Must Reads?
 

I've recently taken up on reading on the long bus/metro rides I have to take in the city of Montreal. *sigh*

I've Read a few books but I was surprisingly pleased with 1984(Nineteen Eighty-four) by G. Orwell. This book I recommend to Everyone GREAT book. I'm now reading The Citadel by A.J.Cronin(nothing special so far). I read Go Ask Alice a while back. That was a great book. Though I can barely remember it. I do plan on reading it again soon.

Well moving on. I was wondering what books are absolutely must reads?Favorites? Title and if you can author please.

Terry

Altered Carbon (sci-fi) and Market Forces (near future sci-fi) by Richard Morgan.
Pandora's Star (sci-fi) and Judas Unchained (sci-fi) by Peter F. Hamilton.
The Iliad by Homer, Fagles translation. (do I really have to mention this genre?)
The Art of War by Sun Tzu, Griffith translation. (really?)

The Elegant Universe, by Brian Greene. (Nonfiction, superstring theory is your friend)

Seconded with vigor and gusto. It's quite, quite mind-blowing once you wrap your head around it.

I for one would recommend any of the following:

Anything by Terry Pratchett (the Discworld series hs too many books in it to name them all here, but there's info on this Wikipedia page)

Anything by Douglas Adams--Last Chance to See (nonfiction, about endangered species);
the Dirk Gently books (sci-fi-ish with mystery elements; look for Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. Arguably some of Adams' best work);
and the five-part Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (some of the best sci-fi out there, and sci-fi comedy to boot--a difficult genre indeed to write well, but this is really how it's done. Includes The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; The Restaurant at the End of the Universe; Life, the Universe and Everything; So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish; and Mostly Harmless--although I warn you, this last is, put mildly, rather a letdown after the first four books.)

the Red Dwarf novels by Grant Naylor (Red Dwarf: Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers and Better Than Life--also sci-fi comedy at its very best, but more character-driven than Douglas Adams', I think. Grant Naylor is actually the pen name of writers Rob Grant and Doug Naylor; each has released their own RD novel--Rob Grant's Backwards and Doug Naylor's Last Human. I wouldn't read those until you'd read the first two, however.)

Hard to go wrong with Hunter S. Thompson--I personally have read Hey Rube (the subtitle of which I can't recall), Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 (a bit hard to get into, but I found it fascinating) and yes, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (also fascinating at the same time it's giving you a contact buzz from just reading about all the drugs in it o_0 ). It's almost a genre all its own, is this stuff.

I also recommend Lynne Truss' Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. For the love of coitus, please read this book. Not you specifically; everyone could read it and get something useful out of it. And it's fun, too! I bet you never thought punctuation could be fun.

More as I think of more. (I'm something of a bookworm.)

Neal Stephenson is the man! Read Snow Crash, and if you like that check out some of his other stuff like Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, and his System of the World trilogy, which I believe begins with Quicksilver.

The A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R.R. Martin.

Taiko by Eiji Yoshikawa.

The Sea Wolf by Jack London.

Cloud of Sparrows and Autumn Bridge by Takashi Matsuoka.

Animal Farm by George Orwell.

It's even such a genre of its own that they gave the genre its own name. You know, Gonzo Journalism.

Just sayin'.

The thing I got from F&L: On the Campaign Trail (Well I say got, I'm still sort of making my way through it) was it was less about politics than it was about Hunter S. Thompson observing politics, and less about Hunter S. Thompson observing politics than it was about Hunter S. Thompson observing Hunter S. Thompson observing politics. Still pretty good for all that, but I find my favorite parts are those where Thompson is quoting verbatim from somebody else.

-The Dune Series by Frank Herbert (A series that never seems to get as much love as it deserves...skip the prequels though, they're terrible.)
-Ender's Game and Speaker For The Dead by Orson Scott Card (Yeah, they're classics, but I felt I should mention them just to make sure.)
-anything by Mike Nelson - phenomenal comedy writer from Minnesota, used to be the head writer on Mystery Science Theater 3000. Kinda tough to find, but definitely worth tracking down.

Those are the first things that pop into my brain.

Read the Bounty Trilogy, Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea, and Pitcairn's Island, the best in my opinion is Men Against the Sea, which is about the arduous journey and struggle to survive Captain Bligh and the other cast-offs go through to get back to civilization. It's awesome, a great read. Makes you feel all manly.

In that vein I'll second The Sea Wolf by Jack London.

In the realm of more popular culture, if you're into Fantasy and I had to pick some series I'd say:

The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King
The Sword of the Spirits trilogy by John Christopher
The Tripods trilogy by John Christopher
Elric of Melnibone series by Michael Moorcock

Oh, and read Final Blackout by L. Ron Hubbard, also written during World War II, for yet another example of dystopic literature if you liked 1984 (and for being written by L. Ron Hubbard it's surprisingly Scientology wackiness free, the man was actually a good fiction writer!) The Lieutenant is probably the most kickass character invented. There's also Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, but of all the dystopic novels, this one is the closest to reality in my opinion, as it's so similar to what could easily happen right now it's uncanny. It's also dull, in my opinion. I'd say it's fairly short though.

Another classic I recommend is The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson, which was a million times better than silly Treasure Island. I don't know why Treasure Island has been so overfreakingappreciated. Not that it's BAD, just The Black Arrow is so many times better and set during a better time period that I don't know why more people haven't read it, and I don't think there's been a single movie based on it either.

And finally, Dracula by Bram Stoker. Such an exciting adventure novel, with a supernatural element. If you've seen the movie, I assure you, the book is a million times better than that travesty. For the movie it seemed as if they made the decision to cut out ANYTHING exciting and turn it into an excuse to show lots of titties by having long scenes of Dracula ravishing women, and remove all the fight scenes between the team of vampire hunters and the undead, including a few with Dracula. The movie would've been a million times better with fights between Dracula and kukri knife wielding humans. In the novel it has a breakneck pace and such an original plot that I'd say no one has bothered to rip Dracula off more than with just the title character and the idea of "Vampires suck blood". For one thing, the vampires in this book are kick ass. They're not pussy one hit kill things like in Blade (or stupid like that Dracula in Blade Trinity), and they're not emo like some sort of Anne Rice novel. Lestadt is okay I guess from the movies I've seen but they apparently should've stopped at Interview With The Vampire. The Vampires in this book come off as monumental in power. There's also wolves and evil gypsy minions and a the mass murder of an entire ship's crew--what's not to like? A must read.

I almost always enjoy books by Dean Koontz.

He usually goes for books about the supernatural or about political conspiracy, and his books almost always involve some sort of psychopath. He has a bit of talent for writing from the perspective of a homocidal mad-man. Nearly all of his crazies have their own unique "reasoning" for doing what they do.

I would suggest Odd Thomas and its sequals, as well as Dark Rivers of the Heart. You can snag that last one in omnibus form as well. It's put together with Intensity and Sole Survivor.

Dragonlance, Weiss and Hickman. Possibly ojne of the best fantasy stories ever written, it's actually better thant LORT (chracters dont suck) and ther is a lot to the series, as in 15 main bookos and 250 side stories.