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I'm a big book lover and I've just finished 50 Shades Of Grey so I'm in need of something new!! Throw some titles at me.

So 50 Shades Of Grey was intense. It's a book you're either going to like or you're not. It's quite similar to Twilight (was originally Twilight fan fiction) so probably 99% of you won't give it a chance and I understand. It's more directed at a female audience anyway. Apart from that I loved it, I love the whole smoking hot guy, shy girl, fall in love, have epic romance type books. I was fairly blown away by the erotic nature of the book. I mean it's heavy stuff. Didn't know you could do that shiz with whips and whatnot.. ANYWAY! It was really good, liked it more than Twilight, mainly because the leading man is not a vampire. I did get emotional at certain points and pretty much did when I finished it the other day. Definitely going to re-read it at some point.

Obviously I've finished and now I'm looking for something else to absorb myself in. Spill guys. What are some of the better books you've read?

Readers thread? Unexpected but very cool.

I'm a big fan of classic literature and rock bios. In the past year I've read Eric Clapton and Keith Richards' autobiographies, a biography on Duane Allman and am working on Gregg Allman's book right now. The Clapton and Richards ones are definitely good reads for any music fan. As a lot of you know while I was awol from this place the first couple months of this year I read the entire Song Of Ice & Fire series which is also well worth it (Which I believe you've already read/are reading, Merinda). Some of the classics are always good as well like 'The Hobbit' or any of the Greek epics ('The Iliad', 'The Odyssey', 'The Oresteia') and in the same genre.

A few others I highly recommend in other genres are books like 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' (Oscar Wilde), 'A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man' (James Joyce), 'Wise Blood' (Flannery O'Connor), 'The 25th Hour' (David Benioff) and despite the hell I had reading and writing an essay for it 'The Corrections' (Jonathan Franzen).

I'm interested to see how this thread grows.

Now this topic is a great idea, Min. I hope this catches.

I just finished The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddartha Mukherjee. The book is subtitled A Biography of Cancer, and that's exactly what the book is about. It goes back to the earliest medical descriptions of cancer and follows the subsequent history of the understanding of cancer and the progression of the various treatments. It is fantastically written, and very simply described, so non-doctors can easily follow (Mukherjee is an oncologist). It won the Pulitzer for non-fiction last year. Absolutely fantastic book.

History is my favorite topic, and I love books like this that retrace the history of scientific issues. My all-time favorite book is The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. The way he goes beyond the stuff we all know about WW2 and examines how the complicated sociologic and economic and political and academic processes from the turn of the century came together to result in one of the greatest (and at the same time, one of the worst) scientific achievements of all time is totally fascinating. It says a lot about a story when you are glued to it, even though you already know the ending. Barbara Tuchman's history of the first month of WW1, The Guns of August, is another great example of this. Both of these won the Pulitzer for history.

Three incredible books. Go read them.

I've been reading A Clash Of Kings since October, well I say that, I haven't actually opened it since then. I only really read when I'm on holiday and shit.

'A Storm of Swords' has a lot of payoff if you make it to it. 'A Feast For Crows'... not so much.

I'm currently on the 3rd book of the Outlander Series (Voyager) it's historical fiction with a love story mixed in. It's got some sci-fi stuff. I've really enjoyed it.

I'm reading "A Game of Thrones" right now. Very long and sometimes a bit boring. But it's beautifully written and it's more often than not very thrilling.

I just bought "More than Human" by Theodore Sturgeon, but I have about 20 books to be reading at the moment, hard to know where to start.

gbruin wrote:Now this topic is a great idea, Min. I hope this catches.

I just finished The Emperor of All Maladies by Sidartha Mukherjee. The book is subtitled A Biography of Cancer, and that's exactly what the book is about. It goes back to the earliest medical descriptions of cancer and follows the subsequent history of the understanding of cancer and the progression of the various treatments. It is fantastically written, and very simply described, so non-doctors can easily follow (Mukherjee is an oncologist). It won the Pulitzer for non-fiction last year. Absolutely fantastic book.

History is my favorite topic, and I love books like this that retrace the history of scientific issues. My all-time favorite book is The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. The way he goes beyond the stuff we all know about WW2 and examines how the complicated sociologic and economic and political and academic processes from the turn of the century came together to result in one of the greatest (and at the same time, one of the worst) scientific achievements of all time is totally fascinating. It says a lot about a story when you are glued to it, even though you already know the ending. Barbara Tuchman's history of the first month of WW1, The Guns of August, is another great example of this. Both of these won the Pulitzer for history.

Three incredible books. Go read them.

I've been meaning to start reading more non-fiction, I'll note your recommendations!

I'm into fantasy alot. Like Nyte I spend last year reading the Song of Ice and Fire series. Best read ever! Bummer that the next book won't be out in 2 or 3 years..
Another great fantasy writer is Tad Williams. If you like Asoiaf I think you'll like the 'Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn' series too. Not as epic as Asoiaf, but still a very entertaining read.
If you want to read some fun-fantasy I recommend David Eddings. His books are always a fun read. He's very predicable, but he's created some of the coolest characters in fantasy ever in his Belgarion series

Besides fantasy I love reading history novels. There's a great author in Holland who's written some amazing work. Her name is Thea Beckman, I'm not sure if her work is popular outside Holland and Belgium though. Her most famous book is called Crusade in Jeans. It's a youth's book though, but still one of my favourite books ever..

