[Marek]

I'm about to go on an Amazon shopping spree. Anyone got recommendations for cool books? It can be interesting fiction or just nonfiction stuff. I even like reference books with weird facts or erm... things. Or wacky little books that you can give away as birthday present or whatever. Or just really good fiction. So. Yes. It's past midnight and I'm not thinking straight.

What was I typing about ... oh yes, recommendations. Got any?

[Erkki]

Originally Posted by Marek

What was I typing about ... oh yes, recommendations. Got any?

"Good Omens" by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
"A Night in the Lonesome October" by Roger Zelazny

[zarathustrian]

See my signature.

[BacardiJim]

The His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. (I discussed it in the "What I got for Xmas" thread.)

[tabacco]

I already gave you this one on ICQ, but oh well...

Check out The Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll. It's a little outdated but still a good read. Also, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.

[Ninja Dodo]

Well, if you can read Swedish, I'd recommend Jan Guillou's Hamilton series, which I'm reading now...

Or Henning Mankell's Wallander series. Those've been translated too... but I'm not sure about Hamilton.

Beyond that... 1984, Alice's Adventure in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass, Tsjechow's short stories, De kleine Johannes, Lord of the Flies, Hannibal - yes the film sucks, but the book is brilliant -, Een stoet van dwergen, Hersenschimmen, I never promised you a rose garden, the Roma sub Rosa series (by Steven Saylor) and the rather obvious Harry Potters and The Lord of the Rings + The Hobbit... but I take it you've read those.

Do they actually sell non-English books on amazon I wonder... probably not.

[ysbreker]

hope I'm not too late:

cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
quicksilver by neal stephenson

In fact any book by neal stephenson is good

[Intrepid Homoludens]

A World Lit Only By Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance, Portrait of an Age
by William Manchester

Publisher's Weekly
"Using only secondary sources, Manchester plunges readers into the medieval mind-set in a captivating, marvelously vivid popular history that humanizes the tumultuous span from the Dark Ages to the dawn of the Renaissance. He delineates an age when invisible spirits infested the air, when tolerance was seen as treachery and "a mafia of profane popes desecrated Christianity.'' Besides re-creating the arduous lives of ordinary people, the Wesleyan professor of history peoples his tapestry with such figures as Leonardo, Machiavelli, Lucrezia Borgia, Erasmus, Luther, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Manchester ( The Arms of Krupp ) devotes much attention to Magellan, whose globe-straddling voyage shattered Christendom's implicit belief in Europe as the center of the universe. His portrayal of the Middle Ages as a time when the strong and the shrewd flourished, while the imaginative, the cerebral and the unfortunate suffered, rings true..."

History as simultaneous intimation and exposé! Imagine a series of period adventure games based on the stuff in this book, especially his account of the Medici and the Borgia family and the voyage of Magellan!

I wouldn't do the same with those damn perverted venal popes, however.

[Zygomaticus]

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky!

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by Marek

I...like reference books with weird facts or erm... things.?

News of the Weird
NOTW website

Is everything in News of the Weird true?

"The truth is, I don't know. I don't report stories, myself; everything comes from a professional reporter, presumably with a professional editor, at a legitimate news organization, and I verify that the story was in fact published there on a certain date. However, if the reporter gets something wrong, I will, too. (If it's a significant error, and I come to be sure about the error, I'll correct it in a subsequent column.) Occasionally, I make my own errors, like misattributing the state or country of a particular town, or mixing up the name of, say, a prosecutor and a judge. And once every four or five years, I might be overcome by a momentary fog and run an illegitimate story, for which I whimper out an embarrassing apology."

[Kingzjester]

Let's see...

BURR by Gore Vidal
BEND SINISTER by Vladimir Nabokov
CONFESSIONS OF A FAILED SOUTHERN LADY by BacardiJim Florence King

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Kingzlebub, you bitch!!! I LOVE Florence King! That book had me in stitches, but I also enjoyed all her other stuff, particularly Reflections in a Jaundiced Eye, and With Charity Toward None: A Fond Look at Misanthropy.

Except, I'm not sure if Flo would be right up Marek's alley.

[Kingzjester]

Marek is much like Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck is what Florence King would've been if she decided to take over the world. Ergo...

[remixor]

First and foremost, I'd recommend anything by Kurt Vonnegut. Slaughter-House Five is certainly the Vonnegut novel that impressed me most in terms of sheer excellence, but it's pretty hard to go wrong with that author.

