I'll get to it....It's on The List.

"I'm still looking for good books to read, but I've been burned so much by recommendations that I've instituted a new procedure for the approval of any new reading material. I will require at least five notarized affidavits from me-certified book evaluators who give the book at least 4 out of 5 stars in three major evaluation categories (pacing, character development and amount of dinosaurs, for example) before I will read it. Certification is a fairly straightforward process involving an application in which you list your favorite books and other media and a brief essay describing what you think I am looking for in a book."

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Focus: What's on your reading list? How do you determine if something is worth reading or not?

This site and the RMMB actually kept my reading list full for a long time, especially with genuinely good science, psychology, and humor books. Now, I'm relying on books by the same author (Bill Bryson, Steven Pinker, and Neil Gaiman, for example). I'm in the middle of the Ender's Game series, after that I'll finally read the Dark Tower and I'll continue to intersperse all of that with some science/business non-fiction stuff.

 

The Kindle and trains have been extremely helpful in this regard. The free books or cheap books on there have radically upped how many books I read or have on tap at any given time. I ran into an author called Ian Hocking who wrote a book called Deja Vu. One of the best fantastic futurist /time travel / sci-fi books I've ever read. It was £1.50.

A lot of what I have read has come from recommendations from here and from Amazon comments. I love historical fiction and have read the entire Sharpe series by Bernard Cornwell from a recommendation by my wife which lead me to Conn Iggulden. Someone from this board recommended Neil Gaiman and I just fell in love, especially with American Gods. Stardust was pretty amazing as well. (Fuck that movie however. I turned it off in the first 5 minutes.)

At this point though I think I've exhausted a lot of what I wanted to read and can't find any more really amazing historical fiction nor anything nearly as good as Gaiman or Hocking.

So if a poster from here who is reasonably intelligent or hilarious or at least presents a contrarian viewpoint in a well thought out manner recommends something that seems like it'll hold my attention I'm for it. Same for my wife and for Amazon recommends (which is a crap shoot sometimes)

 

I honestly get alot of my recommendations from writers/bloggers I enjoy when they mention some of their favorite books. Ill bounce over to Amazon, put them in my wishlist and go from there.

Personally, I've been reading a lot more nonfiction recently. I reread the Devil in the White City, loved it more than when I had first read it in college, so I went and read Issac's Storm and In the Garden of Beasts (really interesting book, but didn't flow as smoothly and entertainingly as Devil in the White City). That kind of sparked my Chicago history interest as well, so now I'm currently reading For the Thrill of It, which is an awesome retelling and deep dive into the Leopold and Loeb murder case. Then I've also done a couple of quick read bios like Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential and the like. So its a mix of new releases and books that are 10-15 years old.

I will say, for better or worse, the internet has cut down on my traditional book reading. I read so many articles and stories online, that I don't find myself seeking out books as heavily. My reading level stays the same, probably has increased, the media I consume is what has changed.

 

I read this recently as well. The insight into what it was like to live in Germany as an American at this time was interesting, but I could have done without the pages and pages describing the sex life and relationships of the ambassador's daughter.

The primary means I have of determining worthwhile books to read is by following a "stable" of authors that I've discovered over the years. I will read anything by Neil Stephenson or Mary Doria-Russell as soon as it comes out. Both are excellent writer's, whose subjects are wide ranging. I am into the historic naval fiction genre, so having exhausted all of Patrick O'Brien's Captain Aubrey books I've been following Dewey Lambdin. For intricate, twisted, psychological fantasy, R. Scott Bakker is my current guy. Be warned though - Bakker has written some non-fantasy psychological thrillers that are very, very disturbing.

I'm kind of killing time until 2013, when Bakker and Stephen R. Donaldson complete their current series, because I want to read all of the books in sequence in a short period of time.

I try to find new authors by looking at reviews in the NY Times, and my local paper, as well as in magazines like Harper's. This is how I found Zone One by Colson Whitehead. Yes, I know its a Zombie book, but Whitehead writes well, and the Zombie Apocalypse is only a setting.

 

I'm a really slow reader, and to be honest I mainly read film related non-fiction. I tend to avoid salacious memoirs and post-modern critical analysis, I'm more concerned with nuts & bolts of production. With that there's a lot of lighter reading (Don Shay, Jody Duncan, JW Rinzler, Paul Sammon, etc), I'm currently on Hitchcock/Truffaut which is really awesome but overdue.

