39 replies to this topic

[BeyondEarth]

Alrighty. This is kinda weird for me to post this because I really don't read that much but there are a few that I truly love!

First of all, I really like "The Davinci Code" and "Angels and Demon's" Both outstanding books! Great plot! Unexpected endings! Kept moving to keep me interested! Very good! If you havent read either of them for any reason, religious or not, I would suggest reading them! They are great.

Now my truly favorite trilogy... or at least soon to be trilogy, is the "Domain" trilogy by Steve Alten. Basically, its this huge story about the end of the world! Woohoo! Lol... But yeah. It's one of them books, like "Angels and Demons" and "The Davinci Code," where it supplies so much information you almost have to believe that its all real! Now I know fiction is fiction, and I am too lazy to look up to see if any of its true myself, but! Fiction is fun. And this trilogy gets my mind going and thinking and such. I love that. It has information bout the present, theories for the near future, and conspiracy of the world ending! Who could ask for more? The first two books are "Domain" and "Resurection" and eventually to come out is "Phobos" I am very much excited for the third book to come out, god only knows when but I am still excited!

[Dude Love Fan]

My favorite book is The Ultimate History of Video Games by Steve Kent, although it sounds nerdy I loved that book, I really learned a lot about the atari days, and about the more obscure consoles. Very informative and thanks to the quotes and anecdotes from the actual people involved it made the book a blast to read.

[WeLoveFord]

i completely agree with the davinci code/angels & demons thing. i love dan brown. i've read his other books too, digital fortress and deception point and they are both excellent as well (though not quite as good)

i'm also a sucker for children's fantasy.

[leiaah]

I don't know if anyone of you know MAEVE BINCHY. She's an Irish novelist and short story writer. I love her works to pieces!! I saw the movie Circle of Friends starring Chris O'Donnel and Minnie Driver once upon a time and I loved it. I waited for the credits to roll and discovered that it was based on a novel written by a certain Maeve Binchy. Naturally, i looked for that book and looking for it took me months. I finally got a copy from a booksale like a month later. Since then I've had more than 10 of her books in my bookshelf!

[htmlmaster]

The correct term is "What are your favorite books"
My favorite would have to be the Harry Potter series. It is hard to explain thousands of pages in a few sentances but I will do my best.

Harry Potter starts out as a 10 year old boy living with the Durselys, terrible people, on his eleventh birthday he is "rescued" by Hagrid and learns that he is a wizard, and that he survived an attack by lord Voldemort, the most powerful sorcerer for 100 years. At the end of his year at school, Harry comes face to face with Voldemort. Harry esacapes agian.

In his second year he faces a memory of Voldemort, however this memory is more powerful than he thinks, it can summon a basicisk, a giant serpant. Harry defeats the Basilisk and escapes agian.

In his third year Harry learns that his Godfather, Serius Black, was a crimminal who betrayed his parents, however it is the other way around, Black tried to stop the betrayer, but was framed for doing it.

In the fourth Book Voldemort comes back to life in full form (long story short) however no one belives Harry, with the exception of friends and teachers.

In the fifth book Serius is murdered but not in vain, everyone realizes Voldemort is back.

The sixth book comes out July 16

[RazorICE]

My favourite books are the Scarecrow series by Matthew Reilly (an Australian author), though I also enjoy his other books and any Sci-fi books by Michael Crichton (Prey, Jurassic Park are the best), as well as Stephen Baxter (Space, Evolution are the only ones I've read).

The Scarecrow series (Ice Station, Area 7, Scarecrow) are Action Thriller books that focus on a US Marine named Shane Schofield, call sign: Scarecrow. These books have probably the best action sequences I've ever read. Ever.
Here, take this for example (quote from Area 7):

Quote

It was as if the desert just came alive.
The dusty desert floor parted -- sand falling off canvas ambush covers -- and suddenly, from both sides of Hendricks, about a dozen man-sized shapes rose from the sand, sub-machine guns raised and firing.
A second later, a 9-millimetre Silvertip bullet entered Hendricks's brain from the side. The subsequent gaseous expansion of the hollow-pointed projectile caused his head to explode.
Hendricks never saw the man who killed him.
Never saw the dark team of desert wraiths take down the rest of his men with clinical, ruthless efficiency.
And he never saw them take his helicopter and fly it back toward Area 7.

