Recommended Reading

[friznit]

Neal Stephenson - Anathem

If you like this and you've not already read it you should definitely get Cryptonomicon. By far his best book.

[FatherJack]

If you like this and you've not already read it you should definitely get Cryptonomicon. By far his best book.

Definitely on my list, then. I only thing I didn't like about Anathem was that on finishing it, I thought I'd never read anything that good again.

[mrbobbins]

I bloody love Reynolds. And thank you for reminding me to get that book - last time I looked in the shop it had sold out, then I forgot to look online.

It is, as usual, AMAZING.

I really hope he writes more in the House of Suns universe

[Dr. kitteny berk]

The second didn't grab me so much, but it's certainly a good continuation of the story.

2nd book was still pretty good, until the last 3 pages. He fucking lucas'd it, the cupcake.

[Roman Totale]

It is, as usual, AMAZING.

I really hope he writes more in the House of Suns universe

Just finished it. God damn I love his work.

I wish he'd been my physics teacher at school

[shot2bits]

ive recently been reading a book called The man who mistook his wife for a hat by Oliver Sacks, its a non-fiction collection of clinical tales about people with various mental disorders.

its written as sort of a collection of short stories about patients he had worked with over the years split into 4 sections (loss, excesses, transports and the world of the simple) for the respective nature of the patients conditions such as a woman who became "disembodied" and had no feeling of her body being her own due to her proprioceptive sense disapearing, and her learning to regain controll of her motor functions with the help of her other senses. another case where a mans memory stopped in 1945 and failed to register anything long term or short after that. and obviously as the title suggests there was the man who mistook his wife for a hat who lost his ability to recognise features as a whole such as faces but could only focus in on specific details, as such he could only recognise things due to small details about them like sounds or rythms in movement or in the case of his brother a very distinct jawline .

those examples are only from the lost section and ive not fully read any of the other sections yet, i wouldnt recommend this for anyone who gets upset about people with disabilities but for anyone who is interested in gaining insight on such things then i definately recommend giving it a go

also im drunk now so sorry it werds are badly formed

[Anery]

Somebody already mentioned William Gibson but I have to add my recommendation, the guy is the godfather of cyberpunk and his books really are some kind of genius. Lots have tried to imitate him, none have come close.

Charles Stross is who I am reading at the moment, his writing tends to be pretty eclectic ranging from fantasy to science fiction to "the lovecraftian spy thriller" (the "laundry" series, funny as fuck)

[Wifeyberk]

Am a true bookworm, have over 4000 books littering various houses and rooms. I'm on a bender for Charlaine Harries at the moment, nothing like a bit of vampire porn, but they're better than the Twilight saga. Also, reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld series led to a somewhat odd purchase of an old playstation game based on the Lewton detective bit. Highly amusing, if not slightly shit, but worth the £3 anyway.

For girly girl's I'd say anything from The Notebook to the Time Travellers Wife.

Not my cup of tea though, James Patterson isn't a bad author for a bored sunny afternoon, altho i think once you've read one of his novels, you've read them all.

If you're into crime novels, and don't particularly want to get bogged down in the science of forensics then I'd try an author called J.A.Kerley. The first in his series was called The Hundredth Man. Very intriguing and if you follow the stories through the series, you learn about his "Hannibal Lecter" style brother.

James Herbert isn't too bad an author either, but the best author in the world, in my opinion ofc, is Stephen King (I'm his #1 fan- excuse pun there!)

[mrmonkfish]

but the best author in the world, in my opinion ofc, is Stephen King (I'm his #1 fan- excuse pun there!)

Have just finished reading the Dark Tower again. Totally agree with this.

I've just finished River God and Seventh Scroll by Wilbur Smith - well worth reading if you like ancient Egypt/adventure, and I'm just starting Warlock - which is the third of the trilogy. The central character Taita is one of the most brilliant constructions I've ever experienced - one of the few books that have made me cry a bit . I can't recommend the series enough.

Anything by Iain /M/ Banks is brilliant, his 'culture' novels are some of the best sci-fi I've read, and I read a lot of sci-fi. Probably start with 'The Player of Games', one of my favourites.

Anyway, back to video games.

