| 22 AUG 2009 at 3:12am |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | I'v seen a lovely hard back set of Narnia for $175 from my local books shop. I was tempted but my falling apart at the seams paperback set was an Easter gift from a boyfriend when I was 14 so loyalty won. The shop was at Mitcham Shopping Centre on Belair Rd. ymocks had a set but they were paperback for $140.
All the illustrations are the same as in my set from the 1970s, which is to say - lovely.
Narnia is definitely up there on my list of favourite books. I've read them at least 5 times.
Also, the Discworld books - all of them. And Agatha Christie books - I own all of hers and have started collecting the DVDs.
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| 22 AUG 2009 at 3:16am |
ArkadiaPrivate Detective
Posts : 558
Joined: 1 JUN 2008
Status : Online | Ooh, for some reason I didn't really think of the Discworld books as a series. I've only just begun collecting them but haven't read any yet, though I've listened to one or two Discworld audio books. I've never been able to get into audio books though so they went a bit over my head. Did you read the books in order Caroline? That's how I've begun collecting them, I'm not sure if it really matters though? Would you recommend reading them in order?
Agatha Christie's books are lovely. I remember reading one in class when I was eleven or so - we had a substitute teacher that day and she absolutely freaked over the fact that I was reading one... people teased me about being 'teachers pet' all week :-[
Thanks for the Narnia tip I've found some online for around $50 but that's for the softcover box set and I'm not sure if it includes the illustrations. I would prefer a hardcover so I'll check it out!
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| 22 AUG 2009 at 3:23am |
InlandAZGuild Master
Posts : 5586
Joined: 4 MAY 2007
Status : Offline | The boys and I have gotten together and decided to nominate that universally acclaimed monthly periodical (the one with the in depth, Turn on and Turn off's section – I’m sure you know it, it's bound by staples.
Does that one qualify?
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| 22 AUG 2009 at 3:25am |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | Not all of us are as [s]well[/s] er... widely-read as you Inland. You're going to have to name it.
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| 22 AUG 2009 at 3:59am |
JKingSchattenjger
Posts : 2349
Joined: 4 MAY 2008
Location: 0
Status : Offline | A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. Once you read just one, you'll never look at another novel quite the same again.
You can't kill someone in a studio.
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| 22 AUG 2009 at 4:04am |
InlandAZGuild Master
Posts : 5586
Joined: 4 MAY 2007
Status : Offline | I've been sworn to secrecy, sorry. Ever since the great paper shortage we've been a bit on edge about mentioning it by name and now I hear Ink is getting scarce too.
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| 22 AUG 2009 at 8:58am |
JelenaPrivate Detective
Posts : 587
Joined: 30 SEP 2007
Status : Offline | This spring and summer I've read all the books about Harry Hole (detective novels) by the Norwegian author ]Jo Nesbø They were all the kind of books you want to read from beginning to end during as short a period as possible.
Another series in the same genre are the Millennium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson. If you're into crime stories I highly recommend these.
Temporary guest in your life.
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| 22 AUG 2009 at 2:38pm |
colpetSchattenjger
Posts : 1630
Joined: 12 APR 2003
Status : Offline | A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin. Once you read just one, you'll never look at another novel quite the same again
I agree. A great jump off point to Abercrombie (First Law) and Lynch (Gentlemen Bastards)
It's very hard for me to pick just one, so here's my favorites in no particular order.
Tolkien's Silmarillion/Hobbot/Lord of the Rings
This was my introduction to fantasy. I've reread them numerous times, and my favorite of all of them is the Silmarillion. I love seeing how Tolkien creates his own mythos, and how in later books everything relates back to what happened in the Sil.
Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen
My current obsession. An absolute plethora of characters (human and otherwise), magic and conflict. Unbelievably detailed, the type of books that get better and better with each reread.
