Expanding my book collection...

[René_Julien]

I echo the suggestion above to read Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy - and I recommend reading "The Hobbit" first. These have become true classics of fantasy, and they will not disappoint you. Definitely best read in English, as the prose and phrasing of J.R.R. Tolkien carries the flavor of the medieval literature which was the focus of his outstanding scholarship.

Another book I strongly recommend is one of the most honored in science fiction: Robert A. Heinlein's book "Stranger in a Strange Land". It has a couple of slow spots, but it was an extremely influential book in the 60's when it was first published, and it's a fantastic story.

I am really not a fan of fantasy. So that will not be a priority for me.
Thanks for the suggestion though.

I looked up Stranger in a Strange Land.
It's on my wishlist on Amazon.
That seems like my kind of novel.
If I understand correctly from reviews... there is a bit of theological aspect to it? Or religious (and philosophical and social).
Great suggestion.

 

[René_Julien]

the hard part is picking up on the colloquialisms,and idioms that an american might know,but a brit would not,or vice versa

Well that would not be such a problem.
Most Dutch speaking people are familiar with American and British phrases and sayings.
That's mostly due to our media. For example movies, nothing is dubbed, everything is subtitled. While for example French and German media dubs most shows and movies.


And actually that's the reason I want to read books in English and French now. I hope to understand the languages better.

 

[Pilgrim]

Stranger in a Strange Land is an unusual book. It's classified as science fiction, but as many of Heinlein's books do, it operates on more than one level. The story deals with religion in a way that you probably haven't thought of before...and it gives you a chance to reflect on your own beliefs. However, it's done in such a way that the story carries you along...it's not a theological book. What it IS, is a superb story with depth that deals with religion (as an important plot element) in an unconventional way and encourages you to think about things you might not have otherwise.

 

[Deluge Of Sound]

C.S. Lewis's That Hideous Strength is another great Sci-Fi book that runs a similar gamut.

 

[DudeistMonk]

Moby Dick and The Difference Engine? Wow. Two very challenging books that couldn't really be more different. Hard work, but both worth the effort. I hope you enjoy them!

+1 to the Vonnegut recommendation, excellent stuff. My favourite Vonnegut by far is "Galapagos".

If you like The Difference Engine, then you may enjoy Neuromancer/Count Zero/Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson (in fact, you may enjoy these even if you DON'T like the Difference Engine, they're much more readable).

More recommendations from my own favourites - some fairly light reading, and some more challenging, in no particular order.

H G Wells' classic sci-fi
Tolkien
Ringolevio by Emmett Grogan
Some of Neil Gaiman's stuff (for example, American Gods)
I used to read a lot of Pratchett, but got a little bored with his Discworld stuff after about ten books!
Irvine Welsh - Trainspotting is a good start. The Scottish "accent" might make this a bit tricky, though.
Tom Sharpe can be wickedly funny; try "The Throwback" or "Wilt".
Iain Banks novels, or his sci-fi as Iain M. Banks. Use of Weapons is great, but a very disturbing book.
Douglas Adams - you should read everything he ever wrote, the man was a genius.
Everybody should read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig, imo. It's a brilliant examination of so many different aspects of life.
Milkowski's biography of Jaco (quite controversial in some respects)

Some science books:
Any of Richard Dawkins' biology books, especially "Climbing Mount Improbable" or "The Ancestor's Tale" (harder work).
Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould
Black Holes and Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy by Kip Thorne (better than Hawking's stuff, in my opinion)

I got more if you want 'em!

And René - your English is excellent.

Bill we have really similar taste in Lit. Do you read electronic or paper?

For my Recommendations:

I'd add Ringworld by Larry Niven to your sci-fi list

as well as I robot and Foundation by Azimov.

Sirens of Titan is the best Kurt Vonnegut book I've read by far.

I also dig the Dawk, both "The Greatest Show on Eath" and "The God Delusion" where great reads.

A Brave New World is also essential distopian awesomeness IMO.

Ps. Jaco's biography makes behind the music look like an after school special...He really reminds me of Hunter S. Thompson at points.

 

[BassyBill]

DM, great minds think alike! I read both e-books and paper.

I like Asimov, but for some reason I prefer his short stories to his longer works. His "Nightfall" anthology was superb.