And that's just one of the extremely mild scenes.

Prey is about a bunch of micro-machines that were accidently released and are causing chaos to a team of programmers in a factory in the desert in Nevada.

Jurassic Park, well, I'm sure you all know what Jurassic Park is about.

Space is about the discovery of aliens and a man's journey into the future, while Evolution is about the evolution of primates to humans, and then beyond (500 thousand years into the future).

[green fairy]

I think I have three favorite books at the moment. I can't decide witch one I like the most.. A book I just read is The Shadow Of The Wind written by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I loved the ending! I know the book tends to get pretty boring for most people after reading like half of it, but don't give up on it, I totally changed my mind after finishing it. Another book I really like is Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. You should read it even if you didn't like the movie, the book is different and much better. Another one of my favorite books, has been Angelas Ashes by Frank McCourt. Also a beautiful book. Of course there are a lot of other books I like, but I think these are my favorites. I pretty much like anything that isn't fantasy or police crime things

[ashton]

My favorite books would have to included just about anything written by Eric Jerome Dickley and Omarr Tyree, "The Coldest Winter Ever" by Sister Solijah, "A Day Late and a Dollar Short" by Terry McMullin, and A Wrinkle in Time.

[spacemonkey]

BeyondEarth, on Jun 26 2005, 07:02 PM, said:

Alrighty. This is kinda weird for me to post this because I really don't read that much but there are a few that I truly love!

First of all, I really like "The Davinci Code" and "Angels and Demon's" Both outstanding books! Great plot! Unexpected endings! Kept moving to keep me interested! Very good! If you havent read either of them for any reason, religious or not, I would suggest reading them! They are great.

I, like you, do not really like to read for entertainment. I'd rather play games or listen to music or go outside and do something physical.

However, a former teacher of mine suggested I read The Da Vinci Code a few weeks ago, and while I was reluctant to actually read for a change, I read the first few chapters and suddenly found that I simply could not put the book down. I read the entire novel in less than 2 days (which for me is quite an accomplishment).

I have yet to read "Angles and Demons" but I am looking forward to it. Although I am somewhat angry that I read The Da Vinci Code first rather than Angles and Demons, the plot in The Da Vinci Code really didn't seem to draw off the other book -- so that was a relief.

As for my other favorites, I would have to say that "A Wrinkle in Time" was an old, old favorite book of mine. I remember reading that book years ago.

Rubicon was also a good read. It was about a murder in Ancient Rome. Quite good.

Another favorite of mine is The Knights Templar. I read it a while back, perhaps a year prior to reading The Da Vinci Code. But it was really interesting, and it kept me entertained.

The aforementioned former teacher is writing a few books at the moment. They sound like they will be very interesting to read, and I am looking forward to reading his work.

[alperuzi]

My favorite series of books are probably the Foundation series from Isaac Asimov, anyone claiming to like sci-fi should read em.

Next would probably be the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy.

[ltbDee]

htmlmaster, on Jun 26 2005, 10:45 PM, said:

The correct term is "What are your favorite books" 
My favorite would have to be the Harry Potter series. It is hard to explain thousands of pages in a few sentances but I will do my best.

Harry Potter starts out as a 10 year old boy living with the Durselys, terrible people, on his eleventh birthday he is "rescued" by Hagrid and learns that he is a wizard, and that he survived an attack by lord Voldemort, the most powerful sorcerer for 100 years. At the end of his year at school, Harry comes face to face with Voldemort. Harry esacapes agian.

In his second year he faces a memory of Voldemort, however this memory is more powerful than he thinks, it can summon a basicisk, a giant serpant. Harry defeats the Basilisk and escapes agian.

In his third year Harry learns that his Godfather, Serius Black, was a crimminal who betrayed his parents, however it is the other way around, Black tried to stop the betrayer, but was framed for doing it.

In the fourth Book Voldemort comes back to life in full form (long story short) however no one belives Harry, with the exception of friends and teachers.

In the fifth book Serius is murdered    but not in vain, everyone realizes Voldemort is back.

The sixth book comes out July 16 

this is a good series, very enjoyable, but you should label your posts early on if you're going to include spoilers.

---

as for my favorites:

My favorite series would be The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis (the most famous of which is likely The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe). Good stuff and it heavily influences the Harry Potter series.

