Late to the thread here so I'm going to end up echoing a lot of others. As opposed to what some others have said on here, I probably spend too much time reading.

 

Rothfuss is incredible. Kingkiller is not just compelling, but beautifully written and features one of the deepest fictional worlds I've ever come across.

 

Dune is another of my favorites. I need to give the prequels a try, but never seem to have the time.

 

Also a big fan of Brandon Sanderson. He does big epic fantasy with incredibly rich ecologies, cultures, magic in the background. Highly recommended for any Tolkien lovers. If not for Rothfuss, The Way of Kings series would be my favorite book in the past 20 years.

 

Recently, I got a lot of pulpy stuff for Christmas which was fun. A couple of Gotrek and Felix novels from my brother (good slasher fun I found in college), the Pathfinder series by Orson Scott Card was interesting sci-fi from my parents, if anticlimactic because the protagonists were a little overpowered, and next up is Revival by Stephen King from my sister and a book on medieval warfare and siegecraft from my parents. Before Christmas was "A Complete History of Japan" which for only about 300 pages had a lot of good stuff and was really interesting.

 

Will have to add the new Hawking book to my list because I've enjoyed all the stuff I've read from him.

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Late to the thread here so I'm going to end up echoing a lot of others. As opposed to what some others have said on here, I probably spend too much time reading.

 

Rothfuss is incredible. Kingkiller is not just compelling, but beautifully written and features one of the deepest fictional worlds I've ever come across.

 

Dune is another of my favorites. I need to give the prequels a try, but never seem to have the time.

 

Also a big fan of Brandon Sanderson. He does big epic fantasy with incredibly rich ecologies, cultures, magic in the background. Highly recommended for any Tolkien lovers. If not for Rothfuss, The Way of Kings series would be my favorite book in the past 20 years.

 

Recently, I got a lot of pulpy stuff for Christmas which was fun. A couple of Gotrek and Felix novels from my brother (good slasher fun I found in college), the Pathfinder series by Orson Scott Card was interesting sci-fi from my parents, if anticlimactic because the protagonists were a little overpowered, and next up is Revival by Stephen King from my sister and a book on medieval warfare and siegecraft from my parents. Before Christmas was "A Complete History of Japan" which for only about 300 pages had a lot of good stuff and was really interesting.

 

Will have to add the new Hawking book to my list because I've enjoyed all the stuff I've read from him.

 

I used to read a lot of Stephen King.  

 

When I was younger I used to read a lot of his Richard Backman books as well.

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King is hit or miss. IT still sticks with me decades later. The first half of the dark tower series was really good, then it dragged down. Pet Cemetary is junk. The Stand was good, not great for me. We'll see about Revival.

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King is hit or miss. IT still sticks with me decades later.

I remember watching an online book review of "It" and the guy said that it was one of the most emotional books that he's ever read. One minute reading It will make you feel scared, laugh, happy, sad, and then scared again. All in one chapter and maybe a few pages too. From what I heard the book is very long though. But a lot of people said that the book was even scarier then the made for TV movie back in the early 90's.

 

 

I'm surprised that nobody's mentioned H.P. Lovecraft and his Call of Cthulhu series. I think that while King's earlier books were scary, H.P. Lovecraft espouses a feeling of deep fear and hopelessness in the face of divine, or cosmic entities.

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It (the book) freaked me out when I read it. Freaked. Me. Out. I don't like clowns because of that book. Not even a little bit.

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I very seldom read fiction but if I do I usually enjoy reading anything by Dan Brown.  Most of my reading would be boring to most people because it is technical related (electronics, programming and network security).  Pretty much whitepapers, text books, reports, etc.

 

Edit:  I also read and analyze a lot of computer source code.

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There are 10 kinds of people in this world.  Those who understand binary and those who don't.

I very seldom read fiction but if I do I usually enjoy reading anything by Dan Brown.  Most of my reading would be boring to most people because it is technical related (electronics, programming and network security).  Pretty much whitepapers, text books, reports, etc.

 

Edit:  I also read and analyze a lot of computer source code.

I think that is interesting. But I'm probably saying that just because I'm weird like that.

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If you get me started on children's books I read to my 3-year-old we're going to be here all day.

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If you get me started on children's books I read to my 3-year-old we're going to be here all day.

 

Holy cow....some of those books are actually really hard to read because of the rhyming.  I get tongue twisted quite a bit.

 

Someone mentioned Dan Brown....all of those books are a pretty good, quick read.

