Anything by Jim Butcher, esp the Dresden and Codex series, fantastic
Stephen king it
really scary
The Long Walk by SÅ‚awomir Rawicz, it's about the escape from a Siberian labour camp in 1942.
Vulcan 607 by Roland White
Even if aircraft do nothing for you.. even if yuo don't remember the Falklands Conflict.
The sheer brilliance.. the sheer scale of the job and the gut wrenching tension of a real true story, that is so exciting I physically couldn't put it down to eat..... you have to read this book.
I swear it brings goosebumps to my neck just remembering reading it .. at one point the heavy breathing started while I was reading..... and anyone who has heard me gaming, online witrh comms, knows the heavy breathing comes with immense stress . My wife has to shout at me to bring me out of the zone.
Originally Posted by Advice Trinity by Knoxville
The Dice Man (Luke Rhinehart): Bloke in 1960s America begins making decisions by the roll of a di. 6 is usually "have sex with my best mate's wife". True story, the bloke formed a cult. Also; In Search Of The Dice Man, the sequel, by his son.
Stranger in a Strange Land (Robert A Heinlein): Couple give birth on the first mission to mars, die, child raised by martians, grown-up child returns to earth; has Martian superpowers, forms cult, ****loads of hippies actually adopted the principles of communal/polysexual living set out within.
Gravity's Rainbow (Thomas Pynchon): The most beautifully written book I have ever picked up. Endless linguistic wonder; 5 pages dedicated to the exploration of a minor character's train of thought or the view from a certain place/point/time. The V2 missile, fetishism, philosophy and the most intricate yet ignorable plot ever devised.
The End of Mr. Y: Not that disimilar to the above, haha! Quantum phyics, mysticism and time travel and pretty much everything ever.
The Foundation Trilogy (Isaac Asimov): The story of 20,000 years in the rise and fall of the Galactic Empire. Wonderfully vast.
On Intelligence: A feasible, viable, astoundingly simple explanation of the cellular workings of the human brain; the formation of memory; the reason why things become duller as we age. I truly believed to my very core that the human mind was inexplicably complex until I read this book.
Absolutely. Love Ender's Game. And it stands up very well on it's own (although it does have sequels, some of which are equally good), unlike most of the stuff I read which is a series and has clearly been written as a series from day 1.
That being said... Starship Troopers - Robert A. Heinlein. If you've only ever seen the film do yourself a favour and go read the book. They're nothing alike. While I enjoy the film as a brain dead B movie action romp with budget, the book actually makes you think. And considering it was published in 1959, Heinlein foreshadows the direction that society really seems like it could go in today quite scarily well.
Out of all the sequels to it - I'd also recommend reading Ender's Shadow - for an alternative look on some of the events, and also the background to one of the characters from Ender's Game - the spin off series is also rather good.
Certainly more entertaining then "sparkly" vampires.
pollaxe (06-12-2011)
mud is more entertaining that sparkly vampires
I did read the first Necroscope book 20 years ago or so, and it was good, never did get round to the series tho.
The Zombie Survival Guide
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zombie_Survival_Guide
Because, you never know when you might need the information
iamlorro (20-12-2011)
Some good recommendations there - anyone can recommend a book for my wifes xmas present?
A Cat Called Birmingham - Chris Pascoe
Hilarious. If you have ever owned a cat, you will really appreciate this.
Some interesting selections here i generally read a book every week and i'm certainly going to try some of the ones people have listed here.
The first book i ever read from start to finish in a day was 'Small gods' by terry pratchett. Okay before anyone judges me give it a try. It's set in the discworld but you don't need to be a fan to give it a go. Its generally unrelated to any of the other books by pratchett and its simply brilliant. Its about a god who's lost all his believers bar one and as a consequence has been diminished into a lowly form of a turtle. I don't want to give too much away incase anyone decides to read it but believe me it makes you think and has quite a few moments where it had me setting the book down to have a quiet chuckle.
If you like a book that grips you and don't mind feeling extremely depressed after reading them then try the 'game of thrones' series by george r r martin. I read those a few years ago before the film adaptations and seriously felt for the characters. True they left me depressed for a week or so after them but thats the sign of good books
I have a fascination in the 'tech'/geek spying stuff that happened in world war 2, so I'd really recommend:
Operation Mincemeat - this is about how the British dumped a dead body near Spain, with faked docs which made the Germans move a whole load of troops, and made the landings in Italy much easier. There was a documentary on the beeb about it recently...
Obligatory wiki link is here
Just got Churchill's Wizards out from the local library, which has more of the same stuff, and is equally fascinating! (for me at least!)
Catch 22 - Simply a timeless classic and masterpiece of writing.
I've just bought Marcus Brigstocke's God Collar for my wife for Christmas, although obviously I can't read it before I give it to her. Can I?
Catch 22
Ender's Game
Dune
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