I'm also fond of Poppy Z. Brite's tales in and around Missing Mile.

My favorite books, individually, are Dodie Smith's 101 Dalmations, The Dictionary, or Poppy Z. Brite's Lost Souls.

[RazorICE]

Hmm, has anyone ever read any Stephen King books? Are they any good? I read about some of the, they all seem to incorporate alien invasions somehow

But I want to go buy some of his books, never read any of them.

[Milovoriel]

anything by Robert Harris .... which ain't much cause I think he's only written 3 books to date ....

Archangel
Fatherland
& Enigma

hurry up big guy and get another one out will ya ....

I'm quite keen on stuff by Anne Tyler and Ruth Rendall .... David Baldacci is a good holiday read ....

that said, my absolute fav author will always be JRR Tolkien .... I'm a big Middle Earth fan .... will read and re-read his works forever and a day .... the perfect diversion for a hectic life ....

[sonyguy]

alperuzi, on Jun 30 2005, 09:18 AM, said:

...the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy.

There are actually 5 books:
1. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
2. The Resteraunt at the End of the Universe
3. Life, the Universe and Everything
4. So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish
5. Mostly Harmless

And they are my favourite books/series.

I also like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon.

[whitespirit]

yeh my favs are:

harry potter books
lotr trilogy
star wars books

[squall780]

My favorite series is the series based on the CBS TV show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Max Allen Collins wrote 6 books, 2 jigsaw puzzles, the 8 board game stories, the video games, and three graphic novels. He's my favorite mystery author. I can speed through half of the book in a couple hours.

[fffanatics]

My favorites series has to be first Dune, they are the best sci fi books ever...so intense and so amazing and addiciting. Then i would have to say that my next favorite series is Harry Potter...they just are so relaxing and happy and easy to read.

[Peaktao]

YES I have heard soooooo much about the Davinci Code and Angels and Demons. They are both fantastic (as far as I know). I haven't read them myself, but several of my friends got sooooo addicted to it.

My boyfriend (Peak) read the first book too (the English version), and he loves it. Since we are now in Thailand, we have seen a Thai version of it, and another Thai version with all the photos of the place and art pieces, involved in the book-- to make it easier for some people. So i guess it's very famous here too.

[concertina226]

Wheee my favourite books

I love a lot of different fantasy book series, but I'm going to narrow it down to just a few for this post

The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling
First off would definitely be the Harry Potter series (I'm a HUGE fan of the series, collect everything you can think of to do with it etc.), but that surely needs no introduction, so let's move on.

http://www.scholastic.com/harrypotter


StarBridge
There's a really, really great author called A.C. Crispin who wrote this smashing science fiction series in the early to mid 90s called StarBridge.

StarBridge is about humans discovering that there's life beyond our star system... in the future, overpopulation causes humans to colonise other planets in our star system, but then one day in the future in a trip out in space, a spaceship of humans hears a weird radio frequency coming from a certain amount of light years away, so they follow it and come upon another star system with a whole different alien sentient species (sentient means you have your own culture, your own language, your own social order etc, so they're not considered animals or other lower life forms)

At the end of the first book, the humans discover that there are quite a few "worlds" that have been discovered and that these alien beings have joined together to trade with and learn about each other, and would love for our world to join them.

The alien beings on the snake-like world Shasisizz, where a council of aliens from the diff worlds reside, ask one of the humans if he'd like to be the principal of a school they want to set up, to train different sentient beings from diff worlds about each others' cultures and worlds, so that they'd facilitate diplomatic relations, trade and mutual technological advances for all the different planets, and they put the school on this planet belonging to Shasisizz that is out in space right in between all of the different worlds, and they name the school "StarBridge".

The successive books are all about the challenges the student diplomats face as they interact with other alien worlds - there's a lot to be learnt about how people react to different cultures and the politics of religion vs. technological advances (i.e. from thinking your the only ones out there, to discovering that there are many other sentient cultures who seem so alien to you).

Although the series is out-of-print (I got into it after a family friend's recommendation), it's still available online on Amazon and on eBay in many places. I've spent the last 3 years tracking down the rest of the books in the series, and they are really top-notch - a series no sci-fi fan can do without...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...s=books&n=14978



Song of the Lioness Quartet by Tamora Pierce

Tamora Pierce is another truly great fantasy writer who celebrates feminism in the form of brave, decisive, strong-willed female protagonists who find their place in the world by striking out alone and doing the unexpected, often disregarding rigid medieval society.

