Book Nerds....

[DeletedUser5117]

So.... anyone a book nerd? I love to read. I love books... I cant get enough. I love the feel of them... the smell of them... uhhh books... lol

What is your favorite book and why?

 

[DeletedUser4818]

The Xanth series by Piers Anthony

 

[DeletedUser2963]

I can't! Favorite book of all time?......Can't do it! Pride and Prejudice, no,no,no, Dune, no, LotR, nonono.....Godfather, nono....hmmmm How about favorite book or author this year? Wen Spencer, just found Spencer. Fantasy, urban-scifi. Really interesting worlds and characters. Each book is worth a re-read.

 

[DeletedUser4818]

That is why I listed my favorite series from my favorite author. I have read many more books because I discovered his Xanth Novels.

 

[SoggyShorts]

Have any of you made the switch to e-readers? I did about a year ago. At first I was very reluctant, like most book lovers I enjoyed the feel, and yes, even the smell of a real book. After getting one for xmas though I gotta say the advantages are huge.
Being able to read in the dark, waterproof, changing the font size so I can read with my book at arms-length, one handed use, free books, adjusting the backlight so it's easier on the eyes. Having your whole library with you all the time is nice too, no need to guess how many books to lug around with you on a trip.
EDIT: I should note, not all e-readers are equal, some only allow books from their store, and are basically locked up-no sharing books, limited selection etc. Mine is awesome, but I didn't want this to sound too much like an advertisement =)

 

[DeletedUser4818]

So what is your favorite book SS or maybe you are more like Lyapo? I love most genre, but fantasy and Sci-Fi are my firsts, followed closely by detective and dramas.

 

[SoggyShorts]

Hard to say, maybe I can narrow it down favourite by author
Cobras -Timothy Zahn
Rendezvous with Rama. - Arthur C. Clark
The Foundation series -Isaac Asmimov
Ender's game series -Orson Scott Card
Chung Kuo - David Wingrove -if I had to pick one series overall this would be it.

gotta run, I'll add more later

 

[Thistleknot]

Very hard to narrow down to a favorite book or a favorite series. I love the Disc World series by Terry Pratchett. The humor and imagination are incredible. I also have read the Riftwar Saga by Raymond Feist. Well written stories that are set in the same world but cover generations of characters. Currently I am making my way through the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz. This is a great mix of thriller and humor.

 

[DeletedUser2824]

Don't get me started on books! O_O

 

[DeletedUser3880]

No E-readers for me. Just not the same. And obviously I'm a Heinlein guy.

Q

 

[DeletedUser486]

The Brothers Karamazov or Crime and Punishment. Dostoyevsky has a special place in my heart.

 

[DeletedUser5117]

ok so heres mine. I have an addiction to YA fiction. My last book was A Court of Mist and Fury. OMG I LOVED IT!
Its the second book to a series. First book is A Court of Thorns and Roses, which was also a great book. But the second, I finished so fast... I was on edge most of the time.

The characters first name is Feyre... hints my name lol.

 

[DeletedUser4699]

Too many to list, but here are a couple of slightly lesser known, but no less amazing -

Tom Robbins - Skinny Legs and All
Bill Bryson - In a Sunburned Country
David Sedaris - Basically, anything he has written

 

[DeletedUser2963]

Have any of you made the switch to e-readers?

I purchased my first e-reader in 2009 and I never looked back. I still buy actual books every now and then, maybe one or two per year, but for the most part, I am an e-junkie. I have over 700 books on my e-reader and I can take every single one of them on a plane. Many of them were free, and yes I have read all of them!

And thanks to this thread I am adding a few more (from the comfort of my living room). Looking forward to finding a few new favorites.

I will read any genre, for a good book is a good book.

My favorite genre of all time is Sci-fi, so I hesitate to recommend them. I love sci-fi, and will forgive really bad writing styles for a good concept. And if the concept is lame, I am brutal even if it is really well written.

Urban-fantasy:
Patricia Briggs is my favorite with the Mercy Thompson series and the Alpha/Omega crossover
Wen Spencer is sci-fi lite, so I would put Spencer's books into this genre. Aliens in a modern day setting(Ukiah Oregon), or a dimensional gate to Elf Home (Tinker).

Fantasy:
Patricia Briggs (Raven series and Hurog series)
Anne Bishop (Black Jewels Series and Tir Alainn Trilogy) These are a bit dark.

Fiction:
The Godfather. I lost a bet and reading this was my forfeit, or not. I hated the movies and had no interest at all in the subject...Wow, this was a really good book!

Romance:
The Three Fates or The Villa by Nora Roberts

Non-Fiction:
I don't recommend books from this genre, personal interests shape choices here.

Horror, Mystery, and True Crime dramas:
I actually avoid, so if someone has a Godfather like recommendation I would appreciate it.

 

[DeletedUser5198]

So I am a very keen reader. Not so much over the past couple on months, so must do better. My genre is fantasy. My favourite authors, Terry Brooks, Terry Goodkind, Trudy Canavan, Alon Shalev... In terms of a favourite book, would be so hard to say.

 

[DeletedUser5251]

I got my first e-reader 2.5 years ago, and despite holding out against it for a while (even going so far as to tell people not to get me one for Christmas, lol) I love it! Saving the space those books would take up alone is worth it. A lot of independent authors offer their stuff direct to e-reader for a fraction of the cost of paperback or hardback. Plus you never have to wait or pay for shipping. So, when you're reading a series and a book ends on a cliff hanger, you can get the next one instantly (provided it's already been published.) And I've found so many wonderful recommendations, the more you read the more you find to read.