Hobb's Farseer/Liveships/Tawny Man
A great quest fantasy series comprising 3 trilogies. Strong female characters, unique mythology (liveships), and non conventional partnerships (Fitz and the Fool) make this a must read for anyone that likes epic fantasy.
Michelle West's Sacred Hunt/Sunsword/House Wars.
What I love best about this series is that it is womencentric. The protagonists are all very strong women characters, even in situations where they may come across as victims. There is a strong element of romance, but subtley done, not blatent. The House Wars series is still being written, with only the first book available.
Abercrombie's The First Law trilogy
This breaks all the rules. Arguably, the most likable character is a torturer. No one in this book is shiny and squeaky clean. Gritty, humorous, full of betrayals and backstabbing, it really is great read.
Occasionally visiting Uru Live (KI 0063722 .&&
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| 22 AUG 2009 at 11:10pm |
TechnoSpikePrivate Detective
Posts : 581
Joined: 26 APR 2005
Location: PT
Status : Offline | Hum, for me it would definitely be Tolkien's Simarillion/Hobbit/Lord of the Rings. It was my major introduction into the High-Fantasy Novels.
I'm also a big fan of mistery/crime books. I started with Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes, then passed to Agatha Christie's works and then started discoverying different authors.
I tend to prefer some author's specific characters series of stories. Frank Gruber's Johnny Fletcher and Sam Cragg, Rex Stout's Nero Wolf, Margery Allingham's Albert Campion and George Simenon's inspector Maigret.
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| 22 AUG 2009 at 11:24pm |
Lady KestrelGuild Master
Posts : 4038
Joined: 27 SEP 2004
Location: US, NJ
Status : Offline | Favorites are hard to pick because I've enjoyed so very many, but I'll give it a try. These are all books that I would gladly re-read.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Terry Pratchett's Discword books - I finished the 28th (Night Watch) not too long ago and am looking forward to the rest.
Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series - Funny stuff!
C. J. Cherryh's Foreigner books & her Faded Sun trilogy - She creates wonderfully complex alien species and addresses the problems that arise due to different assumptions made behaviors.
James White's Sector General series - Amazing encounters with hundreds of different alien species in a galactic hospital. The staff is as diverse as the patients, and the kind of medical problems they solve is fascinating.
Tolkien - It has all been said.
Mystery
Carol O'Connell's Kathy Mallory books - Probably my favorite of all the female sleuths; each book reveals a new layer of Mallory's life, and I find the stories meticulously crafted and the endings difficult to figure out.
Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum mysteries - They're funny and sexy and the action takes place in places I know.
Alexander McCall Smith's Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency books - Delightful characters and low key mysteries in Botswana.
Lindsey Davis' Falco mysteries - Falco is a cynical but loveable Roman sleuth in the time of Vespatian; he deals with assassins and murderers better than he does his often difficult family.
Ellis Peters' Cadfael novels - Delicious Medieval mysteries and my favorite of the historic ones.
Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt mystery adventures - Love those opaline eyes!
Hard to Categorize
Stephen King's Gunslinger series - Fantasy sprinkled with scary stuff in a strange parallel world; not all of the books satisfy equally but still a compelling series.
I'm going to stop now. Really. Well, except to say to Arkadia that I also really liked The Golden Compass et all, too.
"Where is the fountain that throws up these flowers in a ceaseless outbreak of ecstasy?"
-Rabindranath Tagore
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| 22 AUG 2009 at 11:41pm |
Terry PenrodGrand Inquisitor
Posts : 6693
Joined: 16 OCT 2004
Location: US, Texas
Status : Offline | .
I would have a very hard time naming a single, favorite book series or even a short list by category.
One comment I can make about fictional series is that the bigger and longer they are, the more chance the author will fall short of expectations somewhere along the way and eventually settle into predictable, formulaic writing.
Even in the best of cases, we avid readers become so attached to the central characters or ongoing themes that we tend to overlook instances of mediocrity. But that's okay. Nobody can write a long series of books flawlessly. Nor can a composer or artist produce 100% masterpieces for extended periods. Heck, creating just one in a lifetime is pretty darn amazing.
