I did a little search and found no book thread so I thought I'd start one.

What are you reading currently(if anything)?

Favorite Author?

Favorite Book?

General literature discussion.

I just ordered A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs because of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8xblwyKtfo&feature=related for it.

I couldn't really tell you a favorite book, but my favorite author is Stephen King.

I'm currently reading The Art of Intrusion by Kevin Mitnick. I read the first chapter like a week ago and haven't read any since, but I'll probably read another couple chapters before I have to return it to the library.
My favorite book was 1984 by Orwell just because it was the first book I'd ever read that wasn't nonsensical or fantastic fiction and wasn't non-fiction. It really made me enjoy reading, as I'd never had a successful encounter with a book - outside school - before then. I still hardly read books I pick up because they bore me, where with 1984 I was gripped for hours.
On a side note, I used to pretend to read the book Holes. I have never actually read the book from beginning to end, but I used to proclaim I'd read it four times.

There've actually been a lot of lit threads recently, but I think an official one is a good idea.

I've just finished R. Scott Bakker's Warrior Prophet (book 2 in Prince of Nothing), and, by Sejenus, it was great. I wasn't a huge fan of the first one - too much philosophical introspection, not enough stuff happening, far too many creepy demon boners. Second book fixed everything (except the demon boners), and introduced epic battles, epic sorcery, and more wonderful world building, theology, and philosophy. The ending was nothing short of amazing. It's great in and of itself, but once you look into it and realize how it is subverting mythology and what the titular character is really doing to those around him, it becomes even better. If you like fantasy, and you're a mature reader, I recommend it. Especially if you're a fan of MK and his works.

I'll be reading the conclusion to the trilogy, The Thousandfold Thought, next.

Also finished up Deadhouse Gates (book 2 of Malazan Book of the Fallen) a few days back. Some books are written to tell a story, others to explore a character, others still to build a world. Malazan is written to stuff everything epic into one book and connect it with more epic (and, occasionally, soulcrushingly sad). Its infinitely stronger than Gardens of the Moon, but it still somehow didn't manage to grab hold of my attention. I enjoyed it, but I don't feel a particular need to continue with the series for some reason.

Favorite author and books: George R.R. Martin (Song of Ice and Fire), J. R. R. Tolkien (Silmarillion), Joseph Campbell (Hero with a Thousand Faces).

I've just begun The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky again (my third time). It's a massive, many-layered book and I find new depths in it each time I read it. My previous book was The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence. My first time with that book and I was very impressed by it. The only other Lawrence I'd read prior to The Rainbow was Women In Love and that book alternately annoyed and fascinated me. Before that, The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Dorian Gray is an odd book. It is snarkily humorous in its first half, then it changes tone and becomes a kind of cheap horror novel.

I don't think I am able to pick a favorite author. My favorite anything tends to shift on a week-to-week or month-to-month basis. Some of my consistent favorites are James Joyce, Edith Wharton, Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, William S. Burroughs, William Faulkner.

Some of my favorite books are To The Lighthouse, Middlemarch, Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Tristram Shandy, Ulysses, The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, Naked Lunch, Last Exit to Brooklyn and Journey to the End of the Night.

I'm currently reading Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E. Lawrence and The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. I don't have a favorite author or book as I tend to just jump around a lot and read whatever interests me and never really thought about any favorites.

I'm not really a hard core fan of fiction, preferring non-fiction that concern my hobbies...and the history of things, particularly concerning the history and practice of letterpress printing since the time of Gutenberg. I am pretty hard core into that.
I have read the usual suspects considered classics such as "The Lord of the Rings", "1984", "The Tales of Narnia"...etc. Even the Penguin edition of "The Canterbury Tales".
Then I went through a phase of reading true crime type stuff, "Helter Skelter", "The Michigan Murders", that type stuff....
I have enjoyed several Clive Cussler books, and I really appreciate how he uses his real life knowledge of machinery and hardware of all sorts in the telling of the adventures of Dirk Pitt...
One book I really enjoyed was "The Lion of Ireland" by Morgan Llywelyn...the seemingly historically accurate, fictional telling of Brian Boru, the 11th century king of Ireland. I found that to be very enjoyable and exceedingly well written.

But honestly, it's been a long time since I've set down with a book of fiction.

I enjoy the titles:

A Tale of Two Cities
Great Expectations
Memoirs of a Geisha

They're all great books

Has anyone here read The Hunger Games? The movie is looking kind of cool so I thought'd I'd read the books.




This thread lives!

What are you reading currently(if anything)?
The world according to Clarkson book 4.

Favorite Author?
John Green, hes amazing.

Favorite Book?
I don't know really. Its too hard to choose.

@Cowboy run-with-wolves

The Hunger Games books are amazing. Buy or loan at least the first one because I read it and got insanely addicted.

I have a similar question, I watched the HBO series Game Of thrones and was wondering if I should read the books. The thing is I don't want to get them if I don't like his writing style. I mean I started to read Slaughter House V and returned it to the library the next day because I just hated the writing style. So if someone could describe it or provide a link to a sample that would be great.

No way, I just returned that to the library. So weird.
I'm reading The Value of Nothing by Raj Patel. It's excellent! Anyone interested in economics should give it a read.

I'm readingAtlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

Whaaaaa.

Steinbeck is one of my favorites. Especially Cannery Row.

I'm currently re-reading Eragon(don't you dare judge it by that crappy movie).
My favourite author is definitely Sir Terry Pratchett. Runner-ups are Douglas Adams and Neil Gaiman.
My favourite books: The Discworld series(especially Thud, Nightwatch and Hogfather), American Gods, The Inheritance series, the Darth Bane trilogy(there as good, if not better, then the original trilogy), The Eyes of the Dragon, Orcs, Good Omens, Starcraft Ghost: Nova

Look at my signature if you want to see one of many examples of why Sir Terry Pratchett is the greatest living fantasy writer.

I've just finished reading a few short stories by Philip K. dike, they're all in the same book, the next is called "What the Dead Men Say" - they've all been pretty good so far, "Minority Report", "Imposter", "Second Variety", "War Game", I saw the twists coming in most, but then again I read a lot by the man. "Imposter", although incredibly short (20 pages) was really good, and so was "Second Variety".

Before that I read "The Shrinking Man" by Richard Matheson, and although it can be drab in parts, it is a very good read.

Favorite authors: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_Mishima, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell.
Favorite books: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Temple_of_the_Golden_Pavilion, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fires_on_the_Plain, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forever_War, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warday, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Terminal_Man, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unknown_Soldier_(novel), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Quiet_on_the_Western_Front, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Androids_Dream_of_Electric_Sheep%3F...
^Basically my favorite books deal with human psychology, pushing limits of sanity, difference, death and value of life.

Currently reading Neuromancer by William Gibson, going for Brave New World after that.

After having finished Dante's Inferno, which was quite a bit of work, I decided to move on to the Iliad. While it's only 250ish pages, it is ridiculously hard to read at points. It's almost as if every other word is a name that requires explanation. Fun to read though. Can't say I've read enough by one author to really have a favourite author. I liked the inheritance series though by Christopher Paolini, and the Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer was pretty good too.

Piers Anthony's Xanth books.


So many puns

Favorite author: George Orwell

Favorite book: The Sound and the Fury

Currently reading: The Sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway

:read:

Also, I just finished The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde). Wilde only wrote one novel; everyone should definitely read it.