Assuming you meant to say Paulsen, that was an awesome book. I enjoyed it and its sequels.

Those are two of my favorite series too!

Ya, that was a typo.

I don't tend to read book sequels, something seems so convoluted to me about writing a sequel to a book. I prefer books where the actual story hasn't been resolved in the book, so another one is necessary, or ones that are simply divisions of a larger book, ie:
Harry Potter (when I was younger, haven't read it in awhile)
LotR
His Dark Materials (Awesome books, if you haven't read, some tough stuff in it though, author is willing to be very mean to his characters, even kids)

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. Look it up, you can get it for free on the interwebs. Cory is cool like that.
*Coughchickbookthatmygirlfriendisalsoobsessedwithcough*
Have you read The Puppetmasters? Only Heinlein book I've read, and it was pretty good.

King Dork - Frank Portman
Great book. Somewhat a biography of the lead singer of the Mr.T experience, but is a much better read if you think of it as fiction.

The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
I read this after watching the first season of Ghost in the Shell (where a certain line from the book is being quoted). The book follows a 16 year old boy from New York over a period of three days, after he decide to quit school. He wanders around in the city telling the reader what he thinks about almost anything he see and experience.

Starcraft Ghost: Nova, Keith R.A. DeCandido
The backstory of the main character in Starcraft Ghost. The story takes place on Tarsonis and tells how the youngest daughter of one of the mightiest families on the planet end up as a Ghost.

Necro'd, because there's absolutely no reason to make a new thread.

George Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" - recommending this makes me feel somewhat dirty, because of how popular it became after the series "Game of Thrones" - but, still, it's a fantastic series, currently spanning five books of ~1000 pages each. It's a fantasy epic, where the author doesn't play favorites, your favorite characters die off in unexpected ways, and actions have direct consequences for everyone, strong or weak. I'd recommend watching the series first if you haven't yet (it's my favorite TV series now, and I've read all five books after watching), to help you get into it. It has action, but it's also largely about politics and interactions between characters.

Brandon Sanderson's "Mistborn" trilogy - Just finished this. Three books of about ~600 pages in three days. It's amazing. It's a fantasy epic, but much shorter than Martin's work; it's much more focused. He's significantly worse at characterization than Martin, but the story itself is incredible. Every chapter is a piece of a jigsaw puzzle, but you don't understand the big picture until the last two pieces are put into place. The plot, and how all the pieces fit together at the end, and how consistent it is despite how unusually everything is set up is amazing. It's also, from book to book, at least, the most unpredictable thing I've ever read. Also highly recommended.

If you like wizards and war type medieval books, I recommend Raymond E. Feist's work. Start at the beginning with Magician: Apprentice. He's written like thirty or forty books all starting from that book. I've read most of them.

I like magic books, but this one's a little different: it's a series about a modern-day wizard living in Chicago who rents out his services for pay, consults with police on crime scenes, ect. Course, that's just his day job. At night things always tend to get crazy for the poor bastard. The first one is called Storm Front, by Jim Butcher, and there are about 13 released so far.

It's a little hefty/too literary for most people, but you might like War & Peace. Great book actually, as long as you get a good edition. Some translations from the original russian suck, apparently.

George Martin pushed me into fantasy epics. I finished the fifth book, and couldn't imagine not reading something comparably awesome for another five years, so I searched the internet for other, somewhat similar authors, and I found more than I expected. After I finish Brandon's "Elantris", I have a ton of other 'high fantasy' books I want to read - "Malazan Book of the Fallen", a ten-book series, was highly recommended, as was "Black Company", and Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series seems to be a classic (and since he died, Brandon Sanderson took over to finish the series, so I'd like to read his three books there). And then there are many less prominent but highly praised authors in the genre, such as Patrick Rothfuss, or Gene Wolfe. So, basically, I've a huge readling list of massive books - but I'll look into Feist's and Butcher's work when I get tired of my own list and want to try something different (or finish my list).

As for "War & Peace", I'd love to finish it, but it's rather intimidating, and I'm currently more interested in fantasy settings. I'll read it at some point... though I couldn't live with myself if I read a translation.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Aug 20 2011, 1:17 am by Centreri.

Copy+Pasta my Facebook list:

Men Like Gods
Walden Two
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Brave New World
Ender's Game

Anathem
The Giver
The Truth Machine
Drizzt Do'urden Series
Fahrenheit 451

Harry Potter series
Wheel of time series
Dune series
2001 Series
Orson Scott Card

R. A. Salvatore
Issac Asimov
Dan Brown
Mercedes Lackey

John Ringo writes a sci-fi series consisting of: Troy, Citadel, and The Hot Gate. the series isn't finished yet though.

I read those and I loved them. Just read them if you like Sci-fi. They build a death star! (much smaller than a moon but still... it's a space base)

I am not much of a reader, but I did quite enjoy Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. Also the book has some pretty clever artwork on the front. If you don't see it, it is a silhouette of a girl and a boy, and they touch at two points, and between those two points is a gun.
lol'd. That book is so angsty.

I also enjoyed Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut immensely.

Oh, and edit: I loved Hatchet when I was a kid!

I hate Vonnegut. Critics love him, but that's only because they have their heads so far up their asses that they can't see that what he's writing isn't really pithy, but nonsense so utterly whacked out that it somehow appears profound.

Maybe that's why I like it more? I don't know, but the story rubbed me in the best ways.

I'm still buying the Drizzt books, but I'm now utterly uninterested in the combat, which makes up 70% of the books. I just leafed through it until I saw a nice storyline-related page, then continued leafing through. Probably wouldn't recommend Salvatore anymore. There are better things out there.

I would, however, highly recommend Patrick Rothfuss's Name of the Wind and its sequel. It's very descriptive and realistic (in that the protagonist, while gifted, often simply fails where you would definitely expect him to have succeeded). It focuses on one character, his early childhood, and his experiences at the University. I'd highly recommend it - the successes and mistakes of the protagonist are really unlike any other book I've ever read. And the sequel's very good too - longer, and I grew slightly bored around the middle, but then it sped up again. It's a fantasy, realistic in a different way from ASoIaF.

YES!

The best book I have ever read was "Les Misérables" by Victor Hugo. Great book.

Three pages and only one mention of Asimov?

For shame.

Gunslinger was first book i really got into...

My first books were about penguins in their adventure in the north pole, I read it to church kids and still read for them.
My favorite comic book was a comic of the Three Kingdoms, which I loved the warfare yet the drama and philosophy behind it, because I understood it when I was around five.
The first book I ever got into in America was C.S. Lewis with his book The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, which made me get all the books in the series in 3rd grade and read them all.
Then I read Truancy and Truancy origins by Isamu Fukui, who is currently 22-24ish, and it is like watching a Matrix movie but more philosophical and... just awesome.
Patrick Robinson, Griffin, Black night, Jack Conklins biography.
Then "Backstabbing for beginners", "Steeling my men's hearts", "Wiser in Battle", "Ambush Valley"

I'm a person who wants to know about the history and experience of war by the words of people.
I get fascinated by their experience and their thoughts about the conflict, because they're the ones who relive the experience, not idiotic politics who are in the top that micromanage everything. I avoid top politician biographies because I noticed a trend where they blame everyone else for failures, ESPECIALLY Paul Bremer.