# Recommend a Novel



## invisible.ink (Feb 2, 2007)

The Giver by Louis Lowry(it's a children's book but if you haven't read it, you should!)
Memnoch The Devil by Anne Rice (anything by Anne Rice, for that matter)
Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Auel


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## Soma (Mar 29, 2006)

Any of the Hap and Leonard series of crime fiction by Joe R. Lansdale, such as 'Two Bear Mambo' and 'Savage Season'


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## 17545 (Feb 14, 2007)

Anything by Orson Scott Card (particularly Ender's game), or Isaac Asimov.

They're geniuses.


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## FeelingFake123 (Feb 5, 2007)

the dark tower series- stephen king

Harry potter seires - j.k rowling

and angels and demons by that guy who made the da vinci code.


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## invisible.ink (Feb 2, 2007)

FeelingFake123 said:


> and angels and demons by that guy who made the da vinci code.


Dan Brown  . I haven't read Angels and Demons but I absolutely LOVED the Da Vinci Code. I read it before I saw the movie and the movie did it absolutely no justice.


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## Dreamer (Aug 9, 2004)

The Remains of the Day, Ishiguro
The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Kundera
Love in the Time of Cholera, Marquez
To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote

Weird true crime:
A Father's Story, Lionel Dahmer
As If, Blake Morrison
John Douglas, Mindhunter and The Cases That Haunt Us

I will leave out politics and religion. NOW it's dinnertime! 8)


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## CECIL (Oct 3, 2004)

Anything by Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett.

The Magician series by Raymond E Feist.

Oh and Dune is still one of my all time favourites.


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## PPPP (Nov 26, 2006)

> Anything by Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett.


 agreed

Haruki Murakami (I just re-read Sputnik Sweetheart)

Sharyn McCrumb - Bimbos of the Death Sun 

William Gibson - Neuromancer (or anything, that's just the first one)

Connie Willis - To Say Nothing of the Dog

Neal Stephenson - Cryptonomicon


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## invisible.ink (Feb 2, 2007)

Fahrenheit 451
Brave New World
1984


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## comfortably numb (Mar 6, 2006)

1984 - George Orwell
Trainspotting and Glue - Irivine Welsh
So long and thanks for all the fish - Douglas Adam's
Junky - William S Burrough's

Lot's of other's that i cant think of right now.


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## invisible.ink (Feb 2, 2007)

I Never Promised You a Rose Garden (I forgot the author)


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## Martinelv (Aug 10, 2004)

Yeah, the Dark Tower series by King is really quite good. I normally stay away from his stuff, but that series is quite gripping.

My favourite books are, probably: Weaveworld (Clive Barker), The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck), Crime and Punishment (Dostoyevsky), The Old Man and the Sea (Hemmingway), The God Delusion (Dawkins - non-fiction).

Books that must be burned: Anything by Jane Austen or the Brontes. How I enjoyed reading about silly giggling girls getting all hot and bothered about some rake and doing absolutely nothing about it except fainting, blushing, or making obscure sexual references to horse whips and toadstools. :x Oh, and Dickens.

And Shakespeare.


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## closetome (Nov 16, 2006)

100 Years of solitude
Polar Star


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## Dreamer (Aug 9, 2004)

Martin the Bitter 8) said:


> Books that must be burned: Anything by Jane Austen or the Brontes. How I enjoyed reading about silly giggling girls getting all hot and bothered about some rake and doing absolutely nothing about it except fainting, blushing, or making obscure sexual references to horse whips and toadstools.


LOL. And of course you mentioned some greats though. Steinbeck of course. And good Lord, Shakespeare.

Of the great writers ... Henry James, absolutely.

I am "old and bitter" about contemporary fiction. It isn't as "thick and rich". Dense. Henry James is astounding as he can write a paragraph with ONE PERIOD in it.

I like the classics/"great books" I read in high school/uni. Oh and whoever said "I Never Promised You A Rose Garden" yes! I used to identify with that book when I was 15. I don't think she had schizoprhenia, I swear she had a dissociative disorder, and it was illustrated dramatically with metaphors ... how else can you bring mental illness to life? Joanne Greenberg is her real name I think, she used a pseudonym originally of Hannah Green? Not too thrilled with her other books, but that one is great enough for me.

Oh, which reminds me Graham Greene .... "The Heart of the Matter"
Ray Bradbury, C.S. Lewis, yada.

Forgot to mention. MUST READ books. Anything by Oliver Sacks, M.D. or V.S. Ramachandran, M.D. on neurology. Brilliant and fascinating.

And "The Beak of the Finch" by ? re: evolution in the Galapagos.

*For Martin*, "Under the Banner of Heaven" ... oh Krakauer! sp? Anything by him. "Under the Banner ..." is a devastating look at FUNDAMENTALIST Mormanism. Also, "Into Thin Air" about one deadly expedition up Mt. Everest sp?

