I second Stiff. That's one of my favorite books.

I recomend anything by Bernard Cornwell. He writes historical fiction by creating a character and inserts them into historical events that actually happened. I recomend his Archer Books, or his Grail Series, also Agincourt (Azincourt).  If you're interested in the middle ages, then I can't recomend these enough.

Last edited by FireFighter214 (2012-12-03 20:35:43)

I don't even remember how to link to our store, let alone set up new items. We stopped using it quite a while ago because it wasn't really doing much. (I think over the course of its maybe-a-year run with new items added weekly, it made us on the order of five bucks.)

I'm Scottish, we don't read books. We created the phone, the TV and Penicillin, we don't need to read. We smart.

On a more serious note, I am hopefully getting a Tablet for my Chrimbo, so knowing me I'll probably start reading books on that rather than read actual books. When I was a kid, I read most of Roald Dahl's books and The Twits was my favourite book growing up. I read it and probably George's Marvellous Medicine the most. I enjoyed the frankness and the downright cruelty in Dahl's books, he never softened thing or spoke down to kids. Oh and if you have never seen/heard Rik Mayall read George's Marvellous Medicine on the BBC's kid's show Jackanory, you've never lived-

I am now listening to the World War Z audio book. I read half the book before I got distracted by another book.

"Life is about movies; anything else is a bonus!"- Me   

Oh my god, Good Omens is amazing. My favorite book of all time, probably.

Also, I read The Stranger this summer, and it hit me hard, man. Good stuff, there.

I didn't care for that one as much as I did for Gaiman's solo works, which are amazing. American Gods is in my Top Ten Novels of All Time list.

I guess I'll be that person and recommend George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Ehem... library's?
If you divide my membership fee to the books I read in a year we are talking about pennies per book.

Books I heartily recommend to anyone:

Ken Grimwood's Replay - the blurb will make it sound like a rip on Groundhog Day, but it was written about 10 years before that, is more than 10 times better, and the replays cover entire lives, not just one day... truly one of the best books I've ever read, and one I foist on people all the time... and they in turn foist it on their friends as soon as they finish it...

Harry Turtledove's Guns of the South - it's one of his few standalone alternate histories, and better for it. Not everything needs to be a series.

The entire Myth Adventures series by Robert Asprin, starting with Another Fine Myth... comedy fantasy adventures - need I say more?

Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land - it needs to be in your reading experience. It just does. You will grok why later.

Since Niven and Pournelle were brought up, an enthusiastic yes to Lucifer's Hammer and Footfall. Let's not forget The Mote in God's Eye, either. They also did some great worth with Steven Barnes (who does excellent work on his own) with The Legacy of Heorot. And in a similar vein, I should also mention Dan Simmon's Hyperion.

I have a great fondness for The Belgariad and The Malloreon series by David Eddings. Start with Pawn of Prophecy. He writes wonderful characters, and I hate the fact that we'll probably never get a movie or mini-series out of these - Catherine Zeta-Jones was born to play Polgara.

As much as I love Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker books, I'm a bit of a purist in that regard - the radio series (as least the first 12 episodes) is the original and definitive version, and the one I return to. However, I must recommend his Last Chance to See, which is a non-fiction book about his travels with Mark Cardawine to find incredibly endangered species before they disappear.

Recent books? As Trey said in the episode, anything by John Scalzi. Actually, I agree with most of their recommendations, but I will throw in that I'm a big fan of Gaiman, and had no problems with American Gods. As a matter of fact, there's a line in the book that I likely influenced. Ernie Cline's Ready Player One is excellent.

This was just published last week, but I read it earlier this summer - Alan Eisenstock's Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fanfilm Ever Made is quite good - there's lots more to the story than you've read in Vanity Fair or seen in Backyard Blockbusters...

Last edited by John Hudgens (2012-12-04 15:43:13)

I'm glad I don't watch live TV, I heard that it's practically wall-to-wall coverage at the moment.

Ooh, forgot this absolutely hilarious gem: Apathy and Other Small Victories, available at

http://www.amazon.com/Apathy-Other-Smal … +victories

Read it. You'll thank me.