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Another good author out there is Alistair Reynolds. His Science Fiction stuff is very "hard" in the sense of the technology that is in use, but those books are a very good read.

 

For those interested in Historical Fiction, you should give Stephen Pressfield a try. His "Gates of Fire" book on the Spartan stand at Thermopylae is simply an amazing read.

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I'm trying to make myself more informed and less opinionated.

Stop saying whatever stupid thing you're talking about and pay attention to all the interesting things I have to say!

I enjoyed Gates of Fire, but it kind of ruined 300 for me. I kept saying to my wife where are the 1,000 loyal soldiers of Lesbos?!

 

And fortunately my daughter isn't asking for Fox in Socks yet, but I remember from my youth that "three fleas" passage is murder.

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I enjoyed Gates of Fire, but it kind of ruined 300 for me. I kept saying to my wife where are the 1,000 loyal soldiers of Lesbos?!

 

And fortunately my daughter isn't asking for Fox in Socks yet, but I remember from my youth that "three fleas" passage is murder.

 

I was so disappointed in 300. I realize that it was an adaptation of Frank Miller's story, but I really wanted it to be a little more closer to the Spartan culture and approach. Oh well, that was just a movie.

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I'm trying to make myself more informed and less opinionated.

Stop saying whatever stupid thing you're talking about and pay attention to all the interesting things I have to say!

I figured that it would be nice and civil to have a discussion about what everyone's favorite books are, what everyone's favorite genres are, who everyone's favorite authors are, and what everyone is reading right now.

 

I'm currently reading: Lord of the Flies, and Physics of the Future by Michio Kaku. I generally prefer reading books about science fiction, the military, science, politics, business, economics, history, and anything that is educational and can offer professional help. I'm not particularly into fantasy or mystery novels, but I do enjoy reading the classics like Shakespeare, Dante, and Homer. 

 

 

I can enjoy reading pretty much anything by George Orwell and any of the science fiction greats like H.G. Wells. I also really liked Dune by Frank Herbert, as well as Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein.

 

I truly enjoyed Dean Koontz but some of his books have me to believe that he uses a ghost writer towards the end.  For example his book Fear Nothing, was a fantastic read until after the climax of the story when it seemed like a toodler had finished the book.  It was very disappointing, and broke my heart.  That was the last book I ever read of his because in my mind he went from the best writer ever to the worst.

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I enjoyed Gates of Fire, but it kind of ruined 300 for me. I kept saying to my wife where are the 1,000 loyal soldiers of Lesbos?!

 

And fortunately my daughter isn't asking for Fox in Socks yet, but I remember from my youth that "three fleas" passage is murder.

 

That book was much better than the movie.

 

I'm reading Rare Earth right now, and then I plan on starting Countdown to Zero Day that was the subject of a thread here a few weeks ago. 

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Another good author out there is Alistair Reynolds. His Science Fiction stuff is very "hard" in the sense of the technology that is in use, but those books are a very good read.

 

For those interested in Historical Fiction, you should give Stephen Pressfield a try. His "Gates of Fire" book on the Spartan stand at Thermopylae is simply an amazing read.

I do like historical fiction. Thanks for the info.

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I love 20th century war books.  Anything from WW1 to Vietnam.

 

Kurt Vonnagut is my all time favorite.  He was the greatest living American when he died.  So it goes.

 

Am I the only one ready Game of Thrones?

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I love 20th century war books.  Anything from WW1 to Vietnam.

 

Kurt Vonnagut is my all time favorite.  He was the greatest living American when he died.  So it goes.

 

Am I the only one reading Game of Thrones?

 

I've read them all, Norm. I just didn't want to come across as being rude since I started on those things back in '97.

 

A really incredible story.

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I'm trying to make myself more informed and less opinionated.

Stop saying whatever stupid thing you're talking about and pay attention to all the interesting things I have to say!

I've also read Game of Thrones, but I try not to talk about it because I get upset. The only book I've ever thrown across the room. I did it twice . . . and still finished the story. Plus I have to wait another 6 years probably to find out if "you know who" is really dead.

 

[BAD WORD REMOVED] [BAD WORD REMOVED] George [BAD WORD REMOVED] R.R. Martin

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Just read Fall River Dreams, a book about the high school basketball team from Fall River. Currently reading Basketball Junkie, the Chris Herren biography. For anybody that saw the 30 for 30 special Unguarded about Herren. I would recommend both strongly.

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