I just picked up a copy of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Haven’t read it in years, but it’s really not that bad, and has some very interesting differences from the film. Clarke’s latest intro made it into my sig.
If you like daring sea-dog stories, don’t read Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander. Nothing will ever again match up to it or its twenty-or-so sequels. If you don’t like daring sea-dog stories, you’ll like these.
A collection of long-out-of-print pulp stories by Dashiell Hammett were just recently re-released in Nightmare Town. Hammett left his mark on every “tough” American author who came after him.
Everyone tells me I must read A Confederacy of Dunces. The last time everyone told me to do something I went and saw The Big Lebowski. Now I can no longer wear my bathrobe to the 7-Eleven.
oh yeah, if you’re further in the mood for Science Fiction, might I recommend “The Super Hugos” It’s a collection of the best science fiction short stories/novelettes/novellas of all time - literally.
Off the top of my head, here’s what’s in it:
Two Harlan Ellison stories, Sandkings by R.R. Martin, Larry Niven, Bicentennial Man by Asimov, and Flowers for Algernon by Daniels and at least three other stories.
They all won Hugo awards and they were all voted as the best stories within their categories of every story that’s ever won a Hugo.
Gald to hear so many other folks liked Memoirs of a Geisha. Zoggie, one more recommendation: A Short History of a Small Place by T. R. Pearson. Funniest damn book ever written about the South.
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Kind of a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Apocalypse. My favorite book of all time.
Shogun is definitely up there. Best book I ever read. (That does not mean my favorite. See above.) In fact, any of Clavell’s novels works well. I’d recommend reading them in chronological order, though: Shogun, Tai-Pan, Gai-Jin, King Rat, Noble House, and Whirlwind.
And, cheesy as it sounds, I must second the Harry Potter nomination. I read all four books in the course of three weeks. My husband made fun of me, but there it was. Couldn’t put 'em down.
I imagine you’ve already read The Stand? If not, that’s another good one.
Hey before I get started: Why is the word member removed from under some people’s names (i.e, mine) but not from other people’s (i.e., Sofa King’s)? It’s been puzzling me.
Elements of Style? Ha ha, very funny. I would be laughing if I wasn’t running down the hall screaming. I have read 3 chapters from it: for English class. Groan.
Okay i went to the school library and got a book on Devil Possession. (Well short stories about devil possession and exorcism and whatnot. Fictional ones, I think.) Not that u guys recomended it…i just decided myself, for once.
I got some other books from the other library. The public 'brary.