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PostPosted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 7:15 pm
by rocklobster
Maokun (post: 1535151) wrote:Shardik, a (deservingly) less known book by Watership Down's author, Richard Adams. Extremely depressing and with such an tiresome super-ornate prose that it was a pain to plow through each page.


What, and Watership down is just happy fun time for the bunnies?:lol:

PostPosted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 9:09 pm
by sim96
umm hunger games
lol

PostPosted: Sun Mar 04, 2012 5:34 am
by Atria35
sim96 (post: 1536877) wrote:umm hunger games
lol


Funny if you're 15, I suppose. It would be nice if you could be serious after that joke and participate.

Kon-Tiki- My mom and I picked this up at a library book sale. I had never heard of it, but she said she remembered reading it and it being good. I feel that she was right. People think Moby Dick is the one great book on sea adventures, but no. This is also pretty darn awesome, and a true story. Too bad my copy is one of those old copies where they tinged the edges a color (red, in this case) because it's darkened the pages and made it difficult to read.

PostPosted: Mon Mar 05, 2012 1:40 am
by Maokun
rocklobster (post: 1536845) wrote:What, and Watership down is just happy fun time for the bunnies?:lol:


That's precisely why I mentioned WD! Now imagine a book that's intently dark and depressing by that same author. It's like a full book made of that tale of the Black Rabbit of Inle.

Another little known book: The Pilgrim's Regress by C.S. Lewis, a super pretentious and dense metaphor for the author's search for God. It is pretentious for a reason: he was a scholar studied in all ways of western philosophies and religions and in his search for the ultimate truth he himself quests to painstakingly dissect each of them with an open mind and ethical responsability to fully understand them and why they all -beneath their superficial intellectual fullfillement- are ultimately unsatisfactory. It's the personal philosophical journey of a man that made his homework above and beyond duty and as result, it's a bit hard to follow to us, less educated fellows. However, if you press on, you'll be challenging your preconceptions and perhaps starting your very own journey to fully understand why you believe what you believe and why it's a worthy thing to believe beyond men-taught dogmas and indoctrination.

PostPosted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 7:43 am
by Kaori
Maokun (post: 1534520) wrote:No C.S. Peirce? I'm disappoint, son. :P Reading Saussure and not Peirce is like reading the A.T and not the N.T.
Well, the reason is because I was reading what my professor assigned. I have to admit, my acquaintance with semiology and literary theory is strictly limited to things covered in the class]The Pilgrim's Regress by C.S. Lewis, a super pretentious and dense metaphor for the author's search for God. [/QUOTE]Read it, loved it. This is, in fact, my favorite out of all the C.S. Lewis books I have read so far and pretty high up on my list of favorite books, period.

Edward (post: 1436872) wrote:The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, the first Gothic Novel
I’ve read this one as well. It’s interesting how something that is just the bare bones of a story was so seminal that it spawned an entire genre.

PostPosted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 10:31 am
by SierraLea
There's two series that are excellent Christian Fantasy that no one seems to know about. They are Dragons in Our Midst and The Curse of the Spider King. Like C.S. Lewis and J.K. Tolkien, these two knew each other and worked on some books together. i recommend anything either of them has written.

PostPosted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 4:03 pm
by rocklobster
I've read Dragons in Our Midst. It was better than I thought!

PostPosted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 4:34 pm
by Vilo159
Ive read Two Princesses of Bamarre, which is one of my favorites. Just thought of it because someone rought it up though, its been a while.

Anyone heard of Brian Jaques? Best British author ever. Not exactly hard books, but the Redwall series, all 23 or however many, were my absolute favorites from first grade up till now. His Castaways of the Fly Dutchman is great too.

Also, Ender's Game. No doubt one of the greatest books ever, it and all of the rest of the series.

PostPosted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 5:54 pm
by FllMtl Novelist
I keep wanting to mention Dan Wells's I Am Not A Serial Killer and its sequels, but then I remember that I got two members to read it so it doesn't quite apply.

But if it did, I'd tell you about how everything from tension to prose to dialogue is marvelous, how chillingly endearing the protagonist is, and a lot of other very critically, rationally positive things. And that the series' second installment Mr. Monster is my favoritest, bestest-thing-I-love book in existence and how Wells is an enormous inspiration to me as a writer. I guess I'll just keep my fangirling in-check for now.

[SIZE="1"]But he isn't appreciated enough! 8<[/SIZE]
Vilo159 wrote:Anyone heard of Brian Jaques? Best British author ever. Not exactly hard books, but the Redwall series, all 23 or however many, were my absolute favorites from first grade up till now. His Castaways of the Fly Dutchman is great too.

Also, Ender's Game. No doubt one of the greatest books ever, it and all of the rest of the series.

Those are really well-known, actually. (Except for Castaways of the Flying Dutchman, maybe.) I tried and failed to read Redwall twice (some major characters annoyed me), but I have oodles of respect for Jacques. He was a hugely significant children's fantasy author and seemed a very good-natured fellow.

And Ender's Game is on my nebulously enormous (c wut i did thar) list of things I've been meaning to read... >_>

PostPosted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 6:47 pm
by seaglass27
Redwall is an amazing series! Everyone should read it. My favorites are Taggerung and Lord Brocktree.