I also like biological textbooks, or at least animal science-y stuff made fun, like Gregory S Paul's Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs (I know, I know). CSIRO puts out some good books on animals. I get lost with genetics, though, and anything more math-related I have no real hope with. Plus: "Social Sciences" can suck a dick, especially since those were what my disasterous study this year has revolved around.

Aside from that I have a small stable of authors like Cormac McCarthy, Neil Gaiman, and some others that I try check out their back catalogues (I know it was a comic, but Sandman is my favourite writing of Gaiman's).
Then I'll also pick out what I fancy from the "classic" literature section you find at small bookstores: because they don't really discriminate, any old books that are regarded kindly make it to those shelves. But these too, I get a bit lazy with. Moby Dick is just mocking me from the nightstand.

EDIT Yeah it's probably Aspergers I got...

 

Anyone read Chad Harbach's, The Art of Fielding? That's next on my list and any input is welcome. It came highly recommended.

I read really fucked up variations of books, and have no specific rhyme or reason for what I choose to stick my nose in on any given day. I've read and loved books like Invisible Monsters and Beat the Reaper, but then enjoyed books like The Man from St. Petersburg or Pillars of the Earth. I'm also a sucker for simple reads like A Dog's Purpose - which made me laugh and cry, often on the same page. If you're a dog person, I highly recommend it. Even my totally non-emotional straight-off-the-boat Italian father loved it.

 

I read about 50-75 pages last spring and then had to put it aside because a lot of other things came up. So I can't comment much of plot development. But what I can say it is exceedingly well written with great characterization, to the point where one wouldn't even need to know anything about or like baseball to enjoy it. That being said, if readers enjoy baseball as much as you do and see something lyrical/beautiful about the game, it is even better. Well worth your time.

 

I read a lot of non-fiction and biographies. Over the past few years I have read a ton of books written about the military or by military personnel as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have produced some great books. Some of my favorites are My War: Killing Time in Iraq by Colby Buzzell, We Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder with the Marines who Took Fallujah by Patrick O' Donnell, and Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell.

I'm still working through some of the seminal literary works and haven't made a lot of progress recently because of school. I read a lot of books that I see people review on TiB and honestly, Tucker Max has a great reading list that I would highly recommend. Say what you will about the man but I really enjoy his taste in reading. I check out his blog every once in a while to see if there's something that he has read that strikes my fancy and I haven't read a bad book yet that has been recommended by him.

 

My "pleasure reading" has really taken a nose dive. If I'm not studying for the NCE, I'm typically reading something counseling-related. I've downloaded a few books onto my iPad but just haven't found the time to start reading any of them. Author interviews on NPR are a source for some of my choices. If the topic (and the author) sound interesting, I'll check it out on iBooks and read a few pages and decide from there. "Orange is the New Black" is a good example (memoir of an upper middle class white women convicted for drug trafficking and her experience in a federal prison) NYT Book Review is another source. Maybe it's just the people I hang around with, but I don't get a lot of book recommendations, except my wife.

 

I find books to read from a ton of different sources. Lately, a lot of the books I'll put on my hold list at the library are recommended by Julie Klausner. (For those of you who don't know her, she's a writer and has a podcast called How Was Your Week, which I listen to every week.) She'll either talk about a book she's reading in her monologue, or have an author on for an interview, and I don't think I've ever not enjoyed a book I ended up reading because of her. I also read a lot of blogs and magazines that have book reviews, and I'll either add one because I liked one review or if it keeps getting recommended over and over again even if I'm not sure if I'd actually like it.

I have a lot of friends and family members that read a ton, so what everyone's reading will usually come up in conversation, or someone will send me a recommendation.

I also - and I feel pretty guilty about this - spend a lot of time browsing in book stores, and then write down the titles of what I find that looks good to put on my library list.

As for what attracts me, there are a lot of different factors. I tend to get on these rolls with different themes or subjects or authors. Right now, I've been reading a lot of books about circuses/worlds fairs/magic in the twentieth century, which is a strange theme. So far it's included the Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, a biography of Houdini, Fooling Houdini, Devil in the White City, and rereading World's Fair by Doctorow. I actually think there was one other book, but I can't think of it. The last big run I went on was food memoirs.

 

Read a few books lately that I've liked quite a bit.

Topping the list was The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout at the O.K. Corral-And How It Changed the American West. I've watched Tombstone more times than I care to admit so it was interesting to compare how factual the movie was vs this book. Spoiler: Movie was off a LOT. Some would even argue that the Earps where the bad guys. Definitely a book I'll read several times.

