Reading? Do people still do that?

[The Rh Factor]

Re: Reading? Do people still do that?

Your thread title is dangerously near to sacrilege.

My own suggestion, not duplicating anyone else's, would be... actually, I haven't read much sword-and-sorcery-type stuff recently. Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman are pretty good. Lois McMaster Bujold's sci-fi series, the Vorkosigan Saga, I've really been enjoying. I read some of her fantasy in the past and it was pretty good, but I have no specific reccomendation.

Philosophical Strangler and Forward the Mage, by Eric Flint. Humorous fantasy that I enjoyed a lot.

Dragon Precinct, Keith R.A. Decandido. Vaguely reminds me of Discworld in that it's medieval-ish fantasy cops, but different in tone. Not so humor-focused, as I recall. It was awhile ago.

Can't remember the titles of the books, but a woman named Hilari Bell wrote a trilogy of epic fantasy with a vaguely Indian inspiration/flavor.

Aaaand... Megan Whalen Turner, The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia. There's a fourth in the series whose title I can't remember... (Cue Wikipedia) ah, A Conspiracy of Kings. The first one is the best, and also targeted at a younger audience. (Usually, anyway.) Don't let that prejudice you, please. (EDIT: And that's ancient-Greek-flavored sword-and-arquebusier-and-divine-intervention fantasy.)

Lloyd Alexander. The Chronicles of Prydain series. Pretty good, but I haven't read it in awhile either. My suggestion would be to try it and see.

I agree with basically everything she said. Discworld is awesome. Wheel of Time and Shannara are both on roughly the same level for me-- readable, but not my favorite by far, frequently confusing. The earlier prequel... I think they're called the Word series by Terry Brooks I actually enjoyed a bit more. He's in the process of linking the two together now, and I haven't read them recently.

Never read most of those others, actually. Anne McCaffrey does more sciency fantasy. Pern is probably most your style, her and her son.

Never read Children of Hurin, but Silmarillon was... enjoyable, if not exactly something I got roaringly enthusiastic about.

We will. I promise... wellllll... depends. We'll be with you up to the twentieth book or so, then we start plotting entertaining deaths. And remember, librarians are always more accomodating than the circulation staff. They get paid more. *******s. JUST because they have master's degrees.

Don't be so quick to judge, would be my suggestion. I'm pretty close to that age range myself (20) but my humble opinion as a library circ employee and bookworm is that you're never too old for a book.

Seriously, the book I enjoyed more than any other recently was The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman. Technically a kid's book. And most people here have probably read Harry Potter, and that's targeted for a younger audience.

Dresden Files I've read and are highly enjoyable. I liked the same guy's (Jim Butcher) Codex Alera series-- epic fantasy-type-- though not as much.

* In utter amazement*... Wow, and I thought I was a bookworm. You, sir, just took the cake!!

Thanks for all the suggestions! Now that the list of books I'm looking for will circle around the entire building, in the event of my sudden disappearance, please tell the authories to check my local library. They're sure to find a bloody letter opener or something :lol:

 

[Angel]

Re: Reading? Do people still do that?

Ooh - some Tom Holt might be fun. Some of his stuff is actually quite funny (Ye Gods, Flying Dutch, Snow White and the Seven Samurai etc) - other stuff is just...not so funny. But it depends on your humour.

If you're into supernatural thrillers at all, or feel like branching out, Ted Dekker is another good author.

My dream is to have my own library...but sadly one of the children needs a bedroom so there goes that idea. Stupid selfish kids...

 

[Walker]

Re: Reading? Do people still do that?

* In utter amazement*... Wow, and I thought I was a bookworm. You, sir, just took the cake!!

Thanks for all the suggestions! Now that the list of books I'm looking for will circle around the entire building, in the event of my sudden disappearance, please tell the authories to check my local library. They're sure to find a bloody letter opener or something :lol:

God, you don't know ANYTHING about libraries, do you? The weapon of choice is the bookcart. Run 'em down with a fully loaded cart and all that's left is a bloody smear.