Also, I enjoy Michael Crichton. I call him "Airplane Reading". I swear on flights across the country, East to West ... I've done enough that I think I've read most of his books. Andromeda Strain to Jurassic Park. Some John Grisham too. Sort of fun distraction.

These days, prefer non-fiction to be honest. Still love classic poetry.


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## sebastian (Aug 11, 2004)

Martinelv said:


> Books that must be burned: Anything by Jane Austen or the Brontes. How I enjoyed reading about silly giggling girls getting all hot and bothered about some rake and doing absolutely nothing about it except fainting, blushing, or making obscure sexual references to horse whips and toadstools.


 :lol: :lol:



Martinelv said:


> And Shakespeare.


Surely you jest.

Dreamer, did you see Michael Crichton on Charlie Rose? That guy sounds like a complete dolt. I've never read one of his fictional books but his opinions on climate change and what "real science" is are about as fictional as I can imagine, so I don't think I'll be indulging in any of his dinosaur books anytime soon.

Anyway, I have nothing to recommend right now.

s.


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## invisible.ink (Feb 2, 2007)

Dreamer said:


> Martin the Bitter 8) said:
> 
> 
> > I like the classics/"great books" I read in high school/uni. Oh and whoever said "I Never Promised You A Rose Garden" yes! I used to identify with that book when I was 15. I don't think she had schizoprhenia, I swear she had a dissociative disorder, and it was illustrated dramatically with metaphors ... how else can you bring mental illness to life? Joanne Greenberg is her real name I think, she used a pseudonym originally of Hannah Green? Not too thrilled with her other books, but that one is great enough for me.
> ...


That was me. I read "I Never Promised You A Rose Garden" my freshman year of high school. I loved it.


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## Homeskooled (Aug 10, 2004)

Oh come now Martin, you dont like Dickens? Dont you think that Hard Times and Oliver Twist paint rosy pictures of England and English family life? Unfortunately, I think these books colored my view of England from a young age, as my parents collected classical anthologies and I was a very, very voracious reader from about the age of 7. I digested the whole Dickens anthology pretty early, and I do have to admit, however, that I like Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities.

Favorites? The Sherlock Holmes Anthology. Treasure Island. Ah, I love the romance in this swashbuckling epic - The Prisoner of Zenda. King Solomon's Mines. The very rare sequels to these (I used to love to hunt down and collect rare books) - Rupert of Hentzau, sequel to Prisoner of Zenda, and Alan Quartermain, sequel to Solomon's Mines. Tom Sawyer, Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer Detective. Huckleberry Finn. ( I was always trying to hunt down the never-completed Tom Sawyer among the Indians, but never could. Its published very rarely by University Presses). The Guiness book of world records. I used to pore over (and memorize!) that book for hours when I was 9! An old favorite of mine when I was young was also The Phantom Tollbooth.

Great true stories - With God in Russia, the auotbiography of a priest defiantly sent to the gulag in Siberia. The Hot Zone, a true thriller about Ebola that , I thought, put Crichton to shame.

I'm not sure what else - I agree with Martin wholeheartedly about Jane Austen and Bronte....my sister used to read their books and I absolutely detest them. The best way that I can describe them is that they went nowhere, incredibly quickly.....I really dont understand the fascination with them, actually, even for women. There are romances that are 10 times more interesting written by even Charles Dickens. Great Expectations (which I didnt care for) is a better romance then Bronte could write. Wait - I know - Little Women. There. Thats a "woman's" book that I can agree is interesting and well written, albeit soap-operatic, and almost lives up to the hype. For my money, the best of that is actually the Anne of Green Gables series. I shamelessly read and devoured these around the same time I devoured Tolkien's work, and I had a bit of a crush on Megan Follows when I saw Anne of Avonlea. Yes, I know - I'm a sentimentalist.

I have never been a follower of Shakepeare. I find his verse so pretentious that it borders on absurdly abstract. I DO think that the themes of his works themselves have merit. And quotes from Shakespeare sometimes even carry truth in them (which is why I think they are quoted so much, almost as though the quotes themselves carry moral authority). But I think the statement that there is truth in them probably equally applies to less stuffy works. The Twelfth Night, in a rendition by my local theatre troupe, I thought was hilarious, and perhaps his most clever work, although Mel Gibson's performance of Hamlet was very brilliant, and illuminated the material more for me. I'm afraid that I dont know that I am "cultured" in a classical sense, and I'm certainly not "fashionably academic" even, in my tastes. Growing up, my intellect simply gravitated towards what it likes. I know that I'm "supposed" to like Shakespeare and be able to speak of Dostoyevsky in-depth - but these just werent my cup of tea. Although the monks are consistently telling me I have to read The Brothers Karimosov? (I have no idea if this is correct), and I plan on it. Some of the best books I ever read, however, I will maintain were in the series Choose Your Own Adventure.....:wink:

Peace
Homeskooled


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## turnIntoearth (Feb 26, 2007)

Already some great ones mentioned, I will add:

Anything by *Herman Melville*, *William Faulkner*, or *Hermann Hesse
*
_Stranger in a Strange Land_ by *Robert A. Heinlein*
_
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest_ by *Ken Kesey*


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## sebastian (Aug 11, 2004)

HS,

I find it interesting and...well...I hate to use the word, but almost "cute" that you like all those swashbuckling epics.

