Favorite books?

[Sandor Clegane]

What are some of you folks' favorite books?

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Moby Dick!

The Redwall series!

I can’t think of others right now, be back later!

 

[Toga Voorhees]

The Hobbit is probably my over-all favorite book.
The Shunned House is neat.
John Carter of Mars is fun.
The Wheel of Time is interesting, but gets repetitive in a lot of its descriptions.
The Nightsword series is a very cool take on Sci-Fi.

I probably got more, but those will do for now.

 

[The Man in Red]

The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings as a whole.
The Xanth series, by Piers Anthony.
The Redwall series, by Brian Jacques.
The Shannarra series at large, by Terry Brooks.

 

[Toga Voorhees]

Ooo, yeah! Shannara is the good shit!

 

[John Connor]

Terminator books, Mystery books and more

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Shoot, I forgot the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett.

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

Also The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

 

[Anders Nazret]

Swarmer by Todd Noy

Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson

Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky and Boris Strugatsky

Unsouled by Will Wight

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

 

[Roy Mustang]

Can't sing enough praises for the equal parts depth of thought and comedic talent in Discworld.

If you like thought out magic systems and characters with a good amount of depth, The Stormlight Archive or Mistborn Trilogies by Sanderson are also good solid fantasy.

The og Dune by frank herbert holds up impressively.

Fire upon the deep to this day holds the spot of my favorite alien species.

Tolkien's work pretty much invented modern fantasy, and while we've gotten way more inventive, you don't see many stories told with as much attention to theme and detail. Those books have the feel of a story told around a campfire and that's something special.

I also have to reserve a special spot for User Unfriendly. It's aimed at a middle-school audience, but It's stuck with me all these many years later for being a good story that isn't tied up in some epic saga. It's just a good book.

 

[Altanis]

Other books of note that I enjoy:

The Circle series by Ted Dekker
Brimstone by Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston
Weaveworld by Clive Barker
The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher

 

[King Ghidorah]

Anything Terry Pratchett ever touched is holy, but I particularly love the Guards sub-series of the Discworld novels.

The Laundry Files by Charles Stross.

Singularity Sky, also by Stross but recommended for completely different reasons.

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie, and its sequels

Neuromancer, full stop. Not everything William Gibson writes is fantastic, but that book fucks. Also, of all the near-future sci-fi I've read it seems to be the closest to what we're actually getting, so he gets prophecy points.

Curse of Chalion, by Lois McMaster Bujold. Actually, just anything she ever wrote. If you want to learn how to vividly set scene in as few words as possible, read the Vorkossigan Saga and pay attention to how she does it (Also, even if you don't care about writing technique, for the love of all you hold sacred read the Vorkossigan Saga.)

 

[Chara Dreemurr]

Raptor Red is a fairly unique book that while aimed at a younger audience is a very fun exploration of the life of a Utahraptor. It was a favorite in my youth and it's a big part of what really gave me the idea to do Ridley the way I did.
Obviously I enjoy Tolkien but would wanna make special mention of Farmer Giles of Ham, which is in my opinion Tolkien's story containing the most good old-fashioned hobbit sense, and my personal favorite of his books.
Ricky Ticki Tavi is also a wonderful story and one I enjoy quite a bit.
Twenty thousand leagues under the sea is a powerful story I often find myself coming back to.

If we're allowed to include Comics as books here...:

47 Ronin by Dark horse is an excellent retelling of a classic tale and I'd heavily recommend it. Wonderful way to understand a lot of Japanese culture.

One I enjoy, believe is extremely good, but cannot recommend to everyone is My Friend Dahmer.

It is a true crime story. It is an extremely twisted one as time goes on, mired in the sort of horror and nuance only real life can bring to a table. It is also a unique horror tale brought to life from the perspective of someone who was neither Victim, by-stander, nor killer. It's a deep, yet very grounded story about what kind of environment is required to breed a killer. It's a thought-provoking read but I can't say it's fun, nor recommend it for the squeamish. It is beautiful in it's own right, however.

 

[Arthur Morgan]

Ooh, forgot about Jules Verne. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas was very good, but I’d also recommend some of his other well-known works, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Mysterious Island and Around the World in Eighty Days (last one is pretty humorous). I also remember reading From the Earth to the Moon, it was a bit of a drag at the time I read it, maybe it would be better now that I’m older haha.

On the subject of crime/murder, I’d recommend The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. This book features like… a SUPER interesting juxtaposition between the construction and planning of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and the construction of H. H. Holmes’ (the “first modern serial killer”) “murder castle.” It’s also written fantastically well and I view Larson’s writing style as a direct inspiration to my own writing.

Anything by Larson in general, though. I haven’t read all of his works, but Isaac’s Storm (covering the 1900 Galveston, TX hurricane) and Dead Wake (about the sinking of Lusitania during World War I) were very good.

For stuff I read when I was younger and also view as greatly impacting my writing voice… Savvy by Ingrid Law and the few books that followed. The Starcatchers series by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson, a very entertaining retelling of the Peter Pan story but with some additional fantasy/science fiction/slight horror elements thrown in, but like, you know, light enough to still be geared towards younger audiences. Loved those books! Seriously, they’re freaking good.

And while I was still very much in my talking animals phase after reading Redwall: the Poppy or Dimwood Forest series by Avi. Good stuff.

 

[Toga Voorhees]

I'm listening to Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn (a trilogy by Tad Williams) right now and it's been very good to listen to. Highly recommend.