I deliberately didn't include "The God Delusion" by the way (ironically, I think burk was the first to mention that in this thread) as I think it distracts folks from what Dawkins writes best - biology books. YMMV of course. As far as exploring what religion is all about, I think Sam Harris did a better job than Dawkins did in The God Delusion with "The End of Faith" and "Letter to a Christian Nation"; both of these are essential reading on that particular subject, I think.

I agree totally on "Brave New World" and would also go for Orwell's 1984 in that dystopian category.

 

[sloasdaylight]

I read Doctor Zhivago a while ago. Interesting at the minimum.

Going back to some of the books I read in HS for my world lit classes, these stood out:
The house of the Spirits
Pedro Paramo (I think I'm the only person at my school who liked this book)
Heart of Darkness.
The Scarlett Letter is of course a classic.
Lear was really good, as was Hamlet.

I also recommend Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. Fantasy or not, they're fantastic pieces of art and literature with something for everyone.

 

[Selta]

Salvatore and Tolkien are musts at the least for your fantasy section .

 

[sloasdaylight]

Salvatore and Tolkien are musts at the least for your fantasy section .

He's really good.

Also Rene, if you're looking for a military history sort of read, check out anything by John Keegan I think is his name. Fantastic military historian.

 

[René_Julien]

Thanks sloasdaylight and Ray.
I have so many things to read first before I give the fantasy genre a shot.

Although I once read a fantasy/steampunk short story (can't for the life of me remember the title) that I liked.
It had zeppelins.
Does anyone know more of something like this?


Not that interested in military... depends on what it's about.


I really like sci-fi as mentioned before. I got that covered and have a lot of that on my wishlist.

Psychological thrillers may be nice.

Or comedic...

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

George Orwell - 1984
George Orwell - Animal Farm
Robert A. Heinlein - Starship Troopers
Stephen King - The Stand
Robert E. Howard - The Complete Chronicles of Conan
Frank Herbert - Dune series

Also, try and look in local charity shops. While amazon may have some cheap deals, I know the postage more than makes it up. Just last week, picked up 14 fiction books (a mix of paper back and hardback) and a large hardback physiology textbook, for all of £10 . Helped me fill a few holes in my stephen king and dean koontz collections, aswell as a good few others!

 

[René_Julien]

George Orwell - 1984
George Orwell - Animal Farm
Robert A. Heinlein - Starship Troopers
Stephen King - The Stand
Robert E. Howard - The Complete Chronicles of Conan
Frank Herbert - Dune series

Also, try and look in local charity shops. While amazon may have some cheap deals, I know the postage more than makes it up. Just last week, picked up 14 fiction books (a mix of paper back and hardback) and a large hardback physiology textbook, for all of £10 . Helped me fill a few holes in my stephen king and dean koontz collections, aswell as a good few others!

I read 1984 and now am reading Dune. Just awesome.
Read The Stand, did not fully liked it. I'm not really a Stephen King fan.

Definitely got to get some more Orwell.


That's a good advice on looking in charity shops... well here are more used market fairs.
Probably won't find much in English, but there are also many books by Dutch and Flemish authors I would be interested in.

 

[sloasdaylight]

While this isn't really Great literature like a lot of the other stuff that's been discussed here, I found, and find Dan Brown's novels a lot of fun to read. I read Angels and Demons in 8 hours straight through and enjoyed every minute of it.

Also something that I'm surprised no one has mentioned yet, and kind of embarrassed I didn't either, but the Ender and Bean series by Orson Scott Card. They are 8 of some of the best books I think I've ever read. Also good is his book Empire.

 

[René_Julien]

While this isn't really Great literature like a lot of the other stuff that's been discussed here, I found, and find Dan Brown's novels a lot of fun to read. I read Angels and Demons in 8 hours straight through and enjoyed every minute of it.

Also something that I'm surprised no one has mentioned yet, and kind of embarrassed I didn't either, but the Ender and Bean series by Orson Scott Card. They are 8 of some of the best books I think I've ever read. Also good is his book Empire.

I read The Davinci Code. I was glad it was over. Not my cup of tea.
It was like a detective story, which I'm not fond of.
Unless someone can suggest me a detective story that stands out.

I'll look into Ender and Bean you mentioned.
What's that about?



Also... a suggestion from me:

The last book I read where I felt sad that the story was over is "In the Shadow of the Arc" (De Arkvaarders) by Anne Provoost (Belgian writer).