Ooh - some Tom Holt might be fun. Some of his stuff is actually quite funny (Ye Gods, Flying Dutch, Snow White and the Seven Samurai etc) - other stuff is just...not so funny. But it depends on your humour.

If you're into supernatural thrillers at all, or feel like branching out, Ted Dekker is another good author.

My dream is to have my own library...but sadly one of the children needs a bedroom so there goes that idea. Stupid selfish kids...

She got me to read a few of those and they were pretty good. I want to say that I read Ye Gods and Flying Dutch. Barely remember what happened in Ye Gods, but Flying Dutch I both remember and enjoyed.

A word of warning, though-- if you're a fellow Americanski, Tom Holt is oddly hard to find in some library systems. Mine didn't have a single copy, and I had to order them through our in-state ILL system. So if your branch doesn't have them, try that.

EDIT: Oh, and Angel, the solution to that is to put in the bookshelves and then make the kid sleep there. Eventually he'll get hooked. Either that, or make them share a room.

 

[Angel]

Re: Reading? Do people still do that?

Sadly, Jake's room is tiny with his crap in there and stupid British laws means that when one sibling reaches the age of 9, it is "inappropriate" for a boy and a girl to share a room

Wish at least one of my children loved reading as much as I do - Jessica can't sit still long enough and Jake just eats them. He tore up part of a very old and much-loved book of mine the other day and I nearly swung for him...:lol:

 

[Walker]

Re: Reading? Do people still do that?

... You crazy British folks. I'm scared now. (Especially since that means that I'd be breaking the law if I lived over there. My sister and I are sharing my room while we're re-flooring hers. And we're OVER NINE!)

Anywho, sounds like it's time for some board books.

 

[Angel]

Re: Reading? Do people still do that?

Board books? Are you kidding? They're like SERIOUS WEAPONS in the hands of my son. If he can't eat it, he throws it. And to make things worse, he slobbers on whatever he's about to throw first.

Maybe it's a boy thing - Jessica was never this awful with the precious written word...

 

[Walker]

Re: Reading? Do people still do that?

They also make those big, floppy plastic-y ones, don't they? And (dead serious here) padded board books? I want to say... Lucy Cousins? Writes books featuring an anthropomorphic mouse named... Maisy, ranging from board books to slightly older picture books. They're all padded, or most of her board ones that my library has.

On behalf of small, male children everywhere: go jump in a creek, also, of COURSE Jessica had an appropriate appreciation for the written word. You gave her a name that virtually GUARANTEED it, what with the fact that all children born after 1990 and named Jesse, Jessie, Jessica, Jessy, Jesenia (or somthing like that, some library patron has it) will be a huge book nerd by virtue of the overwhelming force of the Jesse who preceded them.

 

[mr man]

Re: Reading? Do people still do that?

any gud book is cool for me


apart from the most boring buk in dee galaxy eion colfer and the artemis fowl series.god there like torture :devil: there are sum buks i really like and sum i hate.i like darren shan books and i think u might HB.theres another called diary of a wimpy kid.i forgot the author though.i use to like reading but now i hav no time anymore.i do reccomend reading to all ages.but there are sum sh*t authors out there so beware.

 

[mr man]

Re: Reading? Do people still do that?

all children born after 1990 and named Jesse, Jessie, Jessica, Jessy, Jesenia (or somthing like that, some library patron has it) will be a huge book nerd by virtue of the overwhelming force of the Jesse who preceded them.i smell like poop.

omg my older sister was born 1993 and she used to be a mega big reader

 

[Nightwishes]

Re: Reading? Do people still do that?

I would recommend

The inheritance series by Christopher Paolini - it's one of my favourite fantasy series and yeah, it takes things from the lord of the rings but it's awesome ^^

Angelology by Danielle Trussoni - not so much a fantasy, dragon, warrior book but it is an amazing read (similar to Dan Brown) and VERY gripping (atleast i found it gripping )

A song of ice and fire (series) by George R.R Martin

The abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix

 

[Walker]

Re: Reading? Do people still do that?

Abhorsen is good, so is Garth Nix in general.

