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"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig.
Very good book!
I'd have to choose:
Fiction: "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. One of the most entertaining books I've read in years. Honorable mention: "Motherless Brooklyn" by Jonathan Lethem. Read the book now, as the movie starring Edward Norton will be coming out this year (or so I hear).
My favorite non-fiction book has to be Autumn Lightning by Dave Lowry. I've always been fascinated by Samurai. As a young man Dave Lowry got the chance to learn and live the life of one first hand. It's a very poinient coming of age tale that flashes back and forth between telling the history of the Samurai, and Dave's training that made him the man he is today.
Favorite fiction book is Dracula by Bram Stoker. I love vampire stories. Not sure why. This was the first book I ever bought with my own money. I bought it because it had a cool picture of a vampire on the cover (looked kinda like Bela Lugosi). I was seven when I read it the first time. I've since read it twenty times.
Favorite short story, The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe. Poe is one of my favorite authors. I find his writing very haunting, yet strangely soothing. Perhaps I'm just weird. :D
Favorite short story, The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe. Poe is one of my favorite authors. I find his writing very haunting, yet strangely soothing. Perhaps I'm just weird. :D
Okay, then I'm weird, too. I think Poe is one of the best writers, period. Who else can inject such tenderness and emotion into such scary tales? In contrast, one of my other favourite authors is H.P. Lovecraft, whose stuff just plain scary and has little other emotional impact like Poe.
Yes, I'm cheating by having many books, but what the hey.
The "refined" sounding choice: Catch 22. I love this book. I didn't expect to because I expected it to be something along the lines of Heart of Darkness which I found horribly boring. But my lil' bro read it and said it was one of his favorites, if not his favorite book. And well, after reading it, I may just have to agree. It's about war, it's serious and sad at times, but it's also frequently very funny. Yossarian, the main character, is definitely interesting.
The guilty pleasure: The Wolf's Hour. Lots of violence, sex, and gosh darn it, WEREWOLVES! I love this book, but then again I like werewolves. The story sounds incredibly stupid, but I really enjoyed it. For those of you who are wondering what the story is... the main character is a werewolf who gets recruited for a mission during World War II. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, but I don't care. I love this book.
Favorite Fantasy Series: The Song of Ice and Fire. This would be A Game of Thrones, Clash of Kings, Storm of Swords, and upcoming A Feast of Crows (with a few more books after that). Very well written in my opinion and not like your typical fantasy series. I believe it very loosely based off of the War of the Roses in England. The "fantasy" is muted and the focus is on politics. That means there's no magicians chanting spells to zap goblins riding griffons throwing enchanted spears +5. At least, not yet. There is no obvious right or wrong side, they're all fighting for what they believe in. And things happen in it slowly ramping up. By book 3, important characters are dying left and right and so many things are happening it's pretty insane.
Favorite Sci-Fi: Ender's Game. I dunno if I have to say anything about this book since every sci-fi fan has probably read this book. I'm not that huge of a sci-fi fan and i've read it. If you haven't read it and you have any interest in Sci-Fi, check it out.
Runner up: Choke, by Chuck Palanuik (writer of Fight Club). If it weren't for the parts which reference the title, this book would be utterly incredible IMO. I liked it much more than Invisible Monsters and Survivor (2 other Palanuik books; I didn't read Fight Club which I hear is different from the movie).
Quote:
Originally Posted by phee
Non-fiction: "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer.
Oooh... yes, this WAS a good book too. I really liked it.
Edit: eh, i hate lovecraft. his stories are cool, but his writing is dry. this will probably offend some people, but i found tolkien to be the same way. his story was really cool, but i found his prose hard to get through.
I love Anne Rice's Vampire chronicles. I think the best on in the set so far is The Tale of the Body Theif. I haven't read any other vampire books but to me her vampires seem extremely realistic, like you could run into one of them in the streets of New Orleans.
Favorite Sci-Fi: Ender's Game. I dunno if I have to say anything about this book since every sci-fi fan has probably read this book. I'm not that huge of a sci-fi fan and i've read it. If you haven't read it and you have any interest in Sci-Fi, check it out.
Just gave Ender's Game to my daughter to read. What a great book!
Quote:
Originally Posted by spork
Edit: eh, i hate lovecraft. his stories are cool, but his writing is dry. this will probably offend some people, but i found tolkien to be the same way. his story was really cool, but i found his prose hard to get through.
You won't offend me. I really like Lovecraft but only when I want to be scared out of my wits. I wouldn't call him a complex writer, like Poe, by any stretch, but I love to read scary stuff. Thus, I like Lovecraft. Totally agree with the Tolkien analogy, by the way. Back in college, it took me three tries to get through The Hobbit.
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