I think the thing with Shakespeare is that one has to have an understanding of the vernacular it's written in. And so, unfortunately, one has to be familiar with his work before you actually watch a play. That's another thing...Shakespeare is meant to be watched. Not read. I'm no expert on Shakespeare or anything like that, but I found that once I started rereading some of his plays and then seeing them on the stage, knowing full well what was happening at all times, I enjoyed them much more and could appreciate their full grandeur.

Also, I've always wanted to read The Brothers Karamazov as well. It's quite daunting though. I've read a lot of other Dostoevsky and, while I wouldn't call myself a huge fan, I do think he weaves a good story, if you like the heavy stuff. But you really have to be in the mood for it. "The Devils", for example, is a good book if you're wide awake and have about a week to dedicate to it. But it's definitely not a "bedside book". Actually, HS, I'm reading a book called "Judgement Day" right now which was recommended to me, that you'd probably like. It's written by James F. David. I've only just started it but it seems like some good ol' wholesome apocolyptic fun.

s.


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## Martinelv (Aug 10, 2004)

> I think the thing with Shakespeare is that one has to have an understanding of the vernacular it's written in.


Yes, this is the point I was too cowardly to make. I just don't understand it. I do agree that the themes behind 'some' of his works are terrific, and I loved the Tempest and Midsummer's night dream.

As to Dicken's Home's, no, I ain't kidding. I can't stand the stuff. Far too dreary, on the whole, for my liking, and far, far too many adjectives for me to hold in my head what he's trying to say.


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## monnolith (Feb 21, 2007)

Choice picks (in no particular order):

- 1984
- Neuromancer
- Cryptonomicon
- Machiavelli's The Prince (non-fiction)
- How to Win Friends and Influence People (non-fiction)
- Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (non-fiction)
- The Hiram Key (non-fiction)
- Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (non-fiction)
- Hunting Humans (non-fiction)
- The Last Canadian
- What Should I Do with my Life (non-fiction)
- Lucifer's Hammer
- True Wealth (non-fiction)
- Haunted, by Chuck Palahniuk --> for all you "nothing shocks me" people
- American Psycho
- Starship Troopers
- The World as I See It (non-fiction)
- Legion
- The da Vinci Code
- The Hellbound Heart
- Who In Hell... (highly recommended!)

I'm sure I'll come up with others. If you want any more info on the above list, or why I like/recommend them, PM me.


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## g-funk (Aug 20, 2004)

Spares - Michael Marshall Smith

We need to talk about Kevin - Lionel Shriver

The Perks of being a Wallflower - Stephen Chbosky

The Mind Game - Hector McDonald

The Cement Garden/Comfort of Strangers - Ian McEwan

Kingdom of Carbonel - Barbara Sleigh


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## Rozanne (Feb 24, 2006)

I've always prefered non-fiction to fiction, both in film and books.

The last thing I considered buying was the best atlas I could find. The Phillips Universal Atlas of the World. I'm crazy.


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## Guest (Mar 10, 2007)

I to prefer non fiction over fiction, I would estimate I have read 50 books
over the last couple of years and only one of them was non fiction.
As for television, I hate it, again I usually hire a non fictional doco.
However, there is one exception to the rule and that's "Family guy" :lol:

Give me music any day.

Greg


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## Guest (Mar 10, 2007)

I find it so hard to read... tis unfair... yet... such is life =)


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## Dreamer (Aug 9, 2004)

Sebastian said:


> Shakespeare is meant to be watched. Not read.


I should clarify from the cheap thespian seats that Shakespeare is meant to be *performed* and not necessarily in a bad English accent. I have been in quite a few plays and have worked behind the scenes in many others.

To act in a Shakespearean play or for that matter a "period piece" like "La Ronde" or a Passion Play, a Greek Classic (Aescylus sp?, Euripides sp!?), you have to understand exactly what's going on or your DEAD. Or even if you perform Ibsen, etc, you must understand exactly what the Hell is going on, and you can't "fake" your lines.

All the backstory is a months work before you block it.

One day, someone will watch any number of "comedies" or "tragedies" produced today and will wonder, WTHell is that about? But it is still about a good story and good entertainment.

