Summer Reading suggestions

I'm looking for some new books to take away on holiday. so thought I'd start a thread. if people list their favorite fiction and non fiction book.

i'll start, Fiction - Robert Tressell, "The ragged Trousered Philanthropist"

Non Fiction - Jon Grey - Straw Dogs Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals

Both really thought provoking reads.

Nice thread, wrong forum (BTS)...

My all time favourites 1984 and Keep the Aspidistra Flying, both by George Orwell, different sides of the coin.

Aww, this is terrible, my favourites are all too obvious, but here we go:
Catcher in the Rye
Metamorphosis - Kafka
The Prince - Dostoevsky

Ahh, if you've never read him, try Will Self... "Great Apes" is amazing.

reply to post by jokei


I wasn't sure what category to post this under, I'll hope the mods can move it in to the right one.

I really like will Self, thanks for the suggestion. Of course 1984 is a classic and a must read for anyone

Good start

Atlas Shrugged

In my humble opinion

Hmm, gosh, just ONE? Well, to start, I'll second those who said 1984 and Atlas Shrugged, those are great reads. When I read Atlas Shrugged, it was just around when Fannie May and those companies were going bankrupt, and so whenever I opened a newspaper or came to ATS, I saw Ayn Rand's fears coming to pass in real life.

I'm primarily a fantasy fan, as well as science fiction, and the occasional classic, plus a wide variety of nonfiction, so keep that in mind.

Fantasy:
Stephen Donaldson - Thomas Covenant series (his other works are good too, but these are his best)
JRR Tolkien - Lord of the Rings series
Raymond E Feist - Riftwar series (and basically anything other than Faerie Tale, which sucked)
Terry Brooks - Shannara series (his best), A knight of the word series, Landover series
Terry Goodkind - Sword of Truth series (he hasn't done anything else yet)
Tad Williams - Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series
Robert Jordan - Wheel of Time series (some people don't like the later ones, but almost everyone likes the first 3-4 or so)
Ursula Le Guin - Earthsea series (slightly younger audience intended, on the Harry Potter level or so, but still great for adults)
CS Lewis - Chronicles of Narnia series (also more for younger audience)
Lloyd Alexander - Prydain Chronicles (also younger audience)
Susan Cooper - The Dark is Rising series (also younger audience; the movie from a few years ago sucks, don't judge it by those)
TH White - The Once and Future King series (the definitive king arthur work, excepting Thomas Mallory himself, whom I have not read)
Robert E Howard - Conan author (mostly short stories and short novels; also, other authors have written stories about Conan, too. Two movies were done with Conan in them, Conan the Barbarian and Conan the Destroyer, but as far as I know, the plots were written decades after Howard's death. They're alright, if you like that sort of stuff)
Terry Pratchett - Discworld series (extremely funny fantasy; some made for TV movies were done of a few of his works, both live action and cartoon, that are worth seeing)

Science Fiction:
William Gibson - Neuromancer (his definitive work, also his first book), and his other stuff is mostly good, too.
Robert Sawyer - Calculating God, Flashforward (probably his others are good too, but that's all I've read so far. And he's Canadian! FTW! Actually, so is Gibson, but I think he was a draft dodger, lol, and not native)
Tad Williams - Otherland (yeah, same guy who did Memory/sorrow/Thorn; these are even better than those were)
Orson Scott Card - Ender series (his best, but most of his stuff is good, too)

Uh, and like 10000000 other books :p But that's enough for now.

"Stranger in a Strange Land" by Robert Heinlein is an interesting book. It has a neat way of viewing things.

"Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah" by Richard Bach is also pretty good. It's short too.

"A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" by Mark Twain is a hoot. It's much better than the two listed above.

Lastly, umm, I don't read much non-fiction, but I did read Nikki Sixx's "Heroine Diaries." It was very interesting, but, being a Motley fan, I'm biased.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - John Perkins

The Best Enemy Money Can Buy - Anthony Sutton

The Possibility of an Island - Michel Houellebecq

Triple Cross - Peter Lance

Sunset Song - William Grassic Gibbon (a sort of earlier, Scottish George Orwell)

The War on Truth - Nafeez Mossadeq Ahmed

Fiction
Cat's Cradle- Kurt Vonnegut
Sirens of Titan- Kurt Vonnegut
Lying Awake- Mark Salzman
Ishmael- Daniel Quinn

Non-Fiction
Nickel And Dimed- Barbara Ehrenreich
Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind- Donald Johanson

Also:
A Clockwork Orange
Bridge Over San Luis Rey
Flowers for Algernon
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
To Kill A Mockingbird

I really like Angelas Ashes by Frank McCourt. I recommend it to everyone.
Night by Elie Wiesel is good too.

Dave Eggers has a new book out called Zeitoun and it is def. worth the read!!!!!

It realy touched me and am gonna read it again....

Peace

edit:

Zeitoun tells the true, closely observed story of one New Orleans family and their experiences of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath -- a story that allows Eggers to penetrate into both the goodness of America's psyche and its darker dysfunctions. Critics too often state that a new book isn't just a story, it's "about America." In this case, Eggers has produced exactly that -- a book that's not just about America, it's as all-American as it can be, with its wide vision and its clear portrait of individual courage in the face of officially sanctioned stupidity. The irony is that it's an all-American book whose main character is Syrian.

Dave Eggers's Zeitoun delivers a Katrina story for the ages


[edit on 12/9/2009 by operation mindcrime]

I like the previous suggestions!

I'm gonna have to throw in 'The End of Mr Y' by Scarlett Thomas..

It's brilliant trippy stuff! And the cover is cool too!

I would have to suggest The Glass Castle. Its funny, witty, and at times very serious. The author puts a humor persective on a really hard life.