I'm nowhere near capable of making a definitive list of my absolute favorites of all time, but here are few that I really like.

The Outlander Series, by Diana Gabaldon - romance, historical fiction, time travel, adventure
The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher - urban fantasy
The Codex Alera, by Jim Butcher - epic fantasy
The Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson - epic fantasy
Skinwalker, by Faith Hunter - urban fantasy


I'll update as more come to me.

 

[DeletedUser5669]

I love reading, can't get enough. I switched to e-readers years ago, and have trouble now reading paper books. Swiping the page just doesn't seem to do anything. LOL. I tend not to think in terms of favorites because what I want depends entirely on my mood, but there are a few series/worlds that I go back to time and time again.

• Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey - I started reading them in my late teens and am still reading what she puts out. (Re-reading this, I realize that gives you no timeline. To orient you to my teens, I graduated high school in 1989.)
  
• Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold - found these courtesy of a friend in college and have read them all multiple times. Love Love Love! There are a couple of books that sort of fall outside the series proper, but which nevertheless form part of the world.
  
• Mercy Thompson books (already mentioned above) by Patricia Briggs and the companion series Alpha and Omega.
• Valor series by Tanya Huff. I like a lot of her stuff, but it's the Valor series I keep going back to.
• Almost anything by Dick Francis. He started writing in the 60s and kept it up until the early 2000s. His son has taken up the mantle, and while he's good, he's not the same. During some medical fun I had this year, Dick Francis on audiobook kept me neatly distracted from my anxiety
• Georgette Heyer's romance novels. I've never read her mysteries, but her romance novels are a delight, so long as you aren't looking for heaving bosoms, and shafts of passion. It's almost (note I said almost) like Jane Austen wrote twenty or so extra books. If you like period romance with a bit of adventure/mystery thrown in for good measure, she's a good bet.
• Dorothy Sayers' Peter Wimsey novels are also fabulous. Murder mysteries with a lot of fun and delicious use of language. Sayers herself wrote them during the periods they're set in, so while they're period pieces to us, for her they were modern times. Marvelous stories, but be prepared to consult Google Translate for the odd untranslated bit in French or Latin. SAyers was a medieval scholar, in fact one of my textbooks in college was her translation of something ... am not sure what and am not willing to guess and be wrong. Oh, and another writer finished her one unfinished novel and used her notes to write either one or two more, and she actually did a good job, so those are worth reading.
  
• If you like a period mystery with a touch of farce thrown in, then Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody books are a good bet. She's delightful. They start in the 1880s and the last one I read that I remember with certainty was set during WWI, in 1915, I believe. Elizabeth Peters is excellent overall, and so is her alter ego, Barbara Michaels. What I've found is that the novels that are listed as by Elizabeth Peters tend to focus on a heroine who is aware of her own faults but doesn't dwell on them - she doesn't take herself too serious. The heroines in the novels attributed to Barbara Michaels tend to be serious women who take themselves, perhaps, a little too seriously. You're also far more likely to have a supernatural explanation for the mayhem in Barbara Michaels. If your bent is towards scholarly work on ancient Egypt, you would want her actual self, Barbara Mertz. When she started producing novels at a great rate in the 60s, her editors made her split her personality because they didn't want to overwhelm the reading public.

Oh dear, I see I failed to mention a 'few.' Oops. Stephen King and Dean Koontz are also favorites, and I will now bow out before my librarian genes take over again. At least I didn't offer to loan you anything.

 

[DeletedUser3468]

OMG! Eideann of Daidu! Your reading list is so much like mine! Valdemar books by Mercedes Lackey, Vorkosigan books by Lois McMaster Bujold (see my sig!), Dorothy Sayers' Peter Wimsey novels, Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody books (and her alter ego Barbara Michaels)! All favorites of mine! I've also read the Dick Francis books in the past though not so much lately.

I have very eclectic tastes in reading materials though... from fiction to non fiction. Mysteries, Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction, (non urban) Fantasy... the list goes on and on. I'd add Ellis Peters Brother Cadfael books, Anne Perry's various series, including her WWI espionage/mystery series, almost anything by Elizabeth Moon or Barbara Hambly... and of course Lindsey Davis and her Marcus Didius Falco series set in the Rome of Emperor Vespasian (and her later Flavia Albia - Falco's adopted daughter - during the reign of Emperor Domitian) Non fiction ranges from Biography to History to Archeology to Astronomy and Physics (dumbed down version... I understand the concepts but can't do the math ) and on and on... there are very few subjects that don't interest me. Most recent non fiction was on the development of Artificial Intelligence (history now since it was written back in 2006!)

For my current fiction reading, I've been reading more of the current(ish) dystopian books including Joelle Charbonneau's The Testing series, though right now I'm also re reading Tad Williams Otherworld series. I'd been watching Sword Art Online (anime, of course) and remembered this series that also involves children (and adults) who have somehow become trapped in a virtual world. It's much stranger than SOA, much more complex.

ETA: How could I forget Terry Pratchett!!! Love all of his books from Discworld and all his other series (yes, there are more than just Discworld!) and his stand alone books to the ones he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman and with Stephen Baxter. His death was such a loss to readers everywhere! Humor and insight all in one! I think I probably got more understanding of how the economy works from Making Money than I did from my Economics Class... and it was a lot more fun!

 

[ImajicaLuthiel]

I read everything except Romance and Westerns. Asking my favorite book is like asking my favorite blood cell in my body. LOL
I refuse to buy an e-reader, since at least 60% of the books I own aren't available online, period. I have everything from fiction to science to an unbroken, near-mint string of National Geographics from 1943 to 2004, and except for my newest finds I've read them all.