Recommend me some books for my Christmas list

[SuperDuck]

My mom and sister are asking what I want for Christmas, and I'm not sure what to say this year. I can always use more books!

I need some recommendations from the bookworm crowd. Some of my favorite authors include Neal Stephenson, Stephen King, Steven Brust, H.P Lovecraft, Isaac Asimov, and others of that ilk. I'm a big fan of sci-fi, and some fantasy, though I'm not a fan of generic sword and sorcery.

I'm also open minded about pretty much anything, as long as it's a good book that's well-written. I don't stick with genre books, though I will admit that I'm drawn to them. I'm always a fan of compilations and collections.

Anybody have anything that they could recommend?

[T.O.Bass]

The Godhead Trilogy by James Morrow. I've read the first two, and they are brilliant.

[T.O.Bass]

That and anything by William Gibson, if you like Neal Stephenson.

[buzzbass]

Too Fat to Fish - Artie Lang

[Mark Latimour]

Everybody Poops.

It's a classic.

[T.O.Bass]

From Wikipedia (seriously, you want these books):

The Godhead Trilogy

Towing Jehovah (1994), in which the corpse of God (a two-mile long white male with a grey beard, as he has often been depicted) is discovered floating in the Atlantic Ocean. The captain of a supertanker is dispatched by the Vatican on a secret mission to tow the Divine Corpse to a tomb carved out of the Arctic ice. A group of atheist extremists plan on destroying the body, as although God is dead, his corpse proves that they were wrong and he existed at some point in time. The book was a winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.

Blameless in Abaddon (1996), in which God's body is now part of a religious theme park. A small-town magistrate, who has suffered many personal troubles, including the death of his wife and prostate cancer, decides to literally put God on trial for crimes against humanity. God's defense lawyer is a parody of C. S. Lewis. Other biblical figures including Satan and Jesus Christ appear in this book. "Abaddon" is a small fictional township in Pennsylvania and an obscure Biblical word for Hell.

The Eternal Footman (1999), in which the absence of God, save for his skull orbiting the Earth, results in a plague of death-awareness.

[Mark Latimour]

Originally Posted by T.O.Bass

From Wikipedia (seriously, you want these books):

The Godhead Trilogy

Towing Jehovah (1994), in which the corpse of God (a two-mile long white male with a grey beard, as he has often been depicted) is discovered floating in the Atlantic Ocean. The captain of a supertanker is dispatched by the Vatican on a secret mission to tow the Divine Corpse to a tomb carved out of the Arctic ice. A group of atheist extremists plan on destroying the body, as although God is dead, his corpse proves that they were wrong and he existed at some point in time. The book was a winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.

Blameless in Abaddon (1996), in which God's body is now part of a religious theme park. A small-town magistrate, who has suffered many personal troubles, including the death of his wife and prostate cancer, decides to literally put God on trial for crimes against humanity. God's defense lawyer is a parody of C. S. Lewis. Other biblical figures including Satan and Jesus Christ appear in this book. "Abaddon" is a small fictional township in Pennsylvania and an obscure Biblical word for Hell.

The Eternal Footman (1999), in which the absence of God, save for his skull orbiting the Earth, results in a plague of death-awareness.

They certainly walk the line between fantasy and "insanely stupid plots".

I would recommend "Glamorama" by Brett Easton Ellis - assumign you've already read American Pyscho.

[T.O.Bass]

Originally Posted by Mark Latimour

They certainly walk the line between fantasy and "insanely stupid plots".

Meh, you say po-tay-to, I say po-tah-to.

You say insanely stupid plots, I say brilliant speculation on the implications of a post-theistic society.

[von buck]

If you loke Asimov, then you probably read the origional Foundation Trilogy. If you like the sdci-fi stuff, but want some science fact dealing with music I'd recomend
"This is Your Brain on Music" about why we like what we like and by the same author.
(I believe it's called) The World in Six Songs" All the music in the world broken down to six types of song. Both well written and entertaining. They're on my list this Xmas for permanent copies.

Andy

[derelicte]

anything by Nabokov, Ayn Rand, or H.Murakami

[Rody]

Neil Gaiman: American Gods, Neverwhere, Stardust, Anansi Boys...

CHeers rody

[MatticusMania]

Theres always room for Vonnegut

[MatticusMania]

read Brave New World

[varunkapahi]

the music lesson by victor wooten

[Georynn]

Iain M Banks - Feersum Endjinn... A tough read, as one in every four chapters is written in phonetic shorthand...
For that matter, any of the culture books... So interesting, I'd call them "post Sci-Fi"...

A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M Miller Jr. Great story, just great...

Dune- Frank Herbert One of the best pieces of sci-fi put to paper. I have read the entire series like 15 times...

Cant go wrong with any of these... and If you can make it through A Canticle for Leibowitz without at least tearing up a little... you are a stone faced warrior...

I'll even send you copies of some of the books, as I own multiple copies... (one for reading, one for keeping in pristine condition, usually hardcover).
If you haven't ever read a comic, pickup "The Watchmen" their makin' a movie on it...

[T.O.Bass]

+1 On A Canticle for Leibowitz AWSOME

[GunslingingBird]

Originally Posted by MatticusMania

Theres always room for Vonnegut

+1,000
Vonnegut is amazing. The Sirens of Titan is the most sci-fi-y.