American Sniper (the Chris Kyle story) Entertaining. Also liked how drastically different his personality and thoughts about the war are from Where Men Win Glory's interpretation of Pat Tillman's story.

11/22/63- The latest from Stephen King. Solid book, well written of course but probably not a book that I'll read over and over. I'd say that I was reading it to find out the story/what happens and not because I was engrossed in it. Never had an emotional bond to any of the characters like...

Spoiler

When Sadie got shot by Oswald, I was like "eh, that sucks" whereas other books, I've actually teared up over characters dying.

 

Recently read a great deal of Brandon Sanderson. The Mistborn series is very entertaining, and for the start of the second trilogy he moved forward several hundred years, maintaining the rules of the world he created but bringing what was formerly a medeivel type society into more technological advancement. His standalones are very entertaining as well, Elantris, Warbreaker, the Way of Kings (though I believe that's the first in what's planned to be about a series of ten). He's also the guy who's been finishing the Wheel of Time series, the final one of which comes out in January. The crazy thing about Sanderson is that every single one of his worlds have their own complete and wildly different set of rules. Amazing imagination on this guy.

Right now I'm reading some of Terry Pratchet's Discworld. I'd describe him as the Douglas Adams of fantasy writing.

Piers Anthony has long been one of my favorite authors. He's got the childish fantasy stuff (Xanth series, 30 some odd books and counting), the Incarnations of Immortality series (wherein concepts like Time, Death, War, Nature, and Fate are offices held by actual people), Bio of a Space Tyrant (follows one man from being a refugee as a child through to being the ruler of the solar system), and more.

Anne McCaffery has some good worlds. The Dragonriders of Pern is probably her best known series, starts out as a bit of a fantasy series that later reveals itself to be more science fiction. Actually, most of herself is very character driven science fiction. The Crystal Singer trio, The Rowan series.

The Riftwar Cycle by Raymond E Feist is, god, probably 35 books in total. There are parts of it told from each side of the war, and the main side runs about 3 or 4 generations long.

Robin Hobb has a group of 12 or 13 books, broken up into trilogies, all in the same world. Starting with Assassin's Apprentice, moving through to different parts of the world, and then reconnecting with characters from before.



I guess if you look through my very over-crowded bookshelves, you'll see that I'm mostly a fan of good sci-fi/fantasy. I mean, I have some series that are more Tom Clancy/Robert Ludlum type stuff, but...

 

Due to my class schedule I'm on campus two days a week with several hours to kill between classes and no homework to speak of so I have plenty of time for pleasure reading. I don't have a reading list per se, so I'll generally wander into the library and browse the shelves for anything that looks halfway interesting.

So far this semester I've read...

"The Lecturers Tale" which I highly recommend; a fairly in depth book on Medieval History, a book on cutting, Watchmen, half a dozen pulp scifi and mystery novels, an FBI agents memoirs, and the biography of Dr. Walter J. Freeman. So I'm fairly eclectic in what I pick up; and to be quite honest I've learned more in between classes than I have sitting in lectures.

 

Typically, Amazon ratings are a pretty good indicator of worth. You still have to pay to play. Gotta open it up. Just because it has a good rating doesn't mean it's good for you. God, I hate classic lit. Fucking despise it. Can't get into it. I'm ashamed I don't like Dostoevsky or Dickens. I feel like an asshole because I can't get into James Joyce the way others do; and I must be the only person that loathes The Great Gatsby. Madame Bovary was infuriating. Modern lit, though (besides my mentions of Joyce and Fitzy), damn. Daniel Keyes' Flowers For Algernon is one of the best things I've ever read. Hemingway'sFor Whom The Bell Tolls and Islands In the Stream. Steinbeck's East of Eden is absolutely my favorite book. Henry Miller, Graham Greene, Jim Harrison, Albert Camus, William Golding all have decent to good reads; WORTH the reading time. You should read Ray Bradbury at least once. Classic doesn't have to be a scary word.

Stephen King told me to read Gillian Flynn. He was right. If Uncle Stevie tells you to read something, do it. He puts up a list of his favorites each year, lots of good stuff on there. Flynn's Gone Girl is all over the NYT List. It's on my immediate list. She writes the best female characters. Period. Her first book Sharp Objects is one of the creepiest, clever, well written mysteries. Mystery isn't a trashy word in this case. Fuck James Patterson and Janet Evanovich. Joe R. Lansdale is a tragic case because he isn't a household name. A buddy turned me onto him. The Bottoms is mystery as genuine literature; great who-dunnit involving race in old timey Texas. He also writes lighter, quick reads, the Hap and Leonard mysteries, about two assholes that get into ridiculous situations. Think "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" in book form.