Inheritance, on the other hand... it's, ah, divisive. Some people love it, some people like it, some people can read it, and some people think it's utter ****.

It's... not the best series I ever read by far, but I was able to read them. The first, two anyway. Never gotten around to the third. And it takes from waaaay more than Lord of the Rings. It's incredibly, incredibly unoriginal.

 

[White_Howler]

Re: Reading? Do people still do that?

Since this seems to be the topic for this, has anyone here read the "Death Gate Cycle" series? Including the 3 books after the 4-book intro? Very good series, I read it in middle school and recently revisited it. It had been quite some time since I'd last read it so I decided to re-read it. Ahh... the memories of reading in between classes and such. Either way, I remembered why it was so good. I <3 Haplo and that's why lmao.

 

[Walker]

Re: Reading? Do people still do that?

Indeed. Death Gate and Darksword, but never managed to get into any of Weis and Hickman (or was it Hickam? Can't remember)'s other books.

Death Gate cycle was probably my favorite out of them. What was that wizard's* name? He showed up... on the plant world, I want to say. Named their... airship, was it? the Millenium Falcon, then realized that it was already taken.

But yeah, the series was a lot of fun. I haven't read it myself since... I don't know, middle school or early high school or something.

Haplo... that was the assassin in the first book? Who ended up being... ****, whoever the guys with runic-magic-tattoos are? Right? I have no idea if anything I've said here is true. I think I need to re-read those, too. Or at the very list wikipedia/tvtropes the **** out of them.

*I realize that he was technically a Sartan or something like that.

EDIT: Apparently, I conflated Alfred and Zifnab and Haplo and Hugh. Though my description matched Zifnab well enough, considering that I remembered a Z name. So maybe I didn't mess up them. Did mix up Haplo and Hugh, though. Haplo and Alfred are both awesome.

 

[The Rh Factor]

Re: Reading? Do people still do that?

I just read the Death Gate Cycle books for the first time about a year ago. I found the first book a bit hard to get into, but once I got past the first few chapters, I was hooked!! I generally like Margaret Weiss and Tracy Hickman as authors, but feel some of their books and characters lack depth -- not the case at all in this series. However, of the books they've written I think the only other ones I've read are the Dragonlance ones and the Sovreign Stone trilogy -- which were good, but not GREAT. Hopefully some of their other books are more like Death Gate... and if anyone knows of some that are, please let me know!

 

[Walker]

Re: Reading? Do people still do that?

I remember that, too. I had a hard time getting started, but really enjoyed them once I got moving.

The Darksword... trilogy, I think, was the one other of theirs that I read. It was... probably better than the one Dragonlance book I tried, not as good/worse than Death Gate.

 

[Angel]

Re: Reading? Do people still do that?

Some of the Warhammer stuff isn't too bad (most of it is crap though, IMO) but World of World of World of Fail of Warcraft books are shocking but if there's nothing better to be had, you could give them a go.

 

[Benjamin510]

Re: Reading? Do people still do that?

Have any of you tried the "Hunger Games" Trilogy? It's a pretty good series, it was the only good completely POV book that i've read.

 

[TRA Rotid]

Re: Reading? Do people still do that?

Some of the Warhammer stuff isn't too bad (most of it is crap though, IMO) but World of World of World of Fail of Warcraft books are shocking but if there's nothing better to be had, you could give them a go.

Actually Warcraft 3 had a great storyline (and WoW is based on that) so I wouldn't be surprised if there are good books about it.

However, WoW lore is so popular at the moment and many writers think they can write an awesome book out of it; even though most fail in that.

Just wanted to point it out, because Warcraft is not all about WoW.

 

[Aions]

Re: Reading? Do people still do that?

im reading the deadpool comics right now, just finished the god delusion a month ago

 

[killerequinox]

Re: Reading? Do people still do that?

If no one said it already, the Fablehaven books are amazing. It's fantasy/adventure. I refused to read it at first when my parents got it for me. I thought it was going to suck, but Brandon Mull is a genius and the series is so facinating that you will be reading long into the night, and sometimes early morning.