It's about a time in history when people build an arc and there comes a flood.
What is awesome is that it is written from a worldly point of view, not biblical or religious at all. Very realistic.
Definitely check this out. Well worth the read.

 

[sloasdaylight]

I read The Davinci Code. I was glad it was over. Not my cup of tea.
It was like a detective story, which I'm not fond of.
Unless someone can suggest me a detective story that stands out.

I'll look into Ender and Bean you mentioned.
What's that about?



Also... a suggestion from me:

The last book I read where I felt sad that the story was over is "In the Shadow of the Arc" (De Arkvaarders) by Anne Provoost (Belgian writer).

It's about a time in history when people build an arc and there comes a flood.
What is awesome is that it is written from a worldly point of view, not biblical or religious at all. Very realistic.
Definitely check this out. Well worth the read.

I'll look into it.

The Ender series is a series of 4 books that deal with the life of a kid whose living at some point in the not terribly far off, but not so near either, future, who is recruited to become a soldier, what he does as a soldier, and his life afterward dealing with it.

The Bean series is a pseudo-spin-off dealing with the life of Enders Right hand man basically, another little kid named Bean. It's also 4 books.

It seems like a rather standard storyline, but the way Card tells it, the way he really makes you feel what the characters feel, it's really remarkable. I've read all 8 books twice through already and I'm thinking about starting it up again soon again. Absolutely brilliant writing.

 

[René_Julien]

I'll look into it.

The Ender series is a series of 4 books that deal with the life of a kid whose living at some point in the not terribly far off, but not so near either, future, who is recruited to become a soldier, what he does as a soldier, and his life afterward dealing with it.

The Bean series is a pseudo-spin-off dealing with the life of Enders Right hand man basically, another little kid named Bean. It's also 4 books.

It seems like a rather standard storyline, but the way Card tells it, the way he really makes you feel what the characters feel, it's really remarkable. I've read all 8 books twice through already and I'm thinking about starting it up again soon again. Absolutely brilliant writing.

I'm intrigued.

 

[Thor]

Here are some of my all time favorites. I left off works
mentioned already.


SciFi - I am pretty traditional when it comes to this genre. Asimov is a fave.

Heinlein:
Stranger in a Strange Land - Note that the original (edited) published manuscript and the one published by his wife (unabridged) differ significantly in length in certain sections. I
lean towards the original publication as I think it forced RAH to tighten the book up, he can meander when left to his own
devices. (As in I Will Fear No Evil.)

Additional Heinlein classics:
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
The Day After Tomorrow – this one is too good to give away the plot.


Alfred Bester
This lesser known author was the winner of the first Hugo award for The Demolished Man, a very fine book.

My favorite from him is The Stars My Destination which
is an extraordinary work given when it was published. 'It has
been described as the antecedent to cyberpunk -Wiki'

Frederic Pohl
The Space Merchants - add that to the dystopian list.
Gateway - But to where?

Olaf Stapledon - British philospher and influential writer.
Last and First Men and Sirius are terrific books.
Star Maker is a classic as well. These books are so full
of ideas you will read about 10 pages and then take a
day to digest them.

Phillip K. Dick
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Basis of Blade Runner.
The Man in the High Castle.

Ray Bradbury
Farenheit 451 - more dystopia.
The Martian Chronicles - Hugo Winner.


Harry Harrison
The Stainless Steel Rat
The Stainless Steel Rat’s Revenge
The Stainless Steel Rat Saves The World.

Great fun read. Also The Deathword Trilogy and the To The Stars trilogy are great. Harrison is a very readable writer.

C.J. Cherryh
Downbelow Station – a tight book on life among the stars.

Theodore Sturgeon
More than Human

Dan Simmons – Hyperion

Harlan Ellison – ‘Repent Harlequin’ Said the TickTock Man – Dark noir author/editor of Dangerous Visions.

John Wyndham – The Day of the Triffids – a British alien invasion classic. Great book.

A.E. van Vogt - SLAN - The Players of Null-A – The Weapon Makers. All excellent novels.

HG Wells
The Time machine
The War of the Worlds
Wells needs no introduction

Ok, let’s talk non-fiction. Keegan was mentioned. My favorite read is:
Stalingrad – Antony Beevor. Probably the best WWII book I have ever read. Read it multiple times and it never fails to impress. Beevor takes a regularly dry topic, war and battles and makes it lush and readable. Terrific book.

