So, what are your favorite books? I have a bunch on the bookshelf that are on the to-read list, but I always like to have a list of books that I may want to read. That way, if I'm in the mood for something in particular (humurous, sad, classic, thought-provoking) I have a list of books I can consider.

I pretty much hate the book I am currently reading, but due to a "deal" I made with someone I'm obligated to finish it. So, I'm looking forward to my next good book!

Anything from William Gibson, but especially All Tomorrow's Parties. Although that's the 3rd book in a trilogy (Virtual Light and Idoru come before it), they each pretty much stand alone.

I also really like the Giant's series from James P. Hogan:
Inherit The Stars
The Gentle Giants of Ganymede
Giants' Star
Entoverse
Mission to Minerva

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - one of my all time favourites.

I travel frequently so read quite a bit on planes and trains. This book just stands out (to me) as much better than your average 'best seller's list' read. I have read several of Follett's other books, but this one is his best.

I enjoyed the rather light and entertaining Harry Potter books.

I wouldn't consider this a favorite of mine, but a co-worker and I agreed to read a book the other recommended. This was back in early 1990's, I think. I made him read "The Stand" by Steven King (this was before the movie was made), which was definitely not on his reading list and he made me read "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand, which was definitely not a choice I would have made. I plan on buying Atlas Shrugged and reading it again this summer, because I don't remember a lot about it, but remember it was quite interesting.

My reading tastes aren't particularly challenging:

The Princess Bride and Control by William Goldman
I Was a Teen-Age Dwarf and Rally Round the Flag, Boys by Max Shulman
REAL Ultimate Power: The Official Ninja Book by Robert Hamburger
Mr. Bean's Diary by Robin Driscoll and Rowan Atkinson
Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers and Better Than Life by Grant Naylor
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Make Love! The Bruce Campbell Way by Bruce Campbell

I need to read more, so maybe I'll try some of the recommendations in this thread.

Oh yeah, Ender's Game was excellent. Haven't read the others you mention.

In addition to many great suggestions already done:

Ben Elton's "Dead Famous" or "Blind Faith" (anything from him, actually, but those two are kind of a must)

Douglas Adams' "Dirk Gently's Hollistic Detective Agency" and its sequel "The Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul".

Terry Pratchett's "Disc-World" series (it's only about 26 books).

Christian-Eric Falardeau' Collective works... Oops! Sorry about that one! I don't know how he got on my list...

From the French side, I am sure you can find excellent translations of Michel Tremblay or of Milan Kundera.

Thanks everyone. I am a pretty big reader, but I'm not sure I have read any of the books mentioned so far. So, I'm getting a lots of good ideas! I'll be interested an anybody else's recommendations.

It's funny, because the way CatBrat ended up reading Atlas Shrugged is the way I ended up reading the book I really don't like (mentioned in my initial post). In my case, there were two books each person must read. I got Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (although I understand why others would like it, I am not a big fan) and the Sound and the Fury (which I expect to like quite a bit. He got Tom Jones and Slaughterhouse 5.

The most recent good I finished was Ringworld by Larry Niven. I kept reading about it everywhere as a 'geek classic' and just recently picked it up. Quite good, I thought. Refreshing sci-fi. I'm going to check out his other books very soon.

Other than that, a few good semi-recent reads spring to mind . . .

The Art of Travel by Alain de botton. I'm working on The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work right now. I like his insights on the world and the people in it.

Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock That Shaped the World by Tom Zoellner. It's a little repetitive at times, but it's a good book. A good 'beach read' kind of book.

I read several of Malcolm Gladwell's books late last year, Blink, Outliers, and The Tipping Point. I enjoyed all of them.

A good book for a group of music aficionados like us is This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin. All about how our minds react to music. Fascinating book.

Over the past several years I've been reading through the Aubrey-Maturin books by Patrick O'Brian. This is the 20+ book series from which the movie Master and Commander was created. I'm 5 books into the series. If you liked the movie, you'd probably like the books. It's good, but a little slow at times.

Of course, if we're talking favorites, a couple of mine would be either A Brave New World by Huxley or Fahrenheit 451 by Bradbury.

I usually mention those in my list of favorites, but it's been so long since I've read either. I should dust off my copies... at some point. I still need to re-read the Wheel of Time series. It's hard to work up the nerve.

Books I have enjoyed and that have influenced me:

As a teen/high school:

Douglas Adams: Hitchhiker's Guide Trilogy
Kurt Vonnegut: Breakfast of Champions and others
John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men
Sinclair Lewis: Babbitt
Flannery O'Connor: Greenleaf; Everything That Rises Must Converge; and other short stories *** truly awesome, appreciated critically but not as widely appreciated popularly as she should be

College:
More Flannery O'Connor
T.S. Eliot, The Wasteland
Tom Morris (my favorite philosophy professor): The Concept of God

I haven't done much reading since college, unless comic books and medical journals count. The books I have read have been light, like the Harry Potter series and books by comedians that are basically edited collections of their stand-up material: George Carlin and Lewis Black are my favorites there.

My wife is the avid reader in the family and has told me I need to read Fritjof Capra, especially The Web of Life.

