Reilly try the Clive Cussler books. Same style really, very fast paced and largely unbelievable.

Peter Hamilton is great. The Nights Dawn trilogy has some really interesting concepts about life/religion/the afterlife and the sci-fi and action side of it is pretty cool too.

If you're into horror (and if you can find them) try David Schow, Ed Lee (City Infernal is great), John Pelan, Richard Laymon and Brian Lumley (among others).

about the history behind LoTR which is dabbled in the movies - numenor and aragorn (whats with the long life span),

Actually the long lifespan thing strikes me as Tolkien imitating the bible. He wrote LotR partly as a modern myth. If you look at the bible a lot of the old testament people lived hundreds of years. But it's like the further we got from grace the shorter our lifespans became. Same thing in the LotR - it's like the original bloodline has been diluted and it's just a remnant of it's former glory.

well you're free to make your own conclusions, but Tolkien stated that his work was not based off anything else. The fact that both texts have a people with live spans longer than what we have today is miniscure, they derive from different situations completely.
You are right though that he created it as a modern myth sort of thing, he stated that he began his work to fill the void in English mythology.

dan brown sucks, that is all.

A friend of mine made me read David Eddings ... those are hours of my life that I'll never get back ><

Applor, I'd imagine (and obviously I have no proof) that even though Tolkien may not have directly imitated the bible it was at least in his subconcious. When I look at the bible stories with people from the old testament living hundreds of years and look through the stories and see the ages getting shorter and shorter it provokes a feeling of loss. That somewhere along the line we humans have lost something that means we're living shorter lives. The same feeling is provoked with the lifespans of men in Tolkien.

Lots of other writers use similar techniques to provoke a certain response in readers. Tales of lost civilisations, fading magical powers, lost technologies etc (Michael Moorcock's Elric stories, RE Howards stories about Conan and Kull and Bran Mac Morn, even classical stuff like the Illiad) abound in not just stories but myth and *ahem* history. (If you believe in God and believe the Bible is *true* and not just allegory then it's a history book isnt it ;)

Anyway, the point I was trying to make is not so much that Tolkien "lifted" the idea of men having progressively shorter lifespans from the bible but that it *parallels* the bible.

Not really sure what you mean by miniscure? Miniscule? Obscure? Something else?

the holistic detectives are good

I wtfed at the ending to dirk gently, so I googled an explanation.. and Douglas Adams had nfi what happened either Damn commas in urls
It was a good book other than that though

last edited by Bah at 18:07:53 16/Feb/05

tolkien definitely imitated the bible with lotr... he says as much in his biography. he was a christian & both he & c.s.lewis wrote thier fictions because they liked the idea of such stark contrasts between good & evil... so unlike reality.
but the long life of aragorn's family comes from the union of beren (man) & luthien (elf) in the silmarillion... so they are half-elves or whatever.

but the long life of aragorn's family comes from the union of beren (man) & luthien (elf) in the silmarillion... so they are half-elves or whatever.

Not quite right there.
The long life span given to the numenoreans was a reward from illuvatar (god) for the service of their forefathers of the 3 houses of the Edain (men who fought with the Elves against Morgoth in the first age)in the war of the jewels against morgoth.

Elronds brother Elros chose to be mortal (unlike Elrond) as you say because they were given the choice as they were half-elven and so Elros was chosen to be the first King of Numenor. They weren't given long life because of Beren and Luthien.

For those who don't know but are interested, Numenor was a name for the land they were given as reward for the same reason stated above, but it was destroyed near the end of the second age - not too long before the Last Alliance which resulted in the defeat of Sauron and the end of the second age (shown in the opening scenes of FoTR). Some survived the downfall of Numenor and came to Middle-Earth, which included Elendil and his son Isildur, of whom Aragorn was a descendant of.



last edited by applor at 18:42:07 16/Feb/05

then he wrote some gay book about some f***** thief and his dagger which showed that david eddings should probably just stick to rewriting the same story over and over again.

I rate that 'some gay book' as the best book i've ever read - and don't be annoying and say that i mustn't of read many or have a wide range etc etc because its just... well annoying.

I would Highly recommend the book in question, which is: David And Leigh Eddings - The Redemption of Althalus.

Also recommend Matthew Reilly for great action, The Da Vinci Code for 2 reasons 1) trog doesnt like it and 2) its good to have some evidence against that crazy church... is trog a religious guy? heh

Also the Obernewtyn Chronicles by Isobelle Carmody are an alright read however i don't think the series is complete yet.

