What is the best book you have ever read?

coop7 said:
Armor by John steakley, Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson, cat's cradle by Kurt vonnegut, ringworld by Larry niven, American Gods by Neil gaiman, necromancer by William Gibson, and the moon is a harsh mistress by Robert a. Heinlein.
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Our taste in literature is not dissimilar. Although, I believe you meant Neuromancer by William Gibson and I suspect you got autocorrected.

For my part I'll add A Soldier of the Great War by Mark Helprin, Looking for Jake by China Mieville and Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
 
A few I really like...
- A Prayer for Owen Meaney, by Irving (fiction)
- The Gates of the Alamo, by Harrigan (historical fiction)
- Friday Night Lights, by Bissinger (non-fiction)
 
William Shakespeare, Complete Works

Get a one volume edition with a modernized text and extensive language notes at the foot of each page.

Why "modernized text"? Elizabethan spelling, punctuation and typography are just too much to start with. Get comfortable with Shakespeare and his language, then look at the first folio if you're curious.

shakespeare_first_folio_bi_poem2.jpg


Spend an hour in a big library or a university bookstore finding an edition you like, and buy it. Read all the plays that appeal to you. Start with Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2 and if you're a fantasy fan, The Tempest. If you were forced to read one or more in high school, save those for last.
 
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This is terribly unoriginal but my favourite is still A Song of Fire and Ice series by George R.R. Martin.
 
Best, I have no idea. In the fantasy fiction area, I really loved Patrick Rothfuss's first two books and they both left me waiting for the next one.

Recently read "The Way of Kings" by Brandon Sanderson and loved it. I couldn't wait for the second book in this series and bought it within days of its release. "Words of Radiance" was excellent and between the two of them at 1000+ pages, that should keep you satisfied if you like the way Sanderson writes and you like fantasy type novels.
 
22-rimfire said:
Recently read "The Way of Kings" by Brandon Sanderson and loved it. I couldn't wait for the second book in this series and bought it within days of its release. "Words of Radiance" was excellent and between the two of them at 1000+ pages, that should keep you satisfied if you like the way Sanderson writes and you like fantasy type novels.
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Agreed. Great books, great author. Hopefully he learned from those that came before and won't bog-down this upcoming epic with an encyclopedia of characters and sub-plots. Also, hopefully he won't let it ramble on forever with no end in sight.
 
Like Robert Jordan.... :D "The Wheel of Time" by Robert Jordan is an excellent book. The series is complete now that Brandon Sanderson wrote the last three books from Jordan's notes (after his death). I left the last three books literally sit until the very last one was published. I then started the last three and was pleasantly surprised. That series bogged down at about book 6 or 7 and was only passably good until the last three.
 
Something of value by Robert Ruark. Hunter by John Hunter. Suttree by Cormac Mccarthy. Green eggs and ham - tells you everything you need to know on how to be a successful salesperson. Dune. The Deer Slayer by James Fenimore Cooper. Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson.
 
Muaddib1116 said:
I agree.
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You would :P
Another one if you like referential kind of monty-pythonish humor is the diskworld series by Terry Pratchett. Totally silly, but really well done as far as internal logic. Great for a light bit of fun, or you can really dig into it and pick out the satire.
If you want non-fiction. Read anything by Mary Roach. She's a comdey/travel writer that started doing a series of science books. Super funny stuff, and from an everyday perspective. Packing For Mars is great, everything from food to space toilets (and testing on command in the vomit comet!) Other topics are digestion, sex, death. Lots of little things where you go "what do you mean we don't know that?!" and it gives a great understanding of why primary research is important, even when people think, why would be ever need to study that?
 
stevewest said:
Something of value by Robert Ruark....
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Agree with Ruark choice.
I will go with outdoors and living in an earlier time.
I have re read these books over time. Enjoy

The Old Man and the Boy by Robert Ruark
Horse Tradin' by Ben K Green
Hell, I Was There by Elmer Keith
Man-Eaters of Kumaon by Jim Corbett
African Game Trails by Theodore Roosevelt
 
The book that changed my life over 20 years ago was Camus' The Stranger; Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground and Demons is up there too. Anything by Dostoevsky, really. Lately though, I've returned to Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and again and again (read it 5 times in the last few years and plan to write about it). Add Moby Dick and some Faulkner to the mix as well. The only other book I've spent more time with is the Iliad... in Greek and in English. I also have to mention Plato's Republic and Joyce's Ulysses... Sorry guys, I'm a professor and my love of books makes it hard to narrow things down...
 
If a series is okay, I'd go with His Dark Materials(maybe might recognize The Golden Compass?).
 
Alright, a couple of Steinbeck recs here! I agree, "Of Mice and Men" and "Sweet Thursday" as well as the prequel to "Sweet Thursday," "Cannery Row." Even "Tortilla Flat" will have you splitting at your sides laughing so hard. Steinbeck had a preternatural understanding of the American man and his condition.
 
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