-The Rights of Man (Thomas Paine)
-Why I Am not a Christian (Bertrand Russell)
-Man's search for meaning (Victor Frankl)
-Bakunin on anarchism (Michael Bakunin)
-Utilitarianism, On Liberty, On Socialism, The Subjection of Women (John Stuart Mill)
-Manufacturing Consent (anything else by Noam Chomsky)
-And any works by Jiddu Krishnamurti (I highly recommend at least checking out his web site).

Currently reading "Life Inc.".

Those are to name a few. I'll try to get a picture of my cabinet with my collection of books.

I was also fascinated by This is Your Brain on Music--and the concepts were presented in an easily accessible way.

Also, love Ray Bradbury's books. I think his prose is beautifully constructed and quite poetic. On the other hand, I can't stand his poetry!

I'll just list authors:
Jack McDevitt-archaeology and sci-fi! How can you miss?
Robert Jordan (of course) - epic fantasy
Larry Niven - epic hard sci-fi
David Weber - epic military sci-fi
Peter F. Hamilton - epic rock hard sci-fi
John Scalzi - just plain fun sci-fi
Neil Gaiman - weird fantasy, brilliant writing
Harry Turtledove - epic alternate history
Alastair Reynolds - rock hard sci-fi, verging on cyberpunk
Connie Willis - hard sci-fi, high emotional impact
Terry Pratchett - well written, dry comic fantasy

Hmm... I've had favourites for different periods of my life.

Dr Zeuss was up there when my kids were young. I had a lot of fun ad-libing after the first dozen readings of a given book.

Samual Clemmens (Mark Twain) Roughing It was a fascinating read

Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance. I was fascinated by this book in the first read through. The second time I came to the conclusion he was on one big acid trip.

Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes. Creepy yet fascinating.

Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart. A fascinating look at the downfall of African society as the western world conquered 'the continent'.

Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment. Another creepy yet fascinating book.

Frank Herbert, Dune Best ever science fiction book!
Ursela K. LeGuin, The Dispossesed
Phillip K. Dick, Ubik
Steinbeck, pick one
Salmon Rushdie, Midnight's Children

I've heard him interviewed a couple of times. Fascinating guy!

I really need to try and find some LeGuin. My local library only has a few, and they all seem to be in the middle of series. I'm pretty anal about reading all the books in a series in published order, so if I can't get my hands on one, I tend to not read any.

I tried reading the EarthSea trilogy, but could never get into it. This is from Wikipedia on The Dispossessed:

"The book won the Nebula Award in 1974,[1] both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1975,[2] and received a nomination for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1975.[2] It is also notable for achieving a degree of literary recognition unusual for science fiction works."

The last sentence is what stands out. Its an exceptional book.

Anyone read any Esther Friesner? My friend thinks I should read her Majyk series, at least, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

With titles like Chicks In Chainmail how can you go wrong?

She has won a couple of Nebulas for short stories as well as getting additional nominations for that award and a Hugo.

Sounds promising!

I quiet often enjoy Fantasy but I do escape from it's escape from time to time. I'm only going to add two of my favorites in that genre because I feel they are lesser known or in the case of the second, "currently misrepresented."

Guy Gavriel Kay's, The Fionavar Tapestry (trilogy)
Perhaps my all time favorite that I almost didn't read because it started in the 'real' world and I normally dislike that type of mixture. However, after a short chapter or two, you are drawn into a multi-cultural fantasy world that is as colorful and detailed as even Tolkien could hope for. It has a similar theme to Wheel of Time in that fate is being weaved out on a divine tapestry but it is a more colorful read and doesn't take 13 books to get you to the end.

Are you sitting down? Robert E. Howard, The original Conan short stories and somewhat longer works.
Many will be rolling their eyes as they picture comic books and cheesy movies but I challenge you to take the time to read Jordan's original works. It's truly masterful writing that was dark, mature, extremely detailed, and nothing like what the franchise has become today. Amazing that it was written in the 1920s or so and still stands today but I guess that is the advantage of writing fantasy. This is a great book to explore if you want to see what I mean. Robert E. Howard : The Complete Chronicles.
and if you are still embarrased that someone who doesn't know about Jordans original stories will think less of you for reading Conan, then the books all black, leatherish looking cover with gold writing makes it look like a bible from a distance.



Not favorites but some recent diversions I really enjoyed and that I would highly recommend........

Lawrence Hill -- The Book of Negroes The life of a young girl trecking accross Africa to board a slave ship, slave life in the Americas and her ultimate triumph in some very unexpected ways.

Adrian Goldsworthy -- How Rome Fell : Death of a Superpower. I especially enjoyed how he somehow avoided what must have been a huge temptation to delve into the parallels of certain modern societies but instead focuses on the history and leaves it up to yourself to contemplate it's relevance to modern day.

It's rare to find both together but I enjoy reading discussions about the physics of the universe (when broken down in relatively layman's terms) and also "the physics of religion," if you will. This series of interviews with some names you will recognize if you hold similar interests is an excellent read after 4 or 5 coffees to get the brain spinning (aka keep you awake in an airport so your bags are not stolen)
Einstien's God: Conversations About Science and the Human Spirit

I'm with you on that. Howard was an insanely good writer. I still have a lot of Conan on my shelf to read, as well as the first of The Fionavar Tapestry. One of these days, I swear.