Before I get down to it, lemme give a little background on me. I was the kid in school who hated reading, I have a wide collection of Cliff’s Notes for so called “literature” assigned in school. It just never took. A few years back, some of you may recall, a little movie called Lord of the Rings was made by this strange hairy dude. Needless to say, I enjoyed it and was inspired to read the source material. That lead me down the road of discovering the fun in reading, though largely pop culture books Ill never enjoy that Victorian shit from school.
Now, having just finished Angels and Demons, I’m stuck without any ideas of what to read next. I’m hoping you folks can give me suggestions on what else to read, and to give you ideas of my tastes I’ll list the books I’ve read over the last couple years and give my impressions of them. Feels free to ignore it, but as anyone who knows my posting style can tell I tend to ramble as if people care what I have to say.
The books I’ve read, in order:
The Lord of The Rings - I don’t think there’s much need to elaborate on this. Great book, I’m thoroughly entrenched in fanboy territory now. Plowed through them all in the span of a couple months without a break or loss of interest. Grade: A+
The Hobbit - See above. Grade: A
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - Great page turner, plowed through this book quickly and enjoyed it enough to read all the rest of the books. Apparently this fantasy stuff works for me. Grade: B
Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets - Not as good as the first but still enjoyable. Grade: B-
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Best book of the series so far, IMHO. Grade: B+
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - the books are getting longer and more in depth in regards to the character development and interpersonal relationships. It’s working for me. Grade: B+
The Silmarillon - Ran out of HP books at this point and being unable to decide what else to read I went back to the well, it helped that the second LOTR movie was breaking getting me back in the Tolkien mindset. Frankly, this book was a bit of a struggle to read. It’s not a cohesive story involving many characters, non-linear timelines and some of the most cumbersome language you can imagine. Still liked the genre and details, but it tried my patience to say the least. Grade: C
Band of Brothers - Finally broke out of the fantasy genre (though still stuck in the TV/movie adaptation groove) and read this book which the amazing HBO series was based on. I’d have to say it was outstanding, even better than the series. The author did an excellent job of putting you in the shoes of the soldiers and building drama without getting too bogged down in the minutiae of battle tactics and weepy melodrama. Grade: A-
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - Count me as those who think Rowling’s books are improving as she goes along. This book was as dramatic as any save for the giant Deus Ex Machina at the end. Grade: B+
The Annotated Sherlock Holmes - This one was actually inspired by one of our very own Straight Dope Advisory Board members. This work was cited in a Staff Report and I went to great efforts to track it down on E-bay. I suppose this was where I decided to start digging back in to supposed “classic” books. I really enjoyed the stories, but by the end they got repetitive and more than a little contrived. Grade: B-
Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince - This was another solid effort, a quick read and an excellent continuation. Most of you have read it and know exactly what you’re getting here. Grade: B
The Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle Earth - Very much the same response as The Silmarillon. The stories are more self-contained, but less complete (no shock). I slightly less challenging read but the emotion and concept are less clearly developed. Grade: B-
The Hunt For Red October - I really enjoyed this book. I’m aware of it’s flaws and I have the engineering background to decipher techno-babble when I see it but I can’t say I found this story to suffer as a result of it. I’m told this is Clancy’s best novel, however I still think I’m interested in digesting more of his work. Grade: B+
Steven King’s The Stand - I didn’t know what to expect as I walked into this Complete and Uncut Edition and I decided to poll the SDMB faithful for opinions relative to the original incarnation of this book. The consensus was that the Uncut version was good in it’s own way, but that King tends to be wordy when it’s not needed. All in all, I agree but I loved it for what it was. Great book from front to back. If this is his best work, I’m sure I’d enjoy many of his other works. Grade: A
The Da Vinci Code - I knew the movie was expected to be in theaters this summer and I figured I’d better read the much discussed book before seeing the film. I was aware of the criticism before reading it, and frankly that’s what slowed my interest. I found all those critique’s accurate and well put. The story was interesting with decent characters bur Dan Brown is just a crappy author who needs and editor. The facts are pretty loose and the story suffers from a lot of artistic license. Still, it was a decent read if you treat it as a garbage writing. Call it the guy version of a romance novel. Grade: C
Angels and Demons - Clearly for all of the previous book’s flaws it was good enough to get me to investigate it’s predecessor. The same flaws are apparent in this book, but frankly the loopholes might be a little less gaping in this book. I found the characters just a little bit better in this one and the story was more predictable, so on balance it was just as mediocre as the first. Grade: C
So, there we have it. I’m leaning towards reading The Watchmen next just out of interest in the Alan Moore buzz following the V for Vendetta movie (which I loved). I presume if the graphic novel format works for me I’ll try that book as well. Also, I’ve recently gotten a bit of a fetish for the Myst games and might indulge in the books based of that storyline.
Of course, I’ve only scratched the surface of the Steven King and Tom Clancy libraries, but I’ve been told that the ones I chose are the best of the list. Follow up reads are requested. I’m still interested in the fantasy genre, but I know nothing about the lesser names.
I’m not snotty about “high” literature versus disposable page turners, clearly I can find enjoyment in all types of book. Anything you folks can suggest would be welcome. There certainly are entire genres I’ve not even scratched the surface of so I’m hoping you guys will flood me with suggestions of you favorite books keeping me busy for the next year or so. Feel free to offer anything you found compelling regardless of if it fits with the profile I’ve laid out. Still, the books I’ve chosen so far have all been as good or better than expected so I feel comfortable with each authors mentioned.
I’ll be eagerly awaiting your suggestions.