I'm mainly into auto biographys these days but I'm reading A Game Of Thrones at the moment. It feels weird reading the book after watching the show and knowing what is going to happen.

gbruin wrote:Now this topic is a great idea, Min. I hope this catches.

I just finished The Emperor of All Maladies by Sidartha Mukherjee. The book is subtitled A Biography of Cancer, and that's exactly what the book is about. It goes back to the earliest medical descriptions of cancer and follows the subsequent history of the understanding of cancer and the progression of the various treatments. It is fantastically written, and very simply described, so non-doctors can easily follow (Mukherjee is an oncologist). It won the Pulitzer for non-fiction last year. Absolutely fantastic book.

History is my favorite topic, and I love books like this that retrace the history of scientific issues. My all-time favorite book is The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. The way he goes beyond the stuff we all know about WW2 and examines how the complicated sociologic and economic and political and academic processes from the turn of the century came together to result in one of the greatest (and at the same time, one of the worst) scientific achievements of all time is totally fascinating. It says a lot about a story when you are glued to it, even though you already know the ending. Barbara Tuchman's history of the first month of WW1, The Guns of August, is another great example of this. Both of these won the Pulitzer for history.

Three incredible books. Go read them.

These sound great! Going to check them out.

Gaskin wrote:I'm mainly into auto biographys these days but I'm reading A Game Of Thrones at the moment. It feels weird reading the book after watching the show and knowing what is going to happen.

It kinda feels like old hack where all the major plot points are the same. However, it gives you a lot of backstory which helps support the show. Also the POV structure is neat in that it has its biases that shape the world a certain way (IE: Stark POV: Robert as heroic justified conqueror, Targaryen POV: Robert as brutal savage usurper).

NytestrykerZ - I read the Clapton autobiography back in 2008. Really interesting book. Turns out the guy is kind of a dick. He ditched so many other musicians for the sole purpose of advancing his career/fame. It's hard to blame him though; it obviously worked.

The last books I read were the three Hunger Games books. I was not at all fond of the whole "love triangle" that teenaged girls were raving about. But besides that, all the technology and the future dystopian dictatorship was really cool. I actually read the second and third books using the Kindle app on my phone (at the time a Droid Pro with a tiny 3" screen). I would just pull it out whenever I was in line at the airport, or laying in bed, and before I knew it, I had finished both books. It's tough to judge how fast you're reading when the pages are only 2-3 sentences long.

My favorite book of all time is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Fantastic piece of literature.

Some of my other favorites include The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, of course, The Crucible, The Sea of Trolls series, The Heretic's Daughter, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 1984, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and when I was younger, I really enjoyed the A Series of Unfortunate Events series, so I'm still fond of those books.

I really do love reading, it's just something I hardly ever have time for.

abw1987 wrote:The last books I read were the three Hunger Games books. I was not at all fond of the whole "love triangle" that teenaged girls were raving about. But besides that, all the technology and the future dystopian dictatorship was really cool. I actually read the second and third books using the Kindle app on my phone (at the time a Droid Pro with a tiny 3" screen). I would just pull it out whenever I was in line at the airport, or laying in bed, and before I knew it, I had finished both books. It's tough to judge how fast you're reading when the pages are only 2-3 sentences long.

I've only read the first one because I heard the other two weren't anywhere as good, sadly. I love dystopian future novels, though, stuff like The Giver, Unwind, Atlas Shrugged, etc.

Heretic wrote:I've only read the first one because I heard the other two weren't anywhere as good, sadly.

I disagree with that. The first one has perhaps more novelty, but the other two morph into quite different stories than the first. It becomes much bigger than just the games.

I'm reading King Lear by Shakespeare, though is not a book, but a story.
The first book of Sherlock Holmes memories, and Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky.

abw1987 wrote:

Heretic wrote:I've only read the first one because I heard the other two weren't anywhere as good, sadly.

I disagree with that. The first one has perhaps more novelty, but the other two morph into quite different stories than the first. It becomes much bigger than just the games.

Hm, well perhaps I'll have to check them out then. I admit after all the hype I was skeptical to even read The Hunger Games, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Spent the last 6 months reading the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Excellent series, I felt really attached to the characters and interesting plot turns and twists - I'd definitely recommend it. When I told people it was by Stephen King, they asked if it was scary, but it's not, so don't hold that against it. Right now I'm reading The Wind Through the Keyhole which is part of the series, but was written a couple of months ago and takes place in the middle of the series. It's kind of hard for me to get into because it directly involve the characters and it's hard to get attached when I know the outcome. So read it in the middle I guess if you do.

An English major's dream thread, *swoon*

Currently, I'm reading a collection of essays by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels because they seem like interesting dudes. My big project, however, is to read all ~4,000 pages of the Proust epic In Search of Lost Time. I'm currently halfway through the first of 7 volumes. It's beautiful, amazingly thoughtful, and a little overwritten. It's very challenging but I'm determined to work my way through it.

zazthespaz wrote:Spent the last 6 months reading the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Excellent series, I felt really attached to the characters and interesting plot turns and twists - I'd definitely recommend it. When I told people it was by Stephen King, they asked if it was scary, but it's not, so don't hold that against it. Right now I'm reading The Wind Through the Keyhole which is part of the series, but was written a couple of months ago and takes place in the middle of the series. It's kind of hard for me to get into because it directly involve the characters and it's hard to get attached when I know the outcome. So read it in the middle I guess if you do.

You should read his Green Mile series. I think it's like 5-6 books. Pretty good.