One of the most horrifying night of my life was when I was in "Taming of the Shrew" -- I had a boy part as I had my hair short and looked like a boy (Tranio, servant to Lucentio) LOL, but I got to hang out with the cute guys ... anyway... in a key scene, someone dropped 2 pages or so of lines.

Well, the DP/DR came down like a curtain. Fortunately Lucentio and I were hidden behind some bushes. It was really up to him to get us out of this one. Once you understand the language you STILL can't ad lib it. I swear I literally almost blacked out. (This is why I do not act as my profession, LOL).

At any rate, when the smoke cleared, someone steered us back another few pages and got us back on track. That was my dear friend Howard H. bless 'im, a genius. "Are we all met?" -- a simple line. And somehow we were spared humiliation beyond belief.

That proved to me that unexpected situations, "novelty", could whap me with DP out of nowhere.

Yes, thespians unite! Who said this?

"But, that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison house,
I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul, freeze thy young blood,
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their
spheres,
Thy knotted and comined locks to part
And each particular hair to stand an end
Like the quills of the fretful porpentine!"

It is extremely serious, and yet absolutely hilarious at the same time. (I should say that particular section of lines. If you read it carefully it's very simple.) 

Here's the thing, I've never been able to read "Finnegan's Wake", required reading. Can't get past the first page.

Also, I enjoy Chricton sp? when I can't think, as I said if I'm on a plane. Never seen him in person. I said he is "airport reading." The book Jurassic Park is a billion times better and far more foreboding than the film. And I loved the Andromeda Strain ... a very old book of his.

"We are such stuff as dreams are made on,
And our little lives are 'rounded with a sleep."

Cheers,
D


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## Dreamer (Aug 9, 2004)

But again, I too prefer non-fiction these days. I think it's critical to appreciate literature however as it is frequently referenced in every day life, and the same themes show up, endlessly.

Again, I miss school. I miss my younger years.


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## Dreamer (Aug 9, 2004)

*For Martin and Sebastian*

*ARTIST: Cole Porter
TITLE: Brush Up Your Shakespeare*

The girls today in society go for classical poetry
So to win their hearts one must quote with ease
Aeschylus and Euripides
One must know Homer, and believe me, Beau
Sophocles, also Sappho-ho
Unless you know Shelley and Keats and Pope
Dainty Debbies will call you a dope .........

But the poet of them all
Who will start 'em simply ravin'
Is the poet people call
The Bard of Stratford on Avon

*{Refrain}
Brush up your Shakespeare
Start quoting him now
Brush up your Shakespeare
And the women you will wow*

Just declaim a few lines from Othella
And they'll think you're a hell of a fella
If your blonde won't respond when you flatter 'er
Tell her what Tony told Cleopatterer

*Seb, If she fights when her clothes you are mussing
What are clothes? Much ado about nussing*
Brush up your Shakespeare
And they'll all kow-tow

*{Refrain}*

*Martin -- the wife of the British ambessida
Try a crack out of Troilus and Cressida
If she says she won't buy it or tike it
Make her tike it, what's more As You Like It*

*Dudes, if she says your behavior is heinous
Kick her right in the Coriolanus*
Brush up your Shakespeare
And they'll all kow-tow

*{Refrain}*

*Seb, if you can't be a ham and do Hamlet
They will not give a damn or a damlet
Just recite an occasional sonnet
And your lap'll have honey upon it*

*When your baby is pleading for pleasure
Let her sample your Measure for Measure*
Brush up your Shakespeare
And they'll all kow-tow - Forsooth
And they'll all kow-tow - I' faith
And they'll all kow-tow

*{Refrain}*

*Martin, mention "The Merchant Of Venice"
When her sweet pound o' flesh you would menace
If her virtue, at first, she defends---well
Just remind her that "All's Well That Ends Well"*

And if still she won't give you a bonus
You know what Venus got from Adonis
Brush up your Shakespeare
And they'll all kow-tow - Thinkst thou?
And they'll all kow-tow - Odds bodkins
And they'll all kow-tow

*{Refrain}*

If your goil is a Washington Heights dream
Treat the kid to "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
If she then wants an all-by-herself night
Let her rest ev'ry 'leventh or "Twelfth Night"

If because of your heat she gets huffy
Simply play on and "Lay on, Macduffy!"
Brush up your Shakespeare
And they'll all kow-tow - Forsooth
And they'll all kow-tow - Thinkst thou?
And they'll all kow-tow - We trou'
And they'll all kow-tow

PS:
I recommend Joseph Heller's sp? "Catch 22"
Can't spell today, sorry.
Part of the problem with Shakespeare is it's in one of those million Brit dialects one can't understand anyway. I can barely tike this song for the dialect! :evil:


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