You mentioned you didn’t like ‘detective stories’. Too bad, you then dismiss some very good books in the genre called “Noir”.

Raymond Chandler was a remarkable author and some of his novels are true classics. I highly recommend
The Big Sleep
The Long Goodbye.

Dashiel Hammet is also on the fave Noir list:
The Maltese Falcon
The Thin Man.

Not Detective novels but true Noir. James Cain wrote three especially terrific novels in his career:
The Postman Only Rings Twice
Double Indemnity
Mildred Pierce.

Gutbusting Noir from James Ellroy. The vernacular is harder to deal with in his later books, gory stuff. Ellroy is a whack job.
The Black Dahlia – based on the famous LA murder.
LA Confidential – If you have see the movie, it follows the book very closely.

There is a trilogy from Scottish author Philip Kerr I have read multiple times and given as gifts to friends. It deals with the life and times of Berhard Gunther ‘A Stranger in a Strange Land’ in the prewar and post WWI Berlin prefecture.
Berlin Noir (consists of):
The March Violets
The Pale Criminal
The German Requiem

All usually published together. I don’t care much for his other works but these are a home run.



Edgar Allan Poe – well worth revisiting.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Universe of Sherlockiana is so large it is hard to know where to start. The Collected Works is probably the right place to start.

Big list, but some good quality there. That should take about 5years.

 

[Pilgrim]

I also recommend Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. Fantasy or not, they're fantastic pieces of art and literature with something for everyone.

I will renew my vote - you may THINK you don't like fantasy, but Tolkien is more like reading history and mythology together. He was without a doubt one of the best story-tellers of the past century.

THOR - dang, you are THE MAN when it comes to recommendations. I absolutely agree with The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - one of his very best. Personally, I also thought Glory Road was a great story, too. And Bester's The Stars My Destination is a memorable work, indeed. I first read it about age 16 and it really left an impression.

Your entire list is excellent!

I'm also going to be the one to suggest one of the few authors whose style is so distinctive that you can pick up any book he wrote, read one page, and you will know it's him: Mickey Spillane. While Hammett introduced the modern detective novel and Marlowe wrote some outstanding ones, during the 50's and 60's there was no more popular and prolific author of hard-boiled detective novels than Spillane. I consider his early works like I, The Jury, My Gun is Quick, The Big Kill and Kiss Me, Deadly to be among the best tough-guy detective novels ever written. They're not highbrow literature and they traditionally didn't get respect in literary circles, but he sold millions of novels! Spillane was awarded an Edgar Allan Poe Grand Master Award in 1995. IMO he defined an entire genre of novels. So consider him recreational reading, but when you read his books you are transported back to the 50's and 60's in the US.

A great quotation by Spillane during an interview: "I'm the most translated writer in the world, behind Lenin, Tolstoy, Gorki and Jules Verne. And they're all dead..."

 

[warwick.hoy]

I'm noticing a serious lack of Chuck Palahniuk in this thread. Not that you've said anything that would lead me to believe that you would like Palahniuk,...but he is a cleaver and witty author. Perhaps you are familiar with the film Fight Club. The film was based heavily on Palahniuks book of the same name. He is a very subversive sometimes crude and abrasive but a least vivid in his portrayals of characters, plot and scenery.

A lot of his protagonists have problems. One book has a sex addict,...another protagonist has rabies and is only referred to anecdotally in the book. Some characters have duel personalities. Either way his characters always elicit a response. In most cases you are rooting for his heroes,...in some case you loathe the protagonist,..which in my opinion is just as good (identifying and rooting for the hero is so formulaic and expected).

Enough with that. Other Books that I've enjoyed:

Me Talk Pretty One Day ~David Sedaris
Dress You Family in Denim and Corduroy ~Sedaris
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time ~Mark Haddon
The Corrections ~Jonathon Franzen (read that before Oprah put her damn stamp on it, doesn't make it any less of a good book)
Women ~Chuck Bukowski

Looking at this list I need to read some more.

I keep trying to read Jitterbug Perfume by Tim Robbins and it keeps pissing me off. I always loose interest after the first few chapters. Maybe I should try Still Life with Woodpecker 1st.

 

[Nappa]

Just take a look at this list.