[hbarcat]

If you like real science fiction then you need to get yourself some Larry Niven.



Laurence van Cott Niven (born April 30, 1938 Los Angeles, California) is a US science fiction author. Perhaps his best-known work is Ringworld (1970), which received Hugo, Locus, Ditmar, and Nebula awards. His work is primarily hard science fiction, using big science concepts and theoretical physics. It also often includes elements of detective fiction and adventure stories. His fantasy includes The Magic Goes Away series, rational fantasy dealing with magic as a non-renewable resource. Niven also writes humorous stories; one series is collected in The Flight of the Horse. - Wikipedia




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Niven






Bibliography

Known Space

Ringworld

1. Ringworld (1970)
2. The Ringworld Engineers (1980)
* Guide to Larry Niven's Ringworld (1994) (with Kevin Stein)
3. The Ringworld Throne (1996)
4. Ringworld's Children (2004)

Man-Kzin anthologies

1. Man-Kzin Wars (1988)
2. Man-Kzin Wars II (1989)
3. Man-Kzin Wars III (1990)
4. Man-Kzin Wars IV (1991)
5. Man-Kzin Wars V (1992)
6. Man-Kzin Wars VI (1994)
7. Man-Kzin Wars VII (1995)
8. Man Kzin Wars VIII: Choosing Names (1998)
9. Man-Kzin Wars IX (2002)
10. Man-Kzin Wars X: The Wunder War (2003)
11. Man-Kzin Wars XI (2005)
12. Destiny's Forge (2007)
13. Man-Kzin Wars XII (2008) Expected release date.

* World of Ptavvs (1966)
* A Gift From Earth (1968)
* Neutron Star (collection) (1968)
* The Shape of Space (collection) (1969)
* Protector (1973)
* Tales of Known Space: The Universe of Larry Niven (collection) (1975)
* Three Books of Known Space (omnibus) (1989)
* The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton (fix-up novel) (1976)
* The Patchwork Girl (1980)
* World of Ptavvs / A Gift From Earth / Neutron Star (omnibus) (1991)
* Flatlander: The Collected Tales of Gil 'the Arm' Hamilton (omnibus) (1995)
* Fleet of Worlds Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner (2007)
* Juggler of Worlds Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner (2008)

With Jerry Pournelle

* Inferno (1976)
* Lucifer's Hammer (1977)
* Oath of Fealty (1982)
* Footfall (1985)

* Moties

1. The Mote in God's Eye (1974)
2. The Gripping Hand aka The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye (1993)

* Golden Road (set in the same fantasy world as The Magic Goes Away)

1. The Burning City (2000)
2. Burning Tower (2005)

* Heorot (with Steven Barnes and Jerry Pournelle)

1. The Legacy of Heorot (1987)
2. Beowulf's Children (1995 UK as The Dragons of Heorot)
3. Destiny's Road (1997) (Written alone by Niven, not really a continuation of the Heorot series. Located in the same universe and some events from the first two novels are briefly mentioned.)

Dream Park (with Steven Barnes)

1. Dream Park (1981)
2. The Barsoom Project (1989)
3. The California Voodoo Game aka The Voodoo Game (1992)

* The Descent of Anansi (1982)
* Achilles' Choice (1991)
* Saturn's Race (2001)

The State

1. A World Out of Time (1976)
2. The Integral Trees (1984)
3. The Smoke Ring (1987)

Magic Goes Away

1. The Magic Goes Away (1978)
2. The Magic May Return (1981)
3. More Magic (1984)
4. The Time of the Warlock (Greendragon Press)(1984)
* The Magic Goes Away Collection (omnibus) (2005)

Graphic novels and comics

* Death By Ecstasy: Illustrated Adaptation of the Larry Niven Novella (1991)
* Green Lantern: Ganthet's Tale (1992, DC Comics, ISBN 1-56389-026-7) (with John Byrne)
* The Magic Goes Away, graphic novel illustrated by Jan Duursema, DC Comics
* "Not Long before the End" was adapted by Doug Moench and Vicente Alcazar, and "All the Myriad Ways" by writer-artist Howard Chaykin, both for Marvel Comics' black-and-white anthology magazine Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction.

Collections

* All the Myriad Ways (1971)
* The Flight of the Horse (1973)
* Inconstant Moon (1973)
* A Hole in Space (1974)
* Convergent Series (1979)
* Niven's Laws (1984)
* Limits (1985)
* N-Space (1990)
* Playgrounds of the Mind (1991)
* Bridging the Galaxies (1993)
* Crashlander (1994)
* Scatterbrain (2003)
* Larry Niven Short Stories Volume 1 (2003)
* Larry Niven Short Stories Volume 2 (2003)
* Larry Niven Short Stories Volume 3 (2003)
* The Draco Tavern (2006)

Novels

* The Flying Sorcerers (with David Gerrold) (1971)
* Berserker Base: A Collaborative Novel (1984) (with Poul Anderson, Edward Bryant, Stephen Donaldson, Fred Saberhagen, Connie Willis and Roger Zelazny)
* Fallen Angels (1991) (with Jerry Pournelle and Michael Flynn)
* Rainbow Mars (1999)
* Building Harlequin's Moon (2005) (with Brenda Cooper)

[cdef]

Let me suggest Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men, Starmaker and Sirius.

[WickedPissah]

any of george carlin's books.