Ciao

Sounds like you've been reading all the background stuff on LotR Applor. You had a look at the website called the Encyclopedia of Arda? Great stuff.

In some ways a lot of the stuff that Tolkien made background - the first and second ages sounds a lot more interesting than the events that we get to read about in LotR and the Hobbit. I'd love to have seen proper novels by Tolkien on some of the earlier stuff (instead of the pseudo history books we have now - Lost Tales, Unfinished Tales etc.)

1984, A Brave New World, A Clockwork Orange and for something trippy Flatland: A Romance of Multiple Dimensions.

Sounds like you've been reading all the background stuff on LotR Applor. You had a look at the website called the Encyclopedia of Arda? Great stuff.

Maybe you missed the part where I said I've read the Silmarillion at least a dozen times. Yes I know of the Encyclpoedia of Arda - http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/ along with a dozen other Tolkien related sites.
I've also read Unfinished tales about a dozen times and some of his others works (reading Morgoths Ring, vol.10 complete history of middle-earth atm) as well as countless hours reading into different things.
You'll be hard pressed finding a bigger Tolkien fan as knowledgable on his works than I.

In some ways a lot of the stuff that Tolkien made background - the first and second ages sounds a lot more interesting than the events that we get to read about in LotR and the Hobbit. I'd love to have seen proper novels by Tolkien on some of the earlier stuff (instead of the pseudo history books we have now - Lost Tales, Unfinished Tales etc.)

Yes thats part of why I like it so much. While the Silmarillion is a published novel, it was compiled by his son after his death and its the closest thing we have to a proper novel; and imo its the best of his works. Tolkien came back to the matter of the Eldar days after LoTR, but the bastard died before he finished it - we only got a few unfinished tales (which was published by his son, as you well know).
Didn't like Lost Tales (vol.1 and 2) though, his writing style was quite different and there were a lot of differences compared to what was published in The Silmarillion.

last edited by applor at 20:12:25 16/Feb/05

Playboy
Hustler
Picture

Cause everyone buys them for the articles, didnt you know.

Catch 22 is an awesome and hilarious war satire.

Yes, awesome book.

The Matt Reilly books are pretty awesome for action, if you can check your mind at the door, alot of fun.

His style of writing really pisses me off. It's really awkward at times. I don't remember it being so bad in Ice Station, but in Scarecrow it seemed like he was trying way too hard to make his writing exciting and it wasn't working at all.

Im reading Don Quixote at the moment, been fairly enjoyable so far. A bit repetitive in places though.

GOOSEBUMPS LOL!

Applor, I'm just wondering but does the whole middle-earth story end when the ring is destroyed and or does any of the books go beyond that point?

Gol, then man's history as we know it began =P

skrybe, stinky, you are the first people ive found to have heard of peter hamiltons work, let alone read his books :)

i loved it, as it very closely mirrored my world view which i had thought about for ages, and the concepts are just so awesome and striking.

that and the characters are so flawed, its great. its a really good read. i knocked over the first book in a day and a half, the second in 2 days, and then waited 2 years to get the third book which i demolished in just over a day.

to date i have read that trilogy at least 4 or 5 times.

Tung

Just to let u know, Peter Hamilton has a new book out ("Pandora's Star") which is really good so far. Certainly up to the standard of the trilogy.

hunter, if you're looking for a good bookstore for sci-fi, fantasy, crime and horror, you can't go past Pulp Fiction in the City. It's in an arcade on Albert st up past the mall toward wickham st. Not particularly cheap but they've got a great range and will get you anything you're looking for. Only decent sci-fi bookshop in Brisbane.

You should consider some other authors.

Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, Diamond Age)

Iain Banks (Excession, Look to Windward)

Jack McDevitt (Chindi, Omega, Polaris)

Alistair Reynolds (Revelation Space trilogy) really f***in good

Sherri Tepper (Too many to mention)

Lois bujold (The Miles Vorkosigan books)

Robert Reed (Marrow, Down the Bright Way)

Well that's a start. These are all Space Opera books btw. The Reynolds stuff is really strange and really good.

wow well i better give it a look.

i did want to check out the quantum murder stuff but never got round to it

Read Peter Hamilton a while ago and it wasn't too bad. You might want to read the GAP series by Stephen Donaldson if you like space operas with flawed characters.

Lately I've been reading lately: Salman Rushdie (can't recommend him highly enough), Kurt Vonnegut, Paul Auster, Haruki Murukami others but I don't have time to go into right now.