[Wifeyberk]

ooh, I don't do these Kindle things, so ISBN? It sounds just my kind of book, so at least I can go order it from my local book store, I'd appreciate it.

I like Under the Dome by Stephen King. Also Rosemadder, I'm on my 3rd copy of that book, after too many reading sessions the first two fell apart.

[Dog Pants]

I read The Running Man recently. Enjoyable piece of dystopian fiction, although they'd never get away with the ending in this day and age. Very different from the film, too. Generally though I find King's habit of putting himself in stories as a major character offputting. I've no basis in fact for this, mind, apart from the writer in Desperation, but it's an impression that's stuck with me. That said, looking over his bibliography I see more books I like than not.

[Wifeyberk]

King is an amazing author, although in all fairness you can tend to cut at least 3 chapters of pure waffling out of his novels.

My main gripe with a book-movie thing of Kings was IT. Basically, this all seeing, all doing being that turns out to be a giant spider that they kill with a silver bullet. Someone got bored writing it me thinks.

If you do get a chance and love cheesey stuff, Pet Semetary is an ok Horror, also if u don't fancy reading the book, it's a movie.

Silver Bullet is a good oldie too. That is a movie now too if i remember rightly.

[Dog Pants]

I've never read it, but in the TV/movie adaptation of IT the spider was a huge anticlimax after Tim Curry's terrifying Pennywise.

[Joose]

Someone got bored writing it me thinks.

I'm also a fan of King, but this is something that can be said for a lot of his stories. Not all of them mind, but a lot of them just sort of...stop, as if he wasn't sure what to do to finish it properly.

[Wifeyberk]

I've never read it, but in the TV/movie adaptation of IT the spider was a huge anticlimax after Tim Curry's terrifying Pennywise.

Exactly. That being said, I do love King's work, but if he was to stop waffling for 3 chapters a book, he mightn't have this issue.

[Mr. Johnson]

The only book I ever read by king was the Shining, it had a good build-up but he completely ballsed up the ending. For me it was a rare case of the film being better than the book.
Afterwards I read the exorcist which was a very good book, but I (still) haven't seen the film so I can't compare the two.

[Wifeyberk]

If you're going to watch the Exorcist, was the uncut directors version. The other version misses out a fair few scenes that are in the book.

Books are so much better than films anyways. You get more from a book, in my opinion.

[Roman Totale]

Uncanny X-horse

Yes, it's a comic book series (or graphic novel if you want to lie to yourself).

Bit of background. X-horse was originally set up as a tougher and more aggressive spin off of the X-Men family. Leading up to the events of Messiah Complex, Cyclops had been utilising them as a black ops team, taking out the enemy before they had a chance to strike. At the conclusion of Messiah Complex is disbanded the team, or so he thought.

Lead by Wolverine and Angel/Archangel, the team also consists of Psylocke, Fantomex, and Deadpool. Similar to previous X-horse's the focus is on swift and brutal action, taking out threats before they arise. The first mission they go on is to track down and kill a recently resurrected Apocalypse, only to discover he's been brought back as a young boy. The series is underpinned by these sorts of moral dilemmas, and it isn't your straight forward hack and slash comic.

Although it has only run for 35 issues, it has been by far the best thing put out by Marvel in a long time. All of the characters are well written, and they all get equal chance to shine. Also I'm a huge Deadpool fan, and I think that this version is the best, most human, I've ever seen him written.

Highly recommended if you're in to this sort of thing (and if you are I'm guessing you may have just wasted 3 hours clicking through various super hero links on Wikipedia).

[Joose]

Uncanny X-horse is a damn good read. You have prompted me to get on with something ive meant to do for a while and stick some comic recommendations up here. I might make a new fred though, dont want to drown this one in comic stuff.

[buzzmong]

I've just finished reading the first two books of the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell.

It's pretty good sci-fi, focusing around a space fleet escaping from deep within enemy territory after a falling for a trap.
There's more than a few shades of Battlestar Galactica to it, the main protagonist has done an even longer version of what Ripley did between Alien and Aliens and a large part of the first book especially focuses on the fallout from that, but it's actually quite well written, it's got good pacing and it got a pretty good amount of characterisation going on.

Worth a read.