The Song of the Lioness Quartet is about a young girl named Alanna of Trebond, who dreams of becoming a knight at court in Tortall and having adventures instead of becoming a proper young Lady. She switches places with her twin brother (who wants to become a Mage) and trains as a knight, while hiding her identity till her 18th birthday when she is knighted. The quartet follows her journey from page to squire to knight and the adventures, trials and tribulations faced by a young girl who eventually discovers who she wants and is meant to be.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=books&n=507846



The Immortals Quartet by Tamora Pierce

The Immortals is about Veralidane Sarrasri (Daine), a young farm girl who has no father. When her mother and her family of animals are brutally murdered by raiders, Daine sets out by herself, journeying to the capital city Tortall to serve as a horse handler (she has an uncannying way with animals). She follows a journey too, learning to leave behind the stigma of having no father and find a place to put her magical gift to good use and help protect her country.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=books&n=507846



The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R.Tolkien

Due to the fabulous movies that were released from 2001-2003, there is no real need to introduce what these books are about, but they are truly masterpieces. The books read like the real history of our world in ancient times far before christ, a world of Men, Dwarves, Hobbits, Elves and Wizards, where magic and reality collide and the four species must come together to defend Middle Earth against the greatest evil ever known. The books are graceful, enchanting prose (although the songs can get a wee bit longwinded) - absolute must-reads!

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...343854?v=glance


Artemis Fowl Series by Eoin Colfer

The Artemis Fowl series is a hilarious, quick-witted story that is at once a detective story, a science-fiction, a comedy and a fantasy all rolled into one. The protagonist is 11-year-old Artemis Fowl, a young genius and heir to an Irish Crime Lord. Taking after his father of course, Artemis plots to increase his family's fortune by taking advantage of his discovery of the magical faerie world. His kidnap of a faerie police officer leads to a full-on battle between the humans and the faeries in a fast-paced, action-packed adventure that will keep you reading to the end. There are currently 4 books in the series and ach book gets better than the last - fantasy/sci-fi fans MUST read these books!


Well I hope you enjoyed my post... do check out these books!

[concertina226]

Ooops I forgot the link to find out about the Artemis Fowl books, here you go:

http://www.artemisfowl.co.uk

[Blue0016]

My favorite book, it would have to be the harry potter series. As explained above the book's story, it's is a pretty good book. I just finish reading the 6th book, whihc was qute good but in my opinion the 5th one was a little better. I really like hte book's storyline, the mixture of reality and magic. The cool chracters, the awsome twists, the adventure, In my view its an really awsome series. As for other books, I dont really read too many books, as i am not a huge book fan but i do like fantasy books, like dragon rider or artemis fowl.

[cigarettehips]

I always say Wuthering Heights because I love romance novels and I've always wanted to live in the nineteen century.

[spy_charly]

well the books i liked the most have been some from Tom Clancy, the story invloves you in the book so you feel as if you where there. The details are well explained and also the characters are well described, the stories come to the top when Tom send the characters to the respective mission they must complete and then explosions, shots, terrorists and all kind of really amazing stuff appears to our heroes. There are even some times i imagine the soldiers's boots running on the gound or falling with a parachute. Perhaps that's why he is hired to write game scripts.
The titles are Games of State and the other i lost but was about russia.

[LocalSeer]

My favorite series has to be Henryk Sienkiewicz's trilogy, "With Fire and Sword", "The Deluge", and "Colonel Wolodyjowski". I read them in Polish, but also read "With Fire and Sword" in english and it seemed to be equally powerfull so I think the same would hold true to the other book translations. Loosely based on 17th century history during the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. If you come across the movie for the first book don't watch it, they did a horrible job, cut out too much, but they did try to compress over a thousand pages into 2 hours.

[Kim]

My favorite series is the Thursday Next books. No one seems to have heard of it though. It's about a parallel universe where time travel and book travel is possible. Jane Eyre actually comes to live, along with Wordsworth, and other characters. There is a library where the cat in Alice the Wonderland is the chief librarian. It is hilarious, smart, and makes you want to get on your feet and do something useful.