PostPosted: Mon Mar 26, 2012 7:13 pm
by Neane
FllMtl Novelist (post: 1543109) wrote:And Ender's Game is on my nebulously enormous (c wut i did thar) list of things I've been meaning to read... >_>


Ender's Game is a good and worthwhile book to read.

PostPosted: Tue Mar 27, 2012 6:28 pm
by SierraLea
Vilo159 (post: 1543090) wrote:Ive read Two Princesses of Bamarre, which is one of my favorites. Just thought of it because someone rought it up though, its been a while.

Also, Ender's Game. No doubt one of the greatest books ever, it and all of the rest of the series.


Both of these are a must. The author of The Two Princesses of Bamarre has written other books like Ella Enchantedand The Fairy's mistake.

PostPosted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 5:12 pm
by the_wolfs_howl
Me, Myself, and Bob by Phil Vischer, creator and one-time CEO of VeggieTales. This was actually a fascinating and well-written book. Not only does it talk about how VeggieTales got started and how they went about making the first completely CG home video series, it's also a humble personal account of Vischer's faults and strengths, how his leadership led to Big Idea going bankrupt, and what he learned from the experience. The last few chapters even managed to bring me to tears, which surprised me greatly.

PostPosted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 6:49 pm
by TWWK
Unless you're an Amy Tan fan, and I don't think the age range for this board would include too many, you probably haven't heard of "The Hundred Secret Senses." A sometimes sad, sometimes funny, historical/supernatural story with an ending that haunted me for weeks after I'd finished it.

PostPosted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 7:34 pm
by Atria35
TWWK (post: 1544453) wrote:Unless you're an Amy Tan fan, and I don't think the age range for this board would include too many, you probably haven't heard of "The Hundred Secret Senses." A sometimes sad, sometimes funny, historical/supernatural story with an ending that haunted me for weeks after I'd finished it.


:cool: Paid 50 cents for it at the library, am about 100 pages in. Beautiful. This is definitely worth the read.

PostPosted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 9:44 am
by SierraLea
rocklobster (post: 1543086) wrote:I've read Dragons in Our Midst. It was better than I thought!


if you liked Dragons In Our Midst, you would probably like his other series Oracles of Fire, Echoes From the Edge, and Starlighter. He's a great author.

PostPosted: Sat Mar 31, 2012 10:16 am
by Maokun
Kaori (post: 1538504) wrote:Read it, loved it. This is, in fact, my favorite out of all the C.S. Lewis books I have read so far and pretty high up on my list of favorite books, period.


Surprised to have found another fan. Kudos!

PostPosted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 8:14 pm
by TWWK
Atria35 (post: 1544467) wrote::cool: Paid 50 cents for it at the library, am about 100 pages in. Beautiful. This is definitely worth the read.


"Bah" - I wanted it to be a book no one knew! But also, "Yay," cause I'm glad you're enjoying it!

PostPosted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 5:38 pm
by SierraLea
Surviving the Applewhites is really good with a funny streak and wholesome themes. I personally loved it for its ending, which I will not include here. It's for a bit younger readers, but none the less entertaining for that.

PostPosted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 1:58 pm
by ABlipinTime
Haven't read Surviving the Applewhites.

Has anyone here read The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stoopid Tales

PostPosted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 3:41 pm
by Atria35
ABlipinTime (post: 1546155) wrote:Has anyone here read The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stoopid Tales


Ohmygosh, I read that a loong time ago! xD Man. Thought that was hilarious.

PostPosted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 10:30 pm
by ABlipinTime
My mom read it to my sister and I years and years ago, but I still remember... [spoiler]the page with the words twisting in a spiral[/spoiler] It's definitely a clever book.

Bouncing to the non-fiction:
Has anyone here read Q.E.D. ("Quantum Electro Dynamics" by Richard Feynman) much less heard of it? It's a short book but a VERY interesting read.

PostPosted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 10:54 pm
by SincerelyAnomymous
The Golden Goblet

It's ancient history (Pun intended). It's definetely a good read and has a solid ending ;). The ending is what really makes it so great.

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 8:37 am
by ABlipinTime
Has anyone read any of the following:
> Jack of Shadows
> Stranger in a Strange Land
> A Canticle for Leibowitz

Those are in order from worst to best, though the first two are horrible and the latter one I'm curious in attempting to read (primarily because I know much of the story from Spark notes).

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 9:26 am
by Atria35
I've heard of A Canticle, it's been on my to-read list for a while.

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 12:58 pm
by Neane
ABlipinTime (post: 1549727) wrote:
> Stranger in a Strange Land


I love the fact Heinlein wrote that after Starship Troopers of all things.

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 4:54 pm
by Shao Feng-Li
Has anyone else read the All Creatures Great and Small series by James Herriot? I absolutely love them.

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 5:06 pm
by Atria35
^ I read the first one in the series- loved it! What a great book.

PostPosted: Wed Apr 18, 2012 5:39 pm
by Neane
Shao Feng-Li (post: 1549832) wrote:Has anyone else read the All Creatures Great and Small series by James Herriot? I absolutely love them.

I saw the TV Series.

PostPosted: Fri Apr 20, 2012 7:37 am
by ABlipinTime
My brother started reading those. I only saw parts of the TV show.

Anyone here read Neil Steven's Snow Crash? It's the book from which society got the term "avatar" for digital representation of a person, or so I've heard.