Anything by Bill Bryson. A really funny travel writer :)

Applor, I'm just wondering but does the whole middle-earth story end when the ring is destroyed and or does any of the books go beyond that point?

Essentially, no. To make it easier heres a couple of quotes from the enclyclopedia:

The Fourth Age
7 Death of Hamfast 'Gaffer' Gamgee.
13 Death of Paladin Took II. Peregrin Took becomes Thain of the Shire.
15 Death of Glóin son of Gróin, the father of Gimli Elf-friend.
31 Buckland and the Westmarch are officially incorporated into the Shire.
33 Birth of Sam Gamgee's grandson Elfstan Fairbairn.
34 Likely date of the death of Imrahil of Dol Amroth.
61 September After the death of his wife Rose, Sam Gamgee departs over the Sea.
63 Spring Meriadoc Brandybuck and Peregrin Took depart the Shire and travel into the south; Faramir I succeeds his father Peregrin as Thain of the Shire.
Autumn Death of King Éomer of Rohan. He is succeeded by his son Elfwine.
82 Death of Faramir, Steward to Aragorn.
91 Apparent date of death of Dwalin, at the extraordinary age of 340.
120 Departure of Legolas and Gimli.
Death of King Aragorn II Elessar of Gondor. He is succeeded by his son Eldarion.
121 Death of Arwen Evenstar in Lórien.
172 A copy of the Red Book of Westmarch is completed in Gondor by Findegil.

==================

Although we have no records of the later Fourth, or any following Age, Tolkien makes a brief allusion to the future of Middle-earth in a letter written in 1958: "I imagine the gap [between the Fall of Barad-dûr and modern times] to be about 6000 years; that is we are now at the end of the Fifth Age, if the Ages were of about the same length as S[econd] A[ge] and T[hird] A[ge]. But they have, I think, quickened; and I imagine we are actually at the end of the Sixth Age, or in the Seventh."

Eddings - Belgariad/Mallorian
Feist - Everything he has ever written... Magician is amazing
Jordan - If you want an epic that never ends............
Power of One, Tandia, Jessica - Bryce Courtenay
Shogun - James Clavell - absolute classic
Guide to the Galaxy and Terry Pratchett for humour :)

Thanks applor!

BTW Robert Jordan has to be the worst writer ever. The first 5 books were pretty good...but now the story is so drawn out and convulated it is hard to keep track of what is going on. Terry Goodkind > robert jordan

Could someone please explain the attraction of Magician to me. For such a highly regarded fantasy, I thought it was really quite poor. It seemed very immaturely written to me, not really anything that new ( elves and dwarves again, yawn), no suspense in any section, it was set over way to long of a timeline (maybe it should have been over 3 books) and the ending made no sense.

Jeffery Deaver has wrote some mad as thrillers. Devil's Teardrop is a good book has awesome storyline.

All Michael Marshall Smith's stuff is awesome.

Peter F Hamilton's series is a great read.

Dan Brown I found interesting enough to read, but wasn't hugely impressed with his writing style.

I read a couple of Hamilton's short stories (he had a collection out really cheap) and I thought they were really good. So I bought the Night's Dawn trilogy. I like the way his stories all exist in the same timeline. His short stories include stuff like the start of nanotech, the founding of the edenist habitats near (umm... memory hazy...) Saturn wasn't it? And one of them included the adventures (well one adventure) of Calvert's father.

re: Tolkien - Applor I didn't mean to imply that you were lifting info from Arda. I was simply suggesting the site. I use it as a quick reference whenever I can't remember something exactly and I want to confirm it.

last edited by sKryBe at 19:14:14 18/Feb/05

[quote]Could someone please explain the attraction of Magician to me. For such a highly regarded fantasy, I thought it was really quite poor. It seemed very immaturely written to me, not really anything that new ( elves and dwarves again, yawn), no suspense in any section, it was set over way to long of a timeline (maybe it should have been over 3 books) and the ending made no sense.[/quote]

Magician is an attractive novel because it is an epic - depicting the tale of Pug mainly but with the linear story of the riftware and those involved in it. Written immaturely? How so? I believe Feist was excellent because, unlike a lot of authors, does not try and over dramatise and describe everything that happens but gives enough detail to understand what is going on. While Yes, elves and dwarves are over done this book does not put them in such a mystical role as others...they are just who they are. No suspense...did you skip sections or what? Thousands of times I was dieing wanting to find out what happens next. Lastly explain how the ending made no sense, it makes perfect sense but it isn't as 'extravagant' as other novels like to finish. But remember Magician is setting the groundwork for a total series of novels (all of which are extremely good).