Cheers, Terry
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| 22 AUG 2009 at 11:46pm |
Lady KestrelGuild Master
Posts : 4038
Joined: 27 SEP 2004
Location: US, NJ
Status : Offline | I like your choices of mysteries, too, Spike! [smiley=thumbsup.gif]
"Where is the fountain that throws up these flowers in a ceaseless outbreak of ecstasy?"
-Rabindranath Tagore
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| 22 AUG 2009 at 11:55pm |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | Arkadia
I read Pratchett's books in order because I started reading them as they appeared. If you have the choice, definitely go that way. But be aware that he creates a lot of characters but only uses a selection in each book. Your knowledge of the Discworld however accumulates with each book until you almost know the place by heart. Very funny books. on't hoard them - start reading! Also ouglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is brilliantly witty satire and only 5 books - read them. Wonderful stuff.
I've looked at that softcover set and it was illustrated - same drawings. I think hardbacks will last longer. You'll read the books, then read them again to your kids so if you can, get the set that will last your lifetime. They truly are such utterly well-written adventures.
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| 23 AUG 2009 at 4:46am |
AndromusGuild Master
Posts : 5538
Joined: 6 NOV 2002
Status : Offline | There are too many deserving ones, perhaps, that should be here. But here are several somewhere near the top, for me:
The Lord of the Rings -- Not much I can say about this really, without taking up two or three full posts. It made most other fantasy novels I've read feel shallow and uninspired.
The Chronicles of Narnia/The Space Trilogy -- C.S. Lewis was probably the polar opposite to Tolkien in terms of how he approached writing, but his books evoke many of the same feelings in me that The Lord of the Rings did.
The Discworld novels -- I've recently run out of new Discworld novels, and I'm a bit grumpy about it. And a little depressed, since (though I wish him the best), I have to wonder how many more novels Terry Pratchett can realistically complete. :-/
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Essentially Monty Python in space. Absolutely absurd and a lot of fun.
The Sherlock Holmes stories (particularly before Reichenbach Falls) -- I enjoy these stories almost as equally for Holmes' deductions as I do for the settings, whether mist shrouded London or a lonely country manor.
Jerome K. Jerome's "Three Men" comic travelogues -- I come back to these regularly when I need a laugh, and find them almost as funny as the first time I read them.
The Dune novels -- I really enjoyed all the political intrigue. Didn't hurt either that it was in a science fiction scenario, either.
Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan novels -- Some of the best books of political/military fiction that I've read. Largely realistic, too.
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| 23 AUG 2009 at 1:20pm |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | I recently picked up 'Three men in a boat' and Three men on the Bummel' from a seaside used book shop. Haven't looked at them yet and bought an interesting war-time tiny paperback as well. The shop was exactly the sort of place one would like to be accidentally locked into overnight.
The shelves appeared to be only casually sorted into categories; there were tables crowded with stacks of books so that the floor space available for walking on was kept to the absolute minimum; the desk behind which the shopkeeper sat was itself groaning beneath columns of books piled perilously high and glimpsed through an open door into the store-room beyond was boxes and boxes of unsorted books with some piled on the floor so that it was strictly a delicate one person only place to go. efinitely off-limits to the public. And it smelled of old books.....
So thank you for reminding me Andromus that I have them, and that they're worth reading. Will get around to it - one day.
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| 25 AUG 2009 at 12:43am |
MeghanIntergalactic Janitor
Posts : 92
Joined: 15 DEC 2008
Status : Online | Well, when I was younger, I enjoyed the Nancy Drew book series and will still read the many I have sometimes, but I don't belive I really have a favorite currently, as I more read random books.
I prefer horror and mystery, or a little bit of both, so if anyone has any suggestions, that would be lovely .
