fiction books
After mixed results with the 1st rounds I did manage to land, I recently picked up reading again to improve my writing and vocabulary for law school. It's probably been around 5 years since I read anything outside of school or work related texts, and finally taking a break from non-fiction has reignited my passion for reading.
Over the past few days I've read Brave New World and Dune, what are some others you guys would recommend?
Which book do you like the most?
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I could recommend a number of books in a number of different genres to become well-read, but for relaxation I normally go for sci-fi. Here are a few must-reads:
(As to other fiction, I'd say Gatsby, Old Man and the Sea, and Grapes of Wrath are the most seminal 'great american novels.' I've got a soft spot for HST and Kerouac, but I don't feel they've hit the same cultural chord as the former books)
Love Adam Douglas' humor. In the past weeks I read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul. Both I highly recommend for the absurdity and the expert storytelling. In the beginning, nothing makes sense and the people seem crazy. But then every little detail ties neatly together for the finale.
*Douglas Adams is the author. I do agree that the Dirk Gently series is great. I'm not sure if I'd read them before Hitchhiker though.
On the same wave of the Foundation Trilogy, the Dune book series is also absolutely killer sci-fi reading. I can't seem to recommend Foundation enough to people
You know, I am sort of against going further with the Dune series than the original book. I feel like the quality of writing falls off sharply, and it just isn't satisfying. I'm not going to disagree with the original, (It's great) but it does drag Frank Herbert down as an author in my mind.
I couldn't get into Dune.While I was reading I realized it was interesting and some of the characters were interesting to follow, but I was just slogging through most of it. It was kinda 'meh' to me most of the time.
The Martian is great
For fantasy/sc-fi I’d recommend anything by Guy Gavriel Kay, my favorite of his works is Lions of Al Rassan. A fantasy version of moorish Spain and reconquista. I also enjoyed Consider Phlebas by Iain Banks. It’s a part of much longer series but the I only read the first book.
Augustus by John Williams was a great read. It is an account of the rise of Augustus, but told through the writings and diary entries of his close friends and confidants. Maurice Druon’s Accursed Kings is great as well, George RR Martin called it the ‘original GoT.’ It’s about the Capet Dynasty of France and their downfall.
Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson is fantastic... quite long books but worth. Book 1 is The Way of Kings.
If you want cerebral thrillers, read Chess Story by Stefan Zweig and The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis. Head's up, they have themes of isolation, ptsd, and addiction but thats what makes them so good.
These are must reads...
- Chuck Palahniuk - Fight Club
- George Orwell - 1984
- Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451
- Harper Lee - To Kill A Mockingbird
- Robert Pirsig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
S. by JJ Abrams
I highly recommend Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? - Philip K. Dick
So many great recommendations to give. Here is my list:
- Foundation Trilogy (I.Asimov): Great strategic intergalactic science fiction
- No Country for Old Men (C. McCarthy): Call it a modern western but it is one of the few times the book and movie are eerily similar
- Hobbit+LOTR (Tolkien): Must read. Classic and real fun to read even in lieu of watching the movies first
- The Alchemist (Coelho): Easy read about worldly journey and understanding. Pretty existential.
- Dune (F. Herbert): Currently cutting through these books but movie coming in December. Great sci-fi series and reminds me of Foundation Trilogy a lot
Love a good fiction book every now and then
The Appeal - John Grisham
This is an amazing Fiction story about a company that was negligent and caused damage to a town/person. I don't want to spoil anything. I am not a big reader AT ALL and I could not stop turning the pages.
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Oh my
"His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.” Dubliners is amazing.
Vince Flynn
bel ami is required reading
I feel like a lot of really great scfi recs are going unsaid here, so I'll throw in my 2c:
A lot of the books being thrown out here are great (foundation, dune, hitchhikers), but they've become a bit dated.
A couple of reads that get slept on but are comfortably some of the best books I've read:
Annhiliation - Vandermeer
Borne - Vandermeer
The Three Body Problem - Cixin Liu (best book I've read in the past decade)
What was that one book we all read in high-school about those kids stranded on the island and one of them was the fat kid? Only fiction book I enjoyed tbh.
Lord of the Flies?
Yeah haha that's it
I am obviously a huge fan of anything and everything by thomas pynchon, ergo my username.
Top 3 best novels I've ever read, in order from one to three, are Don Quixote, Ulysses, and Gravity's Rainbow.
Absolute must reads: Anna Karenina - Tolstoy To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee
I'm in a similar boat. Decided to ready the 'trio of dystopia' - 1984, brave new world and Fahrenheit 451. Read the first two, reading catch 22 at the moment and ill go back to F451.
Alex Cross series were addictive in HS
Well if you're getting ready for law school, might as well read some fiction with themes that touch on "law" in some way?
- as many have already recommended, To Kill a Mocking Bird
- Kafka's The Trial
- Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment and Brothers Karamazov
- Camus' L'etranger
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