This year has been generally bereft of memorable reads though. I've forgotten half the titles. Read most of the Bond novels and holy shit were they horribly dated. 50 Year Sword by Mark Danielewski (House of Leaves) is coming out in a couple weeks. Otherwise, you can't go wrong with Will Chris Baer's Kiss Me, Judas ( my second favorite book) or anything by Joe Hill. His 20th Century Ghosts is a fantastic collection of Poe-esque short stories.

My non-fiction list this year has been a ton of art history and history. Osceola and the Great Seminole War: A Struggle for Justice and Freedom by Thom Hatch, plowed through that in a couple days. The Sexual History of London: From Roman Londinium to the Swinging City---Lust, Vice, and Desire Across the Ages by Catharine Arnold, insanely cool.

 

My most recent purchase was Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs.


I chose it over Chuck Palahniuk's Invisible Monsters and am regretting every page of it. Klosterman is just not as poignant or clever as Palahniuk. I don't necessarily care for Hunter S. Thompson either.

One of my biggest regrets in life is missing the chance to meet Christopher Hitchens. Even if you don't agree with him, he's one of the most intriguing writers of all time. He's Noam Chomsky with a sense of humor.

 

My aunt is my favorite source for book recommendations. She's a librarian and reads more than anyone else I know. She recommended the Flavia de Luce mysteries by Alan Bradley to me, and I really enjoy them. Silly, quick reads about a chemistry-obsessed 11 year old who bicycles around the English countryside solving murders and causing trouble. I also really like David Mitchell, but have only read Black Swan Green and Cloud Atlas (which was better than the movie looks). And Ha Jin even writes short stories that I like, which is rare, because I always want more at the end.

 

If you like True Blood at all, or just funny/dark detective stories, check out Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels. They're worth a read. ~300 pages of fluff to each one, but enjoyable.

 

If you like Conn Iggulden, check out David Gemmell's Troy series. Top notch historical fiction. (Not to be confused with his other fantasy work, which is very good, and worth reading if you like the genre, but isn't in the top 1%.) Oh, and Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield.

Iczorro's first post is spot on; Robyn Hobb is a disgustingly good writer. If you like fantasy, read everything she's ever written. (His second post I take issue with; I am a goddamn connoisseur of horror fiction in general and vampire stories in particular and I couldn't get through the first 3 chapters of the Sookie Stackhouse novels. One of about three books in the last 2 years which I couldn't make myself finish.)

My sources for reading material: Dad for action, thrillers, non-fiction, and historical fiction. Mum for 'literature' and spy thrillers. I've picked up a few gems from the Book Club thread here, and the rest are largely from wandering through bookstores or the 'people who liked this also liked' section on Amazon.

Some suggestions:
Action/thriller: the Jack Reacher novels by 'Lee Child'. I recommend these wholeheartedly. There are something like 16 of them and they are all high quality pageturners, and this year's might actually be the best yet. Read them now. And do not speak to me about the forthcoming abortion of a movie. Grr. In a similar vein, the John Rain novels by Barry Eisler are highly entertaining. Assassins, ambushes, forbidden love - great holiday reads. You won't be bored. And again, do not speak about the cinematic afterbirth that slithered out after these books.

For capital L Literature, I really like Sebastian Faulks. I must admit, I don't have a huge background in this area so take this with a grain of salt, but Faulks was one of the first authors to make me really enjoy some of the more highbrow stuff. Check out Engleby for an exceptionally well-written story which occasionally still disturbs me even now, about 4 years after I read it.

Hmmm. I usually read two or three books a week, and right now I can't remember any of them. Oh, check out Savages and the Kings of Cool by Don Winslow. Tautly plotted thrillers with extremely likable characters and cracking dialogue. Almost that hardboiled, film noir style but in 2012. And please, for the love of God - LALALALALALA NO, THERE'S NO MOVIE, LALALALALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU OVER THE SOUND OF THIS SHOTGUN COCKING LAL-----

 

I just finished Permanent Obscurity: Or a Cautionary Tale of Two Girls and Their Misadventures with Drugs, Pornography and Death which came with mixed reviews.

I don't know if anyone here has read it, but I hated it. I hated the two main characters, I hated the slag they spoke in, I hated the pseudo-lesbian moments, and I hated the ending. I don't think I've ever hated a booked quite this passionately, to be honest.