I gave you everything to die with a smile, all you wanted was to live for a while&&you took everything but it left you empty&&you can't replace me, you can't.&&&&It's almost over and here we are, we're stuck inside this salted earth together.&&you'll pierce my lungs, my limbs go numb&&as my colors fade out, you watch me bleed.&&you watch me bleed.
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| 25 AUG 2009 at 2:35am |
CarolineJA+ Overseer
Posts : 16540
Joined: 28 JAN 2007
Location: AU
Status : Offline | As an emergent teen I adored Nancy Drew and was dismayed when my History teacher told me off for reading rubbish. Years later I found out they were ghost written by a string of hired writers.
I also loved Malcolm Smith who created a gang of wartime kids who got up to amazing adventures in Wales, The Lone Pine gang or something.... can't find any trace of them now.
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| 2 SEP 2009 at 7:53pm |
ThaumaturgeJourneyman
Posts : 999
Joined: 11 MAY 2006
Status : Offline | I realise that this thread is a few days old now, but I've been more or less meaning to post here... ^^;;
Restricting myself only to series, rather than single novels, but allowing myself to include at least one case in which I have a single bound volume containing multiple stories:
- Fitz Leiber's "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser" series - A wonderful set of "heroic" fantasy stories set in an interesting world (Newhon) and a less-than-pure setting. The two protagonists - Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser - are described, as I recall, as "heroes", but the word there seems to mean something along the lines of "doer of great deeds" - they are not set in the classic heroic mould (albeit neither, I don't think, the "grim and gritty anti-hero" mould).
- Jack Vance's The Dying Earth - While 'I recall the first stories in my particular collection as being very good, I recall finding the following stories less so (albeit still good). Why is the series on this list, then? The setting: For the most part Earth, presumably our Earth, but far, far into the future. The sun is dying, turned dim and red, flickering occasionally, and those on Earth seem to be well aware of its imminent demise. Further, magic has been rediscovered, and strange creatures appeared. Aside from the somehwat dark, deliciously strange setting, I find that I love the idea of Earth being the ancient world, as opposed to the new, bright world from which the heroes come to some more ancient place. See the quote below for a description, if I have it correct, given by a character, regarding Earth.
- Tery Pratchett's Discword novels - Wonderfully strange, with their own curious logic and very interesting characters (and how many series do you know where Death is not only a sympathetic character, but, to me at least, one of the most interesting? There probably are others, but I doubt that there are many...). Whether it's the no-nonsense witch Granny Weatherwax, the slightly silly wizards of Unseen University, the failed wizard and self-confessed coward (not to mention, as I recall, excellent sprinter) Rincewind, the varied personalities of the City Watch, any of the other wonderful characters, Mr. Pratchett seems to consistently produce interesting characters. Not to mention some very good antagonists - such as the Auditors of Reality, who want the universe to be nice and neat, with none of this messy, unpredictable life, and who believe that to become an individual is to die - and so do if they ever get caught slipping up and using a personal pronoun, as I recall.)
I'm tempted to include The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, but it has admittedly been so long since I read The Silmarillion that I'm not sure of whether I'd still enjoy it as I recall doing when I then. That leaves The Lord of the Rings alone, and thus excluded (I'm considering it to be a single novel).
There may very well be series that I've forgotten to include, alas; nevertheless, this is a decent sampling, I believe, and in any case, this post is now long enough, I'd say. ;P
The quote from Tales of the Dying Earth:
"Earth," mused Pandelume. "A dim place, ancient beyond knowledge. Once it was a tall world of cloudy mountains and bright rivers, and the sun was a white blazing ball. Ages of rain and wind have beaten and rounded the granite, and the sun is feeble and red. The continents have sunk and risen. A million cities have lifted towers, have fallen to dust. In place of the old peoples a few thousand strange souls live. There is evil on Earth, evil distilled by time.... Earth is dying and in its twilight..."
MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
*ahem*
Sorry.
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