I just found out about this author by the name of Stephen Dixon. I picked up his novel entitled I, which seems very good (and unique) so far. From what I can tell, he doesn't let his work be sold by major retailers (I had to get mine at a specialty book store) but for all I know Amazon has figured out a way to sell it anyway, I don't know.

For completeness' sake, you may as well read Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. I know it's already been recommended. Definitely worthwhile though.

If you haven't read Heller's Catch-22, do so, no questions asked. I don't even really feel like explaining why. Don't bother with the sequel.

I just read Burgess' A Clockwork Orange for the first time, and I would definitely recommend that as well. I have to say it really changed my perspective on the film. Kubrick is one of my favorite directors and he most definitely had a lot to say in his films, but in the case of Clockwork I've come to the conclusion that for the purposes of this film it was pretty much all Burgess' vision, and Kubrick was just a really good translator. This is in contrast to The Shining, in which Kubrick obviously added quite a bit that Stephen King didn't necessarily have in mind. I don't mean to denegrate Kubrick's accomplishment on Clockwork, which was top-notch, but I think Burgess deserves more credit than he gets. It's also probably worthwhile to check out some of Burgess' other work, since he doesn't even consider A Clockwork Orange one of his best.

Who else? Oh, how about Dan Brown? Ha ha, of course I kid.

[BacardiJim]

Also in the genre of "weird facts," you might want to check out one of Cecil Adams's Straight Dope books. For more about Adams and his regular syndicated newspaper articles in which the world's smartest man answers the world's stupidest questions, check out his website here.

[DustCropper]

Try Catch-22, it's my favorite book! 8-)

[Garyos]

Originally Posted by BacardiJim

The His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. (I discussed it in the "What I got for Xmas" thread.)

I've started reading those because of that thread (I also just finished Brave New World...amazingly amazing.)

Right now it seems like pretty standard fantasy fare (the orphaned, headstring child, the mystical, gruffy father-figure, etc, etc), but I'll give it a shot because of your reccomendation.

And Good Omens and Catch-22 should definetly be read by anyone.

[Ninja Dodo]

plunges readers into the medieval mind-set in a captivating, marvelously vivid popular history that humanizes the tumultuous span from the Dark Ages to the dawn of the Renaissance

Trep, you should read Steven Saylor's books. They're basically that, except in ancient Rome... both highly entertaining stories and very historically accurate.

[ragnar]

Originally Posted by Ninja Dodo

Well, if you can read Swedish, I'd recommend Jan Guillou's Hamilton series, which I'm reading now...

Or Henning Mankell's Wallander series. Those've been translated too... but I'm not sure about Hamilton.

You know Swedish? Are you a hide-in-the-closet Swede? And Guillou and Mankell is definitely *not* anywhere near the best thing you can read in Swedish.

Book recommendation: Some Jeeves and Wooster stories (nobody is suprised about this one I guess).

[mycroft]

I don't read much. Here are some books I recommend. Though, I know no-one will take me seriously. I have eccentric tastes.

How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie

[URL=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0425165582//ref=nosim/adventuregame-20 of Blood by Clive Barker[/URL] Actually, I doubt if some of you can survive this one. Honestly. Very graphic, bloody and full of subtle gore. This one contains three volumes of a six volume ordeal. The best ones. It makes for some killer midnight reading. It is basically a collection of short stories, horror tales of the supernatural. And before you do a ( ) on me, let me assure that you haven't read anything like this before. The stories I'd like to recommend are In the Flesh, In the hills-The Cities, New Murders in the Rue Morgue, Hell's Event, Skins of the Fathers...A gruesome story called The Midnight Meat Train is not to be missed. It obviously isn't even close to literature(if that is what you're after), but will give you a pretty good fright as and when needed. Works for me.

I would recommend you the Bhagwad Gita, but I feel that the essence of it has been lost in translation.


I don't know if you're much into Conan Doyle, he's a personal favourite of mine, I would really, really suggest you read The Hound of the Baskervilles. This story has given me a unique perspective on adventure games. Try to find a compilation of all Sherlock Holmes' short stories and novels. You won't be disappointed.

I would also recommend [URL=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0192834770//ref=nosim/adventuregame-20 Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad.[/URL] Yes, I like escapist books.

I don't read any of the modern fiction, really. I stick to the classics. I discover certain gems every day.